Eyes

 

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Asia Festival, DC - Rolleiflex SL2000F

Here are a couple of images I made at a festival over the memorial day weekend. I was shooting my Rolleiflex SL2000F, with the wonderful Sonnar 135mm f2.8 lens. I think it's the best lens I have for this outfit.

 

 

Don't know what a Rolleiflex SL2000F is? (Click Here).

 

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Freer-Sackler Museum, Smithsonian

I love the silhouette in the upstairs window...

 

Leica M3.

 

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White House: "Bill for First Lady"

At least someone's having fun with this election...

 

Rollei 35 Tessar.

 

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Someone Loves NY, Barefoot

Leica M4-2, 35mm Summicron f2 v.3

 

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Mixing Digital and Film - Melissa Wright's Tribute to Patsy Cline

Some of my good friends, Melissa Wright, Danny Zezeski, Rudy B., Dwayne Brooke, and Evan (a new acquaintance) put on an amazing tribute to Patsy Cline a couple of weeks back. I shot my Nikon Df (digital) and FM (film). I had my AIS 50mm f1.2 lens on the FM, and loaded it up with Ilford Delta 3200 film. I also processed the digital images with settings to emulate the Delta 3200 look.

 

Here's a film shot:

 

That's what an f1.2 lens is for...

 

And here's an example of a digital example:

 

(Click Here) to see the whole set.

 

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That's Old Time

Banjo Player with Pokey LaFarge, by Reed A. George

Nikon Df, Nikkor 180mm f2.8 AF Lens

iso 1100, f2.8, 1/250 sec.

 

This guy has a very classic look. Easy to photograph.

 

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Watching the Lanterns Lift Off

 

At the Watermelon Park Festival this last weekend, I got to spend some time with friends I haven't seen in a while. In this scene, as we sat around the campfire, my friend Rudy B and his lovely girlfriend Sarah watched as a group of people constructed, lit, and set free some Chinese Lanterns. They flew up and up, finally disappearing into the clouds of the night sky.

 

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Learning the Nikon D810 - My Menu Settings

D810's "My Menu"

 

I've been using my new Nikon D810 almost exclusively for shooting birds with my 200-400mm f4 lens so far. Clearly, it's good for so much more in addition.

 

So, I've decided to figure out how to use all of the functions, and how to remember which are important to think of regularly as I change shooting conditions.

 

Among the features are Shooting and Custom Setting "Banks." These allow you to save settings for different applications and quickly switch between them. The big problem (unbelievable, really), is that if you're in a bank and change a setting, it remains changed, even after you turn off the camera. Basically they really only represent whatever your settings were last in that bank! Yes, you can get around this, if you can remember to reload settings each and every time you shoot. This requires not only a good memory, but also that you use the same memory card (where the settings are stored) every time, and don't format it. Not so useful.

 

A better option is to use "My Menu." This feature allows you to identify up to 20 settings from the menu system, which you want quick access to at any time. I went through every menu and selected which features I think I'll need regularly. Here they are:

 

1. ISO sensitivity settings
2. e3 Flash contrl for built-in flash
3. e4 Exposure comp. for flash
4. Image quality
5. Battery info
6. NEF (RAW) recording
7. Manage Picture Control
8. d13 Battery order
9. d5 Electronic front-curtain shutter
10. d4 Exposure delay mode
11. c4 Monitor off delay
12. c3 Self-timer
13. c2 Standby timer
14. b6 Center-weighted area
15. a8 Number of focus points
16. a4 AF activation
17. a1 AF-C priority selection
18. Long exposure NR

 

That still leaves two more features, should I decide to add them.

 

These are by and far the features that I'll use most. By having them in My Menu, I will only have to find them in a list of 18, rather than searching through the entire menu system when I need them. Win.

 

So, while I may not use the settings banks, My Menu will be key for my use of the D810.

 

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Choosing Tools for Digital Black and White Conversion

Belle of the Plantation, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Summicron 35mm f2 v.3 Lens

iso 400, f2, 1/60 sec.

 

I like to shoot in black and white. I quite often convert my color digital images to monochrome, to get the look I want.

 

I do have Nik's Silver Efex, which I use as a plug-in for Adobe Lightroom. It has a lot of flexibility, and works very well. More often than not, though, I do the conversion directly in Lightroom.

 

(Click Here) to read a post on Digital Photography School, where they present and compare five different plug-ins: Silver Efex Pro 2, Exposure, Perfect Black and White, B&W Effects 2, and DxO FilmPack. Lots of information to help you decide which plug-in may be best for you, if any.

 

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Exciting New Lenses from Zeiss - Milvus Line for DSLRs

 

Zeiss makes absolutely wonderful lenses. For Nikon camera bodies, the ZF lenses are all manual focus, and are unquestionably at the top of optical performance.

 

Not too long ago, they came out with the Otus 55mm f1.4 and 85mm f1.4 lenses for Nikon and Canon DSLRs. The Otus lenses are advertised as providing medium format image quality on the 35mm sensor size. They also cost at least $4,000. I'd love to try one.

 

Now, Zeiss has come out with the Milvus line. Announcing the full lineup all at once, there are Milvus models in the following focal lengths and maximum apertures: 21mm f2.8, 35mm f2, 50mm f1.4, 85mm f1.4, 50mm f2 Macro, and 100mm f2.8 Macro. Again in manual focus, the Milvus lenses are more reasonably priced, listing for less than $2,000 each on preorder at Adorama. They should be shipping in October.

 

So, what's special about the Milvus lenses? They're designed specifically for the new high pixel count sensors, with low light scattering, precision manual focus across the full focus range, and weather resistance.

 

(Click Here) to read more about the Milvus lenses on Zeiss' website.

 

It's great that Zeiss keeps bringing us high quality optics for various camera systems. I love the variety they're offering.

 

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Who Would've Thought Autofocus Would Be Important? Apparently Not Leica

Image Source: http://www.cultofmac.com/383779/leica-invented-autofocus-then-abandoned-it/

 

The blog Cult of Mac has run a piece on how Leica invented autofocus, only to abandon it. Apparently, they were not able to perfect it to the level that they thought their exacting customers would be satisfied with it. I never knew this before reading this article.

 

(Click Here) to read more about how Leica invented then abandoned autofocus, and how it was made a commercial reality by other companies, chiefly Minolta.

 

Thanks to my friend Bill for hooking me up with this interesting article.

 

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Yearning for a Trip to the City - the Real City - NYC

 

City Dweller, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Summicron 35mm f2 v.3

iso 320, f6.7, 1/125 sec.

 

It's time. I will start planning my next visit to NYC.

 

It's such a vibrant place, literally full of stories and photographs waiting to be made.

 

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A Blast From the Past

Dwayne of The Woodshedders, by Reed A. George

 

It's been a while since Dwayne had his hair short like this - 2009 as far as I know.

 

Just going through some old pictures, getting in the mood for my favorite music festival - Watermelon Park Fest.

 

I am pretty sure I shot this with a Pentax Spotmatic and Vivitar 200mm f3.5 lens. I like the look.

 

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I Want to be a Better Printer, Too!

Alpine Lake and Shadows, by Reed A. George

 

I just read a post by Pascal on the blog Dear Susan, about how he really wants to become a better printer. Importantly, Pascal interviews Ctein, a master printer, to get some advice. Ctein's best advice is to go ahead and print your image once you think you have it close on the monitor. It won't print the same, but don't worry about that. Live with the print a while, making notes on it where and how you want to improve it. Don't focus on how it looks on the monitor any more; make the changes that will improve the print. Over time, you'll learn how to do this more automatically.

 

Okay. I can give that a try. Simple - no big focus on calibration, paper types, lighting, etc. Just print, live with it, adjust it for the paper instead of the monitor.

 

(Click Here) to read the full post on Dear Susan.

 

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Day Sleepers - Cool Project

My Day Sleepers (NYC), by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX7

iso 800, f1.8, 1/125 sec.

 

I captured these guys sleeping on the subway in NYC. It's interesting to see people sleeping in public places, especially when they're not unfortunate homeless people.

 

I read an interesting piece on the Leica Camera Blog about Eric Leleu, a Frenchman who did an extensive project, photographing "day sleepers" in China. Interestingly, Eric used a Leica M6 for many years, and more recently a digital Leica M240, but in both cases with just one lens - a 35mm f1.4 Summilux.

 

(Click Here) to read the story on the Leica Camera Blog. Knowing he shot all of these with a 35mm wide angle impresses me. He had to get pretty close in many cases.

 

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Contemplative Geology

Contemplative Geology, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX100

iso200, f5.6, 1/800 sec.

 

Just part of the geology at the Desolation Wilderness in Northern California. This place is pretty zen.

 

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Computer Upgrade Brings Up Some Old Images

 

Hands of Time, by Reed A. George

Graflex Speed Graphic 4x5

 

I'm about half-way through migrating all of my images to my new computer. As expected, the process has been difficult, mainly because I'm not much of a computer tech person. But, I've now successfully moved Windows to a fast SSD drive, installed a new hard drive, installed Lightroom and moved over my existing catalog, etc. So, much progress has been made.

 

As I move images over, I'm seeing a lot from about 8-10 years ago, when I started storing them on my computer in earnest. This one is from 2006, I believe. The watch is one of the only things I have to remember my grandfather, who died when I was a child. The hands belong to my daughter, who's just started high school.

 

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Back Home, on the River

My long vacation over, I'm back out on the river in my kayak, with my Nikon D810 and 200-400mm f4 AF-S VR lens. Here's a shot from last Sunday on the Potomac.

Great Blue Heron, Ardea herodias, by Reed A. George

Nikon D810, Nikkor 200-400mm f4 AF-S G VR Lens

iso 1800, f5.6, 1/1250 sec.

 

On this particular outing, I focused on wildlife photography, leaving my fishing rod untouched. Rather than "running and gunning" down the river as I fished, I pulled the kayak quietly to shore in a few places, and was rewarded with more time to observe each creature that I came across, including several bird species, as well as a red fox.

 

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Going For It - 20 Tb of Hard Drives

So, I decided to go for it and bought a Western Digital EX4100 four-bay Network Attached Storage (NAS) box from Amazon. I got five 4 Tb drives, four for the NAS, one to have an exact-match inside my computer.

Image Source: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1460

 

I will have to be very careful in transferring files from my current disks to the new ones. Last time I did this, I attempted to move the files inside Lightroom, to preserve the connections with the Lightroom catalog. Somewhere in the middle of data transfer, a problem occurred, and I lost some data, and the catalog became corrupt. I finished by moving the files in Windows, then reconnecting the Lightroom catalog later on. That's what I'll do again this time.

 

I think that putting the source and destination drives into the new NAS box, giving them direct connection, will increase my chances of a successful data transfer, as well.

 

I'm looking forward to having a better storage system, that will be logically configured, instead of the one I have now, which grew up over the years. This system will also have plenty of room to grow from here, but in a rational way. The new NAS should arrive tomorrow, so that I can start my gradual upgrade of systems to support all the data I'm producing through my photography.

 

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