The Assistant Tries Out A New Lens | Nikon ED AF 300mm f/4

As is our tradition, when the assistant gets a new lens his first sample photos have to be of me. So here are a couple of test shots taken with the Nikon ED Nikkor AF 300mm 1:4 lens.

When we say “new”, we mean new to us.  This lens started production in 1987 and was last produced in 2000.  We’ll have to check to see exactly when his lens was made.  To have a production run that long recommends it.  We will say though, it’s a beast.  It’s all metal and very sturdy.  We love it so far; but then I’ll not be the one carrying it.

For some reason, the assistant always has to do a little post processing; but I think these images were very good straight out of the camera.  We hope you like them too.

Daisy, Daisy, Burning Bright

The assistant recently read an article about cats and how we are like our wilder, bigger cousins.  The article mentioned that if they we were bigger we just might try to eat you.  This is not true.  The data was misrepresented.

I wanted to clear this up.  I mean, just because I stalk your foot and jump on it and bite it that doesn’t mean if I were bigger I’d attack you.  Or when I’m hungry and you’re sitting at the desk and I jump up and bite the back of your arm.  That’s just me playing, not an attempt to mimic my cousins that take down prey a leg at a time.

When I’m watching you like this; I’m not hungry, I’m just wondering what you taste like you are doing.

 

A Few Fine Feathered Friends Find A Fabulous Feast | Captivating A Curious Cat

GG provided us a top of the line bird feeder a long time back and it’s been wonderful.  We get to help some wild birds and it’s been great for me as it helps me pass the time while the assistant is away.  He’s not always the best at keeping it filled, but we do our best.

As we mentioned in out last post, it was predicted that we would have more wintry weather and we did.  It gave the assistant a chance to do some experimenting with his multi-function timer remote control.  You can see the results.  The Tufted Tit Mouse is already in the assistant’s top one hundred views.

Technical Notes:  We set the timer to take 60 images 15 seconds apart.  We used a fairly slow shutter speed and did exposure compensation to try and get the snow white.  We will look forward to using it more this summer and maybe catching a hummingbird or two.

Thanks for dropping by.

I’m Still Here, Watching Over The Proceedings

The Assistant Has Been Busy For Awhile

The “drought” continues; the assistant is not posting like he should. I will keep on him to do more. Maybe with Spring around the corner he will get excited at the prospect of April/May flowers.

There’s Moire To This Than Meets The Eye

Behind Curtain No. 1

I know I have been lax lately, okay more than lately, but the assistant started a new job and it has kept him very busy so he hasn’t had a lot of time to play in the lab with me.  He has been out a couple of times and tried to do some spontaneous street style photography with mixed results.  I will see if I can find something I approve of in those shots.

Meanwhile there is the image above; which has proved to be fairly popular on the Assistant’s Flickr page.  We were hesitant to use Flickr for a long, long time but once we started using it we are very happy with it.  This was taken with the Pentax-M f/1.4 50mm lens on the Lumix G3.  The assistant is almost exclusively using the manual lens on this camera now.

We hope you like it and we will have more images up soon.

Thank you for visiting.

Just Hanging Around After Labor Day

The Assistant Tries Out A New Old Lens

We have not had enough pictures of me lately and this post attempts to rectify that omission (and we’ll have more soon).  The images here are a result of some test shots with a Pentacon auto 1.8/50mm.  The assistant came across the Pentacon and it’s predecessor the Meyer-Optik Oreston 1.8/50mm and he is in the process of doing some comparing and contrasting of these old German lenses. Meanwhile, we are also experimenting some with html coding within the text editor window.  The assistant showed me where he could code for tables in a previous post and is experimenting with how useful that can be.  The reason? Using tables allows for a better integration of flickr photos. Both these photos where shot with the Pentacon and being forgetful the assistant didn’t up the ISO.  As a result they were shot at 1/5th sec or so and are not as sharp as they could be.  Still, we really like the contrast and the image the lens produces.  We’ll have some other photos up soon. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I need the assistant to hand feed me some food.

 

Looks Like Rain

I don’t do rain

It was a little cooler here so the assistant threw open the windows; he says it’s to get some fresh air. I think it’s so he doesn’t have to run the AC.  Sometimes, to help with the cross breeze, he’ll also open the front door.  Whenever he does that he knows I’ll be right there wanting to get on top of it.  I get on the bookcase and then ask him nicely to stand where I can jump on his shoulders.  From there I jump on top of the door (while he holds it still).

That better be a treat in your hand

The assistant didn’t want to include this one, he said something about the shutter speed being too slow. I told him sometimes an imperfect picture is still good and I think I was right. The first person to see it on flickr made it a favorite.

Just hanging around

Maybe it’s clearing up

The assistant told me he played around more with the black and white settings for these images.  Normally he’ll just make changes to the default sliders.  I know he went with infrared on this last one.

The Monday After Independence Day

After all that excitement I need a break

Here’s a nice spot in the sun.

Now if I could just get this window to work.

Lab Notes #1 The Exposure Triangle; ISO, Aperture and Time

Observations from the lab

The assistant sometimes gets has to explain why it’s taking him so long to take my picture.  Most of the time what I hear is Charlie Brown’s teacher (of course, that’s not exclusive to him talking about photography).  Still I do want to understand how to take better images and so I asked him to whip this up in Photoshop.  I thought I would share it with you.  He says understanding this is the biggest hurdle most people face when starting out.

Please let us know what you think.  If this proves popular I will have him make more. Heck, I may have him make more anyway.

My new observation post

Playing With Vignetting

I like the rim light on my décolletage

The assistant has experimented on a couple of images using a new vignetting technique in Photoshop.  In the past he would do the adjustments by hand and he’s playing around with a less labor intensive method he saw on Youtube.

Here’s the latest example:

I am the center of attention

The vignette is pretty easy to see in this one; he usually tries to make it more subtle.  Vignettes used to occur naturally in old photos because of limitations of the lenses.  If you see it now it is most likely a creative decision.  As is so often the case when the assistant wants to verify spellings he will use bing/google.  Reading the wiki page informed him that vignette referred to the decorative border on pages and has the same root as vine.  Being the international traveler he is (inside joke), he already knew it was French.

 

We All Have Our Toys

And these are my very favorite

 

A treasure

Did it move?

I have been known to chase feathers, the laser pointer, the plastic balls with the bells inside, scraps of fur, a patch of deer hair, and other sundry items.  Heck, even a wine cork can be entertaining.   None of these items though compare to catcalls.  My life was changed when the assistant brought these home.  He was at MerleFest and met a very nice lady named Betty who works with wool and spins beautiful yarn.

Betty Spins yarn

Beautiful yarn

Showing a youngster how it’s done

The assistant always has his eye out for new sources of dubbing and so he was looking at her fine products.  He picked out some bits of yarn and almost as an afterthought bought some woolen balls for me.  These, he now knows, are called cat calls.  I like them so much they are even in my banner.

He also knows that they are the best toy ever!  I love them.

Whenever I get a new one I rub it all over my face.

They smell so good

 

They’re the only toy I will bring back to him and retrieve.  When he’s working at the computer I will sometimes leave them at this feet to let him know I want him to toss them (Biting his feet also helps convey that message–I’m nothing if not subtle.)  I will bring these to bed.  I sometimes hide them for awhile.

They’re the best toy for playing with when I’m on top of the door.

Eye of the Daisy

Got ya!

Now to leap to the bed

Sometimes I let it get away

I love them so much I wore out the first batch and had the assistant order a second bunch.  I’ve even arranged to send some to some friends.  So even though I’ve not met you Betty.  I want to thank you for a wonderful product.

Thank you Betty

– Daisy

The MGM Lion I’m Not

go away you’re bothering me

As mentioned in the last post sometimes life involves compromises.  There are times when I have to put up with the assistant’s idiosyncrasies though I admit there might be one or two things I do that are odd.  Catching me in embarrassing poses seems to be high on the assistants to do list.  He claims he likes this image because I look fierce and intimidating.  I think he just wanted to show I have a big mouth.