carl photography

<p>Hi Tim,<br>

We live across the street from a Mennonite farm in Pennsylvania. We've been told that the "plain people" believe that posing for photos is an act of pride, which is biblically sinful. And like all people, they may feel that it is rude to be photographed by a stranger without permission (anger is the result of a sense of violation or intrusion, of having something taken away from you.)<br>

In the (very conservative) Amish and Old Order Mennonite churches, children are not yet baptized and therefore are not accountable to follow the religious strictures. While they have some freedom of choice, I NEVER would ask children to violate their parents' beliefs ("Spare the rod, and spoil the child" could come into play).<br>

If I needed a shot of an Amish child, I'd hire a model and buy a suit of Amish clothes from a tourist shop.<br>

"Brandon's Dad"</p>

Hi Alan, I have two Luna Pro F meters, and they both do this. Their needles are well to the

right of the green box, when I press the green button while using a fresh battery.

Thank you all so very much!

I bought a 4GB microdrive for only $70 (after $50 and $30 rebates) today at Circuit City,

which worked immediately with no formating. Then I came home, read the rest of your

answers, pushed the Extreme's dip switch to ensure it was in the 4GB position, and

formated it again: it works now.

Now I'm a happy snapper, with 8GB to store the several-hundred NEF+JPEG files that we'll

be shooting at an upcoming "dog/family photo day" event....

"Brandon's Dad"

Yikes, my new D200 doesn't work. After reading the Quick Start instructions and charging

the battery for two hours, I inserted a SanDisk Extreme III 4GB CF card, pressed "garbage

can" plus "mode" to start the formating process, and then pressed 'em again when the

"For" message blinked.

After ten hours, the screen still says "For" (not blinking), and the number of remaining

shots never has appeared. It won't take pictures, although the focusing etc. does work.

After leaving it on overnight, I turned off the camera and reseated the card, and tried again

-- with the same result. I also tried using the menu to do the formating.

So sad! Should I return the camera to Circuit City Online (I bought their 4-year extended

warranty) or to Nikon in Melville, or return the card to B&H, or take it to a Circuit City

store? Or just give it to our 9-year-old son to play with, and load the FM2 and Mamiya

645 for Daddy to play with?

We live out in the sticks, near Harrisburg PA.

Thank you,

"Brandon's Dad" (a formerly devout filmguy, until one of our local medium-format

scanning shops stopped doing good work, and the other went out of business)

I've used Pentacon-mount lenses on my 645E. (Could your adapter be filed down to fit

better, or replaced with a different adapter?)

"Brandon's Dad"

I recently bought an "Excellent" Mamiya 645 body that didn't work -- but KEH repaired it

quickly (they have a 60-day warranty, I think) -- and a "Bargain" viewfinder that is fine,

except for some insignificant marks on the glass.

"Brandon's Dad"

We're very satisfied with our Mamiya 645 1000 S (we paid $149 at KEH), three lenses,

motor drive ($100), and other accessories, all of which are cheap at KEH. The lenses for

this (focal-plane shutter) camera don't have shutters, so they're cheaper than lenses for

leaf-shutter outfits -- much cheaper than Hasselblad's short and long lenses.

We've found the 645 format to be very practical in our portrait business, for several

reasons, and it makes fine enlargements to 16" x20" and somewhat beyond.

"Brandon's Dad"

I also lost mine, which I think was a shoot-through diffuser model rather than a reflector.

It attached with a soft rubber strap, which rotted away. Was it called "Airbrella?"

"Brandon's Dad"

We have two YashicaMats, a Mamiya 645 1000S, and some Nikons. Overall, I prefer the

645 format which is the "best of both worlds."

Our 645 with a motorized grip handles much like a 35mm, in my "XXL" hands. It is steady

to hold, due to its mass. It also is a fine tripod-mounted portrait camera. We use

Mamiya's rotating 645 mount, which cost $52 on eBay, on tripods and monopods.

Ironically, we get better quality with 645 negatives than with 6x6 negatives. Our local labs

(one Noritsu, and one Agfa) scan 645 frames at 5.8 megapixels, but they scan 6x6 at only

4 megapixels (go figure!) at the same cost ($14 per 220 roll, with processing).

(For poster-sized enlargements, we have our 645 and 6x6 negatives re-scanned for $8 by

a lab using a NIkon 8000.)

"Brandon's Dad"

I bought three cheapo radio-frequency sets on eBay, and they do not work consistently.

Cain't figger out why....

"Brandon's Dad"

The second time that my 645E broke, it was unrepairable. So I bought a 1000S from KEH.

Lemme know when you need some parts.... {;>)

"Brandon's Dad"

We bought several of these cheapo "Pro Photo" and "Amvona" sandbags on eBay, for

twenty bucks (including shipping) per set of two bags:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?

ViewItem&item=7539894210&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1

We filled 'em with sand (in Ziplok baggies, 'cause we're a bit anal). We packed 'em into a

carry-on bag that has wheels and an extendable handle, which was purchased at a "dollar

deal" store for five bucks.

We bought a used heavy-duty lightstand on eBay, and some inexpensive but relatively

sturdy tubular-aluminum lightstands at the Adorama and White Lightning Web sites.

However, we never use umbrellas outdoors if there is any wind at all, and we use our

cheapest eBay umbrellas when shooting outdoors.

"Brandon's Dad"

The best Internet vendors, such as www.bhphotovideo.com and www.adorama.com, carry

a much wider selection -- at lower prices -- than local stores.

I use Fuji Reala 100 and Kodak UC 100 (as well as the ISO-160 "professional" negative

films).

"Brandon's Dad"

Telephotos (I use 105 f2.5 Nikkor and 200 f4 Micro-Nikkor) for intimate, revealing, or

standard portrayals of a single subject (although I usually use medium-format cameras

with f2.8 lenses);

Normal lens (I use Nikon 50 f1.8) for full-length or small groups; and a

Moderate wideangle lens (I use a 24-120 Nikon zoom, and a 35mm Nikon E) for groups --

and especially for environmental portraits, which can portray the most

interesting information about a person.

Typically, the goal is to shoot from a distance (five feet or so) that is normal for viewing

another person, to maintain a pleasant perspective. Creatively, you may choose unusual

distance-lens combos for artistic effect. One of those old Life shooters made a wideangle

closeup of an industrialist who used slave labor during WWII....it made him look like a rat.

"Brandon's Dad"

Here it is:

http://about.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=736752

"Brandon's Dad"

I liked spiders so much that I slept with one. At ages 8 and 9, I slept in our backyard in Los

Angeles for two summers, to be nearby a big golden orb-weaver garden spider like the

one captured by Matthew's wife. I put moths in the web, so she grew really big....

Brandon's Dad

Our local Wal-Mart refused to copy our Christmas portrait of our housekeeper with her

dogs, telling her that it was "professional."

Wal-Mart now offers a pamphlet which explains their policy. It includes a Customer

Acknowledgement form, to certify that:

-- "I am the copyright author of the pictures presented for copying." - or

-- "I have written permission from the copyright author authorizing copies to be made.

(Please attach a signed copyright release.)"

They're helping us make customers aware of the laws that protect us from financial loss.

That's good....

Brandon's Dad

We use 124G, Nikon and Mamiya cameras, because there are many tradeoffs in achieving a

desired image. For example, MF has less depth of field than 35mm, but less grain and

better tonality, given the same lighting conditions and image size -- a 35 mm camera has

a "normal" lens length of 50mm, while a 6x6 camera needs an 80mm lens to have the

same angle of view.

The best 35mm films and lenses can make superb 8"x10" enlargements.

Brandon's Dad

It's probably fine as-is. I'd done the same thing, and my local camera shop advised me to

have it normally processed. The results were excellent, since NPH needs some

overexposure anyway.

Brandon's Dad

You can shoot nearly anything with the 180 -- whenever you can move into a position that

is the desired distance from your subject, and if you don't need a faster lens. (It's the only

lens that one of our local commercial photographers ever uses on his RZ, since it is perfect

for most portraits.)

When you need a telephoto, e.g. for distant sports action, a smaller-format camera may be

a more usable option.

Brandon's dad

I use a Mac iBook with Photoshop Elements 3. Laptops are slower than desktop computers,

and RAM is more costly for laptops.

The iBook can accept one additional RAM chip, so I would add 1Gig of RAM (in addition to

its built-in 256MB RAM). Apple charges too much for RAM, which is much cheaper from

the reliable online vendors such as Crucial.

I recommend a Mac, unless you want to use some PC-only software. Currently, Macs are

much safer on the Internet, they come with a lot of basic software included (and it all

works well together, and generally is very intuitive!), their components are of high quality,

they are very quiet, their displays are excellent, and they have easy-to-use color

management software.

I pay $100 per year to use Apple's "dot Mac" service, which has excellent virus prevention

software and updates, Website hosting, and backups on Apple's servers. Also, Apple has

the highest-rated technical support staff.

The Mac Powerbook is even better than the iBook, but it is more expensive. However, for

maximum performance, a PC "desktop replacement" laptop can be much faster than a Mac

laptop (until Apple eventually offers a laptop CPU that is more powerful than their current

"G4").

(Macs are not as common in the UK as they are in the US.)

Brandon's Dad

Many years ago, I bought an IBM color monitor (640x480) that had a built-in fan. It cost

$4,000 new....

Brandon 's Dad

I use the Bogen pocket described above by Jeff, with a Bogen monopod that has a quick-

release trigger grip.

Brandon's Dad

Ya gotta be obsessive. The Devil is in the details....

Brandon's Dad

Todd,

Papa Bear Is "Mr. December" on the Central Pennsylvania Animal Alliance (CPAA) 2005

Shelter & Rescue Calendar, which describes him as a rescued stray who had "major

behavioral issues." He was terrified and reactive during our session, although he doesn't

look it. His new owners are wonderful; we've photographed their family of rescued dogs a

few times.

Bryan, thanks for your "virtual hospitality" -- nice thread!

Brandon's Dad<div></div>