Canon 135mm f/2.8 SF lens

This image was taken with my Canon 135mm f/2.8 Soft Focus lens. When I bought my Canon 135 f/2L lens a few years ago, I almost sold this lens. My thought was that I didn't need two prime lenses in the 135mm focal length. After some additional thought, though, I reconsidered and kept the lens because of its unique soft focus feature. I'm glad I did as I find that I still enjoy the effect of the lens, which despite what anyone says, cannot be exactly duplicated in Photoshop. The effects are too subtle and deep for the average Photoshop used to emulate, and even attempts by advanced Photoshop users seem artificial compared to the use of the actual lens.

The lens provides the ability to dial in a degree of softness on a scale of 0-2. At the 0 setting, the lens is quite sharp. At the 2 setting, and with a large aperture, it provides an amount of softness that is reminiscent of vintage field cameras. The effect can be overdone, as can any photographic technique, but for some images it just works, as it does with the image above and the one to the right. It gives an image that "dreamy" effect and compliments images that have areas of significant contrast and strong lighting. I'm sure some photographers would disagree with me, but all of my models have loved the effect. Perhaps one or two will chime in here and let me know what they think.

Some Days!

Life sometimes just doesn't go as planned. Last night, I set up all my cameras, prepped my strobes, gathered all the costume materials, printed the model release and shoot sequence, and did a final run through in my head of how the House Fairy shoot would go. The idea was to have everything totally prepared to get through the shoot quickly as soon as my real job permitted. I think that's the way it would have worked too, except the model never showed up.

Once I realized the model was a no show, I posted a quick casting call on my local modeling site and got a fairly quick response from a different model who was very interested in shooting the concept, but who, after agreeing to the shoot, called back within 15 minutes to cancel on me. Hopes raised, then hopes dashed! That's the quickest cancellation I've ever received from a model.

The original model eventually contacted me, apologized profusely, and stated that she lost track of the day of the week and offered to do the shoot for me when she returned from a trip to back East. It may well be that we'll shoot another project together, but I'll have to use another model for for the House Fairy. Fortunately, I have one already scheduled for Friday and I've reconfirmed with her. So, with any luck, I'll actually get to shoot the theme.

Of course, if that were the only thing that happened today, it wouldn't be so bad, but this morning when I went to update my business financial records and found 2 years worth of data was missing. YIKES! So I went to my backup files, and the same thing. I still have no clue what happened. My computer has been running a file recovery program all day, and I suspect it will be running all night and most of tomorrow as well, and I can only hope I can find a slightly old file to recover. If not, I'll have to reconstruct the data from my paper records, which will be an extremely tedious effort at best.

Of course, my woes are very, very minor compared to those of so many other people in the world, and certainly minor to those I experienced even just a few years ago. So life goes on, and when it's all put into perspective, I really have nothing at all to complain about and much to be thankful for in my life.

And tomorrow is always a better day. Right?

Shoot Plans for the remainder of the week and month

Well, so far, due to my forced bachelorhood, I've managed to:

Rake the yards, trim the bushes, clean up and rearrange the garage, edge the lawn, mow the grass, fertilize the shrubs and plants, fertilize the lawn and apply Scott's feed and moss killer. I also made two trips to Good Will, vacuum and shampooed all the carpets, cleaned up the three bathrooms, repaired the lower dish washer sprayer, wash all the linens, as well as all the laundry, filed the taxes, reorganized our filing system, cleaned out the refrigerator, cleaned the oven, completed one landscape field trip down the coast to Florence, as well as a 1 1/2 day photo shoot with a remarkable young model.

I've also worked full time at my day job, taken care of my grand kids 8 out of the last 12 days, as well as taken my youngest daughter and her children out for lunch on her birthday, So, I'm ready to do just a little more stuff for myself. So, I have three shoots planned for the rest of the week.

Tomorrow, I'm shooting with Ashley with the theme of the House Fairy, that magical creature who, with the properly incentives, will come to your house and clean up all the mess from the big party. Every home wants one, but not every home can get one. It takes strong belief and a welcoming attitude (as well as an open bar since House Fairies are notoriously thirsty). Still, they'll do any task that needs to be done, so they're great to have around. Fairies like Ashley are very easy on the eyes as well.

On Thursday night, I'm shooting with Krisa. Our intent is to add a variety of shots to her portfolio. Krisa is so much fun to shoot with, it's hardly work at all. She's very photogenic and full of energy. I have a broad plan for the shoot, but we're going to keep it pretty flexible to accommodate shots she wants to add to her portfolio.

Finally, on Friday, I'm shooting with a differnt Ashley, the young lady who was the first model of my fairy series. My intent to is do see if I can get more enthusiastic poses and expression from her in an outdoor glamour setting.It's a challenge to me to see what I can do to work the model as to achieve her very best.

Then, at long last, Wanda will be home and I will pleading with her to start posing for me again. She's my best model and the one I love to shoot the most. It's fun to work with new models and capture new looks on film, but no one can ever replace her in front of my lens.