Raise the Barn

Bought some simple plastic lenses for my Nikon DLSR. Yeah – seems counter-productive but going retro can be fun. The lenses are actual called Diana F+ lenses – made of plastic, and I got an adapter so it connects directly to the f-mount on the Nikon. Very simple. Whole thing was maybe $40. So simple that you have to put the camera in full manual for it to even snap shots as it doesn’t recognize that a lens is attached.

Great thing about using a DSLR is that since it’s all manual, you don’t know what settings you’ll need so you can just keep trying and no film wasted.  You have to test different ISO/shutter combinations. And to focus – there are only 3 settings on this little plastic lens, 1-2M, 2-4M and infinity.

Why? Cause I can. And a few of the pics have a fun color effect.

Check out the rest on flickr. I’m still figuring out the settings so these are all learning pics.

It’s not too late for you to start.

I was browsing some photo sites looking for ideas on learning more about my new Nikon and stumbled across the project 365 concept.

Basically – take a photo a day for a year. Anything you’re doing or how you’re feeling or things that are happening. It sounded like an interesting way to capture a year (the big events, the mundane and everything in between) and have a fun way of looking back on it. 2 phrases make me think it could be fun. The first is, “a picture is worth a 1,000 words” and the second is, “the best camera is the one you have with you.”

Lifehacker (which references photojojo) and flickr have some ideas to think about if you do this project. Plus I’m hoping it forces me to use the new camera more.

• take your camera everywhere – having it on the phone makes it easier
• don’t give up – when you get bored – shoot something new or in a new way
• make it easy to keep up-to-date – getting behind on a project like this would suck

I’ll admit I’m still researching how to keep and post the pics. There’s flickr or facebook or just on RTB. (there’s even an iPhone app) Not sure yet. Right now I’m storing them in iPhoto until I decide where to post.

Here are 6 of the first 11 pics I’m storing.

Thought I’d pass along what could be a fun idea even though it’s the 11th.