I’ve shamelessly stolen an idea from Mark Graf. You see, this morning I was on his blog, making a comment and I noticed a link to my most recent post. I wondered how could that be. I did a quick search of Google and found the,CommentLuv plugin and installed it.

It’s pretty cool. If you have a blog and you leave a comment, it links back to your most recent post and puts that at the end of the comment. I see that it worked for Ken Bello’s most recent comment.

It’s just my way of saying thanks for commenting … I’ll give a little “Luv” back!

Thanks to all of you who participated in the personality test the other day. Ove asked a good question:

I appeared to be INFP… Now I only ask myself, what’s the point knowing this?
~Ove

Long, long ago, in a land far, far away … that land called Ohio. I decided that since I had a camera and fancied myself a photographer that I’d take a shot a doing wedding photography. After all, how hard can it be? Well, for an introvert, extremely hard. I had no love for the wedding game and quickly abandoned my thoughts of becoming a wedding photographer.

Not so long ago, this past summer, Pedro asked me (with only one possible answer), to be his wedding photographer. He, it’s my son, of course I said yes, even though I wanted to sit down and enjoy the event. Knowing myself as I do now, I had to steel myself for the event. I knew that there were going to be lots of folks and that there would be many requests made of me and lots of interaction. I like some interaction, but not a lot. Interestingly, Pedro is of the same type as I, INFJ. My friend, Tim, who was with me is an extrovert and loves to be around the people. When I met Chantal, that wonderful wedding photographer, it was clear that she is an extrovert and she just loves the social aspect of it!

By the time that the reception was almost ever, some few hours later, I was ready to crawl into a hole and chill out. Tim was ready for the after party! I just could not imagine doing this every weekend. I felt completely drained of energy and was ready to go back to the room, go to sleep, and be without the people for a while. My good friend Richard, the sole extrovert who responded loves event/club photography. When he tells me about some of the stuff that he does, I find it very unappealing just being around so many people for so long.

Knowing my personality type helps me understand those type of situations in which I might not do so well, nor enjoy. I don’t need a test to tell me that, but I do find it interesting to know the ‘why’ behind it. That said, it seems that most of the photographers who responded are introverts and not one of them is a wedding or event photographer. All like to do somewhat solitary photography. Everything isn’t for everyone. So, there you have it, Ove.

It arrived around 1:00 PM. I fired it up, had a few shots to see that everything was peachy, and set about reseting the menus the way that I like them: Auto focus assist – off, sounds – off, all that nonsense.

Today, I had a number of meetings, the final one ended at around 2:30. I decided to head to the park for about 30 minutes and take a few shots … righhhhhhhhhhtttt! I got to the park at around 3:00 and easily slipped into the zone, so to speak. I took a few shots by the river, after I figured out how to work the camera again. It was funny to watch after getting used to other cameras, not using this one for so long, and then coming back. Comedy at its finest!

I walked up and down the trails, looking here and there. At one point I startled either a hawk or an owl, I didn’t get to quite see what it was, but it sure didn’t like that I was so close. I would have to guess owl. I’ve almost walked into an owl before. I usually don’t see hawks perched that low, but you never know. The woods were so quiet, save for the distant fun-filled yells of some younger girls with extremely high pitched voices. Man, they could yell! Eventually, they stopped and all was quiet save for the wonderful background noises of the woods.

It had been a long while, more than a year, since I had mounted the camera on a tripod, walked along the woods, took my time, and just enjoyed what I was doing. As you can probably guess, I went over my 30 minutes, just a tad … well, by an hour and fifteen minutes. Hmmmm. 4:45? I suppose I ought to be getting back home now.

What a good time that was. I’ve got more such outings planned. Who knows? Maybe I’ll see that hawk or owl again. I’m sure it’s out there.

I quit in the first week of June, 2006 and took 5 months off. I was seriously burned out. They tried diligently to get me to stay or to give them a timeframe as to when I would return and they would keep my job open for me. No!!! I told them that I didn’t know when I would be coming back and, if I came back to the bank, it wouldn’t be to that group or anywhere in the investment bank. Been there! Done that! Almost got the ulcer!

As I had only 47 photos, taken in two separate outings, both short vacations to Seabrook Island, SC, there will be no 2005 book, as it would be woefully short. My time in 2005 was spent watching the sun rise or set out of the large glass windows on the 13th floor of Hearst Tower. What a waste of life that was. When I left that job, I vowed never again to work like that and I have not. That was a huge turning point for me with respect to how I view a “job”. From then on, it became simply a way to get money for the things that I like to do. I never was a career man, but I got swept up in trying to make ridiculous deadlines, etc. It was the investment bank way! Grind! Grind! Grind! Everyone did it and it was expected.

As I look through the photos from 2006, I found it hard to winnow down the number of photos to under 100. I finally got down to 68, so far. I had so many that I really liked. I was everywhere. I was at the beach, the mountains, the zoo (several times), I was LIVING!

Since that time, I’ve not put the camera down for any reason, and I don’t intend to. It was a good lesson, one that I most certainly don’t want to repeat!

During this weekend’s retreat, I took some time to download Lightroom 4 Beta. I was most interested in the new book module, so that’s where I focused my attention.

Thinking back, I participated in 2 of the 4 SOFOBOMOs and I enjoyed my participation; however, I most say that sometimes, making a book was quite annoying. I had to deal with Scribus, the open source book making software, learn of its idiosyncrasies, of which it had many. Further, there was the choosing of the files, exporting them to the right sizes, making adjusts, etc. If I wanted to change photo layout, or perhaps make adjustments to the photos, that was an ordeal, for me. After I finished the book, if I ever wanted to reproduce it again, or change it, I’d have to make sure to put it somewhere, the Scribus files as well as the photos, that I could find them again. Sometimes, I’m not the most organized fellow. I wished, during those times, that there was a way to do all of that together.

When I opened LR4 and clicked over to the book module, it was pretty intuitive. I played with it for a bit, then when I thought I understood it, I began to make a book. I decided to make my 2004 photos book. Adobe has partnered with Blurb and you can make your Blurb book right there in LR4 and it will price it for you as you add or remove photos. A very nice feature. Or, if you want to make a PDF, you can export your book as PDF and print it yourself.
Click image to view book

Everything is integrated now. You simply make a collection, click on the Book module, choose your collection, and your photos appear at the bottom in the filmstrip. Simple. You choose the type of book that you want:

Small Square
Standard Landscape
Standard Portait
Large Landscape
Large Square

Then, you can click Auto Flow and LR4 will distribute your pictures throughout the book, based on the particular style book that you have picked, or you can add pages manually, drag and drop your photos wherever you want. You can mix and match from the different page styles as well. There seems to be quite a few choices. Easy. There are predefined templates like: Clean, Wedding, Portfolio, etc, each having multiple layouts such as single photo, double, triple, with or without text, etc.

The best part, for me at least, is that now that your photos are in place, you can go back to your collection at any time and make adjustments to the photos and those adjustments will appear in the book. Further, when you have the book, it saves it in the collection, right next to the photos! Yes!

There are also built in warnings that let you know if a photo doesn’t have enough pixels to print well. I got one such warning: This photo will not print well. At the current size, it will print at 188 PPI, minimum suggested is 200 PPI.

I was able to assemble my book in about 30 minutes. Though it is not finished yet, it was an easy task.

One complaint that I’ve seen online was that you cannot export the book as a collection of JPEG files. This would allow you to send them to any printer; however, from what the folks were saying, most printers will not accept PDFs; therefore, you are stuck with Blurb is you want to make a book or find someone to print your PDF, or print it yourself.

It’s not a perfect solution, but it is certainly a fantastic step forward in making your own book a lot easier. No, it doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles that Scribus or InDesign has; however, it has enough to make a nice book.

For the PDF export, I would love if it would allow me to select the default opening mode, two up continuous, for the book, but I’ve not found a place. Also, the cover gets saved to a separate file.

She can be at home for days on end without seeing anyone. I, on the other hand, like to get out for a few hours to see friends. Over the past 3 weeks or so, work has been very busy. I’ve attended, on the phone, meeting after meeting after meeting and that is very tiring having that much input. It’s really difficult for me to do, especially when the meetings have a number of gung-ho extroverts on the call, all interrupting each other and jockeying for position. Too much.

This weekend was a full recharge weekend. I’ve not seen anyone since Friday. No, I’ve not been holed up in my apartment. I’ve just not gotten together with anyone, save for Hobbs. Hobbs and I went for a few walks. I’ve been to the lake a couple of times with my camera. I played with Lightroom 4 Beta. I talked on the phone to Debra and to my friend, James. I slept. I read. I watched Star Trek. I enjoyed all of the sunshine that we had this weekend. It was a joy.

Tomorrow, it’s back to work, meetings, discussions, and interactions. I’m ready. My battery is all charged up! It was a great weekend.

BTW, if you do decide to take the test, which is 72 questions, please drop back and let me know your type in the comments! Thanks!!!

I’ve had the V1 for about 5 days. Over those 5 days, I have taken just shy of 2,000 shots. The camera has performed flawlessly and done everything that I’ve asked of it. Certainly, I’ve not covered each and every feature on the camera. I didn’t shoot a movie with it. I didn’t use the Smart Scene Selection feature, where the camera decides everything. I used aperture priority, shutter priority, and manual. I used the camera, quite frankly, the way that I would use a camera. Video doesn’t interest me.

Obviously, I really liked this camera and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to someone who didn’t already have a point & shoot camera. I think that the Nikon 1 series (J1, V1) fit right in that place between the P&S and the DSLR. It’s a great camera to carry around and will do whatever you ask of it. From what I’ve seen, the biggest downfall of P&S cameras, from my perspective, was that the frame rate was too slow. This is not an issue with this camera. It has an exceptional mechanical shutter, offering 10 frames per second, and electronic offering 30 or 60 FPS.

Pros:
Size – Fits easily in my hand.
Weight – Weighs about the same, just a little more than the Canon G12.
Menus – Simplified, menu system. Two levels deep at most. Intuitive. I’ve not opened the manual yet.
Frame rate – Great for capturing most anything.
Interchangeable lenses
Battery – The first day of use, I took about 1300 photos on a fully charged battery. When I returned, the battery still had 45% charge!
Electronic View Finder – Clear and has a high refresh rate. Showed very little lag.

Cons
Battery – During extended use the battery tends to get a bit warm. It was noticeable.
EVF – Although very clear, not as many pixels as the rear display. Some highlights looked blown-out in the EVF, but fine on the rear display.
Manual controls – I noticed, while doing some night shooting using manual that the controls are easy to move inadvertently. The control ring, used to adjust the aperture, though it contains detents, they are easily moved. I found myself at f/6.3 and sometimes at f/11, when I wanted to be at f/8.
Lens – The 10 mm – 30 mm f/3.5 – f/5.6 has a large amount of barrel distortion at 10 mm. You can really see this along straight lines that happen to be near the edge of the frame. This is the kit lens, however.
Addendum
DOF – I thought of one more ‘disadvantage’ for the type of shooting that I like to do: Small sensors force you into having incredible amounts of depth of field. For a street shooter, or perhaps landscape shooter, this could really work to your advantage; however, when shooting portraits, macros, and other close up work where you want the background to dissolve, this is not ideal.

The cons are all somewhat minor, in my estimation. Not a single one of them would prevent me from recommending this camera. I think that Nikon has a winner here, even with its tiny 13.2 mm x 8.8 mm sensor, which is much smaller than a US postage stamp @ 22.2 mm x 25.4 mm.

Who knows how well it will do? I don’t. If people can get over their sensor envy, this could be a great seller!

On to more serious matters. In using a camera on the street, you want to be stealthy so that you can capture the moment. Noisy cameras call attention. Big cameras call attention. Photographers looking like they are trying to be stealthy, call attention. However, smaller cameras seem to insignificant. In order to capture moments, street photographers generally employ such things as zone focusing. When I’m using the Leica, I use it all the time. Focus at near infinity, set the lens on f/11 with an appropriate shutter speed, react! That’s about it.

I wanted to see how this camera would fare with street shooting:

Auto-focus:
In a word: fast! This camera doesn’t hesitate. A tried quite a few quick draw moves, near and far. What I mean by quick draw is that I had the camera at my waist, raised it quickly, pointing at what I wanted to shoot, and pressed the shutter. It responded immediately and, the best part, none of the images that I took were out of focus, no matter if they were near, or far, taken at 10 mm or 30 mm, all were sharp. It didn’t miss! I realize that with such a small sensor that part of this could be the large amount of DOF that the camera has, inherently, but I was shooting wide open (f/3.5) and still, no misses. Impressive! So, I would say that it most certainly passed the street test!

Tonight, it goes on the tripod for some shots of downtown Charlotte at night. I have to send it back on Thursday evening, so I can’t let moss grow under my feet, ya know!

The other day I was talking to Debra about the Nikon V1. Debra likes to know, to understand, to make sense of things and one thing that she didn’t understand was why I have more than one camera.   I attempted to explain, but she still didn’t understand. So, I am eliciting your help to give your reasons why you have more than one camera. No. You don’t have to justify it to me or her, but it is interesting to someone new to the ‘game’, I suppose.

It all started with the fact that I have an M9. She said:

If I had an expensive camera like that, I’d use it for everything, and I mean everything. I’d get the most use out of it that I could.
~Debra

She might have a point, but:
analogy: If I were a chef, I suppose that I could make most any meal with a large enough pot. I could make soups, soufflés, stir fries, pastries, whatever; however, having an assortment of pans makes the job easier. You don’t simply use one type of pan for everything, no matter how much it costs.

Currently, in the arsenal, I have:

• Leica M9 – I use this for street photography, indoor photography where I want a quiet camera (weddings, churches, wherever it is good to be really quiet), and landscape. It falls short as a camera for sports and  macro,  for example. I really like it because it is rather minimalist. It has manual focus, very few menu items, and it’s a rangefinder.
• Nikon D300 – I use this for street photography, landscapes, portraits, sports, macro. It falls a bit short in the quiet department. The mirror slap is noticeable, even in a noisy environment. This is probably the best all-around camera that I have, but it is big, bulky, and not all that portable. Interchangeable lenses make it so that I can be ready for any situation, practically.
• Canon S90 – I use this as my travel camera. It’s good for fitting in your pocket, which is mainly why I have it. When I want to travel light, this is the go-to camera. It can do a little bit of everything and has good image qualities.
• Mamiya 645e – Well, sometimes, I gotta shoot film. This is my medium format film camera. When I was an up and coming photographer I always wanted one of these but they were priced way out of my minimum wage earning range. Now, I have one and enjoy shooting it from time to time and developing the film. It just has a different feel, both the camera and the film results.
• iPhone – Because I always have it with me!

In conclusion, I could use any of these cameras, with limitations, to get a particular shot; however, some make that shot much easier to get. In my way of looking at things, one size does not fit all. I wouldn’t dream of only owning one pan, either … even if that pan were a wok (inside joke, there!)

And, finally, one more thing … because trying new cameras is cool!

I’ve heard that there’s a first time for everything. Well, add another one of those items to my list, please.

Saturday, after the Peaceful Dragon Chinese New Year’s festival, I came home, removed the card from the camera (Nikon V1), started Lightroom, placed SD card into the reader, and took a quick bathroom break. When I came back, I was surprised to see that all the files had loaded. I thought: Wow! That was quick. The files must have been very small to have loaded nearly 1300 files in that short of a time. Well, I was shooting JPEG. Anyway, I proceed to work with the files, exporting some to place on my Facebook page for all to see.

After I finished selecting the images that I wanted to export, and exporting them, I decided to pull the card out, reformat it, and get ready for the evening’s activities. I have Lightroom set to auto-eject after the import, so I just pulled the card out.

I saw a message that indicated that I pulled the card without properly ejecting it. Odd. Oh well, I’ve seen that before, rarely, and no harm, no foul. So, without thinking, I put the card back into the camera, formatted it, and placed it into the bag.

A little while later, I saw another picture that I wanted to play with. So, I double clicked it and get a message from LR saying that it couldn’t find the original. Huh? As I clicked on more and more of them and get the same message, I had a sinking feeling. Crap! I should have heeded that message. I had nothing but previews. The files behind were missing and I had already formatted the card.

Fortunately, I know a thing about disks and knew that the data was still there, only the directory was ‘reset’, all that I would need is a program to recover the images. I took the card out of the camera and set it to the side. I went to Google and did a search for SD card file recovery and found a program, Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery, read some reviews that were quite positive, ordered a copy for $39, and recovered every one of my files.

I will admit that I was pretty tired and didn’t follow my own procedure for downloading and use of cards. I have 4 SD cards and use them in round-robin fashion. Take one out, copy the files, place it in back of all the others, take the one from the front, put it into the camera, format, and use. That way, the most recent one is always 3 behind and I’ve never lost any files nor had the need for such a program … but, as they say, you learn something new everyday and I learned to follow my process. It was a cheap lesson, but one that I probably won’t forget!

Note: This photo was a nice find. I remember Natalia coming out running and yelling with her spear, as part of the show. I wanted to get a shot of her, but didn’t want to be right in front of her. I was slightly off to the side and trying to pan. At first, I thought that I had blown this shot, but the more that I looked at it, the more that I liked it.