Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Let's make the February Meet-Up after the 7th (Superbowl Sunday) and Maggie's Fashion Show at Lincoln Center.
Since Maggie's Fashion Show is scheduled one week before NYC's Fashion Week, I say Valentine's Day is bad for me, an Accidental Fashion Photographer. I'm hoping that this year because now Maggie is a celeb and knows so many designers that maybe/perhaps we might get into the tent as they say.
So the only two Sundays left are the 21st and 28th.
Cal
Since Maggie's Fashion Show is scheduled one week before NYC's Fashion Week, I say Valentine's Day is bad for me, an Accidental Fashion Photographer. I'm hoping that this year because now Maggie is a celeb and knows so many designers that maybe/perhaps we might get into the tent as they say.
So the only two Sundays left are the 21st and 28th.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
GEAR ALERT: For a delayed Christmas and birthday present "Maggie" agreed to buy me a Nikon SB-910 (Nikon's most powerful digital dedicated flash). I went for the crazy amount of power for the short cycle times. I just placed the order and should get delivery in 4-5 days.
That D3X is getting "Monsterized." LOL.
Now I have a new fetish to obsess about.
Cal
That D3X is getting "Monsterized." LOL.
Now I have a new fetish to obsess about.
Cal
Nice Cal... let's go for the 21st.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
John,
February 21st it tis.
Looking forward to see how good I can get with a flash. Really only fooled around a few times. One time I was volenteered to do a friend of Maggie's wedding (by Maggie) (basically the bride was pregnant with one kid already, and the groom had two boys) in the basement of a Church in Jersey City. For added color the Pastor was gay, then on top of that I also was volenteered to be the videographer. The bump was big, so this gig was of course on short notice and kinda urgant. LOL. Like I said before, "I was just minding my own business..." and then all these wierd things kinda happen to me. You can't make this stuff up. LOL. It just happened to turn out to one of the most beautiful weddings I ever went to...
And I went to plenty. Understand that one of my friends is a bass player. Ran into Dave last year at a guitar show. Know that Dave's father wrote the jazz standard "When Sunny Gets Blue" and that last year Dave went on tour to Germany with most of the members of "Blood, Sweat And Tears." I hadn't seen Dave in a long long time, but back in the day Dave did "Club gigs" to pay his bills, and "Club Gigs" is a polite way to disguise that you were going to play a wedding.
Of course this is on Long Island where weddings are kinda gigantic and outragious. So kinda at the last minute I would get a call from Dave asking what I'm doing that night, he would ask me if I wanted to go to a wedding, and basically I was a wedding crasher. LOL. Anyways don't ask me how many weddings I have been to. LOL. At dinnertime I ate with the band.
All I had to do is put on a suit. Interesting socializing during cocktail hour and having girls approaching me. When I would get asked if I knew the bride or the groome, I would ask them the same question and respond to thier answer. Whatever they said I would respond by looking at them with my big brown eyes and say the opposite without laughing. LOL.
The thing that made this wedding that happened over 15 years ago was that I never-ever used a flash before and I was more or less a virgin, and the flash I had was a Vivitar 283 that was Maggie's and in fact she actually had more experience. Good thing she had the instruction manual, or I wouldn't have been able to have pull it off. LOL. Not easy to do two jobs at once and I kinda shot a lot of film (color).
I basically last year gave that Vivitar 283 to Louis Mendez at the Atlantic Antic. I made arrangements to meet him by the vintage buses.
The only other time I really used flash was on my Pentax 67II. Remember when they had "Fashion Night Out," I bragged that I was going to shoot Velvia 50 at night with flash, and everyone told me not to do that because that particular film requires perfect exposure or things get wonky. Anyways when I got the slides developed I was surprised that I did a "Calzone" meaning I did something crazy and everything turned out okay like the Camera Olympics. LOL. One thing I learned is that TTL works really good. Figuring out guide numbers while shooting is kinda crazy.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
John at the January Meet-Up asked me what camera I would buy that was competing in the Camera Olympics, and my answer was Joe's black F2 with DE-1 eyelevel finder, a camera I have own and sold many-many-many times.
This level of GAS is legendary and this is how within a week's time I somehow bought a Pentaz 67II and an Olympus 24/3.5 shift lens in Nikon F-mount. LOL. Many artists have problems with impulse control...
In retrospect, I think I have outgrown the F2 with DE-1 because I now own a black SL2- MOT that not only is a rare camera from the F2 era (around 1000 made), cost twice the amount in 1975 of a Nikon F2, and in my book a savagely overbuilt all mechanical camera, even more so than a F2. On top of that mine has been recently overhauled by Sherry and is more or less a merging of two cameras to create a restored SL2-MOT
So where is the GAS? Leica R glass. Anyways I Leitaxed my 50 Lux-R "E60" and it is now mounted on my D3X. Not as romantic as the Noct-Nikkor, but the sharpness and OOF is kinda magic like a Noctilux without the light falloff in the corners. I'm in love I tell you.
I kinda concentrated for a long time using the Noct-Nikkor, but now I'm using the "E60" extensively to really see what in can do.
Cal
This level of GAS is legendary and this is how within a week's time I somehow bought a Pentaz 67II and an Olympus 24/3.5 shift lens in Nikon F-mount. LOL. Many artists have problems with impulse control...
In retrospect, I think I have outgrown the F2 with DE-1 because I now own a black SL2- MOT that not only is a rare camera from the F2 era (around 1000 made), cost twice the amount in 1975 of a Nikon F2, and in my book a savagely overbuilt all mechanical camera, even more so than a F2. On top of that mine has been recently overhauled by Sherry and is more or less a merging of two cameras to create a restored SL2-MOT
So where is the GAS? Leica R glass. Anyways I Leitaxed my 50 Lux-R "E60" and it is now mounted on my D3X. Not as romantic as the Noct-Nikkor, but the sharpness and OOF is kinda magic like a Noctilux without the light falloff in the corners. I'm in love I tell you.
I kinda concentrated for a long time using the Noct-Nikkor, but now I'm using the "E60" extensively to really see what in can do.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
GEAR ALERT: I just ordered a belt clip for my IIIG, but I will kinda use it "Ghetto Style" as a way to drape the IIIG hanging vertically from an o-ring so I can wear the camera like a necklace with a huge pendant.
I also bought a 34mm B&W UV filter that is MRC that will fit my Super Rokkor and a chrom filter adapter for a Summar that allows use of 39mm filters that I might be acke to use as a hood on the Super Rokkor.
Know that the last time I placed an order with DAG it took over 3 months to get delivery of an eyepiece cover and flash sync plugs. It so happened that they were backordered. Let's see if the legendary delays continue. I guess I'm an optimist. LOL.
Cal
I also bought a 34mm B&W UV filter that is MRC that will fit my Super Rokkor and a chrom filter adapter for a Summar that allows use of 39mm filters that I might be acke to use as a hood on the Super Rokkor.
Know that the last time I placed an order with DAG it took over 3 months to get delivery of an eyepiece cover and flash sync plugs. It so happened that they were backordered. Let's see if the legendary delays continue. I guess I'm an optimist. LOL.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
GEAR ALERT: I just ordered a belt clip for my IIIG, but I will kinda use it "Ghetto Style" as a way to drape the IIIG hanging vertically from an o-ring so I can wear the camera like a necklace with a huge pendant.
I also bought a 34mm B&W UV filter that is MRC that will fit my Super Rokkor and a chrom filter adapter for a Summar that allows use of 39mm filters that I might be acke to use as a hood on the Super Rokkor.
Know that the last time I placed an order with DAG it took over 3 months to get delivery of an eyepiece cover and flash sync plugs. It so happened that they were backordered. Let's see if the legendary delays continue. I guess I'm an optimist. LOL.
Cal
I also bought a 34mm B&W UV filter that is MRC that will fit my Super Rokkor and a chrom filter adapter for a Summar that allows use of 39mm filters that I might be acke to use as a hood on the Super Rokkor.
Know that the last time I placed an order with DAG it took over 3 months to get delivery of an eyepiece cover and flash sync plugs. It so happened that they were backordered. Let's see if the legendary delays continue. I guess I'm an optimist. LOL.
Cal
Range-rover
Veteran
Making the date early is great for me, it gives my shop enough notice to give me
the day off.
GEAR ALERT: I don't know if you guy's read the end of the other thread but I decided
to repair the D3's mode dial, because I received the Metz 58AF-1 flash and I could not
get it out of the rear flash mode, so after about two hours it was done and it works great.
I did clean it out a bit at the meeting joints collected dust and stuff, and now the D3 is
flash ready.
Cal glad to hear about the gear as well. There's always something else to get for our
hobbies.
the day off.
GEAR ALERT: I don't know if you guy's read the end of the other thread but I decided
to repair the D3's mode dial, because I received the Metz 58AF-1 flash and I could not
get it out of the rear flash mode, so after about two hours it was done and it works great.
I did clean it out a bit at the meeting joints collected dust and stuff, and now the D3 is
flash ready.
Cal glad to hear about the gear as well. There's always something else to get for our
hobbies.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Bob,
It seems that I am a very happy guy. The 50 Lux "E60" has a lot of Noctilux flavor if you know what I mean in both a sharp and smooth manner. On a D3X very detailed.
I only have 15 cameras. LOL.
On a different note: "Maggie" witnessed an incident at the 103rd Street subway last week where one of the locals (a man in his 40's) accused a young hipster of shoving him while pinning him against a wall to give the hipster a 1970's style beating. The hipster put his hands together as if he was praying, apologized profusely and kinda begged for his life. I'm seeing a lot of clueless hipsters lately in Spaha, and in my book if people are brain dead and you happen to kill them it is not murder. What was that clueless hipster thinking, or not. Anyways I'm seeing mucho behavior I once saw in Williamsburg when I lived there, but this time there seems to be less tolerance for privilege and entitlement.
A few weeks ago some person of color blew off a lot of steam that was directed at Maggie and me where racial hostility was openly displayed against whites. I looked around and it was only Maggie, and I guess on the food chain Asian is like being white (privileged). There seems to be a lot of discontent where its the have not's lashing out in anger at people that are better off.
Lately I have been more careful, more aware and more defensive. I no longer carry multiple cameras and I try to have my hands free if I can so I'm ready to fight. Lately on the news there have been a rash of senseless slashings that seem to be in fashion right now just like sucker punching was a few years ago. Be careful out there.
Cal
Range-rover
Veteran
I know you have to be careful out there.
They caught the Lower East Side slasher... he was out on $30,000 bail for a different slashing incident in Oct.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Yesterday I saw 5 news trucks on my block, and on the major network news was a story of another pedestrian hit on a sidewalk pinned against a building. So far the woman is in critical condition and has not died.
The SUV was from the gas station that is next to my building, and the laundry where the incident took place is just around the corner from where I live. A cop also was almost taken out.
Last year I reported almost getting wedged by a cab. The driver thought he was in drive, but instead was in reverse. The cab backed over the nose of an illegally parked cop's car (a Camaro) and ended up perched on top of some fencing that protected a tree. I happen to be talking with a neighbor right in front of my building, and it was a close call. Me and my neighbor could have been numbers 121 and number 122 of people who got killed by being on the sidewalk at the wrong time.
Also a reminder that a cop was killed in my neiborhood last year a few blocks from where I live, and also there was a series of hate crimes against Asians one summer a few years back.
Then there was this time where I was almost hit by a full water bottle thrown from an upper story of a housing project that came within a few feet. This happened on 1st Ave near 92d Street.
So far I haven't become a news story. LOL.
On a more positive note: "Maggie's" fashion show is now closed and it will be a full house of 250 people. Eileen Fisher sent Maggie a gift bag that includes an Eileen Fisher scarf and a $250.00 gift card that some attendee will receive in a raffle.
Whole Foods kinda cheezed out and is only providing a snack, but Pipcorn from Brooklyn stepped up and will be providing popcorn. Pipcorn is from "Shark Tank."
The smut is that Maggie kinda is working like a Navy Seal, meaning doing most of the heavy lifting alone.
Cal
The SUV was from the gas station that is next to my building, and the laundry where the incident took place is just around the corner from where I live. A cop also was almost taken out.
Last year I reported almost getting wedged by a cab. The driver thought he was in drive, but instead was in reverse. The cab backed over the nose of an illegally parked cop's car (a Camaro) and ended up perched on top of some fencing that protected a tree. I happen to be talking with a neighbor right in front of my building, and it was a close call. Me and my neighbor could have been numbers 121 and number 122 of people who got killed by being on the sidewalk at the wrong time.
Also a reminder that a cop was killed in my neiborhood last year a few blocks from where I live, and also there was a series of hate crimes against Asians one summer a few years back.
Then there was this time where I was almost hit by a full water bottle thrown from an upper story of a housing project that came within a few feet. This happened on 1st Ave near 92d Street.
So far I haven't become a news story. LOL.
On a more positive note: "Maggie's" fashion show is now closed and it will be a full house of 250 people. Eileen Fisher sent Maggie a gift bag that includes an Eileen Fisher scarf and a $250.00 gift card that some attendee will receive in a raffle.
Whole Foods kinda cheezed out and is only providing a snack, but Pipcorn from Brooklyn stepped up and will be providing popcorn. Pipcorn is from "Shark Tank."
The smut is that Maggie kinda is working like a Navy Seal, meaning doing most of the heavy lifting alone.
Cal
Range-rover
Veteran
I heard about that this morning, old habit's die hard with these guy's
maybe now they will keep him lock up and get the help he needs.
Range-rover
Veteran
Guy's I moved the Nikon repair pictures to the other thread, I don't want to bog
down this section with repair stuff.
down this section with repair stuff.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Before this news story there was another where this girl got slashed in Chelsea that was pretty recent.
Cal
Cal
dshfoto
Well-known
Cal, try the Omni-Bounce with the Nikon SB-910. No matter how good a flash, these help soften the light. http://www.stofen.com/ Also, check out Gary Fong's modifiers at https://www.garyfong.com/
I also sometimes use a plastic travel soap container which only costs a couple of bucks, and cut a hole in the back with an exacto knife, to fit it on the front of the flash. These cheap on camera light modifiers make, as you would say, mucho difference. They are so popular and cheap I often wonder why the flash mfgrs don't just include a set in the box with the flash. Guess they think it would wreck the product prestige.
Gary's examples are worth a quick look at https://www.garyfong.com/learn/camera-fill-flash-and-lightsphere-collapsible-beautiful-portraits
Steve
I also sometimes use a plastic travel soap container which only costs a couple of bucks, and cut a hole in the back with an exacto knife, to fit it on the front of the flash. These cheap on camera light modifiers make, as you would say, mucho difference. They are so popular and cheap I often wonder why the flash mfgrs don't just include a set in the box with the flash. Guess they think it would wreck the product prestige.
Gary's examples are worth a quick look at https://www.garyfong.com/learn/camera-fill-flash-and-lightsphere-collapsible-beautiful-portraits
Steve
Range-rover
Veteran
That's a big Flash Cal, there's a lot of features on that bad boy.
dshfoto
Well-known
GEAR ALERT: I just got an email that as a Travelwide backer mine is shipping on Thursday the 28. I will bring it to the next meet up!
Looks like I'll be using a SB-900 flash at this event Cal.
dshfoto
Well-known
Adorama has the Sto-Fen Omni Bounce for $9.75, for the Nikon SB 900 and SB 910 Flashes in stock. For a softer effect get one and try it at the event. http://www.adorama.com/SFOM900.html
I know that it sounds crazy to stick a $10 modifier on the front of a $500+ flash, but it does make a big difference.
Steve
Steve
I know that it sounds crazy to stick a $10 modifier on the front of a $500+ flash, but it does make a big difference.
Steve
Steve
Last edited: