T Minus Seven

One week from tomorrow, we'll be lounging on the deck of the Amsterdam. Ten days, Panama, Costa Rica, Aruba... the Carribean... sounds real nice. The kids have been anticipating this trip for months. They have been pretty amazing this year. And the year's not been so good. They deserve a great vacation. We all do.

I think that is what I am most excited about with this trip - seeing the kids on their first cruise. Heck, their first boat ride in anything bigger than the Liberty Island Ferry. I can't wait to see their jaws drop.

Lucky kids - 7 and (almost) 9, going on a cruise. I wish I was able to do that when I was a kid. Well, that's why Luisa and I left all to come here.

Happy Halloween!

It was a blast walking around the neighborhood last night with Dracula's bride and Spidey last night. Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year.

Speaking of... my copy of Sukob arrived from the dealer in Las Vegas just in time. I was relieved to find a real DVD, rather than a pirated VCD. I thought is was better than Feng Shui. Considering the absence of any western wow special effects, I have to say the two movies were scary, and well-made, in the caliber of the Japanese horror flicks like The Ring and The Grudge. Without Buffy.

On the deck in the backyard after trick-or-treating, the kids had gone in the house. I shone Rica's little flashlight toward some rustling at the edge of the woods 20 feet away. I expected deer, but found two red eyes in the bushes looking back at me, frozen by the light. Not as tall as deer, and close together in the front of the head - predatory. Sh*t - either fox or coyote. I was glad trick-or-treating was over.

Back to horror flicks...

Well, that's what's on TV this week. Saw a few good ones.

I thought the Omen remake was pretty good. At least they didn't change things around too much. Aside from different ways of killing the character. And keeping the photographer's equipment up to date.

Dracula remakes... what's with changing the characters around? Mina Harker, Mina van Helsing, Mina the vampire, Mina the almost vampire? Do yourself a favor and read the book. One of the scariest ever written. Classic horror.

Saw the Exorcist again last night. Still the scariest movie ever. They should remake THAT.

PGH

Related to one of the threads on RFF the other day, I looked up some of the few photos I took during my brief visit to the Philippine General Hospital's wards last year. Here are a few, taken with the CV 21/4. I hope to go back and spend more time there.

Thanks to Raffy Consunji for the nostalgic tour.

Fall Apple Picking

At Bishop's Orchard in Guilford, CT. Taken with the GRD.

Food for thought: Logom

This past month or two, my mindset has been diverted to digital. Before deciding to get the Nikon D50, I of course had to read up on the current models. And observe the current dumping of last year's models in everyone's effort to upgrade to latest and greatest.

It was as if suddenly, last year's cameras could no longer make good pictures. Of course, it's not the camera... but that's a separate topic.

I remembered this genuinely Swedish concept of "Logom," which means "just enough." Not too big, not too small. Not too flashy, not too expensive. Just enough. Just right.

Overwhelmed in a super-size culture where bigger is better, this was a refreshing, sobering concept.

Spooky

I went out shooting this morning -- in a graveyard. I have not really done that sort of thing before. What the heck, Halloween IS around the corner. Besides, I needed to take the D50 + Sigma 30/1.4 out for a spin.

The weather this morning was cold and overcast. Perfect.

Here are some from New Haven's historic Grove Street cemetery.





The next two are with a Tamron manual focus lens. The legendary 90/2.5 macro. Focusing wasn't really all that difficult with the Nikon DK-21M viewfinder magnifier attached to the D50. The camera's electronic rangefinder helped too. Of course, I had to use an incident lightmeter.

My daughter, the photographer

Ok, indulge a proud father.

My wife and kids spent the day in NYC today. My wife brought the GRD, and my 8 year old daughter Rica, one of my old film point and shoots.

The film cameras batteries promptly died. She spent the day shooting with the GRD.

At FAO Schwartz:

This is a full frame, uncropped shot of the skyline. All I did was adjust levels and convert to mono/tone.

Okay, for this last one I cheated a bit. I cropped a tiny bit off the bottom, and used converttobw pro to adjust the "print" exposure to grade III.

I think it may be time to get her a camera.

Heroes

A few weeks ago, 9/11... got this postcard in the mail.

From my 7 year-old. A school project.

What more can I ask for?

Nikon DK-21M

My DK-21M arrived from B&H today, and I must say it is an absolute godsend for D50 (and I suppose the D70/s) users. Unless you shoot with glasses on.

It magnifies the VF image by 1.2x, so the D50's 0.75 becomes about 0.90. Helps a lot with the tunnel vision. I had a friend's D80 to compare and the D50's VF size is now pretty much the same.

The eyepiece is made of plastic, but I did not notice any degradation of the VF's image. With the bigger view, manual focusing is a lot more doable.

At $24, definitely a worthwhile accessory.

Sigma 30/1.4

Got it today. A couple of quick and dirty test shots around the house.