Three Things That Are Good to Look At

'What you lookin' at?'
Inge Morath, A Llama in Times Square, New York, 1957 ($2,000)

1. Llamas. Magnum is having a sale of New York prints by its members that includes Inge Morath's "A Llama in Times Square." The prints are signed and editioned, signed, or estate stamped, and prices range from $1,250 to $15,000. Included are some very famous pictures indeed: Dennis Stock's iconic (I use the word advisedly!) portrait of James Dean in the rain, Elliott Erwitt's fabulous picture of the man/bulldog (a personal fave), Leonard Freed's wonderful photo of the black kids playing near the fire hydrant, Elliott Landy's photos of Jimi Hendrix, Thomas Hoepker's portraits of Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, Eve Arnold's photo of Marilyn Monroe reading James Joyce's Ulysses. And more.

A lot of the lesser-known ones are good to look at too—car buffs will love Erich Hartmann's George Washington Bridge picture. You could hardly put that together for a big-budget movie today! (Disclosure: Erich's son Nick is a good friend of mine, although we live too far apart now to meet regularly for lunch like we used to.)

Really fun to look at. I already knew many of these pictures, of course, but re-acquaintance is fun and I had a blast immersing myself in these for a couple of hours.

2. Cheap old lenses on expensive new cameras. Jonas Rask had a loopy idea. Well, what would you do if you had a medium-format Fuji GFX50s to hand? Probably not what Jonas did. He discovered that you can put many normal and longer 35mm film camera lenses on the mirrorless digital camera with the larger sensor and the image circles will still cover (sometimes with some correction, but still). So he got the bug for adapting old Minolta Rokkor-X film lenses to his big Fuji.

I'd wager not many photographers are looking to put things like $55 lenses on $5,500 cameras, but the results are wonderful and speak for themselves.

It helps that Jonas is one of the few "testers" whose "test shots" I genuinely enjoy. Even if they're only family 'n' friends portraits, he has a style and a point of view and I like it. Good to look at. I love the silhouette one. That is a heck of a fun post.

3. Two mice having a street fight. Wildlife—or West Side Story? "Sam Rowley's 'Station Squabble' has been picked from more than 48,000 images to claim a wildlife photography award from London's Natural History Museum, voted for by the public," writes Rob Picheta at CNN Travel. I like the public's taste! Nice to interpret "wildlife" so broadly, with a soupçon of double entendre thrown in for spice. You can see the nifty winning picture at the link. Wild life indeed. Musta been Saturday night.

A mice....er, nice idea, and good to look at, too. And that never hurts!

Mike
(Thanks to Nico Maijer and Charles Heuer)

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Globules: "A few days ago the CBC radio show 'As It Happens' interviewed Sam Rowley about his winning picture."

Mike replies: Thanks! Here's the link.

Neil Swanson: "I’m in. XF to Minolta adapter ordered. Cheap eBay lens on the way. I have been wanting to try things like this anyway. Oddly I don’t seem to be terribly interested in trying any of my Nikon lenses on the Fuji but maybe after this experiment I will.

"I’m glad you know about, look at and follow Jonas Rask and his reviews and work. I think I’d really like to meet that guy."

Stan B.: "OK...something I'm really not getting here, so I'm (reluctantly—very) putting myself out there to be the royal grand idiot deluxe who stands to be corrected. That is: Just how much in the 'vicinity' of the GWB was that photo taken where all the cars have their steering wheels on the right hand side? Signed, Already Woefully Embarrassed (and nevertheless thankful for the enlightenment)."

Mike replies: Many readers seconded your comment—the JPEG was reversed laterally (and maybe a print too? This can happen when you put a negative in the carrier upside-down). I contacted my friend Nick, the photographer's son, hoping he would contact Magnum, and you'll notice that the photo is right way 'round this morning! So you fixed it, Stan.

Comments

[Rob de Loe]

I've been shooting a Fuji GFX 50R almost exclusively since July, 2019, but I just got my first Fujifilm lens a week ago -- the lovely GF 63mm f/2.8.

I've been trying out a ragtag gang of medium format lenses, large format lenses, and enlarger lenses. I need the over-sized image circle of these kinds of lenses so that I can have the camera movements I need with my Toyo VX23D "adapter" for my Fuji.

I'm not at all surprised that Jonas is pleased with the quality of those old Rokkors. There are many excellent choices out there in adapted lenses. I've chosen to go with Pentax 645 lenses, and find them to be excellent.

In fact, I tired of hearing how "old" lenses can't possibly be as good as modern Fuji glass, so I did a really thorough comparison of my GF 63/2.8 and the 63mm mark on my SMC Pentax-A 645 45-85mm f/4.5. Let's just say the Pentax can hold its head high. https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4467565

[Ed Hawco]

Two mice having a street fight, or two mice dancing? #perspective

[Jamie Pillers]

Well... there go the prices of the Rokkors!

[Robin Pywell]

Two things struck me immediately in this post - the llama pic has "theatre" spelled correctly!... and all the cars on the bridge are right hand drive?

[Daniel]

On sub-standard lenses with good camera bodies, look at Sally Mann. 8x10 view camera using lenses with aberrations and mold and misaligned elements bought at rummage sales and flea markets. Used for how they render a subject or scene she uses them to produce some fine images.

[Rob L.]

Hey...a post just celebrating photography and reminding us to smile and enjoy it? Wha? Huh?

Thanks, Mike, I needed this one today.

[Stan B.]

Figured it might be something as simple as a negative reversal, or something I just wasn't seeing (especially when at work). The brick road seemed quite "European," and I didn't recognize a lot of the cars (even though before my time)- except for the (I believe they're) Oldsmobiles with the vents on the side. So I really didn't know what to think... Thanks.

[Roger Bradbury]

I've seen mice in London Underground stations. During the day they live down between the tracks, run for cover when a train approaches, and are a dark sooty grey, hard to spot on the track bed.

[Roger Bartlett]

Regarding the use of 50 or 60 year old lenses on the latest camera bodies, I was waiting for someone else to remind you of this, no one has so here goes.
With the retention of the Pentax K mount over the life of the Pentax 35mm SLRs and DSLRs all Pentax lenses and many dozens of third party lenses from the 1970s forward can still be used on the most recent Pentax DSLRs without the need for an adaptor.
Just one example anong hundreds of lenses, a tweak or two in the menu and you can use a K55 1.8 available around the $60 mark (designed for the K1000 and the KM and KR) in manual focus mode beautifully stabilised on the K1-II.
An adaptor designed in the early 70s allows the use of the Takumars from the 1950s and 1960s to be used on DSLRs in the same manner.
Tieing in with a later post - a film Pentax and a digital Pentax can be taken on an excursion together and share lenses.
This legacy compatibility is a closely kept secret so don't tell anyone as it may raise the price of old Pentax capable lenses even further.

[Tom]

GFXs with a 50mm f/1.4 Super Takumar. Many of the old Takumars have good coverage on the Fuji sensor as well. They don't have the clinical sharpness of the modern Fuji lenses, but they render beautifully.

Tom

https://flic.kr/p/2iwgPaC