notes from the front

I stepped a bit outside my normal zone this week and did the school portraits for my daughters' pre-school.

I don't care what shape your light modifier is, there is just no way that catch-lights in toddler snot are going to be attractive. And I have new respect for the people who do this regularly because getting a GOOD shot with a squirmy 4 year old in 3 frames is a real challenge.

Another JPG submission

My submission to "Beauty Redefined"

(The picture of Tammy dancing has been moved to the "Breakthrough" theme.)

Historic Photographs interpreted in Lego

I think the Moholy-Nagy is my favorite.

First LX-2 road test

Just got back from the first field test of my birthday camera, and the results are promising, but not yet certain. While the beach test went fairly well, I need to get some people shooting in before the 200 exposure and 14 day limits on returns are up.

This was kind of an impulse trip, so I packed a *very* light camera bag (for me, anyway. Only 2 cameras? Such restraint!)

Today's Adventure Pack

Panasonic LUMIX LX2

1G SimpleTech SD card
This card is slow, but was very cheap. I probably won't buy more, though, becuase the 10 MP RAW files are big enough and waiting for the camera to finish writing is annoying enough that if I keep the camera I will be investing in some high speed cards.

LX2 manual.
For someone who has been using SLRs for years, point-and-shoots are not intuitive, especally ones with as many options as this one's got.

Trusty Pentax 35mm manual SLR with 100mm macro prime
This is my favorite camera, and favorite lens, that I can practically operate in my sleep, it's such a long time companion. I know 50mm is supposed to be the closest analog to human sight, but this lens is definitely the closest analog to my personal vision.

mini gray card

Ilford Pan F
My favorite low-grain black and white film. Slow as snot, and totally worth it.

Kodak Portra VC 400
This was actually an outdated roll my boss gave me. (Playing around with outdated film is fine. Shooting paying clients with it is not.) I wanted to see what effect the "Vivid Color" would have on this gray, overcast day; I'm hoping to have this roll back by the end of the day, and will post more from it later. The Ilford will stew until I get a chance to swing by an appropriate lab.

mini sketchbook/notepad

business cards
I gave out two of these, both to dog owners I *think* I got cute pictures of.

cell phone
with all important "go home now" alarm set, in case of too much fun

martinsville emporium chocolate orange lip balm
it's windy on the beach, dangit! And the chocolate orange is so tasty.

Also, I wore a light grey sweater and black jacket that could be removed to use as reflectors/gobos when necessary, though it was cold enough that most of the time I decided it wasn't necessary. (I may regret that decision when the film gets back from the lab...)

But you're here for the pictures, aren't you? These have not been photoshopped, but have been tweaked in Camera RAW for artistic (not necessarily naturalistic) effect. They are not cropped; this really is the native ratio of the camera, which I think I could really get stuck on.



I hadn't realized that my favorite part of Marina Beach has now officially become an off-leash dog park. Other than needing to watch my feet a bit more, I really don't mind. Hey, I may not want a dog, but they're still cute!






The skies were not quite this dramatic in real life, but I'm not doing reportage here.




That's me. Why yes, I am a big dork. I appreciated the 10 second timer, and the handy large flat rock that subbed in for the tripod I didn't feel like packing.



I took quite a few variations on this, all over the beach, where one interesting shell would be almost hidden by all these big gray rocks. (Mostly on the film camera, but I doubled up in a few places to compare.)


I am definitely mostly pleased with the quality so far; shooting in RAW at 100 ISO solved most of the widely-reported noise issues, with a couple of exceptions, but I cannot yet rule out operator error on those. Definitely this is not a camera I would give to the average consumer (the 10MP HD ratio format being overkill on one side, and the necessity of shooting in RAW format to control the noise being too post-processing intensive on the other.)

The Menacing Butterfly

Taken at the Butterfly House at the Pacific Science Center.
(My favorite winter warm-up spot.)

A summer posy on a snowy day

I'm looking out at a winter wonderland, but longing for sun. This is the result:

The careful consumer

(Why, yes, she is a virgo.)

One from the archives

I scanned in a bunch of old color prints from several years ago (yes, that is an actual film rebate, and not a photoshopped edge!). Here is one of my favorites of my partner:

A new project

I started shooting tonight, mostly rough sketches, but I'm pretty pleased with the way it is shaping up so far.

Happiness is a gray seamless and a beautiful girl

Model: Taylor (Heffner)

The best excuse...

...for not being more prolific:


My darling little monsters, 6 August 2006

And this is why my five year plan contains no hint of even thinking about art full-time until 4 years from now.