matt's pictures

getting ready and doing the deed

This was actually quite a lot of fun. I think two more posts of this stuff and then we’re all done: reception and afterparty. I shot a lot of pictures. People like pictures, so I’m gonna put ‘em all up.

Posted on 2018-08-29T06:56:26Z GMT

m10p - second first impressions

I’ve had the camera now for just over 12 hours, and I have to say I’m liking it a lot so far. This is important, because as you may remember, I wasn’t a huge fan of it the last time; I had a rental last Xmas and ended up sending it back early because I just didn’t click with it. But, then 6 months of shooting with the CLE happened, and also I looked back at that week of shooting, and really decided I liked what shooting a rangefinder did for my photography. So, I consulted the photo gods and took out a chunk of my 401k and did the deed.

I have a couple lenses also coming soon, that should make the shooting experience even better: a 50mm f/1.4 Leica Summilux and a 15mm Voightlander Heliar. These were all shot with my only M lens that’s worth having a cover filter on, the 40mm f/1.4 Voightlander. (I have another, the 50mm f/1.2 Canon, but it has a chip out of one of the rear elements, which causes bad veiling flare; it’s basically a sentimental thing I can’t get rid of).

So: All those caveats taken as given: I love it. The shutter sound is better than you’ve heard. Recordings online don’t do it justice. In fact, the moment I heard it I knew this was the camera I needed to have. I’m still getting a feel for the machine and getting all the menu stuff dialed in. Auto ISO is hit or miss; there may be a setting for minumum shutter speed I’m missing, but really I don’t mind setting that manually; I’ve never really trusted the auto on any camera (edit: found the setting, still don’t know how much I’ll use it).

Sundry: The focusing, viewfinder, and everything else are exactly what you’d expect for just shy of $8k: the best possible. The rapid-fire mode is amusing but I don’t see myself using it too often. The touch screen is OK but not great. It’s not an iPhone, but the double tap to zoom is handy, as is the keyboard, even if it is a little fiddly.

I really wish there was a way to copy photos over wifi that didn’t involve the phone; like I was complaining on masto, it would be nice if the card would be available as a shared NFS drive or something like that. It’s a tiny bit of extra software work. I might make a client myself if I can snoop on the traffic between the app and the camera; or even a FUSE driver. I’ll post more later, maybe in a week, after all the wedding photos are posted.

Memorial for Nia Wilson. Sophie took this one. She thought it wasn’t good, probably because it looked hella underexposed in the camera, but it came back just fine in lightroom. I look pissed but that’s really just my face, I promise.

Posted on 2018-08-28T07:05:35Z GMT

black and white in the city

Just pushing these off the top of the queue… I’ve got a ton more wedding things, but I figured I’d break things up. These are from before the wedding, shooting with the little film camera. I’m also going to put together a little post of photos from the new whip here soon. Like right now.

Posted on 2018-08-28T06:44:45Z GMT

lobster bake in maine

For a rehearsal dinner, we had a really nice cookout, Maine style. The lobsters we were eating, young lobsters, according to our hosts, were $5/lb. I know, here, I have a picture of someone pouring boiling water into a sink, but the locals called it a ‘bake’. Don’t ask me, I’m not from there. We ate with bibs and then there were wet naps and then, for desert, there were big dangerous sparklers. You know, not the kind you used to get as a small child, but the kind you were jealous of the teenagers having? Ah, memories.

I’m getting things a little out of order, but I feel like posting these first. I’ve also got some photos from our time in Boston the day before, but really it seemed like a good idea to put these up now. I don’t know, I’ve been welding and this was the first set I saw.

The welding continues apace. I may have this complicated-ass weld in by the end of the evening, or I may grind half of it out tomorrow and give it another go. Once the root pass is in, it’s a lot easier to make it go, that’s for sure.

Posted on 2018-08-21T05:16:42Z GMT

happy hour one friday

I’m now roughly a month behind again; I’m not sure what night this was, but I think it was the week before Fletcher’s wedding. There’s a good reason for that: I’ve been between computers for the better part of two weeks, and my folks were in town, and before that I was actually in Boston for the wedding. And I’ve been sick since wednesday with some kind of sinus infection. So yeah.

So, now that things are settling down, I’ve of course got half a dozen projects going on. I’m still building a bike frame; I need to work on that some soon, before I lose momentum. It’s a replica of the bike I was riding when I was hit in 2009, but with track dropouts (still italian steel). I’m also working, as ever, on the San Pablo project. I’m wondering how many photos I need; I have maybe 80 in the edit now, and I need to winnow that down to the ones that are right for where the project is. The wedding edit is also large and needs to be pruned down; I’m at 78 which is far too many.

So yeah. Stuff is happening. More photos soon.