Atget in the SF Bay area.
Burlingame Avenue, CA. D700, 85mm.
Boozer
Yearly Archives: 2012
Ralph Lauren Fall 2012
Target audience?
After September’s blockbuster issue of Vogue, October’s comes in at half the weight but included with it is a 78 page Ralph Lauren catalog advertising women’s and men’s clothing. I sat next to Lauren in New York’s La Côte Basque back in 1982 at a client lunch (hey, it wasn’t my money) and I recall thinking how handsome, tanned and short he was. Lauren (net worth $7bn) was born Ralf Lifschitz in the Bronx (net worth $0) and personifies the American success story as only a few dozen others do. Yet despite the near impossible task of emulating him, millions of Americans persist in believing in the American Dream that they, too, can repeat his success. Statistically, of course, this is idiotic, and about as likely as the black ghetto kid becoming the next basketball superstar.
Yet people buy this stuff based on what advertisers classify as the ‘aspirational’ demographic.
Here’s the cover:
Posed with what is presumably one of the cars from his large collection, Lauren looks the picture of the English gentleman, consonant with the image his clothing seeks to project. The casual, well tailored tweeds, the costly vintage automobile, the air of condescending, unattainable wealth.
It gets more intense.
Surely the legs on this stunning beauty, posed against a fireplace in a multi-million dollar castle, are Photoshopped? But no matter. We would all like to be able to either be her or to afford her. But how realistic is that?
Finally, the peak of excess, the huntress in the top hat and bejeweled choker on her stallion. I mean, have you ever owned something which eats while you sleep? And the cost of stable hands nowadays is positively ruinous. OK, so the woman is to die for, the kind which would make a middle aged lothario chuck everything and retain a good divorce attorney.
So while I enjoy the fantasy as much as the next man, not remotely does this sort of advertising make me want to overpay for the label. But it must be working. Lauren has been doing this faux English gentry thing for ever and not for one moment do I think he is foolish with his money.
None of this should discourage you from subscribing to Vogue, (or aspiring) where the photography never ceases to entertain and astonish.
On all fours
The annual dog parade.
As my candidate’s election manager, I have been authorized to disclose a few details to get voters involved. A brief bio of my man:
- Has never waged war, never will.
- Has never killed anyone, never will.
- Makes all he knows feel younger and better.
- Does not know the evil of discrimination. Treats all men equally.
- Genuinely loves children, not a photo op thing.
- Refuses to fly and would immediately sell Air Force One and Two.
- Has dashing good looks despite his short stature.
- Adulates physical fitness and is pledged to restoring it to all Americans.
- Thinks health care is a universal right not a privilege.
- A native of North Carolina he understands both the North and the South.
- Eschews guns and bibles. His religion is love and the outdoors.
- Does not cheat on his taxes.
Yes, dear readers, the candidate is none other than Bert The Border Terrier and you can write him in, come November, under his registered name of ‘Bert T. Border’. He already has my vote.
The Candidate caught in a relaxed moment.
Bert got to hanging out with some of his mates today at the annual Burlingame Dog Parade and his manager was there to document the goings on. I am pleased to present Bert’s cabinet. The Alpacas will handle South American affairs and the guinea pigs will oversee EU finances.
Eh? How did these Peruvian Alpacas get in there?
And guinea pigs? Please ….
Congressional leaders. Always in agreement..
Obligatory sausage dog. The new German ambassador.
Escapee. The former Treasury Secretary.
Two beauties. The Press Spokesman.
The wild bunch. CIA and FBI chiefs.
Dog chateau. These guys lost.
The comedian. Vice President.
A 47 Percenter, but not abandoned.
Alaskan Husky. Foreign Secretary. He uses the glasses in Alaska to make sure he can see Russia.
Small, undaunted. Represents the little people.
Party animals. White House social staff.
Bert T Border’s pick for Chinese Ambassador. Speaks fluent Mandarin and Cantonese.
Rich man’s quality, poor man’s prices. Agriculture secretary.
Two more beauties. A calming influence in the Supreme Court.
Nuts. Our next Treasury Secretary.
Legs. Defense Secretary. Knows when to run.
Oh yeah! Social secretary.
A slice of Americana. The judges. Angry white guys. A small and shrinking minority.
So the above is our campaign commercial. I have checked the Constitution and can confirm there’s no prohibition on dogs running for elected office, at least not the four legged kind. Get the spelling right, please, when writing in the candidate. Vote for Bert T Border come November and bring sanity back to the world.
All snapped on the Nikon D700 with the 85/1.8 AFD, a lens which looks and feels like crap but delivers the goods. A couple of snaps on the 16-35mm Nikon VR G for the wide stuff. Same attributes as the 85mm.
In the Conservatory
A relaxing place.
I make it a point to visit the magnificent National Trust property Filoli frequently, and wander the grounds and do some reading after enjoying an excellent Panini sandwich in the café.
Such a trip washes away the day’s concerns and one comes home recharged. It doesn’t hurt that the journey is all back roads except for a short blast on California’s most beautiful freeway, the 280 on the way down to Woodside.
I generally end my sojourn in the conservatory which has comfortable seating and is a haven of peace and quiet.
The Conservatory at Filoli. iPhone 5.
The iPhone 5 – Part II
An excellent camera.
I wrote about how I believe Apple is managing inventory of the iPhone 5 in Part I.
‘Limited’ as in none. iPhone 4S snap in the Apple Store.
So while there may be a bit of a wait until the floodgates open in Q4/2012, it’s worth it. If you consider your cell phone camera as the one you always have with you, you will want to upgrade.
Let’s retrace. The iPhone 3GS camera was so-so, meaning slow and noisy, as was the one in iPhone 4. Then a quantum leap occurred in iPhone 4S when the sensor jumped to 8 megapixels and the responsiveness of the shutter button was greatly improved. I have already illustrated panoramas using iOS6 in the iPhone 4S and the quality in the iPhone 5 remains excellent. Determined to try out the rumored enhanced low light capability of the iPhone 5’s camera I took it to my country home (aka Filoli – you know, the place my 10 year old son wants to buy) and repaired to the poorly lit interiors.
My first snap startled me. The delay between shutter press and the taking of the picture has been dramatically reduced. I jumped, not expecting this, then proceeded to cycle the shuter as fast as I could. Lightroom 4 reports that I banged off 3 pictures in one second and 4 would have been easily achievable. This compares to maybe 1 per second with the iPhone 4S. It’s quite extraordinary, comparing well with the shutter response in a film rangefinder Leica – where you have to wind the film between snaps – and as good as a better grade DSLR like the Nikon D700, where the cycling rate is comparable in single shot mode. This means the camera is almost directly wired to the photographer’s eye. See an image and snap!, it’s yours.
I determined the optimum import settings in LR4 to be as follows, and saved these to an import preset:
iPhone 5 LR4 import settings.
To reduce noise in big prints these are the related settings:
iPhone 5 LR4 noise settings.
The drawing-room at Filoli. 1/20th second.
The camera was focused on the green vases on the mantlepiece by touching the display at the appropriate location. Though the display is now 16:9, up from 4:3 thanks to the taller dimension, still image files remain 4:3, as before. The original JPG file size is 2.7MB.
Here’s a section which would make a 30″ x 24″ print:
Section of above image.
The develop settings in the two panels above have been applied, together with a little boost from the Clarity and Vibrance sliders. Outstanding.
Now you don’t get the dynamic range available in a RAW file and I did not use the HDR function, though for very high contrast subjects that would make sense.
The camera is now so good that no excuse need be made for large print images. I routinely printed 13″ x 19″ from the 4S and feel confident in saying that 18″ x 24″ with the best images would be easily achieved, no excuses needed.
A friend wrote “I bet Apple has four or five camera prototypes in the lab” after I had shared my findings with him. I so hope that is the case. The design clearly incorporates real world usage needs, not something concoted by the dopes at Fuji.
The main drawback in poor light is that a support is needed. There’s nothing worse than having to hold a camera several inches from your face in a poorly lit room than holding it a foot away from your face. The above image was at 1/20th second, and I got lucky, as it’s razor sharp at the focus point. As with the iPhone 4S, the zoom function, accomplished by ‘unpinching’ – you know, the patented technology Android stole from Apple – will simply make a noisier image, so I don’t bother using it; the same result can be accomplished at the processing stage.
In conclusion, if you are happy with a fixed 33mm FFE lens this is an excellent photographic tool, if not blessed with the greatest ergonomics. Can’t be bothered to drag the monster DSLR along? The iPhone 5 does just fine. I would think that a real optical zoom cannot be too far away. Maybe in iPhone 6?
And before I forget, want to see why any sane SF Bay user should be getting a Verizon LTE iPhone 5 rather than an AT&T one with LTE scarcely to be found? Here are the cellular speeds at Filoli, which is pretty much in the middle of nowhere:
Cellular speeds – Verizon LTE, iPhone 5
In town I routinely get 20MBS download.
Getting out of your AT&T contract: Verizon is known to be very rigid on enforcing contract terms, but AT&T is weak. I had one year left on my 2 year iPhone 4S contract with AT&T and was offered two choices. Cancel the contract for $215 or sell the 4S back to AT&T for $227, then pay $449 for the iPhone 5 on a new 2 year contract. Such a deal. A quick check of eBay disclosed an average selling price of $335 for a 16GB 4S. Mine had some rub marks on one side so I listed it for $295 ‘Buy It Now’ with free US Priority shipping. It sold 60 seconds after listing, net cash to me being some $262, less the $215 contract cancellation payment to AT&T, meaning $47 left. I applied that to my new Verizon 16GB iPhone 5 ($199 + $53 CA sales tax), for a net outlay of $205, which I will deduct as business expense on my tax return. Assuming I have taxable income this year the net after-tax cost is lower still.
Disclosure: Long AAPL, BRCM, QCOM.