jim_service

<p>Hmm, I seem to have misplaced a day this week. Anyway, I congratulate Mark on an excellent capture and was mesmerized by John Wu's Seattle Sky, and Brad's jumper gave me a giggle once I pictured him being explosively ejected from the Metro station.<br>

Here's a shot from the almond orchards east of Modesto.</p>

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<p>There was very uncertain weather in Yosemite, but a couple of the wack-meisters and I decided to chance it and go up Sunday and try for the "firefall" on Horsetail. It happenned for me on Tuesday. The falls were barely running, there was very little breeze, but the sun peeped through the clouds at just the right time. The woman who was singing "You Are My Sunshine" made it all happen.<br>

5D2, Tokina 500 zoom @ ~275mm, f5.6, 1/60, ISO 800</p><div></div>

<p>Gil - that looks like Stage Road near Pescadero.<br>

Anyway, our beautiful Bay Area weather is gone and I've been real busy, so here's a shot from a while ago up by Fort Bragg.<br>

5D2, 70-200 f2.8 @ f8 173mm, 1/125, ISO 400</p><div></div>

<p>Taken last Thursday. Admittedly not "fine art", the weather and the mustard made me do it.<br>

5D2, 1/500, ISO 500, 24-70 @ 34mm, f 22</p>

<p>Best one ever, Horse. And I also enjoyed Robert's shot of Valley Forge.</p><div></div>

<p>Fine capture, Neels. I love the dirt thrown off the tires.<br>

I just love races with low spectator/participant ratio and no crowd control bs.</p>

<p>Another fog shot.<br>

I'm in a hurry to get out the door and down the San Mateo coast. The mustard is out along Hiway 1 and it looks EXTRAORDINARY!</p><div></div>

<p>I have gotten good results with an R72 on a Nikon D50 and a Canon 5D2 without removing the antialiasing filter. As said above, the viewfinder is black once the filter is on, so composing and focusing have to be done beforhand, and being carefull not to nudge anything while putting the filter on.<br>

Also remember that the focus point for IR is not the same as for visible light. Lenses used to have the IR focus point but that has gone the way of DOF scales. I forget which way the focus shift goes.. I have to dig out a 40 y.o. lens each time to check.</p>

<p>Brad and Bueh, I was taken by your portraits.<br>

This was taken a couple months ago at Fitzgerald Reserve, down by Half Moon Bay.<br>

5D2, 16-35 at 23mm, f3.2, 1/13 sec, ISO 500, Polarizer</p><div></div>

<p>Mary - I use regular photoshop, but elements should be similar.<br>

When I go to adjust size, I gee a box with two sections - "pixel dimensions" and "document size". For posting to the web (photonet), you can pretty much ignore document size. Just pay attention to pixel size.<br>

In pixel size, make sure you are set to pixels and not percent, as you are given a choice between the two. Also make sure that the box labeled "constrain proportions" is checked.<br>

Then, whichever your longest side is, set that to 700.<br>

Then, at the bottom, you generally want to set the resample to "bicubic sharper" and you're done.<br>

Well, almost. Since you're saving in .jpg, it will ask you what level of quality you want to save in. Just select the highest number you can without the file size going over 300K.<br>

Now you're really done.</p>

<p>Does it come in Inner Urban Grafitti? How about Hello Kitty? My God, think of the possibilities!<br>

Seriously, you might be able to protect it from coming loose by painting the seams and corners (where the unravelling begins) with liquid electrical tape.</p>

<p>Don't get me wrong, my friends, there's plenty to shoot out there. I just hate the cold. And San Francisco isn't even "cold".<br>

OTOH, Jay and Silent Bob inDEED! I cracked up.</p>

<p>I don't like winter. Whatever someone's response is to that, I don't care. I don't like being cold. I especially don't like being wet and cold. I'm just waiting this out.<br>

Shot taken late last March with a shooting buddy visiting from Taiwan.<br>

5D2, 24-70 f2.8 @ f16, 1/60, ISO 200</p><div></div>

<p>Ross, next time don't neglect the road up the overlooking hill on the Marin side. Good stuff up there.<br>

Also, absolutely walk up and talk to people. The easy icebreaker is to ask them something about what they are doing. Then you can get into where they are from and what their favorite ISO is. You're doing them a favor.. people love to talk about themselves.</p>

<p>Is this too abstract to be called a landscape? I don't know. It's quirky, but I like it. Shot in Mt Diablo State Park east of San Francisco a couple weeks ago.<br>

5d2, Tokina 150-500 @ 500mm, probably f8, 1/100 (tripod, mirror lockup, shutter delay), ISO200, hazy sun</p><div></div>

<p>Walking home from the produce store last night, I saw a sliver of a moon in the twilight. I wanted to stand there and watch it, but hurried home and set up the camera on the back porch.<br>

I find that 15 sec is too long an exposure for moon or stars, the earth is revolving too fast.<br>

5D2, Tokina 500 zoom @ 500mm, ISO 800, f 11, 15 seconds</p><div></div>

<p>Tim - Good luck with that.<br>

A camera club I was in several years back here in San Francisco had a judge one evening who was a professional who did postcards for the local tourist trade. First he put up a slideshow of his work and it was stunning, knocked us out. Someone asked to see some of his biggest sellers in postcards and he showed his Top Ten. Complete schlocky crap. He went on to explain that the general public wants to see and buy what they expect of a place, that image that is already in their mind, the image they have seen a thousand times before on tv and in magazines.<br>

Really good art requires a special audience. Not the audience that the Wimberly Chamber of Comerce is seeking... no, not seeking, I'm sure it never occurred to them. They just wanted "pretty pictures".<br>

As to the origional subject, I'd like to see further improvements in one-off publishing of coffee table books.</p>

<p>We finally had a decent break in the weather two days befor Christmas and on Friday I got out early with some friends. We stopped by this pond in Marin before breakfast on our way farther north.<br>

5D2, 24-70 f2.8L @ f16 1/160 ISO200<br>

Praveen, this is so similar to yours and I would not have put it in but I've been waiting all week with this shot in mind.</p><div></div>

<p>Geez! Some of the shots this week put me into gape mode! I'm trying to eat breakfast and here are these red eyes from a hamster.. Aaaahhh! Almost painted the monitor with a mouthfull of corn flakes.<br>

Here's another shot from Bosque one year ago. 5d2, Tokina 150-500 at ~400mm, 1/320 @ f8, ISO 400<br>

The sun had come up, but it was still below freezing. The grease in my tripod head thickened up so much it was almost unusable.</p><div></div>

<p>(Picks self up off the floor and wipes tears from eyes) Does no one else in here have my infantile sense of humor?<br>

The obvious response to the O.P. is, "And you're bragging?!"</p>

<p>Another shot from awhile back.<br>

5D2, 16mm, f8, 125th sec, ISO 2000<br>

I can heartily recommend a ride on the Amtrac Surfliner.</p><div></div>