Tag Archives: vintage lenses

Reflection

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The cloud forest greenhouse at the ‘Gardens by the bay’ in Singapore. This is a completely artificial place with high-tech ‘super trees’ and two giant greenhouses. Not that vegetation does not grow outside, but inside the greenhouses the environment can be cooled so that tourists feel comfortable. Bizarro world. Shown is a peek inside. You can see the waterfalls (some more than 50 m high) and vegetation through the glass panels. But only where a shadow of another building prevents light reflection in this inside-ouside game. © 2018 Fred S. Wouters

Powder sugar snow on rock

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An gloomy one. This one will be difficult to recognise with the dramatic lighting and the peculiar shape. You are looking at a big rock polished to have smooth waves/blobs onto which very fine specks of ice rain have fallen. The bit in front has not been polished or perhaps something has broken off. As if it has been sprinkled with powder sugar. Without context, it looks a bit like fungus on a raspberry. © 2017 Fred S. Wouters

Weber and Gauss

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I took advantage of the cold early morning to shoot this improved statue of the famous Göttingen physicist Weber (left) and mathematician Gauss (right) in high contrast. The thin layer of ice crystals augments the details. I love the whimsical humour of the bottle of beer in Gauss’ hand. It looks absolutely natural and intended and fits with the thoughtful discussion between the two. Even if someone were to remove the bottle (and it’s been there for a long time already), this cannot be unseen anymore. © 2017 Fred S. Wouters

Gauss observatory with star

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Gauss

The Gauss observatory in Göttingen, Germany. Note the big dome on top of the building. This is where Carl-Friedrich Gauss did his famous work. Fittingly, the iron railing around the building is decorated with stars. This image was taken with the Trioplan 50 mm at wide open aperture. This lens does wonderfully whacky things with out-of-focus objects. © 2016 Fred S. Wouters

Concrete and Steel

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construction_web

 

This picture is shot with the legendary Trioplan 50 mm ‘soap bubble bokeh’ lens from Meyer Optik in Görlitz, in the former eastern Germany. Funny feeling to be shooting with a lens from the 1950s. The shot was with wide open aperture (f 2.9) to maximise the bokeh effect. As a consequence, the concrete building block at the front is sharply focussed, the shed is creamily defocussed and the soap bubbles come out in the steel framework of the building. I like the substance (brick) – plan (framework) contrast. © 2016 Fred S. Wouters

Turbine bags

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turbinebags_web

Apparently turbine bags (?) and sails are not in high demand anymore. This photo was taken in the surroundings of Albert Docks in Liverpool, England, a few weeks ago. This area is full of decrepit buildings of better shipping/trading days. I spent more or less the entire day shooting with a vintage eastern-German 1960s 35 mm lens (Primagon, Meyer Optik).

More photos to come that are taken with old glass and definitely more from Liverpool. Vintage lenses have heaps of character and I thoroughly enjoy the manual ‘work’ that they demand. © 2016 Fred S. Wouters