Kent Shafer

<p>Oops. Here's the picture.</p><div></div>

<p>My grandmother was an excellent baker, especially known for her hickory nut cakes. When she showed up with one at an ice cream social, the generally genial Methodists could become agressive in their haste to get a piece before it was all gone.<br /> <br />Every fall, my grandfather would gather up as many hickory nuts as he could find, crack them, pick out the meats, and freeze them in coffee cans for the next year's cakes. My 91 year-old dad recently found a can in the back of his freezer that they must have given him at least 30 years ago. Dad wasn't interested in eating anything that old, but the squirrels love them.</p>

<p>Happy Halloween.</p><div></div>

<p>I still have a soft spot in my heart for long PC cords because of this:</p> <p>In the early 1980's there was a short-lived, prime-time American soap opera about modeling and the fashion industry called "Paper Dolls." Some episodes (maybe all of them) featured a dynamic studio session with gorgeous models, music, and freeze frames punctuated by SLR sound effects. (At least that's how I remember them.) Each session started with the debonair photographer rakishly tossing the long PC cord over his shoulder. Think Zorro's cape.</p> <p>It seemed oh-so cool.</p>

<p>Ball drilling at Aleta Sill's Bowling World. I struggled at first to eliminate the reflections but finally decided they made the shot more interesting. </p><div></div>

<p>Years ago I attached a tripod head to a set of legs using red Loctite. Lately I've thought it would be nice to move that head to different legs, but no. Without a huge lever of some kind or pneumatic tools, it isn't ever coming off.</p>

<p>I garbled the exposure info on the drilling picture. The exposure was 1/250 @ f/5.6, ISO 5600.</p>

<p>And here's a new ball being drilled:</p><div></div>

<p>I recently shot lots of shiny bowling balls at Aleta Sill's Bowling World in Farmington, Michigan. Here are two of them.</p> <p>First, an old ball being resurfaced on an automatic machine.</p><div></div>

<p>Daphne bowling.</p><div></div>

<p>I really like your work, by the way.</p>

<p>And here's the after:</p><div></div>

<p>Kent,</p> <p>I don't know what software you used for your "Fixed?' version, but if you haven't already, you might want to look into the Adaptive Wide Angle filter in Photoshop CC or CS6 (alas, not in CS5 I think). I just tried it for the first time tonight on an image of a bowling ball display shot with a D800E and 14-24 at 20mm. Among other things, it significantly reduced the elongation of balls at the edge of the frame, which may be similar to your water tower issue. This image didn't have any key stoning, but the tool can fix that too.</p> <p>Kent in MI</p> <p>Here's the "before" version:</p><div></div>

<p>I agree with Mike. KEH is a fine company to do business with, and I wish them well.</p> <p>Some may remember the last time they did a major site overhaul. At first it was a disaster—slow and often nonresponsive, and if you did manage to get something in your shopping cart, you couldn't check out—but they fixed it. They'll probably improve this new site, too.</p>

<p>You don't have to do anything special. When you produce a jpg of a given size (<em>e.g.,</em> 800 pixels wide) for the Web or a print of a given size (<em>e.g.,</em> 20 inches wide), you automatically down-res the D810 image more (or, in the case of large prints, up-res less) than if you had started with an image with fewer megapixels.</p> <p> </p>

<p>Yes, I expect that not being able to browse the "latest arrivals" will free up quite a bit of time for other things and save me a lot of money too.</p> <p>Maybe a bit like quitting smoking: The old habit was enjoyable, but in the long run it's healthier to kick it.</p>

<p>Last.</p><div></div>

<p>Second one.</p><div></div>

<p>Three of our granddaughter, Daphne, all with D800E and 85mm Nikkor f/1.4 AF-D.</p> <p>#1</p><div></div>

<p>Welcome back, Lil!<br> So I shot a dog's birthday party recently. (Looks like my photographic career is really starting to peak!) Anyway, this is Sophia, bearing the humiliation like a trooper.</p><div></div>

That's a beauty, Bela— congratulations! (I have an S with the 5cm f/2, currently being CLA'd by Gus Lazarri. It's quite nice but not so pristine as yours.)

<p>Our dog, Shayna, watching her friend, Dash, demonstrate his new levitation technique.</p><div></div>

<p>Office window view, Detroit.</p><div></div>

<p>Gus Lazzari, an active participant on these forums, has done fine work for me in the past. He currently has my Nikon S.</p>

<p>I really like "pixel-peepingly"!</p>