philg

<p>Folks:<br> I'm going to D.C. this weekend and propose a get-together at either or both of the following:</p> <ul> <li>5 pm on Saturday, December 3 at <a href="https://www.yelp.com/biz/don-juan-restaurant-washington">Don Juan in Mt. Pleasant</a> for pupusas and drinks.</li> <li>Monday morning, December 5, for coffee (maybe near the National Gallery of Art or even <em>at</em> the NGA)</li> </ul> <p>Feel free to email (philg@mit.edu) or post here.</p>

We are at Peet's on University. Blue Bottle closed for private event

<p>Folks: Because I can't bear the idea of paying less than $5 per cup of coffee or the idea that a machine might do the dripping of hot water... Blue Bottle Coffee on University Avenue in the old theater building. Yelp reviews say that there is a nice courtyard.</p>

<p>Tim: To your question "what would be the first question you'd ask the first person that shows up at your meet up?" ... I don't have a formal plan. I am confident that I can handle the challenge, though, because even today's college students, whom we are told are unable to decide on a persistent gender, seem to be able to get through a party by asking "What's your major?"</p>

<p>Laura: If you want to do an East Coast meeting, just suggest a place! Boston is easy for me but I make it down to N.Y. and D.C. from time to time.<br> Michael: We went to Ft. Lauderdale last March/April for two weeks. The older Russian members of our family thought they had died and gone to Heaven!</p>

<p>Tim: If you think that meeting with some like-minded strangers for coffee is a fraught proposition, I would strongly suggest that you avoid the helicopter instructor job. Remember that I meet with strangers, explain what the controls do, and then we go out and fly! There are dual controls, of course, but beginner pilots can surprise you...</p>

<p>Tim: Oops! I have removed "I keep saying that I'm going to get married and have kids, but never get around to it, which I guess has been good for my photographic efforts since there was never a wife to complain about the purchase of a 600/4 or a Robinson R44 helicopter." and replaced with "I live the suburban (Boston) life with kids and golden retriever"<br> Thanks for the heads-up.</p>

<p>If this is a long-term plan it may comfort you to realize that by the time this guy reaches late 40s he will become invisible to young women!<br> Why do people take pictures of anything, human, landscape, etc.? Oftentimes it is because the subject is exceptionally ugly or exceptionally beautiful. No ulterior motive is required. On the other hand, proximity to young attractive women can lead to, um, straying. That's why your safest bet for a boyfriend may be someone who works in a field with a high male-female ratio. Pilot is good. Software engineer is good. But a software engineer whose hobby is flying is great from the point of view of "unlikely to run into a single woman when at work"!</p>

<p>Tim: I agree that there is a risk of being a lonely coffee drinker at 5 pm next Wednesday. But as a guy who works from home in a 2300 square foot house with two kids, two parents, a grandmother, a great-aunt, and a golden retriever, being lonely is typically something I can only dream about.</p>

<p>A.T.: I will be in Florida eventually. I go to Orlando every year or two because of my passion for Disney (also for recurrent Pilatus PC-12 simulator training at SIMCOM). The next one will be May or June 2017.</p>

<p>Thanks, Colin. I'm definitely not worth a 5000-mile trip! But I hope to make it back to Ireland eventually. I have a helicopter enthusiast friend there.<br> Tim: What's the purpose of a face-to-face meeting? Purely social! photo.net is great for getting a question answered, but I don't think online communities are ideal for figuring out what the question is.</p>

<p>I took a trip to Israel with a friend who used a Fuji and I had a Sony NEX-6, I think. A lot more of my images were keepers, though he is a great photographer. He likes the Fuji because the color is more subdued but probably a combination of settings and/or post-processing on the Sony could get to the same JPEG. The Sony system seems to have more legs. If you want to save some money you can buy my A6300! I will upgrade to the A6500 so that I can write about it. See http://philip.greenspun.com/travel/baltic-serenade-of-the-seas.html for a cruise that I took with my mom (contains links to the photos) and the A6300 was my only camera. For a realistic test of how a consumer would experience the camera I left it on green idiot mode nearly the entire time and used just one lens (a Sony/Zeiss 18-70 zoom).</p>

<p>How about a casual conversation in person? I'm a long-time photo.net member who would be delighted to meet some other photo.net community members in Silicon Valley. I will be out there on Wednesday, October 12 and suggest coffee at 5 pm at a to-be-determined place in downtown Palo Alto (near Jing Jing, I hope!).<br> Thanks in advance! (you can email me, philg@mit.edu, to arrange)</p>

<p>(Nice composition, by the way; I would probably have ended up with those lamps growing out the subjects' heads.)</p>

<p>Don't feel too bad. It has happened to all of us and will continue to happen.<br> If the entire picture is blurry... camera shake (you need a higher shutter speed, to brace yourself against a door frame, or to put the camera on a tripod).<br> If one person is blurry but others at the same distance from the camera are sharp... subject movement (higher shutter speed or take more images and ask subjects to hold still)<br> If one part of the image is sharp but others at different distances from the camera are blurry... the autofocus did a great job, but it picked a different part of the scene to focus on than you would have picked if you had used manual focus.</p>