Diana Adapters For Canon and Nikon SLR

If you’ve been asking yourself ‘how can my Canon or Nikon SLR produce images like the Diana’ ask no more. Seek psychological help, but ask no more. Actually I have a couple of Holgas and love using these classic no-frills plastic medium format cameras to get simple, artistic images. The Diana is the queen of such cameras and has quite the cult following. Lomography, distributor of optics from Hong Kong-based Diana has now made it possible to get Diana results without having to carry the camera. They have released affordable F+ lens adaptors for Canon EOS and Nikon F-mount SLRs so there is no need to carry multiple cameras and film to get Diana-like results.

Text from the Diana+ website…

With the brand new Diana F+ SLR adaptors you can now introduce the whole range of effects achievable with the Diana F+ lenses and accessories to your 35mm Canon EOS or Nikon F series cameras. Bring on Fisheye wackiness, sweeping wide-angles and close-up curiosity - just some of the fantastic effects you can experiment with when you combine the Diana F+ SLR Adaptors with the Diana F+ creative add-ons! Simply attach and twist the SLR adaptor to the Canon EOS or Nikon F mounts and then you are ready to slap on your Diana weapon of choice! These adaptors are compatible with Diana's 50 special-effect lenses. The lenses range from Super-wide, Telephoto, Close-up, and Pin-Hole.

The beauty of the SLR Adaptors is that they open up the whole series of Canon EOS and Nikon F cameras to the world Diana effects. This means whether yours is one of the earliest Nikon Fs from the late 1950s or an ultra-swanky Canon digital SLR – you can join in with the whole Diana experience!

See for yourself at the Lomography website.

Photography Unplugged: New Photobook From Harald Mante

Harald Mante is regarded as one of the most prominent contemporary photographers in Germany today. He started out as a travel photographer whose work was published in numerous magazines and books, and later taught photography in the tradition of the Bauhaus school of design, applying image and color composition concepts to photography.

Photography Unplugged (Rocky Nook, $49.95 USD) is meant to present the wealth of Mante’s photographic work and at the same time to advocate a pure, straight approach to photography, untouched by digital image editing tools–uncropped and unmodified captures of scenes as seen through the viewfinder. Photography Unplugged is intended to sound a voice that is singing to a slightly different tune than the digital photography choir.

Harald Mante’s photographs, all captured on Kodachrome’s legendary slide films, will inspire beginners and expert photographers alike, and will reveal the beauty and magic of masterfully composed photography.

Just before this book went to print, Kodak announced that the production of Kodachrome slide film will be discontinued. Kodachrome was the first slide film Harald Mante ever used and remained his staple film for decades. Therefore, this book is also a way for the artist and the publisher to say “goodbye” and “thank you” to this legendary film.

Harald Mante was born in Berlin in 1936 and studied graphic design and painting at Werkkunstschule Wiesbaden. He taught Photographic Design at Dortmund Polytechnic and at the European Art Academy in Trier, as well as many seminars and workshops.

Professor Mante has authored numerous art books and textbooks. His photographic work has been exhibited in museums and private collections worldwide, and his books and calendars have become collector’s items.
article courtesy of Imaging Insider

Kodak Ektar 100 Medium Format Film

Film isn’t dead…yet. Film is fighting to stay alive as long as possible, and it’s nice to see Kodak hasn’t thrown in the towel completely. While Kodak did announce the discontinuation in June, of their popular and iconic Kodachrome 35mm color film, concluding a 74-year history, there are still several quality films still available. In fact Kodak released seven new professional films over the last three years including Portra 160NC and VC, Portra 400NC and VC, Portra 800, and upgraded T-MAX 400 and Ektar 100 films.

Shutterbug magazine recently took a closer look at Kodak’s Ektar 100 color negative film for Medium Format (120). Amazingly Kodak released the 120 version due to popular demand. It’s nice to see film still commands some level of power in an increasing digital world. According to Kodak the new Ektar 120 film is “the finest, smoothest grain of any color negative film available today.”

Read the entire Shutterbug article by Joe Farace.

150 Years of Portraiture: Phoenix Art Museum

Upcoming Event at the Phoenix Museum

Face to Face: 150 Years of Photographic Portraiture

Norton Photography Gallery

September 19, 2009 – January 10, 2010

Face to Face: 150 Years of Photographic Portraiture explores the photographic portrait - the stories portraits can tell, the ways photographers convey the essence of their subjects and the impact of the relationship between photographer and subject. Including nearly 60 portraits from the Center for Creative Photography, as well as key loans from a few local collections, the exhibition raises engaging questions:

How does a portrait become iconic?

What is unique about a photographic self-portrait?

What are the advantages of working in the studio, or in the field?

How do photographers use setting, pose, camera angle, or scale to add meaning to a picture?

Prints by some of the greatest portraitists and photographic image-makers of the 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-century are included: Southworth and Hawes, Gertrude Kasebier, Edward Weston, Dorothea Lange, W. Eugene Smith, Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus, Yousuf Karsh and Richard Avedon.