The Little Train

There is a famous children's book titled "The Little Engine That Could". It's a wonderful story about a little train whom no one thought could get over the hill. It was carrying all sort of fun paraphernalia (though my memory is not so great as to remember what sorts. I do remember a giraffe. I don't remember where I left my garage clicker.) and all of the bigger engines were laughing and making awfully rude remarks about it's supposed lack of strength. But despite all odds (and quite possibly because of the odds) the little train made it over the hill. All aboard rejoiced and faith was restored in trainkind, the publishing house made millions and the author a few hundred bucks.

The author's previous book however did not reach such critical acclaim. It was titled:

The Little Engine That Theoretically Could Have But Didn't Because He Was Too Lazy.

It was never published. It theoretically could have been, but the author was too lazy.

Sometimes I feel like the lazy train. School was always pretty easy, I never really needed to study and trying hard at was a foreign concept. Semicha was a bit tougher, but only a bit.

Nothing changed until I got married. Then BAM (yes in upper case letters. Named so for them being in the top drawer of the typesetters desk.). All of a sudden (all of a sudden? What the tuber is that supposed to mean) work is required. Hard work. No more Mr. Lazy Train.

It's more than work. In fact I shouldn't be really calling it work. It's discipline. It's going to bed at a certain time. It's structuring your day. Making a schedule. Keeping the schedule (crazy stuff). It's starting work and ending work. With a hard stop. Its not checking emails, not reading books (even self-help books, or some techno babble photography book). Its making time for your wife and kids. Real time, not shared time. Not with books, food an iPad or cellphone. It's waking up early and learning a it. It's getting to shul on time and starting with the minyan. It's following through with your promises.

I see some of my friends who aren't the brainiest, yet are happy and doing well financially. They had to work at school. Study. Take time off from playing around to hang out with a tutor. They learnt discipline.

I'm still trying.

Then the author made a third book. Although it wasn't as popular as the first, it was his favorite. It was titled:

The Little Engine That Theoretically Could Have But Didn't Because He Was Too Lazy But Then Worked His Tush Off And Finally Figured It Out

Chanukah Comedy Night @ Chabad of Laguna Beach.

I like my iPad. I do. But when it deletes an entire post because my finger brushed against the wrong button I feel like feeding it to the cows hanging out a few feet from my car.Being as most of my writing is completely ad hoc, and follows my thoughts of the moment, I'm going to have a really hard time rewriting all that was written. Rethinking all that was thought. Retracing whatever steps my mind took on its mad journey towards the "post" button (I'm pushing the save button every other word now).

Here goes:

Part of my wonderfully varied professional life is teaching a bunch of Tweens (also known as the Bar Mitzvah Class/Group/Dudes/Peoples-of-the-younger-sort) about our wonderful Jewish Heritage (I think, come to think of it im not exactly sure what I'm supposed to be teaching them (Dear Rebbetzin Goorevitch, that was a joke. I know exactly what im supposed to be teaching). The indoctrination process takes place at the quaint Chabad of Laguna Beach, located smack dab (who made up that one?) the world renown Pacific Coast Highway (and unlike the cheap knockoff in Northern Cali, this one is actually on the coast).

This same forementioned (my iPad refuses to recognize that as a word. Is it right?) Chabad house hosts an annual (?) Chanukah Comedy night (because they both start with a "C", that's why on Purim, many Chabad houses host "Paloozas" (not that anyone actually knows what a palooza is)). And being that in between teaching, cow watching, designing, and flying around with a cape and tights (you didn't know that was me? That's because I combed my hair to the side and removed my glasses) I am also a semi-professional photographer, I was asked to capture the memories on my cheap Chinese flash cards.

I was quite excited. A. There was food. B. I could test out my new ridiculously expensive new lens (Nikkor 85mm AF-S 1.4G for the techinally inclined) in an environment where it could shine. I am happy to say that it exceeded my expectations (which were quite high already). Sharp as a woman in labor's tongue, fast as a nursing woman's mood changes (that's a joke. My wife is awesome.), quick to focus, and — (bet you don't know where to find that dash on your keyboard) here's the awesome part — keeps the focus on moving subjects! Hooray!

I used my flash and fake fong diffuser for most of the shots (until the comedy part started, then they were all available light).

The Pics (a lot):

Looks good. Eh? I think this was with the 55mm micro.

That's EJ. A graduate if the Chabad of Laguna's Hebrew School, a past student of mine, and an awesome flutist.

Deep in discussion. Those are my star indoctrinees.

I told the guy on the right that we had three kids under four and my wife was expecting (we were since blessed with a beautiful Ephraim Zusha). He though we were absolutely insane. On another note, I must say, I am getting much better at this flash thing.

I'm not sure why I have so many pics of Dino. Must be his ultra photogenicness (hmmm, my iPad refuses to recognize that as a word also. Weird).

The Bar Mitzvah class got to introduce each of the candle lighters with a cute personalized poem. 'twas nice. dino here is trying to memorize his part. 'twas nice. dino here is trying to memorize his part.

One of the honorees with the wonderful Goorevitchs.

I always forget this couples name. I was the mashgiach at their sons wedding. Bonnie something. Whatever it may be, they are a really neat family.

The kids doing their introduction/poetry thing.

Yay!

Now starts the comedy part. The dude was mighty funny. Comedy is like pickles for me. I never want them, but once I have a bite I think "wow. These are good, I should have them more often".

I love how this lens locks in the focus in low light. Yummy.

Demonstrating how one could drive and take off ones sweater at the same time. Every time I look at these pictures I laugh.

For some reason I loved how the shadows looked.

The Tomkins. Parents of the famous Jake. Proud owners of a Mammoth Mountain bumper sticker.

Not sure what I like about this one.

This was hilarious. He was showing how whenever there is a bench with a table, people sit on the table and put their legs on the bench. So he invented a row above the tables so people could put their food there. But instead of putting their food there, they sat on them and put their feet on the table. And on it went. I guess you had to be there.

Mushka hates having her picture taken. Ha.

I love old couples.

And the Goorevitches.

Overall I was very happy with the shoot. There were no pieces of art, just good captures of a fun night. I feel like there was consistency from shot to shot, there was good use of flash and the best part: hardly any post processing. Just corrected exposure on a few and batch processed them all through Photoshop with a few minor actions.

What I really should use more though is a moderate wide angle. I'm really eying the new Nikon 35mm, however, its very pricey and I've heard it has some focus issues. We'll see. But it would complement the 85mm perfectly. I'd hardly ever need another lens (I'm trying to convince myself. I'm sure if I try hard enough I could do it.).

And for the record, I ended up typing this in the SimpleNote app and copying the whole thing over. You'd think wordpress would get its act together. Nope. I shouldn't complain. It's free (but is anything really free? Sorry. Not going down that path. I need to sleep).

Good Night.

Getting Paid to Eat Sushi

Sleep is God's way of saying "I love you". Yes, the rumors are true. I am in love with sleep (as the saying goes (not sure where the saying "how the saying goes" comes from, sayings don't really "go" anywhere, probably Joseph Heller): distance makes the heart grow fonder).

I also enjoy sushi. And when I was asked to shoot a Bar Mitzvah, and they were serving sushi, I jumped at the opportunity.

Before doing so I picked up this ridiculous inverted-dome looking device that fits over my flash to make the light a bit less harsh. It does weaken the light a bit but overall it looks much nicer than direct flash (that white face, harsh shadow look that screams: FLASH). Although it did make me look a bit less cool than I like, it did have this I'm-so-cool-I-don't-even-have-to-look-it appeal.

Overall I was satisfied with the job I did, though I wish I knew how to use the flash a bit more. Almost everything was shot in full manual mode with a lot of trial and error (more of the latter). The main thing I did learn (and an important lesson it is) is that flash is more for poor lighting than low lighting. In the beginning I was trying not to use flash as much as possible (which is doable with a fast lens and an awesome camera like the D700), and most of those pictures did not come out that hot.

Lesson #2: Getting good pictures is as much about good people skills than technical ability. Be comfortable, don't impose, be humorous (some wine helps) etc.

On to the pics.

The Three Musketeers (aka the three stooges). Cute family. (If I had my flash on a bracket, it would have been higher and wouldn't have had those nasty reflections on the glasses)

I wasn't set up for family portraits (they weren't planning on it originally). Ideally I would have an umbrella in front (to the side) and another flash hitting the wall to give some more separation. Next time.

Da Boyz

This kid was way too photogenic.

Dancing pics are new to me. No clue what I was doing.

And that's what happens when you don't use flash.

That's what happens when you do use flash.

And again.

Wow. My camera shoots in color! Actually most of the shots were in color, it's just the lighting was so bad (I.e. I did not control it enough) that black and white just looked better in many of the shots. I also went around to each table taking group pictures, but I never was a fan of posed pics so I'm not posting them here. Sorry.

Engling

It's been a while (I feel like it's always been a while). Thank God I've been quite busy these last few weeks and haven't been blogging as much as my psychiatrist says I should. Parenthetically (I figure I use parenthesis a bit too much, so if I just write "parenthetically" I could cheat a bit) I saw a Psychic Reading shop going-out-of-business sign. Shouldn't she have known that it wouldn't work? (Why do I assume it was a she?)

The point being I had a wonderful shoot a few weeks back with the Engel family (the Sender branch) @ Heritage Park in Cerritos. I finally got to use my gigantic 300mm f/2.8 ai-s lens! (for those who do not read camera tongue, that means: very large, heavy, long, manual focussing lens). Used it for some group shots to get everyone in focus and still have the background mushy like I like it (unlike cold cereal , which theoretically, if I would eat cold cereal, must be crisp).

The kids had some fun and even listened a bit! Yes it's a Chanukah miracle (which happened a month or so before chanukah).

Without further blabbage, here are some of my favorites:

Hello?! Could the photographer please attempt at getting both eyes in focus? Sheesh. (I actually copied the right eye on top of the left eye to make it a bit sharper)

All he's missing is a bottle of Vodka and some herring

I love how they're all looking in different directions

Cutie

Psssst. I'll let you sit in the front if you hand over that lollipop.

Behold the handiwork of the ridiculous large one (the lens, not the photographer)

I actually bribed him to stand still for a bit while I manually focused @ f/1.2 (in regular people talk, that means: very very hard to do)

Now I have to email my psychologist (he got demoted since the beginning of this post) and tell him not to worry, his patient is healthy and has not thrown a glass bowl in over 3 days now (hooray!). Onto some oven baked, sweet potato latkes.

Up North and Black Again (again)

A few weeks back I headed up to Crescent City for another kosher cheese production (for the first time around, check out this post). This time, however, I decided to outsmart myself and drive up instead of flying. It's a long drive, but I did save a few hundred bucks (with which I promptly bought a new lens). To put that into perspective, by the time I hit San Francisco, I wasn't even halfway there. Figured that if I took my time and stop along the way, I could see some parts of California I never saw before, take some nice pics along the way etc. I took the 405 to the 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) which I then took all the way up to San Francisco (with many a stop along the way). Funny thing was, it was ridiculously foggy the whole way up and the only part of Cali I got to see was the 100 feet on each side of the freeway as I drove along (that's a slight exaggeration).

Highlights of the trip:

1. Pulling off the shoulder to take some pics and having this cop roll over with this HUGE gun (some sort of M-16 or something (EM Shesh Esrei in Hebrew)) and ask what I was doing (told him I was shooting something... well not really, but that does sound pretty macho of me).

2. Stopping at this camera store in Palo Alto (Keeble & Schuchat) where I picked up this ridiculously old and good looking lens (late 1960's). The dude that owns the place has a Leica collection on display worth well over 2 million buckaroos.

3. Sleeping.

4. Giving my new George Foreman to the clerk at the motel so I could then borrow it indefinitely and get out of toiveling it (she definitely now thinks I'm nuts).

5. Forgetting the Kosher stamp and having to sign my name and write Kosher L'Pesach on over 700 boxes.

6. Getting over 4.1 miles on neutral somewhere on the 101 (through the redwoods).

7. Getting over 6.2 mies in neutral somewhere on the 5 (and would have gotten more but there was this cop on the side of road making sure no one was speeding because the state needs money to pay it's police force to make sure people aren't speeding so the state could get money).

8. Losing half the tread of my tire shortly thereafter.

9. Discovering what it means to multi-task (driving with my knees, while adding some water to a vitamin water bottle (I like the water aspect more than the vitamin part I guess) and watching out for the fore-mentioned police men, all while taking a power nap).

Lesson learned: IF I am going to drive again, choose one place Id like to see, head straight there, spend a few hours, and then go straight on to my destination.

I also figured out how to use the mirror up function when shooting on a tripod. Yay. Of course I could have read the manual and such, but that would hardly be manly now, would it?

On to some pics. The first two are from my trip up. The rest are just some random black and whites.

Every time I go up to Crescent city (all of two times) I plan on taking a bunch of pictures of all these wonderfully dilapidated houses up there (and many in full technicolor glory). But I don't.

The last two where in good old HB. I should clone those spots out. I will, I promise.

If some one could explain to me why I shot this one wide open, I would greatly appreciate it.

Tehillim on Hoshana Rabbah.

Rapaports @ Central Park (another pre Upshernish Shoot)

It's been a while since my last posting. Shame on me. This past Sunday I had the priviledge of doing a photo shoot with the Rapaport family (well most of them) at Huntington Beach Central Park (actually it's the park behind the library which is not technically Central Park but it kind of stole the title from the park across the street).

We scheduled it for a bit before sunset (finally, convinced someone to shoot when the light was good instead of when was convenient. I'll never get it. Someone spends big bucks to do a photoshoot, but chooses some wacky time when the lighting is horrible and the pics just don't come out as good as they should have), and it really paid off. Definitely my best shoot yet.

Funny thing is (not ha ha funny, just funny), I'm in middle of revamping my lens lineup (more on that another time), I sold both of my portrait lens, and am expecting one any day to be delivered, but in the meantime I was stuck. So I quickly bought this old manual focus Nikon 180mm f/2.8 lens (Nikon's first lens with special ED glass). Normally I wouldn't do a shoot with a lens (and a focal length!) I'm not used to, however this time it turned out beautifully. Yes I missed a few shots I normally would have gotten, but overall I hit a lot more than I expected (I wonder why I think anyone cares about this stuff).

Mainly this was a shoot for Meyer's Upshernish, hence the lack of extraneous Rapaports. Hopefully we could do this again with the whole fam...

Anyways, on to the pictures. I'm not going to post all of them, if you want to see more, check out my flickr page (click on any of the pics, they should take you there, if they don't, your browser's sick and should see a doctor):

Actually this was taken with the 50mm, the rest were with the 180 (isn't that interesting).

Love his hair. Many are going to miss it. They'll survive.

These Rapaport kids are a photographers dream. They all have these awesome eyes... and cute smiles (unless you ask them to smile, then it gets dorky)

I almost nailed the focus on this one, good enough to print. Thats manual focus for you (autofocus isn't much good for subjects running toward or away from you anyway).

Yum.

And then we saw the light...

Yup. (All those white dots are bugs...)

Wonder how often this happens.

Okay, that was definitely more than I expected to post, but I just can't hold myself back. Until next time...