President's Day

Today had not started out as one would hope - I learned of the passing of an old friend of mine.  I met her through a combination of mutual acquaintances and photography - she was, back then, a model and actress.  We had a great time with the photography.  Then she disappeared, for 27 years.  I had never gotten some of the photos to her before she went wherever it was she had gone.  Well, I keep all my photography and had the negatives of her filed away, then did the job of scanning many of my negatives and prints to convert to digital format.  The digital revolution happened while she was gone.  As did the rise of computer internet websites, which is how she found me.  She called me and told me she had lost all her photos and wondered if I still had some.  She had gotten married 5 years earlier and wanted me to meet her husband and see me again.  She lived around 140 miles away, so one day I drove up the coast from LA to Solvang, then surprised her with a call and told her I was around 10 miles away - I love giving surprises like that.  I had a CD with all her images with me.  We spent the day together catching up on old times, and then her husband got home from work.  Well, she had definitely met and married the perfect guy.  He loved the pictures I had taken of her.  And I am so happy I was able to give the pictures to them.

Some photographers, perhaps most, only keep images for a year or two.  Barring a catastrophe, I pretty much keep them forever.  I have photos that I took over 50 years ago, LOL.  I also have family photos that were taken as far back as 1892.  And now they've been digitized and loaded on external hard drives, some of which are kept off premises for safe keeping.

I had planned today of talking about what I like to photograph, and then I got the sad news.  But very briefly, I like to photograph people when they look their very best, and I like for everyone to enjoy themselves while doing that.  Below are two photos from one of our sessions (shot about 30 years ago) - both images shot with Nikon FTn, on B & W film, natural light, one reflector (plus x film most likely - no meta-data from those days):

The image below was taken during a break, with the self timer, of me (the photographer), and Linda (the model) - as mentioned, I like everyone to have a good time (and I think she was, LOL).

Venice Beach and Dust Storms

You may wonder what one has to do with the other.  Well, the wind was howling today down at Venice Beach, and the sand blowing over the berms reminded me of the time years ago that a group of us got lost for four hours in a sandstorm (dust storm?) in Death Valley.  Visibility was about 5 feet that day.  Four vehicles were going bumper to bumper, and still we lost one of them.  We went from a dirt road to driving in some sand dunes, to a field of rocks, and after 4 hours, managed to find out way back to Stovepipe Wells - thanks to a compass in one of the vehicles.  There is a landing strip there for small aircraft - just before the storm, the wind sock as limp, but within seconds (or less) was blowing straight out.  Those storms come up rather suddenly.

The wind at the beach today felt almost as strong.  Too much sand in the air to take my camera out.

Hope you all have a great week.

Nikkor to EOS Adapter follow up

Tested the 50mm 1.4 Nikkor lens and the 75-250mm Vivitar lens, both outdoors on a cloudy day.  Both worked great.  Below is a photo from the 50mm lens, shot at f1.4 (unfortunately, because lens does not link up to camera's electrical system, the only info that is recorded is the shutter speed; f stop shows a reading of 00).  I never know if, when I reduce the original size and upload a photo if it will look as good as the original was so please keep that in mind.  If you click on the photo, you can at least see the uploaded size.  The original at full size was very sharp (on the "horse" plane) .

Because the 50mm f1.4 on a 10D to 60D and 7D Canon's becomes an 80mm with very shallow DOF at 1.4, great for portraits, and many other uses.

Plan on further testing of the lenses over the next several days.  Also ordered the very cheap version of the adapter ($14.75 at Amazon), and will see how that performs.  I read that these adapters will not work with lenses below 28mm.  May check that out to verify.

Have a great day.

Nikkor to EOS Adapter Test

Follow up to Nikkor to EOS adapter - Adapter works and fits fine, and tight. Tested with 135 f2.8 Nikkor on my old 10D (will check with 40D and other lenses next) - works great indoors with window light. However, in high contrast outdoors, get fringing, and DPP by Canon doesn't fix that for Nikkor lenses, nor did LR4.  Adapter also fits an old 70-250 f3.8 Vivitar lens that was made for the Nikon.  Both the 10D and 40D have a 1.6x crop factor, so the 135mm becomes a 216mm.  The 70 - 250mm will now be 112 - 400mm.  


The adapter was the Fotodiox for about $70.  They also have a much cheaper version for $14.95 (both from Amazon), which I think I will try for my other two lenses.  I read that don't fit as tight out of the box, but there is supposed to be an adjustment that can be made to get them to fit tight.  It is a bit of a problem getting the adapter off the lens, so don't want to keep switching the one I have.


Hope you all have a great weekend.  Tomorrow is the Super Bowl which I will not be watching, as the weather is too beautiful here in Los Angeles Venice area to stay at home - Sunny, mid 70s.

Useful Information

I'm starting a new subject of posts, which I will be calling "Did You Know?"  It may or may not have to do with photography.  I hope you will find it useful, but as Jasmine Star says, if it helps even one person....  So, for today's Did You Know I have two items of information.

Did you know that if you buy bananas in a bunch, and keep them in a bunch, they will ripen faster than if you separate them (I keep mine 2-3 inches apart from each other)?  Now they last 2 - 4 days longer than before, before they get too ripe.

Did you know that if you were an old Nikon film camera user, and you have lots of Nikkor lenses, but switched to Canon EOS cameras, you can use many, if not most of your nikkor lenses with your Canon EOS body?  You will lose some functionality, but you can buy adapters that allow you to mount your Nikkor lens to your Canon.  I just ordered one of the adapters, so will have to report on my experience with it on a later post.  How did I find out about this?  I was looking for a used Canon 7D on the internet, and found someone selling a bunch of old Nikkor lenses, and was curious how much they were, so checked that.  Then I saw he mentioned using them on Canon.  So did a Google search for Nikkor to Canon, found several adapters for sale, read positive reviews about a few of them, and now ordered one a few minutes ago ($73) on Amazon.  There was a less expensive one ($14.75) on Amazon, but mixed reviews (some had trouble with not being a tight fit, and a loose fit would affect over-all focus).  Also read to get best, most accurate results on exposure, may have to experiment with metering mode, shoot in Aperture Piority or Manual mode.  I'm still wondering if it will work with a Vivitar zoom lens with Nikon mount.

This is all for today - when I get the adapter and test it, will post images and thoughts here.

It Happened One Night

Because this is a photography blog, thought it would be a good idea to start posting pictures to my posts.  Also, perhaps the photos would give me some thoughts on what to write about that I hope you might find interesting, or funny, or cute, or something.  This is a picture of the Aero Theater marquee in Santa Monica CA, taken many years ago.

Chaplin with Hoffa - It Happened One Night - Hmmm.  I wonder what happened.  Sometimes, when you put two things next to each other, they take on a whole different meaning.  Or if you put two people, or a person and an object, next to each other that perhaps shouldn't be, you'll get unintended results, like a tree coming out of someones head.  If you watch "Headlines" on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, you'll see some good examples of this.

I wish I had taken photos of two products that had interesting labels - one was on odorless garlic, and it said, "specially processed to reduce order."  So if you want chaos, take that supplement!  The second product had two ingredients listed:  Oil of Coconut, and Coconut Oil.  Is there a difference???

I guess the point I'm making is that it is always a good idea to check things to avoid unintended consequences. 

Useful hint for the day:  if you want your bananas to last longer before getting too ripe, break apart the bunches and separate the bananas from each other by at least 3 inches.  Have a great day.

New Year Health & Photography

I was just reading a photography blog about a photographer who spent the welcoming of the New Year sick, along with her family.  Also on her site, she showed all the cupcakes and candy they were having for the holidays.  Hmmm.  I used to eat things like that when I was growing up, and I got sick 4 or more times a year, every year.  I'm sure everyone has heard the saying, "You are what you eat."  Well, I got sick of being sick, and started researching health and talking with healthy people.  And changed my diet.  And kept taking it to the next step.  And now, many years later, get sick once every 3-5 years.  During this time, I owned my own health food/vitamin store and stopped doing photography.  I have now returned to photography and will be specializing in weddings starting in 2012.  And to make sure I do the best job possible, I want to make sure I stay healthy - by eating well (no refined sugars, no artificial sweeteners, colors, or anything else artificial.  Also take the proper supplements, exercise, etc.  I hope anyone who reads this will follow this lead.

One of my favorite quotes:  "He who has health, has hope; and who has hope, has everything."

A photography professor told us in class, eliminate as many variables as you can to get the best results.  This applies to health as well as photography.  He also said that whatever you do, take it one step farther.  And again, this applies to, well, life in general.

If anyone who stops by here has any questions about photography or health, diet, supplements, please feel free to ask - I will do my best to answer.

I know this is a photography blog, primarily, so will start posting more photos in future posts.