Rocco Galatioto, nice photos and good food

These photos shot with the E PL-2 date from last winter and are all from the River Cafe' under the Brooklyn Bridge. Alas, this fantastic restaurant was severely damaged by hurricane Sandy and is slowly being renovated. I wish them good luck and may they get back in operation.

I have always tried to make this blog a place to come to for solace and relaxation; free from political or other personal views. Because of the senseless  tragedy that took  place in Boston with it's concomitant wall to wall coverage of what may be a fruitless police chase and with the constant and repetitive views of the bloody aftermath, I want to provide a few  pleasant photos. I just went to the Brooklyn Botanic, a place that gives me much solace and I want to share a few images in the hope that they may be helpful. This is not to make anyone forget what happened but as a way to stop and smell the roses as the trite expression goes. If it's important, the camera was the Nikon D-700 with the Nikkor 29-105 F 3.5-4.5. A so called non digital lens that I have had almost forever but that still shows that all the BS about "digital ready" lenses is just that. It even has macro capabilities as shown in the bottom photo. I used manual focus as the wind made it...

I have come to the conclusion that the best shots are made when one has his back against the wall. literally and at times physically. They come out when one's resources and capacity are being stressed to the limit. These available light shots of my daughter and colleague Jennifer and her friend Jon, at the Spring Fair held in Greenpoint and sponsored by TheGreenponiters.Com web site that Jennifer owns and runs, are prime examples. Shot at ISO 3200 and hand held and naturally wide open and without flash in very dismal light nearer to darkness  show that when one pushes hard things  can happen. I was surprised at how many shots I was able to keep. The camera was the Nikon D-700 whose great low noise qualities did help and made it really easy.  The lens was not very fast. It was the Nikkor 24-85 F 2.6-4. In the film days, these shots would probably have been impossible. The film that had to be used would have been Ektachrome Type B with a speed of 160, that was considered fa...

I have always respected Sigma's innovation and integrity. Many times they surpass the big guys and show us how it can be done. Sigma Corporation develops world's first F1.8 constant aperture zoom lens New 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM features Global Vision Art lens design RONKONKOMA, NY, Apr. 18, 2013 — Sigma Corporation of America ( www.sigmaphoto.com ), a leading researcher, developer, manufacturer and service provider for some of the world's most impressive lines of lenses, cameras and flashes, today announced the Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM Art lens, the market’s first zoom lens to achieve a maximum aperture F1.8 throughout the entire zoom range. This revolutionary, wide aperture, standard zoom lens is created for DSLR cameras with APS-C size sensors, which translates to a focal range of 27-52.5mm on a 35mm camera. With a minimum focusing distance of 11 inches, and a maximum magnification ratio of 1:4.3, the 18-35mm is ideal for landscapes, portraits, sti...

I do not like the so called "studio portraits." and whenever I had to do them, I always tried to emulate a one light with reflector set up; one that mimicked that north window light effect. The reflector was needed as film or digital needs it in order to compensate for it's lack if dynamic range. Here is a disparate set taken with different cameras and at different times to show how a one light on camera can get good results. Canon 10-D Canon 5-D Nikon D-700 Nikon D2-H Fuji S2-Pro

The nasty laws of physics being what they are, we now have this. I feel that the small cameras are great but when the lenses are bigger than the cameras it is funny. It just looks wrong.   Fujifilm has  now officially introduced the Fujinon XF 55-200mm F3.5-F4.8 R LM OIS telephoto zoom for the X system of mirrorless cameras. Notable features include optical image stabilization with a claimed 4.5 stops of anti shake, dual linear stepper motors for focusing, all-metal barrel construction, and superior optical properties . The lens also sports an aperture ring like that on the company's XF 18-55mm zoom. Fujifilm has also updated its roadmap of upcoming lenses to include the XF 56mm F1.2 R, which is half a stop faster than previously projected, and scheduled for release in January 2014. Finally the company is promising firmware updates to improve the autofocus speed of both the X-Pro1 and X-E1, which will be available to download in July. Very exciting no matter what th...

Mathew is one of the boys that had been participating in the enrichment programs offered by the Walter K. Hoerning Fund. This fund, in memory of my dear friend Walter K. Hoerning, a child welfare worker in Brooklyn who sadly left us too soon, provides all sorts of program to help inner city boys. My wife is on the board and I volunteer my photographic services. These shots were taken on 4-14-13, at our annual awards ceremony.  The venue is the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music where many of the boys take courses. Some of the boys perform. Here we have Mathew, who attends La Guardia high School for the Arts and is majoring in dance. He is quite a talented dancer. The photos ware shot with the D-700 without flash. BTW. visit the fund's site for information on it's activities,   wkhfund . org

Our Thoughts and Prayers  Go to those in Boston.    Will this madness  ever end? We hate to bring sad news to our feed, however we are asking that our readers send their thoughts and prayers out to all of those who were affected by these bombings in Boston today. Details are sketchy, however it is known than many were injured. I almost decided to forgo posting today but this would only have empowered the miscreants who did this cowardly act. I will go on but sadly.

Total Production of NIKKOR Lenses for Interchangeable Lens Cameras Reaches 75 Million TOKYO - Nikon Corporation is pleased to announce that total production of NIKKOR lenses *  for Nikon interchangeable lens cameras reached seventy-five million at the beginning of November 2012. Nikon (then Nippon Kogaku K.K.) released its first NIKKOR lens for Nikon SLR cameras, the NIKKOR-S Auto 5cm f/2, in 1959 along with its first SLR camera, the Nikon F. Since releasing that first lens many years ago and establishing the NIKKOR tradition, Nikon has expanded its lineup of interchangeable lenses, recently adding a line of interchangeable lenses for Nikon 1 cameras and bringing total production to seventy-five million. At the end of May 2012, total production of NIKKOR lenses for Nikon SLR cameras reached seventy million. Since then, Nikon has continued to actively release new NIKKOR lenses. In June 2012, Nikon released the compact and lightweight AF-S NIKKOR 24-85mm f/3.5...

My Nikon D-700 makes me feel like when I was a young photographer shooting Tri-X with no flash ever. I took it as a sign of weakness to use a flash. As my career changed and I had to shoot a lot of color negative film, flash became  necessary. Then came digital and everything I shot had a flash fill. It just made the images snappier and it compensated for the early medium's low dynamic range. With the D-700, the paradigm has Naturally, the shots were hand held.