After Dark in Old Town - Lower Johnson Street

The southern side of Market square is marked by lower Johnson Street, where many of the most colorful and interesting of the old town heritage buildings can be found.

All these night shots for the last week or so were taken with an SMC Takumar 28mm lens. This is another of these old Pentax lenses I rave about from time to time, this one made in 1971. These night shots offer good examples of some of the qualities I prize in these lenses. First, they are incredibly sharp. To illustrate this I have left the larger version of today's photo at full size (7360 pixels X 4912 pixels), although I have compressed it into a smaller file so it can be uploaded and viewed without waiting for five minutes. Click the photo and then click it again to see it full size. Scroll around and look at the details - the moldings on the building and the writing on the parking meter for examples. Secondly I love the way this lens renders color. It's accurate but just a little richer and more saturated than reality. I often find myself taking phtos of stuff around the house and marveling at how it looks better through this lens than it looks through my eyes.

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For those of you who may be interested in the technical aspects, the lens is a fully manual lens - I have to choose the aperture (for these night shots I closed it down to f5.6 or f8) and then focus manually. The camera selects an appropriate shutter speed. I used a tripod for the night shots - shot them at low ISO (80-100) and long exposures. The lens was made originally for Pentax cameras. I use it by putting an adapter on my Sony A7r mirrorless camera.