John Di Leo

I did not sandwich the negatives/slides between glass. They were flat enough and using a smaller aperture, like f11, improved depth of field, so if curvature existed its effect was minimized or negated. And if I used glass, it would greatly increase my chances of getting some really sharp dust bunnies. My easel was a real Rube Goldberg setup, using the "glass" from an old XRay box I had with a painter's spot behind it. I found a place where the light was very even with no hot spots. It is not rocket science and getting started is the most intimidating thing. One thing I would definitley recommend is to tether your camera to the computer so you can see on a big screen what you just shot. I used an app, German, I think, called Sofortbild. IIRC it was freeware and very handy. I think the shooting is the easy part. You can adjust your camera to get the best image you can SOTC, but the post will take far more time than the shoot. I did 35mm slides, 35 mm negatives, color and b&w, I have not tackled my MF stuff yet, again getting started is the hardest thing. Once you get everything set up the shooting goes pretty quickly. Lightroom inverts negatives.

I copied slides using my 55 f3.5 Ai with the slide mount adapter and PK-13 extension tube on my former d700. Worked like a charm. I've had the micro nikkor since new and it remains a favorite lens.

along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge the locals of the "River Parishes" have for well over 100 years built bonfires to guide Papa Noel down the River to their houses.They are lighted on Christmas Eve just after dark, a very big family affair, people come from surrounding areas to view and to share a very south Louisiana Christmas Eve experience. Of course there is food! Also in the neighborhood is the San Francisco Plantation, bedecked for Christmas

Discovered a couple of issues, and a resolution. Some report that when using sierra, Backup and Sync will not load. And Google Drive has issues also. But going into library/application support/ finding the google section and deleting it, then restarting B&S and it will load. What I found best though is just dragging and dropping files from Finder onto the individual folders in google drive, ie not using B&S at all. I am using the paid version because a while back when I first subscribed, and maybe now, there was a limit on the size of individual files and how much can be backed up. The paid version eliminates those restrictions. It, Google drive, also had an issue with NEF files, many reported. I have changed what I am sending to google though, now just sending up the edited jpgs. Soooo, maybe a need to rethink the idea of paying, since files will ne smaller and no NEFs, thus total space needed will be less. I am backing up everything on a couple of external drives though, as you describe. IOW a b/u for the b/u.

sorry no experience, but I did hold the sigma and the Nikon 200-500 at BHPhoto the other day. Thesalesman had personal experience with both--the tamron didn't come up--and much prefered the sigma for IQ and price and weight over the Nikon. He even preferred it, the contemp., over the sport version--S heavier with minimal IQ improvement and many more $$$. He had taken the sigma on safari and rec'd it highly. All anecdotal, i know, but I am looking at that mix also and came away thinking the sigma was the one, at least vs the Nikon. YMMV. Hell, my mileage may vary when I look at them tomorrow. There are a few youtube videos out there comparing them, including head to head sigma vs tamron. The decision is a hard one though because they are so evenly matched. One thing I like about the Tamron though is the foot on it is a swiss arca mount. But, everyone says they are all very close with no clear cut winner These are heavy lenses and though you'd likely use on a monopod or tripod, you still have to carry them. The Nikon and the sigma S had noticeably more heft than the sigma C.

I have been using the Google backup service, the paid one. Some questions have arisen though. It was originally called Google Drive, and on my MAC it installed a folder in the finder window called "Google Drive." So I copy files there and they backup to Google Drive. Then Google made a big deal, it seemed, that Google Drive became Backup and Sync, new icons and suggestions that there was new functionality, "download it now." It seems confusing that google, after launching B&S, kept the name Google Drive, confusing for me at least, and uses both names in their websites. I just want a place to backup images, just upload, and have them there and be done with it, but it doesn't seem that simple, or maybe it is? My questions are: How do google users use this service, I mean the workflow for it, to backup images or whatever else? That google drive folder---which kept the same name after the birth of B&S--is getting pretty big. After upload to google, can that folder be emptied, ie all uploaded files deleted, without jeopardizing the images in their original location or the google cloud backup? TIA

I still have not upgraded to HS, but I did run into a glitch in LR6.14 after seemingly migrating fine to the new machine. It refused to find my catalogs in their usual location---that being on an external drive where I keep all image files. They, images and catalogs, were there and no matter what tricks I used to point LR in the proper direction, it still balked. Did the permissions thing, other stuff...no joy. I found a suggestion online to move/copy the catalog file folder to the local hard drive and that worked. No one really had an explanation for why, but reported they did that and all was rosy. After that episode and a subsequent crash that required re-installing the OS (which went fine and lost no data or settings), I felt my pioneering urge to migrate up to HS slip away a bit, for the time being.

ok, now I am thinking twice because of the above...I did the migration from my old Mavericks machine, and so far, with a couple of tweaks to a couple of third party non image programs, things seem to be running smoothly though I am still fine tuning. Need to run a batch of photos through LR, connect external drives, connect time machine and run carbon copy cloner backups. If and when all that plays well, I will revisit the upgrade issue. I use the video player Movist, latest version, and there is some chatter that it has some issues with HS, so that is being evaled also. Thanks to all for the advice.

I think for now, it isn't broken...etc; Will the advantages (?) of high sierra outweigh possible risks? Right now, I am satisfied with current OSX, high sierra seems like am incremental upgrade, not a watershed moment.. Thanks for the input, but I think I will wait a bit. I am coming from Mavericks, so Sierra will be a leap, I suppose.

New iMac has been brought by Santa...27" ssd 24ram. I use LR6.13 a lot...PS6 not so much, but I am reading that High Sierra and Adobe do not get along well, in some instances. New Machine arrived and has Sierra, ie not High Sierra. This would be the time to upgrade the OS, new virgin machine. My inclination is to not upgrade to HS at this time, but seek the wisdom of the group. Apple chat advised holding off, but really had nothing specific to mention. TIA

I have the non VR 24-70G, had it for years. Love it. I use it just as you describe as a walkaround lens shooting people and groups especially on Mardi Gras. If I were buying new I may consider it, but having what I have---and I have VR on the 70-200 and 16-35--I am not in any market for a replacement 24-70/2.8. If I were a pro PJ, maybe??? but that's a lot of money for an improvement that may come with baggage

Thanks for that, and I agree the first images looked a bit soft, but later less so with improved dynamic range I think, too. The money question tho, and maybe you've done this...pictures of the sun and the moon?

two weeks ago I posted a couple of shots from previous Christmas cards I've done for daughter #1 and her brood of 5. The theme is Naughty or Nice or Who's Been Bad or Good. Here's the Bad and the Good for this year. Robbing the Whitney National Bank with Nerf guns is bad and seated posing even with a forced smile is the Good I made a mistake on the bottom photo...It was with my old nikkor H 50/2, but I had the non-CPU lens set for my 20/2.8 AI. I think it made the focus look soft on the faces, though I zoom live viewed focus on the plaid shirts. I think I like the effect but don't know why it should make a difference. Does the camera, d810, know the attributes of those old different lenses and compensates?

Bumping this So, Andrew, what did you do and what do you think? I read your usage pattern with interest, because I am looking for something probably 400-600, and started researching the 500 f/4 manual for my d810. I figure, God willing and the creek don't rise, the solar eclipse of 2014 may be my last and wanted to shoot it. Currently I have been using a 500 mirror lens, Bausch and Lomb (but one of the "good" ones, that was was a freebie from an friend). I will say, the clock drive works well. The 200-500 Nikkor has turned my head and for the premium for it vs the 500/4 I thought it could be money well spent, unless it is "extremely soft" at 500, where I'd shoot the eclipse. Soooo, how does this story end?

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all, and Who Dat! All shot with d810 and a nearly 50 year old nikkor H 50/2 Grandparents Day last week at Stuart Hall School...Aidan looking at the camera. Sometimes this new to me d810 amazes me...this is ISO 10 thousand. And this past weekend was the Gumbo Festival here in New Orleans, held at Armstrong Park--the old Congo Square.

Been there 2, 3 times in the past few years. There is a dirt road loop with one or two crossing roads. The loop generally encircles bodies of water, but there are "pastures" on the exterior of the loop. TBN there are a few lakes in the area not strictly speaking part of the Bosque, but are on the roads leading to it. I was there in December of 15 and there were THOUSANDS of snow geese in one of them. YMMV but a 200 mm is pretty good for the area. Bear in mind that the Very Large Array RadioTelescope is in the area as are some old mission ruins that should not be missed. I love New Mexico. Socorro is a convenient place to stay. I was never there for dawn, but it was still pretty cool. November 2011, Sandhill Cranes, Bosque del Apache

Coming in late on this one...but, Christmas is around the corner and I shoot the the Christmas card for #1 daughter and her brood of 5. The first two are from the 2015 shoot-all 5 grandkids were shot similarly and collaged on a card. The third is from last year. Still thinking about what to do for 2017? The first two were on the "Who's been naughty" theme And the third suggests Santa needs emergency surgery

I, too, was in that area in October. I'd recommend the Glooscap Trail also.

I have been doing that--the maintenance, not the reinstall, but I installed cleanmymac and it shows I am bottoming out my RAM. Like down to nearly 0 ! Did a bit of research and it appears conventional wisdom is at least 16 and 32 is even better---esp for large files. Ugh...well, Christmas is coming Thanks all.

and after less than a minute, the image loads and appears properly in the sequence below the image, but if I do not do this sequence, the image can stay looking corrupted for a long time, perhaps forever.

when I click on the image, as if to zoom then the image loads, next post

Not Windows; OSX 10.9.5 (Mavericks) It doesn't just show those corruptions on import. If I open a catalog, they can show up there also. The screen shot I sent is from a pr-existing catalog. I do not have any issue opening the images in preview on the mac. It seems pretty random which images are affected, and not the same ones every time, nor does it happen every time. I can force the images to load by clicking on them, bringing them up to the "work" window and clicking zoom. The image will then load and appear properly in the bottom sequence of images. It seems to happen more in the Library Module than Develop, but it happens in both. Looks like this then if I click on the work window image next post...

Recently, after upgrading to a nikon d810, LR6.13 (and prev) balk at loading images into the "work window." The bar at the bottom of the screen that shows the sequence of images will show some that appear corrupted, while others appear fine. If I wait long enough, and sometimes that could be minutes and minutes up to forever, the image will appear. I can force the issue by selecting an image and zooming in...I will get the message "...loading..." and the image will come up fine. The next time I open LR other images may exhibit this behavior, or not. It is not the data cards used. I am loading from a G Tech external drive, and I think it could be slow transport from the external drive. I have run disk Utility on it (OSX 10.9.5) and it tests fine. It could be my lack of adequate RAM???? (4gb) but I don't know and this behavior did not show with previous cameras--d700 and Sony RX100 II. Yes, they obviously have smaller files. I can work around it, but it is an annoyance and consumes time. I suspect that this is related to hardware, the ext drive, lack of ram, aging machine (2009 Core 2), but everything else, including video, works just fine. I really don't want to throw money at it without a good target. Any ideas appreciated. Thanks

A bit OT but how do you measure that speed of transport? I am also on OSX, 10.9.5, and though import into LR (6.13) was somewhat slow, when I upgraded to a Nikon d810, with its larger files, other import issues appeared- discussed in another thread here. TIA

Last weekend at the French Quarter during the Louisiana Seafood Festival crime scene Barbie on Decatur St (sorry for the blown highlights) Bonerama (check out their Whipping Post cover!)