pdn PhotoPlus Expo 2011 - Miscellaneous

Leica, so expensive only retired LIRR pensioners on disabilities can afford them.

Lady has been on Expo since time immemorable.  Video rig for Nikon DSLR.

Pulitzer Prize winning wildlife photographer ...

Is spelling out the word professional so hard?  Stingy film give-away.

Real camera, man.  Real camera.

Rockwell's archenemy ...

Big man on a smaller venue.  Vincent Laforet, he's still presenting the same old slide show he does every year since 1900.  They just seem a bit staled, albeit good.

Watch out, BMW is onto the photography business.  Or is it Mercedes-Benz?  Oh no, it's another clever ripoff design from my fellow country men.  If BMW and Mercedez have an illegitimate son, that's going to be TRIOPO, it's tripod except misspelled on purpose.  I want a TRIOPO.

It's not camera shake, it's 3D Handycam.  Look something's popping out.  3D glasses mandatory.

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The Canon 1DX naked.  It feels light in the hand

Basically it's a machine gun.

Imaginary conversations follow ...

"I don't know much about this ... I just had an hour training on this but it shit I mean shoot like a machine gun.  It's just freaking awesome."

"Does it focus?"

"You mean does it focus right?  Correct?  I don't have a clue but it has like 100 focus points so yes.  Anyway, it shoots like a machine gun so it's just awesome."

On another more serious, disturbing and disappointing note:  Nikon has no new flagship products on display.  And alarmingly some of the products I tried on were iffy.  I tried the million dollar Nikkor 35mm 1.4 with nano coating and the shit just didn't autofocus on a D700.  OKAY, the guy thought it might be the camera.  Then mounted it on a D7000.  Still no good.  Then tried on another smallish DSLR, then the thingy came alive.  This just confirmed what I read online.  Good thing I never bought the million dollar 35mm f1.4 with that special nano coating.  So the lens or the camera or some combination thereof was kind of iffy.  (Some say it's just bad contacts, well if I pay $2000 on a lens and $2000 on a body I want them to just work and not to have to get out an eraser to clean the contacts.)

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I don't go out much and when I take pictures outside I just do it on my own.  I don't know it has become a trend that people use lens hood and like to have them pulled back or actually mounted in reverse.  I think that looks pretty odd.

Make sure the lens hood doesn't cover the front when shooting ... so what's the point of using a lens hood?  I just don't get it.

Smallish lens hood

Biggest lens hood

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Nikon always has the best models each and every year.

The Nikon 1 camera seems pretty nifty and speedy in operations.  I was shooting with the Fuji x100, I had some unrealistic expectation of that thingy.  And it turned out not what I thought.  I am old school and I thought the camera doesn't have the right mass for its size to inspire confidence, I'm sure it's easy on the hands and shoulders.  The write speed is just atrocious.  Everything seems slow.  But I do like the view finder.  And Nikon 1 seems pretty smart or I am just not so informed and aware of current technology, the viewfinder just comes to life when I put my eye and look through it so I think that's pretty darn smart.  I always enjoy a good viewfinder.

1 in vomit pink

V1 in black and with flash

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On my way to the expo on 34th street.  My favorite subject.  Basically anything that's inanimate, banal and mundane.

Blizzard 2010

Thanksgiving Dishes

This year, I broke the tradition.  I used a chicken instead.

To be cooked and mashed potatoes.  If your mashed potato doesn't taste good, add more butter.  That's the best tip I can give you.

Garlic to be roasted for the mashed potato

Lobsters

Beet (and Goat's Cheese Salad)

That's it.  Enough over-sharing.  For now.

Green Living, My Way

Or living on the straight razor edge

Before

Shaving Soap, got it creamy

Got to lather up

Strop the blade first ...

I tend to shave the sides first

Then above the lips and chin

Just like cutting grass ...

Against the grain

Not as clean as I wanted, poor eye sight and late at night all the excuses but hey, at least I didn't cut myself into pieces.  KIDS DON'T TRY IT AT HOME.

Port Jefferson, Long Island

World's best Sedutto ice cream.  That's according to me.  The kids can't finish theirs.  It's just too much.  Lucky me.

Mongaup Camp

On Leong

Snowman On Snowday

Snow Day

Kissena Lake in the middle of the snowstorm.

Snow Day

Snow Day

Most of my shots are in landscape mode. If God intended us to see portrait He would have put our eyes in a vertical line. I totally bullshit as I am sure you are well aware of MO. I am just too lazy to flip my camera and flip it one more time when comes to editing. So most of my pictures are just plain landscape, because it's just convenient. I am a lazy photographer so by default I am no good--I am fishing for sympathetic compliments again. I am just pathetic.

Snow Day

I should have overexposed it by at least one stop to make it white. Or should have done it in GIMP. But I goofed. And so be it.

Union Square

Walk

I like how portable and shootable the Canon is. In general the pictures come out OKAY, or you simply shoot again. I do have certain gripes about the camera. There are absolutely no manual settings. You can't set the aperture or the shutter speed at all. It's either Auto or Program. I can't even set the focus point when I compose. I guess it's time to read the manual to see if I have missed anything important. After shooting it for a few months, I almost forgot how much I like shooting through a viewfinder.

Veterans Day

5th Avenue, New York City

Halloween Party

The first time ever I actually wore something special on Halloween.  It wasn't much of a costume, but a mask was a start.