Just got a replacement for the Zeiss 135 (4th one) from Adorama and the box is similarly busted open. FUCK UPS AND FUCK ADORAMA for not using packaging peanuts like they said they would this time. They use those shitty air filled plastic things that get popped and then there is nothing to prevent the box from caving in and getting ripped apart. I'm going to go with pop flash or lens rentals and ask them to use fedex. They better not think of charging me for return shipping for this bullshit. 

Looks like UPS is doing this to all your parcels.

I'm not entirely sure going with FedEx would help...

 

Sony A7R, FE55mm f/1.8

 

DSC00080ps by drjlo1, on Flickr

Woke up with this sunrise, so I took a shot with Sony A7R with FE55 and 5D III and 24-70 f/2.8 II both at around 55 mm and at f/3.2  The 24-70 is a bit disadvantaged as it's barely stopped down, and the auto white balance of both cameras yielded very different WB, so I did my best to match WB.  Sony also seemed to choose faster shutter speed so exposure had to be tweaked a bit.

 

Sony A7R, FE55mm by drjlo1, on Flickr

 

5D III white balance match by drjlo1, on Flickr

 

 

For the curious, this is how 5D III WB looked before matching.  Recalling what my own eyes saw, I would say the sky looked like somewhere between Sony and Canon but more towards Canon.

 

Canon 5DIII WB, exposure match by drjlo1, on Flickr

Couldn't find a willing model to help me figure out lighting setups for low key photos, so sat down myself and took some pictures while moving the light around after each attempt.

Edited March 13, 201412 yr by crappyjones123

CJ ... you are creeping me out (in a good way).  Fantastic images, but we want more ... camera, lens, lighting, exposure, subject.

 

Nice work.

Thank you Gene. One of my all time favorite movies, Red Dragon, was the inspiration for the past few images. Had my philosophy advisor agreed, my thesis would have been on cannibalism and how it affects the cannibals psyche in terms of emotional and sexual gratification. I find the topic fascinating. 

 

Towards the end of the movie, Anthony Hopkins, looks up and says, "Do you dream much, Will? I think of you often..." I get chills every time I see/hear it. In the scene you see Hannibal look up in quite a similar way as the pictures in the last post. Rehan, one of my classmates, agreed to help me play around with some cheap studio lights I recently acquired. We took some usual portraits but I wanted to try to catch her doing something different since she is always smiling and happy. She was sitting and all of a sudden looked up and I remembered the scene from Red Dragon and then spent half an hour trying to light the scene just right. 

 

Only post processing done was crop/straighten and sharpening of the eyes. Everything else is SOOC. 

 

Here's a less scary one. 



All taken with a D800, Zeiss 135/2. Lighting varied throughout the images but for my self portrait, I had a light bouncing off an umbrella at a 45 degree angle behind me. Similar set up for her photo but the angle was 10-20 degrees only as her hair were blocking the light. I know there are those two bright spots on her nose from the light but I am still learning. =/ 

Edited March 15, 201412 yr by crappyjones123

Anurag ... incredible job of turning a beautiful, innocent looking, and spectacularly beautiful young woman into a scary ghoul in the first post.  

 

As to the second, bright lights on her nose be damned, she is still a spectacular beauty that you were too lazy or incompetent to shop out the bright nose reflections that were entirely of your own making in the first place.  Harsh criticism, I know. but you can take it, and will be better for it.

I tried to clone the bright spots to something in the neighborhood but it ended up looking much worse so I left them be. Lightroom doesn't have many options for dealing with super bright highlights. I'll try fixing the spots once I finish working on the other images. 

Last one for tonight. 

 

Anurag ... incredible job of turning a beautiful, innocent looking, and spectacularly beautiful young woman into a scary ghoul in the first post.  

 

As to the second, bright lights on her nose be damned, she is still a spectacular beauty that you were too lazy or incompetent to shop out the bright nose reflections that were entirely of your own making in the first place.  Harsh criticism, I know. but you can take it, and will be better for it.

I completely agree. Congrats.

CJ, did you read the book? I used to live Thomas Harris (if memory serves.) Red Dragon was a great book. Wasn't PSH also in that movie?

**BRENT**

I've read all of his work multiple times over. Excellent author.

I have some Audible credits. I should grab them again for work listening.

**BRENT**

I made the mistake of picking up Thomas Hardy instead of Thomas Harris by accident when I was first looking for the Hannibal series. WORST. MISTAKE. EVER. He was the most depressing author I have ever read. Can't remember even getting through that book. 

http://anuragkatyal.blogspot.com/2014/03/shadow-dancer.html

Photos from my recent vacation:  http://tkam.smugmug.com/Vacations/March-2014

 

These are just the jpg's straight from the camera - haven't had anytime to run the raw's through lightroom yet.

Nope. Never going back to Adorama again - Helen was rather flippant in her response to the first email. I didn't even get a response to the second email. I am basically out $2200 right now for an untold amount of time which is quite annoying. 

What would Zeiss do here? Adorama is one of their biggest sellers. They aren't going to yell at them. 

Hokay. Will call Zeiss USA tomorrow. 

 

Sigma 35/1.4

Edited March 22, 201412 yr by crappyjones123

That's a pretty cool image, CJ.

Thanks Nate. Spring break started yesterday at 5 so I thought I would go to the beach early morning. Got up and looked at the weather - 77 and clear. Got to the beach an hour later and it was pouring. Snuck this one when the rain let up for a few minutes.