A Rainy Sunday in the Park with Alex.

Matthew Rakola October 30, 2017

A light drizzle means no lines at the playground.

And because people always ask, the images were made with a Sony A7 and an old Canon FD 35mm f2 lens on an adapter. Images were salted to taste in Lightroom.

Partial Eclipse in the Park

Matthew Rakola August 22, 2017

Okay, that wasn't very clever.

Like millions of others across the country, I took to the local park to watch the sun partially duck behind the moon, a feat that still seems improbable at best. I didn't feel like dropping the $200 for a proper filter to make pictures of the actual eclipse (although after seeing some friends images, I kinda wish I had) so I decided to keep my lens pointed mostly to the ground to focus on the effect. So this happened.

One of the effects of the eclipse is that the main light source– the sun, becomes less bright when compared to the surrounding skylight. In other words, the shadows aren't as deep.

The eclipse activated the street lamps around the neighborhood.

Feeling it

Matthew Rakola June 28, 2017

We as creators want to create. I'd argue that finding a tool that makes the process enjoyable is as important a part of creating an image as the objective quality of the tool. Like Dorothy Gale (from Kansas!), as far as I'm concerned there's no place like home– or in this case, my first "real" camera. I've owned almost every kind of camera out there, from Leica to Mamiya to 8x10, but the classic SLR best fits how I naturally "see" the world. It's the tool that I kind of forget about when it's in my hand. Currently my Sony a7 with vintage Canon FD manual focus lenses gets me as close to the intimate experience I'm looking for as anything I've found, with the fewest amount of distractions. I just purchased a new (20 year old) Canon FD 35mm f2 that joins my FD 50mm f1.2 and will probably soon be joined by the 85mm 1.8. They are all small, unobtrusive, and relatively cheap. While they may not be the sharpest tools in the shed, so to speak, they have a certain feel that just gets me to my happy place.

Here are three of the first images I've made with the 35mm f2. (Yup, the kids.)

All images are full frame, straight outta camera with only color temperature adjustments made in Lightroom, with the exception of #3 which has some vignetting. These are all shot at f2 with the camera in Aperture priority.