Food With the Pentax-A 50mm/1.7

o my friend and I went out for sushi yesterday at our favorite sushi restaurant right by where I live. I decided to bring my Pentax lens on my E-420--both of which could use more playing around with. The restaurant, Tokyo Sushi & Grill, has a relaxing, dark ambiance within it. Perfect for testing my lens wide open at 1.7 aperture! So here are the results:



EXIF data: 1/10s f/1.7 ISO400 50mm Handheld, no image stabilization.

Parental Portrait

Looks like I actually took a photo other than pretty girls for once :) These are my parents in their backyard.

Strobist Info:
High speed sync technique at 1/4000 sec with my backup camera, the entry-level E-420. My parents were mostly shaded in the trees just out of camera left. Very bright afternoon sun at camera right catching part of my dad, and Fl-50r at full power camera left into shoot-through umbrella.

Ideas Flowing

Often times I'll sketch out ideas of what I'd like to try in my future photoshoots. Then I'll file them away for when the right situation and/or willing model comes along. This way I don't run out of ideas when do shoots. The lighting I don't go too nuts about at this stage; I just want to get the pose/general look down. Lighting scenarios will play out in my head. Here are a few, and I'm already in talks with a couple models open to giving them a try:






As these ideas come to fruition, I will present them here :)

Pentax Lens on my Olympus

Sorry I've taken so long to post. Been busy, yadda yadda...

Anyway, I inherited an SMC Pentax-A 50mm/1.7 prime lens not too long ago. Thanks to some kind replies over at the forums at fourthirdsphoto.com, I got a PK-4/3 adapter so that I could try it out on my Olympus E-3. After waiting FOREVER after I've purchased it from some Chinese seller on eBay, I finally received it. Here are some fun, experimental pics (click to make bigger)...






Of course, no additional flash as I wanted to try it out wide open. I do like the bokeh quality it gives. Since it's all manual, I'm still practicing with focus as admittedly I'm not too experienced there. It's fun, though. I hope to take real portraits with this lens soon.

Another Outtake

Here is Kimyen texting on her phone while I was trying to position my lighting setup for her portfolio headshot. In this photo, she's got a reflector on her lap, and you can see my 5 X 7 foot gray collapsible backdrop. Just thought it was a cute pic. :)

An outtake

I just did a quick shoot today with a model named Robb. Great look and physique. Here's an outtake (unprocessed) that was pretty funny.

Kellsee

So I did a quick little test shoot with Kellsee tonight, who I've worked with before. Pity she doesn't get more consistent modeling work as she has a great, fun attitude. Here is one of the keepers as I sift through the batch.

This was taken with my "entry level" DSLR, the Olympus E-420, and paired with the sharp & fast ZD 50mm prime lens (arguably one of the best glasses out there). I never really see anyone use this camera for portrait or model photography. I'm determined to show that this is a powerful little camera, and that one doesn't need to upgrade to the bigger beasts to get some results. Of course, some post-processing was also used with a delicate touch.