Jeff D’s blog

I snapped this picture just as an afterthought this weekend with the Canon Powershot set in macro mode.  This is about a 50% crop.

Too bad Boston tailed off so badly after their first album.

Always good to bang you head, and Metallica peaked on this album. 

I just bought a pretty cheap Albinar 28mm f/2.8 macro lens for the XD-11 and gave it a test drive today. 

Unfortunately after I finished the roll I realized I had the ISO on the camera set incorrectly.  The ISO of the film was 160 and I had it set to 125.  It wasn't a disaster, but all the photos were slightly overexposed so I corrected them in Photoshop.

The depth of field is pretty shallow as well which led to some cool flower shots that almost look like paintings. 

Take a look.

Yes, I live in Massachusetts and have a neighbor with cactus planted in their front yard.  Surprisingly I think it's actually alive and survived our winter. 

I loved the contrast in this photo.

These blossoms are clearly a bit past their prime, but this was the sharpest of the pictures I took of them.  It was windy today so sometimes I just snapped and hoped the focus was good.

I took all of the flower shots with the lens wide open at f/2.8 and the effect in some is pretty cool; they almost look like paintings.

I got my first roll back from the new Hi-Matic.  I was a bit worried that a camera that old would have light leaks but that's not the case.  Apparently it was so lightly used that even that wasn't a concern. 

I took a couple of shots in the backyard:

This shot is of part of the Boston skyline.  I forgot to turn the meter on for this one so I have no idea how the camera exposed it. 

I used my favorite test subject for most of these shots, I'm sure you're all familiar with her by now.

And since Fluffy is a monochromatic cat, I desaturated and cropped one of the bed shots. 

I decided I wanted to learn some more about rangefinder cameras and was able to get a Minolta Hi-Matic 9 on eBay for about $55 including shipping.  It looks like it has barely been used and I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of pictures it takes. 

This goose is hunkered down and covering up during a big rainstorm we had a few weeks ago. You can see a few of the streaking raindrops in the photo.

Are you celebrating Cinco de Mayo?

No.  I always had the suspicion it was a manufactured holiday (like Valentine's Day) and several Mexican friends have confirmed this. 

I ran across this on Flickr and wanted to share.  LeicaR8 and his sister were cleaning up their  father's effects after he passed away and found a bunch of film negatives.  They went ahead and developed them and found that they were all taken while their dad was piloting C-47 cargo planes in Europe during WWII.  Dad had a Leica screw mount camera with a 35mm Elmar lens for most of these shots. 

Here are three of my favorites.  If you are a fan of photography, it's worth your time to check this out.

Even if you aren't a big NIN fan, it's free so why not download it. 

http://dl.nin.com/theslip/signup

From the site:

the slip is licensed under a creative commons attribution non-commercial share alike license.

we encourage you to remix it, share it with your friends, post it on your blog, play it on your podcast, give it to strangers, etc.

Since they insist....

The graphics are outstanding (and I hear the PS3 is even better.)  Best I've seen on a game since Grand Tourismo, and GT does not render humans, just cars and landscapes. 

The game immerses you completely.  At about 10:30 last night I realized I was hungry.  Then I realized it was because I hadn't eaten in more than seven hours (between work and then gameplay.)  It took that long for me to even remember. 

Online play seems to be pretty good, but people are still spending more time exploring the world and trying different weapons to really focus on team play.  I think it will get better with time. 

The game is typical GTA, you can do or kill anyone for anything.  However, the game does a great job of getting you into Niko's head.  He is a ruthless bastard, but he came to America because the thought he could get away from killing.  I save my rampaging for online play. 

I'm 17.85% done so far.