Sometimes a way of getting yourself out into the field (or out of a rut) when you have a photography hangover is to use bits of gear you don’t have in regular rotation. For me this always means my old legacy lenses. I shot Olympus 35mm from 1985 to 2005 when I got my first digital SLR. In the film days I was a straight lens snob, a thing that sort of exists these days, but for different reasons. Many zoom lenses were just crap back then and straight lenses, while more cumbersome in certain ways, usually gave better images. So I broke out two of my old favorites – the OM 35mm f2 and the 135mm f2.8
These were two of my favorite lenses. They are bright, small (well the 125 is small), sharp and I just love the focal lengths; 35mm especially. Of course on my micro 4/3 body, those are cropped quite a bit, but the lenses are still fun to play with and are a tactile delight. I love feeling the apertures click into place.
Processing – once I hit on the mood – one that reflects the particular way these lenses render – I just copied it for the series. I love that feature in Lightroom. Making sets and series is so much easier and quicker.
Not only ferns got my attention, but a couple of single leaves jumped out at me, too.
Both of those were shot with the 135. I don’t use them as much as I did with my old digital body simply because there is no in-body image stabilization on my GH3. Good thing I just looked the upcoming G9 which does. Lol. Oh boy. That oughta shake things up.
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