Yashica Mat-124 G

I am totally happy with my own Cartier-Bresson guestimate exposure. I am not happy at all with the color and the scan. The scan can't be right at least can't be called HI-RES. The color isn't right either (or maybe it's right, I know Portra is supposed to be low contrast ....) but I guess I would never find out whose fault it is anyway, as it can be due to the fact that the film is expired though unlikely. I guess it's time to shoot chrome or just process my own black and white or go digital all the way. That way at least you don't have anybody to blame but yourself.

Some Black & White From The Late 80s

My best pictures were taken probably in the late 80s, that is, of course relatively speaking. Since then, everything has gone downhill.

I think I was shooting like Gary Winogrand, except for the third one from the top which was more like Robert Capa. So my personal style was really a cross between Winogrand and Capa. If you are still reading this I certainly hope you haven't puked yet. Truth be told, my pictures are really a reflection of my artistic impoverishment.

NJ Marriot

I am rocking in NJ now. Let the good time roll.

UPDATE:
Of course, I am exaggerating. There is no "rocking" in New Jersey. If you read my blog long enough, you should know you can't really believe what I write. I am a typical pathological liar.

Yashica Mat 124 G, user report
This is based on my experience with the camera for the past few days. I finished three rolls of Kodak Portra 160.
Loading film is not that bad at all. Perhaps because I am old enough to know how to load 135mm films, so loading the 120 film is not a problem. Did I screw up, yes and no. The 120 film mark is at the bottom on the camera so I didn't see it and I mistook another marking which is closer to the 240 mark as one. But it didn't seem to affect the film advance at all. I found out when I loaded the third roll. Focusing is difficult. Because it's basically a ground glass and it isn't very bright when lighting condition is not optimum, meaning too much light on a sunny day outside or shooting indoor. The small magnifying focusing lens is pretty helpful in that regard. Another thing is that objects appear reverse and often time, it's just hard to align things properly, I think it should be possible but just much harder coming from the 35mm world. During my sojourn in NJ, many of my shots were taken with a flash attached. And all my exposures were based on estimate. So chances are many of them may come out like crap.

NOTE:
For those who miss my vacation pictures, sorry, there won't be any, at least not soon like right now. For those who don't miss my boring vacation pictures, you are in luck, because I shot in film so chances are you won't see any of them like forever.

Craigslist, Again

I am going to indulge myself with yet another post about Craigslist and my latest medium format camera. I am, after all, a very self indulgent person.

I was thinking about eBay or buying second hand from a reputable camera store like keh.com (of course, it's going to be used as the camera has been out of production since 1986). But I have a strong death instinct so I branched out to seek ways that allow me to live dangerously like meeting online stranger face to face. Craigslist strongly cautions any dealings involve checks, money order, wire transfer, basically, anything other than a face to face cash transaction. But I broke all the rules. I sent a personal check to a seller located in Connecticut, a definite no-no. But I did it anyway with full or blind faith that the seller is just as honest as myself and at the same time fully aware that he could have just kept the money without sending me anything at all. Well it turns out that the seller is a good guy just like me. I got the camera in UPS today and everything is as described, and the package is nicely packed. It's as good as new considering the seller actually bought it on March 25, 1978, more than thirty years ago. He told me he probably ran 15 rolls with it in all these 30 years. I already bought 39 rolls.

After I got the camera, I loaded it with a roll of Kodak NC 160, and started shooting already.... It definitely takes some time to get used to, just like looking at things in the rear mirror, except the left is now right on the focusing screen. But I guess I will manage. The battery for the built-in light meter is missing so I have to guess estimate the f-stop and shutter speed combination, like what Cartier Bresson did with his Leica (note: again I am shamelessly comparing myself with some seriously famous dead photographer).

Again, I am not a real photographer, I talk about it more than I actually do it. That needs to change.

NOTE: A lot of my readers think that I am going back to analog. There is no going "back," I always like analog even I shoot digital most of the time. So if you plan to send me all the digital goodies like D3 or D700 or D300, please still do, I love digital, basically, anything that's meticulously crafted, digital or analog.

I Got Sensor Bigger Than Full Frame

While the world is pretty enthralled with Nikon's newly D700, the second full frame digital single lens reflex camera introduced on July 1 by Nikon, I fall in love with the Yashica 124 G twin lens reflex camera. It takes 120 film, and has an image size of 56mm x 56mm, a perfectly square format. Meanwhile, the "full frame" sensor is a mere 24x36mm (or actually for Nikon's FX it's 23.9x36mm) which is equivalent to the 135mm film size as used by 35mm film SLR cameras. I am going to shoot like Diane Arbus (Arbus was really great, she didn't do what I call hit and run photography which most people can do with varying degrees of success, she actually got to know her subjects. I am just flattering myself with no shame).

I don't know if I will ever get the chance to print anything good in the near future. But I am kind of excited. I don't know.

Guantanamo Torture Technique Rip-off From China

Today, the New York Times just confirmed what I long suspected. As far as torture techniques go, China is light years ahead of most western civilizations. And all the Guantanamo torture techniques were indeed based on a 1957 US study on Chinese torture techniques done on American POWs during the Korean War back in 1950s. The article says the techniques yielded mostly false confessions. Now that's just ungrateful, after ripping off someone's works, and saying that they are actually good for nothing.

Nikon D700

First it's the Chinese, then the German then the French, the leaks were all over the place. The French got a video, even. It's July 1, all Nikon's guerrilla marketing came to be end. Now back to official marketing. Finally, straight from the horse's mouth, the Nikon D700 is for real. Well the flash SB-900 too, but when you have noiseless high ISO performance, who cares about the flash anyway, except maybe I don't know, Joe McNally. The trusty dpreview gives us a timely hands-on preview on the D700. Of course, nothing is complete without Mr. Rockwell's opinion.

Rights To Own And Bear Arms

After the Supreme Court's 5 to 4 definitive vote to reaffirm American's Second Amendment Rights, I couldn't wait to help myself a few handguns just so I feel more American. I went to Target and bought the most lethal weapons I could lay my hand on. And these are just for my kids and their friends, in case they come visit, they can play shoot 'em up in the backyard.

Here is my review of these handguns based on extensive hands-on shootings both on static and moving targets with or without living humans involved.

All four are from the same manufacturer, the Super Soaker. The Super Soaker is the weapon of choice for those in the know. You simply can't go wrong with the Super Soaker brand.

The two on the left were bought as a twin pack, different colors same gun: Max D 3000. The gun has separate pumping and shooting actions. It's a pleasure to use. And given the size of the whole thing, it's easy to conceal and easy to shoot. The pump and shoot actions are smooth but the small tank needs refilling often, it's a handgun anyway. So shoot with caution. For what age, from 5 ~ 100, it does take some muscle to pump. Nitpick: The floaty and the string attached to the cap (the orange colored nipple thingy, see picture), to prevent it from losing, might have too much floatation when filled up with water, the string may get caught on the threading while twisting the cap closed, just make sure the cord stays inside the tank and out of the way.

The two on the right is the Bottle Shot model. What distinguishes this from most other Soaker is this has a user changeable tank or bottle but without a real trigger. It takes most soda bottles and the spec says it max out at 2 liter bottles. The bottle neck needs to be sturdy than normal because when filled up and held in an horizontal shooting position the bottle neck may flop, over extensive usage. The pumping and shooting actions happen at the same time, when one pulls the pump back, it shoots too, so it's harder to aim correctly and steadily and takes some time to get used to. So you always have to use both hands both pumping and shooting, unlike the Max D 3000, you can shoot using one hand Matrix style. It's easy to lose the original puny bottle that comes with the gun, see the gun on the right. But you can easily find a replacement given the proliferation of water bottles or bring lots of them as ammo. For the faucet-turning challenged, it may not be all that obvious when it comes to which way to turn to tighten or loosen the lock. And if you want you can bring Evian or Pellegrino waters as your ammos and shoot your money away. For what age: 7~100. Fitting a shooting bottle may be a challenge for some youngsters or not so young people.

Both models shoot pretty good distance and a joy to shoot and got shot at.

For additional reviews go Super Soaker Central.

Update On What's Happening In The Backyard

Rosemary, Lemon Verbena, Thyme

Basil

Sage

Tomato

Craigslist

CThanks to Craigslist, I got myself loads of expired film. Woo hoo. The hookup was arranged online and I trekked to Union Square to close the deal. It wasn't that exciting but it's interesting and pretty efficient.

I was wearing my gray t-shirt, white jeans ... just for the occasion ...

"You must be Mr. Handsome, you look even gooder than I thought .... " My seller informed me. "You look tremendous yourself. Can I see the goods?" "You mean these." She pointed to her boobs which were nice and perky. I told my seller it's the Kodak that I was here for. She was playfully disappointed. Her eyes were big and under the punishing sun had a sheen of blue. I took a quick look inside one of those no-frill environmentally offensive black plastic bags she carried and whipped out 2 $20 dollar bills. "Here." "You don't need to count them, roll by roll?" "No. They look good enough to me." She was happy to get the cash. "You have my number, Handsome, let's hook up some time." I saw her leave, her straight back has certain grace to it. I happily walked back to the subway station. Before I even got back to the cubicle farm, I got a message from my seller ... It wasn't exactly a message, it's just a jpeg of my seller's body part. Very perky.

Reporting Live From Jones Beach

This is a landmark post, I am live blogging from Jones Beach, Long Island. It's kinda humid and cold. Sometimes I wonder why do we like to go to the beach in the first place.

I Love 80s

This is another maudlin love song that ruled the early 80s. For those who were born too late and never got the chance to admire or despise The Culture Club, here is the chance. I present you the Culture Club's Love Is Love. Also the video is from one of the best movies ever made, Electric Dreams (1984) when Virginia Madsen was 23. I shall dedicate this song to all the inordinately literate girls who tend to overthink on love, relationships and online personality tests. Enjoy.

This Week In Review

Losers:
The Dow Industrial Average.

AAPL, the freaking stock keeps going down, I am losing my underwear. It went back up just a dollar or so before the week ended with a thud.

Winners:
Bill Gates. The guy retires at 52. Looks who's laughing now. The man gives us PC, like it or not it's running the world's desktop. Though much hated by a lot of people but at least the guy gives us a platform that others can pile on, to develop around it. In some sense it's an "open" system. You can build your PC because of the open architecture. But I hate him giving us Office more so than Windows, the Excel, the Word, the Access database, the PowerPoint. Plenty of valuable time got sucked away to maintain thsse little applications. Especially Word, people spend extraordinary amount of their time formatting or fixing their formatting instead of writing the content. Maybe in 10 or 15 years, the Windows desktop will become largely irrelevant because you know Steve Ballmer has a way to mess things up. Or the so called "cloud computing" would become so pervasive that the desktop OS becomes so nvisible just like the little ROM program to boot up the machine. Or Microsoft would conquer the next frontier in computing, the handheld devices, the cellphones.

The Second Amendment.

Weekend Video

Catching up with Guardian's Dan Chung.

The original video can be found at Vimeo, in "HD." The following is a clip showing the Olympics torch relay protest in Hong Kong.


Hong Kong torch protest from Dan Chung on Vimeo.


This second video shows dislocated Quake victims from Beichuan running away for fear of possible dam burst. The video is interspersed with still pictures shot by Dan Chung using most likely his Nikon D3.


China quake dam burst fears from Dan Chung on Vimeo.

Supreme Court Came To Senses

It's summer time here, the kids are out, the workplace is deserted. Only the workaholics and the office drones are working five days a week. Any self respecting minor ranking airheads in the office totem would have taken days and days off. Even the Dow is taking a break, what the heck, just let it slide, Uncle Ben and Paulson need their summer breaks too. And before the mercury hits 100, the Supreme Court finally in a 5 to 4 vote, reassures us Americans that we have the right to bare arms. Our Second Amendment rights can't be denied. I encourage the Supreme Court to go at least one step further, right to bare chest, and bottom would be nice too. I know I am asking to much. Woo hoo still.

I Post Because I Can

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Breaking: The Dow Tanked

While it wasn't a day for tennis diva, it also wasn't a day for the Dow either, the industrial average nose dived more than 350 points. Now it's time to buy more ... if you want to lose your shirt and underwear. Last time I said Apple is up for a rebound, it freaking went south when the very thin and very gaunt Jobs gave everybody a very thin and very gaunt iPhone 3G. Don't even listen to me.

Now that Sharapova is eliminated, I can concentrate on something else like on Venus Williams, my first love. The crude oil is now at $140 a barrel and very soon $150. I have stopped mowing my lawn already.

Breaking: I am a big time photograhper

If I am not unlucky, then I am going to shoot some analog 120 film soon. Whoo hooo, that's going to make me some big time photographer.

Gates Is Leaving Microsoft

Gates is done with Microsoft and so should you too. No, I am just kidding.

The richest guy on Planet Earth (all right, give or take, the ball park), Gates is retiring and I don't see his departure will in anyway negatively or positively influence Microsoft's business or stock price. The place is like a well-oiled machine. Can you imagine that with Apple? Can you imagine Apple's Steve Jobs retiring tomorrow? And Apple's stock price will stay the same? Actually ever since Jobs' gaunt appearance, the stock has been steadily losing its value. Let's hope Jobs can pull some trick on 7-11, the almost world-wide launch of iPhone 2 or iPhone 3G.

BS Finance News From Yours Truly

Uncle Ben says no more freebie for you. The rate cut is coming to an end for now. After China denounced US monetary policy or actually lack thereof for letting the dollar slide, food price rise, and energy price soar, Uncle Ben further heeds the advice from the overlords in The Forbidden Kingdom. Just so you know China now owns US just like Japan owned the US in the 80s.