The Front Porch: I found the perfect studio

[raid]

Finally, I discovered our front porch as a perfect place for taking photos of my family. The sun is bright and strong outside, as we live in Florida, but the open shade in the porch is wonderful for photos. I get a reading of F 5.6~8.0 at 1/60 with ASA 200~400. The light is soft, and I expect good results.

My rangefinder adventures in the front porch of our home for the past 24 hours include the following set-ups:

1. Canon IVsb with a Leitz Elmar 50mm/3.5 and then on the same roll a Leitz
Elmar 90mm/4 with Fujicolor 200 print film.

2. Standard Leica with Canon 28mm/3.5 with HP5 B&W film.

3. Bessa T with Minolta Rokkor 28mm/2.8 and Ilford XP2 Super film.

Overall, these lenses are not high contrast and they should work well with the soft light.


Is anyone else here using the front porch of the house for portrait photography?

 

[raid]

I will post some of the results as soon as I complete the rolls and get the scans. I want to see how the 28mm lenses differ overall, and I also am trying out again the old 50mm Elmar lens. The third test is for the Canon IVsb camera after the shutter curtain got a patch to cover up a pinhole.

 

[raid]

It seems that I am the only person commenting on my own posting. Oh well. Here is a link for about 22-24 photos taken today with the Elmar 5cm/3.5. There is one photo taken with the Elmar 90mm/4. The photos showing my daughter in a yellow dress and wearing a hat are from another earlier roll of film.


http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=591010



I did not edit much here since out of 24 photos I left 22 in here. Two photos were totally out of focus due to Dana's movements. I got the Fujicolor 200 film scanned directly to a CD by a Fuji Frontier machine. I then used Photoshop with automatic adjustment only for better viewing. If a photo looks out of focus then it is my fault and not the lens's lack of sharpness.

 

[bmattock]

Raid,

Sorry, been offline most of the day - had to destroy my lawn. I too use my front porch as a studio, and it works quite well in the morning and mid-day. Late afternoon is almost too shady. But I'm not going to post the photos - my wife was my model and although I find her beautiful, someone else did not and felt compelled to email me about it.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[raid]

Bill: Please post some photos. By the way, why did you have to destroy your lawn?

Regards,
Raid

 

[Wayne R. Scott]

Raid,

The open shade of your front porch gives much more pleasant photos of your beautiful children than the harsh sunshine!!!

Wayne

 

[bmattock]

Bill: Please post some photos. By the way, why did you have to destroy your lawn?

Regards,
Raid

My lawn hates me. It will only grow weeds, and it laughs and taunts me when I try to get it to grow grass. Today was all-out, total nuclear warfare. Better living through chemistry, my friend. I went after it hammer and tongs and tore it to pieces, ripping out weeds and sod alike with wild abandon. I think I broke something inside me - I'm really dizzy now.

I'm attaching a photo of my wife, Ann-Marie. I find her a breathtaking beauty, but if others don't, I hope they keep their emails to themselves this time.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[raid]

Wayne: I agree with you 100%. For some reason, I ignored our front porch. It is such an easy to use set-up. The roll of film was taken within 15 minutes or so today, and there was no need to direct my daughter other than questioning why she had to psoe as she was doing.

 

[Scarpia]

Raid,

Sorry, been offline most of the day - had to destroy my lawn. I too use my front porch as a studio, and it works quite well in the morning and mid-day. Late afternoon is almost too shady. But I'm not going to post the photos - my wife was my model and although I find her beautiful, someone else did not and felt compelled to email me about it.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

Jealous SOB. Ignore the idiot.
Kurt M.

 

[RicardoD]

Raid,

That's great you found a good portrait place. That's one of my goals too and the front porch makes it so convienent. You are inspiring me to get going on this. Thanks for sharing.

I really need to make an effort to find my portrait place and time of day that will work. We have a local community lake a few blocks away from my home with wonderful elaborate gardens in some areas. I know there are some fantastic portrait areas hiding in there. One of my goals is to find a spot to take portraits of my kids and then return every year to document the changes in our family. But I have to figure out the best location and time of day or type of light.

 

[raid]

My lawn hates me. It will only grow weeds, and it laughs and taunts me when I try to get it to grow grass. Today was all-out, total nuclear warfare. Better living through chemistry, my friend. I went after it hammer and tongs and tore it to pieces, ripping out weeds and sod alike with wild abandon. I think I broke something inside me - I'm really dizzy now.

I'm attaching a photo of my wife, Ann-Marie. I find her a breathtaking beauty, but if others don't, I hope they keep their emails to themselves this time.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

Bill,
Your wife looks nice and she seems to be a warm person. Please say Hi to her for me. As for your ex-lawn, I went through a bad stage of having weeds everywhere that would not die. I used three different weedkillers and then used Scott's Weed and Feed and then I took some samples of the weeds to Home Depot and got another weed killer, and now I have a lawn and no weeds.

 

[bmattock]

Bill,
Your wife looks nice and she seems to be a warm person. Please say Hi to her for me. As for your ex-lawn, I went through a bad stage of having weeds everywhere that would not die. I used three different weedkillers and then used Scott's Weed and Feed and then I took some samples of the weeds to Home Depot and got another weed killer, and now I have a lawn and no weeds.

My wife is my reason for being, and she's a wonderful person, thanks. I also appreciate the tip on the lawn - you know, I never once thought about taking samples of the weeds that won't die (duh) to the hardware store. I looked online for similar weeds, took photos and asked people what I had, nobody knew and I could not figure it out. Nothing, and I mean nothing, would kill this stuff. Well, it is dead now.

However, if the nuclear option ends up not working, then I'll do what you suggested. I'm at the end of my rope. Oh, and about the yard, too.

Thanks!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[Wayne R. Scott]

"Roundup" is pretty much the nuclear weed killer.

Wayne

 

[raid]

I was told that Spectracide was well received and I chose it over Roundup.

 

[bmattock]

"Roundup" is pretty much the nuclear weed killer.

Wayne

My weeds ate it and got bigger. No lie. The grass died, though.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[raid]

Make a trip to Home Depot or similar and show them a sample of the weed. By the way, the guy working there showed reluctance to allow me to open up the ziploc bag to show him the weeds. Did he think I was spreading a disease?

 

[Wayne R. Scott]

My weeds ate it and got bigger. No lie. The grass died, though.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

That's what I like about it, no grass to mow.

Wayne

 

[bmattock]

That's what I like about it, no grass to mow.

Wayne

All my life, I've wanted to own a house with a little yard. Nothing big. Well, it took me until I was 43 years old. And owning a house is a lot more work than I thought it was, let me tell you. But this postage-stamp sized yard mocks me! I refuse to mow weeds instead of grass. I want the dream, baby.

I spread five pounds of burmudagrass today and watered it in when I got done de-thatching, digging out clumps of whatever, and hacking away at a stubborn patch of false ivy. I'm sore all over.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[RicardoD]

Bill,

Roundup did not kill your weeds? Wow. I just nuked my front lawn with Roundup and it was a beautifuls shade of dead yellow in 1 week. I have some seed down now and some straw on top of that. Whether has been so crappy here in Chicago the past week that its not making any progress (think 45F and rainy).

 

[raid]

OK guys. I hope you don't mind me asking a question about my posted photos. I used a pre-war Elmar in the photos. Are the photos acceptably sharp or are they all lacking sharpness. dana moved around and my eyes may not be the sharpest anymore, but I get sharp results with a telephoto.