Jun 29, 2011

Lucid café + photography chats

Today I popped into Lucid Café on 38th and Lexington and enjoyed a mid-day cappuccino in the charming little space. Lucid has been on my radar for a while but I never really find myself in the Murray Hill area. They use Counter Culture beans, so that's already a plus in my book. (Guess who else uses Counter Culture? ioajfabracojeklr)

The place is quite tiny so I didn't get any great shots, but it definitely has a few cute aspects, including the string of postcards near the door, presumably from loyal customers on their worldly travels (?).

While I was sipping and shooting, a girl at the other table approached me about my camera. She was a fellow photographer who was actually there editing pictures. Not only did she have the coolest name ever (Ash Fox), but she had very pretty features and I couldn't resist a little impromptu portrait taking.

I can't decide whether I like the effect this random flare has on the second picture or if I should have edited that out!

Thanks to Ash for letting me shoot these. :)

Oh yeah, and the cappuccino? Very good. Milk a smidgen too hot. I rate it above the likes of Joe and Kaffe 1668, but you know where my heart still belongs to.

Jun 28, 2011

It was unavoidable...

Well, folks, I finally bit the bullet and started me a facebook page. Groan. I was avoiding it for the longest time because I'm not really sure what my strategy is for it (and I really like twitter), but for now, I'm hoping to use it as a quick way to interact with others and share news, especially with those not on twitter. If you would kindly "like" me to keep updated as I work out the kinks of my page, I'd be very grateful!

I was also feeling very meh about the two potential blog posts I could have posted today, so this is my lackluster update until I can create better content. It's just been one of those uninspired days. Well, if anything can snap me out of this, it'll be the week+ long trip to Hawaii in T-minus 42 hours... :)

Jun 27, 2011

Early summer fare at the greenmarket

The Union Square Greenmarket never disappoints when it comes to providing colorful spreads for the eyes, though I tend to think my camera's eye enjoys the bounty even more than I do. After all, it'll be a while before I actually know what to DO with all these veggies and whatnot. If you guys follow me on twitter, you'll know I often resort to eating three-day-old leftovers from takeout instead of cooking something real. We have barely just enough counter space for me to make coffee and that's pretty much that. (I'm very good at boiling water.) Psst, Nicole (and Linda), I'm still waiting on cooking lessons. ;)

For now, I'll just enjoy watching other people mill about the greenmarket and stay out of the scary unknown territory of actually purchasing goods myself.

All of these were shot with the 85mm with a new nifty Hoya circular polarizer. I will have some more detailed thoughts on the filter when I get some more use out of it.

Check out old posts of the greenmarket here, here, here, and oh, here!

Jun 26, 2011

Casual sunday in the city

Well guys, it's finally been done... Jimmy is out of a suit for this edition of his look, her look. I only realized after putting this together that we are both wearing almost head to toe J. Crew (for me, even down to the belt and yellow bracelet!). Erm, I may or may not have had some influence on his casual wardrobe.

Love how this little dog snuck into the first frame.

We also happen to be donning matching Ray Ban Folding Wayfarers - his in matte black and mine in tortoise. These are fun because you can completely fold them down the middle, and they fit neatly into a little square case.

I think not wearing a suit immediately shaves like ten years off his look, yeah?

Jun 24, 2011

Another gloomy one

This Friday's weather is not much better than the last. Gray and bleh. I snapped this polaroid earlier and am enjoying how the colors came out. Very earthy and feels somewhat like a distant memory.

Well, happy friday and happy birthday to my dad! I'm looking forward to some sun (hopefully) this weekend.

Jun 23, 2011

A week of nommage

I've been terribly behind on food posts, so to [over]compensate, here are three recent dinners from a week in June. First up, a casual goodbye dinner at Pure Thai for my grandbig (please excuse the sorority-ese) who is now in India doing really great things.

Can you tell these shots were taken on the S95? :P I actually love this camera when the light is right. And it makes the "above-the-table" shot so much easier. While I enjoyed the fare here a lot, I don't think I'll be trekking up to Hell's Kitchen just to eat there when there are over a dozen great Thai places in the East Village.

Next up, a dinner at Craftbar with some of my favorite people. I thought the decor of this place was very strange and definitely lacking a certain something. The food was solid and all, but I don't think we were jumping up and down about it. (Eh, I think we've all been a tad spoiled. ;))

I did, however, very much enjoy the pickled pearl onion in the soft shell crab dish. Not sure what it says about the meal if I remember that minute accompanying ingredient the most. Hah.

And finally, a large group dinner at má pêche with some super cool new (and old!) faces. As I was going through these pictures, I realized I missed shooting at least a dish or two (like the crispy pig's head). Oops, I guess there's a first for everything. Shooting in large groups is never ideal, but I graciously thank my dining companions for letting me get away with it!

A ton of goodies here. Highlights for me included the potatoes, sugar snaps, and foie gras terrine. Again, this restaurant is a bit out of the way, but I'm really glad for the occasion to let me get up there. Many thanks to Jessica for organizing.

I'm crossing my fingers that my stomach will be cooperating again, or there will be a sad drought of food posts here!

P.S. Seriously nasty "before" shots of the má pêche dinner. Frightening, really.

Jun 22, 2011

Ashley part deux

If this pretty redhead looks familiar, it's because I blogged a little portrait session a few weeks ago featuring some film shots of her. I finally got around to processing some of the digital shots from that day. Now this isn't quiite a direct film vs. digital post, but it's still pretty obvious where the differences are. I honestly like both versions (or maybe I just like the photogenic subject). Digital will always be tack sharp and my beloved Connie can't quite compete in that area. I think these digital shots are more dramatic and contrasty whereas the film versions were (as expected) more romantic and soft.

Movie star smile, hello!

And p.s. thanks for the well wishes about my health. It was probably a virus but I'm getting better. I finally had a hot meal today. I was so sick of crackers!

Jun 21, 2011

My go-to summer outfit

I came down with somethin' awful last night and had to leave a seven course dinner after course two (argh! Still cursing missing an amazing menu). I'm just happy I wasn't rolled out of the restaurant in a stretcher. The night was pretty brutal. Unfortunately I did NOT throw up. I probably would have felt 100x better if I were able to. Ugh sorry for the gory details. This morning, I hunted for a doctor on yelp (hah) as I don't have a GP in the city yet.

Anyyyway, today wasn't great but I had a shoot in the afternoon so I willed myself to get my shit together. I'm still subsisting off saltines, cheese, and fruit, which meant another canceled reservation tonight. We were looking forward to it for quite a few weeks now too. Many sorries, Jimmy :(.

On a happier note, I'd wear this outfit every day if I could this summer. Of course, it gets way too hot for me to comfortably wear the cardigan, but for indoors, we're good.

Pretty sure these H&M shorts are from like 2007. Love them anyway. On my feet are probably this pair of ancient brown strappy sandals that I just can't seem to find a good replacement for.

Well, happy summer solstice!

Jun 20, 2011

One last round

Here's a final round of SF pictures! It's hard to believe this took place just a little over a week ago. It feels like months already. It was funny that among the seven of us, no one had brought a 35mm film camera. It was all full-frame digital and medium format film. I guess we don't mess around. :P

Now that I've finally gotten the Full House theme song out of my head, I was able to handle these pictures from Alamo Square without too much issue.

It's too bad the sky was so drab by the evening!

All in all (geez, don't think I've used that phrase since writing conclusion paragraphs in middle school!), San Francisco is probably the prettiest city I have visited so far. That may not be saying much given my lackluster travel résumé, but nonetheless... The landscape is stunning and I love the hills (they remind me of what I'd imagine the Grecian coast to look like) and the bay views. Add in the Victorian architecture and it's a city with great charm and history too. I'd be back in a heartbeat for sure.

Jun 19, 2011

A new toy

The other day, Jimmy picked up a Recesky Twin Lens Reflex Kit and thought it'd be fun to build knowing full well the camera itself would be, well, shit. But a toy is a toy, and he liked the idea of building a camera. I thought it'd be fun to shoot the process, so since the light in the apartment is nonexistent, we actually took it to my parent's house in Jersey where I was for the weekend... for the sole purpose of being able to shoot it in better light.

What we didn't realize was that it'd take a good two hours or so to put it together, although 85% of that was probably spent deciphering the instructions. They were in English but clearly not in English, ya know?

Well, it kinda works... we'll see if we actually manage to shoot through a roll on this. Some of the shots in the receskly flickr pool don't look half that bad!

Hey dad...

Sorry you get gypped this year with your birthday the same week. :P At least you get to steal me from the city this weekend!

(And the image above is exactly why I will not be quitting my day job to be a graphic designer. That shit is hard.)

Jun 17, 2011

It's raining, it's pouring...

Nasty Friday out there! Perfect for cooping myself up inside and trying to do some much needed late spring cleaning. This evening would be perfect with a casual dinner at a local restaurant and then seeking shelter to watch some queued Netflix movies.

Photo taken on the good old Minolta x370s with Kodak Portra 400.

Jun 16, 2011

Coffee fix in the bay

Hope you aren't sick of SF pictures yet! I'll probably have one (or two) megaposts after this one. I'm more than a bit rushed because I'm off to dinner (surprise, surprise), but here are the three cafes we got to try while over in the bay area. The first one, Barefoot Coffee, was actually in San Jose. Cindy had recommended it as the best option in the area, so we eagerly took it over any of the Starbucks or Peets that populate the 'burbs.

Jimmy tried a pourover (check out the barista's double pouring action!) and I had a cubano, which I think is a cappuccino with sort of burnt brown sugar steamed into the milk. Both were delicious, if I can describe coffee as that. And oh look, wooden chairs and coffee on wooden trunks... not like we've seen me shoot THAT before.

One of our first stops in SF was Blue Bottle (again, no surprise there!) where I pretty much wanted to try everything on the menu. Instead I settled for a simple drip and sampled Jimmy's cortado (er... Gibraltar). We also got a fantastic bowl of granola and fresh yogurt. The light at the tables was great! Another thing we don't get to enjoy in many NYC cafes.

In case anyone is curious, everything up to the picture of the guy sitting at the counter was taken on Provia 400x and after that is Portra 400.

We eventually shuffled over to Four Barrel, another very photogenic space. Doesn't this first picture remind you of a high school chemistry lab class?

So yes, these places had nice spaces and solid coffee, but Abraço need fear not - I do still find the espresso there better. ;) It really is quite different though and I don't know if I have the vocabulary to describe it. All you SF folks, you'll just have to see for yourself! I would definitely take you there as our first stop when you're in NYC... although we won't even all fit through the door hah.

Jun 15, 2011

Chez cindy & seth

It's no secret that Cindy and Seth's apartment in San Francisco has some seriously sexy light. Her pictures (especially these from a set dedicated to "the window") certainly depict it. Their apartment is a photographer's dream. After being cooped up in tiny NYC apartments where it is not all that uncommon for people to take rooms with NO windows, I was just floored by how much light was available to theirs.

I was pretty thrilled to have the privilege of seeing the window in real life after admiring it on screen for so long. :P I only wish I could find the equivalent in Manhattan without selling an organ to fund it (hey, I don't need two kidneys, right?).

This first set of pictures was from the morning visit and all were taken on the lovely Fuji Provia 400x. I friggin' love this film, mostly for its realistic colors and slight punchiness. The contrast is perfect. Plus I was happy it handled potentially really blown-out highlights really well.

This set below is from a late afternoon visit and was shot on Portra 400. I still have a love-hate relationship with this film. Sometimes, it's great and I don't even have to fix colors in-scanner at all, and other times it's super flat or really yellow or green.

The three kittehs are sure lucky to be able to bask in this! I didn't get a clear shot of Yashi, but she sure is beautiful. Well, all of them are!

Thank you to Cindy and Seth for letting us admire your lovely home. :)

Jun 13, 2011

Us crazy photographers in SF

The last time I titled a post like that was when Seth and Cindy were visiting NYC in the fall. This time around, Jimmy and I were super lucky to have them show us around the cool areas of SF while avoiding tourist traps. I always have a kickin' good time on these flickr meetups and this time was no exception. It was so wonderful to meet Jackie, Pei, and Chris in person. What a fun gang.

While I am waiting on a few rolls of film to come back (my "real" SF shots) and still waiting to finish half a roll still in the Contax (damn hate when that happens!), I thought I'd share some amusing behind the scenes of the day (many courtesy of Jimmy) and group shots. Please see Jackie's version and Cindy's here!

Oh yeah, please excuse the messy handwriting. I got a little carried away with my Wacom Bamboo pen. I thought it was fitting for the silly-ness of some of these pictures. Back to clean text soon for sure, unless I can improve my chicken-scratch handwriting.

Hehe, I do love this last shot. After two excellent cafe visits, we headed to brunch at Foreign Cinemas, where the light, as Cindy noted, "is divine" and "you can almost just dine on the light itself." So true.

After ice cream at Bi-Rite, we headed to Alamo Square because I wanted to see the Painted Ladies. From there, we went to a "secret" spot to see the Golden Gate Bridge in all its glory. The fog was perfect.

She is a beaut.

Jun 12, 2011

Back from the bay

Hello from NYC again! I'm completely pooped tonight, but bear with me as I unload my SF and Cali pictures on here over the week. I thought San Francisco was beautiful. I loved the scraggly hills and the architectural style there. The Golden Gate Bridge was everything I'd imagine it to be and better, but I guess I am just jaded to the bridges here. I had an amazing time on Saturday where I met up with the coolest gang of photographers, but more on that to come of course!

I was shocked at how cold and windy it was from this vantage point. I don't think I've ever been that cold in June in all my life! :P

Jun 9, 2011

What we wore to lunch

This is my first time trying a scheduled post as I'll be on the other side of the country until Sunday, so if you're reading this right now, I guess the scheduling worked out okay! To complement yesterday's post on lunch at Jean Georges, here is a little his and hers post taken in Central Park for what we wore on that Saturday.

Lunch even at a fancy restaurant is a much more casual affair but dresses like these, I rarely wear, so I felt like grabbing the opportunity to drag it out of the closet. I do wish I had more funky accessories I could bring into the mix, but I've always been pretty bare-bones about that stuff. I'm definitely making more of an effort to bulk up my accessories and hold off on the clothing.

Can you tell I'm an iPhone gal and he's an Android guy? :P

I must admit I ripped this style of text overlay completely from shopbop.com. I wanted to give it a try because I admired it so much. It does seem like everyone is using some type of italic Bodoni plus Gotham these days, but hey I guess it works! If anyone is remotely curious or a typography geek, the caps text that I've been using recently is AW Conqueror Sans (it's the same as in my logo tagline).

Jun 8, 2011

Another lunch done right

Lunching at Jean Georges is a great way to experience a three-star restaurant without burning a hole in your wallet. In fact, a number of high-end restaurants in New York offer shockingly (relatively) inexpensive lunch menus. While the standard dinner menu is $98 and the tasting menus even more, lunch is offered at a much gentler price point of $32 for two courses. I had fun shooting the lunch with the 24-70mm, the first time I've ever really used anything but the 50mm for a meal I think. Dinners are generally too dark to use my "slow" zoom.

Below is Jimmy's little blurb:

Jean Georges is the home restaurant of Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Chef Vongerichten himself now owns a menagerie of restaurants across a mind-boggling number of genres, but the food at Jean Georges is what he is personally best known for cooking - Alsatian food with a heavy Southeast Asian accent. The four of us who were at lunch had among us 8 different savories, three desserts, and three cheeses.

As expected, the meal had a number of highlights. The first was a velvety cucumber soup with brilliantly contrasting beet foam as part of the amuse; full of flavor and perfectly executed. My sweetbreads were excellent as well - perfectly fried without a hint of grease, accompanied by watercress and a tangy sauce that offered a very interesting flavor complement.

My cheeses were a bit mediocre in comparison, but the desserts sounded like they were anything but. (Silly Jimmy for getting cheese when the rest of us sprung for sweets.)

The meal was very good; the price, relative to the quality, even better. (Yup, except I did NOT appreciate getting called "Mrs." Gao when I got my portion of the check. This rivals the time someone at a party thought I was 30. I mean, what?! I thought "Ms." was standard these days.)
--
Super early flight tomorrow and I haven't packed as much as a toothbrush yet. I'm definitely looking forward to escaping the oven that is NYC these few days.

Jun 7, 2011

In the heat of the kitchen

Although I've been to Hearth a number of times, I've never sat at the chef's counter until two Fridays ago (I'm so behind in blogging this). You can immediately feel the temperature difference when you sit at the counter from the heat lamps, so it may not be the best idea on a blistering summer day. It really felt more like dinner and a show, and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the hectic rush and bustle when it was peak dinner time. It was quite amazing seeing how a well-oiled kitchen handles that type of stress.

Hearth is definitely my go-to if I'm craving pasta (and/or fish, come to think about it). It's just damn good. No other way to describe it. So it wasn't a surprise that I had a pasta to start and then fish, while Jimmy had a fish to start, then pasta. We were also sent a lovely bowl of gnocchi with morels and peas as a mid-course.

We were so stuffed we actually ordered dessert to-go. Although the light in that area is a bit all over the place, I think it worked well in that full-size portrait shot to create an appropriate dramatic effect.

I always recommend Hearth when my guy friends ask me where they should take a girl on a first date. ;)

Jun 6, 2011

Ashley in the west village

My lovely friend Ashley and the Contax met on a blissful Friday evening for some portrait making. The Contax enjoyed Ashley very much, especially her eyes and her hair. Killer colors, both of them.

It's funny because Ashley and I only started talking online in maybe January or February of this year but she's become my go-to person to bounce ideas off. She also calms me down when I'm flipping out (which happens almost daily) about my business and whining about various expensive things I lust after. She reminds me to breathe and carry on and gives me pep talks. She's the best. :D

We got together on Friday afternoon to take some portraits in the West Village. I must have been nervous because I literally did the dumbest things - like when the Contax was OFF, and I was freaking out that the metering wasn't showing, and then having the dark slide in position where I couldn't press the shutter... it was a rough start.

Sadly, a few of the negatives were messed up; one was beyond repair. The one processed to black and white here was also extremely botched. I did the best retouching I could and figured I'd have better luck with a high key-ish b/w processing. It just sucks that I lost quite a bit of detail in doing that.

We found a gorgeous cobblestone-lined quiet side street and had no trouble blowing through most of the roll on that street. My favorite on the roll was actually the very last shot that I haphazardly took while waiting for a cab to drive through the scene.

And just for fun (digital - I'm not quiiite ready to get the timing perfect on a jump shot with film :P.):

Portraits are rewarding but HARD. I really want to get better at more interesting poses and compositions. To me, formal portraits are still much more stressful than still life and food and it definitely does not come naturally or effortlessly. This is a challenge I'll gladly take on though.

Jun 5, 2011

Fresh from the farm (blue hill at stone barns on film!)

I was a little crazy to shoot this whole meal on film, but I wanted to test the versatility of the Portra 400. Film guru Jonathan Canlas has been able to shoot this film two stops underexposed and still come out with great results. Of course, since I am doing my own scanning, my results were less than superb. I'm not sure what kind of adjustments my scanner is making behind the scenes, but it often leaves me with really inconsistent colors and contrast. The same scene, same exposure will get scanned differently - very frustrating.

I know I could have gotten fantastic results on digital, because we were sitting near decent window light, but I looked plenty insane already with the Contax at dinner. Towards the end, I was shooting handheld at 1/15s and it got a bit ugly. There happened to be a wedding going on in the patio area outside the restaurant and the photographer was slinging a Contax 645 and a Canon. I was dying to figure out who it was! I would've flipped out if it were Jose Villa (because those are the two cameras he uses at weddings!)...

Jimmy will take it from here:

Blue Hill at Stone Barns is one of the most distinctive restaurants in New York City (arguably). Chef Barber focuses on seasonality with intensity far beyond that of the dozens of “seasonal” restaurants in the city. Its relationship to the city is also unique. While Blue Hill at Stone Barns is generally classified as a New York City restaurant, it’s actually in Pocantico Hills, about an hour each way from Grand Central Terminal via Tarrytown. This creates a unique ambiance; many argue that the quiet of the countryside provides a far better backdrop than the distractions of the city for thoughtfully enjoying good food. Not even the most serene dining room in the city can fully take one away from the city.

Our menu at Stone Barns was heavily focused on vegetables. Of our six savories, only one unambiguously featured a protein as the main element. The bulk of the rest centered on the indisputably superb produce available to the restaurant. I don’t feel too much of a need to list our courses individually. The quality of the produce speaks for itself; while in some ways the meal reminded me of our meal at Kajitsu, the subtleties were in the depths of flavor in the spectacular ingredients, not in preparations that were complex on face. This isn’t to say that the cooking wasn’t fantastic. It was. My personal tastes tend toward more complex preparations, but the skill involved in getting just the right amount of seasoning or grilling to just the right level of doneness is indisputable. I just don’t really have the vocabulary to describe it. Perhaps the only element that drew attention to itself was a spectacular egg yolk pasta that was indescribably full of flavor.

A lot of chefs speak of letting the ingredients speak for themselves. In practice this usually ends up boring. Successful execution requires both immaculate sourcing and skill at cooking rivaling the most complicated modernist preparations. Blue Hill at Stone Barns is one of the rare restaurants that succeeds. I appreciate the meal only more in retrospect.

We had a 1987 Lopez de Heredia Viña Tondonia Blanco Gran Reserva with dinner. It rocked.

(Thanks, Jimmy!)

Jun 3, 2011

Hello, friday

Summer Fridays are a pretty glorious thing (we get to leave at 12:30), especially when the weather is as nice as it is today. I was able to have a nice lunch at Kaffe 1668 and then I swung by Buffalo Exchange (my go-to used clothing/accessories store) where I swooped up this little gem of a bangle seen below. Still selling for $72 at Rachel Leigh, it was mine for just $20 at Buffalo - or rather, "free" with the ridiculous amount of store credit I have there from selling my clothes to them. Hooray. :)

These new books will keep me happy for quite some time as well. I am starting with Plate to Pixel which is written by the amazing Helene of Tartelette. I even read the chapter on camera basics because it was interesting to see it in the context of food photography specifically. I can't wait to try to apply some of the techniques detailed in the book!

How terribly cute is this little giraffe accessory holder? After one too many missing rings from haphazardly leaving them around the apartment, it was about time to get one of these.

Thanks for the comments and empathy about my bokeh addiction in the last post. I'll see what I can do the next few times I'm doing some personal shooting but I just don't know if I can pull off a shot at f/22 heh. Oof!

Happy weekend, everyone!

Jun 2, 2011

For the love of farms... and misc. notes on photography

I had the pleasure of enjoying the magic of Stone Barns again over the long weekend. Although this trip wasn't quite as extensive as the last (with an overnight stay in Tarrytown), it was a welcome break from city life. This time was also not quite as pleasant as the last because it was hot, hot, hot. And when you're walking around the farm center, there's not much shade to seek.

I have to admit that I think I chose a poor film to capture the colors of this place. I should have went with slide film or maybe the Portra 400 but I used the Fuji Pro 400H here (overexposed a stop), and some of the pictures came out very one-dimensional. Even the ones I've selected here, they are just all very... erm, green. Now, that's not necessarily BAD, but I was hoping for punchier colors. That red barn house near the end of the collage should be popping with color, but it's not. OR maybe I'm just bad at scanning! I'm sure Richard Photo Lab could fix these up real good. :P They seem to know what they're doing...

I also need to step away from the bokeh, like seriously just step away. A bit of a digression, but I was at an art fair the day after Stone Barns, and one photographer's work really struck me (we ordered a large silver gelatin framed print from him and I'm very very excited to get it this weekend). The photo we ordered relies completely on light and composition. Every bit of that picture is in focus. I have relied so much on shallow depth of field to create my pictures and focus my viewer's attention, and it really has become a crutch. Of course I won't abandon my lovely f2.0 on the Contax completely, but I must be able to take a good picture without the bokeh element. In a way, that's "too easy." Everyone enjoys those shots but they're not really special. In no way is this a criticism of everyone's bokeh shots - just an observation that I have to get out of this comfort zone. I suspect that had I gone to this art fair before Stone Barns, these shots would have come out very differently.

The blades of grass and the shot under are taken with a +2 close-up filter. And possibly the last dandelion shot (which is sadly not focused).

I'm kind of shocked it's Friday already tomorrow. Wohoo!

Jun 1, 2011

A pseudo his and hers post

This is a bit of a cheat post, because these were just some miscellaneous gratuitous portraits from Sunday up at Blue Hill at Stone Barns (MUCH more to come on that). It also lacks coherency pretty badly. The first shot was on Fuji Pro 400H, the second on Kodak Portra 400, and the last two are digital (you can probably even tell the dimensions aren't the same!). This really does not meet the standards of the blog, but I am pooped tonight, and it's been way too long since the last installment in this series. Also, that portrait looks nothing like me, hah.

This is Jimmy's new summery H&M suit I picked out. He'll need to ditch those desert boots in favor of boat shoes asap given these temperatures. He's also toting a new camera bag - the Think Tank Retrospective 10. So far, it's pretty user-friendly and not TOO ugly. It fit the 5dmkii + 24-70mm, the 50mm f1.4, the Contax with 80mm, and a ton of film and misc. accessories - not too shabby at all.

I'm not sure why I have such an icy glare going on there. Better content to come soon.