What are you doing on Friday August 1st? We'll be helping to support women living with breast cancer. Everyone's favorite baker, e, shot us an email about Bust Out! Eat Inspired. Support women living with breast cancer. It sounded great, we were free and we'll be taking part. Bust Out! has arranged for some of the city's finest eateries to come up with breast-inspired dishes (think strawberry iced cupcakes with cherries on top, roasted chicken breast with cranberries, or melon sorbet) and donate 50% of the proceeds from those items will go to Living Beyond Breast Cancer, a local organization committed to assisting women at all stages of diagnosis, treatment and recovery.
In addition to the various eateries around town and their marvelous creations, there's also going to be a launch party from 4p - 6p at N.3rd and movie at 9p at The Arbol Cafe.
I recently had a couple customer service incidents involving some of my photo gear. One experience was horrid, the other was great. The horrible one involved two lenses (worth about $2500) and Comet Camera based out of Cherry Hill, NJ. Comet Camera is the closes Nikon and Canon authorized service center; I'm a Nikon shooter. The repairs I needed were for the grips of my Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 and Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8 lenses. The rubber grips were coming off of the lens barrel. Not the biggest problem, but it would be a big problem once they fell off completely so I figured it would be an in-shop repair and went to Comet instead of simply mailing in my lenses directly to Nikon for warranty repair (mail in those 5 year extended service slips people!).
So I drove over to Cherry Hill and found the storefront. I brought in my lenses and was told that they'd order the grips from Nikon and they'd have my lenses back to me within 2 weeks - I was headed to DC for a job and then to CA for vacation so it was important that I get my lenses back in time. They said not to worry as the more major repairs take 2 weeks or longer, but a simpler repair like this one would be done well within 2 weeks. I was relieved. After a week or so, I called in to see if the grips were ordered or if there were any problems as I was nervous about not having my 2 most prized and most used lenses for my DC shoot and first trip to CA (and first real vacation in at least 5 years). I was told the grips had not come in yet. I started to worry. I started to call every other day for updates. I called 2 more times and was told the same thing.
The Wednesday before my Friday trip to DC for the shoot, I called once more. No grips were in house. I asked if I could just come by and pick up my lenses and take them as-is to my job in DC and my trip the following day. The person I spoke with looked at my order number and told me that the lenses were shipped to NY for warranty repair. I flipped out. Why was I not told? Why did they ship it out? Why was I told that it would be an in-house job? Why didn't anybody tell me this the previous 3 times I called? The best the guy said was "sorry". What a fucker. I was never under the impression that they'd send my lenses out to Nikon for repair. I could have done that myself and saved the round trips to Jersey. He said that I should've been told that it was a possibility that they'd end up sending it out for repair. Great good that did me 2.5 fucking weeks later.
So now I had to use film for my shoot in DC and for my first trip out to CA. So off I went to Photo Lounge and told my man Pete my situation. He told me he'd give me a discount on every 5 rolls of film. Awesome. I went away with 15 rolls (Portra, Tri-X, 400H). The DC shoot and the trip to CA went well on film. It was great luck for me that I've been shooting some film in the last few months. If not, I would've been shit out of luck because of the fuckers at Comet Camera.
While on vacation, I called into Comet for updates. During one call, I was told that the 17-55mm was finally ready for pickup. I asked why I wasn't called and told it was ready. The best the guy on the phone could come up with was "maybe we were backed up and didn't get around to calling you". Fuck you. After getting back from CA, I'd call every few days. The 80-200mm was still in NY. I called on July 24th (37 days later) and they said it was ready. I had not received a call. I booked over there and picked up my lenses and walked out of there and I'll never be back.
I don't know what kind of volume they do, but if you're holding $2500 worth of pro equipment, how the fuck does the customer not receive a fucking phone call? I can't stress enough that you should absolutely not deal with the people at Comet. Deal directly with your manufacturer. Get extended warranties for your gear either through your credit card, dealer or manufacturer. I would've taken the lenses as-is to DC and CA had I known that it would've taken over a month to get them back. I definitely missed out on a lot of shots (and spent a good chunk of money out of pocket for film and processing along with needless trips out to NJ and the stress) on both trips. That 200mm would've been great for shots of the blue heron, the ground squirrels, harbor seals and brown pelicans. The 17-55mm zoom would've allowed me to get some shots of the hummingbirds which buzzed about at varying distances. I love the shots I took on film. I would've loved it even more if I had my 2 most useful lenses as well.
Now onto a great customer service experience. Several months ago, I bought an Arctic Butterfly SL700 after a recommendation from my friend Steve. It's a charged brush which removes dust from a dSLR sensor. It works wonderfully well. It runs on a single AAA battery and it's simple to use. I've been using mine for quite a while now with no problems. I've also been using it to clean the mirrors and focusing screens of my SLR cameras as well. Those cameras are old and have a lot of junk in them. Crud just peeling off and oily buildup. It's clogged up the bristles of my brush and I haven't used it to clean my D200 or D70 in a little bit (thankfully I haven't had to either). But the time came for me to start looking for a solution. At first, I was disappointed at the instructions page on the SL700 as there was only a link to a dead page on their site. So I called the 877 number for their office in Alberta, Canada. I was transferred once to a very helpful guy with a thick accent of some sort.
Not only did he spend 10 minutes on the phone with me telling me what kind of alcohol to purchase and why, a backup plan and finally, if all else failed, to send it in to him and they'd clean it up and send it back as good as new. On top of that, he told me where to find a step by step video up on YouTube of how to clean the brush. Now that's some good customer service. Not only do I highly recommend the brushes myself, but the company as well.
I'm happy to have my 2 lenses back (just in time for job on Wednesday) and my sensor brush clean.
People are stealing manhole covers like they're going out of business they fear the price for iron will sink sooner than later. Here are twostories in the Inquirer from the last month about the increasing trend. And I just read this NYT story about the nationwide trend with the rising price of scrap metal.
In the past year, city officials from Phoenix, NYC, Cleveland, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, Philadelphia among others are reporting crazy increases in manhole covers. Last year alone, Philly reports over 2,500 manhole/inlet covers stolen in the last year and change - about 2,000 a year, up from 100 max in previous years.
Fueling the thefts is the price of scrap iron, which has nearly doubled in six months. Michael Marley, chief correspondent for an industry online newspaper, said the type of scrap that includes sewer grates was selling for $300 to $330 a ton six months ago. Now, it's up to $500 to $530.1
According to the same Inky report, Kensington, Nicetown, Tioga, and North and Southwest Philadelphia are the hardest hit areas. Bonkers. The NYT story has a photo essay to go along with the story. On a related note, I don't understand how poorly implemented the new philly.com's photo accompaniment has been rolled out. The photos show up at the wrong size all the time.
On another note: great things in Philly right now: Batman: The Dark Night at the Franklin Institute IMAX Dome. Lady and I saw it last night. It rocked. There are a few scenes with true fullscreen IMAX filming. Those alone are worth the price of admission which is just about the same as seeing it on a regular puny screen which isn't 40+ feet tall and doesn't have a jillion dB of sound coming at you from through the screen. Get your tickets here in advance as every show between 5p, 7.45p, 10p start times are sold out until July 27th.
For added new media fun, peep Why So Serious. Heath played The Joker very well. But I still like Jack's version.
So I've had all of my film and scans back for a couple weeks now from the California trip. I've been uploading the film rolls one by one to Flickr. I've uploaded 7 of the 14 rolls so far. I recently finished one of the rolls I still had in my F3 and I have a few more frames in the final roll with California frames on it in the FE2. But I'll start pointing to the individual sets and my favorite shot from each roll. Above is Edgar from Santa Ana, CA. I met him while on the bus in Anaheim and took the photo on my first roll. Shot with a Nikon FE2 with a 28mm f/2 on Kodak Portra 160NC-2. He noticed the vintage strap on my camera and struck a conversation. He's a rockabilly Mexican-American who likes cars from the 50s. We talked about cars and taking photos for about 20 minutes as I was riding to get to the Fullerton Arboretum and he was headed north to help a friend move and have some BBQ. The Tuff Cats is an automobile club based out of Santa Ana.
Above is a plant I took a photo of at the Fullerton Arboretum. I have no idea what it is, but it's all over SoCal. This roll was shot with a Nikon F3 on Fujicolor Pro 400H; this shot in particular was with a 105mm f/2.5. Nobody we met knew what this plant was called. Anybody?
The girl above was eating her ice cream cone in the shade of The Farmers Market in LA. This roll was shot with the F3 on Kodak Portra 160NC-2; this shot in particular with a 50mm f/1.4. I like the muted colors in the shade with the reds popping above the rest.
One of the very coolest things we did in LA was see the city from the hills at Griffith Observatory. It was quite smoggy, especially with the fires burning in Santa Barbara, but seeing all those lights is kinda mesmerizing. Amazingly, I could spot the Big Dipper above us through the nastiness. Roll 4 was shot with the FE2 on Kodak Tri-X 400; this shot with a 20mm f/3.5 which gives some nice natural vignetting wide open.
My second favorite shot of Lady from the Cali trip is the above shot taken at the Getty Center overlooking the lovely, blooming garden. It's a portrait with a bit of a landscape feel with the foreground, midground and far background elements with lines, colors and areas of focus pointing you from one section to the next. This roll was shot with the F3 on Fujicolor Pro 160S; this shot with a 50mm f/1.4. I had to go to Freestyle Camera Supply to pick up some more 160 speed color film as the 400 speed I bought in not so sunny Philly wasn't gonna cut it in SoCal. I was quite happy with this new-to-me film I bought hoping for the best based on my use of it's more sensitive sibling, Pro 400H.
I really like photos of bridges and I'm quite happy with this shot of the 76 bridge connecting San Diego and Coronado Island where we watched the fireworks on July 4th. This roll was shot with the FE2 and Fuji Neopan 1600; this shot with a 20mm f/3.5.
I was hoping the bright red and white umbrellas would be nice and contrasty and they are. The white caught a little of the light blue sky above on the underside of the umbrella cooling the color of the frame before transitioning into the shaded part of the frame revealing all kinds of stuff within the tent. I can't recall ever seeing beach umbrellas on sale like this. Being an east coaster, I guess that's of no surprise. Roll 7 was shot with the F3 on Fujicolor Pro 160S; this shot with a 50mm f/1.4.
I'll get to pecking in the EXIF data for the last few rolls of film and finishing and processing the final 2 rolls soon enough. But in the meantime, I'll be watching Batman on IMAX tonight! I hope you enjoy clicking through the photos.
CENTER CITY. The founder of a Web site that chronicles the city's real estate developments has accused Comedy Central’s "The Colbert Report" as well as the Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer of stealing his photographs without permission, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.
Brad Maule, 31, who is known for his photos of the city's iconic skyline, claims the popular satirical television show and the newspapers stole original photos posted on Phillyskyline.com over the past year. He is seeking $1.25 million in damages, the federal lawsuit said.
One of Maule’s photos was allegedly used on the cover of the March 17 Daily News for a story about the American Commerce Center, and included the same photo illustration as a photo Maule posted March 13.
Ironically, who stole one of my photos a little while back without payment? The Metro back in December of 2007. Also, Vesuvio Restaurant - if you got their March 11th newsletter, the top photo might look familiar.
I just saw The Wackness last night with Lady. I absolutely loved it. That soundtrack was my life growing up 20 minutes north of NYC. Ben Kingsley, an Oscar winning thespian tries to do just about the worst NYC accent I've ever heard. I didn't notice it was an accent until about 45 minutes into the film or so when he sputters "Staw-bucks" in this odd British-not-quite-NYC accent. Summertime is on the soundtrack and it is just so perfect. That beginning "Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, yeahhh" just gets me in the mood to chill.
Intro/Chorus: *sung*
Summer summer summertime
Time to sit back and unwind
Verse One: Fresh Prince
Here it is the groove slightly transformed
Just a bit of a break from the norm
Just a little somethin' to break the monotony
Of all that hardcore dance that has gotten to be
A little bit out of control it's cool to dance
But what about the groove that soothes that moves romance
Give me a soft subtle mix
And if ain't broke then don't try to fix it
And think of the summers of the past
Adjust the bass and let the Alpine blast
Pop in my CD and let me run a rhyme
And put your car on cruise and lay back cause this is summertime
Chorus
Verse Two: Fresh Prince
School is out and it's a sort of a buzz
A back then I didn't really know what it was
But now I see what have of this
The way that people respond to summer madness
The weather is hot and girls are dressing less
And checking out the fellas to tell 'em who's best
Riding around in your Jeep or your benzos
Or in your Nissan stting on lorenzos
Back in Philly we be out in the park
A place called the plateau is where everybody goes
Guys out hunting and girls doing likewise
Honking at the honey in front of you with the light eyes
She turn around to see what you beeping at
It's like the summers a natural afradesiac
And with a pen and pad I compose this rhyme
To hit you and get you equipped for the summer time
Chorus
Verse Three: Fresh Prince
It's late in the day and I ain't been on the court yet
Hustle to the mall to get me a short set
Yeah I got on sneaks but I need a new pair
Cause basketball courts in the summer got girls there
The temperature's about 88
Hop in the water plug just for old times sake
Break to ya crib change your clothes once more
Cause you're invited to a barbeque that's starting at 4
Sitting with your friends cause y'all remincise
About the days growing up and the first person you kiss
And as I think back makes me wonder how
The smell from a grill could spark up nostalgia
All the kids playing out front
Little boys messin round with the girls playing double-dutch
While the DJ's spinning a tune as the old folks dance at your family reunion
Then six o'clock rolls around
You just finished wiping your car down
It's time to cruise so you head to the summertime hangout
It looks like a car show
Everybody come lookin real fine
Fresh from the barber shop or fly from the beauty salon
Every moment frontin and maxin
Chillin in the car they spent all day waxin
Leanin to the side but you can't spead through
Two miles an hour so everybody sees you
There's an air of love and of happiness
And this is the Fresh Prince's new defintion of summer madness
I went down to Washington, DC the day before heading out to California to take photos of The Philly Orchard Project's orchard planting at the US Botanical Garden. Above is one of the plants growing in the two large beds POP had to work with - it's a hearty kiwi vine. There were dozens and dozens of different plants there. Strawberries, cranberries, raspberries, hazelnut, pear trees, apple trees, cherry bushes, lemon balm, horseradish, chives, onions, figs, sorrel, artichoke, yarrow, lovage, indigo, ferns, mint, watercress, comfrey, violet, pomegranate, currant… The shot above was from my F3 loaded with Fuji Pro 400H and the flickr set of this roll is up here.
Above is a shot of a growing fig tree with some seriously strong early sun down in DC overhead. I had to take frequent breaks in the shade while reeling off 2 rolls of film. The shots from this roll are here.
It was incredible to see such diversity in 2 plots which were under, I'd estimate, 200 sq. ft. total. Unfortunately, this isn't a permanent exhibit. I have no idea what will happen to the plants in September when it's all done. I hope they can all find good homes around DC.
But that wasn't the only thing I was down there to see. My friend wanted to see the 2008 Smithsonian Folk Festival, specifically, Bhutan's exhibit. We grabbed some lunch and camped out under a tree before looking around at traditional crafts. Above is a handmade traditional Bhutanese boot.
Above is some incredibly intricate woodcarving which appeared to be drawn out in pencil first, then carefully carved using many small and smaller tools.
Above is a drum from within the Buddhist temple which was built on site on the National Mall. It was no shack. It was built out of some large wooden beams and the exterior walls were stucco. The attention to detail in all of the handmade things on display was incredible.
The flickr set of the 2 rolls I shot at the folk festival are up here. And while I was on the Smithsonian website, I found a flickr group for the festival called the 2008 Smithsonian Folklife Festival Documentation Project. Pretty cool idea. And now I can experience the rest of the festival in photo form. It was too hot to go to everything and we were headed back on a dinnertime train anyways.
Our final hours in California were spent traveling from San Diego to LA via the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner and then a cab to LAX for a red eye to PHL. But first, we charged up our batteries with some brunch at Bread & Cie Cafe a couple of blocks from Lady's sister's place. They had raved about it during out stay and we hit it up for some sandwiches. I had a Ham and Swiss with dijonaise dressing and baby lettuce served on seeded corn rye bread. Lady had the homemade basil pesto and Gouda cheese with tomato and arugula served on Levian (their rustic, sourdough peasant bread). Both were delicious and got us ready for our long journey home. Above is a shot of San Diego's Santa Fe train station. We took a cab there. We specifically requested a cab which could take plastic as finding a Wachovia ATM wasn't the easiest thing to do in CA. When we arrived at the station, the driver said his machine was broken and didn't understand why we didn't have $11. I told him we specifically requested a cab to take plastic specifically because we didn't have cash on us. He didn't get it. So, Lady bit the bullet and used a non Wachovia ATM at the station.
The train ride was nice. The Pacific Surfliner takes you right along the beach for most of the way between LA and SD. It's pretty cool to look out the window and see the open ocean in front of you. Unfortunately, we were seated at a particularly grubby window - not much rain in SoCal to keep the windows clean I guess. Sit on the west side of the train to get the full effect if you get the chance.
We took another cab from Union Station (LA) to the airport. Inside the cab, it's posted that there's a $42 flat rate from downtown to the airport. I'll warn you now - that's for CASH ONLY apparently. Bitten twice by some bullshit in CA cabs. We arrived at the airport with over 3 hours to spare. If one was flying out of PHL, that might seem like just enough time, but in LAX, it's efficient and we got through TSA in minutes. PHL's TSA check is absurd to say the least. I've flown out of PHL three times and it's always a chore. Our gate was changed not once, not twice, but three times as the flight was a little late getting in, but once on the plane, our row of 3 was all to ourselves so we stretched out a little bit.
Once back in Philly, we were smacked in the face with some lovely east coast humidity. It's like walking into a wall of yuck after the dry heat in the west. But it makes you feel alive. Our cab ride from the airport home was the correct flat rate, credit card or not. Go Philly.
The vacation's officially over for me. I had my first day back at work Friday, bright and early at 7a. Back to the grind again through the weekend.
I put the first roll of film up in a set here. It's gonna take a little bit to get them all up. But they'll make it eventually. Hopefully about 1 roll a day for the next fortnight or so.
Now that's what vacation should feel like, eh? We spent our last full non travel day in CA on the beach. We were on Ocean Beach to be specific.
We took the bus to the main hub where we caught another bus which dropped us off 3 blocks from the beach. We didn't know quite where to get off so we missed the right stop and had to walk around a bit to find a spot where we could get onto the beach - we overshot the main beach by several blocks.
But when we finally got onto the beach, it was gorgeous. It's home to the longest pier on the west coast. There were brown pelicans flying overhead up and down the San Diego coast. I got lucky with this shot of a nice bunch of them flying northward.
Here's a shot of us lounging on the beach. Lady finished a copy of The Kite Runner she got from our friends in LA. I just splayed out on my towel for several hours. You can see the sunburn Lady got (and is currently still recovering from) on her right side. We forgot to reapply after having backs on towels for several hours. I escaped with just a little bit of burn on my shoulders, mostly just plain tanning. And that's some money drying in our bag. I had the bright idea of putting our cash and a credit card into a ZipLock bag and in my pocket for safe keeping while in the ocean. The keys in the same pocket popped a hole in the bag and got our stuff wet, but it wasn't too bad and everything was dried up by the fierce CA sun before we left. The pier is stretching 3/4 across the image above.
While I was waking up from a nap in the sun, Lady dipped her feet into the Pacific and I snapped this great shot of her walking back. I love this shot.
Before leaving the beach, we took a walk into the ocean on the pier. About 100' feet out was where the surfers were underneath catching the breaking waves. Here's one surfer standing up.
People were fishing all along the pier. I didn't see much in the catch buckets, but there were wash stations along the pier in case anyone did. In the photo is another set of pelicans streaking northward.
And on our walk back down the pier, a large brown pelican plopped itself on the pier not 20' away from us. Lady was kinda freaked out by it and it's long beak (18" - 24" long) and ran away. I crept closer with my 50mm lens and got to about 7' or so and snapped this shot. I wish I brought along my 105mm to the beach. Oh well. This one got up and flew away only to land further down the pier right in our path off of it. It seemed to be bidding us goodbye from our lovely stay in San Diego.
After one final post on our fun in California, I'll be sorting through all the film and posting them to accompany the digital shots already up in the California 2008 set. I gotta go through and add in some metadata first because I'm a freak. The shots above were shot on a Nikon FE2 and Fuji Pro 160S, a new film stock to me, but basically a slower version of 400H perfect for the SoCal sun.
Just gotta send a quick shout out to the good people at Photo Lounge. They did a crazy quick turnaround on 11 rolls of film I dropped off in the last 2 days and now I have almost all of the film I shot in CA scanned. I still have 2 rolls in my cameras that need to be processed too. I'll slowly be going through the shots and adding manual EXIF info for the photos (I keep notes on all the film I shoot) to accompany them when uploaded to my flickr stream.
The scans look great and the negatives came back scratch free as usual.
I can't recommend them enough for all of their services. I've been doing all my printing there since I moved to Philly and the vast majority of my film processing too. I've told several friends about their great service and I everyone's been pleased to date so I'll keep on plugging them. If you need just about anything photographic done, go there!
And on a related note, [the newly married] Brad Maule of phillyskyline.com has several 20" x 30" prints on display there right now. On top of that, Brad and Pete (the man behind the counter) will be hosting an opening night for the exhibition on July 17th from 6p - 8p. They'll also be talking a little shop geared towards photography of architecture and buildings billed as Product Placement. Head on over to see the prints (I've seen them already and they're gorgeous!) and also to say congrats to Brad (and Rachel if she's there) who'll be fresh off their alone time in Montreal.
But that wasn't the only thing I was down there to see. My friend wanted to see the 
