Nikon V1 at the Central Jersey Jazz Festival

Took the Nikon V1 to the Central Jersey Jazz Festival. Last year it was the Somerville Jazz Festival, but they've teamed up with New Brunswick now and have beefed up their lineup and marketing. This year's crowd was much bigger, but it was still a really fun, low key event, with everyone sitting in camp chairs on the closed-down street and on the lawn of the country courthouse.

The Nikon V1 was totally in its element–good light, good subjects. I laughed inside at the few that I saw hauling full frame gear–boy their backs must ache LOL. I did shoot some video, which I'm going through now. Here are some stills for now. V1 with the 30-110 zoom.


Donald Harrison


Marcus Strickland


Christian McBride

Nikon 1 V1 @ Somerville Jazz Festival

I'm loving the fast AF of the V1 and the pretty darn good image quality in a small package aspect of it. I'm just not feeling the user experience though. Feels good in hand, but I feel like I'm operating a computer not a camera.

Somerset County Courthouse

Something's missing from this photo. Can you guess?

US

When life serves you lemons, have burgers, fries, and beers.

It's nice to have a gas stove when the power's out so you can empty the fridge of its thawing contents. #Sandy. 10/31/2012

Making the most of it - dinner by candle light. #Sandy

Trying to stay positive during the post-Sandy blackout. 10/30/2012

Somerville Jazz Festival 2012

I gotta tell you, I love my little town. As a kid, I used to come and watch theTour of Somerville, the oldest bicycle race in the country. It was fun, but the town seemed to lack something...a spark. That spark was the vibrancy of downtown commerce. A mall had opened up about a mile from downtown - you can see it from one end of town - and it decimated downtown activity as everyone went to the new place. Shop after shop closed down - antique shops and restaurants and supermarkets - and Somerville could have just laid down and died.

Thank you Andy Roddick

Andy Roddick trick shot (stop-motion), a photo by john m flores on Flickr.

From the archives....

Andy Roddick trick shot (stop-motion)

Andy Roddick chases down a ball...and returns it between the legs. This is like a trick shot in pool, and always a crowd-pleaser. At Caesars Tennis Classic hosted by Venus Williams @ Atlantic City Convention Hall.

It was funny, because you could tell it was coming. Roddick had approached the net and Safin floated one back and to Andy's right. Roddick chased it down rather slowly, and even before Roddick got to the ball you could hear the crowd taking a collective breath. They instinctively knew, by the timing of it, that something was different was about to happen. They were not disappointed and laughed and cheered at the result.

See it bigger.

Shot with Pentax K-x @ 3200 ISO.

As impressed as I was with the high ISO of the K-x (I expected as much), I was even more impressed by the AF speed and the FPS, both far better than my K20d. Plus, the K-x shutter is so loud that I had people turn around when I rattled off a half dozen shots in rapid succession!

At the end of the day, however, rapidfire shooting will only help so much. When a tennis ball travels at over 100mph, you still need to hone your sense of timing in order to get the shot.

The K-x makes for a decent sports shooter!

Gregg and Mike

Gregg and Mike, originally uploaded by john m flores.

Via Flickr:
Nikon V1, 10mm, 1/30s @ F4.0, ISO400

First night out with the Nikon V1. I was contemplating bringing the Pentax Q since it's smaller, but I really wanted to play around with the 10mm F2.8 lens and figured that it's wider FOV (27mm eq) would prove useful in the tight confines of a diner booth. It was.

First impressions are that the V1 is very well built and very zippy. A good start.

Roof, Chimney, Power Lines, Moon, and Some Clouds

Sixteen going on 26

So I live in this small town that's just a slice of America, with a Main Street chockfull of restaurants and small shops. And an honest to goodness record store. On a recent Saturday night, a crowd of teens overflowed onto the sidewalk as a band was thrashing away inside the shop window.

June 2012 Postscript. The record store is gone now. And the space is still empty. There are a number of empty retail spaces downtown - a sign of the times - but the neighborhood is still vibrant.

Tarantino Shoe Repair

Division Street, Somerville NJ

Man Haircut 15. Woman Haircut 20

Division Street, Somerville NJ

Music

Main Street, Somerville NJ

Driving to Coney Island in 45 Seconds

This trip usually takes an hour. Two hours with traffic. You can take it in 45 seconds from the comfort of your home. Highlights include the Verrazano Bridge, and some of the rides at Coney Island.

Shot with the Contour ROAM's time lapse feature. Images initially processed in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for brightness, contrast, clarity, cropping, etc... I also did some global spot removal on the dirty windshield. Lightroom was great because I was able to edit a single photo and then apply those setting to all the photos in the set. I even did a gradient filter on the sky to help bring out some of the texture. Watch the clouds - they're pretty cool.

From Lightroom, I exported 1080p files which I then brought into Apple's Final Cut Pro X for sequencing and adding the skateboard sound effect.

The Secret Life of Trees, IV...VIII

The Secret Life of Trees, IV, originally uploaded by john m flores.

Now we are getting somewhere! The Pentax K-01 paired with the dreamy DA35mm F2.8 Macro Limited. ISO400, F2.8, 1/640.

This next one may be my favorite of the set, the beautifully abstract out of focus rendering adding drama and suspense to this flower on the verge of bloom.



The DA35 is a wonderful wonderful lens. Makes being a Pentaxian totally worth it.



I've pushed and pulled some levers in Lightroom to increase contrast and add drama. That's easy to do when the starting point is so nice.



I wouldn't consider myself a "serious" flower shooter. No tripods and stuff for me. I prefer to work more fluidly.



Conclusion: Pentax K-01 with DA35mm F2.8 Macro Limited is a potent flower combo. Manual focus with peaking makes it easy.

Carousel

Carousel, originally uploaded by john m flores.

Looking through some old photos brought me to this, Newark Airport Baggage Claim captured with the Ricoh GX100. I loved this little cam, quirks and limitations wrapped up in a solid little package. Some Roman cretin relieved me of this camera in 2009, and I lived without a good small cam until I bought the Panasonic GF2 at a deep discount. The GF2 was quantitatively better, but it's flown the coop - into the hands of a very talented photographer (http://chiptilden.tumblr.com/).

I've got the Pentax K-01 of course, which I am enjoying thoroughly. I take it everywhere in a messenger bag with the DA21mm F3.2 and DA70mm F2.4 Limiteds. Yesterday I took it to the supermarket much like I did with the GF2 and enjoyed shopping with it.

Time will tell if the K-01 fills the void left by the GX-100. But I wouldn't be surprised if I end up with a little Ricoh again.

Like trying to photograph clouds (Cherry Blossoms @ Branch Brook Park,Newark NJ)

Like trying to photograph clouds (Cherry Blossoms @ Branch Brook Park, Newark NJ), originally uploaded by john m flores.

Via Flickr:
Photographing cherry blossoms is like trying to photograph clouds. From far away it's an explosion of color and interesting forms, but as you get closer the effect dissipates, until you are under the tree and raise your camera asking yourself, "what can I take a photo of?" The individual flowers are pretty but not stunningly so, and being so close is like being in a fog, not in a cloud. It's an odd thing.

Honestly can't say I was happy with the results of this foray. At first I wanted to blame the Panasonic GH2 and was picking nits with White Balance, sharpness, wrong lenses, etc... But the truth of the matter is that sometimes you go to shoot a pretty place and can't figure out how to wrap your head around it. This is one of those times.

The good news is that my wife really enjoyed the park and wants to go back. So I may get a second chance.

Frederick Law Olmsted was here.

Branch Brook Park - Frederick Law Olmsted was here., originally uploaded by john m flores.

Via Flickr:
Strolling through Branch Brook Park and admiring the blossoming cherry trees is a pleasant experience. The paths wind through one picturesque scene after another. It should be no surprise - Frederick Law Olmsted was here. Olmsted, perhaps the most well known landscape architect and park designer of the last 300 years, designed in the British style - highly crafted landscapes that give the appearance of a natural setting when in fact every hill, every valley, every tree and bush has been considered.

For other examples of Olmsted's work, see Central Park and Prospect Park in New York City.

Panasonic GH2 with the Super Takumar 50mm F1.4. I think I was lazy this day because once I put this lens on I didn't take it off. Like here, when we got to the top of this hill overlooking the cherry blossoms below, I could have taken out a wider lens, like the 35mm in my bag (the 21 was with my sister-in-law). Instead, I thought that I'd try to make do with what I had. It's a good exercise, and the lessons that primes are supposed to impart - think about ways to tell a story and compose a scene using what you got. In a similar situation, someone with a standard kit zoom would undoubtedly go as wide as they could and capture as much of the vista as possible. That could work, and I would probably do something similar, but then I'd end up with the same shot as everyone else, wouldn't I?

Cherry Blossoms at Branch Brook Park, Newark NJ (Panasonic GH2 withSuper Takumar 50mm F1.4)

Cherry Blossoms at Branch Brook Park, Newark NJ (Panasonic GH2 with Super Takumar 50mm F1.4), originally uploaded by john m flores.

Via Flickr:
My wife is the flower photographer. I feel like a hack compared to her. We'll go out, shoot the same thing, and have completely different photos. She sees things that I don't. It's as simple as that. But hey, I'm willing to take a swing and see what comes out.