The Camilli Lily

[Stillsky]

I believe this is the first photo I've shown off here, so be gentle =P

Anyways, I've been going nuts with flowers lately. My most recent shoot was with some asiatic and calla lillies. This photo is of one of the asiatic lillies. I named it after a young lady that means a lot to me and keeps encouraging me to keep pursuing a career in photography.

This picture was captured on a Nikon D50 through the viewfinder of a Kodak Duaflex II.

Here's a LINK to a larger version.

[Old Timer]

I think it is a beautiful and an innovative image. I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that I would love to see more of your photographs.

[drg]

Interesting idea and resulting in an image with a somewhat surrealistic presence.

Tell us more about why you choose to make this photo the way you did. There seems to be some debris on the flower or the lens?

Look forward to seeing more.

[conbu19]

Stillsky, wonderful image you wanna 'splain what you did to achieve it?
Steve B.

[Stillsky]

Thanks for the kind words

There were two cameras involved in this. A Kodak Duaflex II (which accounts for the debris and distress, since it's roughly 50 years old) and a Nikon D50 with a 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 lens. I composed the shot with the Duaflex, but I captured the image through the Duaflex's viewfinder with the D50. I don't remember the exact focal length, but it was around 60mm. I do know that I was stopped at f/5.6 with a shutter speed of 1/2 a second.

Other details about the shoot...I was setup in my dining room. I draped some black fleece over a tall cabinet and placed the flower a few feet in front of it. Perpendicular to the cabinet is a large window which was my light source. I got lucky that day. That window usually gets direct sunlight, but it was a rainy, cloudy day so I got some great diffuse light.

I'm attaching two pics I took with my cell phone to give you an idea of the setup. Sadly, I took these after I had moved on to the calla lillies, so it's not setup the way it was for the above shot, but you can get an idea.

Sorry for being comma happy =P

[Old Timer]

Great!!! I love it when photographers get creative with the process as well as the image. thanks for the explanation. You have inspired me to try something new and exciting. Your original image had such a vintage feel and look to it that I was drawn to it immediately. Thanks for sharing both the photo and the process. Look forward to more example of the technique.

[Greg McCary]

1000 points for being creative. I love it........
Greg

[Frog]

I agree with the creativity and a nice shot to boot.
I never would have thought of taking a picture through another cameras viewfinder.

[drg]

Finally returned to this one after a busy few days

Very interesting technique. A successful variation on stacked optics and neat idea of shooting through another camera as well. The idea of using a digital camera combined with the TLR brings up all kind of other topics too!

Again, nice work and hope you'll share more of your explorations in this method.

[Stillsky]

Thanks again for all the kind words. I can't really take credit for the technique, though I do enjoy exploring it and try to experiment and push the envelope with it.

If you want to learn more about the method, it's cleverly called Through the Viewfinder, (TtV for short) and I think Russ Morris' site is an excellent primer.

[Old Timer]

Thanks again for all the kind words. I can't really take credit for the technique, though I do enjoy exploring it and try to experiment and push the envelope with it.

If you want to learn more about the method, it's cleverly called Through the Viewfinder, (TtV for short) and I think Russ Morris' site is an excellent primer.

Thanks for introducing us to this method. I'm thinking about rigging something up and trying it with the old Speed Graphic.