Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Last night's event in Soho was great. Dreem is a boutique woman's clothing store that specializes and features up and coming and perhaps not yet discovered new designers, but the style is elegant and lux.
The Parson's students work is on display in the storefront window and will be up for a week. More work is displayed in the front of the store.
Part of the presentation was just that: a presentation. I think what most powerfully grabbed the standing room mob was when "Maggie," a retired academic, reported a research study that having a negative attitude about aging was proven to actually shorten a lifespan by the average of 7 years.
Interesting how this hit the young people who pretty much are afraid of aging.
The level of generosity utilized to make this event was kinda beautiful. The owner of the store provided the space and has a commited program of mentoring and supporting new talent, of course Maggie collaborated and mentored these 4 students, and then this big time designer came by to critique and advise these students giving them both guidance and support.
How nice.
Pretty much the turnout was huge and the place was packed. "Maggie" was worried that many of her invites would not be able to attend since this is Fashion Week in Milan.
I saw mucho familiar faces, but of course I'm a jerk when it comes to remembering names. All these friends of Maggies kissing me and saying hello was kinda stressful because my life is so "blurry." Pretty much these people were familiar, but I was clueless how I know them. Good thing is that I'm a good performance artist because my improv skills came in handy.
The SL2 allowed me to push the ISO to 800, and I did this to just add a little punch to the store lighting. It seems that F2.0 on the APO 35 Cron is a major sweet spot. Only used F2.0 the whole night, but realize I set up the SL2 as if a Rollieflex and shot the square with the third "FN" which is no header or footer for exposure and just a 3x3 grid. I use spot metering and single point AF.
Interesting to note is that I set exposure using just the VF'er. The "A" mode is active even when using "M" manual exposure mode, and if there is a "Delta" (difference) between "A" and "M" the EVF or rear display will jump in either dimness or brightness.
Pretty much WYSIWYG in either the EVF or the rear display. Also know that the enhanced resolution of the EVF and rear display is not so different than viewng images on my EIZO, so it is pretty easy to see detail.
So the crop works well to adjust the FOV to be as if a Normal lens FOV instead of a wide. The APO 35 Cron has a mucho fast AF, so pretty much shooting is crazy-fast. The Maestro 3 processor also speeds things up because the buffer never really gets used even if you shoot in three round bursts like a hitman: stomach; chest; and then head shot.
The crowds I had to work around, and in one group shot using the "wings" to fall into a 4x5 aspect ration ended up being both useful and practical. I panned left and panned right, and in both cases I could conform into a 4x5 shot. Not so hard, or abstract.
I also found that my compositions were tighter than if I shot with the 35 as a wide FF. This digital "zooming" and format adaption already has me spoiled. For Maggie it seems like shooting the square will dominate.
The 50 Lux now morphing into being used mostly on my old SL as a portrait lens, or when I want to do "night stalking" in NYC.
I carried a spare battery because the OEM SL2 battery had only been deep cycled twice. It is suggested that initially three deep cycles are required to condition the battery, and last night I simply left the camera on for 3 1/2 hours and intermittently shot about 320 images.
Then I chimped the camera mucho to draw down the battery further, but even after 4 hours I did not fully deplete the OEM battery. The old SL battery ended up just being a backup.
At these events I generally get some opportunities to get some shots for my own work. I talked with this gal who does PR for Neuman Marcus who was well dressed and was a beauty. I ended up taking only two shots: I Rollieflexed her shooting the square; and when I chimped the shots she wanted them.
These same shots end up being also really nice 4x5 shots (about 39.4 MP). How nice. The files are kinda big, but my eight year old MacBook Pro is not really straining and remains fast. My lazy slacker trick is to "compartmentalize" and restrict this MacBook to only Lightroom and photography.
I have an IBook, and sixth generation IPAD that is still being sold retail at Apple Stores, and an IPAD Mini as well as an IMAC. The IBook has a DVD reader/writer and I happen to own the Student/Teacher version of Lightroom 5. LR5 is what I have installed on my MacBook Pro, so I'll be running LR5 in both and have a backup. One IPAD I'll dedicate for MP4 viewing, and the other for when I blog and have a website.
This is my way of recycling and also is practical because all this old stuff still works. I actually love how each tool is specialized, and for me, a very easily confused guy, this makes it simple for me.
"I never knew anyone with a complicated life that is happy," I say. "Simple and free is for me," I also say.
Also will be great to have two stand alone LR5 systems because eventually I'll get a floor standing printer for color. "Don't tell Maggie." No Creative Cloud for me: Cheap-cheap-cheap... Pretty much LR5 is good enough for me, and know I only tweak images, not a lot of post processing. You know me: I'm a lazy slacker. Pretty much the stuff that gets published on Maggie's blog is straight out of the camera. How lazy is that?
I hope to bone-up on the video function by the Meet-Up. I'll be shooting MP4's 16x9. Next step is to learn how to do cut edits. Instagram like four 15 second segments to make a one minute clip which is the limit.
For Instagram TV the aspect ratio changes to 4x5. Know that 16x9 is the aspect ratio of a cell phone full screen.
The SL2 makes it easy for even a non tech throwback like me. Leica made a clever camera. Kinda perfectly designed for me. BTW I think the SL in SL2 is short for "SLacker."
Cal
The Parson's students work is on display in the storefront window and will be up for a week. More work is displayed in the front of the store.
Part of the presentation was just that: a presentation. I think what most powerfully grabbed the standing room mob was when "Maggie," a retired academic, reported a research study that having a negative attitude about aging was proven to actually shorten a lifespan by the average of 7 years.
Interesting how this hit the young people who pretty much are afraid of aging.
The level of generosity utilized to make this event was kinda beautiful. The owner of the store provided the space and has a commited program of mentoring and supporting new talent, of course Maggie collaborated and mentored these 4 students, and then this big time designer came by to critique and advise these students giving them both guidance and support.
How nice.
Pretty much the turnout was huge and the place was packed. "Maggie" was worried that many of her invites would not be able to attend since this is Fashion Week in Milan.
I saw mucho familiar faces, but of course I'm a jerk when it comes to remembering names. All these friends of Maggies kissing me and saying hello was kinda stressful because my life is so "blurry." Pretty much these people were familiar, but I was clueless how I know them. Good thing is that I'm a good performance artist because my improv skills came in handy.
The SL2 allowed me to push the ISO to 800, and I did this to just add a little punch to the store lighting. It seems that F2.0 on the APO 35 Cron is a major sweet spot. Only used F2.0 the whole night, but realize I set up the SL2 as if a Rollieflex and shot the square with the third "FN" which is no header or footer for exposure and just a 3x3 grid. I use spot metering and single point AF.
Interesting to note is that I set exposure using just the VF'er. The "A" mode is active even when using "M" manual exposure mode, and if there is a "Delta" (difference) between "A" and "M" the EVF or rear display will jump in either dimness or brightness.
Pretty much WYSIWYG in either the EVF or the rear display. Also know that the enhanced resolution of the EVF and rear display is not so different than viewng images on my EIZO, so it is pretty easy to see detail.
So the crop works well to adjust the FOV to be as if a Normal lens FOV instead of a wide. The APO 35 Cron has a mucho fast AF, so pretty much shooting is crazy-fast. The Maestro 3 processor also speeds things up because the buffer never really gets used even if you shoot in three round bursts like a hitman: stomach; chest; and then head shot.
The crowds I had to work around, and in one group shot using the "wings" to fall into a 4x5 aspect ration ended up being both useful and practical. I panned left and panned right, and in both cases I could conform into a 4x5 shot. Not so hard, or abstract.
I also found that my compositions were tighter than if I shot with the 35 as a wide FF. This digital "zooming" and format adaption already has me spoiled. For Maggie it seems like shooting the square will dominate.
The 50 Lux now morphing into being used mostly on my old SL as a portrait lens, or when I want to do "night stalking" in NYC.
I carried a spare battery because the OEM SL2 battery had only been deep cycled twice. It is suggested that initially three deep cycles are required to condition the battery, and last night I simply left the camera on for 3 1/2 hours and intermittently shot about 320 images.
Then I chimped the camera mucho to draw down the battery further, but even after 4 hours I did not fully deplete the OEM battery. The old SL battery ended up just being a backup.
At these events I generally get some opportunities to get some shots for my own work. I talked with this gal who does PR for Neuman Marcus who was well dressed and was a beauty. I ended up taking only two shots: I Rollieflexed her shooting the square; and when I chimped the shots she wanted them.
These same shots end up being also really nice 4x5 shots (about 39.4 MP). How nice. The files are kinda big, but my eight year old MacBook Pro is not really straining and remains fast. My lazy slacker trick is to "compartmentalize" and restrict this MacBook to only Lightroom and photography.
I have an IBook, and sixth generation IPAD that is still being sold retail at Apple Stores, and an IPAD Mini as well as an IMAC. The IBook has a DVD reader/writer and I happen to own the Student/Teacher version of Lightroom 5. LR5 is what I have installed on my MacBook Pro, so I'll be running LR5 in both and have a backup. One IPAD I'll dedicate for MP4 viewing, and the other for when I blog and have a website.
This is my way of recycling and also is practical because all this old stuff still works. I actually love how each tool is specialized, and for me, a very easily confused guy, this makes it simple for me.
"I never knew anyone with a complicated life that is happy," I say. "Simple and free is for me," I also say.
Also will be great to have two stand alone LR5 systems because eventually I'll get a floor standing printer for color. "Don't tell Maggie." No Creative Cloud for me: Cheap-cheap-cheap... Pretty much LR5 is good enough for me, and know I only tweak images, not a lot of post processing. You know me: I'm a lazy slacker. Pretty much the stuff that gets published on Maggie's blog is straight out of the camera. How lazy is that?
I hope to bone-up on the video function by the Meet-Up. I'll be shooting MP4's 16x9. Next step is to learn how to do cut edits. Instagram like four 15 second segments to make a one minute clip which is the limit.
For Instagram TV the aspect ratio changes to 4x5. Know that 16x9 is the aspect ratio of a cell phone full screen.
The SL2 makes it easy for even a non tech throwback like me. Leica made a clever camera. Kinda perfectly designed for me. BTW I think the SL in SL2 is short for "SLacker."
Cal