131 ☼ Turning A Mistake Into A Creative Opportunity

Testing the Pentax K3iii + 10-17mm fish-eye lens + 35mm 1.4

Feb 11, 2024

Dear friends,

In this week's letter: fish-eye lens magic in a cabin, and an accidental Blair Witch project inspired shoot in the woods. But also, rolling with a mistake during a client shoot and making the best of it.

Everything in this issue was shot on a Pentax K3 III, a digital SLR made in 2021, kindly provided by my friends at MPB.com.

☀️ Shout out to my friends at Squarespace for helping make this issue possible ☀️

Housekeeping

The second Process Projected exhibition, Erinn Springer’s beautiful series "Dormant Season", is on display now. It’s beautiful, sensitive, and quietly powerful work and a must-see. Up from February 6–19. For more about Erinn, her work, opening times, and more go here.
Friend Josh Ethan Johnson is raising money to make a second season of his wonderful Wrong Side of the Lens docu-series about street photography. If you can, contribute here and check out season one on YouTube now.

A Much Needed Break In The Woods

It’s been a couple of crazy stressful weeks here in Amsterdam, more on that next week. For now, let me just say last weekend’s shoot in a cabin in the woods was well-timed. I needed a bit of a break from the city to restore my sanity and inner calmness.

In my New York City days I spent most weekends in the woods about three hours north of the city where, along with a bunch of friends, we built cabins and saunas and tree houses. There’s nothing like working with my hands while in nature when it comes to relieving big-city stress. Even just the opportunity to chop wood is a healing and calming activity for me and there is nothing better than heat from a real fireplace.

So this weekend getaway in a cozy cabin was most welcome, and as it would turn out it also ended up being a lesson in embracing mistakes and creative problem-solving.

I planned this shoot to align with a new loaner kit and showed up armed with a Pentax K3 iii and a stunning Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens borrowed from my friends at MPB.com. As an afterthought, I also brought the absurdly wide Pentax 10-17mm fish-eye lens that would be perfect for a skateboarding shoot but certainly not for a lifestyle shoot in a cabin. (Wait for it…)

Here comes the twist – a mistake on my part. I wrongly assumed that the Pentax K3 iii was a full-frame camera, which would make the 35mm a perfect lens to take overview shots inside of a small cabin and give everything a nice lifestyle aesthetic.

The Pentax K3 iii is not a full-frame camera. It is a camera with a smaller APS-C sensor. Now, my favorite digital camera ever is the Fujifilm X100F, which is also an APS-C camera so I clearly have no problem with that. The problem is that the smaller sensor effectively turned my 35mm lens into a 52mm lens due to the crop factor. Great for closer shots, but way too tight for the type of overview shots I intended to take.

Such a silly mistake to make. I was on auto-pilot and just didn’t think about it. After a few minutes of panic, I realized I had to think quickly and replace anxiety with creativity. I had to roll with what I had because there was only an hour and a half of sunlight left and the next days were predicted to be rainy and gloomy. What to do?

In the small cabin, a 52mm lens was too tight for the overview shots I envisioned. Then there was the 10-17mm fisheye lens that I initially deemed inappropriate for the shoot. Instead of dismissing it, I saw an opportunity to turn the situation around.

The fisheye lens, while too wide for the original plan, created a visually spacious and playful atmosphere. Shooting from the loft produced a unique perspective, and a fun, almost cartoonish exterior shot showed the cabin in a way it hadn't been seen before.

As night fell, I shifted to taking some personal shots, continuing to embrace the unexpected. With a flashlight and the fisheye lens, I transformed the serene forest around the cabin into a creepy Blair Witch Project-inspired thriller.

Using movement and Nastya as a guest model, I added a hint of suspense to the images. I was impressed by the camera's low-light capabilities and how balanced the images came out considering I used a very bright flashlight in a dark environment.

The next day, during a break from the rain, the 35mm lens finally had its time to shine while we walked around the beautiful forest surrounding the cabin. This lens is an aperture monster with a beautiful F1.4 setting that allowed me capture random bits of nature around the cabin. I was impressed by its smooth bokeh and its ability to isolate details against a busy background.

Technical definition: aperture is the part of the lens through which you control the amount of light that goes to the camera sensor. The smaller the number, the bigger the aperture and the more light can get to the camera. These shots were taken with an aperture of between 1.4 and 1.8. Using a such a wide aperture makes it so the subject is sharp in the foreground and the background is very blurry.

The Outcome

When I delivered the images to Caspar, the architect who designed these beautiful cabins, he loved them, especially the fish-eyes ones. Thank goodness! I had given him a heads-up on what happened, but as luck would have it he loved the fresh perspective the fish eye brought and I am pretty excited to see how these images might be used.

Takeaways

Embrace Mistakes: Sometimes, the best shots come from unexpected situations. Don't be afraid to pivot when things don't go as planned.
Experiment with Lenses: Even if a lens seems unconventional for a particular setting, give it a chance. You might discover a unique perspective that adds depth and excitement to your images.
Adapt to the Conditions: Whether it's dealing with low light, unexpected weather, or bringing the wrong gear, adaptability is key. Use the challenges as an opportunity to think outside the box and create something extraordinary.

Additional Reading

Two relevant issues from the archives:

Process 070 ☼ How To Avoid Common Mistakes
Process 111 ☼ Shooting Rare Infrared Film (Weird! Spooky!)

That’s it for this week! If you enjoyed this issue I’d love for you to share it with friends.

Next Week: A very personal issue about a burglary I had at my home a few weeks ago in which I nearly lost a bunch of cameras + lessons I learned from the experience. Also, the return on the Process x Moment $150 gift certificate Giveaway!

Keep shooting and take good care of yourselves and others. <3

Wesley

PS Don’t forget to sign up for the Process Projected newsletter—work by inspiring contemporary photographers twice a month.

PPS Want to support Process? Consider buying my photo book NOTICE.

Gear & Tools Used

Camera: All images were shot on the Pentax K-3 III with Pentax SMC DA 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 ED and Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM ART lenses. I really enjoyed working with both lenses and the body itself was intuitive and handled low light really well. Recommended! PS It takes all that good old Pentax glass, which I didn’t yet get to try.

These links take you over to MPB.com, my go-to place to buy, sell, and trade used cameras and lenses. I love their service and am a paying customer. MPB caters to over 625,000 visual storytellers and provides a 6-month warranty. Thanks for the support, MPB! <3

Lab: All my analog work is developed and scanned by my friends at Carmencita Film Lab. They’re my favorite lab in the world. Use code “PROCESS” to get a free upgrade.

Website: Shout out to Squarespace for supporting Process. If you need a website, I highly recommend using Squarespace. I’ve been a paying customer for over 10 years (!!?). It’s an easy, professional, and affordable way to have a beautiful portfolio website and webshop. Use the code PROCESS10 for 10% off your first order.