It's a new year, and it's been a while since I've visited Katie's. After over a year of being publicly promoted, Katie's has become something of a zoo during warm months. The last Cars and Coffee I attended, I was checking out St. Louis' car scene. Unlike St. Louis' Cars and Coffee, Katie's takes place year-round, even braving bitter cold like this morning. Even though I lost feeling in my thumb gripping my camera lens this morning, I much prefer Katie's in Winter, because although the show has exploded in Summer, Katie's in Winter is still just as small and intimate (and easy to enjoy) as always.
As I shoot Katie's for fun as somewhat of a break from hired shoots, I often use the weekly event as a practice run for different lenses or techniques, since it's a medium-scale but predictable event with an even mix of people and stationary subjects (the cars!). This time was my first use of my Mamiya 100mm f/2.8 medium format lens, freelensed with my 1D X. To most people, shooting this way looks outright silly. "What's wrong with your lens; why isn't it it on the camera?" Well, secretly, I haven't yet received the adapter someone is fabricating for me... but actually it's because I love how analog you can get with a digital camera.
Freelensing is a technique I commonly use with my converted Lubitel medium format lens (which I've also shot at Katie's)... but seeing how much larger the 100mm lens is, and knowing it has a larger image circle, I wanted to see how easily it would handle freelens shooting in direct sunlight. It worked great - easy to line up, compose, focus, and shoot, with a lot more flexibility for any tilt-shifting. And my favorite part, the light leaks; organic, naturally occurring light leaks. In a time where digitally faked light leaks are popular, I am getting the real thing in-camera. And it's beautiful.
This blog post has been republished by J. David Buerk. For the full set of photos, view the album at his Facebook Page and his Client Site. All photography is by J. David Buerk, and is copyrighted All Rights Reserved.