jonathan ponce's photostream

"True humility is intelligent self respect which keeps us from thinking too highly or too meanly of ourselves. It makes us modest by reminding us how far we have come short of what we can be." - Ralph W. Sockman



Photography has always been one of my interests so I decided to buy a camera back in May 2007. I needed a creative outlet and photography just felt like the natural choice.

I am learning a lot just by being out and about with my camera practically everyday. There is still a lot to learn and even a lot more to master.

I hope you enjoy the images in my photostream as much as I did capturing them. They were already interesting and beautiful, I just happen to capture them.

The quote below is not by a world renowned photographer. In fact, it's by a fellow member in a local photography group I'm part of. I like it because it is pure and unequivocal.

"the image either has impact or it doesn't for each individual viewer... nothing more nothing less... the rest is marketing..." - Ken Ng


My tools:
My imagination and "subjective' judgement for aesthetic beauty.

My supporting cast: These help me capture "some" of the images that my imagination conjures.

Canon EOS 30D
35 f/1.4L, 50 f/1.8, 60 f/2.8 macro, 135 f/2L, Tokina 12-24 f/4, 70-200 f/4L

Some old manual focus lenses which I also use on my 30D (via adapters):
- 3 Carl Zeiss lenses (Contax mount): Planar 50/1.4, Distagon 28/2.8 & Sonnar 135/2.8 (for my Contax S2 SLR)
- Pentax SMC Takumar 105/2.8 (M42 mount)

I also have old film cameras (to slow things down) and really enjoy shooting with them: I've been lucky to obtain these since they're a bit harder to find than most other film cameras.
- 1992 Contax S2 a titanium bodied, fully manual & fully mechanical 35mm film SLR
- 1961 Minolta Autocord RG TLR (my first foray into medium format).
- 1975 Yashica Electro GX (chrome) compact rangefinder
- 1969 Olympus SPn compact rangefinder (much rarer than the SP).
- 1952 Zeiss Ikon Contax IIa rangefinder. a classic piece of German workmanship.