Greg Molyneux Photography

Tag: 35mm

All photographs tagged here have been taken with a Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L II USM Lens

In The Abstract
In The Abstract — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/1600
Real talk—
This—black and white photography brought to life in shallow depth of field, presented in a brooding low key light on abstract terms—is my favorite type of photography. Yes, the sweeping landscapes are great, and I am far better technician than I am a creative right-braining on the more artistic side of the room; but there’s just something about the weirdness and soft forms, not to mention my lifelong love of black and white mediums, that draws me to this type of look. Now don’t get me wrong I wish I was better at it, and more purposeful in my execution of photographs like you see above. I have no process, I just wing it. There’s no real plan until I look at the viewfinder and have a very ground floor superficial thought of hey, this looks cool. This photo was no different. I was barreling up my hydrangea plant from ground level with my 35mm lens and simply liked what I saw. A happy accident you might say.
Admittedly while I like this kind of shot more than my typical landscape I become increasingly insecure about posting shots of its ilk. Not so much here on this website, more so on my Facebook page which frankly reaches more eyes. The People like my landscape work, anything else is more or less a crap shoot that runs the gamut from yawn to completely ignored. The burden of expectations. I get it, of course, this style is far more niche and lacks the widespread appeal of a stunning marsh sunset. As a result I’ve been sitting on this shot for over a month now, but I can wait no more. Be bold. Be removed from the comfort zone. Be. If nothing else it’s good to weigh the merits of popularity versus personal fulfillment. I don’t think it’s a binary choice, instead it’s more about finding the right spot on the great sliding scale of life. (Let’s see how all of this shakes out since I’ll be following this shot with another square format black and white picture. Gasp!)
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August 28, 2016
I’ve Been Searching for a Marsh of Gold
I’ve Been Searching for a Marsh of Gold — 35mm | f/5.6 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/800
Vantage points matter. Not just in photography but in life as well. If we keep looking out at the Candy Land game board of human existence from the same height, the same level, we’re bound to miss out on new perspective and ostensibly new ideas. Our dice roles repeatedly coming up snake eyes and into the Molasses Swamp we sink. Ofttimes the same old thing may may breed new life when seen from a different visual plane. So get out there—look up, look down, get on your hands and knees and climb high to peer out over a sugar-fused world.
Of course being a south Jersey flatlander the climb high bit is at times wee problematic. Especially if you’re not toting a 30 foot ladder in your back pocket. Enter Long Beach Island and its litany of rooftop decks. But please, no trespassing. More specific to this example is the top deck at the Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences. Flanking the main building to the north is a wing of classrooms, and above said classrooms sits one of many rooftop deck devices. Here one is afforded a primetime view out over the bayside marsh to the west. Romance optional. From this vantage point viewers are treated to an unimpeded view of about 300 yards of pristine salt marsh. From there the marsh bleeds out to the bay—deep breath… ah! Better still is the view off to the distance of both an osprey platform and its subsequent osprey blind—perfect for up close and personal bird watching. (Alas they’re quite small in this photograph, but if you squint hard enough and tap your toes three times you’ll see them. Or you could just click the last two links to see the YouTube videos.)
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August 24, 2016
Tumultuous Sky
Tumultuous Sky — 35mm | f/5.6 | ISO 100 | EXP 25 sec
Saturday, August 6, 2016, the unexpected came to pass. Mrs. and Mr. Weather NJ came by to scoop me for a little weekend dinner action on Long Beach Island. We brought along the camera equipment just in case the sunset would pop. We were cutting it close on time and originally decided that Cedar Run Dock Road would be our best photo destination considering the time crunch. Instead—and in true Jon Carr fashion—the turn for Route 9 South was completely missed and with it so too was Dock Road. Insert audible. With what appeared to be a cloud out at our back we made for Surf City Sunset Park. Crossing the new Manahawkin Bay Bridge my expectations were low.
Upon arrival at the park the place was loaded with revelers and cellphone cameras. I always feel good when I see folks out taking in the sights and taking their shot at landscape photography. The more the merrier, I say. To the south a crescent moon could be seen, while to the west a mean shelf cloud was barreling eastward. We had known a line of storms was heading to the area, but honestly the radar was not all that impressive. Are you noticing a theme of underselling the evening yet? Eager to capture the shelfie, I took out the camera and swapped my 100mm lens for the ultra wide 14mm. It seemed like the prudent move except the humidity had a better idea. Instant fog problems—my lens was immediately coated in moisture. That quickly put the kibosh on my shooting—or so I thought.
As the clocked ticked away the initial line of thunderstorms moved through. Aside from a solid gust front and some dramatic clouds, it didn’t produce any lightning or rainfall at our location. Just a few bolts of lightning to the north. A few minutes later things started to get interesting. About 30 miles to our west, over Hammonton, New Jersey, a storm cell began to redevelop. Radar proof need not apply as its growth was betrayed by a towering cumulonimbus cloud growing before our eyes. Like something off the set of Ghostbusters this monolith of water vapor and energy grew larger and closer. Its cloud tops reaching high enough to begin sheering off into an anvil. It was awesome. The gust front, it seems, provided just enough of a trigger to ignite the latent storm growth. As a shooter this presented the perfect opportunity: an isolated cell from the perfect vantage point with no rain to mess up the shot. Also, by now enough time had passed to free my lenses from their foggy prison. I was back in the game.
From there on it was all about finding the optimal frame to capture the Manahawkin Bay Bridge; the impressive cumulonimbus tower; and the pastel glow that reignited at dusk thanks to the angle afford by the high cloud tops. It was the perfect storm—from no expectations came the best storm setup I have encountered to date. From there on out I put my 35mm lens to work, making long exposure after long exposure, hoping to time up a shot just right with a lightning strike. Fortunately I got some cloud to ground action mixed in with a truly dramatic sky. I couldn’t be happier with how things panned out. I now have in my possession my best storm photograph to date.
Oh, and as for food—an LBI dinner never happened. That, too, was an audible to Element on account of large crowds. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow.
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August 9, 2016
Daisy Do
Daisy Do — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/6400
I’ve been having plenty of fun making photographs of my daisies this year. To close out the month of June I put down my macro lens and went with the 35mm aperture set wide open at f/1.4 to keep the depth of field as shallow as possible. By getting my lens as close as possible to the daisy in the foreground—the flower in focus—I was able to facilitate a scene where the area of acceptable focus was roughly one quarter of an inch think. At most. This helps deliver the buttery smooth bokeh that predominates the shot—both the out of focus elements as well as the array of blended circular features milling about the square format exposure.
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July 18, 2016
Petal Your Wares
Petal Your Wares — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/100
If you’ve been following along with my photo blog journey for any length of time you’d probably describe me as a landscape photographer. You wouldn’t be wrong, and frankly it’s how I’d describe myself. But if it wasn’t for flowers I’m not sure this hobby would have ever gotten off the ground. Let’s take the TARDIS we don’t have but sure do want back to the 2012 photo project that kickstarted my photo endeavor; back to the litany of flowering species populating my yard that taught me how to put an actual camera to use. That spring and summer I became an almost exclusive macro photographer, and in doing so I learned through trial and error how aperture affected depth of field while simultaneously engendering a newfound appreciation for the flowers of this world.
Conveniently enough it was this purple peony you see pictured above that proved to be one of the first hey, this shot is actually kind of OK photographs I ever took. Crucially it instilled just enough confidence to have me thinking maybe I can make something of myself in this space. At a minimum it offered enough visual evidence that I had at least some clue what I was doing. Feedback both positive and tangible are necessary to fuel the motivation to keep going. It makes effort and failure worthwhile, and it can sustain us through inevitable plateaus that are unavoidable in any task, career, activity, sport, you name it. Life is a serious of small victories mixed in with the moments of monotonous struggle.
For my landscape fans: please bear with me through the flower posts, and don’t worry there will be plenty of wide angle shots worked in over the coming months.
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June 3, 2016
The Facade Is Worn
The Facade Is Worn — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/1000
Lost in a walled garden, cloistered from the prying eyes of a bustling world littered with throw away lies and misplaced attention, the truth is never as it seems. Locked away is a tempest. A raging maelstrom hewn from the depths of uncertainty and doubt, dressed and veiled in the finery of false idols of the dog and pony show life. Eyes closed it’s a perilous descent into unyielding malice inflicted upon the self; damage wrought wholesale tearing up what’s left of a failing heart, mired and tired, off beat and inflamed with nary a pulse of love. Tiresome it rages, the limitless tempest few will ever see but which many weather on their own. Out on the fragile surface, youth will bloom, a carefully manicured artifice of peace and beauty that betrays a tainted, feral reality roiling below. May calm come to thee, ye who conquers self.
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May 22, 2016
Just Dandy
Just Dandy — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/5000
Dandelions are a mixed bag. As young child roaming free in East Brunswick they filled my senses with wonder. My friends and I would blow on the seed heads until we were gasping for air; when the seed heads were barren and useless like popped bubble wrap we’d move on to their yellow-headed counterparts. Here we became more savage, plucking them from the earth and discarding the yellow crowns with a pop of our thumbs. This was not without ritual either as we’d chant, “momma had a baby and its head popped off.” Problematic, I know. I’d like to think I’ve grown from such barbarous beginnings.
In my “adult” years my mistreatment of dandelions has become somewhat more conventional. Now I just deal with them chemically so as to keep my lawn relatively weed free. Of course, the occasional seed head still serves as a dignified photo subject.
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May 4, 2016
Hair Points West
Hair Points West — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/100
Sometimes a fleeting thought rises up through the dusty burned out barnyard that is my brain and implores me to do more portrait work. Then I quickly remember my own fears and the notion fades faster than a military barber buzzing out a high and tight. It is something I’d like to work on, but it’s going to take some real effort and some real discomfort. Not to mention some subjects willing to work through what’s sure to be lots of awkward everything—and lots of bad photos.
Thinking back to my Art Class Days when I cut my teeth doing pencil work, portraiture was the last world I entered. I wasn’t good at it. I didn’t want to be good at it. Eventually I broke down and gave it a go. My high school senior year concentration project wound up being drawn portraits of The Beatles. It was surely a challenge with plenty of pain points, but it wound up being a great period of personal and technical development. Were the pictures great? No. But they wound up being the best things I’ve ever drawn. (I’ve since abandoned drawing altogether. Essentially right after this project. Let’s hope this does not a pattern make.)
A decade and a half later, into photos now, I am thinking it is getting close to time I bring this broadening of horizons to my lens work. As with this shot, I imagine I’ll dabble more with myself as a subject. Admittedly this is hard in its own right because I am holding a camera to my face and hoping for the best compositionally. Spray and pray shutter action. It would be much better behind the lens with an actual subject. But hey, baby steps. Not only am I going to have to get comfortable with a new kind of subject—a human—I will also have to learn how to use artificial lighting. Being a landscape only guy this is completely foreign to me. But I won’t get nuts with flashes, strobes, etc. until I at least become serviceable in the craft and decide if it’s worth pursuing further.
So any friends want some new profile pics? No guarantees on quality.
April 29, 2016
I Saw Red
I Saw Red — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/320
Nouns, can we talk about how hard pictures have been to come by lately? I can’t buy a photograph and it’s weighing on me. Desperate to make something out of nothing, tonight I tried to work with the quality golden hour light pouring over my currently in bloom Japanese Maple. A staple of my front yard for years now, this is certainly the best tree my humble property has to offer. While it’s been wide angle sunset goodness I’ve been craving for weeks this is just going to have to hold me over. In the meantime the drought continues. Peaks and valleys. Peaks and valleys.
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April 23, 2016