Cinescapes
Anamorphic lenses aren’t the sharpest. They aren’t the lightest either. Nor are they weather sealed or particularly cheap. And they don’t have great maximum apertures. They do ooze character.
If you’re like me, you watch movies differently than others. I listen to the soundtracks, look at how it was cut and try to imagine what focal lengths they used.
Time and again, my favorite-looking TV-shows and movies are shot using anamorphic lenses. Once used to oversee the battlefield from within the first tanks, they found their way in cinema to assist the story and support the cinemascope, 2.39:1 aspect ratio.
Nowadays, with the relative affordability of budget anamorphic lenses, they are more popular than ever, while we still the bad taste of J.J. Abrams’ absurd overuse of streak flares in 2009’s Star Trek that anamorphic lenses produce under certain lighting conditions.
Project: “Enter Fangorn”
For my second time in Wistman’s Wood, I wanted to portray a different kind of ancient English woodland. One that leans into what we see in the movies. With a different kind of mindset, two large bulky lenses and the inabillity to accurately preview the composition due to the 2x compression on the Blazar Cato 55 and 125 these were shot on, I imagined the forest to be a movie set. Armed with a wildly different approach to photo editing, I embraced the defects, the lack of contrast and the general sense of out of focus areas to the point I had to overcome my obsessive compulsion of perfectionism. The frustrating thing about this project wasn’t about the lenses, but choosing to shoot this project on the Panasonic Lumix S5II, a camera and brand I was not familiar enough with. They really have a menu system that’s beyond anything I’ve seen. Imagine running MS-DOS on a camera that, on paper, out-competes cameras 2,5 years newer on dynamic range and the ability to film open gate.
The following images used a more “traditional” editing approach - meaning, one I was used to. Some have been reprocessed to result in the images shown above.
Fine art Prints
Signed and limited edition prints of any of these works to decorate your home, office or accommodations.
Print Quality & Select Papers
All my signed prints are exclusively printed on Hahnemühle PhotoRag. This cotton fibre paper weighs 308 grams per square meter, which is ensures the utmost quality. These prints are made using the latest Epson printers using 10 to 12 archival quality pigment inks that last up to 300 years.
Archival quality papers and pigment inks.
308 g/sm cotton fiber.
Limited edition of 10.
Signed and numbered on visible print.
0.5 - 2 cm inch classic white border.
Includes certificate of authenticity, on the same paper as print.
Rolled in sturdy recycled cardboard tube.
Shipped worldwide with tracking identification.