A little change of pace.
These photos were taken with my newest acquisition, the legendary Nikon F5. It's not the last film camera they made, or even their last pro film camera, but it is unquestionably their best. Every top-of-the-line body that Nikon has built since then is a direct descendent from the F5, and it set the pattern for every other Nikon camera as well.
The change of pace is more than a different camera, though.
I've had a minor burst of creativity as I prepare for my next day trip to Manhattan and Coney Island. Trying new combinations, learning the gear, making sure my sunblock won't melt the rubber on the camera – not a joke, it happened to me last year – has had me out with the camera a lot recently. But with the trip only two weeks away, now it's time to put down the camera, recharge, and refocus.
My new concentration is on post-processing. I've been working with the newly-D800-compatible DxO Optics trial on some of my favourite recent images, both to find out if it's worth the extra time, effort, and $200US, as well as to get all of my workflow ducks in a row before I try to squeeze 1500+ photos through this digital toothpaste tube. If the results are interesting then I'll post them here.
There is some new material still to come, though. I have about four days' worth of work to scan in a couple more rolls of film, and I'm also working through the roll of XP2 that has the RC Harris photos on it. Plus I'm hoping to have a happy announcement in the next day or two…
Busy times.
I realize that construction crews purposely stack empty pipes by the side of the road to distract photographers, but it's almost impossible to avoid the trap. I suppose mice must feel the same about those wood and wire serving trays that they keep finding cheese on.
More from under the expressway.
I'm working with some new software, and what it can do for tones and details is pretty amazing. I'm not thrilled that it adds a half-dozen steps to the process, but considering my hours-long import times with Lightroom Four, I don't think it costs me much time. And I like the results so much that I'm going back to older photos to rework them.
With a free afternoon and four cameras in my bag, I can go anywhere I want and photograph anything in the city. So naturally I ended up underneath an expressway.
Multiple levels, buildings stacked up, and odd quasi-abandoned spaces in the core of the city: it actually reminded me a lot of Chicago. Toronto is concrete to Chicago's steel, but the echoes were right.
From inside the pump house, showing the areas roped off to keep visitors from mingling too closely with the pumps. The sign on the wall warns people from remaining in the area for more than 30 minutes to limit noise exposure. This kept the crowds away, which is why I spent so much of my visit there. (With hearing protection.)
This is inside the filter building, which is the one that doubles as prisons and headquarters for evil organizations in all of the movies and TV shows. It's a very pretty building built with an eye to symmetry, but I didn't find much reason to linger here.
I like having my little Canon S100, which is one of the best compact cameras ever made. But it really doesn't compare to the bigger gear, and its photos don't usually make it very far.
Some of the last of my digital photos from the RC Harris plant – I still haven't developed the film that I shot there. I'm part-way through the second roll of film with my F5, and if the rain eases off at some point this weekend, I might just get out to finish it.
