sooc – Fotomonkey Photography

Jan 27

by FotoMonkey in photowalk 0 comments tags: sooc, themes, xt30ii

Red

Today I headed back downtown to follow the advice of YouTube’s Tokyo Grit & Grain. In a recent video, he suggested an interesting challenge as a creative reboot. It was really rather simple, actually…shoot the color red. And so I did. As luck would have it, there was a special reading event for the kids and I just happened to head to an area near the main library. It was teeming with people and photo ops. I actually spoke to more people than I normally do which was a stretch. Dare I say I actually had a full on conversation with a woman? 🙂 She wanted to see my pictures which led to a long discussion about her own art and how she got into it as a preschool teacher. I also did a lot more asking permission today. Normally I never do. But today I felt it would help. I only got turned down once. Others were more than happy to help. All of these images are straight out of the camera. I tried to capture compelling images, and not just focus on the color alone. Hopefully I was successful. Well, the Mini isn’t very compelling, but it was […]

Jan 20

by FotoMonkey in photowalk 0 comments tags: sooc, xt30ii

Darien, Georgia

Today it felt right to take another road trip. I’d actually planned it for last weekend but wasn’t feeling it enough. It was our coldest day of the season and in the low 40s when I got in the car, but despite the temperature I decided to make a day of it and headed to the small coastal town of Darien, GA. Darien is another town I’ve driven by countless times while traveling on I-95 but I’ve never had a need or interest in stopping. However, this changed when I made my Brunswick trip and the lady at the visitor’s center suggested it. As I pulled off of the highway and into the parking lot of the Darien visitor’s center, I picked up a map and walking tour of the area. I’m a little disappointed in the map. It really should include addresses. I tried location a couple of items based on the dot that was placed on the map and fell flat. It would be nice if you didn’t have to drive through random neighborhoods looking like a lost tourist. I used two recipes for this trip. The first is probably going to end up as one of my […]

Jul 29

by FotoMonkey in travel 0 comments tags: key west, kodachrome60s, sooc, travel, x-h1

Key West

Had a great day sailing today aboard bluQ with Honest Eco Tours. We actually got under sail which was a surprise for July. I was glad we didn’t have to motor the entire way. We explored several areas around the Key West National Wildlife Refuge. Our stops included a kayak trip around a mangrove island where we enjoyed seeing a number of frigatebirds. Our next stop was a sponge garden. The sponges filter the water at a rate of 10x their body mass every ten minutes! No wonder they make for a great indicator about the water quality. While snorkeling around the garden we enjoyed the sights of large hermit crabs, a yellow spotted stingray, numerous lobsters, and many fish. While we were underway, we also got to enjoy a few dolphin encounters. The most exciting was a family with mom, dad, and about a 3-month old baby. After exploring the water, it was time to explore a little of Key West. The heat was a scorcher and we couldn’t muster the gumption to head over to Duval Street with the main Key West activity. Instead, we stuck around the historic seaport. The photos in this gallery were taken with […]

Jul 16

by fmadmin in journal 0 comments tags: crisp chrome, sooc, x-h1

A Splash of Color

I’ve really been on a black & white kick lately, but I’m not opposed to color. In fact, I’ve been simultaneously trying out a number of new color recipes to see what I want to make permanent residents on my camera. This is going to be a quick post to share some of my color images from downtown. One thing I’ve noticed around Jacksonville (and not around the downtown area) is that there are a number of very good murals. The detail in some of them is amazing. Once I have a nice catalog of them I’ll try to share. Here are some for your review to whet your appetite.

Jul 12

by fmadmin in gear 0 comments tags: sooc, tri-x, x-h1

Time for Pancakes

Ok, well, probably not the type of pancakes you’re thinking about. Although, I have to admit, that would be pretty good, too. No, today we’re talking about a new pancake lens. I wanted to try something a little smaller and less obtrusive for street photography and thought a pancake-style lens might fit the bill. I opted for a 25mm f2.0 manual lens from TTArtisan. The lens arrived today and right off the bat, I love the small size and metal construction. I’m not a huge fan of the screw-on lens cover, but hopefully I’ll get used to it. I’m curious to see how it works with the UV filter when it arrives. Since Amazon didn’t deliver until after 6pm I didn’t have a lot of time with it. I was determined to do something with it, though, so I slapped it on the X-H1 and headed out the door to pick up my chicken wing to-go order. I only snapped a few shots but it did a pretty decent job. I’ll spend some more time with it over the next few days and try to provide an update. All shots were with the Kodak Tri-X 400 recipe. I set the […]

Jul 09

by fmadmin in film-recipe 0 comments tags: cineplus, fujica half, sooc

Fujica Half/Cineplus Shootout

This afternoon, I made a couple of trips to try out some new recipes: Fujica Half and Cineplus. Overall, I think they’re both very nice. Fujica Half definitely is the more muted of the two. I think it’s nice for a more vintage, subdued look. It feels very well suited to summery photos. Cineplus has some very nice, rich colors and lives up to its description of “punchy” colors. I was surprised at how good the sky looked, for example. This first example was taken at one of Jacksonville’s hidden gems, Walter Jones Historical Park. I got my hair cut today and decided to see if there were any parks nearby. This was about a 9-minute drive and while it didn’t ring a bell, I instantly recognized it as the location for a family portrait session I’d done there about 10 years ago. All of the pics are handheld and I tried to line them up in-camera but forgive any jumpiness. I’m too lazy to try and clean them up for the before/after. Later in the day, and after a crazy storm blew through, the sun came out and I decided to head to the beach. I spent most of […]

Jul 07

by fmadmin in art 0 comments tags: sooc, x-h1

Daido

Daido Moriyama is a Japanese photographer renowned for his black & white work. A visionary of the 1960s, Moriyama’s work has landed in collections around the world such as The Museum of Modern Art in New York. A recent Facebook challenge led me to explore the Daido Moriyama film recipe for Fujifilm cameras. This post is the result of that exploration. Today (July 8th), I headed to St. Augustine, Florida, America’s oldest city. The previous images were captured in my front yard or driveway and I really wanted to put the recipe to test in the real world. I’m pretty happy with the results. Hopefully you agree.