A few weeks ago, Bhavna and I enjoyed hiking in the nearby Sourland Mountain Preserve. We've hiked the preserve many times, but this was our first since the start of the new year. We've hiked the preserve with kids and our nephews, and I have hiked with a local photography group and with "photo friends". I love being among the trees and photographing the ephemeral perennial wildflowers native to the region. There are multiple trails inside the preserve.
I photographed a few wildflowers using my Fujinon MCEX-16 macro extension tube, but my technique was poor and rushed. With macro photography, I set my aperture between f/9 and f/16 to maximise the depth of field. If the camera is set to auto-ISO and auto-exposure, the low light under the trees forces the camera to choose a high ISO and low shutter speed to get a bright enough photograph. That makes handheld exposure very challenging. I want a Platypod ultra base plate and a ball head, or use an LED ring flash around the lens.
Should I try to make an exceptional photograph of a commonplace scene or an ordinary picture of a memorable scene? What is normal and commonplace? Normal for me or normal for others?
UPDATE: My Fujinon MCEX-16 arrived on Saturday morning, but I didn’t open the package until later. I used the lens today, but it was too late to process and include photographs for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge.
This past week's Lens-Artists Photo Challenge was indeed a challenge. I. J. Khanewala1 has asked us to lift "...the commonplace into the most extraordinary thing that you have seen". But what does it mean?
adjective
with no special or distinctive features; normal.
noun
what is commonplace or standard.
Should I make an exceptional photograph of a commonplace scene or an ordinary picture of a memorable scene? What is normal and commonplace? Normal for me or normal for others? Does it matter?
At first, I thought about I.J. Khanewala's onion photograph and her approach. I might play with light and shadow from the early morning sunlight coming through the kitchen window. I'm a weekend photographer, and it's October in New Jersey. The light comes up later and goes down sooner, leaving very little time for playing with sunlight in the morning. The skies have been cloudy all week; flat light. But I tried. I'm not too fond of the result. I looked around my home and realised I didn't want to photograph any of it.
As a primarily outdoor photographer, my real challenge is seeing beyond the "every day feels the same" struggle of self-enforced "mental survival" routines I created during the pandemic lockdown. Netflix, Apple TV+, HBO, Hulu, and Disney+ became my escape from the constant reminder that I could not do the things I wanted to do. But, these routines continue despite the "opening". Monday to Friday, I usually don't leave the house Monday to Friday, and some weekends, I don't leave the couch.
It's October in New Jersey, and some leaves on the trees have begun to turn yellow, but not enough of them. I finally gave up on the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge and went for an early morning walk in the Billie Johnson Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve in Princeton. The preserve is about ten minutes (6.3 km) from home.
I've hiked the Billie Johnson Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve many times over the last several years. It's a quiet place to sit, think, and get some low-effort exercise. The loop around the lake often has stunning fall foliage. I've photographed spectacular displays in early October, mid-October, and late October. But not today. It's too early in New Jersey. The fall foliage forecast in Central New Jersey has defied prediction. Perhaps next weekend?
I focused on photographing what was commonplace at this time.
Bhavana asked what photography challenge I was working on. I explained what I thought the challenge was about and why I struggled with it. I stopped to photograph some flowers, wishing I had a macro lens. The XF60mmF has been on my "wish list" since I both my Fuji (2018). But it's an expensive lens, and I have not convinced myself I would use it enough to justify the expense.
I recently re-discovered Fuji X Weekly's Nostalgic Negative Film Simulation. Ritchie Roesch created this recipe to mimic the Nostalgic Negative Film Simulation, which can only be found on the high-end and expensive Fujifilm GFX100S medium format digital camera.
Ritchie wrote:
Fujifilm stated that the Nostalgic Negative film simulation is based on "American New Color" photography of the 1970s. They studied photographs by William Eggleston, Stephen Shore, Joel Sternfeld and Richard Misrach in order to create them. Eggleston and Sternfeld largely shot on Kodachrome—II and X in the early 1970s, 25 and 64 in the late' 70's—while Shore shot mostly Kodacolor, and Misrach shot a lot of Vericolor. All of those are Kodak 35mm films but with different aesthetics.
The Nostalgic Negative Film Simulation recipe may not be an accurate facsimile of the true Nostalgic Negative, but I am an instant fan. All of the images in this blog post are straight-out-of-the-camera (SOOC) JEPGs captured using Ritchie's Nostalgic Negative Film Simulation with some cropping to suit my needs.
Who is I.J. Khanewala? I don't know. Unlike Patti and Leya, some guest bloggers don't post their first names. ↩
I overbooked my weekend. Last night's outing in New York City left me tired, but I got up this morning excited about the group hike along the Ted Stiles Preserve in Baldpate Mountain. The walk was organised by the Friends of Hopewell Vally Open Space. Bhavna reluctantly agreed to come along.
We did not know what to expect. Apple Maps got confused and routed out to the wrong entrance to the preserve. I switched to Google Maps, and we arrived just as the group walked through the trailhead. We introduced ourselves to Romy, the hike leader and the rest of the hikers. The trail led straight up along a rock-lined path.
From what I gathered, Romy and other hikers, the area was initially settled farmland before being given over to nature. We came to a pond with an abandoned shed where our group stopped for nature meditation, listening to the birds, frogs and cicadas. Oddly, the sound of the cicadas was less prominent in the preserve than in my backyard.
As we hiked along the trail, some group members dropped off, returning on one of the inner loops. The rest of us continued up to the summit, where we stopped for a rest and conversation. Then, we headed back down the loop toward our cars.
Bhavna came home, showered and passed out in bed. I am too exhausted to document the rest of the day properly.
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