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

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

Luckily, all campsites at Yosemite have food lockers to protect your stuff.

Continue reading about Bear vs Car after the jump

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PHP Job: PHP 'guru' position in San Francisco

Senior Software Engineer (PHP/MYSQL)

Someone who has help build scalable web apps for sites with millions of users at established Web 2.0 company.

Seeking a self-directed senior software engineer with a desire to build scalable and interesting web applications. We desire someone who is comfortable writing efficient database schemas, clean and efficient back-end code, and has passionate opinions about user interface and interaction. Developer will be working to design and implement new features and improve the overall experience for millions of people. Developer will be part of a team that works on diverse, site-spanning projects involving community-facing tools, video, web services, security, anti-spam, user-to-user interaction, advertiser network, and more. Projects will be for both internal tools and highly-used public-facing products.

Continue reading about Qualifications and contact after the jump

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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

Rat Rock Island
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

View Large on Black

Continue reading about About composition after the jump

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Da Grip

I’m left-eyed.

Left-eyed

Left-eyed
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!

Thanks, Peachpit
South of Market, San Francisco, California

Nikon D3, Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8G
1/60 sec @ f/2.8 iso2000, 20mm

Continue reading about About Da Grip after the jump

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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.

2009-0205 7

COCO500 Dinner Menu
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

Frank
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)

Continue reading about about dinner after the jump

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Reviews with perspective

Listening to Wired’s review of the Olympus E-620 (rated 6/10), an entry level dSLR I’m not the least bit interested in, when I got to this discussion on high ISO performance:

I say “in theory” because the E-620 doesn’t really do all that well in low light situations. If the room is really dark, it takes time focusing and it won’t take really good pictures. If you crank up the ISO level beyond about 1000, the images start to look really grainy which is typical of cameras with much smaller sensors

My ear perked up.

This usually means I’m being fed bullshit.

Hmm, let’s see what Phil Askey has to say about this same camera:

Turning the noise filter down to ‘Low’ should produce results pretty much on a par with the best in class, up to ISO 1600. ISO 3200 isn’t terribly pretty but it’s no worse than you’d expect for anything smaller than a full-frame 24x36mm sensor. [Plus listing the control over noise as being a advantage in the conclusions.]

See for yourself…

Next gen entry level camera high ISO Noise performance from DPReview

Grainy at ISO’s > 1000? I guess this depends on what your definition of ISO is. 😉

Compare the E-620 with its graduating class
Continue reading about Discussion of bad review characteristics and a look back after the jump

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Electronic Pen configurator

Spending a half our messing with Four-Thirds matching simulator.

Olympus E-P1 with Voigtlander M mount lenses

The top one is a 50mm f1.1 lens (100mm in 35mm equivalent). Imagine that! The middle one is a lens I own (35mm f1.2) except mine is in chrome and needs to be fixed. The bottom one is the 35mm f1.4 NOKTON classic. I own the 40mm version and mine has an “S.C.” stamped on the outside of it, but pretty much looks like that.

All would require an adapter available from Cameraquest in L.A..

Here is an amazing Stop Motion viral video from Olympus, titled “The Pen Story”:

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Someone needs two bits of sense, and it’s not Apple

Since it was linked to from Apple’s Hot News section, I read with interest Galbraith’s article on the color accuracy of the new Macbook Pros, even though I plan on skipping this iteration of macbook.

When I came across this article titled, “New MBP offers top display quality, but some beg to differ, I thought, “Oh, Galbraith was wrong on something.”

Not everyone is satisfied with the MBP screens, however. Designer Louie Mantia of the Iconfactory has a bone to pick with the screen quality of his new 13″ unit; it’s sporting a 6-bit display, which has been an issue with color-sensitive professionals for years now.

No such luck, just some moron talking out of his ass. Ahh, the old canard about how their 8-bit panels are really 6-bit. Let me spare these people two bits of wisdom.

Continue reading about about 6-bit and 8-bit color after the jump

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