Well, I guess Santa has just about packed t all up for the year.

I just hope the camera elf didn't forget to load whatever camera was used.

It's a long year for the next shot.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Flight!

alx

Where abouts were you when you were in NJ?

I've been here way to long and looking to move on soon.

alx

No snow here where I am... maybe later in the week.

Stay warm and have a very Merry!

alx

Nope, Chris. I'm sentenced to New Jersey.
.


Fell in love with Hawaii with my first trip in 1980 and never shook it off. Lost track on the number of trips back "home". Collect and wear Aloha shirts and haven't been seen in anything else for over 30 years. (You should see the reaction after a snow - all hot from shoveling, take off my coat, hop in the car and get some very strange stares from other drivers on the road. )

With the cold winds blowing right now - you know where I'd rather be.

Now, if that SR-71 had landed on your roof, you could have siphoned off some of that jet fuel, spread it down your driveway, lit a match and saved yourself digging out.

alx

Mele Kalikimaka, Chris!

Be glad that SR-71 didn't land on your roof. That would make for a serious short field landing.

Are your windows intact?

Have a great day!

alx

I'm saying he'll need the SR-71 to keep up with the sleigh to document the journey.

That covers a lot of ground in 24 hours.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird

I always wondered how they factored the air compression and shockwave into that lens design.

He'd need to sneak an SR-71 out of mothballs just to keep up with Rudolph!

I'd love to know what kind of resolution he'd get with that baby.

Then keep clicking away! Having fun and enjoying just might be the most important part of it all.

As long as there have been cameras there have been snapshot takers, photographers and GREAT photographers. Every generation of equipment has had its share of each, but one thing for sure is that the GREATS work at it and have a feel for it inside them, regardless of what they hold in their hands.

One thing that helps is practice. Like any other skill, art or talent, it takes practice to achieve greatness. It takes time and effort to learn and hone ones skills, to make them second nature.

In that regard, the delete button is our friend in the digital age. We can go out and shoot our hearts out. If it is a bad day, that delete button (or format on a really bad day) wipes the slate clean and lets us start anew at no cost. Memory cards are like an infinite film roll in that sense. That means our mistakes don't cost us so dearly. We get to learn and grow and reach for more.

In the end though, the EYES have it. Teach them well and you can reach for greatness.

Mine arrived on the 18th. Just like you, I had been wondering if I could justify the purchase.

Give it 24 hours and you won't feel you have to. It's one hell of a camera.

ENJOY! You deserve it.

Another lifetime ago, maybe two, when I did photography full time, my ex-wife and I use to shoot a number of airshows each year. God, I miss those days absorbed in the pictures and feeling creative. We'd hit the ramp with 2 Nikon F2s, 3 FEs, motordrives and lenses plus for all and bags of film. To control costs, the film had all been spooled down from 100 foot rolls of refrigerated professional Ektachrome, ASA 64 and 160 or later Fujichrome 100. The extra bodies allowed us to switch between film speeds and set higher ASA's when we wanted or needed to push depending on circumstances. If it was a 2 day show, we'd often cover both always hoping for an even better day.

The days after the show meant a lot of processing - we took full advantage of the motordrives. I always did my own processing to control costs and the process itself. I had 2 constant temperature water baths and would tape the film tanks to process submerged to maintain as much consistency as possible. After mounting and comparing, if we wanted prints I would either shoot internegatives (parallax focused on pull processed Vericolor Professional) or contact print negative masks on B+W for Cibachrome prints.

It was a lot of time, money and work to control everything. The learning curve, especially in terms of developing and perfecting the pull processed internegative and Cibachrome masking techniques, was steep.

Now in this later lifetime with a career of accounting system programming in between, I missed the feel of my old Nikons. As retirement approaches I just took delivery of a D850 last week. The learning curve is steep. Yes, I'm sure I will miss some of the old processing, but as I think back writing this maybe not so much. Rather than carry 3 bodies to switch ISO speeds, I can just dial in whatever I need for the lighting conditions OR creative film grain control. Not to mention white balance, something that used to mean a whole other set of film.

I still have my old Nikons (I don't abandon old friends). And that brings with it a good selection of lenses, manual focus, but that adds a level of thought and patience to augment the new AF pair I picked up with the camera. A 45mm Nikkor GN is beautifully light, compact and razor sharp on the D850.

I'm looking forward to coming home and rediscovering my roots. It's a good day.

As a newcomer here, I almost feel guilty posting, but here goes...

I've always had a hard time taking Consumer Reports seriously ever since they put the Nikon F2 down.

The reason - The viewfinder showed the whole film area and when you got your slides back the edges were hidden under the slide mount!

Other cameras gave you a better idea of what you would get.

In the real world, that edge to edge view was prized.

So much for CR as an expert source.

#1 has an air of anticipation which draws you into the picture that is missing in #2. If you want to pull the viewer in, definitely #1.