I love photographing. I have always been like this. The facination of capturing an image of this world we live in, of capturing a moment of time forever... aaah. Almost orgasmic. But photography is a very expensive hobby where I live. So we do not burn as much film as some other folks around the world. But the challenge, then, is to make use of every frame you click. Think. Think. And then think some more before you click. Since the arriaval of the digital, I have clicked far more than I had clicked in all the years before. Digital is good. It is here to stay. I love my S414. But the 5 is something else. The 50/1.4 is something else. I just wish I had the money to buy the 7D when it will come out. Minolta did a great thing to make it take all the existing AF lenses.
I have also tried some Flower photography. But it was a hasty and ill thought out experiment with all the wrong equipment always. The photographs are extremely amaturish but then hey... at least I tried.
Life
Experimental
The House Sparrow shows our neighbour, the sparrow, in some close detail. This is a very common bird and I shot all of these photos through my darkroom window where I laid in wait.
In Feb 2005, I shot a roll of Konica Centuria 200ISO film at Our Ruia Naka. I pushed 2 stops to 800ISO and also underexposed by 1/2 a stop. All the photos were shot hand held after 1930hrs in available light. I shot with the 50 f:1.4 -- like most of the times of late ....
My Older photos (~1995) are taken with the Zenith-E on Nova 125ISO disreputable film and developed in even more disreputable labs.
I first got to use my dad's Zenit-E when I was about 13 or 14. Since then I have known about the aperture and the shutter at all such things. I was lucky. I 'E' came into my possession when I was about 19. The Zenit-E comes with a very sharp Helios-44 MF 58mm f:2 (M42) ø49. I used it till I got my Minolta Dynax 5 in Dec 2002. In between I used our family Minolta Riva 35ST compact for my trekking and other outings. The 'E' was too heavy and unreliable.
Ever since I have had it, the '5' has become my favourite. It is a fantastic camera and for the money I paid for it, there was no competition. It is extremely light (~400grams) and yet feels solid. The Minolta AF 28-80mm f:3.5-5.6 D MACRO ø55 which came with it is also very light and mated perfectly to the '5'. I have to use of my friend Himanshu's Minolta AF 100-200mm f:4.5 ø49. This lens has given me good results for portraits and otherwise. I was also lucky to buy a second hand Minolta AF 50mm f:1.4 ø49 from Linda Swope in the US. This is an excellent piece of glass and is now my favourate lens. My friend Dukku has
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