Last Saturday I decided to spend a few hours shooting the hasselblad in the city. I headed out around lunchtime, and since it was still early, I thought I'd try for some indoor shots while waiting for the light to get good. Union Station seemed like a good place for some indoor photography, but when I got there, the main terminal was under construction. I snapped a few outdoor shots before moving on to greener pastures...
As with the test shots in my last post, these were taken on kodak portra 160, and then post-processed in (gasp!) iphoto. I do own photoshop, but iphoto is so much more user-friendly, and the results are generally decent. Apple Aperture will probably be my next photography purchase, but for now, iphoto gets the job done.
On my way from Union Station to Capitol Hill, I saw this little guy sitting in a tree, and thought I'd try my luck with a moving subject. Because the hasselblad has no metering and no autofocus, it isn't generally a good camera for action shots or for moving subjects. However, with a lot of patience (and in my case, a little bit of skill), it can be done...
This photo shows one of the benefits of shooting medium format. Even when the top and bottom of the image are cropped out, the resolution is still as good as, and often better than, 35mm film. Hasselblad offers a 35mm camera called the XPan for making these types of panoramic images, but I don't understand why anyone would bother when this can be done for less money, and alot less trouble, by simply cropping a medium format picture to a 16x9.
My first stop on Capitol Hill was the Supreme Court. All of the shots at the supreme court were done at f/5.6. I wanted to put the background out of focus, but still leave myself a reasonable depth of field for keeping the subject in focus. A moderate f-stop like f/5.6 can be really useful for this; at close focus (~3 feet), it gives great subject isolation (the first and third photos), but when focusing on subjects further from the camera (~10 feet to infinity), it'll give a very deep depth of field (the second photo). Of course, depth of field also depends on the focal length of your lens, which in my case is 80mm.
While meandering from the Supreme Court to the Capitol building, I spotted this tree and thought it might make for a nice pic. For the most part, winter has taken over here in DC, but there's still some stubborn fall foliage hanging around...
Next stop was the Capitol. I've photographed the Capitol from this angle before, but I wanted to see how it would render on medium format film, and certainly did not disappoint. This hand-held photo, shot around f/11, is loaded with details. For example, take a look at the ironwork just above the steps - the individual bars could easily be counted. The same goes for the spokes of the motorcycle wheel in the lower right-hand corner...
As the light got better, I continued to wander around the Capitol building, much of which is being renovated at the moment. Since the photo ops weren't happening there, I headed for the Capitol reflecting pool (FYI, there are two reflecting pools, one at each end of the mall). On my way there I stopped to grab a picture of Pennsylvania Ave.
This last pic is my favorite from the day. I like the colors and the vintage feel, but mostly, there's just something about the water that's really interesting. I can't think of a photo I've taken on digital or 35mm where the texture of the water is captured in quite the same way.
That's it for my day on The Hill. I'll try to post some useful Hasselblad info and links over the holidays, but my next round of pics may not be for a couple weeks. Happy Festivus everyone!
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