Photography and Blog.
{ Monthly Archives }
I decided to post a few more.
The original Starbucks Coffee, Tea, and Spice Market. Est 1971.
Street Musicians near Pike Place Market.
Ryan poses for the paparazzi.
Mmmmm… spicy. Looks like that place on Olvera St. I posted several weeks ago.
This legendary district in the Emerald City is essentially a giant eclectic mall and farmer’s market, weaving through hilly streets, a five-story warehouse-like maze of a building, and the waterfront. With fresh seafood and produce, a flower market, the fish throwers, a brewery, music shops, coffee shops, and hundreds of boutiques, it quite easy to spend the better part of several days here.
Pentax ME Super with 50mm prime f/2.0
Kodak MAX Versatility 400 speed film.
The more famous entrance to Pike Place Market.
Inside, a bustle of people among the street level markets.
The view from the many balconies and decks is superb.
Tea rooms like the one above, as well as the Seattle staple, the coffee shop, abound.
Fresh fish! We catch ‘em you buy ‘em!
A view of the pier near Ivar’s Fish Bar, which has by far the best fish and chips I’ve ever had. And a full stock of the ultra-hoppy northwestern microbrews that dominate the whole region’s beer production.
Located in the “U-District” surrounding the University of Washington, University Avenue, or simply, “The Ave” is an excellent college town block of shops, ethnic food, and cheap pints. Key highlights include a Thai restaurant approximately every 200 ft (much like the rest of Seattle), eclectic coffee lounges, and a bizarre-looking mix of people. The factors that bore the Grunge movement are evident.
All of these taken with my new Pentax ME Super film SLR camera. The film type varies; they are mostly Kodak Ultra Max 400 and Fujicolor Superia 400. One roll was Kodak Professional Ultra Color.
A tea parlor on the Ave.
A rather loud crowd consisting of a rather dirty musician and what appear to be his rather oily groupies. The students refer to the many such people who frequent the Ave as “Ave Rats.”
Sunset in the U-District.
A delicious smelling bakery. Good thing they didn’t charge for sniffing.
At long last, photos from the airshow almost a month ago. I hope they don’t disappoint. March 31st, Naval Air Weapons Station, Point Mugu California.
Mist rolls off the Pacific as a crowd mills around a B-52, the mainstay of American bombing power for over half a century.
Reflections on a century dominated by American air superiority.
The USAF’s new F-22 Raptor represents the very cutting edge in fighter technology. Enemies won’t even realize it’s there before they’re dead. Note the afterburner trail and impressive separation highlights from the moisture.
The F-22 pulls a high-G maneuver and sheds vapor-saturated flow.
F-15 Eagle, low and roaring.
The Air Force Heritage Flight. A WWII-era P-51 Mustang flanked by the late cold war era F-15 Eagle and the 21st century F-22 Raptor. A Vietnam-vintage F-4 Phantom on the back of that diamond would have closed that formation nicely.
The Air Force Thunderbirds buzz the crowd in formation.
I know, I know. No photos in awhile. Sorry. I’ve been doing a lot of overtime trying to get stuff together for a technical review at Langley this upcoming week, and of course everyone wants everything yesterday. So, long story short, there really hasn’t been much time for photography the last two weeks. I’m about halfway done post-processing the airshow pictures, and everything else I have mentioned hasn’t even been touched. Oof.
I’ll be in Seattle this week on training, but in the evenings I plan on working some photos, so hopefully there will be some by the end of the week.
Claudia has borrowed my 18-55mm for Hawaii, so I do not have a short lens for my XTi, but the good news is that I recently acquired a Pentax ME Super with a 50mm prime f/2.0 from my dad. Circa 1979 and shoots film. It’s incredibly lightweight and fairly simple to operate, though I’m going to be guessing at exposure a lot… that’s my weak point so maybe this is a good thing for my learning process. Outstanding reviews for this thing, especially for street photography. Seattle, here I come with my first film camera!
My monitor has been calibrated such that what I see on the screen is pretty close to what comes out on a print. However, as monitor settings vary considerably, you may not be seeing what I’m seeing.
Be sure to calibrate your monitor’s brightness and contrast by using the scale near the bottom of this page. Otherwise images may appear too dark or too light. Adjust your brightness and contrast so that you can make out the difference between the first three and the last three squares on the greyscale. This usually involves cranking your contrast up nearly all the way and adjusting the brightness to about 2/3, but this can vary.
Color calibration is more complicated, and generally requires special devices, but these settings are less likely to be significantly off than your brightness and contrast. However, just keep in mind that what you are seeing isn’t necessarily how a print would look unless your monitor has bee calibrated using a hardware tool.
At the insistence of one of my roommates, Liz, the whole house packed up and headed for the beach a couple weekends ago. Unfortunately, we forgot that although the Antelope Valley is sunny 350 days out of the year, the rest of the world isn’t necessarily the same. By the time we hit Ventura it was cloudy and slightly drizzling. The temperature was not cold however, and deciding that we hadn’t come all that way for nothing, we took a walk on San Buenaventura beach. It ended up being very relaxing, and of course I took the camera along. Here are some shots from that day.
A sand dollar on some seaweed. 1/250 ~ f/5.6 ~ 400 ~ 55mm
A beach vista on a cloudy day. 1/1000 ~ f/10 ~ 400 ~ 55mm
The lovebirds on a stroll. 1/640 ~ f/10 ~ 400 ~ 55mm
Crab! 1/60 ~ f/5.6 ~ 400 ~ 200mm
Sandpiper 1. 1/1600 ~ f/6.3 ~ 400 ~ 220mm
Sandpiper 2. 1/1600 ~ f/6.3 ~ 400 ~ 200mm
On the list to buy as funds permit:
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens: the wide f-stop provides a narrow depth of field and nice bokeh that is reportedly excellent for portraiture, and this combined with the small size and light weight makes it a positively reviewed lens for street photography. It is close to the 50mm f/1.2L USM, except that its about 1/4 the price of the luxury series… and do I really need that extra 0.2 f-stop? Granted, the L-series lenses seem to have a lot of plusses over the normal EF and EF-S lenses (e.g. build quality, glass quality, etc), but I really can’t afford it and probably wouldn’t notice the image difference at this stage anyway.
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro lens: for all the fun macro stuff, this seems to be a medium price, good quality pick.
Canon Rebel K2 film SLR camera body: At $134 new and about $40 on Ebay, this is almost too good to pass up. Though digital will probably remain primary, this could become an interesting side adventure. Currently the high bidder! The best part… it fits all my XTi lenses, as they both have the EF mount.
Anyone know anything about these items?
I’m currently working on the SB beach pics, and probably next is CA-128, Bouquet Canyon Road, and the NASPM airshow (F-22!). It’s a busy time, so the going is slow unfortunately.
