40mm 2.8 and some semi naked ladies.

Its not my usual thing to post reviews of lenses and cameras and such, I am not big into the belief system that  always having the latest and greatest lens or camera is going to make you a better photographer. I am more in tuned with the philosophy that the best camera available is the one that I already have. Regardless, I did pull out the newish Canon 40mm 2.8 pancake lens this weekend. I just picked up a new body and wanted to snap some shots at a burlesque show on Friday to test out ISO capabilities. I wanted to grab the 35 1.4 L, but I was denied access to that lens for an entire weekend, so I grabbed the far less expensive 40mm 2.8.

1st impressions of it were great. It is tiny, so small that my camera felt awkward  almost like shooting with one of my home made pin hole lenses. On the bright side though, it fit in my man bag with ridiculous ease! While still larger than my G12, it is nowhere the size it normally is when fitted with my 24-70. 40mm is a really unique focal length. I feel Canon really thought it out, and made an intelligent decision. This is a full frame lens, but it is primarily marketed for their aps-c cameras. This really gives it an unusual edge, it becomes a perfectly usable normal aspect at  60 on aps-c and a slightly wide normal lens on a full frame. It works well with both uses. Smart.


2nd impressions were not so hot. The auto focus, while super smooth, is definitely not fast. No big deal, a good chance to test out my cameras Al Servo AF mode, and it actually out worked really well. Tracked the dancers very smoothly, no moments of hunting or getting lost in the background. I was shooting at 3200 ISO and roughly 1/125th of a second, yet my shots all looked soft. The light was horrible, but this is how I normally shoot. The only time I shoot in good light is when I create it myself. The subjects I like are always lit horribly! So a lens that performs well in low light is a must. At this point I was wishing I could have grabbed the 35mm 1.4. Those two stops make a hell of a difference in shutter speed. Of course, had I grabbed that lens, I probably wouldn't be writing about the lens now. We all ready know what a fantastic lens that is.

Final impressions. I was pretty ho hum about the lens on my way home. It performed fine, but I shoot in extremes. Fine doesn't cut it. Next day I uploaded my shots, and went to work in Photoshop  Turns out, for the conditions, they came out pretty great. The lens is sharp as my zooms that cost wayyyyyy more. The auto-focus definitely takes its time more than my L glass, but it is super smooth. It doesn't jump around. I was really skeptical of the fly by wire manual focus offered by the stm motor, but in reality, it worked extremely well. I found the focus to be far smoother than on my 50mm 1.4 and easier to control. Color and contrast ... OK,  I can't judge that at all. The light sucked. The color sucked. Not the lenses fault. When you think about it, this lens costs $200. If I was between the 50mm 1.8 and the 40mm, I would take the 40mm no questions. Better build quality, faster AF, and sharper, all in a smaller package! This lens made my camera so small! I could easily see myself leaving my G12 at home to casually take pictures of my daily adventures.

So enough bull shit, here are some of the pics I took.

Tim Burton Burlesque at Bar Matchless.

I just really liked the green light.

Miss Poison Ivory as Mrs lovett.

Headless Horseman by ???. She was amazing. I really like fire.

Corvette LeFace as Emily from Corpse Bride.

The Penguin.

Our lovely host, Vampira aka Bambi Galore.

Another of my favs, Mr Oogie Boogie. Done fantastically, I even accidently took home a glow in the dark centipede which I used to scare the crud out of my gf the next day! Thanks oogie Boogie!

What would Tim Burton Burlesque be like without Beetle Juice?!

So much fun.

Thanks for read'n!

-  James

New (old) project

I have been working too much, just barely paying my bills. That means I haven't been shooting anything new, so what am I to I do? Edit old projects. Actually, I re-edit old shots in preparation for editing a major project. I am going to in the near future begin putting my project "Unknown" into its book form. Something I have been meaning to do for a year or so now. Unfortunately  dealing with 50,000 + images from a period spanning 4 years and 75+ underground punk rock shows is somewhat daunting. As a warm up, I am editing all the shows I photographed at the Showcase Theater in Corona into a small book for myself. Of course, if anyone wants a copy of it, it will be made public. Gotta love self publishing.

These shots are from the Millions of Dead Cops show at Showcase in February 2008.

I should mention that none of the bands above is actually M.D.C., they are the Resistance Culture, Subhumans, and the Voids.

My love of black and white photography continues to grow. I convert almost everything to BW now just for kicks. BW is gorgous (I plan on shooting a BW/transparency film project starting this winter). One more step removed from reality, it becomes completely about tones and the image. The photographs become simpler and focused. Somehow emotion comes through so clearly, color versions of these almost get in the way of themselves. Completely contemporary yet vintage (Yes, BW is actually vintage!) inspired. I really love the way digital black and white looks out of the 5D.

Sorry about the watermarks, I compeltely agree that they are incredibly distracting, but whatcha gonna do? If someone steals my shit (and yes people steal my shit) at least I'll get some credit.

Tennessee

As the title of this blog hints, I will be showing the remainder of my trip cross country in this blog, but first some news.

I just updated my site www.JamesAndrewPhotography.com. I removed my weddings album and added the album "Main St Orange County. It is short  for the full title of "Santa Ana: Main street Orange County". Unfortunately, too many letters for my site. Owell. It looks good!

I also have separated my consumer work from my personal work. You can find my consumer work now at www.JamesARidley.wix.com/JamesAndrewPortraits. Yes, that is a little long of a URL and it does host some advertising on it, but hey, its separate, and it works great with my budget. I still have the portfolio "fashionable Portraits" on my personal work site, as this body of work is a mixture of both ... so it will occupy the slot that it is currently in for the time being. That may or may not change.

I am not finished updating JamesAndrewPhotography nor am I finished building JamesAndrewPortraits just yet. They are both work in progresses, as it tends to be. So stay tuned, and check back in and see what I have done.

From Louisiana we drove North along highway 61. We made a point to take a smaller highway. Hell, we made a point of taking smaller highways for as much of the trip as we could afford to! I would have loved to take side streets the whole trip, but that would have taken a bit too long. You just see so much more when you get off the interstate!

One of two plantations we visited. We wanted to take a historical tour of a plantation while we were in Mississippi, it didn't work. We got a tour alright, but it wasn't very historical. Built by rich white people 200 years ago, and still used by rich white people today. The slaves quarters are a bed and breakfast! The tunnels used by the slaves to get to the main house are used as storage! Jeez, talk abut pretending like nothing bad ever happened.

The view from the soil in a corn field.

This was the other plantation we visited. These are the Windsor ruins near Port Gibson. Accidentaly burned down by a servant. I am sure it was on accident.

 

 

Memphis Tennessee. It was one of our favorite places.

Where MLK was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel. The Civil Rights Museum was great! If you visit Memphis you need to add this to your to do list.

Walking around downtown Memphis.

Where ever you go, things are always the same.

This is another must do activity in Memphis. The Sun tour was great.

Everywhere we go cross country you run into different types of memorials, the stuffed animals memorial was unique to Memphis. Dozens of stuffed animals nailed to the pole.



Elvis's grave in Memphis. The tour of Grace land is way too expensive for people on a budget, so we went to the early morning grave visit. They let you in to the graves site for free between 7 and 9am!

Memphis was a very interesting city, its a mixture of post industrial city still dealing with white flight and economic down turn. At the same time there is a bit of a resurgence in the downtown area, not just in the touristy section on Beale St, but all over. It feels like a city that nearly hit bottom but has managed to pull its self up a bit and is slowly rebuilding itself.

Following Memphis we drove East to Nashville, explored Nashville for an evening. Another city we may want to visit again, and after that, it was pretty much straight through to NYC. We had met our budget, and it was now down pouring on us. It proceeded to down pour from Memphis all the way to NYC. No fun. No fun at all. The rest of the trip was super fun though. I would do it again in a heart beat.

Thanks for reading!

Louisiana.

Welcome to Louisiana. No joke.

From Austin we drove East on the 10, went arouuuund Houston and kept on going. Louisiana was only a few short hours east. Louisiana is absolutely gorgeous. The bayou was something new all together. A place unique as the redwoods are in California. The city of New Orleans was one of the most interesting cities I have ever visited. It is tops on my list to go back to and explore. An afternoon is not enough time. A week may be enough time to get the basics down, a month would be more like it. The unique mix of history, architecture, and mash ups of people and cultures make this city someplace to want to get to know, for better or for worse.

I really wish we could have spent more time in New Orleans. What a fascinating city. Unfortunately all we had time for was a drive through the city streets and then an afternoon and evening in the French Quarter.

The juju is strong here. Everyplace on Earth has an essence to it, and if you are tuned into it, you can feel it. New Orleans felt like no place else. If you visit the quarter, I absolutely recommend the voodoo museum. We also took a haunted history tour which was really neat too.

I walked to the shore of a swamp near Baton Rouge, and I was greeted by this lil guy. He wasn't so little either. Probably more like eight feet little.

This lil guy was more like 12 footer.

Another lil guy, sunning himself on the shore. Seriously there were freakin everywhere. Like sea gulls at the Pier.

Mississippi River view in Baton Rouge.

The old state capitol in Baton Rouge.

Sunset on the Mississippi.

What a state! Like I've already emphasized I really loved New Orleans. I really liked Louisiana. Next time we will have to spend more time in New Orleans as well as exploring the northern part of the state.