The lens I regularly use, an old Nikon NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8 AI lens, always surprises me with the quality of images it takes. I love to play with the point of focus and capture images that make you think about what you just saw. This does not always work, and mostly it guides you where to focus your vision, which is also helpful.

This week, I got a camera that can take video. I have an old Nikon D300, and it cannot take videos. I have always wanted to test the video capability of the NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8 lens. If the still images are so sharp, how would the videos look! And this week I tried it. I only have a Nikon D3200, so the videos are not the best quality. But the videos came out well I think. I will share the video at the end of the post, maybe it is the start of my video career! One can dream.

In any case, here is a short explanation of the series of images I call "The Kitchen". If you are interested, I posted the first installment here. The kitchen is a place most people will spend some time in. Sometimes the lighting is not good, sometimes it is so small that natural lighting does not light up your kitchen. Natural light in the kitchen makes food look good. But it also transforms the everyday into the extraordinary when you look at things from the right angle. If the shadows fall the right way, it will make you think twice about the object you looked at. The inspiration is in part from Edward Weston. Defamiliarization or ostranenie is, according to me, when you take things you are familiar with out of the familiar context and place them in a new one. Photography can help with this by taking a photograph of an object with strange lighting in order to make it feel "unfamiliar". This is somewhat in line with what I try with this series.

Please enjoy these images, all taken with a Nikon D300 camera and the NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8 AI lens. (The photographs and video were taken by me whilst I made Sourdough bread and Pasta for lasagna.)

"The Kitchen II" - Point of Focus: Pasta and Bread

Alone II

Empty

Potential I

Potential II

Mix

Result I

Result II

Result III (Video with NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8 AI lens)