All posts by Thomas Pindelski

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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.

Guitar Lesson

Photographs

Al fresco.

iPhone (second gen) snap. Processed in Lightroom 2.

Snapped at the local coffee shop in lovely late afternoon sun. The teacher is holding a plectrum in his teeth while demonstrating fingering to his pupil.

I’m using iPhone software 3.1.2 which assures me that the GPS coordinates for this snap can be found here – well, close. They weren’t in the middle of the road ….