A Hasselblad, more than 40 years after first looking.

Opening up a bit of a new world with a newly-acquired bellows kit for my 1000f (plus it was quite a good deal - complete with box, instructions and transparency copy accessory). With the 80/2.8 Opton-Tessar attached and the CFV II 50C digital back.


Mid May Raindrops by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
 
lynnb said:
Very nice! And congrats on the bellows kit.
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Many thanks for all the comments Lynn — I’m about to enter a new life chapter of sorts, so we’ll see where it takes my photography. Exciting and scary at the same time!

As an aside, I’d been on the lookout for this bellows kit for a while, but the few that I’d come across were more money than I wanted to spend. This kit was on eBay but was not identified by the seller as being for the 1000f/1600f. Came with the box, original tissue paper and instructions. I found the transparency copy attachment separately so now I have a complete kit.
 
boojum said:
Oh, yes, that rig is an absolute must. You had to buy it. Looks great. I have to get my gear together for macro and see what I can find that was right under my nose. You are off and running.
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These bellows come up so infrequently that when I found these I couldn’t let them get away. Plus the fact that the seller accepted my offer (which was about 40% less than his asking price), so yep I had to pull the trigger. We’re also getting ready to move to our Canadian property so these will be a great help in discovering all the flora etc that’s there.
 
I’ve used a 32mm extension tube with the 60 through to the 150. My two successes were the nautilus shell, and another shot of irises, the centre one unopened. The first was an extremely simple centred composition in non-equatorial light (south facing window in Australia) and the other captured the detail of the ingenious folding of the petals of the unopened iris. Perhaps also the picture of freesias in a vase worked as a photograph.

We had some macro presentations by a couple of members in our photographic group. It is such a demanding medium. Beyond getting detail of an insect’s wing or isolating a detail with the extremely shallow depth of field it is extremely hard to bring about an artistic whole. Anything in focus which oughtn’t to be or swirly out of focus taking up some compositional role drags the picture down. As does not quite in focus significant subject content. The risk of banality is high. Despite the control with tripod-mounted SLR viewing and focus, and the control of a still life adjustable subject, achieving harmony is maddeningly difficult. To get more than a mere record and bring in a little mystery or emotion, or even movement, is a real challenge.

That raindrop one works very well.
 
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Richard G said:
I’ve used a 32mm extension tube with the 60 through to the 150. My two successes were the nautilus shell, and another shot of irises, the centre one unopened. The first was an extremely simple centred composition in non-equatorial light (south facing window in Australia) and the other captured the detail of the ingenious folding of the petals of the unopened iris. Perhaps also the picture of freesias in a vase worked as a photograph.

We had some macro presentations by a couple of members in our photographic group. It is such a demanding medium. Beyond getting detail of an insect’s wing or isolating a detail with the extremely shallow depth of field it is extremely hard to bring about an artistic whole. Anything in focus which oughtn’t to be or swirly out of focus taking up some compositional role drags the picture down. As does not quite in focus significant subject content. The risk of banality is high. Despite the control with tripod-mounted SLR viewing and focus, and the control of a still life adjustable subject, achieving harmony is maddeningly difficult. To get more than a mere record and bring in a little mystery or emotion, or even movement, is a real challenge.

That raindrop one works very well.
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Many thanks for your comments Richard. Yes I think that is definitely a challenge, particularly when mostly one is using these closeup devices to photograph nature of one kind or another. So merely showing what something looks like up-close is fine, but as you say it usually doesn't necessarily lead to creating an 'artistic whole'. That's my challenge and I suppose for everyone else who uses these devices.

I think probably the first two bellows shots I posted here are of the 'here's what this looks like up-close' variety (Mid May Raindrops and Backyard Wander 2024-1). The other three may be approaching something a bit more, not too sure. One thing I do like is what happens to the colours in the out-of-focus areas, particularly in the third shot (Backyard Wander 2024-2). Almost like the plant portions in the background are being consumed by the surrounding colour -- ha maybe I'm reading too much into it! Not so sure about the two raindrop shots.

One thing I am restricted by at the moment is the use of the 80mm lens. My 135mm lenses are in storage at the moment (we're in the midst of moving) and I think the 135's would allow me to pull back some and give more flexibility.
 
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