THE MAIL

So this week I exchanged film via the United States Postal Service with a complete stranger. A guy who saw my photos on Flickr, noticed that I had taken a photo of my spare fridge filled with all my Polaroid film and misc 35mm and 120 films too. Here's the shot:
He proposed a trade - he wanted some of my black and white 120 (medium format) film. I'm much more of a color shooter and I typically find 120 a pain to get developed (no, Costco doesn't do it). After beginning to scan my family's old color slides and seeing the fantastic color, I've been wanting to test the waters with shooting slide film. I asked the guy if he had any color slide film to swap and he did! So we discussed via flickr email what films we had to trade and we came to an agreement over a 12 for 12 trade and presto on Friday my film arrived. I had originally come into the possession of the 120 film for free (bundled with the purchase of a used camera) so basically for the cost of about 5 bucks total to buy the box to ship the film in and pay for postage - I got a dozen rolls of slide film I wanted. Pretty cool. To buy a dozen rolls of 35mm slide film would probably have cost me about $60-$70 bucks. I love that in today's paranoid age, that total strangers can still do something pretty awesome for each other.

Also in the mail I received the two 4mb SD cards I'd ordered from Adorama. Here they are inside their little key chains sandisk included.My biggest SD card before this was a 2gb card, so it will be nice to do a lot more jpeg shooting or be able to do raw and not run out of room.

Lastly, I decided this week to order a Wacom Intuos3 6x8 tablet.
I've had a Wacom Graphire3 for a few years that's a LOT smaller. I originally used it in a photoshop class I took about 3 years ago and then it has just sat unused since then. Now I'm enrolled in a new photoshop class at Samy's and every desk has it's own Wacom. I lucked out and actually got the one large size tablet (I think it's 6x11) on my desk. As soon as I started using it I was really amazed at how much nicer it felt compared to my old Wacom because of the larger size and the nicer pen with a very tactile and soft rubber grip. Also because this new tablet is widescreen like my iMac 24" and each corner of the Wacom directly corresponds to your screen, it's a lot more intuitive to use. I'm constantly having issues with my hands, fingers, and wrists (yes wrists - I'm ambidextrous) due to typing and mostly the mousing, so after using the Wacom at Samy's, I decided to unearth my Wacom to use at home. But my Graphire3 felt so small and hard compared to the Intuos3. My original Wacom cost under a 100 bucks and this new one was $329. Yikes. I'm trying to save up to buy Photoshop CS3 and possibly Lightroom now so the idea of spending another $329 was not good. But, I discovered that not only did Wacom have the tablet I wanted refurbished for only $200, but that by buying the tablet I was eligible for a CS3 upgrade (to the Elements 4 that came bundled) at a reduced price! So instead of CS3 costing $650, I would get $300 off!! And if I buy Lightroom at the same time, Lightroom is discounted $75 dollars. So in this case, spending money on the Intuos3 is actually saving me money on CS3 AND saving my hands at the same time. I know that I can mouse a LOT faster, but it's really killing my hand/wrist/fingers. I think once I get more used to the Wacom that I'll be up to speed, but at this point, I'll sacrifice the speed for hand longevity. What's nice about the Intuos3 6x8 (and the 6x11) is that it has express keys (for key strokes) and touch strips (for zooming and scrolling) on both sides of the tablet. Since I'm ambidextrous, this means I can switch between either side of the tablet depending on whether my right or left hand is free. And this way I can also split up the repetitive tasks between two hands. The only area I'm not 100% ambidextrous is in holding the pen in my left hand. I'm a bit goofier and a little impaired when I do that, but I plan to practice more so I can switch off hands that hold the pen. I just started fooling around with Apple's Inkwell today, so possibly I can start writing stuff out more instead of typing too. You don't have to be a photographer to use the Wacom or any other tablet. Anyone can benefit from it. It really helps cut down on the stress of mousing. But the Wacom does come with a mouse if you want to use one, the only caveat is that it only works on the Wacom tablet (not on your desk or other surface). I prefer my Apple Might Mouse to the Wacom mouse, so I'm still using that too. If you want a tablet but don't want to spend $200 and up, get a Wacom Bamboo, they're very similar to the Intuos3 and the smallest one retails for $79 bucks. The Bamboo is really just a newer version of the Graphire3 I already own but now they've updated it with a scroll wheel and 4 express keys.

I wrote these comments using the Wacom and the bundled Corel Painter Essentials 3

Close up shot of the express keys and touch strip. You use your fingers to touch these, not the Wacom pen.

For more info on the Wacom Intuos3 6x8 go to http://www.wacom.com/intuos/6x8.cfm

1967 BUICK GS CONVERTIBLE

1967 Buick GS 400 Convertible. Photographed in Sherman Oaks or Van Nuys (not sure where the border is exactly) on May 16, 2008 using a Polaroid 110B Pathfinder (converted to pack film) with Polaroid ID-UV Film.

ATOMIC PATIO

Quintessential 50's/60's patio set photographed by Lydia Marcus with a Polaroid 110B Pathfinder (converted to Pack Film) on Fuji FP-100C Film.

POLAROID CARS

In the last couple weeks I've finally invested some time to get to really understand Flickr and see how it can work for me. Getting a Pro account on Flickr (where I can upload an unlimited amount of photos) and finding all the cool Polaroid groups has really motivated me to start scanning my Polaroids like a mad woman. But even though there are a tremendous amount of groups devoted to Polaroid, I noticed there wasn't a single car group - so two days ago I started my own! As of this afternoon, my group Polaroid Cars has 77 members and close to 200 photos in the group pool. This is very exciting for me. What's really cool is that some of the members are actually people whose work I admire tremendously like Grant Hamilton. So please check out Flickr and come visit my group.



Here are two of my all time favorite Polaroid car shots - both are images of my Dad's 1966 Buick LeSabre convertible:
Polaroid SX-70 Alpha with Time Zero Film

Polaroid 110B Pathfinder (modified Pack Film back) with Polaroid ID-UV film.

MOM'S TOUCH

In 1981 I graduated from elementary school. Until this Sunday, I held onto one of my graduation gifts for 27 years. My Aunt Lisa and Uncle Fritz gave me $30 dollars cash in the form of three extremely fresh, crisp $10 dollar bills. I don't remember why I initially didn't spend the money, but basically all these years I've had the cash in the original envelope tucked away in a drawer for mostly sentimental reasons. My Uncle died in 1993 and my Aunt in 1995. Even though I inherited all of their possessions (in fact the desk I use was my Uncle's), there was something sweet about still having that cash. I guess one day I figured I'd spend it on something and imagine my they had bought it for me. Well that day came on Sunday, which happened to be Mother's Day. I found a used 1973 Yashica Electro 35 GSN rangefinder on Craigslist that was selling for exactly $30 dollars. The time seemed right to dig into that envelope. Mother's Day is of course a bit melancholy for me so the idea that in some way my Aunt (truly my second Mother) was buying me a camera made me feel good. The camera would also connect me to my Uncle who was a photographer in Los Angeles - he did children's portrait sittings in his late in life second career, after being a spice seller in Philadelphia. But something strange happened when I went to take the money out of the envelope, I discovered another folded up bill that I had no memory was ever in there. Without unfolding it, I could immediately see on the outside fold that it was a $2 dollar bill. My Mom had a thing for $2 dollar bills because they reminded her of her father. He had once given her a $2 bill and signed it to her and she always carried it with her in her wallet under her driver's license. As I unfolded the bill, I could see that it was one my Mom had inscribed to me, "with love from Mom 1983." There aren't too many moments in life that can give you pure elation but finding that $2 bill I had long forgotten about on Mother's Day when my Mom is no longer around on this earthly plane was an off the charts moment in time. After 27 years of saving that $30 dollar gift from my Aunt and Uncle, Mother's Day was the day that I "decided" to spend it. Coincidence, spirit guided, who knows. It's pretty phenomenal either way, and for me, a definite feeling of my Mom's touch.

The envelope from my Aunt Lisa and Uncle Fritz

The three $10 dollar bills. The guy who sold me the camera immediately commented when I handed him the money, "Wow these are crisp," and noted that they didn't look like the normal bills in circulation. I didn't tell him the story of their being tucked away for 27 years.

The $2 bill my Mom inscribed.


The $2 dollar bill my Grandfather gave to my Mom


The Yashica Electro 35 GSN rangefinder



I love that atomic symbol!


Yashica Electro 35 GSN rangefinder specs:
Produced 1973 Yashica Camera Co., Japan
Film type 135 (35mm)
Picture size 24mm x 36mm
Weight 24.6oz (697.4g) sans battery
Lens Color Yashinon DX 45mm 1:1.7-16
Filter size 55mm threaded, 57mm slip-on
Focal range 2.6' to infinity
Shutter Copal Elec
Shutter speeds B, 1/30, 30s-1/500 aperture priority (1/500 only w/out battery)
Viewfinder coupled rangefinder with auto parallax correction
Exposure meter lens mounted CdS, over/under lights in viewfinder
ASA 25-1000
Battery originally PX32 5.6 Mercury, will accept 6v 28A or 4LR44
Hotshoe
Self-timer
Battery check lamp
Fast-action wind lever

BEIGE

A slice of old school Fairfax





Polaroids and digital images photographed May 10, 2008 and March 23, 2006 in Los Angeles

FOR MOM

Happy Mother's Day Mom - wherever your spirit is roaming.

Love Always,

Lydia
xoxo

THE NEED FOR SPEED

I found out about a great sale on Sandisk thanks to Ken Rockwell's site. Right now, most of Sandisk's memory cards have major rebates, and the rebates get bigger the more cards you buy. Different retailers have this promotion going on, but Adorama sweetens the pot by offering an extra 10% added to your rebate if you choose a Gift Check option instead of a Visa Check Card. I purchased two SanDisk Extreme Ducati Edition 4 GB Secure Digital, SD Plus USB Memory Cards. The cost was $120 with free shipping, and I'll be getting either $70 dollars back in a Visa Check Card or $77 if I choose the Adorama Gift Card option. So essentially, this is costing me around $50 bucks for 2 really fast SD cards. The thing that's really cool about the special edition Ducati cards (besides their red color) is that they have a usb connection built into the card so you don't need to lug around a card reader to use them. Also, they have a much faster read/write speed (20mb a second) than the cheaper line of SD cards. The card also comes with a RescuePRO® Deluxe Recovery Software CD - which can come in handy if you have corrupted files or are trying salvage stuff you've erased.

I don't have any Ducati photos that I've taken, but in the spirit of things, here's a nice vintage mid 1970's Honda that I photographed in Venice Beach on March 3, 2008.

CULVER CITY CRUISIN'

Tomorrow I'm going to the Fifth Annual Cruisin' Back to Culver City Car Show - although this will be my first annual time attending ;-) While I love shooting all kinds of cars, my main draw to the show is that George Barris, self-described "Kind of the Kustomizers," will be there with some of his kar kreations. Barris designed the Batmobile (for the 60's TV show), the Munster's Koach, the Beverly Hillbillies jalopy, the Monkee-Mobile, and the General Lee!

Here are some photos I took of the Monkee-Mobile at the TV LAND convention in Burbank, CA on August 17, 2003:








After the show, I'm off to Samy's Camera to start a four week class on Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Photographers 1. Hopefully I'll be picking up lots of tips, tricks and skills. And FYI, Samy's is having a huge sale this weekend - no tax on many items, and markdowns on a lot of stuff.

NO MORE WIENERS

Wiener Factory, photographed April 2, 2008 in Sherman Oaks, CA. Shot with a Polaroid 195 camera using Polaroid ID-UV Film.

The Wiener Factory opened at 14917 Ventura Blvd. in 1971 and closed at the end of 2007. The site is supposed to be taken over by a Pinkberry (because everyone knows that the world needs another Pinkberry).

BIG RED

Almost a month ago I bought a new point and shoot digital camera, a sexy red Sony T100. My old trusty point and shoot, a Nikon Coolpix S2, still works, but it was getting long in the tooth for me for several reasons including: no image stabilization (which makes it really hard to hand hold and get steady shots in low light); only 5 megapixel (making it impossible to upload anything to JPG Magazine which requires more resolution). What I have loved about my S2 is it's sliding cover - slide down to power the camera on and start shooting immediately, slide up to turn it off. Usually when I'm shooting, I have to be fast, especially if I'm with non-shooting friends who want me to keep moving. The sliding cover really speeds stuff up! The S2's lens also zooms inside the camera body - it doesn't need time to have the lens extend outward. So whatever new camera I was going to buy had to have a sliding lens cover, no extruding lens/zoom, and image stabilization. I wasn't as concerned with megapixels - 7, 8, 10 - all fine with me. With those requirements in mind, I didn't have a lot of camera choices out there. I narrowed down my choice to Sony, who actually had many different models with sliding covers. I had used an acquaintance's Sony T20 and really liked the camera a lot, so that helped point me in the right direction. The camera I bought, the T100, is pretty much a beefed up T20. My camera has a 3 inch screen (the largest on any of my cameras), and HD movie mode (the images are really great, but the sound is even better!), two different macro modes, 8 megapixels, 2 modes of image stabilization (called Sony Steady Shot), and a lot of manual tweaks. The T100 is actually a discontinued model so I had to do some searching to find it. I located it at the Sony Outlet Store in Camarillo. The reason I wanted the older model vs the new T200 is that the newer model has a touch screen. Maybe in a couple years they're improve the touch screens and I'll want one for shooting, but for right now, I prefer to have some dedicated buttons. The way I shoot - fast - I want to be able to quickly access main buttons I use a lot like macro or the flash. On my camera those buttons are at my fingertips, on the touch screen model, first you tap the screen, then you look for the function you want, then you tap that, then tap some more to get it to do what you want. I prefer shooting to tapping. After shooting with the T100 for a month I have found out it's strengths and weaknesses. The 2 macro modes are absolutely unbelievable on this camera - the best I've ever had on a point and shoot and they actually come so close to a real hard core dedicated macro lens I'm flabbergasted. The HD movie mode is fantastic. The mic is really sensitive and picks up audio really well. The zoom is really big (5x) for a camera this small. This camera actually has several different kinds of metering modes. I took some photos (see Bette Davis tribute pictures below) in a dark theater with a spotlight on the stage - the perfect setting for spot metering. I switched the meter to spot and the photos speak for themselves - a wonderful exposure - not too dark, not washed out, just right. Weakness, well like any point and shoot, flash photos never look very natural. But, in the camera's defense, I have to say there is the ability to tone down or turn up flash intensity (a feature I haven't fooled around with yet), so I probably can make stuff look better if I try. I love the bigger screen I have now (my old camera was 2.5 inch), but Sony seems to have coated it with some kind of Polarized tint that actually works against my sunglasses I wear that also have polarized tint. Sometimes with my sunglasses on, it's really hard to see the screen because it becomes very dark. But I just have to stick my glasses on my head for a sec and then I can see fine. A small price to pay. Anyway, here's some photos examples from the Sony T100.




Side by side - my old Nikon Coopix S2 and the Sony T100



I love how this captured both stillness and motion!


A ladybug with the macro. I can't believe a little point and shoot can actually produce bokeh like this. That's at the camera's widest f stop f3.5









I was zooming in from pretty far away, I'm impressed how easily you can read the back of this RV.

Nice color rendition.

Macros of my Dad's 1966 Buick LeSabre convertible


The details on this macro shot are amazing!



No you aren't seeing it twice, this second shot is one that the Sony retouched in camera - giving it a soft focus that blurs the periphery around a chosen point (I chose the center of the image). It's basically the lensbaby effect.

At LACMA





The Post Office unveiled the new Bette Davis stamp (available in September) before a screening of "Jezebel." I was sitting pretty far back in the theater when I shot the next few images. Totally handheld, steady shot on, 400 iso, spot metering. I'm pretty amazed with the details and excellent exposure.



The lights outside of LACMA's new BCAM

macro of my incision, now healing into a scar.



more of the soft blur retouching effect

macro butterfly

me and lucy at the beach - the colors are so natural

And even if you don't care about taking artful images, the Sony T100 also works perfectly for taking cheeky snapshots. :-)