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A few weeks ago the family and I took a short trip up to Randy’s in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Its a local nursery that carries all kinds of tropical plants and wildlife. They normally stay open only during the hot months – so check them out while you can!

They’ve also got this great butterfly house, which they do allow you to take photographs in. I would be kind to the insects though and suggest you not use flash while in the building. Its got some great diffused light from the cover they keep over the structure.

I enjoyed browsing around the nursery looking at all the exotic plants and aquatic life they had to see. Its a great trip to make if you live in the area.

Here are a few pictures from the trip.

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Ive also got a few more images that are available in my gallery.

Things have just been insane lately. Currently I’m building up material for about three new photobooks, new material for gallery submissions and looking for new locations to photograph. In all of this managed to add  some new images to my southern landscape gallery.

Please visit my gallery to take a look at all of my recent work and purchase a print.

7 new landscape images

It was a perfect spring day here in North Georgia. The sun was shinning, there was a slight breeze and the temperature was a comfortable 80 degrees. So, the wife and I took a short day-trip to a popular tourist destination in the North Georgia mountains – Helen, Georgia.

This is a quaint little town nestled between the soft, sloping mountains and the gurgling  Chattahoochee River. Originally Helen was a logging town that later fell on hard times, the leadership turned it into a replica of a Bavarian village. It gets a ton during Oktoberfest but, from my experience just about any weekend that its nice, expect traffic.

Because of its location, with only one major road running through town, your going to experience traffic jams much like any beach-front strip. If you’re going to take pictures its great for street photography or possibly something thematic based on the Bavarian theme.

I’ve included a slide show below of some of the photographs I took. I hope you enjoy them!

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This week I will be reviewing the Promaster Spectrum 7 MC 28mm 1:2.8 lens.  This particular lens is a Pentax k-mount, so you will need to either be using an adapter for your body or using a Pentax body.

The Promaster 28mm is both a wide-angle lens and a macro for some close-up photography. I’ve been using it for landscape photography, botanical and prop work.

Kenji Uegaki

This Promaster lens build was pretty light-weight, lacking  the solid metal feel of some older m42 lenses like the Hanimex I reviewed recently. There was a fair amount of plastic in the body, which made me feel a little paranoid sometimes when using it.

More lens reviews

• Lens review: Promaster Spectrum 7 MC 28mm f2.8
• Lens review - SMC Pentax-M Asahi 50mm 2.8 1:2
• Review of Hanimex 135mm F2.8 m42 mounted lens.

What really makes this lens shine though was the quality of its macro images. The bokeh was smooth and detail sharp and clear. Like I said earlier, it really shines in close in work. I also recently used it in a series of photographs of espresso cups. The shots taken with the Promaster actually turned out better than the tripod-mounted shots I was taking with my Asahi lens.

As far as landscape photography, it does an adequate job. Its nothing amazing but, if you need a wider lens and don’t like using zooms, this lens will do the job. Its really great for this when you consider the price.

Because the Promaster seems to be a mish-mash of various lens manufactures the quality can vary widely. But, the price of buying one of these used off of a site like eBay can be a really good deal.  I won the bid for this little lens for 18.00 U.S. dollars. Thats really cheap considering the versatility it offers.

cfinke

Now, there is a word of caution for this lens. You’re going to need to make a minor modification to get it to mount to your Pentax body. See, there is an extra pin that really serves no purpose on dSLR cameras. What happens is the extra pin gets stuck in the mount on modern Pentax cameras.

Instead of explaining this myself, I’m going to direct you to theaterofnoise for a detailed answer on how to fix this problem.

Here are some tips from my own experience doing this, in case it might help:

• Have plenty of light
• Mark how each part comes off or, take pictures of each step
• Have a set of jewelers screw drivers
• Tweezers
• A lot of patience

I think for the price this can be a great lens to add to your collection. It can work great for a macro lens with some nice bokeh for botanical shots or prop shots.

Some shots from gallery taken with the Promaster 28mm

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For those of us who take pictures on a meager budget, we are always looking for the next trick or hack, to avoid paying the price for a sometimes costly hobby or business. One of those ways is to invest in old glass. No, not an old dirty drinking glass. Old lenses that have gone by the way-side in this digital age.

One of the more popular groups of old lenses are considered M42 mount lenses. They represent a whole slew of glass that was part of a very popular mounting base, sometimes known as a Pentax mount as well. Its a screw-in arrangement since the base is threaded. And for most new dSLR’s you will need an adapter to get it to attach to your particular body.

More lens reviews

Today I’m going to give a brief review of a Hanimex 135mm f.28 lens. Its by far not the “best” glass in old lenses, as it was considered to be one of the many economy or knock-off brands that was popular back in the seventies and eighties. But, surprisingly or maybe not, it produced a unique image that’s worth taking note of.

Hanimex 135mm F2.8 m42

In fact,  a lot of old glass is worth taking note of. Because the quality in some of these old knock-offs actually surpass what you get today in a more premium lens. The build is usually more sturdy, the glass sometimes larger, and the image can be very unique. But, enough about the value of owning old glass lets talk about this particular one.

The build on my copy was very sturdy. All metal construction, clean glass – overall no major problems with the lens itself. The focus was responsive, but a little stiff.

I took it out for a test-drive on a sunny evening in a nearby town. And yes, as usual – it was cold (sigh.) Windy, and cold, when will spring ever arrive? For this test I tested in urban areas, alleys, street corners sidewalks etc. And I was also trying to see how the lens would respond to diminishing light since it was around 4:30 pm when I started my walk.

Here are my impressions:

• Bright lens. The Hanimex responded very well to light. I usually needed to stop down more than expected to keep from blowing out highlights.
• Nice depth-of-field. Most of these shots are taken between 5.6 – 8 stops.
• Bokeh is also pretty nice for this lens.
• The colors produced are often a mix of warm browns with blue deeper tones. Its a bit more of an unusual tone than I’m used to with my other lenses. But, I’m enjoying it.
• Chromatic aberration. Unfortunately this was the one weak area of this lens. You will need to do some post work to remove fringing, but its not the worst I’ve ever seen.
• Detail and sharpness. If you look at the video below you can see a few that have some very nice detail and sharpness. I was impressed with the level it was able to deliver.

So, overall its a nice lens for the price. You can normally find a lens like this on sites like eBay at a very modest price tag. Which is important for broke people like myself.

The next part of the review will deal mainly with adapting it to your camera. And in this case, since I shoot with Pentax, how you attach to that brand.

You will want an Pentax M42 adapter to make this work properly. Please, don’t even bother with one of the many knock-off copies you will easily find floating around the web and on sites like Amazon or eBay. These cheaper versions just don’t hold up.

The first problem you will find with them is that one, they break. And when they do you will need to pry that lens away from your camera body – a scary thought. And two, they don’t allow  you to focus to infinity – kind of ruins the fun doesn’t it? So, do yourself a favor and buy a genuine Pentax adapter, you will be much happier.

Original Pentax m42 adapter.

How the adapter works is you place it into the camera body, much like you would a normal K-mount lens. Turn it, it snaps in place and thats it. Then just screw the lens into the adapter and start taking pictures. You will in most cases loose the ability to get AF to alert when something is in focus, so you will need to do it the old fashioned way, and really pay attention to your view finder.

Next, set your camera  and lens to manual and go take some pictures!

Below is a short video of some of the photos taken with the Hanimex.

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I wanted to share some more photographs from our first (maybe only) winter storm here in North Georgia. I  took probably 200-400 images, snapping away since you don’t get too many chances like this here in the south. I also posted some winter photography tips in a recent post that you might like to check out too.

Anyway, scroll down to enjoy the images.

Winter weather in North Georgia.

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In this weeks post I wanted to share with you more creative ways to take pictures in your own backyard. This time its about long exposure.

A few days ago I decided to brave the cold weather we’ve been enjoying in the south and take some pictures. I like taking pictures in my yard, its a place I’m familiar with, never fill rushed to get through and leave and its (of course) close to home.

I’ve been very fortunate to live with a stream nearby, and I like to walk down to it to clear my thoughts or look for interesting photos. We’ve also been having a lot of rain lately which has widened the stream and increased the water flow. I walked down along the stream below some of the larger rocks and spied a great place to try.

Fading North Georgia Limited prints for sale thru March.

- scroll to the end for a video about this shoot -

I’m sure a lot of you aren’t going to have a creek or stream handy so you can also try out a local park. Here is one I visit all the time.

Because I’m photographing water, long exposure makes sense for this shot. If you don’t know what that is, you basically leave the shutter open longer which causes moving parts of the image to blur and become softer. This how you get that silky look in a lot of water-centric photographs.

Here is one picture from the shoot

Things you would like to have with you for that type of shot are:

• Tripod
• Shutter release or a camera with a timer
• Neutral density filter

Check out my latest Photobook – “Parts” – see preview >

You’re going to need the tripod to have a steady shot. This is because the shutter is going to stay open longer than you can hold the camera still. The shutter release/timer is to also help keep the camera steady. Believe it or not, just pressing the shutter release can shake the camera enough to blur the image. The last thing, the neutral density filter works a lot like a set of sunglasses for your camera. It lets you keep the shutter open longer for a more dramatic effect.

Creek at 3:00 PM

And this is an exposure around 5:00 PM. Notice there are fewer hotspots. Also, the water is more silky.

Creek at home 5:00 PM

I’d love to hear from you about your creative backyard ideas too! Leave a comment with your thoughts.

The shoot – videoblog

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Happy Holidays everyone! I’ve been shooting some festive photography around the house the past few days. One reason, I like to do it and, its been dang cold down here in the south. So feel free to download any of the images below and use them in your postcards, screensavers, desktops, t-shirts – its up to you.

And check back often, I’ll be adding new stuff all month (I hope.)

Free holiday images [download id="43"]

Image #2 Free holiday image 02 [download id="44"]

Image #3 Free holiday image 03 [download id="45"]

Image #4 Free holiday photography [download id="48"]

Image #5 Festive holiday imagery [download id="47"]

Image #6 Free festive images [download id="46"]