New York August 2022 Meet-Up

Cal,
Good to hear you are out of there.

Testing Studio Lighting 350mm f.56 Tele Tessar ELM by Nokton48, on Flickr

Testing Studio Lighting 2 350mm f.56 Tele Tessar ELM by Nokton48, on Flickr

Testing some olde Broncolor strobe lighting. Hasselblad 500EL/M, 350mm f5.6 Non-T* Tele-Tessar, Ilford FP4+ 120, Omega DII laser aligned with Omegalite, 180mm black Rodagon, 8x10 Arista [NODE="2"]Forum[/NODE] RC Multigrade developer

I studied these compositions for a very long time before exposing. The orchid photos are very personally important to me.
 
Nokton48 said:
Cal,
Good to hear you are out of there.

Testing Studio Lighting 350mm f.56 Tele Tessar ELM by Nokton48, on Flickr

Testing Studio Lighting 2 350mm f.56 Tele Tessar ELM by Nokton48, on Flickr

Testing some olde Broncolor strobe lighting. Hasselblad 500EL/M, 350mm f5.6 Non-T* Tele-Tessar, Ilford FP4+ 120, Omega DII laser aligned with Omegalite, 180mm black Rodagon, 8x10 Arista [NODE="2"]Forum[/NODE] RC Multigrade developer

I studied these compositions for a very long time before exposing. The orchid photos are very personally important to me.
Click to expand...

Dan,

Very nice gradation. In fact impressive. You do well in the studio.

Anyways it feels great to be in the “wild,” instead of being locked down.

Seriously though enough of being a house slave. The kitchen has taken a long-long time and has been a bit like a marathon. Time to enjoy, relax, and play around.

The research states that a key to healthy aging and longevity is learning to relax and slow down. Pretty much Snarky Joe was right, “There is no reason to rush.”

Also I know that time is my friend, and now I have the time to do not only jobs I otherwise might not do, but I also have the time to do a better job because there is no deadline or sense of urgency.

Again the powerful lesson I was taught by my photography instructor in art school, “When you rush you never do your best work.”

Your careful study allowed you to capture the wonderful gradation. This requires a “careful” eye and not just a glance. A good example to reinforce the discussion.

As an ex-urban New Yorker I have to learn, adapt, and step away from the culture I lived with for decades. Retirement is a drastic change in lifestyle and requires new behaviors. Anyways for some people this is hard, in fact it is really hard for me because I’m hard wired to be aggressive and perhaps hard wired to be crazy. LOL.

Cal
 
You guys know I once was a performance artist for about a decade. Not only that, I am also a drama queen. So now that the kitchen is nearing completion we add the conflict and drama of performing an episode of “good cop/bad cop.” I like the role of “the good cop” and Maggie is the bad cop, but instead of cops we are the home owners.

BTW the contractor already prefers me over Maggie. LOL.

So also for a while I was a TV Broadcast Journalist who had segments broadcast over cable. I was both a video cameraman and a reporter, and at times they sent me out as a “one man band.” In history there was only one other guy who functioned as a one-man-band, and he was booth a character and a legend.

So Con Ed leaves a written notice about relocating my gas meter to the exterior of my home “At no cost to you,” and I say if its free its for me. Besides that, oddly, I have the hookups for two gas meters, even though the small house never ever was a two family. I believe they used two small meters in a modular manner, but here is the twist, one meter has been removed, and I want to have installed a 18KW to 20KW natural gas generator to further make my home more bunker like.

So I am known to be clever, there is a moratorium on natural gas additions, but I have no shame in pulling out my retirement status, my advanced age, and the nuclear weapon that I need life support. Pretty much I will use my Cold Aglutinin Disease diagnosis to my advantage as an underlying condition where heat is life support for someone with CAD, even though I am asymptomatic.

So I exaggerate, ha-ha. So this woman, Erin, I asked since I’m almost 65, and that I have a medical condition that requires “life support,” then I find out there is a clause and all I need is a licensed plumber to move forward. EZ-PZ.

So my investigative skills think that Con Ed has some gas leaks in the intersection of my dead end and the avenue we live on. I figure the “No cost to you” program was initiated for me, and the rest is just another case of divine intervention. Kinda makes sense if they have been fixing small leaks that they might as well upgrade and make safer the old houses that hook up to the gas line.

Oddly one of my diagonal neighbors (corner house) has no gas line and wish he did. I also suspect my dead end neighbor might not have gas either. Even odder is that a gas pipeline is in back of my back-backyard in the frog ghetto.

So I’m mucho happy, and will be calling General who also makes commercial generators for an estimate.

How cool am I?

Cal
 
So yet again I found myself doing too much. Pretty much I did get a lot of details handled: put a deposit on a door so it could be ordered; had the oil burner serviced; canceled a dental cleaning since I’m still recovering; picked up a quartz top that was cut for us; called my Mortgage company to ensure my school taxes would get paid; and called Con Ed about my natural gas meter and gas connection upgrade.

So I recognize my frenetic behavior, my constant level of business, and this innate behavior I need to control.

I’m one day out of a hospital 5-day stay and I pretty much can’t sit still. How annoying is that?

Cal
 
jsrockit said:
Cal, glad you are feeling better. Now, it is time for a Deardorff 8x10" or you cannot call yourself crazy anymore.
Click to expand...

John,

I like Ebony for an 8x10. Perhaps one day…

Am I getting boring is what you are saying in other words? LOL.

Anyways lately I have been annoying myself. How crazy is that?

Anyways I’m crazy enough to be happy-happy.

Cal
 
Tim Kelly Lighting Test Hasselblad 100mm Pan F Plus by Nokton48, on Flickr

Morning Cal.

Thirty years ago I studied Tim Kelly's portrait techniques. Now I am revising and revisiting it in my smaller studio. A Broncolor C171 monolight with modern 360 degree Broncolor Balloon Head at 90 degrees left. Another C171 with Pulso Softbox at 45 degrees left, set one stop brighter. A whitish fill panel semi silver at 45 degrees right, just out of the shot Finally, a smaller C70 Broncolor Monolight, with custom made old Broncolor snoot and grid, 45 degrees right but up very high, creating the spot of light just to the right and slightly above the test subject. The idea is that the righting reads "dark, light, dark, light" which creates an artististic rythm that is very classic. Hasselblad EL/M with 100mm f3.5 T* black Planar, Hasselblad YG filter, Ilford Pan F+ developed in D23 1:1 in JOBO tank on Unicolor Uniroller. Omega DII laser aligned with Omegalite Head and 180mm black Rodagon. Arista [NODE="2"]Forum[/NODE] RC 8x10 paper developed in Multigrade. Canvas background 8x8 feet "Classic Kelly Brown" painted recently for me by artist David Maheu
 
Nokton48 said:
Tim Kelly Lighting Test Hasselblad 100mm Pan F Plus by Nokton48, on Flickr

Morning Cal.

Thirty years ago I studied Tim Kelly's portrait techniques. Now I am revising and revisiting it in my smaller studio. A Broncolor C171 monolight with modern 360 degree Broncolor Balloon Head at 90 degrees left. Another C171 with Pulso Softbox at 45 degrees left, set one stop brighter. A whitish fill panel semi silver at 45 degrees right, just out of the shot Finally, a smaller C70 Broncolor Monolight, with custom made old Broncolor snoot and grid, 45 degrees right but up very high, creating the spot of light just to the right and slightly above the test subject. The idea is that the righting reads "dark, light, dark, light" which creates an artististic rythm that is very classic. Hasselblad EL/M with 100mm f3.5 T* black Planar, Hasselblad YG filter, Ilford Pan F+ developed in D23 1:1 in JOBO tank on Unicolor Uniroller. Omega DII laser aligned with Omegalite Head and 180mm black Rodagon. Arista [NODE="2"]Forum[/NODE] RC 8x10 paper developed in Multigrade. Canvas background 8x8 feet "Classic Kelly Brown" painted recently for me by artist David Maheu
Click to expand...

Dan,

I wonder how long does it take to set up a studio shot like this?

Back in journalism school (Master’s) I did a lot with 2 and 3 point lighting. The limit I see is being confined by a smaller space. Do you find this to be true?

Just wondering because I’m at a point where anything is possible…

Cal
 
Cal,
I leave this lighting up on a semi-permanent basis. I adjust and modify depending on the circumstances. I have the luxury of taking my time with these tests so it depends. I do have a trio of 150W Photogenic Minispots I have used for pincer light portraiture, not in quite a long time. What I have created here works very well in my smaller studio space. Yes a smaller space is more of a challenge so I'm trying to make the most of what I have. I prefer to create almost a window type of lighting which is pretty broad. I recently was gifted a Canon 50D so I want to use that for fine-tuning the lighting quickly. No more need for Polaroids
 
I’m digging in. My C10 has OEM single point helper leaf spring, this truck was ordered that way. The helper springs increase the loading capacity 500 pounds a piece to raise the payload limit 1000 pounds. This backs up the notion that this truck was ordered and set up for a “camper.”

I kinda love that over 56 years the spring sag lowered the rake.

I found out today that the front and rear drums are the same, so I can recycle the front drums and save them for the rear. How cool is that?

Looks like I can also keep the narrow OEM steel 15x6.5 rims. The big skinny tires is the true retro look. Anyways anything I can do to keep it OEM as possible is what I want.

I’m in slow motion mode now trying to lower my pace. I need to relax more and be less busy.

Cal
 
Calzone said:
John,

I like Ebony for an 8x10. Perhaps one day…

Am I getting boring is what you are saying in other words? LOL.
Click to expand...

Ah yes, I keep forgetting your preferred 8x10" camera brand! Well, I am just saying...the Cal thing to do would be to get a rare 8x10" camera, horde mucho film and annoy people with it. 😉
 
jsrockit said:
Ah yes, I keep forgetting your preferred 8x10" camera brand! Well, I am just saying...the Cal thing to do would be to get a rare 8x10" camera, horde mucho film and annoy people with it. 😉
Click to expand...

John,

Annoying people is my trademark and part of my branding.

Seriously though, making 8x10 contact prints would be really cool.

Cal
 
Calzone said:
I’m digging in. My C10 has OEM single point helper leaf spring, this truck was ordered that way. The helper springs increase the loading capacity 500 pounds a piece to raise the payload limit 1000 pounds. This backs up the notion that this truck was ordered and set up for a “camper.”

I kinda love that over 56 years the spring sag lowered the rake.

I found out today that the front and rear drums are the same, so I can recycle the front drums and save them for the rear. How cool is that?

Looks like I can also keep the narrow OEM steel 15x6.5 rims. The big skinny tires is the true retro look. Anyways anything I can do to keep it OEM as possible is what I want.

I’m in slow motion mode now trying to lower my pace. I need to relax more and be less busy.

Cal
Click to expand...

Glad you are doing well Cal..

Jeff
 
Saturday is the baby shower, and the guy who does the painting for my GC likely has Covid.

So I ended up painting the Powder Room today, and tomorrow I’ll do the kitchen. Oh-well.

Sad news is my dead end neighbor, the woman of the house, kinda committed suicide by drinking herself to death. About 9 years ago she had a heart attack, and she drank herself into cardiac arrest. Anyways Karen was a sweet woman who was very gentle. She suffered from depression, the cataract surgery went bad and she was becoming blind.

So my dead end neighbor’s house is the plight of our 13 house “Avenue” very run down and neglected. Looks like an abandoned house, and it literally is the last house in Peekskill.

So it is like the book “Rich Dad: Poor Dad” except it is “Rich House: Poor House.” Pretty much my dead end neighbor made every mistake and is on the road to destitution. Karen was a RN at New York Columbia Presbyterian, and her male partner was a licensed electrician.

BTW Karen was my age (64). Anyways I’m sad, but know I made her laugh a lot. Karen’s male partner is a hot mess. There is no will, and his name is not on the deed on the house. Basically he has no recourse.

Very sad.

Cal
 
Painted the kitchen today, Tomorrow, Saturday, is the baby shower for “The Creature.”

”Maggie” is in Maggie-Mode. The house looks great, even though there is no ceiling in the hallway or dining room.

Two guys delivered this couch that converts into a full size bed. Somehow they got it up the narrow stairs. It was a big challenge. The couch is comfortable as a couch as well as a bed. Usually the bed is awful or very uncomfortable on these convertibles.

Monday we start moving forward with the upstairs bathroom. The contractor is coming Monday to look things over and to give us estimates for other work. The new wooden kitchen door is expected in 2-3 weeks, and the new front porch door and sidelights is expected in November.

The swelling in my leg is almost gone, and Monday I see the wound doctor to verify my recovery.

Cal
 
On Saturday we had to pick up some catered food from De’Ciccio’s, a local luxury supermarket, for the shower at 11:00 AM.

I decided we should go early since on the ay we could stop by Home Goods to get a waste basket for the Powder Room on the way. The result was that we arrived at DeCiccio’s at 10:30 AM.

“So better early rather than late,” I say, but the food was not ready. I’m relaxed so we go to a Duncan Donuts for a coffee, but Maggie is anxious and gets kinda crazy.

So at 11:00 we head back in and pick up the food, but episode 2 of a little crazy goes on. Then I am loading the food into the trunk of the Audi and she believes something is missing, so we head into episode 3 of a little crazy. By now kinda everyone who works at DeCiccio’s knows Maggie as the Crazy Woman. Nothing was forgotten and all was in order.

BTW people with PhD’s tend to overthink everything…

So back in the car I tell Maggie that if she ever tries to order food again at DeCiccio’s, and if they recognize your voice, they might hang up. “Click,” I say.

Then I say, “We are officially banned from ever going into DeCiccio’s ever again, and now we have to find some other place where we have not been banned.”

The shower was great. The kitchen and powder room were sensations.

Tomorrow I believe I will get a clean bill of health from my wound doctor, and my contractor will come by to do a bathroom estimate.

Cal
 
Got a clean bill of health from the wound doctor. Still have to go back in a week.

In my backyard I saw an animal I identified as a Vole by my garage. Now I know what has been digging up my yard. The animal looks about the shape of a rabbit, but larger with a squirrel like head, with a short tail.

Looks like the upstairs bath is getting fast tracked. I bought a pull down attic staircase today to have on hand. I’ll be insulating the attic. Thinking sprayed closed cell foam would be great, but then again I could install rigid foam and rock wool myself. First step would be to get installed the attic stairs.

”Maggie’s” son-in-law dropped a 200 pound wild boar with a single neck shot, and I have a wild boar steak and some breakfast sausages. Kinda excited to pigging out on this wild meat.

Lately I have limited my work output and have been less busy. Relaxing and going at a slower pace is suiting me well. Seems like I still get a lot done, and I’m enjoying life more.

Cal
 
helenhill said:
well I put it in my Calender...
Will be Fun to see All of You again,
been a looong TIME
Click to expand...

Helen,

Will be great to see you. Looking forward to it.

BTW the critter invading my backyard is not a Vole, it is a Ground Hog.

I have this camera called “The Devil Christian” to bring to the Meet-Up. Also somehow I got this M3-DS back from Brian. I tried to free up the sticky slow shutter speeds and proceeded to jam the camera. Had the M3-DS overhauled by Nippon Camera, it jammed a few more times, but now it is straight. Also had to have my Ti M6 prototype overhauled because I also jammed that camera. Oh-well.

I have some Polaroid film that I might bring to test out the Devil Christian. It basically is a 4x5 that has a 28mm FOV that is fixed focus set at 2 meters.

To tease Snarky Joe I have a 21/3.4-“R” Super Augulon mounted on my black MD-2 rigged with a TA Rapidwinder and TA Rapidgrip to annoy people. The 21/3.4 I found for “no-money” and since I have a SL2 digital I had the M-R adapter. Came boxed with hood and caps. Looks evil…

Pretty much Snarky Joe said I would get another 21 after I traded away my 21 SEM. Then the prices ran away on me, then I figured out how to mount the “R” version of the 21/3.4 on my MD-2 which was not getting used.

When I was in Austin, I stopped in a motorcycle shop and found a very cool camera knapsack.

Did you hear that I signed a contract and now I’m a model? Well anyways Lyn (Maggie) and I will be marketed as a couple. Because “Maggie” is so short, I appear to be mucho tall. LOL.

Then I bought a 1966 Chevy C-10 long bed pickup to assist in my new identity as a hill-billy.

A new grandson is coming on “Labor-Day.”

Anyways our “Baby-Victorian” is a bit of a tourist attraction because it is turning into a rather cute house instead of a rundown one. Can you picture a craftsman style Victorian complete with a tower and crazy roof lines that has been stuccioed with “Pebble Dash.” Anyway highly unusual and hard to imagine, but because it is so odd and perhaps strange, the house suggests that artists live there.

Did you know that I have a “stalker”?

Cal
 
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