TTArtisan 35mm f0.95 APSC Manual Lens Review

Ok, yall. This has been in the works for a few weeks now and I am finally ready to publish it.

The short answer… it is totally worth the money if you like manual glass.

The long answer… read on.

Handheld at f0.95 at night shutter speed is 1/80 second. The image is nice and sharp.

Shot at f8 with the focus trap method.

This little lens is a wonder of modern engineering with how they kept the size so small and also kept the optics so clear at the same time. I unboxed this lens and noticed immediately the packaging is top tier, reminiscent of the iPhone styling but in a nice grey/cloth texture for the cover with the lens nomenclature clearly on the top of the box. If the box is a clue to the lens quality then this is going to be a real winner! (Spoiler: It is)

It is no secret that I like to shoot 50mm on my full frame cameras like my Leica SL2 and the 35mm is about as close as it gets on APSC, so I shoot a lot with 35mm on my Leica CL when I am out just shooting street for me. So when TTArtisan reached out to me and asked if I would like to take a look at this beast, I quickly agreed and they sent me a lens.

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Now for the whole disclosure part: They(TTArtisan) did give me the lens for free. They also told me that they had no “rules” they wanted me to follow or anything at all to be honest. They just said that if they liked my review that they would like to have permission to share it on their social media. Which I also though was a great idea. So I am free to say what ever I want as I come to this review. With all that said, let’s get started.

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I deliberately wanted to shoot with it for a few weeks before rendering judgement as this will allow the “honeymoon” phase of getting something new to wear off a little and I can be more objective in the review for you guys. I have shot a variety of subject matter with it and have come away loving this lens immensely. It only has a couple of things that I dont like all that much and they really are not deal breakers.

Shot at f0.95 in the dark… hand held and manually focused on the bottles.

What do I like about this lens?

Well for starters… THE APERTURE GOES TO f0.95!!! You just have to love some fast glass and this little guy has it, and then some! At one point I stopped down to f4 for a photo that needed some depth of field and realized I had stopped down 4 1/3 stops to do this! That is lunacy! I am just blown away that they can pack that much aperture into such a small package. Speaking of aperture, the aperture blades are nice and round but when stopped down it still produces some glorious sun stars!

The light stars are pretty epic in my book. (I love light stars though)

Stopped down to f16 & 12 second exposure, for this extreme example.

The double bladed one on the left is because there are two bulbs in the street light.

The physical appearance of the lens is really nice. It has a 52mm filter thread. The text is Leica styled with deep, clean engraved characters throughout (yes, the text, all of it, is engraved into the lens pretty deep, it will not wear off…ever) and painted really well for ease of reading. The external controls are easy to find and use. The focus throw is just right, there is a good amount of dampening in the focus barrel and it is smooth. The aperture detents are not like the other two lenses I have from them. My other two lenses are smaller than this one (the 35mm f1.4 and the 17mm f1.4) so there might not be room for a very strong aperture detent system in them, but on this little guy, the detents are perfect. They even have a nice little click as they slip from one detent to the next. I was so happy to see this issue I have with the other lenses, to be resolved in the new lens. This lens contains zero electronics of any kind so the semi-conductor shortage shouldn’t affect your ability to get your hands on one of these little guys. This is also part of the reason it is so small, there isn’t need to make room for a focus motor or any other electronics.

The lens cap is one of their signature solid metal threaded lens cap that screws on to the filter threads, this is good as it protects the lens glass AND the filter threads at the same time. Even so, I do not prefer them and the only real reason is the time to deploy the camera is much longer as it takes some time to remove the lens cap. On top of that, I can never seem to get them to go back on easily, it takes me a couple of tries every time to get the cap back on. Is there a trick to this I am not aware of? Leave me a comment if you have a trick on the lens cap, I need it!

Now, if I was worth two pennies, I would just remove the lens cap before I start shooting and then reinstall it when done…and this is exactly what I do most of the time. We have gotten spoiled to the quick deploy “pinch” style caps, so can I really call this a detractor? The level of protection these caps brings is unmatched by anything made of plastic so there is that to consider…

Shot at f0.95 in the daytime. This car was moving… Shutter speed is 1/400 sec.

The next thing that I noticed is how nice the images are coming out of this lens. The guys over at TTArtisan have really done their homework here as most super fast glass is in one of two categories…crazy expensive or not great image quality wide open. These guys seem to have broken through that glass ceiling (see what I did there? LOL) and have brought us a super fast lens, with really nice image quality, for really, really reasonable money. I dare say that these little lenses they sell are under priced and once they figure it out, the price will go up, so you better get your copy now.

So is there anything I DONT like about this lens?

The grip area on the aperture ring and the focus ring are not knurled (which is what I would have preferred) but instead is a mill cut series of notches. Now, I come from a machine shop background and understand the reasoning for this past the aesthetic look of the lens. These are easier to make, faster to make, more consistent when run at speed, and are less abusive on the machine to make as well. Knurling is one of the highest strain operations on an engine lathe/turning center and if not flooded with copious amounts of coolant or oil, the little tools that make the diamonds will clog up and destroy the part quite easily. By milling the shallow notches it was a simple mill op repeated a number of times, as the part is indexed a few degrees between cuts. This makes manufacturing VERY fast and produces beautiful results…that just don’t feel as good to me. Because I am accustomed to the rough texture of the knurled rings and these are not like that. That is not to say that they don’t work, quite the opposite, they work really well actually, but may post a problem with gloves into the winter. But now I am splitting hairs, so let’s look at some photos!

f0.95 basically in the dark with the shutter speed at 1/400sec.

Some notes about shooting with this lens. It is easy to use for street photos and the such when stopped down. It is not as easy when wide open… The reason is because all large aperture lenses have super shallow depth of field when shot wide open, well f0.95 is so wide open that you have to take a few shots as the subject will move in and out of focus pretty easily. Don’t just shoot one and call it done, it is probably out of focus… lol. I laughed here, but it probably is out of focus… It is the nature of fast glass with manual focus. I am not bothered by this, but some people are, so if you need tack sharp on the first try, then maybe you should buy the native autofocus glass for your brand of camera.

With the previous said, it seems that the more you practice doing it, the easier it gets to get sharp photos. I guess practice does matter… lol. Another thing to remember is that since the lens has no electronics, there is no meta data nor is there anything to help meter, other than the newer mirrorless machines can meter off the sensor, and the only mode of operation on the camera is manual mode. I can get away with automatic ISO as the camera meters off of the sensor in my Leica CL so it doesn’t need the lens to know the metering, but you might need to keep this in mind on your camera. The lens also comes in a plethora of mounting solutions so it should be able to be installed on pretty much any APSC camera out there, just check their website HERE for more info about it.

So there you have it, another wonderful little lens from the fine folks over at TTArtisan and I am not surprised to be honest, they have come on the scene and are taking over the 3rd party lens market by storm. Hope you have a wonderful day and get your camera out and go take some photos with it!

Minimalist YouTuber Kit

So I get the question from time to time, “What do I need to make YouTube videos?” In the past I have always had this convoluted answer that included WAY too much stuff.

My current camera is a DJI Osmo Action on a GoPro Selfie stick that has a tripod in the base.

Now I have been making videos for a while and have found, what I feel, is the perfect “location” kit that can do double duty for your studio kit in a pinch.

Videos can be made with virtually any device these days. Anything from your smart phone, to a ARRI Alexa is in use on YouTube. What I have found for me that works really well though is a good action camera. I have used GoPro cameras with great success as well as my current machine, the DJI OSMO Action. Mine is the “gen 1” camera so they are really inexpensive now, and it works great once you learn its limitations. The main things I like about this little camera is that it has the front screen to help with framing the shot and that it has REALLY good stabilization for something so small. It is so good that I don’t bother with a gimbal at all. It isn’t perfect, but it is good enough for me.

The tripod is a nice touch and I use this more than I like to admit as it is so handy. The only problem is that I still have to find a surface tall enough to set it on to get the shot I want.

This is something that lots of creators forget for some reason, batteries and lots of them, especially if you plan to shoot a lot of B roll as well as A roll. I carry at least 3 on every trip and usually more if they are charged. Batteries are cheap and you dont want to have to shut down a project to charge a dead battery…

Next thing I like to have is this little GoPro to cold shoe adapter that allows for POV recording on your camera hot shoe. This is awesome for the times when you want to share how you got the shot as well as the finished product.

Now we are done with video and the next thing we have to address is sound. No one will watch your videos if your sound is trash. It is true. Just try to do it yourself and you will see, sound is arguably more important than the video footage itself. So I learned a while back to record audio off camera with a separate recorder, this was before the on camera solutions were so prevalent and I still use it today because it works so well. This is the Zoom F1 field recorder and it comes with the lav mic in the picture. It works REALLY well and allows you to get audio when you are far from the camera as well as right up next to it. Shotgun mics that mount on the camera work great for talking to the camera footage but don’t work when you want to get a shot of you away from the camera and are still talking about what you are doing. This is why I like separated audio. It is pretty simple to sync up in the video editor too so it isn’t a problem for me to do it this way.

This is a wind muff, loving called a “dead cat” by the Rode microphone company…lol. It stops the wind noise when you are outside and softens the audio somewhat too, I love these and use them literally everywhere when recording audio. Even when I don’t need them.

Of course these are spare batteries for the recorder as it uses standard AAA batteries so I keep some in the little bag in case my rechargeables go dead before I am finished for some reason. These have saved a shoot more than once…

I bought this lens pouch off of eBay to house the “kit” so that it is a ready to go system that I can just grab when I want to work on a video. It was not very expensive at the time since it was used and works really well and since it is Thinktank Photo is even has a rain cover in the base of it! A lot of times I will wear it on my belt just to have to extra pocket it provides. It is perfect for my needs here.

Did you see or notice anything that is missing or that needs updating? Let me know! Then get your camera out and go take some photos!!!

Tips for Low Light Street Photography in Chattanooga TN

I love low light street photography in Chattanooga, TN because it allows me to capture the city's vibrant and diverse culture in a unique and exciting way. With its diverse architecture, colorful murals, and bustling nightlife, Chattanooga offers endless opportunities for me to experiment with different techniques and styles. In this blog post, I want to share some tips and techniques that I've found helpful for capturing stunning low light street photography in Chattanooga.

First and foremost, it's important to have the right equipment for the job. I always make sure to have a camera with a fast lens and good low light performance. I look for a lens with a wide aperture, ideally f/2.8 or lower, which allows more light to enter the camera and helps me capture sharp, detailed images even in low light conditions. I also prefer to use a full frame camera because it has a larger image sensor, which performs better in low light compared to a crop sensor camera.

In addition to a fast lens and a full frame camera, I find it helpful to invest in a tripod to steady my shots and prevent camera shake. A tripod also allows me to use longer exposures, which can be useful for capturing light trails or blurring movement. If I don't have a tripod with me, I try leaning against a wall or using a lamppost or other stable object to support my camera.

One of the most interesting areas for low light street photography in Chattanooga is the city's historic downtown district. I love exploring this area because it's a mix of Victorian-era mansions, Art Deco buildings, and modern skyscrapers, all lit up at night and surrounded by a lively atmosphere. I always try to find interesting angles and perspectives that highlight the city's unique architecture and history.

Another area I enjoy photographing is the city's growing arts and entertainment scene. From live music venues and breweries to art galleries and theaters, there's always something happening in Chattanooga's nightlife. I love to capture candid moments that showcase the energy and vibrancy of the city's entertainment scene.

In addition to the city's landmarks and nightlife, I always make sure to capture the people of Chattanooga in my low light street photography. I look for interesting characters and personalities, whether they're tourists, locals, or street performers. I use the available light to create mood and atmosphere, whether it's a neon sign or a street lamp. I find that photographing people in these settings adds a layer of depth and humanity to my images, and it helps to tell a story about the city and its inhabitants.

Finally, don't be afraid to experiment and play around with different settings and techniques. Low light street photography can be a creative and rewarding form of photography, and there is no one "right" way to do it. So go out there, get creative, and see what you can capture in the dimly lit streets of Chattanooga or where ever you live.

Until next time, get your camera out and go take a picture with it!

Industrial Landscape Photography in Jasper TN

The other day while on a business call, I had to travel through an industrial area and my eye just started picking up these images. Now I cant get them out of my head till I go shoot them.

This is the life of a photographer… once you get a composition in your head, you cant let it go till you shoot it.

It is interesting to me that I work like that. I will get fixated on a photo I want and nothing else will make me happy till I get it.

I am pretty sure that I am not alone on this either. I think it is part of the creative mindset. The photos I have in mind are of the industrial landscape that are local to my area. I saw the area in the morning light and it had this ethereal or maybe apocalyptic vibe. Like it was abandoned but was still intact and could be turned on at any moment. This is because I like those kinds of movies too, I guess.

So here is the plan, get back over there with a camera in the early morning light and shoot a bunch of stuff and then see what I got.

I found the air a little less foggy upon my return, but the morning light made it look good nonetheless so I got out and started getting images. The first stop was a plating factory that was in full operation and had a bunch of steam coming out of the factory. I had to shoot over a 6’ tall fence to get my image. It took several tries to get the one I wanted, but I finally got it.

Then I moved to work compositions around the railroad and associated infrastructure. The balance of the images are centered around this concept. I even hit pay dirt when a local switch engine showed up to move some tanker cars around!

My favorite image though has to be the image of the abandoned cattle gate. This is urban decay at its finest and I love this sort of thing for some reason. I hope this post and images inspires you to go back to something that caught your eye and get a photograph or two of it.

Until next time, get your camera out and go take a picture with it.

David - The Georgia Photographer

I like fiddling with my camera, do you?

Well, there, I said it. I like to fiddle with my camera. Sure, I miss some photos because I am playing with the camera, but to me, that is part of the experience! Getting the photo is a result, but to me the time spent with the camera is as important as the final image.

You see, I am what is referred to as kinesthetic. This means I enjoy engaging with the gear as much as getting the photo, getting to interact with the camera on a deeper level brings me a form of satisfaction and joy that is hard to explain.

I know this goes against the convention of the camera “should disappear” or be so intuitive that you no longer know it is there. This is a bunch of hogwash in my mind. I spent a lot of money on my camera and by golly I want to get my money’s worth out of it!!!

This is my “discrete” film camera! LOL

I have read several of the books on the technical aspect of photography and they all keep saying to get the camera to where it runs almost in automatic so you can “get it out of the way” and focus on getting the shot instead. This is not what brings me joy in photography for some reason. I am just not wired that way. I like to play with the machine and then command it to produce what I ask of it and have it comply. That is a oversimplification, but the point is that I want to have the interaction with the camera as much as getting the photo. I figure it like this too, you get the shot, great, you do your edits say this takes another hour, maybe two if you really want to dial it in. (most people spend way less time than this on the editing process) and then you export it and share it on some website somewhere and wait for the little number to appear by the heart symbol. Then it is basically forgotten and the hunt is on for the next image. I like to get the image I had in my mind, but I ALSO like the interaction with the camera too, it is just fun to mess with it.

I mean, c’mon! Look at my “street photography” rig for crying out loud! All I hear is get a small, unassuming camera like a X100V or a Leica Q2 or some such, and here I was with a Nikon D810 with battery grip and 50mm f1.4 lens or my current rig…the Leica SL2 with 50mm Summicron L…even my film rig is larger than life!!!. HaHa

Back years ago, this was my main goto rig, Nikon D810 with a 50mm f1.4 Nikkor lens.

I do have a smaller camera that I like to use as well, but it is not to “get the camera out of the way” but rather to have a simple camera to grab and have as a backup to my SL2 rig. I have even kitted it out with a focal length lens to simulate the same field of view as my SL2/50mm rig. I do this so the experience using them is similar and I also know pretty much what I am going to be getting when I use them and that they will produce very similar results. It doesn’t allays work out that way, but that is the intention…lol.

This little Leica CL with the 35mm f1.4 M mount lens from Voigtlander makes a great “grab n go” rig.

Something else I have learned is that I like manual mode the best. I once was an aperture priority kind of guy, but I have evolved into a full blown manual shooter now. I just like the fact that the EVF in my camera will show me what the image will be ahead of pressing the shutter and I am able to just dial in the sky till it is blue or up the shadows till I am happy with them. The light meter in the display gives me a point of reference as to how much over or under exposed the image is and I will know then if the highlights are gone or the shadows will be recoverable. most of the time though, I don’t care about either.

My Leica SL2 top display.

As you will notice in this photo, I have set the camera as follows: Manual mode, there is some negative exposure compensation, f8, 1/125 sec shutter, auto ISO at the time (this varies from manual in a static scenario to auto if the light is going to change around constantly), and the rest is “state of the camera” info like both cards are present and set to overflow, there is room for 1937 frames left on the first card, the blue tooth is on so I can connect my phone to the camera, and the battery meter. This is how I run my camera most of the time when I am shooting street photos. Point is, don’t follow conventional wisdom if it doesn’t suit your ideology or normal operational parameters, simplified…you do you. Stop letting other people tell you how to engage in your own hobby. Be like William Eggleston and go against the grain. You are in charge of your life, live it on your terms.

Now, get your camera out and go play with it…I know, I know, I just broke my own advice by telling you what to do, but maybe some of you need a nudge…lol.

What to do with all these pictures I have taken and don't ever look at?

As I was sitting here listening to my ham radio and looking for POTA contacts on 20 meters, I took a look over at my camera gear on the other side of the room and got to thinking about all the photos I had taken with those cameras and how I am sitting on literally several terabytes of photos and video from the last several years of making YouTube videos, shooting street photography, landscape photography, motion blur photography, vacations, wildlife and all sorts of other things…

I have saved all these photos over the years and for no real reason other than you are supposed to keep them… but why? I never look at them, shoot for that matter, I never plug in the hard drives that they are stored on. They are just stacked in a storage bin next to the computer. What is the point in doing that? I could delete all the YouTube channel crap that is stored on the hard drives and would immediately have many terabytes of hard drive space available again.

But…

I have this nagging desire to keep them, until the hard drive fails on it’s own accord and not from my own hand. For some reason we can accept that fate instead of the fate coming from our own hand for some reason. “Oh darn! My hard drive has failed…” is an acceptable fate, why? Because we are absolved of responsibility for the loss of this data? I don’t know, but I am in that group. I just find it really strange how we cope with different things that happen to and around us at times.

What are your thoughts on this? I have been pondering what I should do with all these hard drives I have and I cant decide if I should just take the oldest one and format it when I need another drive, or should I just save it? You see, I am super bad at cataloging my work and back then I was even worse, there is some hint as to what is in each folder, but it is still pretty cryptic. I collected these images over several years and to go through them now seems like an insurmountable mountain of stuff to sort through. To the point, I look at the hard drives and then let procrastination take over and forget about it till later.

Anyway, this is a nagging problem that gnaws at the back of my mind all the time. I just thought I would see what you guys thought about it and maybe get some sort of solution. As an aside, I have no other backup of these drives either, so if one went bad, it is just lost data. Thanks you following along today and like this blog post and if you want sign up for the RSS feed so you will get the next one too…at least that is how I think it works, to be honest I don’t have any idea how that works…

Recent events that happen this time of year in my photography...

I hope your having a good day where ever you are in the world. Recently I have been doing several different genres of photography and they are typical of what I shoot this time of year. Things that include trips to a fall themed event, or rock climbing, in particular, bouldering, and low light stuff like I did with Phil and Ray the other night.

So there has not been some sort of overlying theme, but more to the point of Autumn Activities instead(which I guess is a theme, isnt it?). This year has been really a whirlwind too as it seems that work has been crazy this year and I am picking up amateur radio more so I don’t have as much time for making videos for my YouTube channel (that to be honest, no one really watched anyway and I have been more focused on my website blogs due to this revelation) So now, I have noticed a shift in my focus from making YouTube content to enjoying my hobbies of photography and amateur radio. This is big for me as I am now getting out and shooting more and the results are starting to accumulate. The bulk of my photos are terrible in my mind and never make it out of the initial culling, but some of them are gems that I like and will share. I think this is because I am actually shooting more so I am starting to see more around me. This only comes from getting out and shooting photos. No amount of research or watching videos on the internet will give you this skill, you just have to put in the time doing it and now I am doing just that.

Now that I am getting out to shoot more, I am also noticing something else. I am learning the gear better and noticing things about my camera and how I have it setup that are problems and need correcting and building out things like my user profiles so I can easily recall the settings for certain kinds of photography or lens setups I like to use regularly.

Another thing I have noticed is that I am getting more comfortable with photographing people. This has been a huge stumbling block for me, but over time I have come to the realization that most people just don’t care. The ones that do care will let you know and i just deescalate by deleting their image anyway as I don’t want to have photos of someone who isn’t happy with me taking the photo anyway. That turns into a win win in my book, I don’t go to extremes or let people inspect my equipment like letting them go through the memory card or anything, but if they ask I always delete the image. It is just how I operate.

I was talking not long ago with Phil about shooting in low light and he made a good point, he waits till winter to do his low light images as it gets dark earlier and he doesn’t have to stay up late to get cool night photos… There is some wisdom in this that I have learned over the summer as well. I did a bunch of low light photos then and he is right, I ended up not getting into bed till well after 11 on many days.

The results were awesome with the photos I got, but I did have to stay up really late to get them. Something else I noticed was that it is a very different mindset when you are gathering content for a YouTube video as opposed to just shooting for yourself and looking for the images that you want to capture instead of trying to collect content for a video. You see, with video content collection, you end up looking for specific images to highlight talking points in the video and not photos that are interesting or particularly good in any real way other than to showcase that specific talking point. When I go shoot now, I just look at my surroundings and make photos of what interests me. No cross platform thought process or video centric stuff. Just photos. This has been quite liberating since starting the channel back in 2017. I fell like a weight has been lifted from me and I am free to explore the world and document it without the burden of video content creation.

Let that sink in for a minute. Shoot for you, not the internet, not for Instagram, not for Vero, not for Facebook, but for YOU. If you will do this you will soon see that your photos will start getting better and you will enjoy photography.

Now get your camera out and go take a picture with it!

Altering the world around us with strobes and a camera...

There is an alter ego that I have and sometimes I have to do things as this other person that dont seem quite so glamorous… This is the job of product photographer. I have a business that makes and sells little devices and I have to take photos of these for the website and then edit them to be “floating” on a white background. This is pretty standard stuff to be honest, not “cool” but still very much needed and important.

Anyway…I also get to do some of the social media photos and on occasion, I will go to the trouble of setting up a light and trying to make something artistic instead of the usual Instagram snapshot.

For product photos, I have bought some studio strobe kits from amazon and these run on wall power and have sync ports to fire them, they also sympathetically fire from a light sensor if you turn that feature on as well. Simple strobe with a power knob and you plug in a sync cable and plug that cable into your camera.

Your camera doesn’t have a sync port you say? No problem, I also use an adapter from Nikon to allow a sync cable to be connected to any camera with a hot shoe on it, which is almost all cameras. So if you want to use a studio strobe and it requires a sync cable, then fear not, I have a solution for you!

I really like to use the sync cable and wall powered strobes as I really dislike batteries and avoid them whenever possible. It just seems that EVERY SINGLE TIME I go to do something with my radio trigger (I have owned several pocket wizards in the past), they would be dead, needing charged batteries. This really is annoying in the commercial setting when time is of the essence and hunting batteries or having to charge them before I can do a project is frustrating to say the least. Hence the sync cable…not batteries and works EVERY TIME…

So this is the photo I got the other day. It was late morning and the machine shop was in full operation. Knowing what I know about strobes and aperture, it was a non-issue though.. I grabbed one of the lights and take it out to the shop floor and rig it to shine down from overhead. I am fortunate in the Sierra thought to grab a photo of the setup for me by the off chance she wanted to see what I got versus what she got. Sierra was blown away by the difference in our images, she had to have the one I captured to show her friends so they would understand why I had such a silly setup just for a photo! LOL.

I wanted a spot where the background was still fairly clear of clutter and we moved a couple of items out of the way to make it a cleaner “in camera” image, but for the most part, you will see in Sierra’s photo that the shop has a lot of stuff sitting everywhere.

To keep the light positioned like that, I just wedged the high leg under a rolling cart that is just outside of frame. This way I could get the light down low and parallel to the floor. This stand is budget and doesn’t have a feature to do this built in. Improvised and got the shot.

I laid down in the floor and manually focused a vintage 75-150mm Pentax zoom lens and got this SOOC photo. I did a few images at different flash powers to get the carbine exposed the way I wanted.

You can see the soft box in the top part of the photo, but since I was going to fade the background to black anyway, it is a non-issue. I next imported the image into GIMP and cropped it to get rid of the excess floor and ceiling, then just painted out the light that was left over. Simple as that. The next step was to take it into my phone and run it through an app I have there called Afterlight. This app allows for several adjustments that I enjoy using, but it also has a framing feature as well and that is my primary desire for the app, so I framed it and then put it on the Gram… Done. You cant see the frame on here because the background is white on this webpage, but on Instagram it shows up just fine, and gives it a very clean appearance.

My takeaway from this whole article is this: you are not tied to the light you see around you. If you have a strobe then all bets are off as to what you can do with your camera. Don’t let yourself get caught up in the mindset that you can only shoot “available light”, that limits you greatly. Build the light in the scene yourself and you will never be beholding to the sun again!

Now get your camera out and go take a picture with it!

Photographing Sacred Harp singings with a Leica/Nikon hybrid system

First, yes, you read that right. I shoot my Sacred Harp singings with a Nikon lens adapted to the Leica SL2. This is for 4 reasons, well maybe 5 but the fifth is trivial in my book.

1. I really like the images from my Leica SL2 camera plus the interaction with the camera is just plain fun.

2. I did some experimenting and found that I shoot most of the photos at these events at about 105mm give or take a little.

3. In my opinion, the Nikon 105mm f2 DC Nikkor lens is one of the finest portrait lenses available in this focal length.

4. The f2 maximum aperture on the 105mm lens also gives me another stop of light in dimly lit buildings too.

5. Trivial, but I like to use manual focus, it is part of that interaction with the camera that I just plain enjoy.

Let’s expand on these a little and see if there is someting in here that will help you when you shoot certain events or subjects.

The image quality of the Leica SL2 is hard to beat. The features in that camera that I REALLY like are things like the EVF, the IBIS works better than any other I have ever used, the colors are amazing right out of camera, I can confidently handhold this camera, with a vintage 105mm lens mind you, and shoot at 1 second confidently and get sharp photos. That in itself is s a feat of engineering. The Electronic View Finder is the next reason I love this camera. The EVF has such high resolution that it doesn’t seem like a display but more like a window, it just has to be seen to understand. The 47 megapixel sensor also gives me plenty of image to do some creative cropping to adjust compositions at times to correct for things like having to hurry to get the moment captured and knowing that I can cut a significant amount of the image away and it will still look great is always a bonus. I have really come to understand why people like certain devices when they engage in an activity, if it is the right tool for the job AND you enjoy using it, the product of this will be stellar!

In days gone by I have used an array of cameras and lenses to photograph these singings. Some were large rigs like the Nikon D810 with battery grip and the 70-200mm f2.8 telephoto zoom, and some were small, like the Fuji XT3 with a vintage 55mm f1.8 Asahi Optical prime lens. I looked back over several of these singings and started noticing that I was ending up on the 105mm focal length more and more when I would be using zoom lenses. Now of course this is not possible when using a prime lens, but I was still favoring longer focal lengths instead of wide angle lenses. So I decided to do some experimenting and used my 24-90mm Leica zoom and found that I shot most of the images with the lens racked fully out and wanted to have even more zoom… I even ran this giant lens on the Leica CL once and still found I had most photos at the longer end of the range. So I started using the 105mm and it is the right focal length for capturing the actual song leaders as well as the candid photos in the breaks between sessions as well.

Another reason I really like the 105mm f2 is that it is a stellar lens to pair with the SL2. The performance of this lens is really good with minimal artifacts and it has three features not available on many other lenses (well not on many NEWER lenses). The Defocus Control, an aperture ring AND the large aperture (more on this in a minute). The Defocus Control really is a trivial item to be honest. It only changes the out of focus areas of the photo ever so slightly, but it does add for a smoother background when shooting wide open (which I tend to do for two reasons). I normally set the defocus control to “2B” and just leave it there, this adds a little to the image that is hard for people to describe and it keeps me from having to remember to check it if I go outside on a break or at lunch or the sun starts spilling though the window and I end up stopping down for some reason. You see, if the defocus control is set higher than the aperture on the lens, it does strange things to the photo and it is not appealing, so less is more here.

Aperture is a big deal, just ask anyone who shoots photos indoors, the bigger the better. This is not for those blurry backgrounds either, although this is a byproduct, it is more because the rooms are normally very dimly lit and this helps keep the ISO down below 1Trillion…I normally shoot wide open for this reason alone, but if the building has windows and there is a good bit of light in the room , I will stop down to f4, but that is about it. Actually, I don’t think I have ever deliberately stopped down past f4 indoors ever. There just isn’t enough light…

This is going to be controversial but I like manual focus. I don’t know why exactly. but I like it. It is something to do with the interaction with the equipment, I just enjoy tinkering and this is something to tinker with. The fact that the focus isn’t looking for what I want to grab and then grabbing someone else, is a comforting feeling. The 105mm f2 is also manual aperture, so I get to control that manually too, although I rarely change this for reasons mentioned above. This rig is a fairly heavy system too, with the camera being a pro camera and the lens also being of the pro variety these are built very well and will last a lifetime with minimal maintenance.

All photos in this blog were taken at the 2022 United Sacred Harp Convention at Antioch Baptist Church in Ider, Alabama. These events are usually held at churches and the acoustics are usually really good because of this, but the light is dim…

Another thing I try to do is capture the “atmosphere” of the event as well. This means that I am taking photos of everything, not just the song leaders. I will get photos of the kids playing, people talking, the food tables (this is a rule or something that the photog HAS to get the food tables LOL) so it tells a more complete story than just song leading. A particularly special thing to record is the children and the elderly as these statistically are the ones that will change the most in just a few years. So I really try to get these people photographed so people will be able to remember them more easily. Also something I have learned to photograph at ALL events is ANY candid opportunity that involved emotion. The photo of Cass and Isaac above is a great example of this. These types of photos are honestly very hard to capture unless you spend a lot of time just watching and then you can get them fairly easily. They are fleeting moments and sometimes they are also “built” on a scene that you can predict as you watch it develop. You will learn to get these kinds of photos if you just watch the scene around you for a while.

If you have not found a niche genre of photography for you, I implore you to do some exploration and find something that you like a lot and then get your camera out and do some photos to see if it is your niche.

If you want to learn more about Sacred Harp or you want to try to find a singing to go hear it, follow this link to the FaSoLa.org website.

FaSoLa Website

Chattanooga Street Photography #6

Well, it has been a while since I have done one of these and for a couple of reasons. I wont run down that rabbit hole right now as the subject is street photography.

Well, maybe a little peek into the rabbit hole is needed. I have been active in my street photography but with an emphasis on video content so the street photos for a long time were mediocre…at best. BUT NOW, video production is not my main priority anymore so the attention on my photos can come to the forefront.

With this also comes my styles and preferences as well and I think they show in the photos I have been capturing.

What I have learned is that I dont want photos of people just walking down the street anymore, I want them doing something more. Anything more than just walking is better than …just people walking down the street…

Well, it seems that getting those photos in Chattanooga, during the windows of time that I have, is pretty tough. This hasn’t stopped me from trying though…it has made the process take longer than I thought it would. I see all the “street” photos of people just walking across intersections and down streets, on side walks, crossing the street and so on.

At least this fellow is multi-tasking…and had no clue I was sitting 5 feet away…

I get it, this is all you have sometimes to get, but what story is it telling the viewer? Now, comes the controversial part, are you shooting for others to view your work or are you shooting photos for your own personal pleasure only? If you do both, you end up letting one or the other down. This is my observation at least, and I base my position simply on social media photo sharing sites. People like a certain photo and literally all the Instagram photogs start shooting those kinds of photos so they will get the engagement on their image as well. This is shooting for the viewer and not yourself. If you choose to shoot what you like, it may never get any traction on social media since it is not the current hotness that everyone seems to like. This is shooting for your self, I mean, if you shoot for yourself, do you even share your photos? If you do, why? You see, shooting for yourself is not to please others, so why share them at all? See my point? This is what Vivian Maier did and is a perfect example of shooting for your own pleasure, as far as I know, she never told anyone about her hobby and it wasn’t even uncovered until after her death and someone bought her photos at a yard sale.

I have a sort of combination of both ideas in what I do. I will share some photos, usually not my personal best either, just something to let people know what I am doing more than anything, but most of my images are kept safe at home on my hard drive and are building into projects over time. I have been building up the courage to see if a gallery will want to host them at some point, but to be honest, this is currently a pipe dream in my eyes as most of my images are simply just snapshots and not gallery material.

Recently I have been looking for specific types of images. There are several types, but in these I am looking for things like large prime color photos (like the ice cream vendor above) , negative space images that drive the eye, some urban decay photos, and even some historical images as I have been shooting in the same area long enough to see buildings come and go and how they are used differently over time. It is interesting to see these changes to be honest about it. Like the building pictured below. I grabbed the first photo of it 5 years ago and even then it was basically the front 40 feet of the old building as the rear portion had already been demolished and removed. Last week they finished the job and now the building looks like the bottom photo…

Old hotel across from Choo Choo circa 2017

This is when I knew I had gotten something historical. They were not going to even attempt to save the building at this point.

This what it looks like as of 5 SEPT 2022… Gone…

I have been doing this as a hobby, as a form of therapy, and I just plain enjoy the interaction with the world around me. Because of these things, I have captured a place in time and saved it from fading into obscurity now. This brings a level of satisfaction that I can not describe. This is why I like finding things other than people walking down the street to photograph when I am out…

What is your favorite thing to photograph when you go out on a walk? Let me know in the comments! Also, like this post if you actually liked it, I am thinking this will help get the word out with google, but I am not sure about that…

Anyway, get your camera out and go take a picture with it.

Low light photos and photo projects with my Leica SL2

I have really become interested in photo projects and have been looking at how to share these projects properly. This is something I have been working on for several months and I have collected quite a few images at this point and am starting to think I have enough for either a showing at a gallery or a book… and that scares me a little.

You see, I am one of those people that takes the safe routes in life… Most people that know me will say I am adventurous but in reality, I will stick to what I know and normally will not venture into things I dont know very fast. I will research a new concept to me for a long time before taking it on myself and step away safely if it is too uncomfortable…

This is just some of the images I have collected for this project so far…

So when I say that I am almost ready to make a book or try to get a gallery to show my work, that is big news coming from me.

I have several projects running in parallel right now, but the main one is a project on negative space that I am almost done collecting images for, then it will be the sorting and seeing if they work better as a book or a gallery. I don’t know a lot about how galleries operate, but I do know that I would like to see my work in one at some point.

Another project I am working on is one on urban decay in the Chattanooga area that I have been working on some. It is not as near close to finished but I have been working on it…

I love negative space photos for some reason, so I am always looking for them.

I have found that if you have a goal with your photography then you will get up and go shoot photos on the days you don’t feel like it. I have tried it both ways and the days that don’t have a goal typically end with nothing constructive coming from them. So it is really important to me to have a goal with the day or I don’t seem to get much done. Maybe it will work different for you, but that is how it works for me.

Do you have any cool projects you have been working on? Are you finished and already have them in a book or gallery? Do you have any tips on how to work with galleries?

Thanks and get your camera out and take a picture with it.

Why I have been slacking on my blog till now...

Why have I been slacking on my blog until now?

In a word…Youtube… Let me explain.

You see I have a channel on YouTube and over the past few years I have been trying to get it off the ground and one thing I have found is that you cant do YouTube and practically anything else at all…

The algorithm is such that you have to basically spend all your free time “feeding the monster” to get it to show your videos, this creates a cycle of content creation for views that leaves little time for anything else, and not being creative to bring joy to my life or anyone else for that matter took a while to realize... SO back in June I decided to take a break from making YouTube videos and to focus on just enjoying shooting photos and it has been wonderful! I have taken so many photos of things I love and have honestly learned what it is that I really like to shoot when I pick up my camera.

I don’t really enjoy photographing people up close all that much and with the new environment post 2020, people are real apprehensive about getting real close on the street anyway. I have found I really like the 50mm focal length, I have other lenses, but this lens has been on my camera for months now with almost no change. I also learned that I like to photograph Sacred Harp singings with a 105mm focal length, I just love the effect this lens gives me...

Isaac Green leading his song at a local singing.

Wanna know what a singing is? go here: FaSoLa Website or click on the photo above.

So going forward, my main outlet for my creative and hobby stuff will be this blog and my YouTube channel will probably get a monthly update video talking about what has been going on. I thought that “video” was the way forward for ALL creatives, but it doesn’t seem like that is the path for me, so I am going to shift my focus to my blog and get this photography blog moving like I should have from the beginning. I kinda enjoy doing this more anyway, so lets have some fun! Now get your camera out and go take a picture with it!

Chattanooga Life #5

Tonight I was waiting on a phone call from the wife about bringing some food to her and thought I would grab a few photos while I was there. I used my Leica CL and the 35mm Elmarit lens and tried to capture what it felt like to be out tonight while it started to rain. This is an example of seeing the setup and taking the time to get the photos while the conditions were right, the time passed pretty quickly and once it was dark, I had to completely change the way I was looking at the scene and come up with new compositions that didnt involve the sky. These photos are not technically in Chattanooga, but Trenton Ga is in the greater Chattanooga area so I consider it basically a suburb of Chattanooga. I had to work the scene pretty hard as the light diminished pretty rapidly due to it being blue hour when I started. Raining is part of street photography and these moody clouds really helped set the mood. What is your favorite time and conditions to capture street photos?

Chattanooga Life #4

Well, some days, the people are outside and some days they are not. This day the people were outside… it is nice to see the people getting back to life as usual and that waiting on the world to “turn back on” is just wasteful. I really enjoyed being out among the people of Chattanooga with my camera and getting street photography style photos. It can be tough in Chattanooga with street photography since the city is more spread out, but some days it just works. I finally got a little longer lens (85mm effective field of view) so I should be able to get a little more going forward.

The people here are good people for the most part with a good message… get your camera out and take a picture with it. #streetphotography #photography #chattanooga #camera

Chattanooga Life #3

With the coming of fall in the air, people are starting to get outside a little more, even though the pandemic is far from over… I honestly think people are simply getting tired of being scared of it and are just going back to daily life with the added inconvenience of wearing face coverings. Horse and buggy rides are back in operation and people are enjoying the time spent with them. I’m personally glad to see people getting on with life…#streetphotography #photography

Chattanooga Life #2

“Windowshopping with dad” This image was taken on Market Street 31 JUL 2020

I wonder what she is telling him… Chattanooga street photography is a lot of fun.

Chattanooga Life #1

Ok, so this is going to become something that I work on regularly for the next couple of years. The plan is to post a square photo of something to do with life in Chattanooga as viewed through my lens a few times a week. The first one is of a fellow on a bicycle on Cherokee Street, this city is very “outdoorsy” if you have never been here.

If all goes as I hope, these street photography photos will form a life of their own and might just become a book at some point… I hope you enjoy them as I share them. ~David Saylors

Finding our way as a photographer

Have you ever sat down and thought, “What kind of photographer am I?”

Well, early last year, I did just that and spent the last year exploring what I really enjoyed and sometimes, what I didn’t, to find out. Turns out, I really enjoy street photography as well as nature/flowing water photography. I spent a great deal of time walking the downtown area of Chattanooga TN looking for interesting photos of life as it is now. I also learned what kind of cameras I enjoy using as well, since I am getting older and having trouble seeing up close now, I have learned that the mirrorless camera with it’s EVF makes my life a lot easier while out shooting and that the dslr, while a very capable machine, isnt as easy for me to use, therefore less likely to go out with…

I have migrated pretty much to my trusty Fuji XT3 for most of my photography as of late and have added in a Nikon Z6 as well, I still have the D810 and it works just fine, but it is not as easy to use so I only get it out for certain things now a days. I still like the D810 for portrait shoots as well as wildlife photos as it has an amazing sensor and captures incredible detail. So for now, that is still a camera in my arsenal. For most of my “run n gun” stuff thought, it will be the XT3 / Z6 moving forward.

Expect my YouTube channel to be more of my exploits and as time goes on, it should slowly start to show the specialization that I am finding my way into with my photography. I hope you enjoy this trip as much as I do and will join my for it.

Until next time, get your camera out and go take a picture with it!

We went to the Smokies for some photography.

Last weekend we went to the Great Smokey Mountain National Forest to meet up with a friend and to do some photography. We try to do it on the weekend of the color peak, but so far we have never hit it right. Lol. This year we tried something a little different and went to Morristown to a camera shop that is there. After perusing Camera Castle for a while, we did a little street photography on Main Street in Morristown. We met some really nice people there and generally had a great time. The second day involved a lengthy hike to a small waterfall called Henwallow Falls that provided gorgeous vistas through the trees as well as some interesting nature with the flora and fauna. The evenings were spent editing the days photos and we even did a YouTube live stream from the cabin! If you get the opportunity to do something like this, I highly reckon you go, it is totally worth it. The link to the video below is just a taste of the fun we had…

link to video

Is YouTube good for your photography?

I have been thinking about this a good bit and I have concluded that YouTube is a double edged knife of sorts. On the one hand it is good for research and legitimate tutorials if you can wade through the product “reviews” and clickbaited op-ed pieces.

When I look at a video on YouTube now, I am analysing it for all sorts of things and not just the face value. Things like;

• Is the tip valid or just something to garner views?

• Does the tip or skill bring something to my table that I will actually use?

• Is the video also entertaining?

• Does the video have photos embedded that show how to use the information or resultant images that display how the information will help me?

• Is the video a thinly veiled product advertisement or endorsement meant to lead me to affiliate links for purchase?

• Am I being “sold” on something I dont need?

These are just the ones I came up with off the top of my head while writing this blog post. Some of those are touchy for me too since I also have a channel of my own.

With my own channel, I have ads enabled on certain videos and some content I do not because I dont want that content influenced by the drive to get views. I want those videos to be an outlet of sorts for our engagement on a sort of personal level. This allows me to connect with my viewers and from what I can tell, it seems to work for me.

I am also an anomaly in that I do not need the ad revenue to sustain my lifestyle. This frees me from needing ad revenue to finance my hobby so I am free to make the content I want instead of click based content. The problem is, I find myself making content to garner clicks all the time… I try to consciously not do this, but the lure is so strong that it happens sometimes anyway. So why do I want to make those videos that are just for the view count? I feel it has to do with the channel analytics page. This page shows you, in almost real time, the results of your efforts. It seems like a fancy video game at times and the natural desire to win drives you to increase the numbers. The algorithm is written to provoke us to make content like that so you guys will watch it. We are being played from both sides so they can sell ads.

I like the little stream of money that is coming from these videos though, so I just have to find balance somehow. What’s a guy to do?

What do y’all think?

Check out my channel on YouTube if you are done shooting for the day.. lol

David Saylors