I feel naked

I'm a disembodied spirit. On Monday, I drove to Mississauga and left my D600 body at Nikon. Hence, "disembodied". My D300 has gone on to its new forever home with Pete (give it lots of love, feed it only the best of CF cards and battery juice, but make sure it knows who's Master, Pete. Treat it like you always did your hunting dogs and it'll be there for you!), and without my D600, the only body I have left is the one connected to the bottom side of my neck!

According to Sarah, the vivacious young Nikon service counter representative (she might be reading this so I thought choosing my words carefully might help the cause!) 5-10 working days, but I smiled bravely as a tear rolled down my cheek and she promised to see what she could do.

So why did I bring it in? Well I've been reading about the dust accumulation issue and the dust on my sensor looks just like the image on dPreview. Dust builds up mainly in the upper left quadrant. Small, almost invisible spots — certainly invisible to the naked eye but clearly there under the loupe — in sufficient numbers to make spot removal a chore in Lightroom.

I like Nikon, don't get me wrong. But one annoying practice of theirs is their penchant towards secrecy. The rumour mill says there are 3 likely causes for this issue: (1) the material on the back of the mirror, (2) excessive grease around the sensor mount, and (3) a gap in the shutter assembly that sucks dust in every time you trigger it. I told Sarah, if all they're going to do is clean the sensor, well I could do that myself. But if they're going to fix something... all I saw was her pretty smile and nothing else. In the end, I know they're not going to tell me what they did, they never do.

When I first got the D600, I thought it didn't autofocus as readily as my D300 did. So I figured while I was there...

All I have left is my iPhone.

At the Richmond Hill Camera Club on Monday night 

HDR Presentation
I had fun. I did an hour presentation on HDR to the RHCC as I mentioned last week, and I think it went well. I certainly enjoyed being there and rekindling friendships with people I haven't seen for a long time, and I think my message, which was "HDR's don't have to be over-the-top" and "Don't run with scissors is the only rule you have to follow", came across OK. Several people said they were going to give HDR a shot.

Link to the slides (soon to be an eBook!) and the resources mentioned in the presentation: http://www.photography.to.

RHCC runs out of a nice facility: a big, airy room, excellent technology (although I had a few issues with trying to get a Lightroom slideshow to run on the projectors). I'm going to really have to try harder to attend some RHCC events.

It just ain't right.
I haven't been paying attention, have they been talking about this for a while and I didn't notice? It seems that Hasselblad has come out with a new camera, the "Lunar", a repackaged Sony NEX-7 with optional fancy gold plating and wood-grained finish, and curves and textures which are supposed to remind one of the simplicity and elegance of the 500C.

I'm sorry. a 24 Mp APS-C sensored mirrorless camera Sony knockoff bearing the Hasselblad nameplate? What were they thinking? They got the price right, at $6500 though...

The Artist Project
This show was down at the Ex- on the weekend (non-Torontonians: that's "Exhibition Place" where parking is only $14 (tongue firmly embedded in cheek...). Great show. I talked to some of the exhibitors who said they might have gotten better sales at the One-of-a-Kind show, but less exposure for their art. Exhibitors here were split between painters and photographers, and there were some outstanding images on display and for sale. Several that I myself might have considered buying were I not a starving artist myself!

I walked around with my D600 and 17-35 lens and was physically stopped by an amazing number of people who wanted to know what I thought about the camera. I guess the big yellow "D600" on the camera strap was a giveaway. Interestingly, lots of people were taking pictures, but with iPhones or P&S cameras, I didn't see any other DSLR's there. One artist/exhibitor asked me to take his picture with one of his works, for his Facebook page. When I obliged, he INSISTED on being dead centre in the picture, looking straight at the camera. Not my fault!

A little selective tone-mapping, some perspective adjustment, and voilà! Reflections were impossible to eliminate, so I blurred the background. We'll see if he likes it. 

When you first came into the show, you were greeted with a wall of "Faces". Rosa says they took one image from each exhibitor (if they had one of a face). Some excellent work.

It was quiet at first, then got a bit busier later.

So, very nicely done. I'll be back next year and, you read it here first, maybe, just maybe, as an exhibitor. I'm planning to 'get my feet wet' in Haliburton in June. Watch this space...

See you next week. Hope I have a camera then!

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