Ode to "Chinese Whiskers"

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When photographer Marcel Heijnen moved to Hong Kong he noticed that there were cats in many of the shops, and he started a book project resulting in 2016's "Hong Kong Shop Cats." He has since expanded the project to include cats in outdoor markets and to dogs as well. Cats are kept in shops because they are seen as creatures of luck (a guess), or because they keep the mice and rats away, or for both reasons.

Heijnen's project brought back memories from my childhood of seeing cats in shops here in Chicago's Chinatown, as Chinese immigrants brought the practice of keeping cats in shops to America and elsewhere. The practice waned here as the years went by and I saw less and less cats in shops as I grew up. I was also going to shops with my mom less and less. I only go to such shops with my now-elderly mom when she needs a ride.

I drove her to an herbal shop a few days ago. She was at the counter talking with the shop owner and making a purchase. I did not notice the cat for the first five minutes I was in the shop. It had the chance to observe me. When I turned and saw it I immediately brought the camera to my eye. My original exposure was slightly under, as I forgot my camera was set at ISO 200--a little low for the setting. I made a quick shutter speed adjustment and took this shot.

The shop cat

I believe that having manual focus allowed me to take this shot. Animals notice the beam or signal emitted by cameras with auto focus, and they will look or run away. I got some decent eye contact from my subject that I may not have if I was shooting with AF. Sometimes low-tech is better.

Not as quick as the cat

I tried to crouch down to get a shot at a different perspective, and perhaps a better one than the first. However, I am not as quick as a cat. It decided to jump down and come over to greet me. Head to chinesewhiskers.com to see Heijnen's work.

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Science Advocacy

Field Museum of Natural History
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I am by no means a great advocate or activist for science. My education in the sciences is limited to what I learned in high school. While I did graduate from a four-year university with a BA in Anthropology I took no science courses as an undergrad. And my education ended there as I did not pursue graduate studies. I will, however, share a little about science via articles on social media and in blogs like this with whatever limited reach I have.

There were several March for Science events throughout the country this past Saturday. Last year's event was a rally and an actual march. This year the organizers here in Chicago made the event a science fair at the Field Museum of Natural History. I originally would have preferred a march and a rally because it would have drawn a bigger crowd, and I wanted to get shots of signs and the sea of people on the city streets. The weather we had here on Saturday would have put a dampener on the proceedings anyway so this was perhaps the better option. At the event I realized that the science fair was a better vehicle to get information to kids (and adults). It is more effective to have people see and touch and learn versus marching and chanting.

It was very cool seeing kids engage in learning. I do not have children myself so maybe it seemed extra cool to me.

Big roach

Luminescent

STEMinist

We cannot afford to ignore or deny science. It is the bridge to our understanding of the world and universe around us. That is the philosophical view of science overall. The more pragmatic and immediate concern is our direct effect on the Earth. If we are just asking ourselves what we are doing wrong or if we are in fact affecting our environment then we are way behind. We have to decide yesterday what kind of planet we will leave the next generations.

Nothing special on the photography side in this blog. It was relatively dark in the museum. To make the process more interesting to me I created a film look for the otherwise not very interesting shots.

For more information on science related events near you visit http://marchforscience.com. The Illinois Science Council will be presenting the Chicago Science Fest next month from May 8-16, 2018. Visit http://chicagosciencefest.org for tickets and information.

Click images to view on black.

Colors of the Leica M9-P

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I learned photography back when there was only film. I shot with Nikon F-system cameras. Fujifilm Superia, Kodak Portra and Tri-X, and Ilford 3200 were the films I shot the most. I am not one of those people who can look at an image and instantly tell you what film it is. I cannot tell that many films apart. And so when it is said that my Leica M9-P's CCD sensor simulates at Kodachrome profile I do not know exactly what that means.

I have been spoiled recently by the wonderful color reproduction and film simulations of my Fujifilm X-Pro2, as well as spoiled by the camera's wonderful EVF. Prior to purchasing the M9-P I had watched a few videos about the camera and its sensor. One reviewer even said that to get the best results I would have to overexpose a bit, which is not what a lot of people do with digital cameras. Couple that with highlight clipping and that presents a minor challenge. The X-Pro2's EVF has definitely made me lazy, but I am enjoying the slow process again.

I have done a little shooting since I bought the Leica a month ago, and the following are just a few images that show off the M9-P's colors. They are very pleasing and I do not have to do much at all to the DNG files--mostly contrast adjustments via the curve tool.

This first image was taken in a hallway in an abandoned part of the building where I work. The auto white balance kept the image pretty true to life. The indirect sunlight coming through the door at the end of the hall was cool, but the light from the "STAIRWAY" sign is pleasantly warm. I believe I shot this wide open and the focus was on the door frame in the center of the hallway on the right so there is not sharpness throughout the image. This was also shot with Voigtlander glass. The remaining images were shot with Leitz glass.

RGB

Again I left the camera on auto white balance. This scene is a bit cool to me, but the sun was right up above rather than lower in the sky. I titled this shot "RGB" because you can literally see the colors red, green, and blue as your eyes go across it. I was really after the yellow of the machinery in the center of the frame as well as the viaduct columns to the right. It was only lucky timing that the truck drove down the ramp and made this turn, giving me two additional colors to look at.

Looking down on flowers looking up at me

The image above and below are from a visit to the Garfield Park Conservatory this afternoon. It was a good place to capture some color.

"If it bleeds we can kill it..."

In the 1987 movie "Predator" when the protagonists first shoot and injure the alien it left its luminescent yellow blood on the leaves of the jungle plants. Every time I see a plant like this I am ALWAYS reminded of that movie. Silly, I know.

Those are just a few samples. I have found that performance is indeed poorer at relatively high ISOs compared to modern cameras, and the images get a bit muddy if I have to use a lot of noise reduction. But if properly exposed, well lit, and in focus the colors are beautiful and image quality is superb.  I need to get some shots of people next to see how the M9-P renders skin tones. Stay tuned!

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Solar Eclipse, August 21, 2017, Chicago

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Chicago was not in the path of totality, and it was a cloudy day so I nixed the plan I had to photograph the event. Instead of leaving a little later for work I went on my commute as usual, leaving my tripod and longest lens at home. The following images were shot from the parking lot at work over the course of about ten minutes whenever the sun peaked through the cloud cover. The moon was already on its way away from the sun, but I got something.

Cool eclipse

I did not have eclipse glasses so I just stuck the camera out of the car window and used its LCD screen. I had an eclipse filter on my lens, but I did not use any long shutter speeds. These images were shot at ISO 3200 even though I did not need that amount of sensitivity. I felt that there would be plenty of people making great, clear, sharp pictures of totality and the different phases of the eclipse so I wanted to differentiate the images I was taking. The result was these grainy, toned, dramatic images.

Warm eclipse

I wish that I was able to catch this a bit sooner for a thinner crescent shape.

Noir eclipse

Three tones, three different moods. All of these were shot with a 150mm full-frame equivalent lens.

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