The Flickr Closelookphotography Image Generatr

Strange New World's indeed!
Another in my Star Trek based series. Trying to get scales and angles more correct. This would be great if it was still 1966.

Again, these are not AI generated images at all. This image is a Photo Composite of two different images layered together. The only thing that is not a real thing is the star.

Shot using a Tokina AT-X 90mm f2.5 Macro lens.

These flowers are fairly small, maybe the sizes of a dime, maybe even smaller. Just one of the native species that blew into my yard and set up shop in my garden. I just let them reseed and spread because the colors are bright and they are free!

Again, up close the B&H 51mm f1.2 is tough to use. I shot these flowers about 8 or 9 times and only this one shot was worth while. Rather frustrating really. But when you do get it, the blur is super cool. Those flowers behind the main subject flower are only about an inch to 1.5 inches away from the flower in focus.

Another great example of what this B&H 51mm f1.2 lens can do. Chuck was locked in on a bird that landed in the back yard lawn when I took this shot. His left eye is in focus but you can see how quickly his features fall out of focus. The transition from in to out is very smooth and not abrupt at all. The bokeh is just wonderful with this lens. The isolation of the subject is just wonderful, but you have to nail the focus, otherwise the shot just doesn't work.

Shot using a B&H 51mm f1.2 projector lens.

So first, let me just say, this is NOT AI Generated. This is photography. Simply two different photographs blended into one image.

I've had this idea in my head for a while ever since seeing videos on soap bubble macro shots and how wild the colors are. They can be just beautiful.
But I immediately saw an alien planet! And I knew what I wanted to do.
I needed a ship. And in my mind, the only ship I saw was NCC-1701, the USS Enterprise from Star Trek.
I found a small, fairly accurate model and photographed it on a black background and then simply removed the pedestal stand it came with. Pretty easy to do.
Then I set up a similar, but different setup for my "planet."
Soap bubbles a re really weird things that require time to develop. The surface is in constant motion. It looks like its just sitting there, but when you look close using a macro lens, you see the violent storms swirling and moving on the surface. Its almost mesmerizing to just watch. I need to play with this some more.
Anyhow, these images are pretty close to the vision that I had in my head. I don't think these are perfect, so I will continue to play with this.

Both images shot using a Tokina AT-X 90mm f2.5 Macro lens.

Shot using a Canon FD 50mm f1.4 SSC and a 25mm Canon FD U 25 Extension tube.

These smoke images are interesting. You can't really see what's happening as you take the photos. You just shoot and try to look at what's being recorded in very brief views. And it was what you saw in the last image that guilds yo for the next image. If the smoke is drifting off to the left or right, and you see that happening, you readjust and tweak the focus and try again.
But its in the edit where you start to see things in the smoke. Other times it can be pretty obvious,

An exploration of a different medium to photograph. Smoke.
Its interesting to see what happens with the slightest waft of your hand or a slight exhale around the smoke.
Focusing the camera is very hard to do as I am using a strobe to light the smoke against a black background. Keeping the light from the flash off the background is a big part of it to maintain a clean back drop.
A lot of images were taken, a lot of them are bad. Sometimes the smoke wasn't interesting, sometimes it was badly out of focus as the camera hunted for anything to focus on. Once i had a solid focus point in a completely back frame, I didn't mess with it much and tried to not move. The results varied a lot. You start to see things in the smoke. Or was that just too much smoke inhalation... Hard to say really.

A big Hat Tip to Tom Malinski for introducing this art form to me and to helping me figure it out. Thanks again Tom!!
I still need to work on this some more, but this is a start.

An exploration of a different medium to photograph. Smoke.

An exploration into a different subject matter. Smoke against a black background and lit with a single strobe to the right of the frame. I used a Canon 540EZ flash unit and a wireless trigger. The flash was set to 1/128th power and zoomed to its widest setting.
More explorations to come.

The other shot of the Baby Doll parts on display that went with the heads. This tree of arms and legs was not too far from the lined up heads.
Again, just odd looking, but I guess if you really needed a vintage baby doll arm, leg or head, this would be the place to go.

Also, there was a skeleton of a small alligator or caiman in a glass case near this area of the shop. Just strange stuff. But that's what makes it fun to go into these sorts of shops.

Shot using a Konica Hexanon AR 40mm f1.8 lens.

I'm not sure why I'm so intrigued by these flower seed heads from last year's flowers, but when you look at them very closely and in this case converted to B&W, this image looks like a X-Ray of sorts.
I don't know. That's what I see here. Maybe I'm high on my own supply...

Anyhow... shot using a Tokina AT-x 90mm f2.5 Macro lens, plus it's AT-X 1:1 Extender and a Canon FD 50mm extension tube to get beyond 1:1 macro magnification.

This is a relative of grasshoppers and crickets This one was trying to warm up after a recent rain shower. It sat quietly and let me photograph it. At that moment I had a Konica Hexanon AR 50mm f1.7 lens with a 12mm extension tube on the camera. The creature did start to warm up and as soon as I went to change to a longer lens, it was gone.
And that's how it goes. Though in retrospect, I'm quite happy with the this shot. The colors, the sharpness and the blur of the background all worked out well.

Maybe the Katydid knew I had the shot.

Tulips and Hyacinth make for a a lovely Spring garden scene.

I love the way this lens makes this frame seem like its more of a painting than a digital image. The incredibly shallow focus of f1.4 and the smoothness of the transition from in to out of focus adds to this look.

Shot using a Bell & Howell 16mm f1.4, 2 inch projector lens.

Normally these flowers come up in big clumps with many stalks of small purple orbs. But this one was all by itself with no friends.

Another shot using the Konishiroku (Konica) Hexanon 47mm f1.9 rangefinder lens.
This lens has quite the range of what it can do. But the one consistent attribute is how sharp it can be. To say nothing of the colors it can capture.

Again, all this from a 1962, $100, Rangefinder camera. No wonder Konica went on to produce even more wonderful lenses.

A single Creeping Flox flower isn't a normal sight. But its still early in the season and the warm days have caused a few of these flowers to open up and show themselves off!
These are tiny flowers, maybe 10-12mm across. But they are impressive when they all open and the plant becomes a low growing carpet of pink/lavender and green colors that creeps in between the rocks and and gaps draping down the rock wall that makes up the garden.

Shot using the Konishiroku Hexanon 47mm f1.9. Shot wide open. with about 56mm of extension helicoid adapters.

As the leaves of this plant age they get more and more red on the outer part of the leaves from the cold weather. The newer leaves have that bright lime green of Spring but eventually as they move to the outside of the growing plant, they too will get more red as they survive a few more winters.

Here the Konishiroku (Konica) Hexanon 47mm lens shows excellent sharpness and colors. There is very little chromatic abrasion from this lens. Quite the feat for an early 1960's lens!

Shot using a Konishiroku Hexanon 47mm f1.9 lens.

These fun succulent plants are a common sight in a lot of gardens here in the Mountain West. They over winter well here and they are just different looking. They are a low growing and spreading sort of plant. The red color on the leaves is their winter coloration. That tends to fade back to a dark green throughout the summer.

Again, shot wi the Konishiroku Hexanon 47mm f1.9 lens.

I've been playing around with this lens a lot lately. I've owned it for a while now and I take it out every once in a while and just rediscover how weird and cool it is.
The camera it came from was sold in the 1960's with the tag line of, "The lens alone is worth the price." The entire camera sold for $100 in 1962. And I guess, in the end, they were right! The lens survives while the rest of the camera doesn't work anymore.

This is the lens from a Konica Auto S rangefinder camera where the lens was never meant to be removed.
Its one of the Konica's Hexanon line of lenses, so of course its a quality piece of glass.
I use this lens as a close-up or even a macro lens as its basically impossible to focus it any further away than about 3 feet. I'm fine with this as its a lovely, sharp lens that produces some funny bokeh at times and in other situations the bokeh is extremely smooth and a blurry mush of colors.
Here it was shot wide open with the rest of the lilac bush behind the leaves in focus and with sunlight filtering in through the leaves and branches. So the bokeh got heavy and wild. But I don't think is got too crazy like some lenses can. Its a fun lens to use!
This is the first of a series of images taken with this lens.

Shot using a Konica Hexanon 47mm f1.9

My cat, Coco is usually a reserved, smaller cat. But all house cats have that trigger, that switch that can get turned on in an instant and they become the predator. This was that moment when a small bird landed in a tree not far from us. Coco never had a shot at getting to that bird, but still, her instinct kicked in hard for this brief moment. Ears back, eyes locked on and a singular focus.
Then she stopped, rolled on her back and asked for her belly to be rubbed. LOL!
Which of course I did.

Some hunter...

Shot using a Mamiya/Sekor 135mm f2.8 lens and 20mm of extension helicoid.

Going through my images from last year has resulted in me finding a few images that I over looked. In this case its another image of a Black-Eyed Susan daisy. The image had a lot of blur around the central flower subject. Some interesting bokeh, some distracting foreground blur. I thought I would give this editing technique a try. A heavy, white vignette. Not sure it this works. Please let me know.

Shot using a Konica Hexanon AR 50mm f1..7 lens