GerrySiegel

From the first year I owned the Panasonic GH2 I got by pretty well with the 20mm 1.7. A year later I gave up Starbucks ate rahmen noodles....and bought a Lumix 12-35mm F 2.8. It does just about everything right. But getting the 20mm 1.7 has not been a regret. With the 12-35 I don't even feel the need for a macro with its close focusing.

Lynn, if I had to pick one favorite it would also be #29, the parade of baby buggy carriages and bundled up moms out for a spin. It is also reminiscent of a few decades ago in the big cities and sidewalk life back then. A little urban anthropology from a student of Margaret Mead (per his bio.)..

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Hard if not impossible for me to conjure up any justification, Michael, for such tasteless self indulgent ,moronic, unthinking, and useless images. Most at least many selfies I see on Facebook are as brilliantly useful to others as masturbation. These photos are even lesser value from any angle I can see. I took one photo once in my life of a derelict on a park bench for what reason I can't remember. And then decided I was done. Finito... I decided it was a cheap form of exploitation and of no social value. Rationalization does no good. It is social photo-pornography. Ugh.

This is the birthing clinic shot I spotted among his work. It is not of the cliche /saccharin variety. (Not like the shots that go to grandma that I used to see at Beth Israel in the photo lab as volunteer.) Photo perspective too about men as co- parents participating in the birthing process. Thinking re Anders' comment on male parent involvement... For those who favor and opt for midwifery and clinic or home births. As was once common in birthing. Like my mother's home birth. http://kenheyman.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Best-of-Ken/G0000CjSvtGEpNR0/I0000BIanm6eC0A8

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Mothers series for me captures a wide range of emotions, especially joy and love and human connection. I am a sucker for cliches. Motherhood I enjoy as a subject. . Apple pie too. Heyman, new to me, can be daring, even edgy as in the second link gallery shot of a home birth in a wonderfully risky intimate shot. Under Best of Ken gallery section ... That too is part of motherhood. Memories of Life photo magazine..Life magazine had some good craftsmanship and at the time supported the craft and art of photo spread essays. Did a good job for a wide distribution periodical. Sure It may be "salted peanuts," but was real hard to resist consuming. Shots that worked brightly for me in first link include Mothers numbers 19,21,23,31, and 33.

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Yes, Lannie, you are correct I hereby give son Dave full credit, -- he is crazy enough to live in Fairbanks AK, where wise old Oahu men do not roam in the wilderness to shoot ill tempered wildlife. I can bear it up there. But only barely and in three months of Summer. When you can't sleep( daylight for 20 hours or so, thus you do crazy stuff and drink with the oil riggers from the slope).....I hear that moose can get ugly as well when in heat. Seriously though, Alaskans love their rugged landscape and it is beautiful. Use a very long lens in this case and be in a truck.

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Lanny, first off I amsorry to hear of your wife's illness. We have had to bear tragic situations and it is devastating I well know. As a philosopher, Lannie. you will remember the thoughts of Aeschylus who helped define the arc of life. Especially as we get older.( I am now 77 ) -- "God, whose law it is that he who learns must suffer, And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despite, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God."------- As Edith Hamilton wrote in The Greek Way, " his insight in the riddle of the world has not yet been superseded." Harsh but probably true enough. Ok, I will answer about the tie to cameras as tools for insight, joyful , sad and/or sentimental. When asked I say that photography is my 'hobby.' It is something much more than that. We all know that. Best wishes, my friend, Gerry

I once discussed my carrier experiences with Henry Posner of B and H and he told me that he had a mix of pro and con comments on BOTH private carriers about equally. I find the US Postal Service does a decent job in my neighborhood and their flat rate boxes are used to send many valuable items successfully. Knock wood... My EM-1camera seems to have been treated well, and the problem ( no output from the HDMI D port) is resolved. I think they had to put in a new major circuit board, and they upgraded firmware, good chaps! And did I mention that the repair was accomplished in just one week. My vexation with this UPS delivery only was the fact that the exception one day late and no- show was listed by UPS in quantum view was words to the effect that address was not illegible. Huh? I mean REALLY guys..... Not that I could see when I got the package...so wife and I think this was a not so discrete CYA thing....All forgiven now and just a day locked up home waiting for delivery and brown truck.....BTW, I just got a KEH shipment of a FL 36 R flash via FEDEX. Arrived timely and left under the eaves. Not unusual. Not too visible.... I got no problem with that... I own the original FL 50 but I can see a use for the smaller two AA flash on my micro four thirds camera...True it has been discontinued officially. ( But sure is cute.) And we will see how that small voltage power source recycle thing works for me, at least for fill. I like to have flash in the bag. I can use the really old but tiny FL 20 as well. But the FL 36 R is purtier, more flexible and I got it for a good price used..... Anyway, Elliot, yeah we weep crocodile tears..... the price of Paradise rs well worth the sunshine and beaches. No contest! Especially in February.

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Well thanks all. I have learned something I think. That the TIFF file still has advantages and indeed superiority for those who need its advantages or quality and can handle the megabytes of storage if I got it right. Guess I have gotten so used to JPEG I had forgotten other save formats or my eyes have learned to accept less and less data over time.( we fill in blanks with our brains I think) I don't think have used the PS PSD either for a long time. Now, question for e mail, let's say I should I reshoot the slide and save to TIFF, can I presume that party at other end can open the file for sure?. JPEG everybody can open at least all my correspondents and Facebook and so on. I asked, because I don't have a handle on all that is out there and more to the point what is customary.- so this is a useful part of my education in the digital world we 'tribal elders' now inhabit :-). Value of PN to me. And maybe too it is a little survey of what is common use and let's say feasible/practical for size limits as well as for highest repro quality. I read yesterday that Adobe has ownership of TIFF format and is still working on it's features. So not out of fashion at all. Great. Oh, as I noted, my requestor's output will be a moderate size A4 more or less color print .

Here is the deal. A history professor from an eastern college e mailed me a pleasant gentlelady email request re use ONE of my gallery online photos taken in the 1950s of the Boston Common for a wall display her students are doing as a school project. I guess she will have her students wmake a few 8 X10's showing how the Commons was used as a soapbox venue for various religious activists over the centuries by preachers and philosophers. I wrote her back affirmatively saying 'sure, no charge, but so sorry I don't do them TIFFs anymore. And then realize that folks DO ASK for TIFFS Prompting me to do some research including this post. Sounds- correct me please- like one of the early 90s lossless formats that was designed especially for book publication, right? I offered her a good size but not too big JPEG which would fit my bill for a 8X10. Original is a teeny 24X23 half frame type slide in Kodachrome...a little dusty to do over.... So ladies and gents, kindly educate me if you will on the use of/ and guidance on ' what is the big deal these days about TIFF files". has it been overtaken?....in the publishing world and by what.......for high quality e mailing especially? Thanks in advance. Is TIFF kind of passe´ I was thinking. Am I getting close?

Leave the AC on and put fans in the room you use to store your stuff. Why worry is my take. Moisture is my concern here as much as ambient temperature. I use lots of air circulation since I have no AC house wide.

Interesting piece of Navy history in the Pacific.

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What makes folks laugh is harder to pin down than the old what is art question, . I find that the PN folk have a funny bone. Sorry you got peeved at some of the responses to your wild spotted man photo but it really has a loose tie to Nature Photography in my humble opinion. Maybe this one would get a chuckle or two from 'photographers afield' even across cultures,lads and lassies:<div></div>

Recall that the ability to make tools( that make other tools, from stone age to now) really defines our species. That plus the ability to communicate the methods down the line, first with sand scrapings, then wall paintings, totems, victorian cameos and now photographs represent the so called "Ascent of Homo Sapiens." Until that inevitable day we design robots that create more efficient robots on their own I feel safe from the subservience to the age of the machine/or super machine /with a will of its own. Thinking now that if it appears in a blaze of lightning has an Austrian accent, dark sunglasses, and a hot motorcycle..perhaps a Leica alongside. ah so. then I will have to accept Julie's premise and Fred's elaboration on the theme.... Until then I plan to delude myself that (I) I am in charge:-)

"I think everyone who uses specific tools develops a somewhat emotional relationship with them. It's why ships are "she"......" Some people dismiss the man-machine interface that develops over time. Some treasure it. And brand loyalty develops. I can't detect the difference between a fine violin and a Stradivarius but Joshua Bell can. They are personal selections and creative tools. I don't feel the same way about my lawnmower as I do about my Olympus cameras and lenses and flashes. I appreciate my Honda mower but I value my camera because it is the means of letting me enjoy photography. But having said that I do not worship the photo gear and my photo-inamoratas have changed over the years, so it is a marriage if you will of convenience. Following the ship analogy per Wm Kahn above, listen to the captain of the new class Littoral Control Ship, or the CO of a new class destroyer. His or her spouse has competition is what I mean. To the shipyard worker they are sheet metal, cables, welds and circuits. Together, well you get the idea. Anyway, we all know that the image is predominant, and the tool is an adjunct. But who can resist a fine hunk of metal shaped just so. Think of those who owned a Nuremberg Egg (earliest mechanical portable timekeeper) when wolves still roamed primeval German forests. What do you think?