Radial Symmetry
by nfessel

Comment by MelonMusketeer:
I also use some of the old glass. Two of my fav's are the B&L Zeiss Tessar 140mm f4.5. I mounted it on a bellows macro rail for focusing, and it works great that way. You can also unscrew the front element, and just use the aperture and rear element to get some very interesting soft focus effects. This one was done that way using direct flash, with a Christmas tree about 3 ft behind the subject. With the front element removed, it's focal length is around 60-70 mm. It's a very sharp lens with the front element on, and has a delightful bokeh, having 19 blades in the aperture.


Another that I use is the B&L 32mm f4.5 Macro. It's about the diameter of a quarter, so I made a mount for it from pvc pipe fittings and a camera body cap. It's only good for a tight range of focus distances, yielding aprox 1/1 mag ratio. It works good with on cam flash for macro, because it's small enough that it does not shade the on cam flash from the subject.


The B&W is great for this one.

Message edited by author 2014-06-21 14:04:17.

1916 Steam Engine
by nfessel

Comment by blindjustice:
That is some front and center processing. very bold.

Radial Symmetry
by nfessel

Comment by tanguera:
Sweet, risky entry

The Entire Tree from One Single Leaf
by nfessel

Comment by kvickrey:
now that is wonderful!

The Entire Tree from One Single Leaf
by nfessel

Comment by bvy:
Wonderful fractal image. Great background too.

The Entire Tree from One Single Leaf
by nfessel

Comment by mark082:
Is it really? That is an incredible work of art. The photo is great, but the leaf sculpture is ASTOUNDING!!!!!!!!!

The Entire Tree from One Single Leaf
by nfessel

Comment by magenmarie:
Brilliant. I absolutely love this.

The Entire Tree from One Single Leaf
by nfessel

Comment by posthumous:
I'm telling you, the Universe is a fractal.

The Entire Tree from One Single Leaf
by nfessel

Comment by Yo_Spiff:
Now, that is a very cool observation, and well shown by your photo of it.

The Entire Tree from One Single Leaf
by nfessel

Comment by Paul:
OK, I'm going through the Free Study submissions, purposefully finding those images I think are shot with a less conventional eye - this is one of those images! Thanks for offering something that isn't just DPC friendly eye-candy (though of course there's nothing wrong with eye-candy). I'll be picking one of these images for my Mu (most underrated) award:

Positives: This is quite a find and you have handled the subject superbly, your choice of background, lighting and colouration serves only to emphasise the beauty of the leaf. Your composition too - just the right amount of negative space.

Critical stuff: Not much to say here

Overall: It's tempting to say that you haven't had much to do here - the leaf gave you the photo; but, that's not right - you brought plenty... plenty of faith in the leaf, plenty of restraint in the edit and plenty of understanding of what was important. If ever there was a photographic argument for 'less is more' - this would make a valuable contribution to that case.