Photographs and thoughts on photography and camera collecting
Scan of a negative taken many years ago outside of Bangkok, Thailand. According to Wikipedia:
A khlong (also commonly spelled klong; Thai: คลอง (Pronunciation)) is the general name for a canal on the central plain of Thailand. These canals are spawned by the Chao Phraya, the Tha Chin, the Mae Klong Rivers, and their tributaries. The Thai word khlong is not limited to artificial canals. Many smaller rivers are referred to as “khlong”, followed by the name of the stream.
Happy Hallowe’en to everyone.
This is the last of my New York Airshow pictures (it only took me two months to get them all out). Here we have the old and the new. Below, probably the most capable fighter aircraft in the world today: the F-22 Raptor. Above, arguably the best all-round fighter aircraft of the World War II: the P-51 Mustang. Together they form part of the US Air Force Heritage Flight described as follows on its site:
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Air Force (USAF), the Heritage Flight program was founded in 1997. Heritage Flight performances of current fighter/attack aircraft flying with World War II, Korea and Vietnam era fighters dramatically display USAF airpower history and honor the brave men and women who have served, or are currently serving, in the USAF. In 2010, the Air Force Heritage Flight Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, was formed to keep this popular program flying.
I was quite amazed to see that these two aircraft could fly together like this. I would have thought that the F-22 would not have been able to fly as slow as a P-51 – shows how much I know.
I’ve posted before about the Tompkins Corners Cultural Center:
Tonight’s event was a little different though: it was the first event to take place inside the old church, which is the core of the center. The center’s website described tonight’s event as:
“MOURNFUL AND NEVER-ENDING REMEMBRANCE” – An Evening With The Best Of Edgar Allan Poe, as interpreted by actor Paul Savior. Mr. Savior’s selection of seventeen poems of love, sorrow, loss and terror, will be presented as a journey through the brief and troubled life of one of the most important literary voices of the first half of the 19th century. Remembered as a poet, storyteller, essayist, editor, critic and leading American Romanticist, Poe was defined by D. H. Lawrence as “An adventurer into the vaults, and cellars and horrible underground passages of the soul”.
I’ve posted about Paul before too (Paul and Family). He’s an actor of some renown and I must say that he was brilliant tonight. The atmosphere inside the old church was incredible and Paul really brought Poe to life. You could feel the passion that he has (and has had for many years) for Poe. I must say that I’ve never really been much of a fan of Edgar Allen Poe, but hearing Paul read his poems is making me change my views. Very well done mate! I very much hope that we have more occasions to hear your wonderful voice reading the work of other poets.
The stage awaits.
The Raven.
I picked this lens up for $9 at a nearby Goodwill Store. I’d heard that Kiron lenses were generally pretty good and already had a Kiron 80-200mm F4.5 Macro zoom that I’d picked up at a garage sale for next to nothing (it came attached to a Minolta X-370). Although I hadn’t used it that much it seemed to be a decent lens. So when I saw this one at Goodwill I thought – for nine dollars what do I have to lose.
I’ve used it a bit now and don’t know quite what to make of it. It’s in Canon FD breech mount and the adapter adds a bit to the length). It’s fairly small and feels very sturdy. It’s a two touch zoom with separate zoom and focus rings. The zoom ring is a little (but not very) stiff. I suspect it will loosen up with use. The focus ring is the opposite. It was so light that I thought at first it was broken (it wasn’t). The zoom range is a bit awkward (42-105mm equivalent on my Nex 5N), not really wide enough on the wide end and the f3.5-4.5 range is decent. In some circumstances (I haven’t yet figured out exactly which) it produces very low contrast images. This doesn’t really bother me much as I shoot in RAW and post-process everything and it only takes a couple of seconds to correct the contrast. The lens also flares badly if you even point it in the general direction of a light source. I suspect that this lens flare contributes greatly to the low contrast images as the more contrasty images were taken with the sun behind me, or in shade. The less contrasty images were taken with light sources in front of me. I do like the color rendition though.
All things considered I’m pleased with my purchase.
Rose
Blue Windmill
Canoes at Spur Beach
Sleeping Lion Statue
Pink Flower – Cosmos
View from North Beach
And a couple of other posts with pictures taken with this lens:
Harley and the Bird Houses
Withered Blossom
Cathy Hanson for Town Council