Bridal Candid

Nikon D100, Nikkor 300mm f4.5 

We just stepped out of the car when we noticed a bridal party out at Crissy Field getting some outdoor pictures taken. The bride and groom were standing on top of a small grassy area and as I looked for a photo opportunity at this scene without being too obstrusive, I decided to switch from my 28mm to the 300mm. I quickly swapped lenses on the D100, took one or two shots to gauge exposure. I didn't have time to waste by tinkering with the exposure. This would have to do because they weren't going to stand there much longer. 

I managed to get two candid pictures of the bride and this one had the best expression and pose. The lighting was a little difficult, but I chose to expose for skin tone and I let the wedding dress and other highlights get blown out. I think it still worked okay. What do you think?

--Warren

Kite Flyer

Nikon D100, Nikkor 300mm f4.5

I took the 300mm out for a spin today at Crissy Field. 

--Warren

Mountain Lake, San Francisco

Nikon D100, Tokina 17mm f3.5 ATX-Pro

This is one of the few remaining natural lakes in the city of San Francisco.

--Warren

Me at Russian Hill

Leica M3, 50mm f2.8 Elmar, Fuji Superia Xtra 400

As part of my day out with the M3 for the first time, I wanted to test it under different conditions. In this shot, I wanted to test the Elmar's performance using a semi-shallow depth of field. We came upon this area of open shade, and I selected 1/500, f5.6 (as far as I can remember), handed the M3 to Gail and told her to take my picture with the SF Bay and Alcatraz as the background. This was the first opportunity for Gail to handle the M3, and she did very well, primarily because Gail is no stranger to handling all my different cameras over the many years that we've been together. She took two shots here. The first one was mainly to get a feel for how the camera operates. The picture that you see here is the 2nd shot. I feel that compositionally, she nailed the 2nd shot (she has always had great instincts for composition). I did very little post-processing correction on this one.

Even with a cheap, low-resolution Walgreens scan, you can see that pictures taken with this lens have some "pop" to them. I am very pleased with this Leica 50mm lens.

--Warren

Walking the Golden Gate Promenade

Leica M3, 50mm f2.8 Elmar, Fuji Superia Xtra 400

As you can probably tell by my many photos from this area, this is one of our favorite places for a walk.

--Warren

Building 1818

Nikon D100, Tokina 17mm f3.5 ATX-Pro

This unused/abandoned building is located on Battery Caulfield Road in the Presidio. I thought this was an interesting texture study.

--Warren

Long, Steep, and Winding

Nikon D100, Tokina 17mm f3.5 ATX-Pro

We went hiking in the Presidio today, and we came upon this very steep trail. We thought that it was an ideal place for a photo :).

--Warren

Vintage Camera Day - With a Gift From Warren!

Here are some photos I took using Warren's generous gift to me of a Nikon FM. It's the first time I've shot film since August 2003!

I took my "new" Nikon to today's Vintage Camera Day outing of my photo group, Shutterbug Excursions.

The Nikon handled beautifully, and as you can see, the results are quite sharp. We all took our film to a Ritz 1-Hour photo place a block away from the Inner Harbor, and they did a decent enough job on 4x6 prints. I also had them scan the negatives onto a CD for an additional $4.00 per roll. Unfortunately, the scans were dissappointing - an average of only 1MB per photo. There's no reason they shouldn't be at least 3000 x 2000 pixels using modern minilabs, so I won't use Ritz any more.

But overall, my first film experience in almost 6 years worked out well. And best of all, our gang had a really good time.

Thanks again to Warren for the great camera!

Sunset at Half Moon Bay

While with Warren and Gail, I got this shot of Half Moon Bay. This was a while back.

-- Eric

La Cirque et Moi

La Cirque est arriveé!

I didn't know Cirque du Soleil was coming to town, but as I was leaving Baltimore today, I saw the striped, conical tents and detoured to see what was going on.

Now I myself would never attend a performance of Cirque; the snippets I've seen on TV scare the crap out of me. It all looks very postmodern and Frenchified to me.

Kind of like Cats on steroids.

Non, merci.

Our Blue Lagoon

Leica M3, 50mm f2.8 Elmar, Fuji Superia 400

This is the lagoon at Crissy Field in the Presidio. It was a cold and windy, but clear day.

--Warren

Two Up, Two Down

Leica M3, 50mm f2.8 Elmar, Fuji Superia 400

These kids were standing at the top of the "7 Curves" at Lombard Street.

Two of the girls were doing the digicam salute while the other two people were fussing with their camera settings.

I took my M3 out for the first time last weekend, and I had a great time with it.

--Warren

Adams Morgan Excursion

My friend and fellow Excursionaire, Mary, obligingly took on the role as the person in the bright jacket walking past this lovely mural in Adams Morgan.

Mary and I were walking from the subway stop to our Meetup point, a Starbucks in the heart of the colorful Adams Morgan neighborhood.

Unboxing

I haven't had this much fun "unboxing" something since my Commie Camera days!

Warren's generous gift of a Nikon FM arrived today, and I wanted to memorialize the moment for you by preparing a series of "unboxing" photos. Check out the professional-level shipping preparation Warren did! You have the click on the small images to appreciate the level of care he used (and it worked ;-)

The camera is a real beauty, and I can't wait to try it out for the first time this Saturday morning at the Vintage Camera Day I organized for my local photo group.

Thanks, Warren!

Hong Kong Pedestrians Part 2

The hordes as they cross the street during lunch hour.

-- Eric

Hong Kong Pedestrian

Caught this photo of a guy crossing the street in Hong Kong. I originally took it in color, but wanted to check out b&w conversion features in Adobe Photoshop. I usually just used the Desaturate and Curves tools in the past just to play around, but I have also learned the virtues of Channel Mixer thanks to Warren.

-- Eric

Paying it Forward

Hello Everyone,

I've recently had some very good camera "karma", having received a bunch of interesting camera gear. In fact, I've already given away two kits of 35mm slr cameras. I would like to give you guys the first opportunity to claim this one. If nobody is interested, then I will offer it up somewhere else. I am giving this away free to someone who will actually use it. This is a chrome Nikon FM with a Nikkor 50mm f1.8  ai lens. I shot a roll of film through this combination, and it seems to be working fine. You saw a few of the pictures from it here on the blog over the holidays. The one obvious flaw is on the len's front filter ring. There is an ever so slight inward bend on the filter ring at about the 1 o'clock position when looking at it from the front. You can see it in the 2nd picture. It is bent enough so that you will not be able to use a filter on the lens unless you straighten out the bend somehow.

So if any of you have an interest in shooting some film, here's your chance to get into it. Or if you know someone who is taking photography classes, here's the perfect setup. It's a classic Nikon all-mechanical, all-metal, compact 35mm slr body with one of Nikon's sharpest 50mm lenses. If you're not local, you need to pay for shipping, otherwise we can arrange a local meetup somewhere.

Let me know if you're interested, or if you have any questions about the camera.

--Warren

This was taken with no flash. 

This shot ws taken with flash, and it really hides all the imperfections, doesn't it?

Liberty For Sale

In most ways, it's a typical Times-Square area New York gift shop, full of I Love NYC ball caps, eight sizes of Empire State Building souvenir ornaments, and racks of Obama-Yes We Can! t-shirts.

But what distinguished this little shop was the just-about-person-sized replica of the Statue of Liberty, made from oak with a realistic copper patina and gold-leaf torch flame.

For sale!

At an appropriately recession-worthy price, too - I mean, wouldn't you like to have a Statue of Liberty in your home for only $1500?

By way of explanation, I took this photo yesterday on 8th Avenue near 45th Street waiting for our son Ben to join us for lunch. We were all going to see the matineé of the musical Avenue Q.

Camera-wise, I used a disappear-in-your-pocket Canon SD400 that I inherited from daughter Leah - she just replaced it with a spiffy Canon SD880IS.

Street Sign Oddity

Nikon D100, Nikkor 28mm f2.8

We came upon this in an alley in North Beach.

--Warren