Förening 2008 (huge post, don't open if you have the attention span of a goldfish)

[Johnny Perkka]

I sold my 50 mm to my brother (it was a macro lens and I upgraded to the 105 mm macro). Soon after I realised my best shots were taken with the 50, so I knew I had to have one in the repertuaire. So, I acquired the Canon 50mm f/1.2 L a few days ago.

I remember discussing with jfrancho about the difference/benefits between the Canon 1.4 and Sigma 1.4, around the time the sigma came out. I decided to go one level higher.

I was itching to whip it out but had to wait until the weekend. Yesterday I finally had the chance. I decided to go out with true PJ-style, only the lens and camera, no extra toys. That's what I love the most, and I feel pretty confident that it's what I do best.

Lucky me, the Förening festival was in full swing downtown, so photo opportunities were present left and right. The festival is a Finnish-swedish cultural celebration/political rally, so it attracts a lot of different people.

Now a few words about the lens. Owning it is like having a perpetual erection: it's rock hard and you ache inside if you can't point it at something. When I got back home I was stunned. The colors and contrast were something I had never experienced before, only very miniscule tweaks were needed. The sharpness was also better than on any of my other lenses (apparently the 1.4 is sharper but tests show that it lags behind on contrast and color). The colors were so rich I allmost had to turn the saturation DOWN. Solid purchase and highly recommended to anyone if price is not the issue.

Some of the pics on the following set are soft in some places, but it is mainly because of my inability to hold the lens steady and/or subject movement...

The whole set is here: Förening 2008

Here are my personal favs:



That was M. A. Numminen, his singing is kinda like Bob Dylan only 3 octaves higher and out of tune. Horrible? Fun is the word Well, and political, obviously.



Mr Numminen was doing a duet with his long time musical partner Pedro Hietanen. I had this conversion in mind when I took the shot. I'm pretty happy with the results.



This you don't see everyday: a middle-eastern guy in Finland sporting stars and stripes listening to music sung in Swedish...



The Porvoo Big Band was the main attraction. They played classic funk/disco [Earth Wind & Fire, etc] (sounded pretty damn good too).



The conductor was a ball of energy (as was the whole band actually).



Just to explain a bit (KellyL once said you should also post the ones that are not perfect). So I was trying to create lead-in line with heads, leading to the basist. But damnation to me, I misfocused on the blonde guy in all the excitement... But I like it anyway.

That's it. Do check out the whole set, and comments are allways welcome

[Mr. Pickles]

Nicely done. Some fine examples of Performances and to some extent Street Scenes here. I really like the second one. The last one seems so so to me. Not much into tilted people on stage, but hey, that is me.

[Johnny Perkka]

Originally Posted by Mr. Pickles

to some extent Street Scenes here.

thw whole set includes more of the street scene, like this for example:

[KellyL]

Super sharp and great exposures. Thanks for sharing!

[KellyL]

Really love the accordian and sax shots.

[Rain Lily]

Love that b/w conversion. I have major lens envy now.
Sis

[patterfr]

Johnny
The second one is my fav. Really cool.
But I also really like the sax one though I'd crop out the lady in the white dress in the corner. Yes, you heard me crop it out. DOn't give me any of that PJ style excuse back talk.
And the first one is crisp and clear. The last tilted one doesn't do a lot for me I must agree.
Good Job Johnny and it looks like that lens is worth the money you paid for it, whatever it was.

[Johnny Perkka]

Originally Posted by patterfr

Good Job Johnny and it looks like that lens is worth the money you paid for it, whatever it was.

what, have you been talking to my fiancée

No, she really loves me more than life, but I think I might be abit unreasonable sometimes with this photography thing... And yes, I do love her more than photography (even more so because she supports my unreasonable part time job/hobby)...

So, does everyone only comment on the photos posted here, or are the ones I provided the link to off limits?!?

[Max@Home]

Originally Posted by Johnny Heinonen

So, does everyone only comment on the photos posted here, or are the ones I provided the link to off limits?!?

...no they are not, but what good would comments here to pictures not shown here be for other viewers? Can't force them to go look, so that would make the thread look a little daft, like a thread where the thread starter pulled the images...

FWIW: I did take a look and like the serie a lot, I even think I like the street ones better than the music show/musicians ones , maybe you should separate them in two threads here ? Förening 2008: The Streets and Förening 2008: The Music ??

And good use of the 50F1.2L, I can see you are very comfortable shooting a 50mm & now you know why it has such a 'magic spell' around it , and can understand why some hardcore Nikonians buy a 5D/1Ds just to be able to shoot with the 85F1.2L

...€0.02...

Kindest regards!

Max@Home

[Mr. Pickles]

I kind of looked at the "not posted here" shots, but it isn't my norm. If they aren't posted here, I usually am not that interested. I know it isn't just me that thinks this way.

Then again, placing 50 images in one thread isn't a fine idea either. You got a good number here. Not too many "duplicates" so each one kind of has a different interest.