nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 (and panoramic landscapes)

I finally upgraded my copy of nik Color Efex Pro.¹ It has this new feature called “u-point” which allows you to do zone system tone masking a lot like LightZone. This means I can finally edit without masks. The other advantage is it finally works again on the Mac version of Photoshop. 😉

So I re-stitched an old panoramic of mine and then imported it into Photoshop to try out updated versions of my old nik filters as well as a new one.

Greyhound rock
Santa Cruz beaches, Santa Cruz, California
Olympus C-2500L
(8 images, 1/250-1/1300 sec) @ f/5.6, iso 100, 9.2mm (36mm)

Please view large on black.

[nik professional filters and panoramic photography after the jump]Continue reading →

Posted on March 13, 2008 by tychay 8

Running with cameras

DPReview has an excellent review of the 18-200mm Nikkor travel kit lens, a lens I happen to own.

I wait for Pizza with my Nikon camera (from side)
Patxi’s Pizza, Palo Alto, CA

Lumix DMC-LX1
1/3 sec @ f/2.8, iso 200, 6mm (28mm)

One criticism missing from the review is how annoyingly long the lens extends when zoomed—I’ll miss the slickness of the way the 18-70mm handles zooming as well as its build quality. One criticism in the review I take exception to is the complaint about complex distortion at wide angles—the reason is that DxO Optics Pro easily fixes this problem.

The review is especially notable because the excellent flash applet they have that shows the test results. This confirms something I’ve always suspected, but never really tested: the lens is not sharp at the long portrait telephoto distances.

Still, I think people reading the review might get so obsessed with MTF curves and assorted “pixel peeping” that they won’t gather why this lens, warts and all, is still a great lens.

Through the lens
Riverstone Townhomes, Mountain View, California

Nikon D70, Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-4.5G VR
1/30 sec @ f/5.6, iso 1000, 200mm (300mm)

This image easily made the front page of Nikon’s Stunning Gallery after I submitted it. It was taken with the lens I had on my camera: the 18-200mm at 200mm and taking advantage of the impressive close focusing capabilities of the lens.

This is good timing. When I got this lens two years ago to replace my 18-70mm, I managed to be one of the lucky few who got it quickly and for almost $100 than list price (Thanks, Roberts Imaging!). A year later, this lens was so scarce it was still reselling for almost $100 above list on eBay, I felt I made off like a bandit.

Now the price and availability have come more into line. Though I do wish the build quality was slightly higher or that the price was slightly cheaper.

Jeremiah, Holly, and Jessica (2007-0038 068)

Jeremiah, Holly, and Jessica
NetGear, Santa Clara, California

Nikon D200, Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G VR
1/90sec @ f/3.5, iso 800, 18mm (27mm)

The 18-200mm makes a great documentary lens because you don’t have time to switch out lenses. Here I capture a few of my friends talking after Lunch 2.0.

[Defending the all-purpose kit]Continue reading →

Posted on March 9, 2008 by tychay 6

The crack cocaine of the Leica world

Recently I think I’ve met two other people who have purchased Leica M8s and on both those cameras, I think I saw a Cosina-Voigtländer 35mm f/1.2 Nokton lens. If so, that’s a strange coincidence because it is a very obscure lens.

Leica and Cosina
North Beach, San Francisco, California

Nikon D200, Nikkor 85mm f/1.4D, Canon 500D close-up filter
1/40sec @ f/1.4, iso 200, 85mm (127mm)

Say what you will about the value, but I think rangefinder cameras look gorgeous.

The weird thing is, that this obscure lens is the only lens I have for my Leica.

Well that’s not true anymore:

Weird aperture
North Beach, San Francisco, California

Nikon D3, Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G VR, Canon 500D close up filter
1/2sec @ f/14, iso 200, 170mm (170mm)

The only lens I have for my Leica is no lens at all!

Yep, the lens has officially died in a manner unheard of: the internal aperture blades have popped out of their mount during normal shooting use. I am writing this to see if Cosina will do something to repair the manufacturing defect, and to write a little about my experiences with this lens on a digital Leica.

[The Nokton, Voigtländer, and Cosina after the jump]Continue reading →

Posted on March 5, 2008 by tychay 17

Joel B Sacks sendoff

I stopped by XYZ Bar to say bye to Joel B. Sacks, formerly of AdBrite and CNET. I came late and couldn’t stay for long.

Joel gets all the hotties
XYZ Bar, South of Market, San Francisco, California

Nikon D3, 14-24mm f/2.8G
1/6 sec @ f/2.8, iso 6400, 24mm (24mm)

Andrei left me my SB-800 so I did get to try out my new camera and remind myself that I need to relearn flash photography and crack open the manual sometime.

I had never been to XYZ Bar before. It is right across from the convention center and has a restaurant is on the first floor while the bar is on the second floor.

XYZ Bar
XYZ Bar, South of Market, San Francisco, California

Nikon D3, 14-24mm f/2.8G
1/30 sec @ f/2.8, iso 1100, 14mm (14mm)

[three more photos after the jump.]Continue reading →

Posted on March 2, 2008 by tychay 9

New camera

New camera, lens, and software…

First D3 photo
North Beach, San Francisco, California

Nikon D3, Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8G ED AF-S
1/15sec @ f/2.8, iso 420, 14mm (14mm)

[There is a jump.]Continue reading →

Posted on February 22, 2008 by tychay 14

Analog blog 2

I blame Merlin Mann of 43 folders. He’s the one who popularized Moleskines years ago.

How else can I explain that right after I wrote about my analog blog that Brian Moon pointed me to the very next xkcd about that. Which caused my friends to point out the sequel article:

Journal 2 by xkcd

Which gave me this weird flashback to the Kubrick and Cupcakes Get Satisfaction/Songbird party, where I caught both Ramon and Dave McClure as being one of the few without hats.

Ramon
Terra
South of Market, San Francisco, California

Nikon D70, Tokina 16-50mm AT-X PRO f/2.8 DX, SB-800, ultimate light box
1/20sec @ f/2.8, iso640, 21mm (31mm)

Ramon is almost always styling with a hat. Since everyone else is with hat, I suppose he is doing without.

Dave McClure
Terra
South of Market, San Francisco, California

Nikon D70, Tokina 16-50mm AT-X PRO f/2.8 DX, SB-800, ultimate light box
1/10sec @ f/2.8, iso640, 18mm (27mm)

Dave wears 500 hats, but the only one he has on this day is his party hat.

[Why Merlin Mann is the anti-christ after the jump.]Continue reading →

Posted on January 30, 2008 by tychay 4

The editing we live

I stopped by the Lensbaby booth at Macworld and was talking to a rep there.

He let me mess with his Canon XTi and Lensbaby 2.0. Since I’ve systematically destroyed all my cameras, it has been a long while. When my hands grabbed the camera, it was electric—my hands were made for an SLR, my eyes were made to be behind the viewfinder. I snapped a couple of photos.

A lensbaby is a cheap lens that turns your expensive dSLR into a really cheap lomographic camera.

He then asked me a question he had been pestered with that day, “Why don’t you just use photoshop to do the same thing the lensbaby does?”

[My answer after the jump]Continue reading →

Posted on January 17, 2008 by tychay 8

My supermodel moment

Just heard something about me that was completely ridiculous and, at the same time, very funny. (I only wish it were true.)

To set the record straight:
> Due to the ergodic hypothesis, social entropy, and a weird lensing effect, it may have appeared at that particular moment that the male-female ratio in my vicinity suffered a slight and short-lived population inversion.

Dave says that everyone eventually has their “supermodel moment” and I guess whatever caused that person to say that comment about me was mine.

We’ll give you something hot to photograph
Slide, Union Square, San Francisco, California

Nikon D70, Nikkor 12-24mm f/4G, SB-800, Ultimate Light Box
1/20 sec @ f/4, iso 1250, 12mm (18mm)

I was photographing an event and asked these pretty girls if they wouldn’t mind me taking their picture. After I did, two of them said they’d give me something really worth photographing, which they did multiple times.

This photo appeared on my Facebook feed and Plaxo Pulse, and incidents like this is how rumors about me get started.

Not that I’m complaining!

Posted on December 30, 2007 by tychay 9

Have you hugged your engineer?

I was browsing through Facebook and I ran across Andrew Mager’s profile photo again. This time it was taken at the CNET holiday party.

I’ve been saying for a while now that I’m just going to compile all of his Facebook profile photos into a book and make bank. But I had to blog this one, which gives you an idea of what I’m talking about:

You can see the original photo here.

Besides, Andrew Mager, the people in the photo are Jessica Dolcourt, Caroline McCarthy, and Erica Ogg—all writers at CNET Networks in SF.

I took one look at this and wanted to tell Libby and Linda that they should use this photo for CNET’s recruiting material, this way they’ll have no trouble hiring engineers. 😀 This reminds me that a little birdy told me that they’re looking for a PHP architect.

[more random thoughts after the jump]Continue reading →

Posted on December 14, 2007 by tychay 12

2007-11-02 Party Dress Birthday Celebration

Against my better judgement (health), I woke up from my disco nap and headed down to Etiquette Lounge to celebrate the “party dress birthday” of Halle, Michelle, Liisa who were turning 21 (again) and Peter who was turning 30 (again).

Birthday girls and friends
Etiquette Lounge
Civic Center, San Francisco, California

Nikon D200, Tokina 16-50mm AT-X PRO f/2.8 DX, SB-800, ultimate light box
1/40sec @ f/2.8, iso 800, 16mm (24mm)

Peter turns 30 again… with friends again.
Etiquette Lounge
Civic Center, San Francisco, California