AlanKlein

On 4/8/2024 at 1:53 PM, samstevens said:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-magic-man-of-hollywood-captured-golden-ages-biggest-stars-180984011/

A lot to learn studying his beautiful work. 

Mama Mia.

I have a Nikon N6006 after 35 years that works superbly.  Metering is perfect as is the accuracy of the electronic shutter.  It has PSAM modes, braketing, flash, etc.  Power winding and rewinding. And cheap currently.  I also have an FT3 but the metering is intermittent.  It;s better and easier to use the N6006. 

N6006 samples with Tmax.

When I shoot landscapes, I tend to seek beautiful light and subjects, although dark gray pictures have their own appeal.  Of course, negative emotions seem more applicable to street photography and photojournalism where you're telling a story.  

Hiking stick with GPS mounted for finding old photo places.

If you're not interested in it, why do you want to get back into it?  I'm confused. What is it you want it to do for you? 

2 hours ago, dcstep said:

I've been relatively "serious" about photography, off and on, for around 65-years. Just like playing trumpet, which started a year or two earlier, I learned by studying and practicing "rules." The photography rules included things like, get the horizon level, don't randomly cut off parts of peoples heads and feet. Look out for the background, and don't let a telephone pole look like it's growing out of the subject's head. Don't let the horizon cut the image in half, unless there's a balancing reflection. Don't blow out the highlights or lose the shadow details, etc., etc., etc.

The rules, for many of us, allow us to start getting pleasing results quickly. Those without a rules-based start might have a hard time at first, finding a pleasing result. I compare it to a classically trained musician to a trumpeter that was handed a trumpet with no guidance, other than his father's jazz record collection. The budding trumpeter, I'm thinking of Roy Hargrove, tried to sound like the records. The only "rules" were like "A" is first and second valve and Bb is first valve, but he might not have even known the name of the note, just the sound. Roy went to the same high school as my oldest, so I know that he was in junior high before he really started to read music, after he could already play many of Miles Davis' most iconic solos. In his early professional career he had to work hard to catch up with some "chops" based things, like fast tonging, which we classically, rules-based learners are taught in a "normal progression." (Miles wasn't known for any fast playing, so Roy kind of blew by that).

Me, OTOH, started playing jazz in my 40s. Unlike my wife and one of my daughters, I'd never learned to play "by ear", so my jazz training started with "these notes fit over these chords." It was pathetic and still is, although, after decades of practice, I can take a decent solo that won't make you wretch, but you won't pay for more.

Many photographers "play by ear", just like some or many musicians. Us rules-based photographers either work hard to break away from the rules, or find mediums that are well suited to "rules", like wildlife photography. I DO try to tell a story, but I often resort to "get a positive head angle", "get a light in the eye", "watch out for the rump of another animal in the background", "use a lens with a pleasing bokeh". I go for "pleasing reality" in my scenic photography, going for nice balance, nice colors, etc. It NEVER crosses my mind to shoot a wall with a old brick, new brick, clock, conduit and door. If I see and interesting pattern in nature, I might go for it, but not a wall.

Anyway, some of us use rules and some of us don't. Both are valid, I think.

Does breaking rules infringe on art, or does following rules infringe on art? I think, I depends...
 

Many of my photos are boring because they tend to follow rules.  Not because I tick them off.  I just tend to shoot that way.  My mind is very organized and balanced so I tend to shoot pictures the same way, less exciting.  To know what I mean, imagine a travel magazine or travel postcards.  

It's an interesting shot.  I think you could have pulled back further. Too many things are cut off and the subjects are squeezed. Why is the background whited out? Would leaving it in better tell a story? 

3 hours ago, hjoseph7 said:

The Monitor Calibration tool I use is SpectraView II which prompts me to calibrate my monitor every so often(too often). If I was doing a lot of printing, I guess these prompts would come in handy, but since I use my computer for other purposes such as: cooking recipes, youtube videos, The news, sports, various forums, these prompts to calibrate my monitor are very annoying. I guess that when my next printing session comes around, I will calibrate my monitor using Spectra View, but right now I'm not motivated to do so.  When photography become too complicated and technical, then it's not Photography anymore, it's Math.  Sorry I could not be of much help...

I use Spectraview II.  You can change the setting for alerts to recalibrate.  Click Edit tab>Preferences>Calibration> then select Recalibration Reminder Period.  You could select  Never. 

Is this the manual:

Mamiya RB CDS Finder (cameramanuals.org)

14 hours ago, Ken Katz said:

Sitting at the Thanksgiving table last month and talking to my sister-in-law's cousin, who is a lawyer in reasonably large NYC law firm, we discussed the impact of AI.  His law firm uses AI extensively as a cost cutting aid and to enhance analysis of cases and testimony.  With respect to the inevitable copywrite infringement issues, he did not know how the law would settle this, or more likely, will need additional laws enacted in order to address these types of issues.  Certainly changes in the licensing agreement that users agree to when reading (or a computer scanning) NYT articles would also be likely.

Also found out that my doctor uses ChatGPT daily.  Says it's like having the most brilliant doctor sitting right next to you, unless it is having one of it's hallucinations. 

There's a recent case in Federal court where lawyers used AI in their moving papers and it came up with phony cases and assigned them to real and fictional judges.  The federal judge handling the case was not amused when opposing lawyers flagged the deception and made the lawyers write apology letters to the affected judges. 

Photo suppliers like Getty are also suing for similar reasons.  Getty wants to use AI themselves with their own photographs and license it out to photographers.  I suppose the NY Times wants to do the similar things. The question is "fair use".  

Now if they could actually make the camera one of the tools in the knife, that would be really impressive.  🙂

Pg 1 of spot attachments.

You're right about the 5 degree spot attachment for the IIIf.  However, there's a 1.2 stop adjustment you have to make to the reading when using the IIIf.

3 hours ago, hjoseph7 said:

Here are 2 pictures of the Sekonic L-718 and the Minolta Auto Meter IIf. Notice that the Minolta has an Average button. The way it works is that you take a reading, save it to memory(Memory button is labeled 'M' ), take subsequent readings while saving and after you are finished saving all of your readings, you push the [Average} button to get an average of all the meter readings saved in memory. I'm not sure if the the Sekonic l-718 can handle this ? I know the higher model  the Sekonic L-858 has a built-in Spot Meter with averaging, but is way more expensive ! 

The Minolta III takes a maximum of three readings to average.  

Joseph, I have the IIIf with a 10 degree spot attachment.  The 5 degree does not work on the III but will on the IV.  I also had a problem with the battery draining. So I pull it out when not using the meter after the photo shoot.  

Why buy another camera, the same one you had,  that isn't sealed better?