“He’s not a public intellectual—he’s a fucking wind sock. And he knows it.”
Beware the Man has a nice summary of a Joe Klein takedown.
Continue reading about Missing setup if you don’t know the players after the jump.
Category: arts and letters
Fail-safe never is
“He reassured me by telling me that when he looked back on his career, all the work he was most proud of was done under circumstances just like that, where it seemed impossible, where there wasn’t enough time, there wasn’t enough money, and everyone had set the bar really high for themselves.”
From a Variety article on Pixar (via Flackette).
Below red
A package came in the mail when I was on vacation, I went into work to pick it up. It was my Nikon D70 back from LifePixel. Of course, I had to take some photos on the bus ride back.
On a crowded MUNI
San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
Nikon D70+eIR, Tokina AT-X PRO 16-50mm f/2.8 DX
1/30sec @ f/2.8, iso 400, 16mm (24mm)
Hmm… maybe it isn’t obvious, perhaps an unprocessed image will help…
Looking out the window
San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
Nikon D70+eIR, Tokina AT-X PRO 16-50mm f/2.8 DX
1/180sec @ f/6.7, iso 200, 17mm (25mm)
This photo is pretty much, straight out of the camera.
Yes, I had the camera modified for infrared photography. And, yes, I’m going to have a lot of fun with it…
Nikon D70+eIR, Nikkor 14-14mm f/2.8G
1/250sec @ f/8, iso 500, 22mm (33mm)
1/250sec @ f/8, iso 500, 22mm (33mm)
Hiring a wedding photographer
A friend wrote me:
I was curious if i could hire your photography skills for my wedding day Sept 12. My favorite photos of myself in the last couple years were taken by you at parties in SF. Do you do that sort of thing? Not traditional wedding posed photos, just good-time party photos.
While my friend was just looking for a primary photographer to shoot a party, this lead me to think what it must like to hire a wedding photographer? That’s a private trauma I never had to endure…
I need to descend again?
Mia and Ken’s Wedding, Rancho Santa Fe, California
Mia and Ken’s Wedding, Rancho Santa Fe, California
Nikon D70, Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G VR, UV filter
1/100sec @ f/2.8, iso 200, 82mm
My sister-in-law
Continue reading about About hiring a wedding photographer after the jump.
GDGT launch
gdgt is a gadget-based social network that hosted a launch party today since I had an invite, I thought I’d stop by. Alas, the line was long!
Outside the GDGT launch
DNA Lounge, South of Market, San Francisco, California
DNA Lounge, South of Market, San Francisco, California
Nikon D3, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D
1/60sec @ f/5 iso200, 50mm
The line was so long, I didn’t go in. It was between a Costco hotdog and this, the hotdog won. (I’m sure it was a great event, and the line moved fast.) In any case, I should have known better—I guess the reason I rarely see my friends in the gadget industry is…these things are popular!
One of these days, maybe I’ll avail myself to the multiple opportunities to cut in line. No matter, I’ve seen the inside of DNA lounge before.
Continue reading about the postprocessing of this image after the jump
Lenses as software
John Gruber links Brian Tiemann’s piece on the cost of platform switching.
Pounce the Geek Cat
Mountain View, California
Mountain View, California
Pentax Optio S
1/8sec @ f/2.6 iso800, 5.8mm (35mm)
My ex-cat Pownce preparing to jump away from the Mac OS X platform?
The argument centers around that the cost of switching in photography is high because of lens investment just like the cost of switching in computers is high because of software (purchase) investment.
Bullshit.
Bear Cans
I was amused to read about the bear Yellow Yellow’s ability to break into the BearVault 500.
When doing outdoor photography it is very important to know the bear-proof rules for your area. For instance, when I last hiked Tahoe, it was okay to use a bear-bag—a canvas bag that you throw up into the trees and anchor by tying to a tree. But in Yosemite and Mount Whitney, this is a big no-no as bears long ago figured out how to pull down a bear bag, you have to use a bear proof canister.
Upper Yosemite and Half Dome
Yosemite Falls Trail, Yosemite National Park, California
Nikon D70, 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G, UV filter
f/11 at 1/20 second, 18mm (27mm), iso 200
Yosemite Falls Trail, Yosemite National Park, California
Nikon D70, 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G, UV filter
f/11 at 1/20 second, 18mm (27mm), iso 200
Luckily, all campsites at Yosemite have food lockers to protect your stuff.
Symmetrical compositions
After this article, Kara convinced me to sign up for the Worldwide Photo Walk this year. I ended up going to the Marin one even though there were five in SF.
The big challenge of an outdoor nature photo walk—besides watching others take better photos than you—is getting your gear down to something you can live with. Especially if you haven’t been photographing in forever. Even if you see something you like, it means compromises to get there. I noticed that the lighting was too flat, but the sky had nice texture, and from the town, I could see Rat Rock Island standing off the promontory.
I really had to shoot that:
Rat Rock Island
China Camp State Park, Marin, California
China Camp State Park, Marin, California
Nikon D3, Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8G, handheld
8 exposures 1/400sec @ f/10 +/-2/3 stop, iso200, 14mm
Da Grip
I’m left-eyed.
Left-eyed
North Beach, San Francisco, California
North Beach, San Francisco, California
Leica M8, Cosina-Voigtländer NOKTON 35mm F1.2 Aspherical
1/500sec, iso 320, 35mm (47mm)
No that’s not a Sharingan, just creative editing.
It’s not completely rare to see some left-eyed photographers, but that’s mostly because creative types tend to be left-handed.
I’m right-handed, but left-eyed.
This is the reason that I couldn’t get out of my athletic requirement by taking up riflery. I had to pull the trigger with my non-dominant hand which is a big disadvantage. And no, an eyepatch won’t correct this since I’m three diopters worse in the right eye. It flunks so badly that I barely pass a depth perception test even when corrected. I simply never look out of it.
All this is is a really indirect way of talking about some free schwag that Kara dropped off…
Thanks, Peachpit
South of Market, San Francisco, California
South of Market, San Francisco, California
Nikon D3, Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8G
1/60 sec @ f/2.8 iso2000, 20mm
2009-06-25 Out comes the Leica
I haven’t shot the Leica in a long, long while. The main reason is both the M-mount lenses I have were busted and I have been too lazy to get them repaired. But actually, the larger reason is that I haven’t been shooting much of anything in over a year.
The introduction of the Olympus E-P1 reminds me that I have to get some of my money’s worth out of my cameras. Good dSLR bodies depreciate at the rate of 25% per year compounded. Photography with $5000 bodies gets expensive quickly!
So I purchased the 40mm sister of the lens I mentioned before and started to snap away—the fact that I can adapt this as an 80mm f/1.4 portrait lens on a E-P1 figured partially into that decision 🙂
I’ve been trying to take advantage of my recent move to SoMa to set up some way to share interesting discussions with friends. Since I didn’t want to kill my friends with my risotto just yet, that meant scheduling a dinner at a nearby restaurant suggested by an old friend but new neighbor Jonathan.
COCO500 Dinner Menu
COCO500, South of Market, San Francisco, California
COCO500, South of Market, San Francisco, California
Leica M8, Cosina-Voigtländer NOKTON Classic 40mm f1.4 S.C., B+W 486 IR Cut
1/20sec, iso640, 40mm (53mm)
Just outside the restaurant, flackette met two friends Ryan and Stephanie. While they were catching up, I decided to practice trying to manually focus on their new pug, Frank, who resembles his namesake—delta a cut of CTO.
Frank
COCO500, South of Market, San Francisco, California
COCO500, South of Market, San Francisco, California
Leica M8, Cosina-Voigtländer NOKTON Classic 40mm f1.4 S.C., B+W 486 IR Cut
1/30sec, iso640, 40mm (53mm)