Tuesday, August 3, 2010

38 Недель

Daniel & Alena. Photography by Andrey Rybalka.

Нам уже 38 недель и 1 день.

Я хотела доносить до этого рубежа, а теперь уже буду не против рожать в любое время.

Говорят, что первородящие мамаши часто перенашивают за 40 недель. Мне бы лично хотелось родить до 16 августа (за 2 недели до Даниного

Central Park. Daniel & Alena. Photography by Andrey Rybalka.

дня рождения), но тут уж как получится. Вообще интересно всё же — какой механизм контролирует начало процесса? Зависит ли это в большей степени от матери (при здоровой матери со средними физическими нагрузками), от ребенка, или еще от чего?

Чувствую я себя тьфу-тьфу-тьфу хорошо. Даже спина болеть перестала недели 2 назад. А сейчас еще и жарень на улице чуть меньше стала, так я до метро хожу даже с удовольствием, а не потому что надо для физических нагрузок.

Конечно, я не могу идти быстро и устаю больше, но всё же по рассказам знакомых картинка мне рисовалась в чуть более мрачных тонах. Правильно, наверное, люди говорят, что каждая женщина переносит

Daniel and Alena in Central Park. Photography by Andrey Rybalka.

беременность по-своему, и даже каждая беременность может протекать по-разному (это я надеюсь не накаркать на будущеe).

В субботу Данин колега Андрей сделал нам очень приятное одолжение. Андрей увлекается фотографией — и получается у него это, на мой взгляд, очень неплохо. Так вот он провёл с нами 1.5 часа в Централ Парке делая фотографии нашей довольной пузатой семейки. Я фотографий пока не видела, но если получится хотя бы 2-3 хороших снимка, то затея себя оправдала.

In: Family, Photography Tags: Andrey, birthday, book, pregnancy
Time: 00:02 Comments: 12 Comments Post a Comment

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ufly says: Subscribed

August 3, 2010 @ 10:51

Алена, здорово, что беременность проходит достаточно легко. Я думаю, что многое зависит от настроя и настроения.

Есть хорошая книга для родителей по-русски: “Общаться с ребенком. Как?” – Гиппенрейтер Ю.Б. Правда, она про более старших детей, но прочитать ее все равно интересно.

А фотографии, действительно, очень удачные.

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Alena says: Subscribed

August 5, 2010 @ 13:41

Д. Боря, спасибо. Так давно не слышала выражения “на сносях”!

Вика, спасибо. Я желаю тебе тоже чувствовать себя хорошо когда ты будеш в положении! Теперь вот надеюсь роды пройдут спокойно и (самое главное) малышик будет здоровенький! Я как раз к врачу сегодня ходила — открытие уже 2 см (на прошлой неделе было 1 см) и cervix is effaced somewhat (не знаю как по-русски сказать), что тоже хорошо.

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Sunday, March 28, 2010

Pattern Walk

Yesterday we went for a work on which turned out to be an uncharacteristically cold day. We ended up looking for patterns and textures of all kind and taking photos. Here are some of them.

Brick Wall

Building Facade

Cobblestone Pavement

Garage Door

Ivy Wall

Graffiti

Metal Sidewalk

In: Photography Tags: color, graffiti, pattern, texture, walk
Time: 12:36 Comments: No Comments Post a Comment

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Monday, March 22, 2010

Shooting Weekend

We had a good shooting weekend. Finally had a chance to take D700 into the wild and ended up with a good number of pretty decent shots. We started our Saturday with a short trip to Fort Wadsworth — a small National Park on the the Staten Island’s side of Verrazzano Bridge. Besides the multitude of bridge shots I got several and what seems to be interesting perspectives.

In the evening of the same day, Misha, Sasha, Alena and I drove to Hoboken for good perspective on Manhattan. We had to break a couple of minor laws to get into a good shooting location, but I ended up with some great shots from there.

Out of all the shots that I took I still ended up liking the HDR processed ones much more. A little tip for this kind of photography is to set the camera to small aperture and slower shutter speeds. This makes the lights turn into stars.

And somewhere on Sunday Alena and I did some lighting experiments and ended up with this nice spontaneous celebrity wave kind of portrait. I wish it was taken somewhere out on the street having a non uniform background.

In: Photography Tags: Fort Wadsworth, HDR, Hoboken, long exposure, Mahattan, night shot, reflection, Verrazzano Bridge
Time: 13:52 Comments: No Comments Post a Comment

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Friday, March 12, 2010

Peculiar AF Issue

This post is a place where I can refer people to about a really bizarre auto focusing issue that I’ve been having, without having to repeat it over and over again.

Introduction

I’ve been using D70 for over 5 years and I’ve taken about 50,000 shots. I’ve had D700 for 2 weeks before I exchanged it for the pricing reason¹, and B&H shipped the same camera back to me and I haven’t noticed an issue. I first noticed the problem on the day that I received this camera and a lens for the 2nd time.

The Issue

In short I believe there is an AF problem that happens in very specific conditions. It also seems to me that this must be a defect with the camera, the lens, or both. It happened so that my test subject of choice was a sticker on a Peach Snapple bottle that was on my desk. This, in fact is the one and only item that I can replicate the issue on. Continue Reading

Nikon started a rebate program 2 weeks after my order that would save me $300 when I buy the camera and the lens that I bought as a kit instead of as separate items. B&H had no issue closing out the first order and creating a new one so I would qualify. They didn’t have to do it, but they made this customer very happy. [↩]

In: Photography Tags: 24-70mm, AF, D700, false positive focus lock, focus, focus lock, issue, Nikkor, Nikon, problem
Time: 15:13 Comments: 1 Comment Post a Comment

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Daniel says: Subscribed

March 14, 2010 @ 18:14

Went to B&H today. As was recommended to me I spoke with a guy named Gerry who worked with Nikons for many years.

He hasn’t seen a thing like this before, but he spent about 30 minutes listening to me and working on the issue with me. Eventually he brought over another body and a lens (same combo) and we easily replicated the problem.

So this is the conclusion. All Nikon (didn’t test the others) bodies seem to do it. Some choice of a test subject I had, eh?

I’m satisfied to know that my copy is perfectly fine. Huge props to B&H yet again for superior customer service.

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Friday, February 19, 2010

Old Lenses, New Camera

Macro lens shot. Much easier to work with less focal length and much faster AF.

I did a couple of experiments with old lenses on the new FX sensor. First of all most of them has gotten into a much “apartment” friendlier range. 50mm acts as one, not as 75mm on DX. So is 105mm macro. I’ve noticed it focusing much faster on the new camera as well.

As wide as it gets. 10mm on 35mm sensor.

Wide angle though is really something. It really is a DX only lens, hence the black circle. However 10mm on FX sensor is weirdly impressive. Talk about wide.

All the distortion also creates interesting effects. Here is a mega-cat for you. The camera actually has a DX mode which produces close to 6 mega-pixel images, same as D70 did. Or you can crop the circle out manually, which I prefer to do.

And this one is a great shot. Too bad it’s not sharp. Shublik got extremely close to the camera to “distort” so much, but since it’s not a macro lens it doesn’t focus at such close distances.

In: Photography Tags: 10-20mm, 105mm, 35mm, D700, DX, FX, lens, macro, Shublik, Sigma, wide
Time: 22:51 Comments: No Comments Post a Comment

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Thursday, February 18, 2010

Nikon D700

Well, I finally bit the bullet and pulled the trigger on D700¹. Sounds painful, I know. But I’m happy that it finally happened. I’ve been saving up² and waiting for this since the end of August.

I’ve done a LOT of reading and was convinced that my old trusty D70 was needed to be replaced and that Nikon D700 was my dream camera. There are multiple raving reviews all over the net. The camera has an amazing ISO performance and one of the best AF systems. A lot of that is contributed to by it’s full frame sensor³.

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED lens.

There are multiple other distinctions which are covered in numerous reviews, so I’m not going to go through the list. ISO and 51 AF points (as opposed to 5) were among the main reasons for me.

Sample D700 shot, fresh from the camera.

Initially I decided to wait for the next iteration of the camera. And then several weeks ago I saw a whole different perspective on the issue. The price has came down from $3,000 to $2,399. I think its safe to assume that the new one will be introduced at the same price point. Is there any new future that I would pay $600 more for? I can’t think of anything.

Video? Nice, but it would be 1 week of play for me and never would be used again. A second CF slot? Again, nice, but not $600 nice. Improved sensor from D3s? Again, nice, but not $600 nice. And resolution bump for sacrificed ISO performance? Would be a downer for me. I was happy with 6 mega-pixels, I sure will be happy with 12.

Sample shot. 100% crop. Noise levels at ISO 1600.

Either way the upgrade for me is huge and most of it is positive. The only negative is that the new combo is noticeably heavier and bigger then the old setup, but I’m more than happy to live with this trade off for all the benefits.

I also did buy a new “main” lens. The jump from DX to FX have rendered a pair of my lenses somewhat useless. Beside that my D70 kit lens was never anything to write home about. The new lens is one of the top Nikon lenses — Nikon AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED. According to reviews the lens is extremely sharp in all of its extremes and has very little distortion of any kind. After all, the body is going to only perform as nice as the glass attached to it.

In short, I’m very happy and very excited. Have a lot of learn about the new body, get rid of some of the habits that formed over the years with D70 and then have fun.

Ordered from B&H on Friday night, delivered on Tuesday morning. [↩]
Thanks to my great friends and family for their contribution. [↩]
D700 has FX sensor, D70 has DX sensor. FX is the equivalent of 35mm film sensor. DX is significantly smaller. [↩]

In: Gadgets & Gear, Photography Tags: 24-70mm, D70, D700, DX, f/2.8, FX, ISO, lens, Nikkor, Nikon, samples
Time: 18:09 Comments: 2 Comments Post a Comment

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Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Snow 2010

And here is our mandatory snow storm photo. The storm is not nearly as bad as everyone predicted it would be, but I like the change of scenery. Not more than twice a year though, please.

I’m working from home and everyone from office is too. Alena’s working from home as well. My mom is working from home. Shublik is definitely working from home. I think the schools are closed today also.

In: Life In General, Photography Tags: flag, snow, trees
Time: 11:38 Comments: No Comments Post a Comment

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Friday, April 24, 2009

Shublik The Model

I really like the amber color of the eye. Although his eyes are not nearly as amber as his father's.

I managed to take a few photos of Shublik’s eyes today. Normally it’s a hard task since he just does NOT sit still for a second, and today wasn’t any different.

This one is funny. He was playing with his "mouse", lost it, and switched to his paw.

My trick was to use a lens with a focal length of 105mm at f/2.8 and a flash. This way I could stand far away and the amount of light allowed me to freeze his movement — very short exposures. The macro lens has performed well, I think.

I still had to discard most of the photos, but these 3 are the best of the series. Hope you like them too, as I’ve become very biased with things related to this little monster.

In: Life In General, Photography Tags: kitten, lens, macro, Shublik
Time: 14:42 Comments: 2 Comments Post a Comment

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Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Tilt-Shift Photography

Tilt-shift effect on a phone we took past November in Organ Pipe Cactus NM.

Tilt-shift photography is a way of making a photograph appear like that of a miniature achieved with a use of a special tilt-shift lens. It basically results in a very narrow focus spot and the rest of the photograph has a very shallow depth of field.

However tilt-shift lenses are extremely expensive — prices start from over a $1,000. Luckily the effect can be faked for the most part through post processing.

I stumbled upon this tilt-shift stuff a while back and I find it interesting enough to share. I tried faking an effect on one of my pictures through a free online tool and it is pretty damn effective in making the photo appear to be that of a miniature.

P.S. These images bring up great memories from our last road trip. That lonely teal car in the parking lot is our rental Chrysler Pacifica. We were the only people on the trail.

In: Photography Tags: miniature, Organ Pipe Cactus NM, tilt-shift
Time: 17:13 Comments: 3 Comments Post a Comment

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Sunday, March 1, 2009

О Выходных

Testing my big zoom lens near the Sheepshead Bay canal. Looks like Alex's head froze off. Photo taken by Daniil of fotoTalk.com.

Эти выходные прошли довольно-таки спокойно. В суббoту я наконец-то отправила посылки моим домашним, Тане и Кузе (провела незабываемые 1.5 часа на почте), мы стирали (6 машинок загрузили!), отвезли гору вещей в химчистку (Дане придётся в среду их оттуда забирать), Данька постригся и обрил бороду.

Happy hubby and wifey. Brooklyn Heights. Photo taken by Daniil of fotoTalk.com.

Во второй половине дня мы встретились с Даниным университетским знакомым — Даниилом, который любезно предоставил нам свою камеру для тестирования нашей вспышки (мы пытались понять, глючит наша камера или наша вспышка, но так до конца и не поняли). Вечером мы с Даниилом и Сашей прокатились в Brooklyn Heights, где немного пофотографировались и поели в каком-то итальянском местечке (еда мне не очень понравилась если честно). Вобщем, день прошёл не зря!

I'm warming my nose on Danya's cheek. Photo taken by Daniil of fotoTalk.com.

А сегодня вообще был суперленивый день. Мы очень долго дрыхли, смотрели телек, потом я болтала с Гурей, у которой, кстати, уже просто огромный пузик! Еще мы сьезили в Best Buy и купили два фильма — American History X и The Dark Night. Оба фильма мы смотрели, и оба сочли достойными покупки.

Alena and Daniel. Photo taken by Daniil of fotoTalk.com.

Завтра буду интервьюировать одного кандидата на место Эрики, которую уволили 2 недели назад за плохую работу. Первый раз в жизни я окажусь в этой роли.

Думаю, будет интересный опыт. Галя хочет нанять определённого человека (парня, который уже работал в компании, но уволился чтобы учиться на Masters), так что не знаю понравится ли ей кто либо из тех, кого отобрали для интервью.

Но вообще, если честно, во мне просмотр резюме, которые пришли на обьявление о рабочем месте, вызвал тревожны чувства. Огромное количество людей ищет работу. Столько людей с опытом работы 5-10 лет откликнулись на обьявление, что стало как-то неуютно (этих людей мы стразу откинули как кандидатов со слишком хорошей квалификацией, но и без опыта работы мы на интервью никого не пригласили).

Еще я на прошлой неделе мучалaсь над книгой “Одиночество в сети” Вишневского. Ну что могу сказать — начал за здравие, а вот закочил так точно за упокой. Читать после страницы 100-й стало откровенно скучно, и мне до сих пор надо домучать эпилог. Не рекомендую тратить время и деньги на это “произведение”.

In: Life In General, Photography Tags: Brooklyn Heights, weekend
Time: 21:33 Comments: 4 Comments Post a Comment

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Friday, February 20, 2009

Photo Library

Photo library is a feature that I have been meaning to add to the blog for quite some time now. It required a bit of a format change the would be labor intensive, so I never got around to doing it. Until now that is.

The purpose of this is for me to have a way to publish some of my best (in my opinion) photographs. Majority of them have already been posted on this blog, but there will be new ones as well.

I’ll start with 2 previously seen HDRs of mine. Move your mouse over the image itself once you’re on the photo page to navigate the library.

In: Photography, Software Tags: blog, design, library, photo
Time: 15:25 Comments: No Comments Post a Comment

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Friday, January 16, 2009

Photo Post-Processing

Photoshop postprocessing of an old shot of Grand Canyon from our 2005 trip.

Stumbled upon a couple of really old shots of mine (way back from 2005) that show a dramatic difference between the image that came out from the camera and the final version.

Original shot, fresh out of camera. Grand Canyon.

Granted the final image is not all that stellar, yet the difference is striking. And then again, it’s not often that 2 shots differ so much, but it shows what a little tweaking in Photoshop can do. Adjust the levels, increase the contrast, some sharpening. There’s nothing more to it.

In: Photography, Software Tags: Photoshop, post-processing
Time: 18:33 Comments: 3 Comments Post a Comment

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Friday, January 16, 2009

Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 Lens

Sigma Zoom Telephoto 70-200mm f/2.8 EX DG APO HSM lens.

A friend recently asked me my opinion on Sigma telephoto lens that I happen to own. The truth is that I use it quite rarely simply because of it’s sheer size and weight — I simply can’t haul it with me everywhere I wish. As a result whenever we travel I chose to carry some of the smaller optics that I own and this telephoto lens spends most of its time at home.

Mini-review of the lens and a teleconverter that I bought for it follows:

Sigma Zoom Telephoto 70-200mm f/2.8 EX DG APO HSM
Sigma 2x EX DG APO Autofocus Teleconverter

The lens has a constant aperture of f/2.8. With 2x teleconverter attached it loses 2 stops of light, but gains double the zoom.

Below is a series of shots taken out of my window. Camera must be mounted on a sturdy tripod and I prefer to use a remote to trigger the shutter if one hopes to achieve any kind of sharpness. Images have been slightly altered in Photoshop, but should provide a good idea of the quality that can be obtained with this optical combo.

Shot taken at 70mm, f/8 with lens attached to Nikon D70 camera.

Shot taken at 200mm, f/8 with lens attached to Nikon D70 camera.

Same setup as above at 200mm, f/8.

Shot taken at 400mm, f/8 with lens and teleconverter attached to Nikon D70 camera.

Lens and teleconverter on Nikon D70 at 400mm, f/8.

In: Gadgets & Gear, Photography Tags: lens, Sigma, telephoto, zoom
Time: 12:02 Comments: No Comments Post a Comment

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Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Orange Monster

It may be quite evident by now that somebody on this side of keyboard has developed a minor watch obsession over the course of the last month. This is yet another one of those posts.

While doing my watch research before the New Year one particular watch caught my eye — Seiko SKX781K, or as it is better known — the “Orange Monster”. This is a rather heavy, solidly built diving watch from Seiko.

The glow of a luminescent paint under a little bit of light.

The reason that we ended up buying it is the fact that I stumbled upon a great deal on exactly this watch on woot.com¹. A watch with a list price of over $400 was shipped to us for $138 with no tax or shipping fees. Granted it can be found for quite a bit less than $400 online, but this particular deal is impossible to beat.

Orange Monster glow in complete darkness.

The watch has very few features compared to Casio Pathfinder, but I find it quite a bit more attractive from the aesthetic point of view. It is water proof for up to 200m, has a unidirectional rotating bezel and day and date display. It’s an automatic watch, which means it winds itself from the wrist motion when being worn. And the last but not least is the fact that Seiko used a very generous amount of phosphorous paint. I did not expect the glow to be as bright as it actually is.

Overall I like the solid feel, built and the look of this timepiece a lot. I’m looking forward to wearing it as soon as I get the bracelet sized for my wrist. I also hope to test it for its main purpose on our next vacation. Seiko research says that orange is the best visible color under water.

If you excuse me now, I need to take a bath.

Woot.com is a site that normally has a very good deal on one item every day. [↩]

In: Gadgets & Gear, Photography Tags: diving, luminescent, Orange Monster, Seiko, SKX781K, watch
Time: 21:44 Comments: 1 Comment Post a Comment

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Friday, January 2, 2009

New Year Gifts

Shiseido Zen perfume. My gift to Alena for New Year.

The New Year celebration flew by in an instance, as everything else seems to do. First thing we know we’re eating dinner and then hour by hour goes by and it’s time to count down the last ten seconds of the year.

Casio Pathfinder PAW1500T-7V. Alena's gift to me on New Year.

At midnight exactly we pop the bottle of champaign open, shoot some firecrackers and poppers and then toast the new year. After a small desert my favorite parts starts — gift giving and receiving. We had a mountain of gifts under our Christmas tree.

Casio Baby G Sweet Poison BG2000BC-1 watch for Alena.

We all got a lot of stuff. Alena got a perfume that she wanted — Shiseido Zen and a pair of sports wrist watches for mountain climbing and such. I got Casio Pathfinder 1500, the one with titanium bracelet. The watch has a lot of functions — compass, altimeter, barometer, temperature sensor beside other things.

Our full collection — Voyager, DS9 and TNG.

My parents and Lina got us a whole bunch of Star Trek seasons of Voyager and The Next Generations. Now we a full set of each.

Linka also got us some towels with custom embroidered names. And my aunt got as some very colorful serving dishes. Good holiday with a lot of fun New Year is. My favorite. Too bad it is over so quickly.