Archive 2016 · Me, Myself and I

SargentRay
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Me, Myself and I

Hello everyone, been a while since i've posted anything here. Not because of a lack of interest but rather because i have returned to my old schedule at work on a 3 shift rotation in a 5 week based cycle. This leaves me much less time for my passion as when i was assigned to a software police oriented project for over 4 years. I don't really mind it anymore since i am less than 18 months away from retirement. Add to that the fact that i rekindled with and old passion of mine; Music. Few months ago my long time buddy came home asking me to photograph his vintage (Circa 1976) sound system. Hmm sure i said to my ol chum. So we worked all day at shooting his stuff on different seamless backdrops. At one point he plugged his funky retro Sony amp and pushed the shiny ON button.

I was doomed from that point forward and wanted to start that crazy hunt for old and cheap vintage stereo components myself. Add to that the crazy comeback vinyl records is going through at the moment and you get just the perfect combination to start me on yet another passion. What a pleasure it is to listen again to the music i grew up on and the fascination of watching the stylus run in the grooves of vinyl records all over again.

All this to say last night after supper as i was deep in my new passion going through a bunch of old records folks gave me (i did buy some myself though) when i suddenly thought how an outside observer might probably think i was crazy doing all that work just to listen to music when mp3 downloads are so readily available without much effort. But to me the hunt for that rare LP, the frantic drive home to have a listen and find out if it is still playable, the ritual of cleaning them (actually wash them in a tub with a cleaning solution), then the usual antistatic brush cleaning to get to that final moment of satisfaction when the cartridge drops onto the record and the first notes come out of the speakers. This moment is one of my life's little moments of pleasure and it never fails to bring me deep satisfaction and inner peace with myself.

I wanted to make a picture of that moment, and the first thing i thought about was to try and make a pano of my living room showing my little world at that moment. Also thought it would be funny to include myself a few times in the shot to sort of give a storyboard effect. I think it worked not too bad.

9 shot (vertical) pano, on Sony A6000 w 16-50mm Kit lens at 16mm -24mm equiv.
1/5th sec f4.5 200 ISO Raw
self timer 10sec
PP in Lr CC
Pano stitched in Photoshop CC
Applied technique; Home made detail enhancement recipe
Frequency separation for ceiling values
Vignetting and tonal contrast with Nik software

Me, Myself and I

Apr 03, 2016 at 08:16 AM

wswartzwel
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Me, Myself and I

Nice image, I like your creativity. This really tells the story well, and communicates the feeling of digging through the vinyl! I still have my collection of records and occasionally play a few when the mood strikes.

Apr 03, 2016 at 09:34 AM

SargentRay
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Me, Myself and I

Hey thank's for dropping by wswartwel, it's funny how i see a lot of similarities in vintage audio with photography; I mean most of us a some point in our passion get caught up in either the Mega Pixel crave or the search for the better more advanced cameras and lenses but at the same time we all know the camera doesn't make the photographer. In a sense today's audio world is absolutely incredible, heck the technology has evolved so much speaker only 4 inch big can produce sounds of incredible definition and quality. But man is it ever expensive. This being said there's a lot to be said about old sound system in fact most avid music listener would be more than happy with a 70 ish good power amp, i for one am really impressed with the quality of many old brands. It's really a good thing because i couldn't afford the modern equivalent of what i got for peanuts let me telle ya.

Again thank's for the comment and have a great day :-)

Edited on Apr 04, 2016 at 08:44 AM · View previous versions

Apr 03, 2016 at 10:21 AM

dmacmillan
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Me, Myself and I

Nifty photo!
So, what did you end up listening to? I kept all my records, including the first 45's I bought in 1956, as well as my grandfather's 78s. I just finished cleaning (I use a record cleaning machine), sleeving and cataloging 135 45's I bought at a charity sale. They start with pristine Elvis extended play, then run through the heart of the 60's with an emphasis on Beatles and Beach Boys, many with their original picture sleeves.

That puts the 45 count at 2500+. The 78 count is about 4800 and there's over 5,000 LPs in the collection. I have three turntables, one set up to play mono LPs and 45s with a special cart, one to play 78s and one to play stereo.

Apr 03, 2016 at 10:32 AM

SargentRay
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Me, Myself and I

dmacmillan wrote:
Nifty photo!
So, what did you end up listening to? I kept all my records, including the first 45's I bought in 1956, as well as my grandfather's 78s. I just finished cleaning (I use a record cleaning machine), sleeving and cataloging 135 45's I bought at a charity sale. They start with pristine Elvis extended play, then run through the heart of the 60's with an emphasis on Beatles and Beach Boys, many with their original picture sleeves.

That puts the 45 count at 2500+. The 78 count is about 4800 and there's over 5,000 LPs in the collection. I have...Show more →

Hello dmacmillan, been ages since we spoke here, thank's for stopping.

Actually i was going through so many i lost track, over 250 lps were given to me in 2 donations from family members to help me get started. I did play the Genesis Trick of the tail record i found 3 days ago, it sounds quite nice, but the Who Who's last album i got at the same time is in far worse shape despite my best effort to clean it. The scratches are at bottom groove level unfortunately. Funny because i was playing an even older Beatles' records that looked far worse that still sound amazing.

I found a mint Kenwood amp and tuner combo that just sounds amazing (KA-7300 - KT-7300) not even top of the line but amazing nonetheless. For the time being i do all my listening on a pair of little 2 way JBL-L19. I just love the West Coast sound of these great performers. But i am looking for a little more sensitivity (power) and a 3 way or i might go the co-ax route and get a nice pair of old Tannoys :-)

Life's good :-)

Apr 03, 2016 at 01:22 PM


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