Updates 1, 2, 3, 4...

A few updates on recent posts.

• In this post I mentioned that I'd ordered a print of a Francis Wolff picture of Sonny Clark from Mosaic, before the price rise. It arrived, and it's nice enough—clean, well made, on nice paper. Admittedly I have high standards, especially when it comes to black and white, but the print itself doesn't quite reach them. Too light. That means the shadow areas are nicely open, but the highlights (the keyboard, and Sonny's hand) lack detail. Although doubtless made from a scanned neg, it resembles a digital black and white print in the highlights a little too much....

Still haven't decided if I'll hang it on the wall or not.

• I did indeed receive this Canon book from B&H Photo, which I talked about in this post. It's not only still available, it's a much better book now, in its current edition, than it was when it was first published. A fine advertorial effort, sumptuously produced. I really do think it would be of interest to more than just Canon owners, although Canon owners should take advantage of one of the big advantages of being Canon owners and get it. (There's nothing like it for poor Pentax or Olympus E shooters, for example, and no, the Sony Zeiss PDF (Warning: link is a .pdf download) falls way too far on the brochure side of the brochure/book divide to qualify.) If you're not already a Canon owner, though, I have to warn you, the siren song of books like this can sometimes get you hankering to switch systems. I swear I became an Olympus shooter in '94 as a result of repeatedly drooling like a gearhead zombie over The OM System Lens Handbook, which, at the time, I perused front to back, back to front, upside down, and inside out.

• I heard from Mike Ferron, who had offered to design a new layout for my problematic kitchen. He's been inundated with real work, a.k.a. his job, and hasn't gotten around to it yet. He still says he will, and I'll still pass his thoughts on the subject along to you when I get them. (Still amazed at the response to that post.)

• Remember Nick Jbara, who photographed the Melody Gardot album cover? I wrote in this post about how he was mis-credited on the album cover as "Nick Jhara," an error we originally perpetuated. Well, apparently fed up with mix-ups like that, Nick has now changed his name—"permanently and legally"—to Nicholas LaClair. LaClair was his grandmother's maiden name, and he'd been planning the switch for a while.

Nick also writes, "I have to stop here and thank you again for posting what you did. It's by far the biggest thing out there for me (as one of your commenters wrote to tell me, I couldn't afford the advertising you've given me with that post). I'm still honored—just honored under a different name."

• Friend-of-the-site Mike Chisholm writes, "I'm having an 80-image one-man exhibition in the Fotoforum West gallery in Innsbruck, Austria—largely, I suspect (not least because of the TOP-derived quotes that Rupert Larl, the gallery director, has chosen to use on the invitations), because of my exposure on TOP's Random Excellence slot [here]. How about that?"

Pretty cool, is how about that! For those of you proximate to Austria, the gallery is at Adolf-Pichler-Platz 8, Innsbruck, and the show will run from September 11th to October 10th. Congratulations, Mike.

• Finally, also pursuant to one of the kitchen posts, my Jim Lager Leica book set drew a lot of interest, and it sold to a reader from Cambridge, Mass. I just hope I don't miss it too much. However, nobody wanted my poor hurt Schneider Super-Symmar-HM 120mm, so it's been relegated to the 'Bay, sorry to say. Lovely lens, though.

Mike

Send this post to a friend

Comments

[Mark Muse]

You wouldn't happen to have a Rodenstock 100mm Sironar S you need to separate from would you?

[Ken N]

Some of us are longtime Olympus OM users with extensive collections of cameras and lenses and STILL drool like gearhead zombies every time we pick of that stinkin' "The OM System Lens Handbook".

It's a disease which I've never been cured of.

"Must buy F2 lenses... Must buy F2 lenses..."

[marcus]

OT, Mike can I ask why you always qualify direct links to a pdf with a warning?
Is there something dangerous about pdfs that I'm not aware of?

[Mike Johnston]

"Must buy F2 lenses... Must buy F2 lenses..."

You got that right. 24/2, superb, 100/2, outstanding, 50/2 macro, outrageous....

I even liked the older 85/2 and 28/2. Not the in super-duper category like the aforementioned three but still characterful and very nice in their own way.

Mike

[Mike Johnston]

Sorry, Mark, no Sironar-S's lying around. Now those are some good lenses....

Mike

[Mike Johnston]

"Mike can I ask why you always qualify direct links to a pdf with a warning?"

Marcus,
It just annoys me when I come across one "blind," so to speak, so I always alert people that that's what they are. Maybe "warning" is too strong a word, though...I think I'll use the word "Alert" in the future.

Mike

[Jim Allen]

Hi Mike,
Thanks to your frequent reminders (and my willingness to spend too much money) I just bought a 5D MKII through the B&H Photo link on your site. Hope it helps you hit your September numbers, I used the Amazon link just before August closed out, so I'm trying to do my part... after that last one, it'll be a while before I can buy anything else. Like food. I hear fasting heightens the senses, so maybe it'll make me a better shooter for a while. :) I'm a hopeless photo gearhead.
Take care,
Jim A.

[Alexander Vesey]

_The Olympus OM Way_ was another good read for gear affectionatos. I still have it on the shelf-- a bit outdated, but it always rekindles my "first love" for my OM-1. (I still use that, too.)

Alex

[Tom Legrady]

slowhome.com is a blog dealing with architecture and renovations. perhaps you can convince them to discuss your kitchen, and then the readers will provide a handful of suggestions on how to put things right.

[marcus]

Thanks Mike, I thought maybe there was a security issue with pdf's that I wasn't aware of. I do recognise that it can be irksome to click on a link and find that it's a large pdf !