Gordy's Camera Straps

Somewhere along the way, I ran into [Gordy’s Camera Straps][gordyscamerastraps].

Gordon Coale is a guy out in Washington state who hand makes leather camera straps. Last year it occurred to me that one of his straps would perfectly match my [Hirano case][hirano japanexposures] (which you [may have seen before][live view]). Hand straps are simply a good idea for nearly any camera, because they’re the most minimal safety leash for photography: you don’t really need a one normally; but if something bad happens, you’ll be glad you have one around your wrist. Plus, when you do it right, they look gorgeous:

The food camera and Gordy’s strap
Barracuda Sushi, Castro, San Francisco, California

Nikon D3, 24mm f/1.4G, SB-900
1/50 sec @ ƒ2, iso 800, 24mm

I bought this Gordy’s strap almost exactly one year ago.

[gordyscamerastraps]: http://www.gordyscamerastraps.com/ “gordy’s camera straps”
[hirano japanexposures]: http://www.japanexposures.com/shop/index.php?manufacturers_id=36 “Camera Hirano—JapanExposures. These English speakers will get import Hirano cases for you.”
[live view]: http://terrychay.com/article/live-view-aperture-on-the-e-p2.shtml “Live view aperture on the E-P2”

Continue reading about camera straps and cases after the jump

Posted on October 8, 2011 by tychay 1

Office Porn

A few weeks ago, there was a thread on on of our internal blogs at workconcerning our home office setup for productivity and comfort. One of them mentioned an old blog post of mine, and it occurred to me that it’s been five years since I’ve shared my office.

Here is what it looks like today:

My home office (HDR)
The Richmond, San Francisco, California

Nikon D3, Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8G
36 exposures (0+/-3ev), 1/15sec @ ƒ8, ISO200, 14mm

Continue reading about my office and HDR panoramic photography after the jump

Posted on October 6, 2011September 16, 2014 by tychay 12

Marie at my desk

There is some sensor dust that is wedged in there, but I was worried that my Adorama order wouldn’t arrive before I had to leave. Since, I am “a customer support person’s worst nightmare,” Marie decided to call them for me to confirm the order.

While waiting, I put the Heliar on my Leica and snapped some photos.

50 F5.3 Heliar on M8
South of Market, San Francisco, California

Olympus E-P2, Lumix G 20mm f/1.7
1/60sec @ ƒ1.7, iso 1250, 20mm (50mm)

The [heliar][heliar] is about as plane-jane lens as you can put on a camera: a normal lens with modest apertures. About the only thing it has going for it is that it is the sharpest lens Popular Photography has ever tested. Well, that and [its nickel plating][50mm heliar] looks gorgeous when collapsed into a Leica digital body.

50 F5.3 Heliar on M8
South of Market, San Francisco, California

Olympus E-P2, Lumix G 20mm f/1.7
1/60sec @ ƒ1.7, iso 1250, 20mm (50mm)

In the days of super-wides and full-frame, sometimes it’s fun to shoot normal. Take out your 50mm and shoot a portrait today, you might be surprised at the result.

[heliar]: http://www.antiquecameras.net/heliarlenses.html “A Short History of the Heliar Lens—Angique & Classic Cameras”
[50mm heliar]: http://www.cameraquest.com/voigt_5035N.htm “New Nickel 50/3.5 Voigtlander Heliar—Cameraquest”

Posted on October 5, 2011 by tychay 2

In with a bang, and out with a burrito

In the crossfire between the landlord and the city, Automattic got [evicted][evicted] from their home on Pier 38 on Friday.

At the end of every week, some of the [Automatticians][automatticians] have been having #burittofridays, so they made one last burrito run before closing the doors. As Beau, put it, “We came in with a bang, and out with a burrito.”

In with a bang…and out with a burrito
Pier 38, South of Market, San Francisco, California

Olympus E-P2, Lumix G HD 14-14 f/4-5.8 OIS
1/320s @ ƒ9, iso 200, 19mm (38mm)

One of the advantages of working for a distributed company is that now that we are homeless, we’ll simply be working from home. The Bay Area crew won’t get to see each other each week though. 🙁

And here is one last parting shot from [our fearless leader][matt]:

Our fearless leader
Pier 38, South of Market, San Francisco, California

Olympus E-P2, Lumix G HD 14-14 f/4-5.8 OIS
1/400sec @ ƒ8, iso 200, 103mm (206mm)

He leaves us with a bit of= T.S. Eliot:

> We shall not cease from exploration
> And the end of all our exploring
> Will be to arrive where we started
> And know the place for the first time.

I’ll miss you guys.

[matt]: http://ma.tt “Matthew Mullenweg”
[evicted]: http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-09-09/business/30133602_1_evictions-tenants-carl-ernst “Pier 38 deemed unsafe; tech tenants evicted—SFGate”
[automatticians]: http://automattic.com/about/ “About Us—Automattic”

Posted on October 1, 2011 by tychay 0

Nikon gets EVIL

That’s “**E**lectronic **V**iewfinder, **I**nterchangeable **L**ens,” or a SLR without the “R”eflex mirror. And here is how Nikon got EVIL:

The Nikon 1 system. Press image, relayed via NikonRumors.

[Nikon 1]: http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/acil/index.htm “Advanced Camera with Interchangeable Lens—Nikon Imaging”

This is the [Nikon 1][Nikon 1]. For obvious reasons, Nikon is not calling it EVIL, but instead A-CIL (Advanced Camera with Interchangeable Lenses). Call it what you like, I’m a big fan of the EVIL camera, and this is the first of this type introduced from the “big two” (Canon or Nikon).

The new camera will debut in October with two body types (J1 and V1), with four lenses and three accessories..

Continue reading about the Nikon 1 and other compact system cameras after the jump

Posted on September 22, 2011 by tychay 1

OSCON 2011

There is some irony that the two years I take a hiatus from OSCON are the two years it’s in my backyard. When I try to start speaking again, they’re back in Portland.

I’m going to be at OSCON this week giving two talks:

– [Living without Your Linemen: The Programmer Becomes System Operator in the Cloud](http://www.oscon.com/oscon2011/public/schedule/detail/18893). It’s about why you should get your shit together and pay attention to all this cloud hooplah
– [Tales of Virality](http://www.oscon.com/oscon2011/public/schedule/detail/18892). It should be a fun little talk about viral marketing (from an engineering perspective).

I’ve given these before, but one of them was a keynote (so had a different style), and other was at a private event. Unfortunately (for me) they didn’t put these talks in the PHP track as I asked. One was put in the Operations track and the other was put in the Business track. Quel désastre! I’ll try to make it worth your time, if you plan on attending. So please come see them!

If not, say hi anyway, I don’t bite, and I can hold of my alcohol down (mostly). I usually sober up before 5pm (when I’m giving these talks). 🙂

Posted on July 26, 2011 by tychay 0

Carrying a camera

It’s been a while, but now that I’m almost moved in to the new place, I think it’s high time I start photographing again. Mostly this means carrying around the camera, even if I haven’t gotten used to pressing the shutter button again.

Recently, “the camera” means my trusty Leica and [the original lens I purchased with it](http://terrychay.com/article/cosina-voigtlander-lenses.shtml “The crack cocaine of the Leica World. I have five M-mount lenses, but this is still my favorite. Maybe because I’m used to the focal length; maybe it’s because it is silver.”).

Marie at the Mall
Stonestown Mall, San Francisco, California

Leica M8, Cosina-Voigtländer NOKTON 35mm F1.2 Aspherical
1/60sec, iso 160, 35mm (47mm)

Continue reading about shooting a digital Leica after the jump.

Posted on July 15, 2011 by tychay 0

PHP Community Conference Closing Keynote

I submitted a couple talks for [PHP Community Conference](http://phpcon.org/) last month, of which one was accepted.

Unfortunately, it was the one I hadn’t prepared at all. The title was “living without your linemen” and was supposed to be about cloud services. A bit later, they asked if I could make it the closing keynote for the conference. This allowed me to write it from scratch and actually finish the talk (which I did about 30 minutes before I had to present it).

I’m told that they’ll eventually have a video archive of the talk at [OpenEvent.tv](http://openevent.tv/), but in the meantime, I audio-recorded it and synced it to the slides on slideshare. (Apologies for the sound quality being poor, I recorded it from my Mac Book Air).

Living Without Linemen—PHP Community Conference 2011

View more webinars from terry chay

Continue reading about PHP Community Conference after the jump.

Posted on May 11, 2011 by tychay 1

Why Conde Nast hates me

Yesterday, Conde Nast finally caved in and is selling iPad subscriptions to the New Yorker at a reasonable price. Not only that, but [if you get the print one, you can supposedly get the digital and iPad version for free](https://w1.buysub.com/pubs/N3/NYR/IpadForm.jsp?cds_page_id=99249 “New Yorker subscription to Print + Digital Access”).