My 70 – 200 f/2.8 lens somehow stopped working properly. So, I sent it to Tamron. They received it and before it could be repaired, Sandy hit. So, it spent a week there. I called them this morning, and they have repaired it and shipped it yesterday. So, I will have it Friday. Great news!
There is an obvious fetish in the motorcycle community. Although skulls are the most common expression of this fetish, it goes a little wider than just simply skulls.
Skulls are painted onto motorcycle parts, and they are incorporated into parts that are cast.
They can be rather straight forward depictions, or more stylized.
They are universal in the culture.
But, I believe the skull is just a convenient icon for a broader involvement.
The skull fetish is really an expression of a wider fetish with the morbid.
We went to the Lone Star Rally on Saturday. There were probably 200,000 motorcycles there. We got there about noon and stayed until about 3:30. The motorcycles are parked two and three deep all along Strand and Mechanic Streets.
There is barely enough room in the middle of the street for a line of motorcycles to ride in. There is a constant parade of motorcycles all day long. 
There is lots of food and entertainment and a competition for the best custom cycle.
I mentioned before that the wedding photography seminar we watched featured a photographer who used three prime and one zoom lens. The three primes were a 24 mm f/1.4, a 50 mm f/1.2, and an 84 mm f/1.4. Everything she shot was with available light. Well, now I appreciate why she used such fast glass.
I used Aperture Inspector to look at the aperture and iso I used for the wedding last Saturday. 91%of the pictures were take with apertures less than f/5. 40% were taken at iso 400, 27% at iso 800 and 6% were taken at iso 1600. 86% of the pictures were taken at shutter speeds faster than 1/60 second.
Faster glass would mean wider apertures, lower iso values and faster shutter speeds.
I found a Rokinon 85mm f/1.4 on eBay. It is manual focus and manual aperture. So, it will take some experimenting.
There is a feature in Aperture called “Show Focus Points” that creates an invisible overlay on the image and then indicates what focus point(s) was/were used to create the picture. This has a certain potential for images that might not be as sharp as you would like. They may not be sharp because the camera was not really focusing on what you thought it was, and this feature will let you see that.
Unfortunately, it does not appear to work with my cameras. I didn’t know whether Aperture just could not obtain the data or whether the data were not collected by the camera. I posted to the flickr group, and found that the data really are recorded, but, apparently Aperture does not recognize them. There is a program that can be run from inside Terminal that can access all the data. The program is called exiftool. The problem is, inside terminal, you must do it one image at a time. Even at that, when I run it, I can’t find the focus point. I can only find the focus mode.
There is an application called Aperture Inspector that allows you to obtain a variety of information about your equipment use for the pictures in an Aperture Library. When you open it, you link it to an Aperture library. You can set a specific date range. It tells you what camera bodies you used, what lenses you used, if they are zoom lenses, what focal lengths were used, what apertures were used, what shutter speeds were used, and what iso settings were used. There is also information about filters.
Hurricane Sandy has hit the east coast. Last week, I sent my Tamron 70 – 200 f/2.8 lens in for repair. I sent it to Commack, New York. Commack, New York is on Long Island. I really hope that I will eventually get my lens back.
I was not paid as the second shooter on the wedding, and that was what I wanted. This way, I am able to use my own images.
I recently read something that made me really think about that. Sal Cincotta has an on line magazine called “Behind the Shutter.” In it, his wife has an article about second shooters. She says they always pay their second shooter. They learned a hard lesson about that early when they had a second shooter who was not paid. That person shot over their shoulder. Thus, they go the same image as the principal photographer. They then used the image on their own web site, claiming credit for it. So, now, they pay their second shooters and the second shooter uses their memory cards and must surrender them at the end of the shoot. They are not allowed any use of the images at all.
In some respects, I think that is as immoral as what the second shooter did. I understand that the principal photographer is the one with the job, and has the right to sell and market the images. That’s fine. However, for that person to take credit for producing the image isn’t right. If I shot as a second shooter, and made a really great image, I would not have a problem with not selling the image to the client, but I would have a problem with never being able to use or display that image as mine. And, I would have a great deal of problems with someone else taking credit for the creation of that image. They are no more entitled to that credit than the second shooter who shot over their shoulder.
I did not have time last night to post, and I have spent all day processing files.
I was second shooter yesterday at a wedding. The primary was Cindy Graf. We also had two more shooters – Craig, Cindy’s husband and her friend Corey. We started at 3:00. I shot some details for a while and then went to the groom’s room. The groom was Keith Meyers. When I got to his room, they were already dressed. I got some standard shots – groom looking out the window, groom and groomsmen, groom opening gift from the bride. We then met in the lobby for shots of the groom and the preacher and then the groom and his parents.
I then went back to the convention center for shots before the ceremony. The ceremony started at 5:30. I shot from the back, but with my (old) 70 – 200, I got some great shots during the ceremony. After the ceremony, I shot guests in the foyer while Cindy and Corey shot the formal portraits. This was while the chairs were taken down and the band set up.
For the rest of the evening, we shot the dinner and reception.
Debbie even came along. Originally, she was supposed to be my “assistant.” I was going to have her hold a light. That just didn’t seem practical. So, she helped out with the wedding coordinator and helped organize the flow of the formal portraits with Cindy and Corey.
All together, I got 588 pictures. The place was very dark, and I was too anxious many times. So, my flash didn’t fire, and the autofocus was problematic at times. I ended up processing about 150 files. Can’t post them for a week or so.
I got an email from Tamron. They want $225 to repair my lens. They will disassemble it, clean it, repair and damage, put it all back together and calibrate it. I wish it were cheaper, but I don’t have any other choice. A new lens would be almost four times that much. They promised a turnaround of three business days. Let’s hope that comes before Sandy hits the east coast. I have visions of my lens sitting in a destroyed building.