Category Archives: Photography

Logitech G502 wired mouse

Mac Mini M4

Time for a new one.




The Logitech G502 wired gaming mouse.

My Mac Mini suddenly lost the ability to drag and drop files. Given the frequent use of this function and its general indispensability, this fault rendered the computer near useless.

I set about reinstalling the Tahoe operating system – no change – then restored files from my Time Machine sequential back-up. Still no joy.

That left the mouse and trying a basic old Microsoft two button mouse had drag and drop working once more, so the old Logitech G500 had to be replaced. As it had served me well I went with its replacement, the Logitech G502, and stuck with a wired design as that’s one less thing to go wrong and one fewer battery to recharge. At $38 it’s some 50% less than the G500 was 13 years ago, in inflation adjusted dollars, so no complaints here.

Like the G500 the G502 has installable weights to add heft and I loaded up the G502 with all six. There’s also one spare provided. Each weighs 36 grams/1.27 oz, so fully loaded you are adding 216 grams/7.6 oz, which confers just the right heft for my use. Also, like with the G500, the scroll wheel’s click-stops can be disengaged for smooth scrolling, much my preferred setting.

There’s a downloadable app which claims to do all sort of magic things, including changing the color of the LED logo (how dumb is that?). Well, it is a gaming mouse, which explains a lot about the typical user, I suppose. Rather than mess with that I stuck with the well supported SteerMouse which recognized the G502 immediately and programming the several buttons – there are seven – took a couple of minutes. After some use I had to turn down the pointer sensitivity and speed to get the settings I was used to. Simple to do. The G502’s buttons are located in a manner similar to that on the G500 which makes transition easy.

If the G502 lasts as long as the G500 I will be a happy camper.

Feather

Leica, Macro

Deposited in my front yard.

For an index of all Leica-related articles click here.




Click the image for a larger version.

This was formerly the property of a Great Horned Owl – the one with ‘ear’ tufts. The bird can be heard – and occasionally seen – at dusk in my neighborhood.

I used just one strobe to transilluminate the feather from the rear with a reflector next to the lens to confer some front lighting.

Leica SL2S, 135mm El Nikkor at f/16, Nikon PB4 bellows, ISO200, 1 strobe. 9 images focus stacked in Helicon Focus. The ‘floating in air’ effect was obtained by inserting a thin bamboo stick into the base of the feather and subsequently removing it in post. Take a look at the large version, by clicking the image above, and you will see that the El Nikkor enlarging lens does not disappoint.

A sad anniversary

Ramblings

On its 250th anniversary this is not the nation I once knew.




Our flag. Crown Graphic 4×5, 135mm Xenar, Kodak film.

I left the failed nation of England for America 49 years ago, full of anticipation and hope for this new adventure.

Today, the America I so proudly joined in 1977 is unrecognizable.

– Where there was love now there is hate.
– Where there was tolerance now there is bigotry.
– Where minds were open now they are closed.
– Where there was adulation of education now there is denigration.
– Where there was a Great Society now every man is out for himself.
– Where there was a decent leader now there is a common criminal.
– Where immigrants were welcomed with open arms now there is ICE.
– Where children could look forward to a better future than their parents now they cannot.
– Where there was peace now there is endless war.
– Where there was a thrust for equality now we have the greatest inequality since the Gilded Age.

I weep for my adopted country.

Hanging huge prints

Printing

Not a lot of fun.

Having mounted and framed the three 24″ x 36″ prints for my living room it came time to hang them. The post production time for printing, mounting, framing and hanging is a multiple of the time required to take and process the images, but there are no short cuts. Scrupulous cleanliness is dictated as even the smallest particle of grit will destroy the mounted print’s surface and white cotton gloves for handling everything are mandatory, if greasy fingerprints are to be avoided. In other words, the whole process is a royal pain.

First my son and I debated in which order the prints should be hung. After trying all the variations we decided on this:



Common Ninebark, Common Blanketflower and Flax wildflowers.

The print location is above three sets of louvered window shutters and we used a self-leveling laser level which projects a pair of 90 degree laser light lines on the wall, making alignment with the center of each pair of shutters a simple matter:



Laser level on the Linhof tripod.
A very tall ladder is involved.

As this location has a 19′ ceiling and we wanted the prints approximately half way up a very tall ladder was called for. Not much fun, I confess.

Here is the result after much struggling with this monster ladder, not to mention moving furniture around to accommodate it.



Common Ninebark, Common Blanketflower and Flax wildflowers.

A lot of work, with much fun finding the wildflowers in my community and photographing them, followed by hours of mirthless, hard labor to complete the project.

This will convey a sense of the enlargement ratio. I am holding the original of the Common Blanketflower in my right hand:



Holding the original and the print.

Making huge prints revisited

Printing

It’s a little easier now.

Over a decade ago I wrote about making a 36″ x 48″ print for wall display. You can read about that here. Now that was a bit of a cheat, really, as I had to assemble the final result from four tiled 18″ x 24″ prints, the largest my HP DJ90 could output. Still the result worked pretty well.

Today the largest my Epson ET8550 printer can manage is 13″ x 19″, and while that’s fine for most purposes, not to mention easy to mount, mat and frame, I recently got a hankering for something larger, and luckily have wall space to accommodate it.

The Postal Annex nearby recently installed two very large printers, a 44″ Canon and a 64″ Hewlett Packard, selling their services to those requiring large banners and posters. The HP, according to the proprietor, can print on vinyl paper for waterproof outdoor displays, but is limited to eight inks, whereas the Canon boasts no fewer than a dozen. Given that making very large prints is a once-a-decade exercise for me ownership of either of these monsters makes no sense (the HP costs a stunning $38,000), so when it came time to make three 24″ x 36″ prints I duly delegated the task and emailed the TIF files – each some 60mb in size – to Postal Annex. Four hours later saw the job completed and I was on my merry way home to attend to mounting and framing tasks, poorer for the modest sum of 3 x $45. Not at all bad, and the print quality, on Canon’s satin photographic paper, is everything one could wish for. Too bad they do not offer a glossy option.

Until mounted these prints are very fragile so the quicker this task is completed the better. I use 24.5″ wide mounting tissue and my Seal Jumbo 160M heated dry mounting press requires six ‘bites’ (90 seconds each @ 170F) to do the task after first tacking the print, tissue, and mount together using a heated tacking iron. The prices for a new press and iron are ridiculous, and given that’s there’s little to go wrong I recommend a search on eBay where the press can be found for $500 and the iron for under $50. Much of the cost of the press is for shipping as this whopper weighs a stout 60lbs. Repair parts for the press, should anything fail, are available. The press is now marketed under the D&K name, though it’s otherwise unchanged,



Six passes needed for a 24″ x 36″ print.
Release paper protects the print’s surface.

I opted for plain wooden frames with plexiglass – cheaper than glass and, more importantly, much lighter. Given that hanging the framed prints involves my least favorite pursuit – ladder time – light weight is an issue. The unstained pale wood contrasts nicely with the black backgrounds in my wildflower images. The plexiglass has a protective clear film on both sides and it does well to remember to remove this as it robs definition. Here’s the first of the three framed prints ready for hanging:



Ready for hanging.

After removing the pressed wood backing board I retain the print in the frame using a framing points driver tool. Owing to the thickness of the mounting board the backing board can no longer be installed, so a couple of hanging hooks is attached to the frame for the hanging wire.



Framing points replace the backing board, which no longer fits.
The hooks and wire came in this kit.

The all in cost of each framed print including printing and all framing materials is a reasonable $102, each.

Now it’s ladder time. Ugh!