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Wednesday, 07 June 2017

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View From Above ... Two summers ago I climbed to the top of the Little Point Sable Lighthouse on Lake Michigan to find a photograph or two. One that I was pleased with showed the view looking almost directly down at the scene on the ground. A few weeks later I showed it, without introduction, to a friend who said, "Oh, you bought a drone."

I'm with Ashley. Unless Emily Ratajkowski wants to look like Kim Kardashian, she shouldn't turn her back on wide angle lenses.

Ken;
Is that water being blown to create waves on the tennis court photo? The Windy City?

Re the Marie Cosindas post: Holy smoke - what gorgeous work! Not exactly my thing photographically, but well worth a few minutes time to browse online. The NYT obit also terrific.

Good reminder of two things: 1. Tack-sharp focus isn't everything; and 2. If you want to create beautiful photographs, it's the light, the light, the light!

Thanks, Mike, for the introduction. (More like this, please!)

Cheers,
Dan

Funny, Marie Cosindas was a walk-on visitor to the '81 Adams' Workshop at Yosemite and she carried an ancient (by then) Nikon rangefinder.

Yo Mike,

If you're still into Panasonic, can live without the tilting eye-level viewfinder, and want a body that definitely works well with Dual I.S., then you should check out the LUMIX G85. (No, not the GX85, the G85. I'm not the one who thought up their numbering scheme.)

Really liked Ken Tanaka's "From Here," with the exception of one shot -- and even that shot is pretty interesting. His photo of the surrounding skyscrapers, partly in focus and partly out of focus, creates havoc with my eyesight. I wear progressive lenses, and I kept trying to get the out-of-focus parts in focus by moving my eyes and head, and I couldn't stop doing it. I eventually had to move on to other photos because I could feel that I was developing eyestrain, just from a few minutes of looking at it.

Recently moved to Chicago’s Near North Side area, having spent time in NYC, Tokyo, Bangkok, DC, Boston, Omaha, and other joints. My last residence was Asheville, NC, followed by a short stint in nearby Madison, WI.

Asheville gets the nod for beer, hipsters, and mountains, but sadly, I’m too old for hipster stuff (except for my rangefinder and B&W film); I stopped drinking before I was of legal age; and I need concrete and people (despite my introverted and misanthropic tendencies). I was one of the few NYC residents who thought Central Park a tepid obstruction.

In Asheville, completing a roll of film would, on average, take about three weeks, with my last roll there taking two months! In Chicago, I’m currently going through about three rolls a week, if not quicker. This will likely slow after the inaugural photo-everything-new period, but as an urban or street photographer (that ugly term), it’s definitely inspirational to be back in a major city, which is certainly my muse.

Tokyo will always be my favorite city, but I’m hoping to settle in Chicago for the long haul. NYC is absurdly expensive, with much of its grit long since lost to either plutocratic encroachment or excessive mainstreaming. I do miss the pizza though.

Mike: Thanks for the heads-up on Marie Cosindas. I know little of her work but plan to change that.

Brad: I assume you're referring to
this image of a tennis court? If so, actually, no. There was no wind involved. Overnight rains left a thin wet sheen that, for just a few moments, reflected the sunrise sky to produce that wild effect.

RE: A new definition of 'nonchalant'

These types of photos show up on a regular basis. Here's one from last year: Tornado and Prom.

m43 "standard" zooms, i.e. in the 12-100 range. One of the posters to the DPR m43 forum invested some serious slice of his life to bringing together test scores. Interesting results. I have seen stellar tests of the Panasonic 14-42 II; seems the Panasonic f3.5-5.6 12-60 is only a touch behind it, and not that far behind the PL f2.8-4 12-60. Certainly, DPR m43 forum posters think well of the "kit" option. https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/59618399

A terrific grab-bag of a post today, Mike. Marie Cosindas - lovely. Not my style of pic, but lovely. The tornado pic? Great fun -- and an illustration of something only photography can do and which it can do without artifice. Fabulous Chicago pic (and I generally have reservations about pix from tall buildings).

But the best thing was the link to the Instragram discussion. Never looked at Instagram and suspect I never will. What a load of stupid! I sat here gobsmacked. People think they are living trawling through pix like that and clicking on likes? Good grief.

Cheers, Geoff

And never forgetting the ROFLs that will be available as the notion of a mirrorless FF Canon percolates through the diehard DSLR brigade.

Try a shot or two with the Panasonic G85/80 with the new electronic first curtain shutter. So quiet, so refined. SO RIGHT!!!

Cheers, Geoff

geez Mike, you cropped out the part that makes the picture

Pretty much the art school definition of the sublime.

[I didn't even know! This happened once before, with Nick Ut's picture of Paris Hilton. We kept discovering wider and wider versions, and each time I said it was the full picture. Is this one the entire picture? I hope so! :-)

Thanks Hugh. Fixed now, and I added your name to the hat tip list. --Mike]

At which point was she going to tell her husband about the tornado?
- She already had (but the lawn had to be mowed "gee this lawnmower needs servicing...")
- After the first photo...
- After the last photo (the scene can always get more dramatic)...
- After posting it on-line...
- After the tornado had finished...

Mike,

Thank you for the tip on Ken Tanaka's high rise work. I really loved looking at it and look forward to seeing more. A agree that he should do a book of these photos! In addition to being an excellent photographer, I want mention that he is also a kind and considerate person. About five years ago he wrote a review on TOP of the Fuji X-10 which I was a step or two away from buying. As somewhat of digital newbie at the time (after many years of film) I emailed him with a question and he responded with the same day with a very detailed and helpful answer.

Rene

He had to finish the lawn before the rain hit and the grass got wet. No one wants to mow wet grass. ...Don't they say that if you see the funnel cloud moving, it's going away from you? Thankfully I've never seen a tornado in real life.

Into this diverse set of topics, I will add a diverse comment.

I am proud to say that Ms. Cosindas autographed my copy of her book after we met at a dinner party in Boston a decade ago. Dr. Land of Polaroid was basically her patron, and she probably produced the best POlaroid work ever.

I received my Pen-F just about a week ago and find it's "retro" design to be quite ergometric as well as visually pleasing. No complaints on the photos either. I bought iy only after the diacounts started and Adorama ( by way of the TOP link) offered the 14-42 EZ lens at half price - too good to pass up. Like the tiny pancake folding zoom Panasonic you commented on, it's a beaut. Tiny, capable and cheap.

And for the post on getting out and taking photos, I am about to make a big change in scenery. After almost 15 years of living on a rural, mountainous farm in CA, we're headedback to the city, Santa Monica in htis case, 10 blocks from the beach. I sold my Panasonic 100-300 "critter cam" lens and will use the 12-42 for street photos. I am unlikely to see hawks and roadrunners in SM, but we still have hummingbirds and lots of street action.

Sometimes change is stimulating!

Well, those low end Canons still don't can't won't offer the thing they really need: a viewfinder!

Cosindas book: lovely. Bought it on sale for about 20 bucks at the ICP, about 10 years ago.

Hi Ken! Congrats! On a different note, apologizing in advance for the "pressure", would absolutely love to hear about the Fujifilm GFX 50S. Hope your review is not delayed for much longer. Cheers!

Does anybody know the name of the creator of the sculpture in the picture "Marie Cosindas with John Szarkowski
at George Eastman House" featured above?

Oh, and I was so distracted this morning that I forgot to mention that Ken's photos are quite impressive. That's a Chicago I have never seen, nor even imagined. Sorta makes me wanna go there and visit high places as well as see more of his photos.

And the distraction. I tried to find Sentaku magazine, but my local bookstore does not carry it. I do know of others who know of the magazine, but none so far who actually read it, so I could not find out any details of the Fujifilm "bailing out" Nikon story.

As I mentioned this morning, I could find no news reports on Japan Google News about it (still can't), and none on US Google News, except for those apparently sourcing the rumor site. Perhaps I could find no news about it, because even if what is being rumored is accurate, it is not really news.

I would say it could be possible that the Japanese government is trying to get Fuji and perhaps others to buy Nikon stock in coordination with UFJ to protect it from takeover. Back in the day, cross-shareholding was common among large corporations in the same "keiretsu" (large conglomerations.) It was done in part to protect the individual companies. Though the keiretsu has lost power and influence since the 80s, cross shareholding between companies still exists to some degree.

Just before the 2011 earthquake, I was told by a fellow in a very old, large, and well-known corporation who was in a position to know exactly what he was talking about, of the company's efforts to protect itself from hostile takeovers from foreigners. It was increasing cross shares and considering a "poison pill." He told me that he was certain that "No Japanese shareholder would sell the shares to an outsider no matter how good the offer."

That company is still operating despite very, very severe competition. In spite of the fact that other companies hold shares in it, it still runs its own operations its own way. Nothing changed in the management due to these sale or influence/pressure from the purchasing companies as far as I have heard or can tell.

Since we are just guessing based on a partial sentence posted online and a statement on the rumor site that it was being considered to keep Nikon out of foreign hands, I'd say it wouldn't be such a shockingly unusual thing and would not read too much into it without a lot more detailed information.

Nice to be reminded of the work of Marie Cosindas. Her pictures are quiet and assured, a real pleasure to revisit.
In a pixel peeping, HDR, oversharpened world they are simply wonderful.

I haven't been happy with the reliability of Panasonic lately. I love my GX-7, but the EVF developed an issue after 2 1/2 years. I figured that was a one-off, so I replaced it with a G85, which started having a shutter problem after 3 months. Panasonic has repaired the G85, but it took two months, not in time for the big trip that I bought it for. I realize that's a sample of two out of the millions of cameras that Panasonic has sold, but I'm still miffed.

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