Even though I love shooting digital, I come from film, chemistry, fiber paper and hands in the fixer.

My very, very first camera was my dad’s old Gaf 136 XF. It took Magicubes for flash and used 126 film cartridges. I still have the brown and black vintage camera. It’s totally beat up, full of personality and history. And there is still a cartridge of film in it. I know the cartridge has some of our family pictures on it…..

I was probably around 8 when my dad gave me this camera. And even though my father didn’t want to give up his camera (he loved taking pictures as much as I did), in the end he gave it to me. I was never the same after I got that camera in my hands. And ever since then I’ve always had a camera in my hands. Sure. They’ve evolved tremendously. That old Gaf and my D700 sit next to each other and it’s an amazing juxtaposition of technology and design.

So even though my D700 is the baddest around, I am an analog girl at heart. And so I’ve been very happy to say that I’ve found a great way to relieve that analog-angst via my Holga. I just got a pinhole Holga too, which I’m dying to try out.

And I also got the best gift an analog, lomo-loving photographer could want: a box full of 120 expired film, which made its way alllll the way from California, courtesy of the Icon lab. Thanks guys, you so rock! If you do film, check them out! They provide traditional and digital imaging services….follow them on Twitter here, visit their FB page here or check out their cool ass site, here!

And if you are a Lost fanatic, and love photography, take a look at the goodies they are offering here. Limited edition custom printed and numbered, fine art museum quality prints of the cast here!! Woot….

I digress.

So I took my Holga to our Disney trip in January of this year. Why do I love this camera? Cuz it’s FUN, and has NO dials or LCD panels or beeps or knobs or menus or battery packs. It’s LIGHTWEIGHT! It’s fun! Not that my D700 isn’t fun, but when I get to use the D700 all the time. When I’ve on vacation, I want to do something different and I also don’t want to carry around a ginormous camera….and let’s face it. I’d die if my D700 was stolen while on vacay….the Holga, no biggie to replace, right?

What I really love about the Holga though is that I don’t know what I am getting….I don’t receive instant gratification. I have to slow down. Take my time. Take in the scene and make different decisions.With the Holga, I don’t have that free-for-all that digital gives you, which means shooting hundreds of variations of the same image….uh uh!

With my Holga, I step back in time and slow down….and then I get to wait anxiously for the film to come back. It’s magic. And I love that it’s not a perfectly sharp, perfectly exposed and perfectly clean image. Right out of the camera it has ‘life lines’. Right out of the camera, it has sensuality. That’s film….!

And so here are three of my favorite shots from our trip….love you holga!

Tags: ramblings... by Astrid
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I’m still working on a lot of weddings that have been shot in the last three months but are still receiving our magic touch (yes, we do take that long to deliver, and if you wonder why, read this great post by Anne Ruthman. Anne explains it much more eloquently than I can!

One of those weddings that I am still working on is Jon and Abigail’s wedding, held at the beautiful Grandezza club. We were doing some beautiful portraits outside when I came upon this magnificent palm tree, adorned in holiday lights.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I absolutely love the light shows that go on all over Naples during the holidays. Some of the country clubs and homes here have some amazing lighting (and I’ve been told that they clubs hire professional companies that decorate and light for the holidays)! One of my other photographic projects that I have yet to start but is always in the back of my mind is a project on photographing holiday lighting at night. That’s on my to-do list!

But for now, I am settling on working my palm tree gallery. And for this particular image in the series, I chose this magnificent palm, decorated with beautiful holiday lights.

It was already very dark when I shot this image but there was still a bit of light in the sky, which I wanted to use as much as possible. Taking advantage of the D700’s great noise-handling capabilities, I shot this image at ISO2000, 1/60th, f/2.8, all in available light.

I think it’s one of my favorites so far in the palm tree gallery! It would definitely make a great Florida Holiday card!

Enjoy and Happy Holidays to everyone from Astrid and Rene Photography!

Holiday Palm Tree at Grandezza, Naples, Florida

Tags: ramblings... by Astrid
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I did some test shots today with the d700 of my girls, this time using ISO 3200 and 6400. Again, WOW is all I can say. I know, it’s hardly an original thought, but I just don’t have much else to say. Let me let the images and the specs speak for themselves!

• ISO3200
• 1/50th of a second
• f1.8
• all natural light
• RAW – increased the exposure by .5 of a stop using ACR
• Sharpened, no noise reduction applied at all!

• This is the 100% crop of her eye….amazing for 3200!

And here’s the doozy!

• ISO6400
• 1/60th of a second
• f1.8
• all natural light
• RAW – no exposure tweaking
• Sharpened, no noise reduction applied at all!

• This is the 100% crop of her eye @ 6400ISO! While not the smoothest, WHOA! We are talking about 6400ISO here! It’s sandy, but I can TOTALLY live with that for the added bonus of shooting in a VERY, VERY dark room, with little window light on an overcast day. I have to send Nikon a BIG THANKS and a standing ovation!

Tags: ramblings... by Astrid
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I took some portraits of Ali during dinner with my brand-spankin’ new Nikon D700. Let me tell you that I haven’t been this excited about a camera since I bought Nikon’s film camera, the F4s back when I was working for the newspaper here in Marco Island.

The D700 is absolutely everything they are saying it is and more! This camera, along with the D3, is revolutionizing how professional photographers shoot. How you ask? High ISO performance. It’s really incredible! I’m not a techy-type photographer, but having gone to college for photography, I do know my stuff well. The biggest problem with high ISO performance has been film grain with film cameras and digital noise with digital cameras. But that’s slowly changing for digital cameras as I’ve seen some FANTASTIC images coming out of the D3 at super high ISOs (like 6400+) and now with the D700.

What’s fantastic about the D700 is that it’s a full-frame camera as well. So my lenses rock now! Here’s a portrait I shot of Ali at the dinner table. We have a huge spread of sliding glass doors that lead out to the pool and the natural light that comes in through here is nothing short of AWESOME. This image was shot in low light, with a blend of natural light coming in (the coolish light to the left of her face) and warm tungsten lights (the warmer lights on the right). The light wasn’t very bright and it was already around 7:15 when I shot this. I did absolutely NO post production on this image other than sharpening and cropping.

• ISO1600
• 1/80th of a second
• f1.8

1600 isn’t too high, but look at that! No noise whatsoever and look at the clarity of my lens, even at this low Web resolution. I did experiment a bit with low-light portraits at 3200 and 6400 but haven’t had time to post here, but they too, look fantastic. Wow….I’m so excited at the prospect of being given a bit more wiggle room to work with less flash and more natural light. I LOVE my new camera!!!

~Astrid~

Tags: ramblings... by Astrid
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