Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Originally published 2 July 2022
Sprung in completeness where his feet pass
Over Matariki weekend I went to “sunny” Nelson for a relaxing weekend. It was cloudy and rainy for the most part, which was good for chilling out but not exactly prime opportunity to go outside and shoot. Luckily the weather cleared up on the last day so I did manage to get some photo walks in.
I deliberately only brought the X100V with me, which was very much a change from what I normally take. A con was definitely not having a longer focal length to get closer shots, but there were big positives though in terms of learning. I got to familiarize myself more with the 35mm equivalent view, and I didn’t waste time deciding what lens to use and changing them now and again.
This one will mostly be a post of the pictures - there’s not a lot to talk about. Editing the X100V files were again, tending towards a film look (this time I did use some Classic Neg photos as a comparative starting point but created my own preset from scratch, so I can have a similar look with my Olympus/OM-1 photos if I wanted). I didn’t bother annotating the photos with the camera settings as they’re all basically the same settings most of the time with only the ISO being the biggest difference. I set the aperture to either f/2, f/4, or f/5.6; shutter speed was manually set in the range of 1/125s and 1/500s - auto ISO took care of the rest, all the way to ISO 12800.
You’ll probably consider some of the photos to be kind of random in terms of subject matter. At the moment I think I enjoy the actual process of taking photos and editing as much as getting a “good” shot. Limiting myself to a single focal length also meant I had to move around quite a lot to get more creative shots. A lot of trial and error when it comes to finding an interesting angle and framing for my taste, but I hope they turned out well enough.
Ironically I prefer longer focal lengths for ‘landscape’ photos as my eyes gravitate more towards specific items in a shot. So it was good practice for me to find a composition that I like enough with a wider lens than I’m used to.
Do you also see a face in the rocks?
This next shot is probably my favourite one from the trip. I like the framing from the archway and the view of the garden inside.
I’m still surprised at how much you can still get a shallow enough depth of field with a 35mm equivalent lens at f/2. I guess my eyes have gotten used to the larger depth of field look of micro four-thirds.
After the Gardens was a short (but steep!) walk to the Centre of New Zealand. On the way was this ‘vandalized’ table.
Again, I think I would have preferred a longer focal length here as my eyes are more drawn towards the houses and the road. I would have tried for a tighter frame with less of the hilly backdrop. But I still like how this one turned out considering.
This next shot, however, shows how I’m still not used to the 35mm view. The photo looks somewhat nice but there’s no clear subject.
And then after hitting the Centre of New Zealand, it was a walk through the Founders Heritage Park.
One noticeable thing for me is the visible parallax, looking at the vertical lines of the church below. Since my eyeline, and by extension the centre of the lens, was in line with the middle of the door, I had to tilt the camera upwards to get the whole church to fit in the frame. Hence the vertical lines don’t look that vertical.
It was messing with my mind how the Singer brand looks straight at a certain angle, rather than looking at the sewing machine as you would normally.
I find it fitting that my shoe is in the reflection for a photo of shoe polish.
The other thing I noted is how sharp the lens in the X100V is. The poster above is the full size of the photo, but cropping in all the way (third panel down from the right-most side of the poster) shows that the letters are still legible. So if you want photos, apparently Tyree is who you go to!
I don’t think I want to know how exactly a tonometer is used…
Eventually though it was time to go to the airport and catch the flight back. A brief escapade with regards to photography, but a very much enjoyed, relaxing, weekend away from work.
Thanks for reading and I hope you liked some of the photos!