This Old Blog

Four photographs, two from the Olympus E-M5 with Panasonic Leica 25 mm and two from the Sony NEX-5N with Sigma 19 mm. Both sensors with 16 MP resolution. Does knowing the difference really matter anymore if you can't see it? Group 2 All photographs taken in Key West Florida, post processed in Lightroom 5.2 and Color Efex Pro 4.

This post and the following posts are a confluence of odd events. Let me explain a bit. Before this post I had written Matthew that I wouldn't tweet or photography or blog throughout the upcoming week because I was going on vacation and I was pretty much burned out, and I needed a "recharge." But as life would have it, my resolve died rather quickly. Matthew had just written a review of his new Ricoh GR , which I re-read after I wrote Matthew and it triggered a memory of my Sony NEX-5N with its pair of Sigma E-mount lenses , and so, inspired (or jealous, your call), I went back to where I had it all stored and pulled it all out and started to drive around with it. I always carry a camera with me in the Prius, specifically the Olympus E-M5, but I hadn't been getting much use out of it except for the Cloud Lab blimp . I figured what the hell, change up the gear and see what happens. And then I ran across Lee Reamsnyder's " Your Eye Is Not A Camera "...

excited It's tough being a visiting parent. You want to treat your children like small children instead of adult children, to reach out and protect them still. The hardest part is acting with restraint. You offer praise without being asked, and carefully nuanced advice when asked and only when asked. It's a different form of parenting. It goes to underscore that you never stop being a parent. Your parenting continues in small and surprising ways as long as you live and breath. This is by no means everyone. This is a small fraction. And it's extending, slowly, as my daughters build their lives. The things I have, especially my cameras, are far more important as instruments to capture moments of what is really important to me than as things to own unto themselves. wary annoyed I have begun to shift (or perhaps the word is "pivot") in my photographic technique. Here's a surprising personal revelation. I find I don't quite like the added expo...

Look! Blown highlights! New blown highlight chaser mobile. Call me Blown Highlight Bill. Some weeks ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me in Orlando, I thought I would drive about a little and see the blown highlight part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a humid, stormy August in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before camera stores, and bringing up the rear of every forum post on photography I meet; and especially whenever my typos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically strangling people with their DSLR straps - then, I account it high time to get to the road as soon as I can. Taken in or near Railroad Square , Tallahassee, FL. With p...

Step 1: Get everybody lined up Step 2: Decouple the nose from the mooring mast Step 3: Pull 'er waaaayyyyy back Step 4; Rev up the engines, let 'er go, and let 'er fly Finding a sufficiently large blimp, plenty of helium, a well trained staff, and airport facilities to do all this is left as an exercise for the reader. NOTE: This is BBC's science team in Orlando. More information here: http://www.blimpinfo.com/uncategorized/bbc-announces-cloud-lab/

After my long rambling exposition in the prior post I thought I'd put this out to counter-balance all the intense seriousness. I saw this car this morning while I was out buying some bagels for breakfast. I spied it briefly as I hurried into the store. Once I had my precious bagels I found I could linger a bit near the car to appreciate it's decorative elements, particularly the pink eye lashes. I'm sure that such car decorations have been and will continue to be the subject of casual derision. But not from me. At a point where it seems every piece of news is so grim ( Syria , the NSA spying on us, the echos of Trayvon Martin , the gutting of the Voting Rights Act and our Fifth Amendment rights by an increasingly clueless and hostile supreme court...) it's nice to come across an act of non-destructive creativity that brings a big smile to your face. I hope this car stays this way. And I hope one day to meet the person that owns it. It should be interesting. ...

You're looking at a photograph taken by English wedding photographer Kevin Mullens while he was in Tokyo trying out the new Fujifilm XF23mm F1.4 lens . Mr. Mullens is, according to his site, is an award-winning photographer who uses the Fujifilm X-Pro1 as one of his tools. Kevin Mullens is a globe-spanning photographer; according to his basic review of the lens he traveled from Rome to Tokyo to review the lens before heading back home to London. I found out about this excellent review from a link via The Online Photographer . What got me started writing this piece was this sentence written by Mike Johnston in the post: Some samples here ( all the blown highlights appear to be the photographer's style, not evidence of some technical problem ). emphasis mine When I read that sentence, it was as if a switch toggled in my mind. I'd read one off-handed criticism too many, and I decided to do something about it: criticise the critic, in this case Mike Johnston. You...