Thoughts About Photography

Update your bookmarks and RSS feeds!

2008-11-20T02:52:19Z

The redesign of Found Photography has launched and that requires me to do some maintenance and ask you to update your links. All you really need to know is to update your rss feed to this: [http://www.foundphotography.com/feed/](http://www.foundphotography.com/feed/) and you can continue to follow this blog here: [www.foundphotography.com](http://www.foundphotography.com/) As added motivation to check out the new site design, I have a free copy of Tom Ang's new book, Fundamentals of Photography to give away. [Click here to read my review of the book and add a comment to be entered to win the book!](http://www.foundphotography.com/2008/11/book-giveaway-fundamentals-of-photography-by-tom-ang/) Oh, and in case you were wondering, I am keeping [an archive of this site](http://www.foundphotography.com/index_archive.html) live for a while, just to maintain my visibility to Google, but this is the last post I will make at the /photothoughts address.

The Future of Found Photography

2008-11-10T03:45:19Z

I have a birthday and Christmas coming up so I have been saving my pennies to purchase a new camera. Believe it or not, I actually have my eye on a digital camera, not an antique. My old Nikon just doesn't do the trick anymore. I have enough giant SLR's in my collection so I want a small point-and-shoot that also has gives me plenty of manual control. I have narrowed it down to the new Canon Powershot G10 and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3. If you have a recommendation or preference between those two please add your thoughts in the comments. You may have noticed a slow down in the postings here over the last year or so. I have been putting the time that used to go into camera experiments into creating a book of my photography as well as an assortment of other projects. If I am lucky, the book will be available in January, but I can't promise anything. The tentative name of it is going to be "Isolation and Repetition," but that may change. The other reason for this post is to announce a redesign of this site. I am in the beginning stages of rebuilding this site from the ground up. As a result, the site will probably go down for some time while I am working on it. In the meantime, keep track of me on Flickr or my personal blog. Watch for the new Found Photography along with the book launch early next year.

The World's Largest Camera?

2008-10-06T19:45:32Z

I really enjoyed this YouTube clip showing a really large camera. He has it on a trailer that he can pull from location to location. Yes, I am already trying to figure out if I could build one myself. Enjoy...

The Lomo: Perfection is Overrated

2008-08-11T04:44:53Z

I can think of nothing more boring than a photo that looks exactly like I planned. Some photographers have the ability to perfectly craft a photo by manipulating an environment until things fall into beautiful alignment. I definitely respect that, but I have no wish to work that way. For me the beauty is in the chaos, not the organization. Lucky for me I don't have to make a living from working that way because leaving a photo to chance is literally a shot in the dark. You point your film in the direction of something interesting and hope for the best. That mentality puts me in the company of the Lomography fans. Here is a video documenting the rise of the Lomo camera:

For the Love of Film

2008-07-27T22:22:31Z

In preparation for my camping trip last week I stopped at Sam's Club to stock up on 35mm film. Not finding the film aisle, I asked the person at the photo counter. My suspicions were confirmed when he explained that two weeks earlier Sam's stopped stocking 35mm film. My heart sank. I know that eventually digital will completely replace film. It's just a matter of time. I have nothing against digital, and I would actually love to have a really nice digital camera. Still, it is sad to see the decline of film. I was reminded how much I love film this week as I watched a slideshow of family photos. The slides were projected onto a white sheet taped to the side of a cabin. The colors were so warm and the photos were so beautiful. The aged slides were a living document, showing the effects of time. The dust, the color shifts, the less than perfect exposures, the scratches, all the imperfections made the images more than just pictures. These were actual artifacts of something real. I think that is what is really lost with the transition to digital. When you look at your digital pictures in 50 years they will look exactly the same - pixel for pixel - as the day you took the picture.

Ashton Kutcher's Nikon Commercials

2008-05-16T04:19:20Z

I thought it might be fun to make a somewhat off-topic post that dives into advertising and pop culture. You probably have seen the Nikon commercials where girls steal Ashton's camera and take flirtatious pictures with it: Frankly, I find the commercials annoying, but does that mean it is a bad advertisement? Nikon needs to sell cameras and the money isn't coming from geeks like me who take apart broken antique cameras in their spare time. The money comes with selling tons of cameras to the vast majority of people who aren't particularly interested in photography as an art form. The truth is that cameras serve a different purpose in modern society than it does for people like me. I am not saying there is anything wrong with that, it just isn't me. Today the camera is a status symbol. The camera is a fashion accessory. The camera is a social toy. To the average person it is just a way to document your life and have some fun. So perhaps the Nikon spots are brilliant. With a market flooded with affordable digital cameras what do you do to stand apart from the pack? More megapixels? New technology? People expect a camera to take good photos and have the latest features. To sell more product camera makers have to find another way to differentiate themselves. Nikon's answer is to sell a lifestyle. The Nikon commercial appeals to the average person not because it is pushing "speed and a Nikon lens," but because it is selling a lifestyle. Girls like the idea of using a camera to flirt with that cute guy. Guys like the idea of taking advantage of clueless babes. And this all happens in the context of some kind of party that you wish you were invited to. Sex, status, and a party lifestlye. The formula works for beer and deoderant, why not cameras? I guess all that is left to do is smile and say cheese.

Pinhole Camera Made From Juice Box

2008-05-12T04:56:25Z

Dennis from Captured Starlight has a nice pinhole camera made out of a juice box. A big part of my fascination with pinhole photography is the ingenuity of the photographers that build there own cameras. Anyone can drop a couple hundred dollars on the latest camera, but it takes a special motivation to build a picture taking machine out of the scraps you find in the garbage.

Digital Photography Tip: Renaming Hundreds of Files

2008-03-22T18:39:36Z

If you have a digital camera you most likely have a bunch of folders containing files with names like "DSC01442.JPG" or some similar naming structure. The ideal practice would be to rename each file with a descriptive title. If you took 300 photos on your vacation that can be a huge job. renaming the whole bunch would take forever so must of us just rename the folder and let the files keep the cryptic name. Luckly there are some utilities that allow you to rename large batches of files quickly. The utility that I like is called "A Better Finder Rename." It is available for both Mac and PCs and it lets you do complex renaming quickly and easily. The program costs $24.95 so I looked at some free alternatives but I couldn't really find anything as good as A Better Finder Rename. Name Mangler (Mac only) is worth a look, but it is limited in what it can do. One extra feature that I couldn't find anywhere else was its ability to rename files with names from a separate list. I have needed that ability once or twice and it is really handy. Check out their website to learn more about it. There is one other situations that I use "A Better Finder Rename" that is worth mentioning. With my timelapse photography setup I endup with thousands of images. It is nice to be able to change the names of a large batch of jpgs with a few clicks. I know I am not the only person looking for ways to rename large batches of photos, so if you have a solution that works for you, please share it in the comments.

Argus Pinhole Modification

2008-03-02T21:30:33Z

I don't have a tutorial for this one, but I thought I would share with you the pinhole modification I made to my Argus. I already had the lens stripped away from my homemade tilt-shift lens experiment and realized that the small leftover body would make a nice pinhole camera. All I really had to do was attach my homemade pinhole shutter (remember the one made out of a floppy disk and a ballpoint pen?) which I modded to work with a cable release. Now I have a pretty decent pinhole camera that I can trigger with the cable rather than adding camera shake with a more traditional shutter mechanism (black tape). It isn't my most beautiful camera, but it is small and it works! Here are some pictures of it: Front of the camera with the shutter release cable: The back with the film loaded: The back of the camera opened up:

Photo Skepticism: Friend or Foe?

2008-02-27T04:31:47Z

The latest news photo hoax has me thinking about authenticity in photography again. In the most recent case, a chinese man doctors an image of a train and a bunch of antelopes. You can read the article to get the full story, but the image they show explaining how the fake was spotted is pretty interesting. I expected evidence such as cloned animals or something much more obvious. For example, one explanation depends on an antelope that kind of looks pregnant. Another says that the antelope would be more scattered if they were running from a train. One explanation is just flat wrong. It says that the train should be blurred and the antelope should be more in focus because the train is going 60 mph and the antelope are running slower. This explanation doesn't hold up because the train is several hundred meters away. The antelope may not be going 60 mph but I bet their legs are and they are closer to the camera. I am not saying that the photo is real, but can't we get an explanation that holds up to scrutiny? [](http://www.foundphotography.com/PhotoThoughts/fake_photo.jpg) Luckly, there are real professionals working to scientifically disprove the authenticity of photographs. There is an interesting article on wired.com that talks about methods that companies like Adobe are developing to spot altered photos. Adobe seems like the last company you would turn to lead the hunt for photo hoaxers considering they have made a fortune off of convincing everybody how easy/safe/fun it is to enhance and manipulate our photographs. Nevertheless, as the industry leader in photo manipulation they have to address a growing concern about the authenticity of photography. So Adobe finds itself in an interesting conundrum. How do you use a technology that is meant to alter photography to identify the people who are creating hoaxes? Where does harmless photo enhancement end and illegal photo manipulation begin? How do you convince a skeptical population to trust photography as the truth? They have a quote from Kevin Connor, who is senior director of product management at Adobe. He says, "There's much more awareness and much more skepticism when (people) are looking at images. That's why we think that's something we need to get involved in. It's not healthy to have people be too skeptical about what they saw." Not healthy to question what you see? That is a shocking statement when you consider what he is implying, that it is healthy to accept what you see as real without questioning. Yikes! The article closes without really giving much hope that there will ever be a trustworthy way of telling whether or not a photo has been altered. While that may seem like a tragedy, it is a side effect of an advancing civilization. Think about the past when photos represented the "truth." That was a more dangerous time because it ignored the editorial nature of photography. Think of all the manipulation that happens to an image in camera. Somebody has to pick the subject matter. The photographer isn't an emotionless bystander. He composes his shot with an agenda. He choses the exposure and controls the focus. These are editorial decisions. You can make the same old lady look like a saint or a witch just by how you choose to take her picture. To accept an image as "truth" regardless of how it was originated is dangerous. Defense attorneys, law enforcement, news organizations, protective governments, conspiracy theorists, traditionalists and photography purists will continue to find ways authenticate and de-authenticate photos. I can't blame them, but I firmly believe that a skeptical population is a better alternative to blind unquestioning masses.

Build A Tilt-Shift Lens for Your SLR for Cheap

2008-02-17T00:52:37Z

I haven't posted a good camera modification in a while, so it feels good to present you with this new tutorial on how to build your own tilt-shift lens. Have you seen those photos where only a small part of the picture is in focus and the rest of the image gets dramatically blurred? If you ever wondered how this effect is created, chances are the picture was taken with a tilt-shift lens. Most lenses are fixed exactly parallel to your lens because that is the position that will distribute the light evenly and keep focus at a fixed distance. A tilt-shift lens is different because it allows you pivot the lens. By "tilting" and "shifting" the lens you can throw things out of focus in unconventional ways. Using a tilt-shift lens is a fun way to inject your photos with drama and controlled distortion. Here is a link to a good Flickr gallery full of examples of tilt-shift to give you an idea of what is possible with a tilt-shift lens.

If I have convinced you that a tilt-shift lens would be a nice addition to your photography arsenal, I have some bad news for you. Tilt-shift lenses are expensive. A quick Ebay search reveals that you will be lucky to secure a lens for under $500 with some lenses well over $1000. Yikes! A slightly less expensive option is something called a Lensbaby, which will run you between $100 to $400. Despite hearing good things about the lensbabies, I just can't justify dropping a couple hundred dollars on a lens that's main purpose is to degrade and distort my pictures. Luckily there is a third option. Here are some ideas that will help you create your own tilt-shift lens for next to nothing.

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1. The first thing is a single lens reflex camera. For this example I am using a Pentax K1000, but it should work with any SLR including most digital SLR cameras.

2. The second thing you will need is a body cap. If you bought your camera new, the body cap was probably in the camera when you pulled it out of the box. This is the cap that you would have removed before you attached your lens. If you don't have a body cap you should be able to pick one up for cheap on Ebay.

3. The third thing you will need is an inner tube from a bike tire. You probably have a bike in your garage with a flat tire, so that will work perfectly. If you don't have a flat, you can pick one up an Wal-Mart, but it could cost about $20. If you live close to a bike shop I would bet they could give you a flat inner tube for free.

4. The fourth thing on the list that might be the hardest thing to track down is a lens from a junk camera. If you hit your local thrift shop or an antique store it should be relatively easy to find a lens that will work. As you hunt for a lens there are a couple things to consider. First, it will be to your advantage if the lens is easily removed from the camera. If the shutter mechanism is part of the lens (as is common with older cameras) you will have to figure out a way to keep the shutter open permanently. This could be a challenge. You want the lens to be thin. A half inch is ideal. If your lens is too thick it will be too bulky to tilt and shift. For this example, I used the lens off a really old (but common) Argus 35mm camera. The lens is easily removed. It has a "T" setting for a shutter speed that keeps the shutter open for long exposures. This is handy for our needs because we want the shutter open permanently. If you go with the lens off an Argus don't pay more than $10 because these are really junky cameras.

Now that you have all your supplies you are ready to start building your tilt-shift lens. Depending on the SLR you have and the type of lens you were able to secure, the following steps could vary quite a bit. Use the following instructions as a guide and improvise to suit your needs. The general idea is that you cut a section of a bike tire inner tube and stick your body cap in one end and an old lens in the other end. The rubber tube flexes enough to hold both parts tightly and it lets you move the lens freely in any direction that you desire.

Step 1: Remove lens from your junked camera
Strip away everything that you can so that you are left with as thin and small of a lens as possible. You can click on any of the images in this tutorial to see a larger photo. The third photo below shows what the Argus lens looks like from the back.

Step 2: Prepare your body cap
The body cap that I had was made of a soft white plastic, so I was able to use an exacto knife to cut out the center circle. Once you have the center of the body cap cut out you are ready to stick it in the inner tube. I started with a section of the tire that was about 4 inches long. You want more than you actually need so it is easier to work with. We will cut off the excess later. The diameter of the bike tire inner tube is quite a bit smaller than the lens cap, so it will take a bit of stretching and pulling to get it in there. It takes a bit of work, but the result is a tight fit that won't move after you get it in there. That's a good thing. At this point you can test to make sure that the body cap still fits in your camera.

Step 3: Insert Lens in the inner tube
Now in the other end of the inner tube you can insert you lens. The diameter of my lens was smaller than the body cap so it isn't quite as much work to make this side fit. At this point you need to start thinking about focal length (the distance that you lens will be from your film. This is important because it will determine what is in focus at certain distances from your camera. If you want to take photos of things at midrange to far away you will want the lens to be as close to the film as possible. If you want to take pictures of things really close to the camera (macro photography) you should keep the lens further from the film. I couldn't decide what I wanted so I left a little extra rubber so that I could move the lens depending on what kind of mood I was in.

A SLR like the Pentax K1000 lets you remove your lens without exposing the film, so if you want to adjust your tilt-shift lens halfway through the roll, just take the lens off, make adjustments and reattach. The other thing that makes an SLR ideal for this homemade tilt-shift lens is that what you see through the viewfinder is exactly what will end up on the film. So as you are moving your lens around you are getting a perfect preview of what is and what isn't in focus. Test your tilt-shift lens out as you are building it to help you get a better idea of what to expect from it. Once you know where you want the lens to be positioned in the inner tube you can cut off any excess rubber.

Step 4: Attach your tilt-shift lens to your SLR
Now you have a tilt-shift lens. Depending on how tightly your body cap fits into your camera you may need to secure it better so that your lens doesn't fall out. You can see in the photo below that I used some extra rubber from the tire to make large rubber bands that hold the lens on more securely. It makes an already ugly lens a little uglier, but it does the job. I think some body caps might screw into your camera body, and if you can find one like that then you wouldn't have to worry so much about the lens falling off.

Step 5: Hack your camera so you can use its light meter
Your tilt-shift lens should work as is, but you probably won't be able to use your camera's light meter. If you want to have a working light meter there is one more hack that you will have to perform. Usually without a "real" lens on your camera body the light meter will be disabled. I can only speak for the Pentax K1000 so you will have to experiment with other models. If you find a solution for other kinds of cameras, please share your advice in the comments below. On the Pentax K1000 there is a tiny latch on the right. When a lens is put on the camera it turns this latch about an inch and a half and this turns the light meter on. I used a small piece of a twisty tie to wedge this latch into the "on" position. You will want to be careful that you don't damage your camera as you are doing this. You will also want to be sure to remove the twisty tie before reattaching your other lenses.

Congratulations! You are done. If you had all the ingredients already it cost you nothing. If you had to buy everything from scratch it didn't cost you more than $150 and you that includes a 35mm SLR! That is cheaper than a lensbaby!

Pentax K1000 = $100
Bicycle inner tube = $20 or less
Argus 35mm camera = $10
Total = Under $150!

Last but not least, here are a few samples from the first photos taken with my homemade tilt-shift lens:

References:
I was inspired by a post on mkaz.com where Marcus Kazmierczak attaches a lens with bellows onto a Nikon SLR. If you want to learn more about tilt-shift lenses, Wikipedia is a good resource.

Pentax K1000

2008-02-11T01:56:46Z

I finally got the camera I have always wanted. No, it wasn't a Hasselblad or a Mamiya or a Leica. The camera that has been on my wish list longer than any other is the Pentax K1000. Sure, I could pick one up on Ebay for under $100 but I just figured that someday the classic camera would just find its way into my collection. That is pretty much what happened. I love having a story to go along with a camera and now I have one that I will probably be telling quite a few times in the future. Here is how the classic tank of a camera came into my collection...]]>

How A Lens Is Made

2008-01-28T04:12:07Z

Here is an interesting YouTube clip showing how a camera lens is made.
(via kottke)

Updated Design

2007-11-30T03:23:35Z

This is just a quick post to ask you to check out the Found Photography homepage and see if you like my updated design. I added a little bit of animation and added links to some of my photo collections. If you have a photo blog and are curious about what is happening behind the scenes you should take a look at Slimbox. It is an Ajax slideshow/gallery that uses mootools. It took some work to get it to work with my Movable Type backend but I think the results were worth the effort.

The First Photo I Was Really Proud Of

2007-11-05T02:20:36Z

The photo on the right is one of maybe three photos that I am really proud of (click for a larger image). Part of it is that I think it is just a great moment, but I think it is probably because I am so emotionally connected to it. It was taken during a parade in Grand Island, on a wonderful autumn weekend spent visiting friends and family. It was one of the first rolls of film shot for my college photography class. I was nearly bursting with excitement for that class and couldn't wait to take pictures with my new Pentax ZX5n. I remember breaking away from my friends and walking down the street looking for something to take a photo of. Then all of a sudden this moment happened in front of me. It was surreal. I remember being literally scared as I took the photo. This was it! I only took one shot but I knew it was a good one. I think I was shaking as I walked away from that scene. I have never had that feeling since. Since I snapped the picture almost ten years ago I have probably spent more time working with this image than any other image in my collection but I have never had it framed. I just couldn't get it exactly right. At school I remember spending many frustrating hours in the darkroom working on enlargements. I nearly went broke dodging and burning and cropping and enlarging before I finally had a print that was acceptable. Years later, before I had access to a good film scanner I scanned the prints and began Photoshopping. Looking back at those files it is embarrassing to see how heavy-handed I was. So this weekend I went back to this image to see if I can "remaster" it. I decided to ditch my earlier digital scans taken from prints and rescan the original negative. I dug the negative out and was relieved that it was still in good shape. I got a good scan and brought it into Photoshop. I have struggled with cropping the image before and decided not to crop it this time. I tried to be very subtle in my dodging and burning. In the past I tried to push the contrast so that every detail was as defined as possible. This time I held back and left things alone so that it would look more natural. Interestingly, this "final" print probably took less time than any of my earlier attempts because I didn't try to make it something that it wasn't. It feels good to finally be satisfied with the print and be able to let it live in my archive instead of my to-do list.