Border

Border (Gräns, 2018) tackles the two most pressing phenomena of our time, trolling and border security.  The film opens with a shaky medium shot where protagonist customs officer Tina is seen looking out from the shore, doubles as her parking lot, at a cargo ship moored at the harbor.  She clumsily picks up a cricket from the dirt and gently puts it on a blade of tall grass, with the car parked she is ready for another day at work.  She is extraordinary ordinary and alarmingly ugly that perhaps not even a mother can love.  I was watching lots of Youtubers opining on IBIS as in in-body image stabilization being the standard of modern filmmaking.  Ha.  It was a bit of a disappointment seeing that opening shot so shaky that any self respecting Youtuber would not approve.

Border is based on a short story by John Ajvide Lindqvist who also pens Let the Right One in.  Both are set in the mystic Nordic Sweden with wacky storylines and even wackier characters who are ostracized by society.  The two stories center on characters that are almost mirror reflections of each other; they are simultaneously the same and yet different.  In Border the woke character is Vore who stays woke and helps Tina woke and discover who she really is, sexually and otherwise.  There is no growth without pain as Tina plays detective at work and her own origin story.  By the end of the film, Tina has transformed.  Instead of gently picking up a cricket and rests it on some landing, she has no qualms of just treating it as food.  The film shocks and awes in its own quiet and subdued way, especially on the sexuality front which is as unpredictable as it can get.  Nothing seems obvious underneath the clothes.  The handheld shaky camera work and the overall art direction seems to suggest documentary and a very much down to earth aesthetic, but the story is just anything but or like the late Lagerfeld says (Border) is very much down to earth but just not this earth.  The movie is rated R.

The Curious Case of Olympus OM-D EM1-X ... and Fuji XT-3

I have not paid any attention to any mirrorless cameras until very recently.

The E-M1X certainly catches my attention.  As I am a fan of vertical grip and what's better than a vertical grip except for an integrated vertical grip.

The Nikon Z power grip is a joke, it's designed by some high school kid who cheated his way through classes.  It's not a a "motor drive" or anything except to hold extra battery.  It's for people who shoot portrait orientation and still use the primary shutter release even they are shooting with a D5 or D4s or with a genuine vertical with shutter release.

The price tag f the EM1-X comes in at $2,999

I will wait for the next iteration when everybody says the AF tracking is as good as any camera out there.

The Fuji XT-3 is about half of the price and allegedly has better image and AF than the EM1-X.

Maybe two years from now if I am not dead yet.

Nikon 20-35 f/2.8

LR never has a profile for this lens.  Now that I can't even use it it is not a concern any more.  Ha.

Quality vs Quantity

There is no quality without quantity.
-- Daidō Moriyama

I don't know how true this attribution is, but I remember it's attributed to Moriyama san.  And I further wonder if he says that in English or in Japanese and got translated.

I think I can get behind this nevertheless.

Back in post war Japan, he must have burnt through tons and rolls of film.

Event Photography

I just want to talk about shooting settings that I use.

I used to shoot almost exclusively on aperture priority.  I guess it's the topic or subject.  I set the aperture which controls the opening of the lens and let the camera take care of the rest.  Back in film days that's the setting I used the most and that's the only auto mode my Nikon FE has anyway.

When I picked up my camera again about a decade ago I faced with more varieties and more flexibilities.  When you shoot film you almost always got stuck with a single ISO and single WB film unless you really shoot professionally and change film back when you see fit in the middle of the shoot.

When I shoot cycling I tend to shoot with shutter priority and let the aperture float and sometimes even let the ISO float.  I don't bother so much as white balance.  Auto white balance is or was my friend.

When I shoot event I'd like to shoot manual, i.e. I fix the aperture and shutter speed and let the ISO float.  I set the base ISO the lowest first or some ISO I think won't go lower.  If I need to freeze people who are walking, 1/250 is the minimum, 1/500 should be ideal but then if you are shooting indoor with low light, you are lucky to get to 1/250 of a second.  If people are just standing there talking 1/60 or 1/125 can certainly freeze the subject.

If I shoot with flash or strobe, I tend to shoot manual but with fixed lowest ISO possible, it could be ISO64 or ISO400 but I'd like to have it fixed.  If the ISO is auto, it's essentially auto exposure and with the flash going off the picture is gonna overexposed for sure.

Event photography can be challenging as it could be outdoor, it could be flash and then it could be indoor with lots of tungsten and mixed lighting; all in one event.  I don't know other brands of camera, but Nikon tends to not auto white balance that well when it's indoor tungsten.  I tend to manually white balance it otherwise it comes out super yellow and orange.

With indoor, outdoor, flash, invariably something is going to screw up.  Like I forgot to set the ISO to not auto.  Or I forgot to set the white balance to auto when I went outside in the middle of the shoot.  I think it's then I appreciate on RAW or NEF format.  The file is certainly savagable even if over or under exposed and with the wrong white balance.

So event photography can be a challenge even I carry two cameras with a combined focal length between 16 to 200mm.  Thanks to high ISO and LR noise reduction, a f/4 max aperture is not as limiting as possibly ten years ago.  I am no Light Room and certainly not a Photoshop wizard but even armed with minimum knowledge I can savage a problematic picture.

Sunpak 120J full blast on silver reflective umbrella on light stand on camera left and right.  1/100s and f/8 at 25mm WB at 5500.  I don't think the skin tone is that great but I tried.  No Photoshop.

Note: as a photographer, there should be no excuse as you should really take control and ownership of the situation. That should be in theory as well as in practice.  Ultimately you are the one responsible especially when things go bad.
Control the situation:
Make sure both eyes can see the camera
Do not use a wide angle setting, I think 35mm should be the widest used as people look wider on the sides if the focal length got wider.  If you can shoot with a 85mm for group go for it but rarely can you shoot like this indoor with that much space.
Keep the camera focal plane parallel to the plane of the subjects.  Use a tripod if you can.
Keep the subject in a straight line across the focal plane or just mildly curved if you must.
Do not mix lightings.  If you can shut off ambient use 100% strobe, do it.

Often times, I don't heed my own advice.

Gel my Flash

Usually I don't shoot with flash in the temple.

This is shot bounced flash to the ceiling.  The ambient is always too yellow and red.  There is no way I can shut out the ambient.

I gelled my SB-800 with a 1/2 CTO.  Manually set the white balance to 2900 or there about.

I am sure the front and the back or the center of the hall has different WB as the left has sunlight streaming from the windows, while the back of the room has more tungsten light from the ceiling.  Then the middle has some fluorescent tubes.  The red lanterns add some orange to the mix as well.  I think gelling the flash is a must if you use flash in this setting otherwise the WB is even more difficult to correct in post.

This is shot with my 16-35 f/4 with the Nikon D700.  IS0640, f/5.6, 1/100, WB2900, flash CTO gel.  Light room adjusted.  I am quite happy with the skin tone overall.

Nikon AF Nikkor 20-35

It's on its way to KEH repair via USPS Priority.

KEH has this flat rate repair for some time but this is the first time I ever use them.  There is no guarantee that it can be fixed.  If parts need to be replaced and they don't have it then I am just paying for a round trip for nothing.

KEH charges $320 for Zoom repair plus $12 for shipping.  Assuming it can be fixed without additional charges, I would be out of about $350.  At the time of this writing, NJ has a version on craigslist that's $400 and it is like pristine with the hard to find lens shade too.  If it's in NYC, I may have a second thought.  Most of the versions on eBay sell around $500 or so.  When I paid for my version about five or six years ago, it was more than $600.  I bought it so I could take some event pictures for the cycling dinner fundraising.  It wasn't a pay gig.  Do I even have a pay gig?  Back then I didn't have a full frame camera so the lens was like a 30-55, my kit lens 17-80 was somewhat unreliable or I just found some excuse to get the 20-35 f/2.8.  It was a good lens.  The only time it failed me was during a Chinese year shooting the parade.  It was freezing, most likely below 32F.  So all the time it was pretty much stuck at f/2.8.  If I knew back then it was sticky blade, I would have just taken it out and gave the aperture lever a workout or simply shoot wide open f/2.8.  That was the only time the lens kind of failed.  I never had sticky aperture blades before until then.

Then I got a donation from my friend the Nikkor 16-35 f/4.  Its color rendition is different I believe and the f/4 is not a problem given the ISO performance of modern DSLR.  Alas, when shooting indoor the f/2.8 still have the upper hand in both areas: the viewfinder is a tad brighter and you can shoot at slightly higher shutter speed.

I can't stand it being a paper weight.

UPDATE: 1/24/2019
1/22/2019 KEH says it needs the part that is no longer available.  So sending back paperweight.  Oh well.  I tried and people tried.

A Part and Every Day

I can't stand them being together when they shouldn't be.

I am a part of that larger movement.

I go to work every day.

Please keep them apart.

FM RADIO TRIGGER

I bought this years ago.  This is kind of a one packaging for a few.  The model I bought is the PT-04GY depicted on the upper right corner of the above picture.

I have used this with my cameras and flashes and they all work pretty well together, which is a good surprise.  The battery inside the transmitter still goes on and on after years of occasional usage.  I even connect it to my Hasselblad, or actually the Zeiss lens' PC plug to trigger the flash with no problem.  Just make sure the battery doors are properly closed and maintain good contact and the channel is the same across the board.

I don't know how reliable or unreliable are others.  For me this setup serves my very basic fundamental need for flash photos.

Unless I want to get into off camera flash using a higher than sync speed then I really don't see any compelling reason to upgrade.

Flash at a shutter speed higher than the X-sync speed is a topic that continues to confuse and confound plenty of users.  I've seen an Youtuber who totally got everything backward and yet appears totally authoritative.  When you have that level of confidence, you can do anything you want and achieve world dominance.

In the interest of the general public I shall refrain from talking about flash X-sync.

Nikon D4s

It seems like the Nikon DSLR prices are on a downward trajectory.  An used D4s with shutter count less than 36,000 is asking for $2,200 and having a best offer price option.  I can see the price can be talked down to very close to $2000 if there is no bid.  The frenzy goes to I guess the Z cameras or the D850.  I have never touched a D850 and I don't know how great its AF is.  For me it's all about the AF.  The D single digit line series just gives me more confidence in that regard.  Of course I could be wrong.  Based on my D810 experience the AF is good but I wish it could be better.  Again, the myriad of variables and user technique can render my opinion less than objective.  Anyway, I think the D4s comes down to $2000 is really something.  If the D850 set, meaning the camera and battery grip, sells for less than $2000 and if the AF is really really as good as the D5 then sure why not.

Rainey Park Cyclocross 2018

Sometimes on second look or thought you think, maybe I should have adjusted the exposure somewhat.

This was the only cyclocross I went this year.

I packed my 810, 700, 135mm, 16-35mm and my SB-800.  This is the first time I shot entirely on the 135mm without the 70-200mm.  I found it quite doable and the D700 with the 135mm combination is not terribly slow.  I can't scientifically say how slow or fast it focuses or the out of focus is due to AF ability or simply because of shooting at big aperture like f/2 or user error.  The answer of course can be a bit of each and tend to be complicated.  You believe what you want to believe.

Sometimes you just can't execute what's in your mind's eye.  I got my SB-800 for easy carry and gel-ability.  The about were shot at WB2940 with CTO gel on the flash.

In the middle of the shot, perhaps due to lens change, there is a piece of grass lodged on the sensor the size of Australia, found out later when looking the pictures on the monitor.  Oh well.  I don't have the heart to double check now.

I managed to stuff everything in my ancient tenba bag which I think is more than twenty years old.  My last post also mentioned that I like have the option to pan at 1/8 a second and hence I like to have small aperture.  Sadly the smallest aperture of my 135 is only at f/16.  Usually I mount my long lens on my D700 which has a base ISO 200, so it doesn't help.  That's why in the middle of the shoot I changed my flash camera to D700, 16-35mm and SB-800 and the D810 with the 135mm f/2 fixed lens + than big piece of grass.  No matter what I know about not to change lens or be very careful to change lens in the field, I usually foul up.  It's frustrating and disappointing.  And plus 99% of your shots aren't what you envisioned.

But I guess that's photography.  Or at least my kind of snapshots.

Is f/16 Small Enough of An Aperture?

f/32 would be nice.  People tend to think about the maximum aperture like f/1.4 or f/1.2 or even f/0.95 but sometimes I think about f/32 when I am not thinking about f/1.2, f/1.4, f/0.95, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, or f/22.

If you shoot action shot and want to have the alternative of shooting at 1/8 of a second then you have a problem.  Even if you can dial your ISO to 64.  It wasn't even bright sunny f/16 day but rather gray gloomy December sky.   f/16 proves to be a bit lacking.  Of course you can always work around it by like not shooting at 1/8s or stick a ND filter to it ...

The peril of shooting at 1/8 of course is is guaranteed blurry, but may not be the kind of blurry you are aiming at.  And then the dirt on your sensor all comes out to say hi as chances are you are shooting at f/16 or even smaller aperture.

The last time I checked, cleaning a full frame sensor was around $60.  It's gonna hurt very much.

Old vs New Gas Range

When I got my new gas range about five years ago, the thing I noticed right away was it took longer everything.
It took longer to boil water, longer to get anything hot.
I think the difference is, the distance between the burner and the grill is much higher than what it used to be for whatever reason.
I can't help but wonder is it what it contributes to higher utilities bill, shorter appliance life, faster global warming?  Screw the new gas range.

On Photography

I can shoot till my finger fall off but that doesn't mean the pictures are any good.

All the neck and back pains don't translate to good pictures.

You just have to learn to enjoy the process because the outcome sucks.

100% of your pictures suck.

Whirlpool Gas Double Oven Range GGG388LX or GGG390LX

It's generally a mystery what the gas oven model is.  Even you got your use & care guide.

The model number is not as complete as you want it to me.  I think the definitive model number is hidden at the back of the range, which you have to move it away from the wall to find out.

I have a hard time finding any information about the disassembling this model.  Sometimes the repair manual is just mistakenly returned as repair manual.  Repair manual is definitely not the same as use and care guide which I have and much easier to find online.

The part is almost $70 assuming that's what I need.

This is a world of pain even if I am willing to do the repair myself.

Canon New F-1, AE motor Drive FN, Battery Pack FN

I bought the Duracell 28L which is a 6V cell compatible with L544 which is what the Canon New F-1 needs, not only for metering, shutter release but also for the operation of the whole motor drive mechanism.  That's even if the motor drive is fully powered by 12 AA batteries, it won't release the camera shutter or wind the film transport forward at all.  What it works, without the 6V battery, is the meter and the rewind actually, surprise (I haven't actually tested with a film cartridge inside, but the rewind seems to work when the motor drive is not attached to the camera or when attached but quickly stop as the counter hits 0).

So the conclusion is the 1.2V AA rechargeable batteries do work with the motor drive even it's 1.2V not the 1.5V.  The 6V L544/28L battery is required for the motor drive to operate.  A depleted 6V battery enough to operate the meter and even the light but not enough to operate the shutter won't allow the motor drive to run.  So you can't run the motor drive at all if your 6V in camera battery is depleted.

These are the quirks of the system I found.

Canon F-1

The shutter of the Canon F-1 will always stay operational if you remove the battery, i.e. short of any malfunction of the camera.

If the 6V battery is drained, the shutter release won't work even some shutter speeds are mechanically activated.  You need to remove the battery for it to work.

From 1/125s to 1/2000s, flash sync ⚡️(at 1/90s) and B are mechanical.  The good news is all other shutter speeds will "work" too but default at mechanical 1/90s when the battery is removed.

I must have read about it but forgotten.

The Canon F-1 is such a beast, it simply refuses to die or stop working.

Canon Battery Pack FN

This is the battery pack that takes 12 AA battery cells.  It has been working since I bought the set in 2010.  Then it stopped working as the battery drained.  I have never used any rechargeable cells with this.

This past weekend I went to IKEA and bought a bunch of rechargeable cells.

Unfortunately they don't work inside this Canon pack.  They mystery is is the pack broken or does it demand the 1.5V per cell very strictly?  The IKEA cell called LADDA is rated at 1.2V at 2450mAh.

I have yet to buy a whole bunch of cells to test it out.  The pack has no response if I set to it OFF, which is expected, but neither is S and L.  The only time the pack is making an effort as if it's trying to wind the film it's when I set it to H.  It makes some grinding noise as if it's trying very hard to advance the film.  I don't believe it's the contacts or something with the camera itself.  It's either the motor is broken, the switch is broken, or some combination of such, or the pack is working but it has no leeway in terms of voltage.  Though that's a bit hard to believe.  I tested the LADDAs in my Nikon F5 and my Sunpak 120J, the batteries have juice to power them.

I know next to nothing to electricity but I read usually the 1.2V would work on 1.5V appliances as when loaded or when over time, the cell can hardly stay at 1.5V.  But the fact that it takes 12 of 1.5V batteries, if replaced by 1.2V then the voltage variance can be quite big when magnified by 12.

I wonder why I don't just go out and buy 12 of those one time use 1.5V AA cell to prove this theory one way or another.

My initial thinking was something wrong with the "motor drive" or even the camera.  But as I did some trouble shooting here and there, I changed my mind.

This battery pack is really just a pack.  It's separate from the actually mechanism that drives the film, which is done by the AE MOTOR DRIVE FN.  The AE MD FN itself doesn't have any power source and it's a separate piece of equipment.

Diet Prada vs Dolce & Gabbana

Diet Prada won.

Diet Prada single-handedly brought down D&G in maybe less than 48 hours.  The Shanghai show is cancelled.

Cyclocross, Downhill and Track

When I go to cyclocross or downhill, I am careful not to trip and fall.  But things happen.  I did fall a few times, once bad enough that the flash and the camera mounts got ruined.  Not totally ruined but bad enough to malfunction if not repaired.  Bad conditions make for good pictures at least in my case as I can't dramatize my own pictures without the help of bad weather.  The very first time I went to a cyclocross on Long Island, both my flash and camera ended up in Nikon's service center.  It was pouring the entire time.  It was memorable.

This year I think I have a string of unfortunate incidents.  So the cyclocross season is here and yet I can't go anywhere without a car or the resources I need..  My equipment is semi or somewhat functional.  And my mindset is not exactly in photography.