One of my companions when out in the garden with my 55/2.8 + PK-12 macro setup.
This is the stump of a huge multi stemmed ash tree that we had removed a few years ago.
The cats love to sit on it and observe their kingdom.
There sure is a lot of great photography on display here these days (not to mention the customary camaraderie, at a nicely increased pace)! Serge, your photos of masked NYC citizens, along with Leighton's of the pandemically surreal farmers' market, could become some of the images that people will look at in awe and wonder, years, decades, and centuries from now as they reflect on this unique period in world history.
Thanks everyone for your kind likes and comments on my recent image posts. Here are a few more photos from November in Southern California, showing some of the shore birds on Swami's beach near Encinitas. All shots were taken with the 180 f/2.8 Ai-s, optimized with the crop factor on my Fuji X-T2.
Thanks everyone for the kind comments - the lockdown and unusual set subjects have certainly made me "think out of the box" - not easy for a finance man to use the right brain. We're locked in til May 1 and I wonder if a set subject or lens theme wouldn't get us all feeling a bit better about this whole darn bug and its consequences.
rafaelcasd wrote:
Old photos 50-300mm ED. San Diego views from my neighborhood:
Rafael - such a lovely city.
I visited San Diego (Rancho Bernardo) in 1986 as part of an acquisition and stayed with a friend. We had a great weekend, lovely Mexican food, Maragaritas (naturally) , a ride round the city and out to La Jolla and my one and only ballgame which the Padres won.
A lovely city with a similar feel to Cape Town (all it needs is Table Mountain ) - I could live and be happy there.
Basically I forgot to reset the aperture and ended up with a very slow shutter speed. But for a hand held, 600mm, panning shot I can't be mad. with all of the dust on the sensor it looks like a old film scan. Also had the wrong lens picked. so the camera things it's a 300mm.
Oosty wrote:
Thanks everyone for the kind comments - the lockdown and unusual set subjects have certainly made me "think out of the box" - not easy for a finance man to use the right brain. We're locked in til May 1 and I wonder if a set subject or lens theme wouldn't get us all feeling a bit better about this whole darn bug and its consequences.
Stay safe
You acquitted yourself very well Peter. I've enjoyed the photos you've shared. That last set is great. What a wonderful challenge you put to one another. I recall when I was posting on TrekEarth and they did a scavenger hunt. We had to take photos of ten different things. I remember one was a photo of something over a hundred years old. I complained saying that the folks in Europe simply needed to turn around and there would be SOMETHING a hundred years old staring them in the face... I could have gone to Muir Woods and taken a photo of a redwood tree but I decided to take it seriously. I went to San Francisco and took a photo of Mission Delores which was built a few years beyond 100. If anyone has a thought for some form of challenge with folks on this thread, it could be fun. We really knocked it out of the park... to use a baseball metaphor, when we sent Nikki around the world. I also think most folks enjoyed sharing photos of themselves when they were still in their twenties. Any ideas folks? With nothing but time on our hands what do we have to lose?
I have to admit that the conversation about single malt whisky this past week turned into a bit of an obsession with me. I've been watching YouTube videos and the making of Scotch, some lovely travelogues. I even went online to a shop in San Francisco that I bought a few bottles from years ago. Their prices are so good that I can pay for shipping and the product is cheaper than what I'd pay. I believe I mentioned filling up a cart... but I've not placed an order. There was one bottle in the cart they said would need to be shipped from Southern California. This morning I felt motivated to see if my local merchant has a website, which he does. They have that whisky in stock. After considering whether to buy six bottles of Islay whisky from San Francisco, or drive to the local store and pay seven dollars more for that one bottle I can only get from LA... I decided to take a drive.
There normally are Nikon lenses on the top of that tansu next to the Buddha statue. Highland Park 12 Year Old Scotch whisky is a treat. No, it is not from Islay but for an occasional wee dram, it will treat me well... I can say that after having had TWO wee drams...
Now it is time to get together a meal. Enough Scotch whisky for one day...
CGrindahl wrote:
You acquitted yourself very well Peter. I've enjoyed the photos you've shared. That last set is great. What a wonderful challenge you put to one another. I recall when I was posting on TrekEarth and they did a scavenger hunt. We had to take photos of ten different things. I remember one was a photo of something over a hundred years old. I complained saying that the folks in Europe simply needed to turn around and there would be SOMETHING a hundred years old staring them in the face... I could have gone to Muir Woods and taken a photo of a redwood tree but I decided to take it seriously. I went to San Francisco and took a photo of Mission Delores which was built a few years beyond 100. If anyone has a thought for some form of challenge with folks on this thread, it could be fun. We really knocked it out of the park... to use a baseball metaphor, when we sent Nikki around the world. I also think most folks enjoyed sharing photos of themselves when they were still in their twenties. Any ideas folks? With nothing but time on our hands what do we have to lose?
Oosty wrote:
As our original lockdown was for 21 days the Outlaw Challenge has come to an end. Some background, my ex-wife, Sherryl, remarried last December. The previous Christmas she and Rob her partner spent a week with us, folowed by a week together in the Kruger Park and then a week here in January. Needless to say we all get on extremely well and over the past 20 years Ingrid, my partner, and Sherryl have developed a very close relationship. That's where the "outlaws" label comes from.
Rob, who is a very accomplished photographer, threw down the gaunlet 3 weeks ago and our better halves had to choose the subject for the day. The loser (judged by a 3rd party - one of Rob's friends) would host dinner the next time we get together. Thankfully I managed to win by a very small margin.
These are the final two images both with the 50 f2 - subjects "pencils" and "gate"
. Good fun while it lasted.
) - I could live and be happy there.
I could have gone to Muir Woods and taken a photo of a redwood tree but I decided to take it seriously. I went to San Francisco and took a photo of Mission Delores which was built a few years beyond 100. If anyone has a thought for some form of challenge with folks on this thread, it could be fun. We really knocked it out of the park... to use a baseball metaphor, when we sent Nikki around the world. I also think most folks enjoyed sharing photos of themselves when they were still in their twenties. Any ideas folks? With nothing but time on our hands what do we have to lose? 
