Beverly Hills Is A Trip

BH is just like the movies. Alternate universe full of designer clothes and huge lips. I overheard a conversation while walking on Rodeo Drive earlier. Went like this.

Man 1: I love your pants

Man 2: OMG darling, thank you so much

Man 1: Where did you get them from?

Man 2: Lanvin and the top is Philipp Plein (stated with extreme pride)

Man 1: You are looking scrumptious hun 🙂

Man 2: Oh oh you are too kind 😉

Then man 2 walks off with what seemed to be two friends who were visited. He then told his friends, “People here are so interested in my clothes, it happens a lot. People here really care.”

This was all in a flamboyant valley boy accent.

BH is definitely unique.

Does High ISO Matter Anymore?

I don’t think so. Especially so for black and white street photography where a little grit is welcomed. I found the highest ISO photo in my Lightroom library. This photo was taken at 25,600 ISO with my Nikon Zf. I used the Denoise feature at 50 to smooth it out a bit. I think it looks great. Does this eliminate the appeal for monochrome cameras? I think it does. Modern cameras are all probably on par with high ISO noise usability of monochrome cameras and the Deep Tone Monochrome profile on the Zf reminds me of Leica Q2M files.

Cropped to 100%. Maybe it’s too smooth. I could just use the Denoise at 25 and call it a day.

The Candid Snap Shot Is My Favorite

I take photos of anything I find interesting but for the me, candid snaps are my favorite. A small glimpse into life. I especially like capturing that glimpse that tells a story. No posing, no working the scene or layering and no willing the photo into existence. I have one shot a the photo. If I don’t act quickly, the moment is gone forever. Right time, right place and a lot of luck. A few I’ve taken in the past week.

Nikon Zf High Efficiency Raw Files

Already this camera is my favorite. But the high efficiency raw files is in my opinion the sleeper feature that nobody is talking about. Very little about it can be found on the web. The high efficiency raw files come in at 11 mb each. (For reference, my Leica Q2M files were 88 mb each.) Not the high efficiency*, the lowest quality high efficiency settings. I’ve seen no difference between the higher quality and lowest quality raw file. For street shooters who take a lot of photos, this really matters. Less time importing and exporting, less storage space and faster processing times. The workflow is nearly as fast as my JPEG only workflow. More emphasis on making photos, less fiddling around in post. When I import into Lightroom, my preset gets me 95% of the way there and I make a few tweaks and I’m done.

Nikon Zf Selfie Under The Atmospheric River…Again

What’s up with all these atmospheric rivers? Just in February, we’ve had over a years worth of rain. Santa Monica set the two day record for rain in its 150 year recorded history. Anyways, the Zf is a sexy camera. Sometimes that matters. Probably why I bought all those Leicas. The Zf is the SLR sexy version of the Leica rangefinder. I’ve been addicted to this camera. Already over 7,000 shots and it was delivered to me on February 2nd. That’s a lot of usage. Hard to tell my feelings in the future, but I’d like to beat a camera down unto submission until the shutter fails. Maybe this will be the one.

The Americans Photo Book By Robert Frank

Ya know, I’ve criticized the photo book numerous times on this blog. They are usually just meh to me. I’ve never looked at a photo book and been overly impressed. It would probably have to cover a specific subject I’m passionate about for me to be excited. Maybe I’m just not “intellectual” enough to get it.

Today I looked through every photo in the legendary photo book by Robert Frank, “The Americans.” I’ve had it for over a year, this was the second time I looked through it. The book has 83 photos selected out of 20,000 taken over two years. And there’s a reason I’ve only looked at it twice in two years. It’s just another photo book that’s meh to me. What am I missing? The photos are fine to me, but nothing special. Two stuck out to me though.

This one is almost perfect to me. I love the row of houses out in BFE. Only thing I don’t like is the tree branches overlapping with the poll.
The absurdity of this scene. Who wants to relax while watching men take a piss?

So those are my two favorites. Maybe that will change if I look at in next year. Maybe I’m just a hater that doesn’t appreciate art. Who knows, but it’s the way I feel.

Desert Trash

The desert is a trash lovers paradise. A glimpse of discarded materials takes me into the past. I’ve now been to quite a few states with deserts. California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Texas. That’s a lot of desert. And I’ve noticed that deserts in California have a lot of trash. More than the other states I’ve visited. I’ve spent the most time in California since I live here, so my experience is anecdotal.

Graffitied fridge in the California lavic fields. That’s lava behind it, the black rock which probably came out of the ground about 50,000 years ago.
Old bullet riddled Keep Out sign off of old Route 66
Discarded tires on old Route 66.
Love letter on an old rusty can in the Mojave desert.

Kelso Dunes In The Mojave Desert

How blessed are we? On top of these beautiful dunes in the Mojave desert. I think the second tallest dunes in California. From the base, they rise around 640 ft. I verified this on my Gaia GPS app. Quite the scene. Does it get much better than winter in the desert? Photographers paradise as the sun never gets too high so the light is right all day.

Gisela grinding up the sand with the Providence mountains in the back. Hiking up 640 feet of sand is a good workout.
At the Kelso Dunes summit. What a scene.

Old Cafe & Motel Sign On Route 66

Found this old sign and thought it was pretty cool. Surely it’s been photographed already? Probably by a guy in a fedora and with some Portra. This was on old Route 66 next to I-40 about 30 miles east of Barstow. Our first time on this part of the old route and it was a nice ride with plenty of a past life to see.