SMU - Southern Methodist University

[Wil_Bloodworth]

Yesterday, I happened to be down in Dallas buying a lens for a friend of mine who lives in Ohio and I had some time to kill. I ended up driving through the SMU campus (which I had only driven around before) and I was simply amazed at the beauty and history there.

Wedding Photographers: Scenes galore! Tons of awesome light and shade... so add this to your list of places to do engagements and bridals.

Here is the complete gallery which is fully geo tagged and full of metadata. Some of the shots are random as I was trying to test the new Zeiss, the 50mm Sigma, and the really old 300mm Nikor MF lenses.
Southern Methodist University - Dallas, Texas, USA Photo Gallery by Wil Bloodworth at pbase.com

A few teaser images:

Nikon 14-24mm AF-S @ 22mm - F4 - 1/1600s - ISO 200


Nikon 24-70mm AF-S @ 26mm - F4 - 1/1600s - ISO 200


Zeiss 100mm F2 - 1/2500s - F2 ISO 200


Zeiss 100mm F2 - 1/1000s @ F2 ISO 200


FYI: This image was shot with a 50-year-old lens (300mm f4.5 Nikkor-H Auto Lens) that I paid $95 for that morning. It's FREAKING cool! The lens cap is metal and screws onto the front element like a filter. The lens hood is built-in.
1/2500s @ F4.5 - ISO 200

[Wil_Bloodworth]

Oh, I forgot to mention... if you go, go early. One a nice day, it seems like a ton of people are out there. I went on graduation day and no one seemed to be out until around 10:30 or so. If you get there 8-ish I'm guessing you won't have to deal with people in your photos. And, obviously, going when school is not in (i.e. a holiday) is a great time to do that! Hint hint!

- Wil

[jeffkohn]

Nice shots, especially #2 (is that infrared?)

Have you gotten your 24 PC-E yet, or is it still en-route?

[Wil_Bloodworth]

Jeff: #2 is *fake* IR via Lightroom advanced grayscale sliders. I haven't gotten the 24 PC-E yet (he hasn't gotten the check yet... thanks USPS!)... and I REALLY wish I had it on Saturday. There's so much keystoning going on that it irks me a bit. I am going to go back and I estimate in the 5+ hours that I was there I only covered about 60% of the campus.

- Wil

[Wil_Bloodworth]

Updated with lens and photo metadata.

- Wil

[jeffkohn]

I was wondering, since it looked like you could have benefited from the PC capabilities on a few of these. Looks they've got some neat architecture and monuments/sculptures there, it should be a great place for you to back to and get to know the 24 PC-E.

Were you shooting with a tripod? If so did you get any funny looks or inquires from campus officials?

[Wil_Bloodworth]

Yes, I was shooting on a tripod and using the cable release you suggested. I also had my large backpack full of stuff. I definitely would've used the 24 but my main objective for that day wasn't so much to shoot SMU (which was awesome) as it was to test the new Zeiss 100mm, the 50mm 1.4 Sigma, and the "vintage" 300mm Nikkor. Two birds one stone I guess.

No one gave me any looks at all. It was graduation so there was a bunch of people running around getting their photo made by every SMU sign they could find. Before graduation let out though... it was a ghost town. I was the only person on campus for at least two hours. Kinda weird but definitely nice.

- Wil

[miffed67]

My coworker's daughter graduated from SMU that day!

These are gorgeous, and I agree, lots of opportunities on the campus. I love that whole area, I drive past SMU and through University or Highland Parks every chance I get. So beautiful!

[TexKen]

Great shots and yes it's a beautiful campus.

Alum... slightly biased. :)

[L Stegall]

Alum as well, but for grad school, so I rarely ventured south from our little corner @ Hillcrest and Daniels. Thanks for the ideas, though, my nephew is coming in sometime in the next month or so to check out SMU as a potential college, so I'll be playing substitute "mom" and showing him around a bit that weekend. I'll take my camera along.

[mkothare]

Wil, the shots posted here as well as the ones in your pbase gallery are beautiful. The brick wall would make an exceptional background or texture. I love your faux IR shot of the Meadows Museum.

One question: when you say you were testing these lenses - were you testing the wide angles for depth of field at wide (small value) apertures? Many of the pictures were taken at high shutter speeds and wide aperture. The Meadows Museum one is at an f2.8 when typically one may have used small (high value) aperture for increased DOF. Just wondering why you chose such a high shutter speed or wide aperture. Sparked my interest to learn something I may have never thought about.

Thanks

[Wil_Bloodworth]

All: Thank you for the compliments!

Milind:
The primary goal was to test the lenses which is why I was using the lower F stops. I had planned on testing the Zeiss 100mm, Sigma 50mm, Nikon 70-200mm VR-II, and the Nikon 14-24mm. I did not come there to shoot the campus or I would've probably concentrated on the campus instead of the technical details of the lenses.

As you mentioned, depending on the subject, had I been there to just shoot the campus, I would've shot at a much higher F stop to get sharper images and better DOF. But, take the sculpture for example, I probably wouldn't shoot it any higher than F4 because at 100mm and F4 at 20-ish feet away, the DOF is between 18' 8'' and 21' 7''... which is exactly what I wanted for that subject. I wasn't interested in anything behind or in front of the sculpture.

But, for the buildings where there is a lot of fore and middle ground and I still shot at an average focal length (like 50mm), I probably would've shot that somewhere between F8 and F13... to get the extra DOF.

Now, IF I had the 24mm PC-E lens with me, I would've shot everything completely different because the tilt/shift lens can get everything near-to-far in focus at any aperture. That lens should be in any day now so I plan on re-shooting quite a few buildings.

- Wil

[mkothare]

Thanks, Wil. Can't wait to see your tests when the 24MM PC-E lens arrives. Please do post them. Wish you a very Happy New Year.

[janikphoto]

I often take my brides and engagement couples to SMU, just because it offers so many great choices. With that being said, it is a TERRIBLE place to shoot with horrible backgrounds, so please don't even think about shooting there.


I want to keep it from getting overrun by other photographers...

[scottiedds]

I'm Alum also from class of '95 !! Very nice shots Wil !! These shots brought back alot of memories !!