Beautifully Barren - Jerome Belthrop




Case No. 34A-7----Bio-engineered wheat designed to yield barren seeds after the first germination.

Camera:   Contax G1
Lens:   Carl Zeiss Hologon 16mm f/8
Film:   Kodak Gold 100
Exposure:   Automatic
Flash:  
Support:  
Filter:  
Adjustment:  
Posted:   06-Mar-2002

Rating: 7.80 (10 ratings)

Comments

Plant. . .

Lincoln, more correctly, its a strain of Wheat that does not able to reproduce so a farmer has to buy seeds, instead of taking part of the crop for seed. Wow, your tips are golden, like the image. :-) I think the idea came form an American bio lab, not Poland. :-)

Jerome Belthrop     06-Mar-2002 at 10:34

Actually...

When I view this full size it looks awesomely sharp (except for the out of focus elements). The "hairs" from the grain heads are crisp and defined. Also I happen to really like Kodak Gold 100, it's a very under-rated film. Unfortunately with so many people using mega-zoom P&S cameras Kodak is pushing the 400 and 800 speed films because of the slowness of those lenses so GA-100 will get harder and harder to find (even rumors of it's demise are popping up). Scott Eaton, a film guru on photo.net, says this is one of the best color-balanced, nicest grained and richly saturated consumer films made. (I wish I still went to Europe on business with frequency as I would like to pick up more Kodak Farbwelt 100, which is Germany's and Austria's version of Kodak Gold 100.) Royal Gold on the other hand is much less contrasty and not as saturated. Linc and I disagree on one basic thing over and over, and that's DOF. Linc likes deep DOF while I like the effects narrower DOF can have in giving a stronger feeling of depth to an image by having softer fore- and back-ground elements. If all the stalks were sharp here through smaller aperture and deeper DOF you would have also had a sharper extreme background. In that case I think all the wheat stalks would have looks too busy with too many sharp and also would have become *less* defined by being less distinct from the background. But sometimes the exact effect you want cannot be easily achieved, especially since the G has no DOF-preview. So Linc's suggestion of DOF bracketing is very appropriate.

Richard Sintchak     06-Mar-2002 at 11:11

Poor man's comment

No marathons from me. I love this image and look forward to fields of gold this summer to give it a try.

Robin Hunter     06-Mar-2002 at 13:14

Stunning

So this is what you are lurking around doing. Perfect composition and DOF. Polish or not this is a great image.

Knut Skjærven     06-Mar-2002 at 14:06

Verbosity. . . not

All, I enjoy and appreciate your vibrant, informative, constructive discussions concerning DOF and the merits of inexpensive vs. professional caliber brand films. You both have find points, Richard, and Lincoln; naturally my goal is to 'enjoy' learning how to making 'consistently' jaw-dropping images--additionally, along the way, if posting a few images here--stimulates such great exchanges--I'm humbled and honestly receptive. So, "let the fur-fly," photographically, speaking. :-) Oh, and, Knut, tell me, don't you have an image that I might possible pair this one up to? I would have to lie about the date of inception though . . . :-)

Jerome Belthrop     07-Mar-2002 at 00:12

Meaning

I think this image has an important message, which the title makes clear. Sorry to intrude with a soapbox, but while the beauty is natural, the deeply evil thing done to it is human. I would love to see this shot used by the campaign for a GMO free world.

Charez Golvala     07-Mar-2002 at 00:56