500px

I have joined yet another photo community, 500px.com.  Seems to be the new alternative to Flickr and I am hoping it will be a little more like the early days of Flickr.  When you had photographers actually commenting and interacting with one another - without all the rif raf ... We shall see how it goes.  Lord knows I need another online presence like I need a hole in the head, but what the heck?

<p><a href="http://500px.com/yffoto" _mce_href="http://500px.com/yffoto">yffoto</a> on <a href="http://500px.com" _mce_href="http://500px.com">500px</a></p>

iPhone vs Leica

One afternoon in San Francisco I wandered out to Pier 39 to snap a few photos of the bay and Golden Gate Bridge. Sadly the fog rolled in as I made my way toward the pier, not exactly the photo ops I had hoped for... I fired off a couple of shots and made my way back to the trolley.

While I waited I reviewed the pics on my iPhone and processed a few via the instagr.am app (toaster) for posting. You know me, live updates from where ever I am in the world. To my surprise I processed one of those foggy shots and got the most amazing, soft, dreamy shot (on the left). I actually had someone tell me they would pay for a photo like this.

Part of what I love about iphoneography is the unknown... you have very little control, almost no zoom and then add app processing to the mix, you never know what you will get! Well, the one downside to an app like instagr.am is the LOW resolution output. It's really meant to be a "social" sharing site and thus, high resolution images would not be necessary. But every now and then it would be nice to make a print! At 600px and 72dpi, I will be lucky to get a 4x4 out of this baby.

Luckily I had taken almost the same photo with my Leica D-Lux 5 and with a little Photoshop processing am able to get pretty close to the iPhone version - at a much better resolution! I really wish I knew the actions they use in the instagr.am app so that I would have a better chance at hitting the vignette and coloring. Might need to add a little blur too ... Anyhoo... I'm pretty happy with both, will print both and see what comes of it.

Has anyone else run into this problem I wonder?

yffoto.com :: DMB Caravan Chicago

via blog.yffoto.com

Leica d-lux 5 "scenery" mode - straight out of the camera - only a little noise reduction. Pretty good.

sunset from my balcony

Love it when I can see rays from the sun ... also testing the leica's "sunset" setting. Probably the closest coloring that I get out of any camera. And this is shooting JPG on one of the standard camera settings ... nice!

Black macaque takes self-portrait

Chimply marvellous: The images taken by the monkeys at a national park in Indonesia are perfect portraits

via dailymail.co.uk

I would have seriously freaked out if I had a monkey take my camera, but the photos left on the camera are priceless. Makes me laugh and laugh! Look at that face!!!

yffoto.com :: feebee

via blog.yffoto.com

I was playing around with the manual focus on the Leica and caught this hysterical photo of the Phoebs. She's such a good sport, always having a camera in her face.

I Leica

Is it just me, or do you also find that your hobbies just suck all of your extra income? When I got into photography, I thought I could just go take pictures, that's free now that everything is digital. Well, I did that, but as I got more into it I realized that better equipment would allow me to do more with the craft. I've been shooting with the Canon 40D for about two years and have been very happy with it, but lust for a full frame sensor so that I can do better with less light. So I've been stashing a few bucks aside for an upgrade.

That is until my point & shoot (Canon s90) got a crack in the lens. I have no idea how it happened - I've never dropped it and keep it in a case, I just don't know. But it's dead center on the lens, and while I seem to be able to compensate for the problem spot if I had it off to someone else for a photo forget it. Sadly it's only a little over a year old - just out of warrantee of course!  So rather than getting that full frame DSLR, I had to shift my focus to a new p&s.

I landed on the Leica D-LUX 5. It's some serious fire power in a designer package. It might just be the perfect camera for me! Since I only shoot RAW format and post process via Lightroom and Photoshop, I needed something that would give me as close to DSLR results as possible. In reading up, the Leica digital family seems like it's the perfect fit. It arrived just in time for the holiday weekend, so I've been out shooting like mad.

Snapped a few self portraits - very happy with the results! Went and walked around Architectural Artifacts, 8000 square feet of architectural salvage. Holy shit is that place amazing! Some seriously old and really amazing stuff. It was a dream to wander and photograph - even while sweating (90+ inside the warehouse!). Way more photos to post from this place, but I'll give you a little teaser - loads of old sign parts and letters, mannequins and medical equipment that makes you go 'hmmmm.'

10 on 10 :: June 2011

Yep, it's that time again.  Time for ten photos in ten consecutive hours on the tenth of the month!  And hooray for not having to work today!!  I am traveling back to my hometown in Kansas for my twenty year high school reunion (yikes!).  I did manage to get the photos done all via iPhone (camera + app) - sorry for the late post ladies.  I look forward to seeing all of your days! 

10 AM leaving a cool, very foggy Chicago

11 AM waiting for my plane

NOON some in-flight entertainment and refreshments

1 PM arrival at Kansas City International Airport and ran across this cute little Hertz guy on the way to pick up my rental car

2 PM a swing over to Habitat to do some shoe shopping - picked up some Bensimon sneaks and these crazy string tie Sseko sandals that are so comfortable, so cute and for a great cause all in one!  Was thinking about the beige heals, but ended up not taking them.  

3 PM hit up Dean and Deluca for a late lunch  -  these parmesean fries were HELLA good

4 PM picking up some last minute groceries for Mom - Aren't these Shatto Milk bottles the cutest you've ever seen?  

5 PM driving into the sticks - not really - but I have to go thru some rural areas to get to the P's house

6 PM hanging with mom and grandma for a few before heading to the meet-n-greet. This photo makes me so sad, seeing my grandmother like this is pretty depressing. My mother is doing an amazing job taking care of her - but she's got to be in a pretty low place.  She just turned 92 and the room is filled with cards, flowers and baloons from her friends - hopefully that helps to keep her spirit strong!

7 PM off to see my old classmates - so excited my BF teeny weeny tiny E made the trip in from Amsterdam and brought her adorable sister, Robbie - love these two girlies.  It was a great night - literally closed the bar down!  More posts about the reunion coming ... 

Poipu Beach - Traveler Photo Contest 2011 - National Geographic - National Geographic

via travel.nationalgeographic.com

I've decided to enter one of my photos into the National Geographic Traveler photo contest. It's super hard to choose one to enter, but I thought this one would be good because it's unusual. You don't expect a stormy Hawaiian beach and the sky was incredible.

So "like" it on Facebook an/or tweet it to help me out! Thanks!!

10 on 10 :: May 2011 :: Things on Tuesday

Today I decided to do a combo  "Things on Tuesday" and "10 on 10 challenge" - it gave me a little bit of a purpose for shooting my boring work day.  Click on the photo above to see everything larger - not a very exciting set, but wasn't a very exciting day.  So here goes!

This week's loves

• Breakfast and the Today Show - I am grumpy without them
• Music is something that I am passionate about.  It wakes me up, surrounds me in the shower and puts me to sleep at night!  Weather it be my own mixes or Pandora - I am listening right now!
• New bags!  I seem to be on a forever search for just the right bag... most recent bags are the quilted *emera, an adorable chevron tote and leather Banana Republic convertible shoulder/cross body that I scooped up on ebay (thanks Kendra, hope you don't mind I copied).
• The first day of open toe shoes!!!  It was a beautiful 80 + degrees in Chicago today - yeah!!
• Scoring tickets to Oprah's Surprise Spectacular - WOOT!! I am so excited and freaked out about what to wear.  They say to wear color and my wardrobe is chalked full of black, white, beige and gray... ack!  What to do??

This week's loathes

• That I don't eat better - I have a salad but still have to have a croissant or something that's not so good for me... ugh!
• That I cannot seem to get rid of carbonated beverages and stick with water.  They just taste better.
• My damn sweet tooth - I just have to have something sweet to keep me going through the afternoon.
• Neck and shoulder pain that I cannot figure out what the trigger is and how to control it.  Two acupuncture treatments and I'm about 80% - am seeing a Naprapathic doctor next week.  Sheesh!
• Work.  Work.  Work on a beautiful day.  Ah well.  Hope you got out and enjoyed your day!!