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Fall Foliage on Grafton Common

November 8th and no blog posts so far this month. It’s been a bit busier than usual, which tends to happen with the holidays right around the corner. To be honest, I’m always glad when the holiday season is over. Life is already too busy without adding a bunch more things to do.

I’ve also been busy building a bedroom for Anthony on the first floor. I’m trying to get this done before the holidays, so this is taking up a lot of my time. I’ll post some photos of this project soon.

I just uploaded some fall foliage photos to my flicker account that I took at the Grafton Common a few weeks ago. Grafton common is extra beautiful in autumn and many people have been married at the gazebo in October. Grafton Center is a quaint little New England common. Some say it is a perfect example of small-town New England. The town has been careful not to allow too much change to the area, so even though the town has grown a lot, the common has remain relatively unchanged for decades.

One of Grafton’s claims to fame is the Grafton Gazebo, which sits on the common. The gazebo was built for a Hollywood film called Ah, Wilderness! in 1935, which starred Lionel Barrymore and Mickey Rooney among others.

Grafton Common

Grafton Common
Fisheye photo

Grafton Common
TtV photo

More photos here.

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Fisheye Photography

“Fisheye” photographs are taken with a very wide-angle lens. Fisheye lenses (For example: the Sigma 8mm F4 Fisheye) were originally developed for meteorologists to capture the entire sky in order to study cloud formations. The lenses are also a cool way to get creative with photography. They give photos a distorted view that can be very interesting.

These wide angle lenses can cost hundreds of dollars, but there is an inexpensive way to get a similar look with just a few dollars. I taped a peep hole that I had in my junk draw to an old digital camera.

Here are a few of the photos. Of course, these are no where near as good as what you can capture with a professional lens, but still fun. I’m keeping a human eye on ebay for a deal on a used lens for my Canon Rebel.

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TtV Photos

First attempts at TtV photography. These were taken with my Canon Rebel XT, through the viewfinder of a Kodak Duaflex II. What do you think? I like the window best. The bloody hand is a left-over Halloween decoration, but “handy” for Aaron’s horror movies!

hand, originally uploaded by BissellBlog2.0.

anthony, originally uploaded by BissellBlog2.0.

jack, originally uploaded by BissellBlog2.0.

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TtV

 

TtV, originally uploaded by BissellBlog2.0.

I came across some unusual photos on flickr.com and did a bit of research about how these interesting photos were taken. The technique is called “TtV photography” and there are several groups on Flickr dedicated to these photos. The most popular is at: http://www.flickr.com/groups/throughtheviewfinder/

So, what is TtV? TtV stands for “Through the Viewfinder” and is defined as taking a picture of any subject through the viewfinder of any camera with another camera. Photos are typically taken with a digital camera through the viewfinder of an old film camera. What I really like about these photos is the vintage look including blur, dirt, and scratches, which is all part of the charm.

As a child, I remember my parents had an old Kodak Brownie camera, the kind of cameras that strap around your neck, you’d hold it close against your stomach and look down into the camera. The photos are even different from how they would look through these old cameras, since you are actually looking through the viewfinder and not the lens. Sadly, my parent’s old Brownie was long gone, so I picked up a Kodak Duaflex II on eBay for $3.99 (plus $5 shipping). The Duaflex is similar to a Brownie and also commonly used for TtV photos. Then I used some black poster board to make a box contraption, which is needed to block the light and reflections.

Now I’m ready to try some TtV photographs! Will post some photos soon. Everything old is new again!

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