Some Ultrawide (12mm) Film Shots of Parkour

I recently shared a slideshow of parkour images, made with the Nikon Df. (Click Here) to see that post.

 

Today, I'll post some images I made at the same event, but these were all shot on the Zeiss SW film camera, with the Voigtlander 12mm f5.6 (LTM) ultra wide angle lens. These were all shot on Ilford HP5+ black and white film. I processed them myself.

 

I loved shooting parkour with this oddball lens. I have also done some fisheye shooting with parkour. (Click Here) to see that. In both cases, the wide angle of view is great for including a lot of the context for the sport. But, it also means that I have to get very close. So close, in fact, that there's a risk of interfering with the practitioner's concentration. That did happen once; thankfully, he thought it was funny. The last thing I want to do is interfere.

 

I think what I'm learning about shooting parkour is that variety is key. These wide angle shots tell a lot about the setting, but have relatively little detail of what the person is putting into the effort.

 

Approaching this with the standard photojournalistic search for a combination of wide, normal, and close up detail shots seems to be in order. I'm about to get a great opportunity to pull together a group of parkour practitioners, specifically to photograph them. My plan will be to get that variety, and to experiment with some ideas with flash, showing motion, etc. I've got some thinking to do.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

Cherry Blossoms From A Different Perspective - Leica M9 and Voigtlander 12mm f5.6 Ultra Wide Heliar

I live in the Northern Virginia, about an hour from Washington, DC. DC's cherry blossoms are really quite impressive, but as in other places, they don't last long. They are currently at their peak, but I just haven't been able to find the energy to get downtown on a weekday evening to shoot them. Maybe this weekend.

 

The good news is that I have some nice cherry trees in my neighborhood. Small, but nice.

 

On the way home from work today, I decided to try to capture them from a different perspective - up high, with an ultra wide angle lens. So, I mounted up my Voigtlander LTM 12mm f5.6 Ultra Wide Heliar lens on my Leica M9, and connected both to a monopod. Then I grabbed a step ladder and headed out. These three shots are the result of putting the camera right into the cherry blossoms with the monopod, and using the self-timer to trigger the shutter.

 

Sakura Up High #1, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Voigtlander Ultra Wide Heliar 12mm f5.6 Lens

iso 640, f9.5, 1/60 sec.

 

Sakura Up High #2, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Voigtlander Ultra Wide Heliar 12mm f5.6 Lens

iso 1250, f6.7, 1/180 sec.

 

Sakura Up High #3, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Voigtlander Ultra Wide Heliar 12mm f5.6 Lens

iso 640, f4.8, 1/90 sec.

 

The Ultra Wide Heliar is a very specialized lens. Advertised as the widest rectilinear (non-fisheye) lens for full-frame 35mm cameras, it's not a lens that gets every day use. It's so wide that you nearly have to touch the subject with the lens for it to take up any significant portion of the image area. It is also pretty slow, with a maximum aperture of f5.6. But, it has basically infinite depth of field, so the fact that focusing is not accomplished through coupling to the Leica rangefinder is really not an issue. Just set the focus and forget it.

 

It also has pretty significant color shifting (magenta and blue at the extreme image edges) and some vignetting (darkening in the image corners). For both reasons, and because I like the composition this way, I decided to crop the images as squares. I set the lens code on the M9 for the Wide Angle Tri-Elmar (16-18-21mm) at 16mm, which is the widest angle lens setting in the camera.

 

I found a website that describes software ("Cornerfix") that elminates the color shifting. They also suggest selecting the 21mm f2.8 lens code in the M9 when using the Ultra Wide Heliar. I'll have to try that.

 

(Click Here) to read about Cornerfix. I have not tried it.

 

You can also see that I applied some negative vignetting to get the white corners. Again, just because I like it that way.

 

A nice diversion for shooting an hour or so after work in the evening. I hope you enjoy the view.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

My Ultra Wide Heliar is the older Leica Thread Mount (LTM) version. Here's a link to the newer Leica M-mount version. Either is adaptable to Micro 4/3, yielding a nice but not crazy-wide 24mm equivalent field of view.