For some strange reason I've been playing with the 400 f/5.6 ED-IF AI-s the last week. I posted photos taken on Tuesday and rather liked the results so I left the lens on the Df. I tried a few days ago to see how it would perform on some closer subjects. We all know that longer lenses can create some delicious bokeh when shot at near the minimum focusing distance. Here are some shots grabbed along the street where I live...
CGrindahl wrote:
The guy whose last name appears on the Nikon forum page next to the name of this thread...
I'm simply demonstrating a fact I've mentioned many times, that this thread really belongs to everyone who participates. Clearly, you guys and gals are doing just fine without me. I did my heavy lifting for this thread during the first two or three years when we were building some momentum. Now it's old timers like you Ken, who keep the ship moving in the right direction. You've built a first rate kit and keep trying out new cameras... just what the doctor ordered.
Am enjoying the photos you've dropped on the thread today. Great work.
Making sure you weren’t AI what with you being in the silicon bay area.
I resemble that remark Ken. Blessedly the pulse is still there. You may recall, however, that I do volunteer work through the Living/Dying Project. This last year I've met four people with stage four cancer... that means cancer that is demeaned too advanced to cure. Two of them subsequently died. A third is nearing death. The fourth, a fellow who is 58 years old with two college age boys has been receiving chemotherapy for years, keeping the cancer at bay. I see him every week so I have a window into the world of mortality... as though being 77 years old myself wasn't enough of a window. You know, of course, since you've had some very challenging health issues, that we don't take these days for granted... if we're smart, which I know you to be.
So no AI here... just diminishing Intelligence that seems to come with the advancing years. My friends and I laugh about it as we try to remember this or that inconsequential trivia. I decided it doesn't matter and just keep on keeping on...
CGrindahl wrote: I resemble that remark Ken. Blessedly the pulse is still there. You may recall, however, that I do volunteer work through the Living/Dying Project. This last year I've met four people with stage four cancer... that means cancer that is demeaned too advanced to cure. Two of them subsequently died. A third is nearing death. The fourth, a fellow who is 58 years old with two college age boys has been receiving chemotherapy for years, keeping the cancer at bay. I see him every week so I have a window into the world of mortality... as though being 77 years old myself wasn't enough of a window. You know, of course, since you've had some very challenging health issues, that we don't take these days for granted... if we're smart, which I know you to be.
So no AI here... just diminishing Intelligence that seems to come with the advancing years. My friends and I laugh about it as we try to remember this or that inconsequential trivia. I decided it doesn't matter and just keep on keeping on...
I respect the work you do there. It takes a lot of empathy to do what you do, and I admire you for it. Cancer is one of those things that I always feared, until I actually got it. Now, it's not bad living with it.
Honestly, Leighton, that is what makes doing this kind of work so rewarding. Life challenges us in many ways but there is nothing that quite brings things into focus than serious illness and the prospect of life's end. When I work with folks I often refer to as the "no bull-shit" territory. When the end approaches we want to talk about what really matters. Invariably that has something to do with the people you love. When I worked with Mary Beth for four years the focus of our work was often making certain her son would be cared for. I helped set up guardianship arrangement with an attorney, something I would never have thought was part of this sort of work... but this was what she needed before her life finally came to an end.
So I'm not surprised you've found a way to live with that cancer thing. Surviving surgery is just a beginning, as Rinie is finding out at the moment. They removed half of her lung before putting her on chemotherapy. She's finished that and her scans are clean, but her energy is much depleted and she has difficulty because of the reduced lung capacity. Now she if working with a physical therapist learning to increase her capacity.
I'm happy that things have worked out for you Leighton, though we all know each of these successes is merely a reprieve. None of us gets out of here alive, something that you as a farmer living close to the earth know first hand. So we do our best to enjoy each day, to experience with gratitude this simple gift of life.
So at least ONE of the blabbermouths has gotten started...
CGrindahl wrote:
For some strange reason I've been playing with the 400 f/5.6 ED-IF AI-s the last week. I posted photos taken on Tuesday and rather liked the results so I left the lens on the Df. I tried a few days ago to see how it would perform on some closer subjects. We all know that longer lenses can create some delicious bokeh when shot at near the minimum focusing distance. Here are some shots grabbed along the street where I live...
So there's chai at the market in Staunton and paratha at Marin county, but if you folks want to be in the Land of Beer pay a visit to Fells Point in Baltimore. Plaubel Makina 67 with Fuji Pro 160NS.
Those Northern California flowers are very welcome Curtis. I am waiting for the tulips here in a week or two, will have to try out Nikkors in 3 different formats on them this year
Reagan I think your Z is leaps and bounds better than Fuji stuff you were playing around with.
Luka, nice NYC scene as always.
Ray, I like that Visual Arts pic! I don't know about the dark band in that stream shot. The next set I did was with the same film and film holder, and the dark band isn't there, although with the 90mm instead of the 135mm lens. There's an embankment and trees to the right, its possible its a shadow.
Leighton, definitely have to try out the masala chai at the market. Are there more stalls now or is my memory fading.
Peter, cool in depth look at the flower, and that wasp looks deadly.
Ken, like the Blue Angels pics! I believe the Andrews AFB show is finally coming back this year. I may make it there with one or the other long Nikkor on the Df.
Interesting experience Chin.
Scott, just loved the foggy green tractor and barn scene!
Beautiful 400mm flowers Curtis.
That’s tough news to hear about Rinie. Wishing her the best in recovery.
Nice to hear your attitude towards living with cancer Leighton. That’s encouraging.
Interesting combo and great pics with that 1cm tube Peter.
leighton w wrote:
I respect the work you do there. It takes a lot of empathy to do what you do, and I admire you for it. Cancer is one of those things that I always feared, until I actually got it. Now, it's not bad living with it.
Good to hear your „voice” again, Curtis. Please, tell Rinnie that a stranger from (not so far) East is thinking & praying for her recovery.
For the rest of the gang... I'm still a stranger who enjoys a lot your pictures, but restricting himself only to use the like button. If Reagan will keep being a Nikon guy with Nikon glass, I must reconsider my activity
Where is Philippe?
saph wrote:
Those Northern California flowers are very welcome Curtis. I am waiting for the tulips here in a week or two, will have to try out Nikkors in 3 different formats on them this year
Reagan I think your Z is leaps and bounds better than Fuji stuff you were playing around with.
Luka, nice NYC scene as always.
Ray, I like that Visual Arts pic! I don't know about the dark band in that stream shot. The next set I did was with the same film and film holder, and the dark band isn't there, although with the 90mm instead of the 135mm lens. There's an embankment and trees to the right, its possible its a shadow.
Leighton, definitely have to try out the masala chai at the market. Are there more stalls now or is my memory fading.
Peter, cool in depth look at the flower, and that wasp looks deadly.
Ken, like the Blue Angels pics! I believe the Andrews AFB show is finally coming back this year. I may make it there with one or the other long Nikkor on the Df.
Interesting experience Chin.
Scott, just loved the foggy green tractor and barn scene!
Colin, look forward to seeing more Boston scenes!...Show more →
Samy, Two opportunities for you!
May
11 · 12 | Joint Base Andrews, MD | Joint Base Andrews Air Show
22 | Annapolis, MD | U.S. Naval Academy Air Show
CGrindahl wrote:
... Life challenges us in many ways but there is nothing that quite brings things into focus than serious illness and the prospect of life's end. ... When the end approaches we want to talk about what really matters. Invariably that has something to do with the people you love. ...
This is just the thing that has been happening with me lately, Curtis! As you know, my brother passed away from cancer at the beginning of February. He was an avid life-long music aficionado, but he was utterly incapable of carrying a tune or playing an instrument himself. When I was about 20 or 21 years old, he encouraged me to learn to play bottleneck slide guitar, which I did. I then went to university in Newfoundland, where I met up with a very capable guitar player who included me in a band he had started, and who taught me some non-slide fingerstyle skills. This led to an active ten-year participation in the St. John's folk music community. When I returned to Ontario my interest in guitar-playing faded, and when my brother died I hadn't picked up a guitar in over 25 years.
Then one day a few weeks ago, a patient in the treatment centre where I work was playing a guitar. I tried to show him a specific fingerstyle technique that interested him, but I couldn't quite manage it. I commented that I had lost my touch, and he told me he figured I could get it back easily. That comment stuck with me and triggered a chain of events that led to me now owning two beautiful new acoustic guitars, one of which is a Dobro specifically for playing slide (and some other stuff in open tunings). For me it is as if my brother passed his love of music to me at his death, and it transformed into motivation for me to create music again. Now, when I play one of my guitars, I feel as if I am giving my brother some satisfaction.
This has actually been just the most recent phase of a process that started with my parents' deaths and my move to Vancouver Island. Life has taken on a whole new meaning that centers in a big way around family heritage and making the most of the time that remains for me on this material plane. I am keenly aware that each day is a gift, and my life has become richer than ever before.
CGrindahl wrote:
So at least ONE of the blabbermouths has gotten started...
It appears that you awakened my inner blabbermouth as well.
To get my post back on-topic, here are a few photos from St. Patrick's Day at nearby Cable Bay, where the 55 f/1.2 SC helped my Fuji X-T2 capture some arboreal personalities that I came across that day.
Lovely you found your way back to music Glen, especially with the connection with your deceased brother. I've been listening of late to some music that was very important to me thirty years ago, perhaps because I've been doing some reflecting on times gone by, not all of which were happy. It is easy to slip into comfortable grooves in life, but occasionally we are invited to examine our lives with fresh eyes. As I said, illness can be the catalyst, but other life challenges can as well. The move across country you made is a pretty big deal. Leighton's decision to cut back on his field work. When I stopped drinking a year ago that represented a pretty significant change. I didn't consider myself an alcoholic but when I stopped with the intention of cleaning up my diet a bit, I didn't account for how not taking the edge off with a glass of this or that would affect me. I'm suddenly reminded of the line from Friday Night Lights... Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose. I think that is says it all.
