Tag Archives: wide angle

Dolomites

by Philip Steinman

Picnic Table Waterfall

In July of 2014, my wife and I trail ran and trekked the Dolomites in the Italian Alps. There is a lot to see here and we opted to take a guided running tour with holomites.com. After a brief rest at this picnic table, we made an easy climb to the base of the falls.

The Cross

This view is an inspired resting place where views of the mountains and summer wild flowers surround you in every direction. After my cha-cha shot, I put my camera back in my Osprey Rev 6 hydration pack and ran to catch up.

Giant Leaves

While running along the river bank I was enamored with the giant leaves you see here. If you were to stand in the bunch, you’d be knee deep more in water, and single leaf would provide a good hat from the sun.

Dolomite Garden

I ran by many summer gardens in the ski town, but this one made me stop, take out my camera for a cha-cha shot. If you look closely at the background you can see a car on the road and few cable cars in different positions in the left and right images 🙂

All images were made with a Fuji GA645w using Provia 100F film.

Base of Cascade Fall

by David Lee

Scan000078This image was made in 2008. Cascade Fall is just outside of Yosemite Valley. You can see it from Highway 140 as you are driving in to the valley. To make the image I used 2 Bronica SQA cameras with 50mm lenses (wide angle). The cameras were 4 inches apart on a tripod. I can’t remember the exact exposure time, but it was around 10 seconds.

Not Too Close / Plowing Prow

by John Thurston

The winter ice has been terrible at the Mendenhall Glacier this year. The combination of snow, rain, and avalanches has meant I haven’t ventured near it, much less tried to cross it to get new winter images of the glacier. These two views from 2008 (captured with my TL120-55) will have to suffice. The area of ice pictured here is now long gone. In the summer it is open water. In the winter, it is lake ice.

Not Too Close

This image is taken about a mile and quarter across the lake from where I laced on my skates. Because of the current lake level, Scan000010there is a patch of stable, rocky beach here. Because of cliff and creeks, it isn’t possible to walk around the lake to get to this bit of beach. Crossing the lake is the only way. Everything off that bit of beach is in flux and subject to change at any moment.

The cracks parallel to the shore show that the lake ice has sunk, and may again. The white froth beside the green glacier is a flowing and frozen waterfall. There is another stream coming down closer to the camera. Both are flowing under the ice, taking relative warmth, and creating areas of thinner lake ice. The glacier is calving from above and below, even in winter. Because of all this, approaching the glacier is a dance with an uncertain beast. I hunt for images and capture them as I approach, never certain when I’ll decide I’ve gone close enough and its time to retreat.

This image was made early in the morning’s dance. The colors and textures beckoned me closer despite the poor ice conditions.

Plowing Prow

Closer (and farther to the left) than the previous one, I captured this image. My exploration is stymied. The lake ice has been broken and refrozen several times, Scan000009and there is water between the farther cracks. The advancing glacier has plowed up the lake ice like I might my driveway. Farther back there are pieces of lake ice resting 10′ out of the water, having been lifted there by the rising glacier. The textures in the ice in front of me still beckon, but I declare the dance done and retreat.

Baby Vincent, 11 months

by Philip Steinman

Title       Baby Vincent, 11 months
Location        Van Nuys, California April 2013

Technical      Fuji GA645w (slide bar, F22, 2”, Kodak EPR 64)

Comments         He is my little star, my darling, my 4th child in 5 years, my second son, and my future.  The only way to photograph a baby cha-cha style is while they sleep.  Here he is shot with my Fuji GA645 closeup filter, with a Benbo tripod hanging over his body.  His eyes fluttered when I pressed the release on the 2nd and 3rd exposures.  I used the 1st and 4th  exposures and got lucky because the separation of 1cm was made for pairs 1&2 or 3&4, but 1&4 also had 1cm and created the proper separation for this  3D image.

Statue of Alfred Eisenstaedt’s V-J Day Life Magazine Photograph Aboard the USS Iowa Battleship

by Philip Steinman

Title:  Statue of  Alfred Eisenstaedt’s V-J Day Life Magazine  Photograph Aboard the USS Iowa Battleship

Location        San Pedro, California December 2012

Technical      Fuji GA645w (cha-cha no slide bar ), Fuji Provia F100

Comments         In 2012 the West Coast’s only Battleship opened to the public in San Pedro with the USS Iowa.   The self-guided tour takes you on a journey through World War II, the Korean War, and the Cold War to experience the life of a sailor on the lead ship of the last class of gunships.   The USS Iowa was the only ship of her class to have served in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II.   Despite the 16” guns, 5” guns, missile decks, bridge, mess areas, and world famous Captain’s Cabin – with the only bathtub installed on a battleship for a President, the most interesting item on the boat for me was this statue errected of the photograph of the nurse’s iconic kiss that marked the end of World War II.  The battleship alone is certainly a symbol of this and world peace but for a public display, they chose to combine the weapon of a battleship with the softness of a kiss.  The lasting power of a single photograph lives on.

On Aug. 14, 1945 New York City’s Times Square went dark at 7 p.m. and then at 7:03 p.m.,more than 750,000 people roared in jubilation as the words “OFFICIAL—TRUMAN ANNOUNCES JAPANESE SURRENDER” blazed across the news scroll.  Elated by the news, people in the crowd were hugging and crying tears of joy, but it was a far different experience for Edith Shain, a nursing school student.  “This sailor just grabbed me and kissed me,” she said. “Any female closes her eyes when she’s about to kiss so I never saw the guy, and then I walked away. I was kind of embarrassed. I didn’t say anything about it to anyone.”  What Shain didn’t realize, until a week later, was that her “indiscretion” was caught on film. While browsing a copy of a Life magazine, Shain, then 27-years-old, recognized herself in what has became an iconic photo titled “V-J Day” (Victory over Japan) of a sailor slightly dipping a nurse in a white uniform and kissing her.  Of the kiss, Shain said, “It was very nice, and of course, it was in the days before you’d scream and go to an attorney. It was the best of times.”  The famous photo was taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt, a photojournalist for Life Magazine. In his memoirs, Eisenstaedt explained, “Suddenly, in a flash, I saw something white being grabbed.  I turned around and clicked the moment the sailor kissed the nurse….People tell me that when I am in heaven they will remember this picture.”  Though Eisenstaedt died in 1995 at the age of 96, the celebrated picture has not lost its significance.  In celebration of the 60th anniversary of V-J Day, Shain flew to New York City where a slightly larger-than-life-size statue titled “Unconditional Soldier” by J. Seward Johnson based on the Life photograph was unveiled on Aug. 11, in Times Square.

 

View from the Shoin Building of The Japanese Garden

by Philip Steinman

Title       View from the Shoin Building of The Japanese Garden

Location        Van Nuys, California April 2013

Technical      Fuji GA645w (cha-cha no slide bar ), Fuji Provia F100

Comments         Major architectural entities in the garden include the Shoin building which projects over the lake and adjoins the teahouse. Shoin was the residential dwelling developed for aristocrats, upper class monks and samurai during the 14th and 15th centuries. The exterior of this building is authentically shoin style, but the interior has been modified to provide a place for meetings and special events. While the room does survey a panoramic view of the garden, notice the white window blinds that slide horizontally.  The Japanese garden style is to reveal only portions of the garden at a time from a seating and not the entire panoramic view at once.

View of The Japanese Garden

by Philip Steinman

Location        Van Nuys, California April 2013

Technical      Fuji GA645w (cha-cha no slide bar ), Fuji Provia F100

Comments         The Japanese Garden, dedicated June 18th, 1984, is a 6½ acre authentic Japanese garden fashioned after “stroll gardens” constructed during the 18th and 19th centuries for Japanese Feudal lords.  The trees are manicured to reduce any dense foliage and promote three dimensional views that allows one to see the pines, lake, and administration building in the background.   The foot path allows two people to enter together in order to encourage courtesy and to allow the viewing of small portions of The Garden from different vantage points.

Return to Nugget Falls

by John Thurston

Back in loop-17 (2005?), I contributed a couple of images taken from midway up Nugget Falls on the Mendenhall Lake. I liked the subject and wanted to try with wider lenses.

In November 2011, I went back with my son and we both shot some images. A couple of his shots are provided here to help set the scene. I was using my TL120-55, he was using a Canon 7D.

It was November, so the lake was just starting to freeze and the sun was low even at mid morning. He climbed up the scree pile beside the falls while I loaded film and prep’d my gear on more stable ground. Then I came up shot a roll looking across the face of the falls, across the freezing lake, and into the powered sugar covered mountains.

Stuart caught me while I was framing, so after I had shot my scenics and was climbing down, I turned the camera on him. I had already slung my tripod for the descent, so this was a hand-held shot (with neck strap).

The other visitors to the falls were a fortuitous accident. But when I saw them down below, I stalled my framing for a few seconds hoping they would spread to better fill the frame. My gamble paid off and I was please with their contribution to the image.