Monthly Archives: November 2009

Day Out

Photographs

Picture of a picture.

These lovely young women, perfectly attired and made up, spotted the camera slung around my neck. I must have looked the part as they asked that I take their picture for friends back home. As they wanted the Christmas tree in the background to show, I naturally framed the snap vertically which, it turns out, was something of a faux pas. The young woman with the charming pink (!) camera asked politely that I take the snap again, but postcard style this time, please. Well, my second attempt was even worse than the first, but it seemed to do the trick for her.

However, this, the third, was taken for me ….

G1, kit lens @ 18mm, f/3.9, 1/800, ISO 320

Clemens Kalischer

Art Illustration, Photographers

Norman Rockwell’s photographer.

For an index of articles on art illustrators, click here.

I usually run that Norman Rockwell piece every Thanksgiving but preferred not to do so this year when one part of the US gorges to excess while much of the rest has nothing to eat. Just visit the soup kitchens in your local city and you will see what I’m talking about.

However, an NPR piece on Norman Rockwell’s use of the photography of Clemens Kalischer caught my eye and it’s quite fascinating, never more than when you realize that the subjects are still walking the streets of Rockwell’s town of Stockbridge, MA.

Click the picture for the NPR article. More on Kalischer here.

In the Ferry Building

Photographs

A sterile place.

While there’s no denying the magnificent job done by the City of San Francisco in rebuilding the old Ferry Building on the Embarcadero, the result is curiously sterile and uninviting.

The lower level is a food hall with few places to sit with that awful chi chi feel of inauthenticity. You know, places selling ‘artisan cheeses’, ‘hand pressed olive oil’ and ‘gourmet caviar’. Please. A haven, in other words, for those who cannot distinguish price from quality. At least some of the sales clerks are pretty.

G1, kit lens @ 17mm, ISO 800

Segue to the upper level, shown below, which seems comprised solely of offices for the least productive (also known as lawyers) and the feeling of sterility is even greater. People are rarely seen, there are no plaques on the doors, no hustle and bustle. No life. I suppose someone works there but it’s hard to tell. At least the natural lighting is great.

G1, kit lens @ 17mm, ISO 800

The G1’s smallish sensor holds up nicely at ISO 800 here, as long as you don’t underexpose. Proper exposure really helps to keep the noise down and a 13″ x 19″ print is just fine. The color rendering is just lovely in this muted light.

Eye-One Display 2 colorimeter update

Displays

A fresh calibration.

It’s been a month since I first calibrated my two Dell 2209WA displays using the X-Rite Eye-One Display Two colorimeter and the Eye One software just reminded me to redo the calibration. I had set it to remind me in one month.

As usual I do this by near-noon daylight in my brightly lit office with no incandescent or fluorescent light sources. Time taken was 15 minutes per monitor.

Interestingly, both monitors were new when first profiled and have shown considerable drift. As before I am profiling for a screen brightness of 140 cd/m2 , a bit brighter than the recommended 120 cd/m2. That works for me in a bright ambient light setting.

Here are the original and revised settings – brightness had shifted little:

Monitor settings a month earlier and now.

The Blue drift in the right hand monitor is especially noticeable.

I’ll check back in a month to see if things have settled down. The only change from the initial calibration is that I have migrated to version 10.6.2 of Snow Leopard from 10.6.1.