2nd Exposure

A New Blog Format for 2nd Exposure: Last Post on Blogger..

2011-04-25T23:52:00.008-04:00

2nd Exposure is moving to a more feature-filled, WordPress-based blog!

The new web address is SteveRosenbach.com/blog.

Also, please visit my new website with galleries and photo store at SteveRosenbach.com.

Flatiron Detail

2011-03-29T22:25:00.002-04:00

Another of my favorite buildings, the 1902 Flatiron Building (Fuller Building.)

Built to take advantage of the triangular lot formed by Fifth Avenue, Broadway, and East 22nd Street, H.G. Wells proclaimed when he first saw it:

"I found myself agape, admiring a sky-scraper the prow of the Flat-iron Building, to be particular, ploughing up through the traffic of Broadway and Fifth Avenue in the afternoon light."

Please see a schedule of some of my photo tours of NYC for Washington Photo Safari here.

Chrysler Building Details

2011-03-25T20:27:00.001-04:00

The Chrysler Building at Lexington and 42nd St is the iconic Art Deco skyscraper, and my own favorite. This view shows off the stainless steel "gargoyles" at the 31st floor level. They're modeled after the radiator cap of the 1929 Chrysler. You can also see the mosaic cars that race all around the 31st floor.

The Chrysler Building is one of the many great photo-worthy sites we'll visit during my Photo Safari to NYC next Saturday, April 2, 2011. Photo instruction, including composition and how to get the most out of your camera is all included!

Register here

NYC Artist Makes It Big

2011-03-16T07:11:00.003-04:00

Talk about making it big!

I was walking to the Lexington Avenue subway station on E. 23rd Street when I looked up and saw this giant work-in-progress. There were actually four men working on this - two each on two platforms.

I had my Tamron "super-zoom" 18-270mm lens on my camera. I racked it to full-out telephoto and started to watch the painters. The 270mm position was just enough to show a small but detailed figure against a large section of the painting.

From a superb workshop I took with Karen Schulman, I knew that in an image like this, gesture is important to keep the photo from looking too static. "Gesture," in that context, could mean a lean of the body, an arm or leg extended, in other words, just about anything that departs from "just standing there."

For this situation, I figured that "gesture" would be in the form of reaching out with the paintbrush. It took about 20 minutes, but sure enough, I got a few shots of two of the guys in a good lean-and-stretch. This one is the one I liked best, as he's putting his whole body into it.

In case you're curious, the... er... I don't know what to call the painting-on-the-side-of-a-building... is for a remake of the 1981 film, Arthur.

Man With A Mission...

2011-03-14T03:23:00.002-04:00

... as he walks by this blue wall in Manhattan's Flower District on W. 28th Street early Saturday morning.

Join me on my next Photo Safari to Midtown Manhattan on April 2, 2011 at 1PM.

New Yorker Hotel

2011-02-20T10:11:00.002-05:00

Opened in 1930, the New Yorker is a classic example of the Art Deco style, with its setbacks and bands of friezes.

Bad times in the Big Apple led to the hotel closing in 1972, but it was resurrected and renovated in the '90s, restoring a touch of class to the Garment District.

DUMBO

2011-02-18T23:04:00.001-05:00

A view of the Manhattan Bridge from Washington Street in Brooklyn.

The up-and-coming neighborhood is now called "DUMBO", for Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass.

Brooklyn Tower

2011-02-18T17:55:00.003-05:00

Here's the Brooklyn-side (eastern) tower of the Brooklyn Bridge. looking up through the spider web of cables and stays designed and built over 100 years ago.

Woman on Steps

2011-02-18T10:53:00.000-05:00

This is part of the monumental facade of the main NYC post office, zip code 10001.

On the entablature resting atop the Corinthian colonnade is the famous inscription, "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."

האָוואַרד לייענת ייִדיש

2011-02-11T13:49:00.003-05:00

A portrait of my friend and distinguished colleague, Howard.

Among other things, he's distinguished because when he joined our little team at the University, he was issued an ID card that says "Faculty," instead of "Staff," as it was supposed to be. So since then, I've referred to him as "Professor."

One day last December, as Howard and I arrived at our Light Rail destination in the morning, we got an alert from work that our building had lost power, and that they didn't expect it to be restord until late afternoon... so they were telling everyone to go home for the day. Howard and I decided to stay on the Light Rail and ride it to the northern end of the line - a nice 45 minute journey northward.

One the way back, I remembered that I had with me a copy of the "Forwarts" ("Forward",) a Yiddish newspaper I had brought back from New York some months earlier. I bought it strictly for photographic purposes - I thought it would be humorous to take pictures of people who you wouldn't expect to be reading a Yiddish publication - and Howard fit the bill. I still have to arrange to take a picture of it with one of my Asian friends.

For a while, we had this photo posted in our office between our desks as a way of showing how learned Professor Howard really was!

In case you were wondering, the title of this post is, "Howard laynt Yeedish", which simply means "Howard reads Yiddish."

Barns & Nobel Shadows

2010-11-11T22:17:00.001-05:00

I headed crosstown the other day on a mission to Barnes & Nobel. The day was brilliant, and the sun was just about overhead - not normally a great time for photos.

But when I saw the pattern of shadows on the stairs, I thought it might make a good background for some people in an HCB-like setting. I took several as people came and went - this is my favorite of the bunch.

Taken with a Canon S90 digicam and converted to B&W via Channel Mixer in Photoshop.

Nature Always Wins

2010-10-28T20:16:00.000-04:00

Pirate Patina

2010-09-04T13:09:00.000-04:00

A gold-painted "pirate?" crosses the street in front of Faneuil Hall in Boston after a long, hot day's work.

These street performers paint themselves (and their costumes) and stand completely still - living statues. In NYC, you'll see a lot of Statues of Liberty, for example. In Boston, they tend to be colonial-era and 19th century.

Myself, I find them a bit creepy, but to each his own.

Community Boating

2010-08-08T01:53:00.001-04:00

Community Boating is a non-profit organization that makes sailboats, kayaks, and windsurfers available to the public at low cost. Their boathouse in on the Charles River just upstream from the Boston end of Longfellow Bridge.

Otakon 2010

2010-07-30T16:02:00.000-04:00

It's that time of year again in Baltimore, when waves of young people arrive at the Convention Center in amazing costumes for Otakon

I brought my Big Gun camera with me today so that I could try for some interesting shots during lunch. Here's my best one - a lucky grab shot that seems as if it were perfectly composed!

This one is almost straight out of the camera with just a tiny bit of fill light in Picassa. It looks pretty good in B&W as well, but I'll wait til I get home and use Channel Mixer in Photoshop to do it right.

Abu The Flutemaker

2010-07-27T21:55:00.002-04:00

Here's my new friend Abu, playing a saxophone-like contraption that he makes out of plastic pipe and fittings. Now here's what I find amazing - it sounds pretty good - at least when he plays it.

Abu is a street entertainer, licensed by the city of Baltimore. Besides his music, he has a bright and happy personality. While we were with him, he gave me and another admirer each a straw, then proceeded to teach us how to "play" it, including showing us several ways to get various sounds out of it.

Abu entertains at the nearby Medical Center Plaza each Tuesday; I'll try to catch him for some more photos in the coming weeks.

Wachovia Building

2010-07-25T00:01:00.000-04:00

Amberg: Schiffgaße

2010-07-24T12:14:00.002-04:00

On Jan 28, 1950, I was born in Amberg, a small, 1000-year old town in Bavaria. It was in the American-occupied zone of Germany, and Displaced Persons, my family included, were housed in the old German Army barracks outside the town wall.

On Jan 28, 1978, I visited Amberg while on a business trip to Germany for GE. Somehow, there was a mixup, and the band and welcoming committee were not on the train platform to greet me.

I did get a few photos, though. This one is looking North on Schiffgaße along the Vils River, with Basilika St. Martin in the background.

Concrete Swoop

2010-07-21T22:29:00.003-04:00

A portion of the West facade of the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building, home of United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in Washington, DC.

Fous du Volant

2010-07-18T22:51:00.003-04:00

No special reason to give this one a French title except to hook Dave into taking a peek.

Sorry, Dave, that was a cheap trick! ;-)

It was a slow nightat the racing booth of the annual Earliegh Heights VFC Carnival, and the Carny is waiting for a mark.

My First Camera

2010-07-17T23:32:00.002-04:00

Sounds like something from Playskool! But it was actually my Dad's Kodak Retina I, a little Stuttgart-made 35mm folder with a decent Schneider lens.

Along with a 1948 GE light meter, a gift from my friend Roger Wesalo, I was in business. With a camera as basic as this one, I had to learn all the basics. I even had to get good at estimating distances (in meters) because there was no rangefinder - just scale focusing. So that lead me quickly to understand depth-of-field.

My college friend Ed Hollingshead took this in NYC in Central Park sometime in the fall of 1967, our freshman year at Stevens Tech in Hoboken. I used to poke fun of Ed because of his left-handed, East German Exacta SLR. Little did I realize then that years later, I'd be a collector of Commie Cameras!

The Zipper!

2010-07-16T18:12:00.002-04:00

Midsummer in upper Anne Arundel County means the Earleigh Heights VFC Carnival. I haven't strolled through while it was operating for six years, so I decided to take my camera one night this week.

Shooting these rides seems really hard, at least for me. I did manage to get three or four decent photos, and I'll post the others over the next few days.

Perdu en Sixième

2010-07-15T17:40:00.002-04:00

Another archeological find, this one from a 1978 two-day visit to Paris, sandwiched in between business meetings elsewhere in Europe.

This is somewhere in the 6th Arrondissement on the Left Bank.

Dave Beckerman has recently posted a number of his great photos from Paris in the early '90s. That's what made me think about looking for this one.

Treyf* Alert!

2010-07-12T21:27:00.002-04:00

I drove to Crofton the other day to deliver photos I took for a bat-mitzvah a few weeks ago. On the way back, I spotted this little ornament hanging near the entrance to Fat Boy's Crab Shack. The colors and shape helped me overcome my genetic disinclination to come within 20 meters of anyplace crabs are served.

* treyf = Yiddish for food that is not in accordance with Jewish dietary law, derived from the Hebrew terefah (טְרֵפָה‎)

Me and My Koni

2010-07-11T14:13:00.002-04:00

Actually, I'm just posing with a Koni-Omega Rapid M camera that we had on the shelf at Stansbury Photo. I'd say this is in 1970.

I don't remember ever using the Koni, but it was a favorite of wedding and event photographers in the 60's and early 70's. It used 120 or 220 roll film, for 10 or 20 2-1/4" x 2-3/4" negatives per roll. It was very robust, built like a tank, and in a pinch, you could swing it to use as a formidable weapon. Besides all that, it had excellent, interchangeable lenses available. To top it off, each lens has its own leaf shutter, like the Hasselblad 500, which means flash synch up to 1/500 sec. For event photography, it was much cheaper than the Hasselblad and far easier to use.

I found this historic photo today while going through hundreds of old family photos, in an effort to organize them.

30 Rock Twilight

2010-07-10T23:16:00.000-04:00

Raymond Hood's design still looks fresh even after almost 80 years.

I've found the trick for this kind of photograph is to start taking pictures just after sunset and keep going for a while, before the sky turns black. The contrast between the sky and the illuminated buildings is lower and easier to handle. Besides, the deep blue usually looks more dramatic than black.

Deck Chairs - July 4th Morning on the Magothy

2010-07-04T18:21:00.003-04:00

Unfinished words
flying like birds

high in the sky

above my deck chair

2010-07-02T19:54:00.001-04:00

Whenever I visit NYC, I can't be within 10 blocks of Grand Central without walking inside and then heading out the front entrance to admire the facade.

In this case, I was heading back uptown from visiting old friends in the East 30's. Shot at 11pm just after it stopped raining.

Helios

2010-06-30T21:39:00.002-04:00

The stern of Helios, a sailboat docked in Eastport, makes for lovely reflections early on a sunny morning.

Father & Son on the High Line

2010-06-27T14:30:00.004-04:00

The High Line is Manhattan's newest park, built on a section of the former elevated freight railroad along the lower west side of Manhattan.

When I was there in mid-April, I saw lots of families out for a Sunday stroll. The design of the park is very innovative, including what looked to me like oversize chaise lounges on flanged wheels set on areas of renovated track.

There are great views of New Jersey, just across the Hudson River, as well as the many buildings that border the High Line.

As of now, the High Line runs through the old Meatpacking District, from Gansevoort Street to about 23rd Street. Eventually, it will continue through Chelsea and terminate at West Side Yard in the lower 30's.

Central Park Lamppost

2010-06-26T00:09:00.002-04:00

You can find these lampposts throughout Central Park. Not only are they attractive, they can help you figure out approximately where you are. Look for a small metal tag near the base with four numbers, for example "7624". The first two numbers signify the street (in this case 76th) that is directly outside the park to the east or west of your position. The second two numbers seem to be arbitrary, but are unique to each lamppost along that east-west axis.

If you ever find yourself in an emergency in the park, you can call the police and give them the 4-digit number of the nearest lamppost; they'll know within a few dozen feet where you are.

The blossoms just beyond the lamppost in this photo are cherry trees in full bloom in mid-April. I used Channel Mixer in Photoshop CS3 with the red filter preset to convert the image to black-and-white and bring out the blossoms.

Checking The Ride

2010-06-25T18:07:00.002-04:00

A mechanic carefully checks a ride on the morning of opening day.

I took this one at Moreys Piers Amusement Park in Wildwood, NJ early this past April.

Me I'm Just A Lucky Guy...

2010-06-21T23:53:00.002-04:00

Our daughter Leah, son Ben, and soon-to-be-daughter-in-law Megan (aka "Number 3") with our niece Olivia.

Beatles fans will recognize the title as a line from the middle eight of Things We Said Today.

Taken with bounce flash in Mom's dining room against an off-white wall.

Harry's Corner

2010-06-17T22:57:00.003-04:00

Early morning in April, on the boardwalk at Wildwood, NJ.

Goodrich River Delta

2010-06-14T21:39:00.005-04:00

On a trip to Cape May back in April, I did a double-take as I passed through Elmer, NJ. Doubling back a few hundred yards later, I stopped in front of Fred Harz & Son, a full-service tire dealer.

Mr. Harz and progeny must have known a crazy photographer would be passing through that Saturday, as they had a neat stack of imposing, giant tires, treads nicely whitewashed, in front of their place. The old black tires, whitewashed stripes, and strong midday sun cried out for some photo-fun. I got several good views of parts of the stack, all with my pocket-sized Canon S90, and I'll put up some of the others over the next few blog posts.

Meanwhile, here's my favorite. The zigzagging channels reminded me of a river delta, hence the title of this post.

For those who are wondering, here's the "civilian" view of what I was shooting at.

Potbelly Chair Shadow

2010-06-08T19:54:00.002-04:00

Walking eastward on Pratt Street after work today... the sun was just right to cast fabulous shadows from these wrought-iron chairs outside the Potbelly Sandwich Shop.

Solomons Sunset

2010-06-05T16:02:00.003-04:00

Nope, I'm not missing an apostrophe in the title - this is sunset over the Patuxent River as seen from Solomons, MD.

Solomons is at the very southern tip of Calvert County in Southern Maryland, at the mouth of the Patuxent River. Just a short distance East is the Chesapeake Bay.

In the background of this photo is the locally infamous Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge. Built in 1977, by 1988 it developed dangerous cracks in its elegant structure. While being repaired, many commuters between St. Mary's and Calvert counties had to take a shuttle boat provided by the State for the duration. This lead to jokes and even t-shirts around the theme of "the Boat People" of the two counties.

Art Deco Heaven

2010-05-12T22:08:00.001-04:00

In the foreground is the 1936 statue of Atlas by Lee Lawrie and Rene Chambellan. The Art Deco statue greets visitors to 630 Rockefeller Center (the International Building) as well as passers-by. Through the spherical astrolabe on Atlas' shoulders, you can see 30 Rockefeller Center.

"30 Rock", since 1988, is called the GE Building. Before that, it was the RCA Building. The renaming took place after GE bought RCA (and thus, NBC) 27 years ago.

Prior to 1988, "the GE Building" was the beautiful 1931 Art Deco skyscraper at 570 Lexington Avenue. Oddly enough, the building was designed for RCA, and the original plans refer to it as "RCA Building." As it was being finished, GE and RCA were involved in some anti-trust actions, and in the settlement, GE got the building.

I was privileged to work in the "old" GE Building at 570 Lexington for 8 years. There was a company dining room on the 50th floor where anyone, from Jack Welch to the newest mail boy, could eat for a few bucks. The view to the West from the mens' room on the 50th was spectacular, until the Leona "Queen of Mean" Helmsley built her execrable Helmsley Palace Hotel.

The New Times Square

2010-05-04T22:09:00.002-04:00

Several blocks in the Times Square area have been converted to pedestrian-only zones. The City even put out all these chairs (like the ones in Bryant Park over the last several years) as well as cafe tables.

Photo Archeaology - Anatomy of an Image

2010-05-01T11:17:00.003-04:00

Rue Foyatier, this oft-photographed stairs, climbs up the Butte Montmartre in Paris, ending near Sacre Couer basillica, the highest point in the city. On a stopover following a business trip in December 1977, I had walked here from a Metro stop a few blocks to the south, and found myself at the bottom of the staircase. I liked the disappering-into-infinity pattern of the steps, railings, and trees, but by itself, the scene looked to static.

So I did what I now realize is a frequent trick of mine - I anchored myself and waited for someone to walk into the scene. The strip of exposures above is the sequence of photos as I took them (click on the image to see a larger view).

Back home on East 83rd Street, I developed the film and checked the contact sheet with my trusty 8x Agfa Loupe, the 20th-century equivalent of the "magnify" button on the back of our digital cameras.

The first three images didn't do anything for me at all. The fourth was a "maybe"... the woman caught ducking behind the fence seemed to lend a tiny bit of mystery. But the fifth photo gave me an aha! feeling.

The position of the woman within this frame, as well as her relative size, works well compositionally. Also, her slightly bent-over and schleppy look at this moment suggeted a tired struggle up the long staircase that matched the somber, lonely look of that soggy, gloomy December day.

Here's the "new" version of that fifth photo, newly scanned from the negative after more than 32 years, slightly cropped, straightened, and lightly adjusted for blacks in Photoshop.

I think it's a great marriage of new and old technology: Epson V500 scanner combined with 1970's Tri-X film and D-76 developer, a 1940 Leica iiiC body, and a 1952 50mm f/2 Collapsible Summicron lens.

Photo Archaeology

2010-04-20T21:29:00.004-04:00

Here's a scan of a 37-year-old negative. If I remember correctly, I tried to print this one back in the day, but never got a good image out of it. The negative actually is fine, with a lot of detail. If I had to guess, I didn't have paper that was high enough contrast to do it justice.

I took this picture one Sunday at Penn Station in Baltimore, back in the days when you could wander around the platforms without causing anyone any anxiety. It was just a few days after I bought a Leica IIIc and a Canon Serenar 50mm f/1.8 lens.

Tonight, I scanned this negative, along with some others, on my Epson V500 scanner. I've only used the scanner for documents up until now, but its raw specs implied it would do a good job on negatives and slides. I cranked up the resolution to its maximum, 4800 dpi, and it yielded a 28-megapixel file. I noticed in Photoshop that it was 26" x 17" at 240 dpi. Just a little manipulation in Photoshop to adjust the blacks was all it needed to make a compelling image. I didn't even apply any sharpening, as the scanned image just didn't need any.

On-screen and on the web, I think the image looks great. I'll have an 18x12 print made from this file to see how that looks, but for the time being, I'm very happy with the film-scanning ability of the V500.

Cable Reels

2010-03-28T23:15:00.001-04:00

Come and Get It

2010-03-25T22:45:00.004-04:00

After fifty-plus years of singing in the shower, I've graduated to karaoke. Last September, while visiting my talented cousin Brian in Atlanta, he recorded my lead vocal over a karaoke backing track for two songs. Brian is an independent sound track designer, composer, and producer, and has an full recording studio in his house. OK, I suffered for my music... now it's your turn!

Morning on the Magothy

2010-03-25T16:28:00.003-04:00

We sold our house earlier this week and moved into a nicely-furnished basement apartment that we're renting from a very nice couple who live upstairs. That's where we'll be for the next six months or so as we wait for our townhouse to be built in a nearby "55-Plus" community (or as my brother-in-law Peter refers to it, "the Nursing Home."

Sandy found the rental, and I first saw it one evening late last month, so I had no idea that just across the street and down an incline was the Magothy River. I was out the door on my way to the car just after sunrise this morning, and having my ever-ready Canon S90 in my pocket, walked down to the water and snapped a few photos.

Also Sprach der Media...

2010-03-24T16:16:00.003-04:00

MediaSpeak.

Notice the caption, "Palestinian demonstrators light a Molotov..."

Now, where I come from, folks who light Molotov cocktails are called "rioters," not "demonstrators."

Also Sprach der Media.

Thinking It Over

2010-03-19T09:42:00.001-04:00

On of my more cerebral older cousins at Atlanta Zoo.

Chillin'

2010-03-18T21:40:00.001-04:00

Last October, I took Mom down to Atlanta to visit my Cousins Brian and Lisa and their new baby Max. They live close to the Atlanta zoo, always worth a visit.

While at the zoo, I snapped this photo of one of my other young cousins, chillin' in a hammock.

Future Midshipmen

2010-03-17T21:22:00.002-04:00

Two brothers greet me through the window of one of my favorite houses in Annapolis.

I was talking to their dad, complimenting him on the great, photo-worthy paint job he'd done on his house and on the bench in front of it, when they appeared in the Window. I always point out this house to the customers I take on photo safaris in Annapolis.

Mattress Dominoes

2010-03-10T00:01:00.000-05:00

This one is from a visit to our cousins in Virginia Beach last July. I was going to it with a title of Mattresses in the Wind. That's what I thought the filename I saved it as was.

Fortunately, I thought about it for two seconds and realized that it didn't make sense. It turns out the the filename column in Windows Explorer was just the right size to hide the remaining two letters of the filename... "ow"

Translucent Green Leaf

2010-03-09T21:18:00.004-05:00

A really big leaf, photographed contre-jour.

I always wanted to say that!

Contre-jour, not big leaf.

View From Eastport

2010-03-05T04:03:00.002-05:00

If you've been following this blog, you know I'm fascinated by reflections in water. I've found that early morning (or late afternoon/early evening) is the time to catch the most dramatic reflections.

I think it's because the low angle of the sun acts like a spotlight on the horizontal surfaces of the buildings and boats, which then have plenty of light on them to reflect back onto the water. Whatever the reason, get up early or hang out late if you want to catch the good light.

I took this photo at 7:30 AM one morning from Eastport, across Spa Creek from Annapolis. Full disclosure forces me to admit that this exposure was a mistake, as I didn't notice that my camera was still set for an exposure compensation of minus 1-1/3 stops. I saw the error of my ways right away on the LCD, set my camera back to "neutral", and took several more "normal" exposures.

Back home last in my digital darkroom, I decided to open the "bad" file in Photoshop Elements and see what I could do with it. All it took was to lighten up the high values with the Levels dialog to brighten up the buildings and reflections. This left the dark values in the sky and the water pretty much as they were and resulted, I think, in an image that has more dramatic impact than the original scene.

To us old-timers, there's nothing too surprising about this - we all know about how underexposing transparency film can sometimes increase saturation and contrast to produce a more dramatic version of what we see with our eyes. There's no free ride, though. In the old days, this technique could result in noticibly increased grain in the dark areas, like the sky in this photo. In the digital world, the equivalent of grain is noise. When I magnify this photo on my computer screen, I can see the noise in the dark areas.

On the other hand, the photo prints really nicely as a 10-inch wide print. The noise isn't noticible at this size, but I wonder how it would look enlarged to 20 or 30 inches?

One thing I can say for sure is that this image as a 10-inch print passed a critical test.

My wife likes it!

Juxtapostion

2010-03-04T05:51:00.004-05:00

Reflection of the Chrysler Building, an Art Deco masterpiece, in the rectilinear glass curtain wall of the Grand Hyatt Hotel across Lexington Avenue.

Late Night Light Rail

2010-02-22T23:21:00.002-05:00

Channeling Dave Beckerman, I snapped this Friday night on the way home from Karaoke (yes, I suffered for my music, now it's your turn!)

Again, it was a nice test for my new Canon S90. At ISO 800, f/2.8 at 1/15 sec, its a very clean and sharp image.

First Day Out with Canon S90

2010-02-18T21:03:00.005-05:00

Thursday morning, I put my new Canon S90 into the little Tyvek® envelope in which it came and slipped the package into my pants pocket. That was the whole point of getting this thing, so I could take it everywhere and never be without a camera.

So here's Dev, who along with his wife owns and operates the Loft Deli a few blocks from where I work. Dev always has a smile and a good word for me whenever I stop by to buy a sandwich or some trail mix.

Aesthetics aside, from a technical standpoint, the image is remarkably good for a compact digicam. The EXIF data says 1/30 second at f/3.3 and 10.7mm (which is almost exactly equivalent to 50mm on a 35mm camera.) More importantly the ISO is 800.

If you click on the screen capture at right, you'll see a pixel-peeping section of the image, displayed at 100% in Photoshop.

What impresses me is how little noise there is at this ISO value. With a typical pocket-sized digicam at ISO 200, and certainly by ISO 400, I would expect to see quite a lot of noise in areas such as Dev's face and the even-toned wall to his right.

Another nice thing is that this is the .jpg almost exactly as it popped out of the camera. I had only made very tiny tweaks to exposure and color balance at this point, and no sharpening.

So far, so good!

This Boy's New Toy

2010-02-17T21:37:00.007-05:00

Oh boy! My new Toy!

I've been wanting to get a new pocketable, carry-everywhere camera for a while, and my 60th birthday, plus some cash burning a hole in my pocket, made for a convenient excuse.

What was I looking for? Oh, not too much. Image stabilization (lacking in my 4-year-old Canon A620,) 28mm equivalent on the wide end, excellent image quality for making up to 13"x19" prints... RAW capability would be nice. Oh, and all of this in a size small enough to disappear in a pants pocket.

Not too much to ask, is it? Actually, digital photo technology has progressed so rapidly that there are plenty of cameras today from many different manufacturers that could fit the bill. I've always been very happy with Canon compacts, so I wanted to stick with that brand. Even so, there was lots to choose from (except for the RAW part.)

I decided to go with the Canon S90, mainly because of its good looks. Just kidding, but it is a nice-looking little package.

I've just barely unpacked it, so I don't have much to show you at this point, but I wanted to give you some idea of its size in the photos here.

The top photo shows the S90 compared to my monthly transit pass, which is the same size as a credit card. In the lower photo, the S90 looks positively svelte next to my trusty old A620.

Here's a very positive review of the Canon S90. You probably should also read this other, not quite as glowing review as well. I included it for the sake of full disclosure and also because I've found Imaging Resources to be a reliable information source.

More to come on the Canon S90 soon.

Namaskara!...

2010-02-16T11:34:00.002-05:00

I was delighted to see that I had a visitor for Bangalore the other day - and one who actually stayed for several minutes and looked at a few pages. So many of my hits have a visit length of "0:00" (not sure what that really means!)

I hoped you liked what you saw and visit again!

Take A Bow

2010-02-16T00:12:00.002-05:00

Early Sunday morning at Annapolis Harbor Boatyard in Eastport.

Old School

2010-02-15T05:41:00.001-05:00

I get to play with Jim B's Leica IIIc.

2010-02-15T05:14:00.000-05:00

Hope you had a happy Valentine's Day!

Green Energy

2010-02-14T21:44:00.002-05:00

Found on the sunny side of Berman House, an 1890's building in Annapolis that's now an elegant bed-and-breakfast called Gibson's Landing. Berman House is a block from City Dock in one direction and a block from US Naval Academy in the other.

2010-02-10T02:55:00.001-05:00

When I was in college, I worked summers and holidays at Stansbury Photo in Reisterstown Plaza. The owners, Mr. & Mrs. Ehrenzweig, treated us boys as family. It was a pleasure to work there, and I learned a lot.

This photo is probably from summer 1970. The cheapest SLR we sold back then was the Praktica Nova 1B from East Germany. I noticed when I held it up to my ear and fired the shutter, it would go sproooiiiinnnggg instead of a more solid thunk like the Pentaxes, Canons, and Nikons. We loved making fun of the Pratica, and I had one of my comrades snap this photo of me being a wise-guy.

Ironically, many years later when I got back into photography, I bought and used several later-vintage Prakticas. The later models, from the 1980's, particularly the MTL models, were about equal to a middling 1967 Japanese SLR, which is to say, perfectly good.

Morning Shadows

2010-02-03T03:47:00.002-05:00

Early morning, bright light, mini-blinds, nice vase, spiky plant.

A good recipe for a nice image. Worth getting up off the living room sofa and retrieving my camera for.

I Hearby Declare...

2010-02-02T19:00:00.001-05:00

In early January 1957, a little before my 7th birthday, Mom took me downtown to apply for my citizenship. I remember a very patient gentleman carefully explaining to me the concept of citizenship and the obligations attached to it, to which I solemnly agreed.

I had to sign several small photos along the edges. Mom said, "Now Stevie, write neatly, because President Eisenhower is going to see this."

Would my Mom fib to me? No way, so I took it seriously and signed as carefully as my not-quite-seven-year-old motor skills allowed. What she said made sense to me, anyway. I pictured our grandfatherly President going through papers on his desk, coming to my application, smiling, and saying, "of course, Stevie should be a citizen!"

So on that long-ago January day, I took the following oath, linking me to a long line of those who came before me, those who have come since, and those still unborn who will one day adopt our country as their own:

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God

Il Gabinetto con le Ombre

2010-01-27T21:24:00.002-05:00

It sounds better than "Toilet with Shadows."

Ramble Arch

2009-11-07T23:17:00.004-05:00

The Obligatory Group Photo of our gang from Shutterbug Excursions at our photo meetup in Central Park last weekend.

As I led them through the Ramble, I found Ramble Arch, the narrowest arch in the Park and a great favorite of mine. I knew I had to get a photo of the group in the archway.

Puttin' On The Ritz...

2009-10-14T22:00:00.002-04:00

The inscription for the elegantly-dressed gentleman pictured here reads

Our beloved father
An honest and righteous man
Reb Moshe Yitzhak
son of Yehezkiel

At the very bottom of the image is inscribed the family name, Black (here phonetically spelled as "Bleck.")

In this cemetery in Woburn, I saw several tombstones from the 1920's and '30s with these little portraits of the deceased. This is something I've never seen in the Baltimore area, except in recent years among Jews who immigrated from the former Soviet Union since the 1970s.

Po Nikbara...

2009-10-14T08:22:00.002-04:00

Po nikbara Yehudit bat Reb Mordechai...

Here is buried Yehudit (Judith) the daughter of Reb Mordechai...

Among Ashkenazi Jews, until recently, the first inscription near the top of a tombstone has been פנ, letters with the sounds of "P" and "N." These are the initial letters for the phrase פה נקבר (PO nik-BAHR*), meaning "here is buried."

I became interested in Hebrew tombstones when researching the history of my Dad's family. He came from a small town, Hoof, outside Kassel in Germany. Several years ago, an resident of Hoof generously sent me about 80 photographs of tombstones taken in the Hoof-Breitenbach cemetery that served the Jewish communities of the two neighboring towns.

Those old-style tombstones, dating from the early 1800's until just before WWII, were generously inscribed in Hebrew (many also had German) in a style rarely used by postwar Jews in America. But this past weekend, I stumbled across several old Jewish cemeteries in Woburn, MA, each containing a wealth of the older-style tombstones.

Here's an excellent guide to decoding a Hebrew tombstone inscription.

* note: Hebrew verbs indicate the gender of the subject or object. While nikbar is masculine, nik-bah-RAH(נקברה), as in the case of this stone, is femine.

Judkins Pond, Winchester MA

2009-10-13T22:14:00.003-04:00

We were in the Boston area to visit our daughter Leah this past weekend. The weather was spectacular, and we were treated to an early (for us) display of fall colors.

I got up early Sunday morning to get some good light, and was rewarded with this scene in Winchester, the town next to where our motel was.

Grate Expectations

2009-09-06T11:22:00.002-04:00

After a morning of purposeful picture-taking in Annapolis and Eastport, went off to do some of the day's errands. As I was walking back to my car in a parking lot, I stumbled across this scene.

All morning long, I was composing images in mind - beautiful images of beautiful places in the harbor on this beautiful morning. Yet, even though this one came outside of my picture-taking session, I think it's the best photo of the day.

Sometimes you just get lucky.

Opa and Ben

2009-08-31T23:32:00.002-04:00

Here's my favorite photo of my my late father and Ben. I took it in February 1992, when Ben was not quite six years old.

What prompted me to get this one out and scan it is that Ben finished his very last day of school this past Thursday (classes, at least - finals are this week.) I asked him to have someone take his photo on campus so that I could pair it with the one Sandy took of him on his first day of kindergarten. While I was looking for that picture, I found this one just a few pages later in Sandy's well-organized photo album.

Back in '92, I had considered myself no longer a photographer, but simply a family snapshooter. I used a succession of auto-focus rangefinders that I bought for Sandy, my "good cameras" having been long before sold off.

But every once in a while, the photographer in me would come out, and this was one of those times. I had visualized this photo earlier in the day, knowing that Grandma and Opa were coming to visit. I got out my dusty, little-used Nikon EM and had Dad and Ben pose for just a few seconds.

I'll take some of the credit for this photo but not by any means all of it - the lion's share is thanks to the loving bond between Dad and his grandson.

Morning Stroll

2009-08-28T06:31:00.000-04:00

Our resident heron takes a stroll across the Pond.

Pick'n At Seed

2009-08-26T22:16:00.001-04:00

I brought some birdseed with me last Sunday morning to the pond and thew some on this fallen log at the edge of the water.

Of all the ducks and geese in the pond, this one was the only one with enough initiative to hop onto the log. I enjoyed watching him chow down.

Mixed Flotilla

2009-08-23T22:37:00.004-04:00

A Pekin duck (aka Long Island duck) trails just behind two geese this morning at Druid Ridge pond.

Fishy Abstract

2009-08-12T20:52:00.003-04:00

Last month, we had a wonderful time visiting our cousins in Virginia Beach. We stayed with cousins Marcy and Paul Terkeltaub and also we all got together with cousins Lisa and Murray Rosenbach, who live nearby.

Marcy and Lisa are enthusiastic photographers (and pretty good, too!) so we decided to head out to the actual beach at Virginia Beach early Saturday morning for some picture-taking. Cousin Murray came along, and proved to be a first-rate picture spotter, gull-chaser and cheerful companion.

Since I've gone all-digital-all-the-time, one of the things I've found useful when I go out to purposely take photos is to just start taking them right away, even if I don't see a strikingly "keeper" image. I find that I need to warm-up my photo-eye, just like I would need to warm up before exercizing (if I were to ever exercize.)

One of the first things we came across along the boardwalk was this set of whimsical fish sculptures. I took a sister-and-brother photo of Marcy and Murray, and then, along with Marcy and Lisa, started to crawl around the fish, looking for interesting angles. This fishy abstract is one of the images I came up with.

Whitewalls

2009-08-12T07:05:00.003-04:00

If you haven't guessed already, I love repeating patterns.

But somehow, when I was visiting our cousins in Virginia Beach, I walked right past this bike rental place without seeing the dozen or so good repeating-pattern images.

Luckily, Cousin Murray had caught on quickly to my patternmania, and pointed this one out to me.

Thanks, Cuz!

Under the Bridge

2009-08-11T01:58:00.002-04:00

At Druid Ridge, a convoy of ducks sails under the old bridge and into the small stream that feeds the pond.

Through a little Googling, I found that the white "AFLAC" ducks are called Pekin Duck or (in the USA) Long Island Duck. They developed in China centuries ago. When you have roast duck or duck eggs, it's most likely that you're eating one of these quackers.

After hanging around these guys, I've really grown to like them. I think I'll stick to chicken.

St. Michael the Archangel Ukranian Catholic Church

2009-08-10T21:57:00.002-04:00

I've seen the golden onion domes of St. Michael from various places elsewhere in Baltimore, but it was only yesterday, as I drove down Eastern Avenue, that I got to see the church close up. In the bright late-afternoon sun, it just knocked me out.

Captain James Landing - Canton

2009-08-09T23:00:00.002-04:00

I've driven past this unusual restaurant, Captain James Landing, many times before. But today, I had my camera with me, so I parked the car and took some photos.

As I often do with interesting flat vertical areas like this, I framed an image and waited for someone to walk into it. Several people did within the next 15 minutes, but this young woman made for the most compelling photo.

Formation Splashdown

2009-08-04T22:10:00.000-04:00

These Canada geese are part of a flock that arrived here years ago on a tourist visa while migrating South and decided to stay. For some reason, USCIS doesn't seem to be interested in doing anything about it.

They don't do much but waddle around, eat, poop, and kvetch loudly ... but every once in a while, a flight of them will take off, circle around to the main road, and come back for a water landing. When they do, you can get some good photos.

Laid-Back Mallard

2009-08-04T06:24:00.002-04:00

This is one kool katchke!

Shlomo Sees Himself

2009-08-03T00:01:00.001-04:00

One of Ben's two turtles, Shlomo, sees himself in the wall of his terrarium. It was an existential moment.

Actually, both of Ben's turtles are named Shlomo. I thought it was a good move, as you really can't tell one from the other anyway.

Far As The Eye Can See...

2009-08-02T22:27:00.003-04:00

Baby you're a rich man, but only pictorially.

All these unsold cars are photographically interesting, but not good for the economy. I looked at a satellite image from Google Maps of this area, probably taken two years or more ago, and only a fraction of the available area was taken up by cars.

Scowling Goose

2009-08-02T15:15:00.004-04:00

In contrast to the ducks, who always appear to be smiling, these geese at Druid Ridge pond seem to be perpetually annoyed. This one is giving me a real stink-eye.

Blue Heron on Far Bank

2009-07-31T20:12:00.001-04:00

Druid Ridge Cemetery in Pikesville is a nice place to visit on a sunny Sunday morning - well, not the dead people's part, but the large duck pond on the edge of the grounds.

The pond has a large permanent population of various kinds of ducks and geese. Like much of the mid-Atlantic, formerly migratory Canada geese have made a permanent home here.

If you get here early enough, you may luck out and spot a blue heron who also makes his home here.

This place is only about a half-mile from my mom's place, so I've been bringing my camera whenever I go to see her, in case I have a few minutes to stop and see my feathered friends.

Rocky Mountain Mall

2009-07-16T20:42:00.004-04:00

Although this scene may look as if it's taken from the background video for a karoke version of Rocky Mountain High, the actual location is what amounts to a large strip mall just west of Annapolis.

This ties in nicely with yesterday's backyard photography post. The point is that you don't have to travel to exotic locations to make compelling images.

This photo came about as I stopped by my bank to make a deposit early last Saturday morning before heading to City Dock to play around with my new Tamron 18-270mm superzoom lens. As I pulled into a parking space, I noticed how the low morning sun lit up the red-tipped grass planted in the divider between the bank's parking lot and that of Fudrucker's next door.

Shooting from slightly above the grass and at the long end of the zoom's range, the shallow depth of field makes it look as if the grass goes on forever.

In fact, here is what the scene looks like to the casual observer

Lovely, isn't it?

Well yeah, it is, if you look beyond the superficial.

Great photos are everywhere, and as Dorothy said, there's no place like home.

Backlit Backyard Leaves

2009-07-15T22:11:00.002-04:00

Last Thursday after work, I went out of my way to go shooting in a fancy-schmantzy neighborhood of Baltimore. When I came home and got out of my car, I happened to notice some beautiful backlighting on some on these hostas at the side of our house.

After all was said and done, this was the only good photo of the day. I wouldn't say at all that the special trip to that fancy neighborhood was a waste, but it's funny how I found the best image right in my backyard.

Unintentional Art

2009-07-15T00:01:00.000-04:00

You Silly Dog!

2009-07-14T22:29:00.002-04:00

Flag and Flag Kite

2009-07-08T21:07:00.004-04:00

Our flag billows and a 4th of July kite flies at the shore of the Chesapeake Bay last Saturday.

Lemmon Street, 8 AM

2009-07-05T16:41:00.002-04:00

Fremont Ave Gingkgo

2009-07-01T23:03:00.003-04:00

I carried my DSLR with its new "walkaround" lens, a Tamron 18-270mm zoom, with me to work today for the first time.

There are some gingkgo trees just before I get to the entrance of our building, but I tend to only notice them in the fall, when their leaves turn yellow and carpet the sidewalk. But today, I finally "saw" them and took a few photos.

The new lens seems to have nice bokeh, as I was able to smoothly blur some cars, grass, and brick walkway in the background.

I bought the lens in early June after a few weeks of gearhead anxiety. Once it arrived and I had a chance to shoot with it, I wasn't sure if I was going to keep it. But I decided to do just that over the past day or two. More on that later.

Lawn Chair Flyer

2009-05-22T23:34:00.001-04:00

I was enjoying the spectacle of dozens of hot-air balloons taking off in the morning when I spotted this fellow - he instantly became my hero!

This is one of the last photos I took with film before my conversion to the Digital Dark Side. This was back in my all-Commie-camera days, using a Praktica MTL5 with a 135 mm CJZ Sonnar, both made in the now-deservedly-defunct German Democratic Republic (aka East Germany, which was neither democratic nor a republic.)

Steamboat Springs, Colorado, July 2003

Lime Shadow

2009-05-21T13:33:00.000-04:00

Proteus Bicycles is a well-stocked, well-equipped and friendly bike shop in College Park, Maryland. This is a very old building by College Park standards, built in the 1930's as a car repair garage. The stucco exterior now sports a flourescent lime paint job that screams to be photographed. I had passed the shop on other sunny days camera-less too many times to let it happen again.

Casing the joint, I did find several good images. My favorite one is this one, the most simple imaginable - just a little pipe vent, it's shadow, and that maginificent lime stucco

I call this a "Seinfeldian Image," that is, it's a photo about Nothing. Just light, texture, and shadow.

Swedish Donut Brigade

2009-05-20T18:10:00.001-04:00

I noticed these brightly-colored trucks at a commercial bakery along MD Route 100 several years ago during my daily commute.

Acting as if I knew what I was doing, I brazenly went onto the parking lot as the sun was low on the horizon and tried to capture the bold blues and yellows.

Crossing Bay Bridge

2009-05-17T14:13:00.001-04:00

Caboose Detail

2009-05-16T18:41:00.001-04:00

The caboose on the Verde Canyon Scenic Railroad. Like the rest of the train, the caboose is dressed up in "Southwestern" colors.

Grafitti Pullman

2009-05-12T00:01:00.001-04:00

Red Fractured Rock - Sedona

2009-05-11T00:01:00.002-04:00

Looking Towards Cathedral Rock - Sedona

2009-05-10T22:52:00.000-04:00

Grand Canyon

2009-05-09T00:01:00.002-04:00

We took a sunset tour of the Grand Canyon - probably the best time to see it from the rim.