Cameras & Photography

[BFrank]

Ron, your tree shot almost has a 3D quality to it.

Agreed. It does have a special quality, Brooks. I wish that I could get the lighting more accurate, though. I plan on playing with the exposure in the next few days to see if I can more accurately depict what we see in the room with our eyes. For instance, the banker's lamp on the desk is "blown out" and shouldn't be. It's tricky.

Good luck with that! Low ambient light, bright highlights, incandescent bulbs ... a photographer's nightmare!

[Ron Thorne]

I think I was able to work out most of the problems I faced with the earlier low light scenario through trial & error, Brooks. At least, it's much more acceptable to my eyes now. These are all hand-held shots at ISO 400.




Christmas Eve. Santa had obviously arrived a bit early.




Closeups of ornaments taken with a Christmas gift, a 28mm "new" old Konica Hexanon lens from my oldest son, Darren.

[BFrank]

That has a nice subdued glow to it now - interesting.

[Ron Thorne]

That has a nice subdued glow to it now - interesting.

That really captures the way it looked quite accurately, Brooks. I'm pleased. The only lighting was from the banker's light on the desk behind the tree and the miniature lights on the tree.

By the way, those gifts weren't just for Patti & me, they were for four adults and two children.

[BFrank]

I hope you got some GOOD presents for Christmas, Ron!

There's still something I like about the "hyper-real" look of your original photo, though.

[Ron Thorne]

I hope you got some GOOD presents for Christmas, Ron!

I did, Brooks. Soon I plan to show a photo of my "new" old lens and the matching rectangular lens shade which I also received as a gift. It's in mint condition and a beautiful creation.

There's still something I like about the "hyper-real" look of your original photo, though.

Fair enough. The two photos are remarkably different for sure. I like each of them for different reasons.

[Ron Thorne]

Here are two shots of my Olympus E-PL1 with my "new" vintage Konica Hexanon 28mm f3.5 lens and matching lens hood. It's a real beauty in excellent condition.

At 56mm (doubling focal length in Micro 4/3 cameras), this closely represents a "normal" lens in 35mm slr terms. You can see my Konica-to-Olympus adapter, too. It's a pretty powerful, compact system for such a reasonable cost.

[Ron Thorne]

I took these two photos at our daughter's home on Christmas morning. Our family made the ornament in the center of the lower photo when our children were in grade school.

There's just something so warm, inviting and evocative about this kind of scene. I can't resist.

[BFrank]

That's quite a rig there, Ron. Definitely can have lots of fun with it - and it takes great images, too! Those Christmas scenes open up lots of possibilities.

On the other end of the 'cool camera spectrum,' here's a shot I took with my iPhone 4S today looking across the Golden Gate to the Marin Headlands. I hate that these things can take such good pictures (notwithstanding the relatively low resolution, of course).

[Ron Thorne]

Nice shot, Brooks! Sometimes we're forced to use the tools we have at the moment, even if they have shortcomings.

Here are some photos I took from the air, soon after takeoff from Anchorage yesterday. I love the opportunity to have this vantage point. I also love the play of light & shadows on the mountains.



Ice Floes in Cook Inlet



Chugach Mountains 1



Chugach Mountains 2

[BFrank]

VERY impressive, Ron! Alaska sure has spectacular scenery.

[Ron Thorne]

Thanks, Brooks. I never cease to be amazed at the sheer beauty surrounding us in Alaska. Those shots were taken less than 5 mins. after takeoff.

[Ron Thorne]

Here are a couple of shots I took on a recent trip to California. This is Mt. Rainier, basking in the glow of the late afternoon sun and embraced by acres of clouds. I really loved this scenario, and grabbed my camera as fast as I could.

[BFrank]

Wow - very dramatic, Ron!

This isn't nearly as scenic, but an interesting view over Greenland from a trip to London last year.

[Ron Thorne]

Nice, Brooks. That view looks very similar to ours when leaving Alaska mid-winter.

I really dig your avatar.

[Ron Thorne]

White Hibiscus

[BFrank]

Nice hibiscus!

Keeping with the theme, here are some shots from our Botanic Garden. They recently placed a dozen pianos around the park for a couple of weeks that anyone could stop by and play. Interesting idea ...

[Ron Thorne]

Thanks, Brooks.

What a great idea, but I immediately thought of rainfall onto/into the pianos. This piano-in-the-park project lent itself to interesting photos, too.

[BFrank]

Thanks, Brooks.

What a great idea, but I immediately thought of rainfall onto/into the pianos. This piano-in-the-park project lent itself to interesting photos, too.

From what I understand, the pianos were donated by a piano store and these were borderline junkers. We don't know what the word "rain" means here anyway, but if it DID happen - no great loss. It WAS a great idea, though. I was skeptical at first, but once I saw them in "action," I was convinced.

[jtx]

On a recent trip to Santa Monica, I discovered where all of the Internet's files not found are stored.



You'd think the padlock would be more substantial.

[Ron Thorne]

A Leica camera commercial this morning sparked an idea for a new topic here. I'll begin at the beginning.

Old School meets New School ... cutting edge technology in a vintage-looking camera body. More companies are jumping on this bandwagon.




Leica M Anniversary Edition ‘100 years of Leica photography’

[BFrank]

Fuji X-T10

[BFrank]

Minox!
They recently had a mini-version of a Rollei, too.

[Ron Thorne]

Christmas tree 2015. I really love the way my camera captures this type of scene.

[BFrank]

Very nice. I remember you got great tree shots last year, too, Ron!