Rocco Galatioto, nice photos and good food

I hope you do not get tired of this view as I never tire of admiring it's beauty. Patience.

This classic view is really irreplaceable. I know that a new so called freedom tower will attempt to fill the void but it will not really do it for me. The lens was the 24mm  f2.8 Nikkor. Shot on T-Max 400 developed with T-Max developer full strength.

A young woman who is now probably a senior citizen captured in Sicily wat back in 1972 with the Canon 50mm FL f 1.4 lens and Tri-X developed in D-76 full strength. Where does the time go....

I got my first taste of the square format in the summer of  1969 when I purchased my first Yashicamat 124, a wonderful camera that got me hooked to medium format. The G model had gold plated wires in it's light meter. They were inexpensive cameras that put out. I then got into the Mamiyas  in 645 and 120 formats and eventually got into 6X7 with the long gone  Koni-Omega. When i was able to afford them,  I got a couple of Rolleis and even a Minolta Autochord. I have practically shot with every camera ever made. I just love the large negatives and enjoyed the 120 slides that you put inside the Kodak PK 12 Mailer for processing. That wait was painful but it made you appreciate photography. It's just too easy with digital and soon real photography will bite the dust. This shot was made in prospect park on a cloudy winter day long ago.

Samsung Introduces Stylish Branded Memory Cards Complete Line of SD and MicroSD Cards Available up to Class 10, 32 GB Models RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J.--( BUSINESS WIRE )--Samsung Electronics America, Inc., a market leader and award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, announced today that it is now shipping a new line of advanced SD and microSD cards that are ideal for digital imaging and mobile devices. The seven new models of SD and microSD cards are now available as part of either the High Speed Series or the Plus Extreme Speed Series, both of which deliver up to 24MB/sec read speeds on cards with a capacity of 4GB or higher. Styled with a brushed metal design, Samsung’s beautiful new line of SD and microSD cards are built with “Best-in-Class” performance. Able to meet the growing demand for high speed and high capacity memory in modern devices, the new cards are ideal for today’s digital cameras, camcorders, smartphones and tablets. With (up to) 24MB/sec OR (max)...

The S1 by Fuji, my third digital camera but my first one used on jobs, was amazing. It's puny, by today's standards, sensor of 3.4 mega pixels  produced outstanding images. These are out of the camera JPEGS. The body was very prosaic and it's battery set up was ridiculous. Nevertheless, it produced great quality images.

(Reuters) - Japanese police and prosecutors have arrested seven men, including the former president of Olympus Corp and ex-bankers over a $1.7 billion accounting fraud -- one of the country's biggest corporate scandals.

Leica M9 ”Titanium” - Exclusive special edition – solid titanium - Design collaboration with Walter de’Silva (Volkswagen, Audi) - Limited to 500 cameras worldwide - Custom designed CCD for optimal performance - Sold with LEICA SUMMILUX-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH. lens - $26,500.....a bargain

I have posted and raved about this modest restaurant in Rapallo in Liguria many times but it's worth repeating.. Modest in appearance only as the all you can eat food is superb. Eat until you are totally sated for a modest cost. The place is always full at lunch time and it's noisy.  Nothing nouvelle here, only great food. The staff is efficient and pleasant. A must if you are anywhere in the area .

Large sensors in small cameras continue to fascinate. I have used the four thirds system for a year now and find it excellent. Here we have a larger sensor but it's in a non interchangeable body. It appears to be a very competent camera and one well suited for travel. Canon unveils The Master Compact – the revolutionary PowerShot G1 X   .  Canon has introduces the PowerShot G1 X – a revolutionary new compact camera with a large CMOS sensor, designed to produce DSLR levels of image quality and control in a highly portable metal body. Created for professional and serious photographers, the PowerShot G1 X creates a prestigious new category at the top of Canon's legendary G-series line-up, and redefines the performance achievable from a compact camera. A high-quality camera in its own right or the perfect complement to a professional DSLR, the PowerShot G1 X combines EOS sensor technology with DIGIC 5 processing power, a new precision Canon lens and extensive manua...

One of the most competent point and shoot cameras ever. It has now been replaced with the LX-5 that sports a lens that goes from 24-90 mm  [35mm equivalent] focal length. It did not have an EVF nor an optical viewfinder, unlike the new model on which a somewhat limited EVF can be attached. Nevertheless it took great photos. These are some of my earliest tests with this camera in my backyard.

I t was a leader in camera and lens designs and quite popular in the sixties. With the advent of autofocus and digital wizardry the company sort of lost it's way. Too bad as their Takumar lenses were superb. It did make various attempts at gaining a foothold in the digital DSLR matket but had to compete with Canon and Nikon. Their products, were and are outstanding. Now everyone is trying to create a small large sensor camera and Pentax has entered the fray we hope it has success. They deserve it. Their union with Samsung will capitalize the company and their future seems bright. NEWS While all other MILCs are based on relatively new lens systems specifically designed for those cameras, Pentax's K-01, which was introduced last week, is the first MILC that is backwards compatible and, without the need for any kind of adapter, is compatible with millions of lenses that have been available for decades. Featuring an electronic viewfinder and a Sony-made sensor that is expect...

Shot at an event in a senior center for Trump Pavilion, my client. This person really dressed up for the occasion. The camera was the Nikon F-3 with the 105 mm F 2.5 Nikkor. The film was Fujicolor 400. The interesting thing is that this is a scan from a 4X6 print.

Shot on West 18 Street in Manhattan .

As posted below, you can see what the original one element Lens baby can do. Now the company has become very ambitious and has quite an extensive line of products. A visit to their site is very illuminating. Lensbaby Launches the Edge 80 Now   Lensbaby have released their latest optic for the Optic Swap system. The Edge 80 is, as the name implies, an 80mm lens that's compatible the Composer Pro, Composer, Muse, Scout and Control Freak systems. It can get confusing at times. Used "normally"  or straight ahead, the Edge 80 is sharp from edge to edge. The fun comes when you start tilting the lens to create horizontal, vertical or diagonal focal slices. Changing the aperture controls the amount of blur you'll get on your photo - a simple adjustment that can be made on the fly. "Like a great lens mounted on a view camera bellows, you can make spectacular 'straight' photos with the Edge 80 pointed straight ahead," says Lensbaby president and co-foun...

Lens Baby, a company that makes very unusual optics that allow all sorts of distortions has been around for a while and has developed an extensive repertoire of lenses. I actually find their product somewhat confusing. These photos were shot with the Nikon D700 and the original very simple Lens Baby. It's fun to see what happens using controlled distortion.

Fujifilm X-Pro1 An affordable M-9? Well, perhaps, but it's within reach and looks fantastic.

These camellias at the Planting Fields Arboretum were shot by Marcy. Very nice indeed. It shows that under competent hands a so called point and shoot camera can give excellent results. Enjoy.

A peonie in my backyard with the Sigma 50mm F 2.8 macro lens. On a cloudy day, the colors stand out more.

Nikon D800 Features a 36.3-megapixel FX-format CMOS sensor 3MELVILLE, N.Y. (Feb 6, 2012) –  Today, imaging leader Nikon Inc. announced the highly anticipated D800 HD-SLR, engineered to provide extreme resolution, astounding image quality and valuable video features optimized for professional still and multimedia photographers and videographers.  A camera with an unmatched balance of accuracy, functionality and image quality, the Nikon D800 realizes innovations such as a high resolution 6.3-megapixel FX-format CMOS sensor, a 91,000-pixel RGB Matrix Metering System, Advanced Scene Recognition System and many other intuitive features designed to create the preeminent device for the most demanding photo and video applications. Whether shooting high fashion, weddings or multimedia content, Nikon's highest resolution sensor to date, a groundbreaking new 36.3-megapixel (7360 x 4912 resolution) FX-format CMOS sensor, affords flexibility and astonishing image quality to ...

The Olympus faithful (myself included) have waiting a long time for this one to hit the market and it looks like we'll get the m4:3rds machine we wanted from Olympus afterall.  I loved the EP2 and the EP3 but in each introduction I shook my head at the lack of insight into professional and advanced amateur usage patterns on the part of Olympus.  I've been very, very clear that no pro in his/her right mind would buy a camera that didn't have an EVF.  And the VF-2 EVF attachment is a good tool.  But dammit, if you wanted to use the EVF on the EP2 and the EP3 you used up the hot shoe and the only two way terminal on the camera.  Wanna use the VF-2?  Then you can't use a hot shoe mounted flash.  Wanna use a outboard microphone to do good sound with your video?  Not is you need to use the VF-2.  It drove me nuts.   We were also starting to chafe under the constraints of the 12 megapixel sensor.  And if I had a quarter for ...

The east end of Long Island is truly a wonderful area. It's flat but beautiful with its many small farma and of course it's vineyards, It's always a pleasure to go there. the lens used was the Canon 24-105 F 4 L.

I will be here soon enough.