Upon this rock I build my church...
This is a San Francisco-specific version of an outdoor patio. We were just walking by this thing, luckily Natasha noticed it. Sigma DP1, handheld.
Группа Russian Solution перед концертом в The Independent.
Вопли Видоплясова в Сан Франциско. Неожиданно хорошее заводное шоу, особенно после Мумий Троль которые просто sucked.
На концерте группы Russian Solution.
San Francisco and the Bay Bridge from Treasure Island (this is another HDR picture)
San Francisco from Treasure Island
A quick and dirty comparison of 5D and DP-1. These are crops of an image area, so look at them in full size.
This is a comparison of SIgma DP1 and Ricoh GX-100 on the same scene. Tripod, 10-sec self-timer, in-camera AF. Both shot in RAW, SIgma's image dumped to 16-bit TIF from SPP without any adjustment. All further processing in Lightroom (exposure, clarity, vibrance, sharpening). From the specs, the 10 Mpix Ricoh should have a resolution advantage over the 4 Mpix Sigma. To see how the two cameras really stack up against each other, check out the 100% crops below.
100% crops from both images. Ricoh image was downsized to match Sigma (bicubic inperpolation, linear interpolation produces marginally crisper image, but the difference is insignificant). Overall- not even close. There is a very pronounced difference in the crispness of the image and the level of detail that DP1 can pull out Where Ricoh's image just looks smeared in comparison. Keep in mind that GX100 is a VERY VERY good point and shoot and is considered to be one of the best in terms of image quality. It is clear that DP-1 is a breakthrough camera that really competes with DSLRs on image quality.
A brief stop on the way from the mountains. This is the city as seen from the Treasure Island viewpoint. The scariest part of the picture was merging back onto the Bay Bridge.
This is not even an HDR image; this is straight from the camera with a healthy degree of fill light in Sigma's processing software; but it shows that Foveons have a pretty good dynamic rang. This is shooting directly into the setting sun.
Dana and Vika at sunset in Half Moon Bay. (Taken with Sigma DP-1)
Driving on a typical California freeway at dusk.
Max just sent this picture, which he took in Patagonia in 2006. Good old days.
Daniella at the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco
Vika jumping into the sand at the SF city beach near the Golden Gate park. Picture taken with the DP-1 in manual focus mode. This camera is very quick when used like that, I almost felt that it was taking a shot earlier than I wanted it to happen.
First decent picture taken with the DP-1.
First half-decent picture taken with the new P/S: Sigma DP1. This is indeed a remarkable little camera. More to come...
This is a short movie of me skiing the Funnel at Squaw Valley (a fairly steep black diamond run).
This is probably my favorite picture from the Fantasy Dance studio 5th anniversary concert. Taken with Canon 5D, 70-200f4, ISO 1600, ambient lighting. You can see the full set at the "Fantasy Dance" category on this site.
Demo report: Westcomb Mirage Special Edition jacket . According to my usual gear rumors source (i.e. Max), Westcomb is a very interesting company: an offshoot or Arcteryx design team who created their own company to make garments using EVent- the supposedly different waterproof laminate that is vastly more breathable. I saw a few high-resolution electron microscopy pictures of the new membrane and I am a believer-it does look radically more open than GoreTex. As you can see from the picture, the jacket is short, so if your pants are not waterproof, the Mirage won't help you on a wet chairlift. The first thing you notice picking up the jacket is how light and thin it is. it really reminds me of the PacLight garments, but the fabric is a full 3-layer type laminate. After you get past the initial "flimsiness" feeling you notice little detail such as microripstop fabric, etc. This jacket is probably tougher than it looks. Another good feature is the curved main zipper that protects your chin (a questionable feature but it works well enough). The main surprise of this jacket is how cold it feels. Granted, that was an unusually cold day for Tahoe, but still, I was wearing a lot more layers than I usually wear and I was barely warm. However, I was never sweaty, despite doing a few aggressive runs, so by the first impression EVent works. Mirage is a fairly minimalist jacket in the Arcteryx tradition, so the pocket space is quite limited, there is only one small iPod pocket on the inside that is perfect for a credit card and not much else. A googles pocket or just another bigger mesh pocket on the inside would have been very useful. So will be pit zips, although I have to yet feel a need for them. A powder skirt is probably another necessity given the short cut (apparently regular edition of the Mirage has it). Because of that I will end up using my GoreTex shell on real powder days and very cold days, but so far it is a big thumbs up for the Mirage. UPDATE: This jacket is indeed incredibly breathable, I wore it at Squaw when it was 60 degrees, and I didn't feel any need for pitzips. EVent is really breathable indeed.
This is the tenth year that Anton and I are skiing together around President's Day... This year, as most other years- Squaw Valley...
Back in the New England... Playing snow ninja at Okemo, VT; It was bitterly cold on that day, or so I felt after 10 years of skiing on the West Coast. It was interesting to experience East Coast skiing one more time- the winding narrow trails, the machine-packed artificial snow, the bitter cold, the incredibly crowded base lodges where you feel like eating in your neighbors' lap, and the feeling of doing stupidly fast GS turns on a steep icy hill surrounded by trees... (Photo by Max Noy)
The road to Tahoe
(driving late at night in a snowstorm)
The last sunset of 2007 makes a great background. Yulya and Grisha in our kitchen...
Hawaii is a great place! We stayed all the time on Maui (4 days is not much even for one island). My advice to anyone who goes to hawaii is to buy one the blue "revealed" guidebooks (i.e. "Maui Revealed"); they are great and some of the advice they give could save you major headache. For example, the book told us not to swim at Kihei beaches (pictured here at sunset) which looked inviting and refreshingly devoid of crowds. The same book also told about the fantastic Poolenalena Beach in Wailea which has terrific swimming, even better snorkeling with lots of fish and turtles. Despite having all that, it is nearly empty while the neighboring Wailea beach is a zoo of double-parked cabanas, beach volleyball and the residents of the adjacent Four Seasons resort.
Max Varshavsky in our kitchen. Sunset makes good second light... Canon 5D, 17-40mm f4, flash.
Yeah, this is Hawaii, about two hours from the warm sand of Poolenalena Beach. We are up Haleakala, the 3,000 meter (10,000 ft) volcano on Maui. The photo looks down into the Haleakala Valley that is supposed to be quite pretty. In our case it was similar to walking on the moon surface in thick fog. it was cold, wet, and utterly uninviting. We didn't see much but what we saw didn;tquite lived up to what we saw at the Tongariro crater in New Zealand. My advice for Maui- stick to the beach ;-) The image- Rebecca is holding a piece of vocanic rock
Same image, but in a softer style
A quck play with Photoshop to try to imitate the "grunge color" style: muddy but still saturated. All we need is a nice high resolution concrete wall background, some layer masks and we are in business ;-)
