New York April NYC Meet-Up

Cal, the CL is a great little camera, and that 50 on it was pretty sweet.

Bob,

I have some amazing head and shoulder shots of you. Let me know if you want the files.

At the next Meet-Up I can bring my lap-top and download to a memory stick. BTW the 50 on the CL becomes a 75 Lux. I took advantage of you as a model and took about 10 shots.

Cal
 
480K followers.

Friday "Maggie" was invited by Diane Von Furstenberg to attend "The Woman of the Year Awards Ceremony." This is a big deal. Her guest will be one of her designer friends. The event is held at the U.N.

Saturday I get a "Fashion Vacation" and I will not be tied up with that live event that is modeled after "Project Runway."

Sunday is the 10th Annual Shorty Awards ceremony that I will be attending.

Another call came in that is a big opportunity, but the timing is bad because we are already scheduled and booked for that trip to Mad-Rid. I should get a haircut, its been about a year, and it is a bit feral, just in case I'm included in any shots to promote this luxury hotel that formally was a palace.

Some big video is going to be shot and is up and coming on some huge social media platform.

Also some corporate discussion that seems very much like an episode of "Shark Tank."

So now when a box arrives it is no longer a sample of cosmetics; it is an entire kit enough to furbish a make-up artist. And when shoes arrive it is no longer just one pair but three pairs. The unopened boxes are stacking up.

Meanwhile Maggie got top listed to become part of a collective of women that have work spaces set up around the world. Should take about three weeks for appoval. Just here in NYC they have work spaces in Dumbo, Chelsea, SoHo, and will be opening another in Williamsburg.

When she travels to L.A. or London she will have access to the facilities there.

Cal
 
UPDATE: I'll be using a Leitax "Almost Auto-Aperture" Nikon "F" mount adapter on my 50 Lux-R "E60." Previously I rigged this lens so I can use it on Nikon bodies and exploit a spring loaded lever to open the iris to obtain shallow DOF for critical focusing.

No reason not to exploit this on my SL and CL for 50mm and 75mm FOV respectively. After focusing all I have to do is release the lever before taking the shot to stop down the lens. The spring in the lever does all the work for me.

Only downside is I will have to substitute a M-lens profile instead of using the proper optimized "R" lens profile. Oh-well.

The idea here is to make the CL and SL fast shooters to annoy people. LOL.

Cal
 
"Maggie's" Friday Frenzy:

Last night two packages arrived for Maggie, and only one for me. A Linhof 6x9 Super Rolliex roll film back was delivered for me, but it is for a 4x5 and not a 2x3 as advertised. Today I will get a RMA and hopefully a shipping label so I don't pay for KEH's mistake.

One of Maggie's parcels contained over $3K worth of jewery that I have to shoot from a luxury jeweler.

The other was a huge box from Spain that had mucho stuff packed init like a trench coat, 4 pairs of jeans, 3 pairs of shoes, shirts, and even earings.

So this morning she left the apartment early for a shoot before work, and tonight is the Diane Von Furstenberg "Woman of the Year Awards Ceremony" at the U.N.

Some big interview/profile came out on a mega-platform so I expect another bump of 100K-200K followers.

Somehow I will be exploited as a photographer and working for this woman that is Maggie's friend and advisor who seems to know everyone in the fashion industry. Somehow she is getting access to clothes to a really big designer who normally never lends out clothes, so this will be a very big deal.

Because I'm a "location photographer" and this will be shot on the street with two models this shoot will be a different challenge.

"I was just minding my own business..."

Cal
 
Cal,
That is an annoying mistake for Keh to make. It’s suddenly not so unusual, just being a 4x5 back.
Are you becoming a jewelry photographer now? Do you have any macro lenses?
 
Cal,
That is an annoying mistake for Keh to make. It’s suddenly not so unusual, just being a 4x5 back.
Are you becoming a jewelry photographer now? Do you have any macro lenses?

Christian,

The roll film back is minty. Wish it was for a 2x3 Linhof instead of a 4x5. It is an unused black version that is kinda pristine. Oh-well.

For 2x3 I somehow hoarded ten 6x9 Graphmatics, but carrying all ten is a free gym membership. Trying to avoid having a 16 inch neck and more resembling a monster or skinny football player look with a fat and chubby neck.

Roll film is cheaper than sheet film, I'm cool with 6x7 limitation, and for 6x9 I still have the Plaubel 69W Proshift with a 21mm FOV.

I have the Nikon 55 2.8 AIS and extension tube for 1:1 and the Novaflex "F" mount adapter. I think I lent you this lens a few years ago and also Mervin more recently.

Life is full of surprises. This jeweler is uber high end. Maggie was gifted this huge dragon ring that I love because it is so ghetto. First off it is heavy and huge and is more like a bracelet for a finger because it spans two knuckles. Don't tell Maggie, but I want to borrow it. So on one hand it is a wonderful show piece, but on the hand it is sized like wearing a brass knuckle, but yet is elegant. I want one. Don't tell "Maggie" but her ring fits me perfectly. LOL.

So I think/believe the latest shipment of jewery is a gift, but it is more suited for a red carpet look than urban street style.

The clothing shoot I think has mucho potential. First off I'll be bossed around by two women instead of just one. Also Rachael's work I have seen is stellar, then add in "Maggie Factor." This designer's clothing is highly regarded, so it is a huge to have access to his clothing and being associated with this designer who is a legend.

Rachael requested me as the photographer.

It is timely that I have both the CL and SL for shooting.

The CL with a 75mm and 87mm FOV's will be a great asset to my kit.

Some of the shots will have to be shot with my 28 Cron on the SL because of space constraints.

Meanwhile my apartment is becoming more like a warehouse because it is getting full. In the past 5 days somehow 5 more pairs of shoes now reside in my living space, a cosmetic parcel, and a boxed wardrobe from Spain. This is just the past week.

Cal
 
6x9 roll film back possible interception.

KEH had sent me a RMA, a return shipping label, and I was ready to print them out...

Oh the drama, excitment and surprises when I have a boring day-job...

Stay tuned.

Reminds me of day-trading energy stocks before oil hit $147.00 a barrel against the hedge funds, except now I'm day trading camera gear. LOL.

Cal
 
Their great for returns, I was going to return the 2.8C because of the fog
in the lenses and the bad bellow's but then decided to fix it up and then went
to them and decided to keep it, but wanted a discount on the camera which
I got.
 
Their great for returns, I was going to return the 2.8C because of the fog
in the lenses and the bad bellow's but then decided to fix it up and then went
to them and decided to keep it, but wanted a discount on the camera which
I got.

Bob,

I know I write episodes of "This Old Camera," as part of my style, but we could syndicate you and underwrite a program for you as "Fixer-Upper" or "Flip Or Flop" stealing from HGTV programming.

I would be afraid to explode a camera like you do, meaning opening up cameras the way you do.

Perhaps you are half man/half testicle. LOL.

I can't believe you only destroyed one camera. Kinda funny your "smoke test" of camera electronics. LOL. Oh-well...

Building a crazy Jeep Scrambler as an Urban Assault Vehicle with a Corvette engine is more my style to build a suicide machine.

Cal
 
6x9 roll film back possible interception.

KEH had sent me a RMA, a return shipping label, and I was ready to print them out...

Oh the drama, excitment and surprises when I have a boring day-job...

Stay tuned.

Reminds me of day-trading energy stocks before oil hit $147.00 a barrel against the hedge funds, except now I'm day trading camera gear. LOL.

Cal

SMUT: The 6x9 roll film back for 4x5 Linhofs is getting recycled, and I make a dollar profit.

I love fast trades.

Guess who bought it?

Cal
 
Yesterday was the 10th Annual Short Awards, held at Playstation Theater, in Times Square. We arrived at 44th and Broadway at 4:30 PM and it already was a mob scene.

We got directed to the Teal line for VIP's, to get to the "Green Carpet," but someone like Victoria Beckham had clogged everything up. We waited for about 10 minutes, were given the opportunity to bypass getting photographed, and basically cut the massive lines to be ushered in as the first few guests.

I would later learn (today) that tickets to attend this event cost $500.00 for the cheap tickets, and up to $10K for the most expensive ones. My coat check number was 37 and when we checked in we were given a teal colored ticket with a Table Number 7.

So the itinerary was a cocktail hour 4:30 to 5:30; 5:30-6:30 diner; 6:30-9:30 the awards ceremony; and after that the after party at another location nearby. Also included was a live performance by Betty Who and an intermission.

The place was as crowded as Times Square outside. Pretty much a mad-house, but at 5:30 we headed into the actual theater for dinner. I would later learn that people being served diner were limited to 350, so imagine 35 round tables seating ten each set-up like an expensive wedding, a stage with stair set up center-stage, a wide screen set up stage-left, and a podium stage right.

Plates of grilled chicken, roasted vegtables, and flank steak awaited us at our table when we arrive, and the food was served family style.

Table number seven was about ten feet from the stage, and the podium was only 20 feet away, and from my seat at the table I had clear shooting. I became a bit suspicious because our table had a choice location. The other guests were other finalists, and one couple were invited as presenters.

Really did not get a chance to really eat because the conversations was so involving. I had a few bites. The gal to my left was 22 years old, escaped R-Ken-Saw, and lived in Venice California. Her Plus-one was her manager. Byron her Manager lives in Hollywood, but originally comes from Toronto. Her boy-friend is some filmmaker in London.

The other couple are interior designers and have a huge/massive Social Media presence.

So eating got displaced by interesting conversation, and interesting conversation got displaced by the event. It was after the intermission when the Fashion Award was announced by the "Fab-Five," the new cast for the Netflick series, "The Queer Eye For The Straight Guy."

"Maggie's" name was announced after the series of 6 short video profiles were screened. The audience responded and I got my camera ready. It was a blurry out of body experience for me, kinda surreal.

I turned to the interior design couple and asked, "Did that just happen?

Maggie was ushered backstage for an interview. While she had not writen anything she did well in speaking to the audience. I took in the cheers and the applause, but I really couldn't believe this was reality because it was so dream like.

Later Maggie says, "Winning is kinda cool," and I laughed.

The Shorty Award is this heavy piece of clear glass with a blue translucent whale-tail on top that is engraved.

When we got home, Maggie said, "I don't have a place to put my Shorty Award" because our apartment is like a huge woman's closet. LOL.

MANY THANKS TO ALL THAT VOTED AND TO ALL 485K FOLLOWERS.

Cal
 
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