Code|Beta Photography

Sessions: Diana at Lankester Gardens

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:31:00 -0800

Recently took a trip to Lankester Gardens to take photos of Diana

I really love the photo above. The following photos were taken on film.

-LM

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Sessions: Karol at Lankester Gardens

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:38:00 -0800

Recently had a session with a couple of friends and we took the trip to the Lankester Gardens in Cartago

Karol has been featured before on this blog and it's always awesome to take photos of her and her interesting clothing designs

First two photos were taken digitally and the following photos were taken on film

Really like the Lankester Gardens as they offer quite a lot of different places where photos can be taken

More photos will be posted later this week.

-LM

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Photos of Karla

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:42:00 -0800

Karla is my wife and we've been married for a little more than 2 years as I write this and I've been able to capture a couple of portraits of her...mostly because she isn't the type that will sit for a couple of minutes while I take the photo

Interesting to look back at all of these photos and remember what we've been through. All of the photos in this post were taken with my 3 film cameras throughout various points in our life. Like the one that was taken at our friend's wedding

Or the one where she's sitting at my parent's house's stairs whilst pregnant with our first daughter

Some I can't simply remember when they were taken...

And then there are these two which are the most recent ones and when she told me that I never post the photos I take of her :)

-LM

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Sessions: Car photos

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 18:52:00 -0800

Not the first session I do where the main subject is a car...or cars as was the case on this session

First we have the Audi which belongs to a coworker. Gotta say that this is one of my favorite photos from this session.

Then we have the BMW which belongs to the friend of the coworker. This was taken on Fuji Superia 400 and then converted to B&W on post-process.

For this session I took out my Mamiya RZ67 camera and used a roll of Kodak Portra 400. And finally a shot of Julio.

-LM

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Mamiya RZ67 Pro II

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:10:03 -0700

My latest camera purchase was a Mamiya RZ67 Pro II that I got through eBay. After I had purchased the Kiev 88CM I fell in love with waist level viewfinders and big ground glass.

Before purchasing the Mamiya RZ67 Pro II, I did a bit of research on this camera and other options I had, specially since there are two versions of the RZ67. I've always wanted the Nikon F5 but I have a hate/love relationship with 35mm so I decided that I would keep with medium format for this purchase.

One of the features that I love about the RZ67 camera is the bellows focusing system, it's simply amazing and quite useful, and I had read in several places that with the bellows every lens would be able to do macro but after using it I found that it's not really the case, well at least to what I find that macro should be. A bit disappointed on that part or maybe it's just me not knowing how to use it well, either way I'm not that into macro photography anyways.

Because this camera uses a bellows system for focusing, instead of moving a ring on the lens there is a knob on each side of the camera that are used to focus by moving the lens further or closer to the body.

Like the Kiev 88CM, this camera has a knob on one side where the shutter speed is set, unlike the Kiev 88CM this knob only has that function. The fastest shutter speed on this camera is 1/400th of a second and that's due to the fact that the Mamiya RZ67 uses leaf shutters, meaning that the shutter is on the lens and not on the body, this is another feature I loved about this camera simply because it can sync with the flash at all speeds and it's quite cool if you ask me.

The difference between the Mamiya RZ67 Pro and Pro II is that the Pro II has half step shutter speeds and also a fine focusing knob.

This one came as a surprise really, the Kiev 88CM also has a small magnifier that is used to assist in focusing, the difference with that one and the one on the RZ67 is that the RZ67's magnifier allows you to view the whole image in the ground glass so no need to close it after you have focused the scene to compose the shot. This also prevents ambient light from hitting the ground glass and making it difficult to see the image.

Everything I read mentioned that this was a heavy and big camera but that was also said about the Kiev 88CM so I didn't expect it to be incredibly heavy and big but what a surprise...this camera is bigger and heavier than the Kiev 88CM, in fact it makes the Kiev 88CM look like a toy. This camera wasn't made to be used handheld and one of the reasons for this is the fact that the focusing system that is used shifts the center of gravity depending on how far out the lens is and how heavy the lens is thus making it difficult to hand hold the camera and try to focus and then shoot. There's a L grip that was made for this camera which assists on hand holding the camera...sadly I don't have one.

I've managed to shoot with it handheld though it's not easy.

This camera is a medium format film camera, though digital backs exist for it, thus it uses 120 and 220 film, in this case I only have a 120 back. The difference with the Kiev 88CM is that the frame size of this camera is 6x7 instead of 6x6. Here are a few samples that came out of the first roll I ran through this camera

That is the first photo I took with the camera on a tripod of course. I used Kodak Portra 400.

Since the RZ67 has a revolving back, meaning with a turn of the back I can shoot horizontal or vertical photos

I really like how sharp the photos come out and having a negative this size renders big photos when scanned.

The above photo was taken in color, Kodak Portra 400, but was converted to B&W in post as it looks way better this way.

-LM

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Prusia Forest

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 10:10:00 -0700

Besides visiting the Ujarras Ruins a couple of weeks ago we also paid a visit to the Prusia Forest that's part of the Irazu Volcano park. The photo above was taken near the Carlos Duran Sanatorium while we waited for a friend that was also going on the photowalk with us.

A view of the abandoned sanatorium which isn't regularly seen, unlike the rest of the place which has been photographed hundreds of times. Would have liked to have taken the photo from a lower angle but the gate prevented that.

On our way to the forest we stoped to take a couple of landscape photos.

We finally arrived at the forest and decided to ditch the trails that were layed out and instead photograph an area of the forest which seemed more interesting.

Quite excellent example of nature taking back what it belongs to it

And a final frame from the forest

-LM

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Trip to the amusement park

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 09:21:00 -0700

Recently took a trip to the local amusement park with some co-workers and decided to take my Nikon FM10 along with a roll of Kodak Color Plus 200 film

I wasn't going to simply spend my whole day taking photos of my co-workers but simply snapshots of day mostly because I wanted to have fun and relax

We did make a stop for some coffee since it was somewhat early that we arrived at the park. These two photos were also taken in the color film but were later converted to B&W because the light was too low in this area and they simply looked way better in B&W

We did stop for a couple of portraits along the way

Before going to another ride and for two co-workers to get their face painted, I actually took this chance to document the process of one of my friends getting her face painted

The lady that did the makeup told us that the style that my friend choose was a bit more complex than what my friend wanted, mostly because it involved having her whole face painted orange but my friend decided that it was best not to and simply go with a more basic version

Really love the photo above and I feel that making it B&W really makes it more timeless. And this is the finished product

She of course had to convince another friend to get half her face painted

-LM

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Sessions: Marielos

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 11:31:00 -0700

Marielos is a friend photographer that I met on a photowalk that I had organized a while back. For this session we decided to visit a street of abandoned buildings which have graffiti all over them and while we were walking around we found an entrance to one of the buildings.

Karol then explained to us that this used to be a bar several years ago that she would visit and told us some stories and where some of the entertainment and other things were. The photo above was taken behind the bar, I was actually stading on the part of the bar where everyone would ask for the drinks.

Really love the above photo and it's mix of nature taking over and the cement of the place.

These photos were a mix of ISO 200 and ISO 3200 only to be reminded that I was shooting Kodak Portra 800 and not Kodak Portra 400 but despite that I really love the results that I got out of that roll. Shooting it at ISO 3200 and developing it at ISO 800 doesn't over saturate the colors but instead gives awesome colors.

-LM

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Sessions: Marisol

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 09:17:00 -0700

Took a bit of convincing but finally manage to get Marisol to pose infront of the lens of my Kiev 88CM for a couple of photos. While we waited for Karol to arrive we took a stroll through a park in San Jose and captured these two photos.

Marisol is a friend from work that I met a couple of years ago when I started getting into taking photos of activites at the office.

-LM

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Casa 927

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 07:00:00 -0700

Planned a day of shooting portraits with a couple of friends and Karol suggested that we pay a visit to this place that she had heard of in Facebook called Casa 927 and how it's all about national artists. Lucky for us they allowed us to spend an hour taking photos anywhere in the house that we wanted which is awesome because this is an old house that has been converted into a cafe and also a place where local artists can display and sell their work.

Pictured above is Marisol in the bathtub of the women's bathroom. Because this used to be a house the bathrooms have a bathtub, no longer used of course, and we found it quite excellent to use it to take photos. Really love the photo above.

Because of the low light situation in the bathroom we decided to break out the flash to continue taking photos. The bathroom also doubled as the dressing room for the girls.

There are some resident artists in the house who sell their art which is made, in some cases, out of recycled materials. Anything from jewelery to knit hats to scarfs to paintings to sculptures can be found there and they also have a cafe and restaurant. Often times they host events at nights such as having local chefs come in and cook for the night or other events relating to local artists.

We then went outside the house to take a couple more portraits. Above is Karol, who suggested the place, posing with one of her designs. She took some courses in clothing design and has been making several pieces of clothing.

The Casa 927, located in San Jose, is open to photographers coming into the house and taking photos, like we did, but it's required to be mindful of other guests that are there to eat at the cafe, or purchase anything from the various stores in the house as well as those just visiting the house to see the paitings on the walls.

The owners of the Casa 927 are warm and welcome all local artists to visit them and have a chat with them. I know we did talk to them about the house and the initiative. Will definitely pay them another visit sometime.

Be sure to visit the Casa 927 Facebook Page for more information about their initiative and activities being held there.

-LM

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Ujarras ruins

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:50:00 -0700

Recently I went along with a couple of friends to do a photowalk in Cartago visiting key points. First we payed a visit to the Prusia forest, photos of which will be posted when I get the Fuji Velvia 100 roll developed, and then we visited the ruins of Ujarras. The above photo is of the bridge that's located in the site of the ruins and a tree near the river that goes under the bridge.

The ruins are of a church built many years ago, back in 1560, in the city of Ujarras and it was damaged by several earthquakes and floods from a nearby lake. Because of this only the four main walls of the main building exist today and have been reinforced so they will last longer. Because there is no roof water will acumulate in certain parts of the floor in the area.

There isn't much to this place really, it's just the ruins of the church and the green areas around the church so it's more for a picnic or the like.

-LM

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Leticia + Adrian

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 08:45:00 -0700

Recently went along as a second shooter with a friend of mine who had an engagement session with a really nice couple.

I took the chance to shoot some B&W Ilford film with my Nikon FM10, which I have a love/hate relationship with, and really liked these photos from that one roll I shot. First we stopped by the greenhouse they have near the entrance

And then off to the Japanese garden

We took a trip to the Lankester Botanical Garden in Cartago to take advantage of the beautiful Japanese garden scenes and my friend even got an umbrella that would function as a really nice prop. We expected a nice sunny day, like our last visit, but it wasn't the case instead we have an overcast sky with light rain through out the first part of the session.

Really like that bridge. I think I'm getting a bit better at getting the couple to do a certain pose or action though I still need to explain things a bit better.

Really like her expression on the above photo. I took that photo while my friend was setting up and explaning the scene she wanted to photograph.

There's a small river that goes around the Japanese garden and it had more water than last time mostly due to the rain.

That's Leticia. They met when they worked together a couple of years ago and are getting married this month on the 23rd. And that's Adrian on the photo below

I didn't just bring my film camera along, mostly because I only had one roll of 35mm film left...I know, my bad...so I also brought my digital Nikon D60 along

Really love this next photo which looked best in B&W

Besides the botanical garden we also paid a visit to the ruins of Ujarras

This session was a lot of fun and would definitely love to do this type of sessions again. I won't be accompanying them during their wedding but wish them best of luck on this new part of their lives.

-LM

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Pigeons in San Jose

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 07:00:00 -0700

I finished a roll of Kodak Ultramax that I had in my Nikon FM10 yesterday while I was in San Jose and decided to drop it off at a local lab that develops 35mm film in half and hour for less than a dollar and saw that they were selling Kodak Ultracolor film so I bought a roll and went to shoot the roll while they developed the other one

Since I finished the roll just minutes after I had purchased it I had it developed in the same lab...wasn't difficult to shoot through the whole 36 exposures in the park where a lot of people were feeding pigeons.

The pigeons here are so used to being fed pretty much anything that they aren't afraid of anyone coming close to them and will even come close to anyone sitting down anywhere in the park so every time I sat down or kneeled to take a photo I had at least one pigeon next to me waiting for me to feed it.

People don't seem to care that these pigeons aren't the most higenic animals around and will sit the children on the ground and throw corn around the kid so they're surrounded by pigeons...many cellphone pictures were taken of this kid.

Some kids even try to catch one...not exactly handled in the best way possible but some kids are seen with one in hand

Or three...I honestly think he was trying to catch a fourth...this next kid was trying to catch another one

Some pigeons will loose their feathers in the process. I think a good series can be made out of this place and kids that interact with the pigeons...

More photos can be seen on the Flickr photostream

-LM

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Sessions: Nathaly

Mon, 30 May 2011 09:00:00 -0700

Long time friend that I met several years ago during one of my tech visits to the high school where I studied at. I talked to her recently and asked her if she'd like to model for me and she accepted.

We didn't really go anywhere special for this session as nothing huge was planned so I took the photos around my apartment. I asked her to come over during the afternoon as the light would be much softer.

She liked this photo because she loves watching TV while sitting that way...or so she told me

The above photo took me a while and a lot of work to get it to a point which I liked it. At first I thought it would only work in B&W but took my time to make it work in color as that was the original idea. Lit by ambient light that was coming in through the window in the room and underexposing the film about a stop or two because the meter was reading 1/60th and my Kiev 88CM doesn't close the second curtain at that speed. I like the photo a lot though I believe it would really benifit with the use of fill flash on the right side.

-LM

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Sessions: Georgeanela with the black dress

Mon, 23 May 2011 07:00:00 -0700

This is the second part of the session that we had on the bus, which can be seen here, and it involved a quick trip to a nearby entrance which had several trees which looked great.

This was the same place where Karol's session was done. She liked the hat that I had hanging on a wall so we brought it along for the session.

Also a couple of photos from the bus session

And this next one if my favorite from these two, really love the angle on this one

-LM

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Photowalk: Lankester Garden - The greenhouse

Mon, 16 May 2011 09:39:00 -0700

These are other photos from the photowalk we had several months back. First the greenhouse they have at the entrance of the park which is mostly dedicated to the orchid flowers and it's mostly maintained by the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR).

I guess it wasn't the right time as most orchids weren't in bloom. There are other flowers and plants being grown and kept in this greenhouse such as the one pictured above.

A couple of trebols were groing on the ground of the greenhouse, I don't think they were planned

Some plants are hung from the roof

I like these because of the wooden box they are placed in

And some of them are hung from the other tables

-LM

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Sessions: Karol

Mon, 09 May 2011 08:57:00 -0700

After I did the session for Georgeanela I also took the time to do a quick session for Karol, who did the make up for Georgeanela's session, and it was intended to be a look book style session

The dress she's wearing is her own design as she has gotten interested in designing clothing after she started taking a design course...or so I heard

This was a rather quick session. Though we might be having several other sessions later on.

-LM

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Sessions: Georgeanela

Mon, 02 May 2011 09:53:00 -0700

A while ago I had planned a session which involved a bus and a girl in a long dress, luckily I found a neighbor that drives a bus and talked to him about allowing me to use the bus to take some photos to which he agreed.

Once I had the bus I had to get the girl that would model for the session and after a post on Facebook I got in touch with Georgeanela and she agreed to model for the session and even to get the dress.

Besides the model I spoke with another friend that agreed to do the make up for the session.

We also took the chance of getting some photos outside the bus

All of the above photos were taken with the Kiev 88CM using Kodak Portra 400 film.

Model: Georgeanela

Make-up: Karol

Photos: Luis Murillo

-LM

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Photowalk: The Lankester Gardens

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 05:46:00 -0700

I finally got several rolls of film developed and scanned. About a month ago I took a trip to the Lankester Gardens in Cartago, Costa Rica for a photowalk with a couple of friends.

One of the main attractions of this place is the Japanese garden, I honestly think that it's the only attraction worth visiting the park for, and they have 3 main buildings in that area which are styled as traditional Japanese structures.

In the above photo we see the main entrance to the Japanese garden and also a glimpse of the first structure in the background.

Besides the traditional structures there is a bamboo forest and I have to add that it's great to listen to the sound they make when there is wind.

Besides the structures and the bamboo forest there are some really nice paths within this area. Such as the one pictured above where a fellow photographer posed for the photo.

The third structure is a tradditional Japanese house, pictured above in the background, and the visitors are asked to remove their shoes before entering the house.

A fellow photographer was taking self portraits inside this house and I also took the chance to get a portrait of him sitting in the middle of the house.

There are some nice bridges as well. I still have more photos from this photowalk that I have to scan so I'll post them when I get them scanned.

-LM

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My first planned shoot

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 12:10:00 -0700

Well I've actually done a couple planned sessions previously but none like this, the others were more like what came up the day we went to take photos but in this case I was a more planned out session where I actually planned what most of the session was going to look like

I asked all of my Facebook followers if they wanted to pose or knew of someone who would be interested in posing for a shoot in a long dress and a friend of mine told me about one of his friends that might be up for the shoot and luckily she was. These photos were taken using my digital camera and were just meant to be tests to make sure the settings would be right, back in the film only days this was referred to as polaroiding because instead of digital cameras it was Polaroid film and cameras that were used.

The first part of the session, and this was the original idea, was in a bus that a neighbor owns and he was nice enough to let us use the bus for an hour or so so we could take a couple of photos.

The above photo is a bit of the behind the scenes during the shoot in the bus. Another friend signed up for the make up and also assisted in throwing ideas on the table about poses and styling. Not to mention that she also went in front of the camera for the second part of the session.

For the second part we did a bit of brainstorming for locations as it wasn't originally planned and we saw a couple of trees from my house so it was decided that we would make a quick trip to the place pictured above where we would carry out the second part of the session. This was after a quick change of clothes.

Had a lot of fun on this session and already have a couple of ideas for future sessions. I'll post the photos that I took with my Kiev 88CM as soon as I get them scanned.

-LM

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