Well, whadayaknow? Today is March 1, we made it through February! And of course it snowed again today.
These original pics are 6048x4032, 12.8 Mbytes which I figure is a bit large to post. I wish I could though because the lettering on the sign is legible in the original! Taken with the 105mm f/2.5.
I'm wondering how you managed to find streets "downtown", presumably in Toledo, which have no one walking? Or were those pics taken at 7AM on Sunday? Or no one in Toledo every contests parking tickets?
Meanwhile, down on the mean streets of our suburban neighborhood, actually in the mean trees, the bird life is starting to wake up. Of course all these birds are year-round residents so they've been here all winter.
Jim, the "downtown" has never really recovered long term from likely a 60's/70's decline, with a couple of newer buildings in the 80's. I was not around back then but the date of construction of the higher rise buildings would suggest that timeline. There have been various attempts to inject life with residences, employment, minor league sports, and other forms of activities / festivals. Minor league sporting events and special events and festivals are when we'll see a swell of people downtown, but on an average workday it's not too unusual for the streets to be somewhat empty.
Here's a pic that is literally out of this world. We are going to have a lunar eclipse on Tuesday I believe it is. Which means the moon is nearly full. And our sky is clear...
I took this just a few moments ago. Z5-II w/FTZ, hand-held 300mm f/4.5 AI-S. 1/8000 sec, ISO 1250, exposure stepped down -5, center-weighted metering, f/5.6. Cropped of course, minor contrast increase.
The sun came out again (Thank God), and I impetuously decide to go to the beach at 4:15pm. Fortunately I have a spouse that puts up with this nonsense. So I grabbed three cameras and we were off. I introduced the Nikkor-S-auto_5.8cm-f1.4-Non-ai to the "big lake" and surroundings mounted on the 5DS-R.
A corner of Lake Macatawa
Ice piling up at the channel to Lake Michigan
"Big Red" lighthouse. we really should work on these namea a bit
When I was a boy this was part of the parking lot - it's 30-40 feet high now
I get off on tangents quite often. I wanted an eye cup for an old Canon film camera, but some enterprising person seems to have purchased all the used ones and is charging $32 + shipping. So I found a broken camera with it's eye cup intact for $13. When it got here I took the cup off and put it on my working model, and then the tangent began. See, this was Canon's first eye control AF system from the early to mid 1990s, and the body was actually in excellent condition. A little research pointed to an Achilles heel inside the mode dial. - one Youtube video and a couple pdf's later I thought I could fix it. Well, the mode dial is fixed, but the camera is still broken. However, I can now turn it off and on - which it would not do before. But - what fun I had for about 2 hours.Nikkor-P.C 55mm f3.5 ai'd micro
Badly constructed mode dial Canon used two toothpick thick pieces of plastic to hold the dial together
Had to get out my smallest hand drill and bits + two screws from a Kodak Retina Reflex adventure
I had to enlarge the holes through the steel bit, plus a smaller hole for the screws into a tiny plastic ring
The back side of the mode dial recess
The golden ring switch that the mode dial engages
Oh yeah - had to remove the front of the camera to get to the dial
The hardest part was the one ribbon cable I had to remove. Getting it back was difficult
Considering there are six people in your shot - it does a good job of showing the natural beauty of that spot. It's funny how people seem drawn to nature even more now - than in the past - looking for a Hesse's Siddhartha zen like experience. When I went to the lake a few days ago I expected to see about 1-2 dozen people, but there was 400-500 people there all staring at the water.
James Markus wrote:
Considering there are six people in your shot - it does a good job of showing the natural beauty of that spot. It's funny how people seem drawn to nature even more now - than in the past - looking for a Hesse's Siddhartha zen like experience. When I went to the lake a few days ago I expected to see about 1-2 dozen people, but there was 400-500 people there all staring at the water.
James, I believe you are correct. We visited Carmel last year, one of the main attractions of the area is Point Lobos. The reserve was so crowded that were were not able to visit, twice. I was amazed by the number of cars parked for long distances outside the entrance.
I had to be patient to minimize the number of people in the photograph. It was crowded behind me and there was quite a bit of traffic to and from the North Woods. People were out big time enjoying the beauty of the snow covered park.
I've been scanning more slides. Some long time ago I had pulled some out of my storage boxes to show them but never took the time to put them back in any semblance of order. As I work through the last few hundred some are not chronological. In fact they tend to be the better selections. I know I have some from the early Nikkormat days that I haven't found yet. I'm hoping they turn up soon, or least eventually.
Meanwhile, here are some from that criterium in Salem that I showed earlier.
Child: Mommy, why do so many people get hurt in a bike race?
Parent: If your friends all jumped off a cliff, would you jump off too?
Technology - make the bike so light that it disappears
My first derailleur bike was a Peugeot UO-8. I still ride it. One of my favorite bikes is a PF-10.
That's probably not a PF-10, could be a PX-10 or PY-10. That bike has a tiny head tube. Either rider is very short or the frame was intentionally built tight for quick handling as required in a criterium. In the old days those P models (including my PF-10) would have a chromed fork. At some point manufacturers stopped doing that because of the environmental issues with discarding the solutions required. That folk is painted, not chromed.
Have any of you observed a significant rendering difference between two (or more) specimens of the same lens? Ever done any such tests? I would think there are differences, especially in the older lenses., not so much in the later ones.
I'm curious because three of the five lenses I will be getting from my friend will be redundant to what I have now. I may try some comparisons for fun. Maybe in a week or two.
However, I can now turn it off and on - which it would not do before. But - what fun I had for about 2 hours.Nikkor-P.C 55mm f3.5 ai'd micro
