Sunset

Nikon D7000, Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII

Photo of Nikki at sunset on our beach in Destin, FL. I love the way those summer dresses look on her.

Business Cards v2.0

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Back in December I began re-designing my business cards. I have to say though, I was never fully satisfied with the result. Consequently, the design sat unused and unordered for the past 5 months. I have spent a few days throughout those months pulling up the design and tweaking it but just couldn't seem to settle on what I wanted. Well, a few days ago I had my breakthrough. To most it probably doesn't seem like much, but you know what they say, "We are our own worst critics."

FRONT

BACK

A quick detail: I had the front logo and main text foiled to add a bit of flare while the rest of the card will remain matte black. The back is matte finish as well. I will post images when they arrive, provided I am satisfied.

Throughout the spectrum of humanity, from those who are enamored with design and aesthetics to those who would claim ignorance, we as humans inherently possess an appreciation for the way things look. Undoubtedly this can be seen in some of our most basic behaviors such as our search for a mate. What is it about this girl that I find so irresistible? Countless studies have been performed by the scientific community to quantify beauty (symmetry is one concept that tends to come up a lot). The whole concept of how individuals discern "beauty" is something I find particularly fascinating. The reason I bring all that up is simply that in designing my card, I found myself obsessing over some of the smallest little details. It was almost like that scene from American Psycho... Thankfully, in the end, it was quite a bit less violent!

I ordered from VistaPrint.com and the cards should currently be en route!

New Business Cards!

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Wow, so it has been a good while since I last posted here. Hit a bit of a rough patch this past month so things have been hectic. I have been pushing to get this review of the Nikon 50-300mm f/4.5 *ED AiS out but I just haven't been able to make it happen. Instead, I have been working on redesigning some new business cards and retooling my logo and overall look (I have a beard now too). Here are the most recent drafts!

Front

Back

If you still don't get what the icon is (other than hopefully the immediate image of a camera you see, it also is supposed to more-than-vaguely resemble a "dk"). Hey-Oh! Now you see it? Oh..no? well...leave me comment then!

Previous Logo

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It's definitely better than my previous logo which was a simple monogram of "DK" in a signature-esque style. My "D" is spot-on from my signature. The "K" just works as an inverse.

This is still only in the draft phase. I may be simplifying the logo a tad more but I work best when I take a break, come back with fresh eyes, and critique. Comments are welcome though!

The Great Smoky Mountains

Last week, The Girl and I took a decidedly necessary vacation. Some weeks back, while we were both knee-deep in internships (which run through mid-autumn), we realized life was only going to become more hectic when classes began here in August. If we were going to get away, the time was now!

Without a specific destination in mind, we needed to be able to make the trip in a day and relatively inexpensively. We also both knew we had to escape the featureless plain that is the Midwest. Southern Missouri (Ozarks) was out of the question. A little too close and not quite scenic enough. Landlocked in the center of the country leaves the ocean out of the question with drive-time. The Great Lakes are beautiful but having been to Chicago on our last trip, we were feeling like heading a different direction this time. Also we wanted something more "outdoorsy". Finally, someone suggested a cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Jackson Mountain Homes Inc.

The vacation could not have gone better. We left on a Wednesday, took a 9 hour drive over to Gatlinburg, TN, stayed in a cabin for 4 nights, and came home Sunday. It was one of the most relaxing times of my life. The cabin rental company, Jackson Mountain Homes Inc. was excellent! Not only were they extremely knowledgeable with just about everything vacation, they didn't miss a thing! And on top of all this, they were the nicest people we spoke with the whole trip (and we met some very nice folks). They showed no exasperation when we called multiple times having gotten lost in various parts of town and were never hesitant to help.

Our cabin was beautiful; Tucked away on a small mountain top overlooking the Smokies complete with kitchen, california-king sized Tempur-Pedic mattress, and.....HOT TUB! We had a number of hikes planned for the few days we were there. We only managed to get to one. For no other reason than we were so worn out from work and summer school that we wanted nothing more than to just relax in the hot tub and gaze over the Smokies. Though I have never rented a cabin in Gatlinburg before, I recommend this place whole heartedly. They forgot, nothing.


We even made some new friends!

Seadragon - A New Way to Pixel Peep

After this talking about macro comparisons in this last post, I began thinking about taking another look at the Tokina in relation to my other favorite macros, the Vivitar Series 1 90mm f/2.5 and the Lester A. Dine 105mm f/2.8. I was curious how they might render the same situation differently. A realistic situation rather than a flat dollar or test. In searching for a good way to effectively embed some means by which you as a reader can quickly view results, I found Seadragon.

I first heard about this type of technology through a TED talk (which are awesome by the way!). If you are unfamiliar with these, they are a collection of presentations by the most brilliant and charismatic minds of our time. Anyway, some of the potential uses for this Seadragon technology are quick viewing and rendering of high volumes of image content with maximized zoom capability. The demo shows the guys viewing all the images on a hard drive at once, then quickly zooming into a specific image, all the way down to the pixels; all this was done quickly and fluidly.

The spider at the top is a quick sample geared towards drawing you in and obviously demonstrating the technology. Also, it was probably a quicker upload than a more busy scene. Did it work?

Now for the more practical application, pixel peeping. Currently I have yet to determine the exact parameters since I have just discovered it and not read much into it. Why am I already writing about it if I don't know all that much? Well, because it is exciting! So while I learn some more about it, have a look at this:

Vivitar Series 1 90mm f/2.5 "Bokina"

You can utilize the navigation tools near the lower right corner, or if on a mac laptop, you can simply put two fingers down on the track pad and smoothly cruise across the image, zoom in and out, without even "lifting a finger"!

How To Do It

The process is surpisingly simple. To do this all you need to do is:

1. Upload a high resolution image (doesn't have to be high res but there's not much need for this tool unless there is a lot of content to zoom into).

2. Have images hosted at some specific URL. I quickly created a free account with PicturePush.com. After uploading, PicturePush gives you the URL to share as well as other codes for embedding, etc. I clicked 'full' to view the image at full size before copying the URL to Seadragon's site. I didn't check if this makes a difference yet.


3. Go to http://seadragon.com/ and enter your URL. Click 'Create'.

4. Now you can use the embedding code given to post elsewhere!

For the comparison's sake, here are the three renderings:

Tokina 100mm f/2.8 AT-X Pro

Lester A. Dine 105mm f/2.8 (Kiron)

I'm still working on perfecting the application and understanding all the quirks about the system, but it's a start! Anyway, I thought it a great thing to share!

Starry Night

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Tokina AT-X Pro 17mm f/3.5
Aperture: f/5
Shutter Speed: unknown
ISO: 3200

This evening, the stars were out in force, even despite all the suburban light pollution. I couldn't resist, and fortunately, I don't have to! I can even spot Orion in there. Ok so I threw in a faint outline there... The moon was great too but by the time I had the camera out it had obviously long since moved from its beautiful perch on the horizon.

I tried to leave the image large so you could check out the corners but it appears blogger has somewhat of a size cap. You can still see a bit. I have been very happy with Tokina's little 17mm. Emphasis on the "little", it truly is too convenient!

Don't Make Me Go

Just felt like posting but I don't have any of my equipment related stuff completed just yet so...Dreading this drive to work has been on my mind lately. I just really don't want to make it anymore. 35+ miles which takes nearly 45 minutes to an hour. It's time for a change.

The Abduction

They came from above,

amidst a fog that loomed for days.

Our curiosity like that of an insect,

we were taken.

Belated Seasons Greetings

Early Morning - 20mm f5.6 1/3200 @ ISO 100

Well it has been exactly one month since my last post. I certainly do have some catching up to do. I wish I could say it was because I was off on some exotic vacation but that simply isn't so. The truth is I have just been very busy and directed much of my free time towards enjoying the company of those dear to me. All in all it was a wonderful, relaxing holiday season.

I had an excellent christmas this year not only because it is always great to get some real time to kick it with my family but also because despite a rather dry winter, we got snow on Christmas morning. To add to it all Santa read up on his camera gear this year.

As of this season, I have am a proud member of an up and coming camera system. No, I haven't gone to the dark side...(cough, CANON!). Although, I would love a 5D mk II but shh, don't tell anyone! After much reading/lusting/deliberation I came to the conclusion that while the micro four thirds (M43) cameras may not be quite there yet, I simply couldn't help myself. The portability, superiority over traditional digital compacts, and the adaptable mount. The possibilities seem endless. Not to mention that fact, that even if the GF1 isn't the perfect solution, I feel the glass is here to stay. I looked long and hard between the GF1, the Olympus EP1, and even the newer EP2. I scoured rumor forums in attempt to glean whether something newer and further improved was imminent. Still the GF1 seemed to reign in as an excellent piece of hardware. As with any new endeavor, the m43 system is not perfect and more than that, still quite expensive in relation to the DSLR market. Not having a lot of money was certainly the only factor holding me back.

Well my loved ones did it for me. And I have to say I'm extremely impressed! I'm thrilled! While these little cameras definitely have some kinks to be worked out and by no means replace the DSLRs in terms of quality, they open all kinds of new doors in the world of photography, not imaginable since the invention of the 35mm rangefinder!

I have a lot of posting to do and catching up in terms of promised comparisons, some of which will be largely aided by the GF1. And I plan on going into more depth/practicality discussion over the GF1 in my next post. Because, to be quite honest, this camera has been out for some time. This blog isn't about the newest and latest and greatest. I couldn't afford that, haha! It is just someone else's point of view and hopefully supplementary to what you have already read.

Below are just a few examples I have made thus far with the Panasonic GF1 and the 20mm f/1.7 pancake lens. They have been bumped a tad with some curves and a bit of saturation as I find when I post these to the web, they are significantly desaturated. All were shot in .jpg as well as mostly on aperture priority and auto ISO.

Ashley - 20mm f1.7 1/60 @ ISO 640

Frost - 20mm f/4.0 1/1600 @ ISO 100

Jana - 20mm f1.7 1/60 @ ISO 800

Vivitar Series 1 - What's all the Hoopla About?

So what's the deal with me and Vivitar? Why are over half the lenses I have reviewed and poured over from the 1970's and 80's and made by a now obscure third party brand; a brand most likely associated with garage sales and giveaway 35mm cameras from Legends of the Hidden Temple (by people of my generation), if recognized at all? What's the deal with all the sensational terminology like "legendary" and "cult status"? If Vivitar lenses were so great, what happened, why doesn't anyone talk about their new series 1 lenses?

Perhaps this article would have been more useful if written earlier in the blog for those not yet familiar with the Vivitar culture, but now is as good of time as any seeing as how I too have been learning more about Vivitar all the while in my personal observations and testings of their lenses. After all, it doesn't make any sense for someone to develop brand loyalty with little to no experience with the product.

A Brief History

Vivitar was a photo sales company founded in 1938 by two men, Max Ponder and John Best. Based out of Oxnard, California, the company got its start by selling imported German photo gear and later expanded to distributing Japanese made equipment following the conclusion of WWII.

For the sake of this article I will relegate most of the information to the Series 1 line specifically, despite the fact that Vivitar produced a wide variety of successful photographic equipment including the famed Vivitar 283 and 285 model flashes.

It was in the 1970's when Ponder and Best introduced the Vivitar Series 1 line. Interestingly enough, Vivitar was not a camera or lens manufacturer. It was a sales company. Boasting computer designed optics, the lenses would be contracted out to various manufacturers providing a less expensive alternative to the big name-brand lenses without sacrificing a whole lot of quality. In fact, many of the Vivitar lenses rivaled those of the high end lenses of the day. Vivitar technicians were the dreamers, pushing boundaries and attempting things that were unheard of in that day, and passing on the technology and savings to the photographers.

Zooms are a given in today's photographic world but in those days, primes were standard practice. Companies like Tokina got put on the map for their innovation in zoom lense technology. Vivitar, likewise, became well known for their 70-210mm zoom with macro function (Gandy). Some of their primes still today outperform many lenses and remain high on the MTF test charts. Especially the Vivitar Series 1 90mm f/2.5, a.k.a. the Bokina.

So what happened to the company? Often times it only takes one or two people to really make a huge difference and likewise, without them, everything falls apart. With the passing of Ponder and Best, Vivitar (according to Wikipedia) "drifted" between different owners, losing it's innovative edge. Interestingly enough, in my search to find parts or someone to help with a lens modification I contacted a lens design company out in California and ended up learning a little more about the demise of Vivitar. Apparently, in 1994, an earthquake, later deemed the "Northridge Earthquake" struck southern California, leaving large areas devastated. Wouldn't you know it, the Vivitar headquarters was among the casualties. Already struggling by this point, it seems the earthquake provided a final blow.

Perhaps some exaggeration lies in just how severe the earthquake affected the Vivitar company, it can at least be agreed it didn't help. In 2006 the company was bought (Syntax-Brillian Corp.), then again in 2008 (Sakar International) after filing for bankruptcy. Even now, if you call the Vivitar company, they provide no support and retain no relation to the Vivitar corporation of old.

A Different Time

It's nothing new, a company going out of business. But it's sad to see a company, that did so much for the photographic industry just fade away. Even worse, the new Vivitar company has, at least as most recently as this past year, been producing lenses bearing the "Series 1" name (Like the 500mm catadioptric, 650-1300mm, 7mm fisheye, 19-35mm, and so forth). I would call them misnomers because despite having the rights to the brand name, these lenses are in no way near the optical quality of those designed by Ponder and Best in the 70's and 80's. In most cases, I don't know that Vivitar has anything to do with the design. You can find the exact same lenses for sale under various other names like Bower, Phoenix, Promaster, and more. So someone must be responsible for the original design and then it gets rebranded all over the place! But again, they lack that signature Series 1 innovation, as well as optical quality.

Are Series 1 Lenses All They Are Cracked Up To Be?

Absolutely... to me. I think this is a personal issue. I mean, things like Photodo.com's MTF tests indeed show lenses like the 90mm proving themselves on the scientific "mat" if you will. But some of their Series 1 lenses had optical shortcomings, like any other lense. They aren't infallible. As always, it comes down to what you want out of your glass, and what you think it is worth. I pay good money for these lenses when I find them in good condition, even if I could save some money by finding one in bargain condition, because even the cosmetics mean a lot to me. Call it what collector's have (I am by no means a real collector because I use all my lenses) but I love having one of these older lenses in like new condition. It's downright exciting! Sure some lenses show color fringing wide open, others have light fall-off, and so forth. But, they emulate an era. They have a nostalgic air about them. As I often note in my reviews, you pick one up and it seems as if it has been cast or carved from a single solid piece of raw material. It is all of these qualities that make shooting with these lenses such a joy! Truly, some do perform extremely well but realistically, if you have the money to spend, of course their are much better lenses out there (in MOST cases, I have a hard time feeling that way about the 90mm, it is simply stellar). Auto-focus, Vibration Reduction (VR), Nano coatings, and all sorts of cutting edge technology adorn the newest members of the photographic legacy. But to me, the Vivitar Series 1 glass still maintains an excellent balance between nostalgia and performance and thus defending their coveted slots in my bag.

Sources

The history written here was gathered from these two sources and as I said, the gentleman I spoke with at another company's lens design facility.

Wikipedia
Stephen Gandy

2009 - The Year of the Zhu-zhu

As sick as it may be, spending my Thanksgiving evening among the hundreds of locals searching for their deal-of-the-century has become something of a tradition. It actually started years back when I was not home, but on vacation in Wisconsin with family friends. Heather, the girl nearest my age and I were most likely complaining about the lack of things to do now that Thanksgiving had gone when someone sarcastically threw out Black Friday shopping as one idea. I didn't even know what that meant. Next thing I knew, I was freezing cold, standing outside a store I had never heard of, not looking to buy anything, but amongst hundreds of others who knew precisely where they were going when those doors cracked. I was astounded. Now, every year my friends and I get together, pick a spot and go solely for the purposes of observation.


I suppose for me, the experience is two-fold. On one side, I find myself appalled (though not surprised) at the frantic, mindless, and just outright inconsiderate behavior of humans towards others. The most obvious example of this being the man who was trampled to death last year at a Wal-Mart. Outrageous is probably an appropriate adjective here. I am constantly amazed at the power of intangible forces such as greed and peer-pressure. For others however, despite the seemingly overwhelming stench of capitalism, this day provides a unique opportunity to grow closer. Standing, sitting, even camping in line, many families and friends I spoke with appeared to be in great spirits, enjoying the conversation and even laughing themselves at the absurdity of the situation.

Without continuing into a full dissertation diagramming the details of Black Friday and its social implications, let's just say you should go at least once, if not just to witness first hand the kind of behavior only an extremely well-off, disillusioned populous can parade.

Of course, I brought my camera. And ISO performance has come a LONG way. All images are on the D700 at 3200 ISO. Awesome. The opening image is a stitch obviously, and a poor one at that. I threw it together realizing the couple shots I took with the spiratone 18mm were wide, but still not enough to fully describe the line and having not planned on making a panoramic, I had to pull the 3 shots together despite having been taken from three different vantage points. It looks...eh but you get the idea. This was the midnight opening at Toy'R'Us. Below I have made a diagram of the Line Dynamics.


The GREEN ARROW represents the true entry line, the die-hards. Though honest and law abiding, they still demonstrate a disregard for common sense as they stand hours and sometimes days on the sidewalk to get the first crack at a hard to find $10 toy for their kids. Last year I spoke with a family who camped out in front of Best Buy (Also known as Worst Buy) beginning Wednesday morning, ate turkey dinner on the sidewalk, and made it in to get their $200 laptop or whatever it was. The BLUE CIRCLE represents the bystander zone and acts as a screen for snipers, as denoted by the BLUE-TO-RED ARROWS. While many like myself come to just watch the mayhem others have given up on being first in line and resign themselves to getting in when the end of the line makes it through the doors. Either way, most in this area were laughing and in good spirits. Perhaps the distance from entry is symbolic of their true distance from the situation? Whatever their motives, the BLUE ZONE provides the perfect screen for many latecomers to sneak into the chaotic mass of people shoving their way through the doors once the line begins to move. I'd say the success rate was about 50% on the night. I positioned myself just to the right of the door (and not without being shouted at before I pointed to the camera indicating I was no threat to their electronic hampster toys). Some snipers would sneak their way right through with only as many as one or two people yelling to no avail that they be sent to the back of the line. Others were not as fortunate. Such was the case for this man:

Oh yes! The police were called...by someone in line no less.

Well in the end, no deaths, not even an arrest. They just asked the man not to enter the store and go home. Then the police even commented aloud on the senseless behavior and continued on their way.

We did go IN as well but after seeing images such as those found on the People of Wal-Mart Blog like this one below, we didn't see anything particularly shocking:

The Walmart Crib (Black Friday Edition)

I wish I had seen that haha! No my images are relegated to elderly people standing beneath towers of toys attempting to move through the store to no avail. Perhaps Ill catch a gem such as the above next year! To those who were out participating: sit and think about your behavior! And being that somehow this post went down unbeknownst to me, and its now mid february, take a moment to reflect. Are you even still using whatever it was you stood in line so patiently for? Is your child a better person? haha

Rainy Day Special

I don't have a whole lot to say today since I will probably be on my way out to shoot some more droplets and so forth. We are having one of our wettest seasons in years. Literally, it will rain for a week solid, and sometimes longer. The sun setting at 4:30pm doesn't make getting out to shoot any easier. Regardless, I have been itching to get outside so bring on the trash bags and rubber bands! I had my entire macro rig, the vivitar 90mm f/2.5, 1:1 converter, D700 w/ battery grip, SB-600, and a large homemade softbox in the trash bag with only the lenshood peeping out. Not only that, I went out before my shower, in athletic shorts, a hoodie, oversized DJ headphones, and long socks and shoes. Even I thought I looked ridiculous. Here are a few of my shots, uncropped. I simply love that lens.

Helicon Focus with the Vivitar Series 1 90mm f/2.5

The above image was made from a series of 15 images stacked with Helicon Focus. In this case, considering the size of the subject, I could have just grabbed a long telephoto to compress the DoF...but that's not the point.

I hope to write more in depth on this later but I will need to at least pick up a year license to the program (a mere $30, unlimited is $200). I recently download HeliconFocus but my 30 day trial is running out and I have just been too busy. If you are wondering what the heck I am talking about, Helicon Focus is a photostacking program which, just as you would expect, creates images with an extended depth of field from stacked, inherently shallow DoF macro shots. The possibilities are for all intents and purposes, are limitless, providing you have a computer to handle this monstrosity your defiant imagination has just created in order to prove me wrong. Theoretically, you can do it with a series of images from any focal length I suppose, but it is most commonly used for macro work (as well as MICROwork, that is images taken through microscope) since at such high magnification, your DoF becomes so shallow. ANYwho...being the junkie that I am, my first, most accessible subject was none other than....(drumroll) Vivitar Series 1 90mm, muwaha! Ok, so perhaps not all that exciting. Sorry! I'm workin' on it!

I actually did one of these type shots (manually of course) in PS for the Vivitar Series 1 105mm f/2.5. It sucked. This program does everything it took me hours to do, in 1-2 minutes. And it's good. I can't wait to put some bug shots through it!

Looking Up

This post really isn't about anything technical. The image above was made with the Spiratone 18mm discussed here, but that's about as far as I'll go with that. No, tonight I am simply... feeling. No more thinking. The cogs have eased into suspension. I have recently begun a new job and it has been increasingly demanding, both mentally and physically. It is not the professional level, right out of college, "show us your resume" type job I always thought I would be entering upon graduation but in this economic situation, it is something. And to be quite honest, despite its perhaps mundane nature, I find it a unique opportunity to gain experience, work hard, and serve what appears to be a very positive, customer-oriented company (and transitively, serve customers!).

In spite of my fatigue, I feel anticipation. I have energy and a desire to keep getting up, stay late, and build something. Yes, I will ride this as long as I can for now. It feels right.

Another Amazing Individual You Never Heard Of

“There will always be some form of recording of light images. What shape it will take in the future has yet to be determined.” - Fred Spira, 2001

In searching for more information on a Spiratone lens, I discovered some general facts on the Mr. Spira as well as the Spiratone company in this obituary from the New York Times. Sounds like he was an incredible man. I enjoy finding new reasons to appreciate things even more. I initially found myself gravitating toward Spiratone brand items simply because of their robust build and retro nature. They have a sort of intrigue about them. It turns out, Mr. Spira has been noted as one of the pioneers in camera equipment distribution. Specifically, he is hailed as the Henry Ford of photography equipment. It was he who first began importing Japanese photo products into the states and making photography more accessible to the everyman. It is also claimed, it was he who made a more affordable fisheye lens available for the public. Even more impressive, he began this endeavor after fleeing his birthplace of Vienna (his father was Jewish), during World War II.

I especially found this quote on Spiratone products easy to relate to:

"Amateur and professional photographers awaited each gadget catalog as if they were children waiting for a Christmas toy catalog." (Dennis Hevesi, NY Times)

Take a look at the article and enjoy it. It certainly encourages me to continue in the world of photography and be myself. I am very appreciative of someone like Mr. Spira and for his attitude and desire to make things better for everyone as demonstrated through his contributions to the photographic art.

Scouring the Far Reaches of the Net

Just yesterday I purchased a "new" used lens from the local camera store. Like so many other instances, I was in the store for an entirely different reason when the little gem made itself very apparent to me from behind the display glass. I reasoned, I simply cannot pass up the opportunity! I raced home, googled the name in search of specs, a brief history, anything that would shed a little light on just where this lens had journeyed from.

Unsurprisingly, I was left with but morsels of clues scattered throughout a maze of forums and sites. In many cases, the existing conversation was mere hypothesis. The exact reason for the lack of information on this lens, aside from it's apparent "unremarkability", is unknown to me.

I am a photo equipment hound. Lenses, chiefly, are of incredible interest to me. I am enthralled with their complexity. The lens' contribution to the human legacy is no less than overwhelming. I like all types of lenses. From the most expensive out of reach to the sleepers covered in dust at the local garage sale. All provide a unique experience of seeing the world around us.

That said, I wish to compile data I have found on these more obscure lenses here. I wish to perform my own tests and observations. I want to provide samples. Though the technical capabilities of the lens can be universally compared and stated, it is still for the photographer to choose his or her tool.

"A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense, and is, thereby, a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety." - Ansel Adams

So let us not cast our older, so-called "optically inferior" glass aside. For unlike any other technology, lenses provide us a veil through which we can visualize the world as it was done so in a different time. They provide us a "new", if not alternative means to experience our surroundings.

To begin this new blog, in searching for a title, I chose to draw from the words of one of the greatest photographers that ever lived.

"...the common term 'taking a picture' is more than just an idiom; it is a symbol of exploitation. 'Making a picture' implies a creative resonance which is essential to profound expression." - Ansel Adams