Boring photos!

underlord

underlord

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I'm sure I'm not alone here but when a new purchase comes along, naturally the first thing to do is test it. Before heading out into the big wide world I ALWAYS point my new camera at this hanging basket hook. It's just outside a window, where I sit in a favourite chair. I've shot this thing many, many times. Sometimes if the camera lens combo has already passed the test I like to focus on it anyway.
I was wondering, as rangefinder enthusiasts, do we all have such an item? Everyday household objects or pets that always get photographed but with no intention to publish or create 'art' just for testing.
For those about to ask, this was a Leica/Minolta CL and CV Classic Nokton 40/1.4 on FP4+
I'd like to see images of your 'one thing' (no giggling at the back) you always shoot but the photo is abjectly boring!
 

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I have the buildings near where I get my film developed, a couple of them almost interesting. The last shot on the roll turns out not to be. So I take another. The ultimate perversity of this approach is that if I manage to advance to yet another frame, I leave and save that frame, which might be incomplete on the end of the roll anyway. It’s my punishment for wasting the two previous shots. And then it’s so long to see the shots I was hoping to see, or more likely had no recollection of, and the camera sits in the drawer several more weeks, not taken on subsequent walks as there’s only one shot left…
 
OK. Here’s one of my end of roll shots in Fitzroy, but it’s probably the only end of roll that fails your brief. I was wandering in the midday sun like an Englishman and got lucky.

U28906I1335071020.SEQ.0.jpg
 
What exactly is "boring"? Who defines this? And why? Whatever for, boring? And who says?

Being me, I photograph the same things in many varied multiples. This week in Surabaya I returned for the fourth, fifth, sixth, even seventh time to a decaying amusement park I've visited since 1993, to look at and photograph old statues of dinosaurs, big African beasties and crocodiles being restored for the second or third time since my first visit there, to give this now ancient recreation area a new life and bring the kiddies (and their parents) back.

I don't recall having made any images there in 1993. At that time I had a Nikkormat with a 50/2.0 lens, not my ideal kit as the '50 constrained me from doing many of my usual images - buildings and canals and of course my gazillion tropical landscapes of palm trees gently swaying over terraced rice fields. All languishing unloved (and unsold) in my archives of scans, such is life.

I've been to this park several times. It's usually uncrowded - last Wednesday I had it all on my own, other than my driver who sensibly sat in a shady place and played with his mobile phone. Oddly, in the past most of my 'shoots' there came out badly, either unexposed or overexposed or the mixed light from the trees stuffed up the mid tones or the highlights washed out or the shadows came out looking like what you find in a tin of Kiwi shoe polish. I tried, but I just could not get it right.

FINALLY this time I succeeded. I took 100+ photos, of which maybe 20-30 will be keepers. For me, a good score.

So boring, yes. I admit it. As a photographer. As a person - let's not go there.
 
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qqphotos said:
I have had a few such subjects - for a long time, after every new lens, camera adjustment, etc I would test on an old abandoned motorcycle chained to a post down the street. But now after 10 or so years, someone removed it! I'm feeling a bit lost now.

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That's the kind of thing I was trying to get across. Not boring as such but repeated over and over. Like my hanging basket hook but far more interesting!
 
neal3k said:
I've used my mailbox many times for testing but seem to have only put one on Flickr. Includes my pet fire ant nest.

280 - Ensign Ful-Vue test by Neal Wellons, on Flickr

Henry County, Georgia
Ilford FP4+ film developed in Cinestill Monobath.
Click to expand...
Excellent subject! I'm far too lazy to walk that far, my hook picture is just beyond the window. Actually, just where I'm sitting right now.
 
DownUnder said:
What exactly is "boring"? Who defines this? And why? Whatever for, boring? And who says?

Being me, I photograph the same things in many varied multiples. This week in Surabaya I returned for the fourth, fifth, sixth, even seventh time to a decaying amusement park I've visited since 1993, to look at and photograph old statues of dinosaurs, big African beasties and crocodiles being restored for the second or third time since my first visit there, to give this now ancient recreation area a new life and bring the kiddies (and their parents) back.

I don't recall having made any images there in 1993. At that time I had a Nikkormat with a 50/2.0 lens, not my ideal kit as the '50 constrained me from doing many of my usual images - buildings and canals and of course my gazillion tropical landscapes of palm trees gently swaying over terraced rice fields. All languishing unloved (and unsold) in my archives of scans, such is life.

I've been to this park several times. It's usually uncrowded - last Wednesday I had it all on my own, other than my driver who sensibly sat in a shady place and played with his mobile phone. Oddly, in the past most of my 'shoots' there came out badly, either unexposed or overexposed or the mixed light from the trees stuffed up the mid tones or the highlights washed out or the shadows came out looking like what you find in a tin of Kiwi shoe polish. I tried, but I just could not get it right.

FINALLY this time I succeeded. I took 0+ photos, of which maybe 20-30 will be keepers. For me, a good score.

So boring, yes. I admit it. Does that make me boring too? As a photographer. As a person - let's not go there.
Click to expand...
Perhaps 'boring' was incorrectly used by me. Maybe repetitive. The one thing you always shoot, knowing you've done it before but do it anyway.
 
underlord said:
Perhaps 'boring' was incorrectly used by me. Maybe repetitive. The one thing you always shoot, knowing you've done it before but do it anyway.
Click to expand...

That sounds like me. Boring I am, then. Ha!!

BTW I didn't see your post as a criticism. Rather an expression of your thoughts. Which I enjoyed and, I reckon, responded accordingly.

For a long time I viewed repetition as the refuge of small minds. Now I'm older, and I consider it as a challenge, both mental and nowadays for me, increasingly physical.

Me being myself, as long as I can still walk briskly up and down flights of stairs (so far so good), I'll go on photographing. Long may it last.
 
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Richard G said:
OK. Here’s one of my end of roll shots in Fitzroy, but it’s probably the only end of roll that fails your brief. I was wandering in the midday sun like an Englishman and got lucky.

U28906I1335071020.SEQ.0.jpg
Click to expand...

I'm curious... Were you on your way to (or from) Vanbar Photographics when you photographed this??

The scene looks, well - familiar. Gore Street??
 
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Probably boring to many here since I post her photos so often, but my dog Christie is great for testing new lenses or cameras. Being a Soft-Coated Wheaten Terrier she has great hair that can test resolution effectively. Photos of her in the living room with the light coming from the glass door and windows shows how the highlights and shadows are handled--I always have to under expose in high contrast light to protect the whites and then bring up the shadows in processing. I delete many of my testing shots of her but some are just too good to toss out. I'm like a doting parent in that regard, I suppose.

Here's a recent test of my newly purchased Nikon Z5 using a Carl Zeiss 35/2 ZM Biogon lens.

DSC_0028-4.jpg


I like the camera. But there are a few things I really dislike about it. One being it doesn't transfer the lens focal length information to the EXIF even though I've entered it manually into the camera's menu. Another being it's not possible to lock the AF sensor to the center position which kinda drives me nuts since I'm a focus and recompose shooter. A few more nits are present but I'm just beginning to get acquainted with it.






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Used to always shoot the big old Maple tree in our front yard with it's extremely textured bark, but a storm this last year split it in two, so now it's gone. Will have to find something else.

Best,
-Tim
 
I don't have a favorite test subject, but I do have favorite landscape views that I repeatedly photograph. The light is always different, as is the sky, and many of these images, shot from the same location, are unrecognizable as the same place. Sometimes I chastise myself for going to the same beloved spot, thinking I really need to go do something else, but then I think of Hokusai and his long-time love affair with Mt. Fuji. If it brings me pleasure, I don't care if I'm boring!
 
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