Introducing Year of the Alpha – 365 Days of Sony Alpha

Kalainen · Unread post by **Kalainen** » Mon Apr 21, 2014 9:43 am

Birma wrote:Hi Toni - I really like limited dof, and also shooting in to the light, and so this picture is "right up my street"!

The lights on the cars add just that right bit of detail.

Thanks Birm!

One thing I would like to add is that one cannot get this kind of dof with regular lenses. The intersection is pretty far and it's sharp, but background behind is still out of focus, which would be impossible even with large aperture telelens. So it's an interesting image from the technical point of view as well.

-Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

sury · Unread post by **sury** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 10:33 pm

Nice shot Toni. Could be a poster for "anti-pollution" campaign though the realty could
be exactly the opposite.

Sury

mvanrheenen · Unread post by **mvanrheenen** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 10:41 pm

That last shot is awesome Toni! Great colors and mood because of the blur. I like it a whole lot.

Kalainen · Unread post by **Kalainen** » Wed Apr 23, 2014 10:10 pm

sury wrote:Nice shot Toni. Could be a poster for "anti-pollution" campaign though the realty could
be exactly the opposite.

Sury

Hah, you're right! When I got home and checked the shot from the monitor I was amazed how polluted it looked. A bit like something I took from Beijing couple of years ago - thought the town where I live has only about 1/500th of the population.

-Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

Kalainen · Unread post by **Kalainen** » Wed Apr 23, 2014 10:17 pm

mvanrheenen wrote:That last shot is awesome Toni! Great colors and mood because of the blur. I like it a whole lot.

Thanks for the kind words Mark and nice to see others here too!

I had a look in your Flickr-account and really liked some of your nature photography. Are you a biologist or something similar? It just occured to my mind when I found you had all your pictures named by biological classification - except the butterflies!

-Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

Kalainen · Unread post by **Kalainen** » Wed Apr 23, 2014 10:20 pm

Season of Tilt
Week 18, Wednesday - Favour for a friend
"It's funny how subliminal ways advertising can affect one's photographic eye. Neither I or my friend wanted the result to look like some product photography to sell motorbike accessories, but so it does (and partly because my friend wanted to keep his helmet on knowing I would share this picture here). Hah! While this is not exactly a my kind of photography, I think it's still a decent and shows a bit Lensbaby's potential for product photography. [...]"

Read full post at my blog: http://www.yearofthealpha.com

Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

mvanrheenen · Unread post by **mvanrheenen** » Thu Apr 24, 2014 6:40 am

Kalainen wrote: I had a look in your Flickr-account and really liked some of your nature photography. Are you a biologist or something similar?

Hahaha, not in tge least Toni, but thank you for the compliment! I'm an IT Infrastructure Developer and that's a long way from being a biologist

I do like chasing wildlife around the neighbourhood though, especially birds. When you do that, you pick up identifying the birds rather quickly, so that's where the naming comes from. Most of the time I mention the common English and Dutch name and the latin name in parenthesis. The reason that I didn't with the butterflies is because I have a really hard time sorting out which is which. I have great respect for those who can!

Mark

Kalainen · Unread post by **Kalainen** » Sat Apr 26, 2014 9:18 pm

mvanrheenen wrote: Hahaha, not in tge least Toni, but thank you for the compliment! I'm an IT Infrastructure Developer and that's a long way from being a biologist I do like chasing wildlife around the neighbourhood though, especially birds. When you do that, you pick up identifying the birds rather quickly, so that's where the naming comes from. Most of the time I mention the common English and Dutch name and the latin name in parenthesis. The reason that I didn't with the butterflies is because I have a really hard time sorting out which is which. I have great respect for those who can!

Well you fooled me!

You'd be surprised how different kind of people I meet through my photo blog. There are of course a lot of people who's work is somehow related to IT (internet forums being a bit more natural for me), but there are also lot of others and having a biologist there too wouldn't have been too surprising. Keep on chasing that fauna!

-Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

Kalainen · Unread post by **Kalainen** » Sat Apr 26, 2014 9:21 pm

Season of Tilt
Week 18, Saturday - Bellum omnium contra omnes
"I'm a prisoner locked inside my physical body which exudes blood, spit and sperm. As much as I try to convince myself each day that I'm good person, deep down I know I'm still an animal with self-interest instincts to survive and breed. This is the essence life, locked in a tight cage of social order and coated by a deceitful surface which we call humanism. If the social order that locks me into my current role would collapse, I could easily [...]"

Read full post at my blog: http://www.yearofthealpha.com

Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

Kalainen · Unread post by **Kalainen** » Thu May 01, 2014 1:37 pm

Season of Tilt
Week 19, Wednesday - Categories
"Knowledge is power and man rules the life by naming it and categorizing it. This principle is best manifested in biology where everything is observed, named and categorized to a system of thought where everything is expected to have its own place. This sort of naming power does not work only with nature but all life in general. It reminds me a school system which cultivates life by classifying children with numbers from the Gaussian curve. A really form of institutional violence towards life's diversity where unspoken inner life's of the children are replaced with national consciousness. Within this system I was always [...]"

Read full post at my blog: http://www.yearofthealpha.com

Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

Kalainen · Unread post by **Kalainen** » Sat May 03, 2014 9:33 pm

Season of Tilt
Week 18, Saturday - Suffering
"Using Lensbaby optics has definitely been a very interesting adventure. Being manual focus, having an option to tilt the lens and having several optics with different distinctive characteristics has surely been a trail off the beaten path. What I like to say is that Lensbaby consciously offers something different from 'industry standard' of photography today: readymade program modes, autofocus, sharp lenses, intelligent metering, digital sensor and other 'taken for granted things' which makes it possible to take better and better pictures. In short, it's a bit of a different philosophy and [...]"

Read full post at my blog: http://www.yearofthealpha.com

Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

Kalainen · Unread post by **Kalainen** » Tue May 06, 2014 11:12 pm

Season of Tilt
Week 18, Wednesday - The Bird
"One day we were hiking again with our air rifle and my friend had to go inside to do something. While I was waiting for him I noticed a small brown bird sitting on a branch not far from me. It was really tame and I managed to sneak just under the branch just about 1 meter from the bird. Then I quietly loaded the air rifle, aimed and fired it. The bird dropped off the tree in front of me. It was still alive, but [...]"

Read full post at my blog: http://www.yearofthealpha.com

Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

Kalainen · Unread post by **Kalainen** » Mon May 12, 2014 1:55 pm

Season of Tilt
Week 19, Saturday - The Withered
"Now that I've used Lensbaby optics for some time already I feel I can recommend them to certain type of photographers. If you are a photographer that pursues for certain look or are trying to develop your photographic identity, it might be worthwhile to test Lensbaby optics. It takes a bit guts to go for manual focus, but with little practicing it's pretty easy to grasp. Edge 80 works very nicely for those who are searching something different for portraits. It offers [...]"

Read full post at my blog: http://www.yearofthealpha.com

Toni

PS. Sorry for the delayed update, I've been very busy with other things in life and it took a bit longer to update this thread.

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

sury · Unread post by **sury** » Mon May 12, 2014 9:26 pm

Toni,
Could you explain what you meant by this statement: If you are a photographer that pursues for certain look...
Since you have used the lensbaby optics for sometime now, what you mean by the word certain? I was hoping
for a more definitive statement based on your observation. What kind of look in particular one can achieve with
these optics?

Sury

Kalainen · Unread post by **Kalainen** » Tue May 13, 2014 10:36 pm

sury wrote:Toni,
Could you explain what you meant by this statement: If you are a photographer that pursues for certain look...
Since you have used the lensbaby optics for sometime now, what you mean by the word certain? I was hoping
for a more definitive statement based on your observation. What kind of look in particular one can achieve with
these optics?

Hi Sury and thanks for asking, I should have been more clear. With the 'certain look' I mean all of those photographers that are making photographs and are searching for their look. The truth is that most of people how own camera are used just to take pictures, not make them. Lensbaby might be distracting for those how are only interested about capturing what they see, people how think camera is used for recording memories and point&shoot crowd. Neither of those are actually interested in making of pictures, unlike those are who are continuously searching for something new for their photography, be it better post-processing, better lighting, better poses, etc.. I think Lensbaby fits best for professionals and serious amateurs, who have reasons and skills to use the distinctive look and sliced focus area for their own look. With Lensbaby one can extract beautiful slices of life and add interest to one's pictures, but like I said, it takes effort and skill. How one uses them is up to himself, but with skillful hands Lensbaby look can certainly have potential to shine and be distinguished from the rest.

Did I answer to your question?

-Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

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