LAICHUNGLEUNG

Barber Shop in Chinatown

2024-11-18T18:12:00.002-05:00

Nowadays I loathe to have my haircut, that's why I seldom have mine cut, maybe once or twice a year.

I went back to Chinatown.

I could no longer find my old barber shop which was called Yan's. I am not sure if it was on Henry St or Madison St.

I went to one that's mentioned on some YT video. This one is some basement operation on Bayard Street. $7 for cut only. If your hair is long then cut and wash is $15. I fall under the latter category. The guy did a decent job I'd say. He used both the clipper and the hair shear to snip off about an inch like I told him to, no thinning shear cut though, not that I want to but it's always used on my thick coarse hair nevertheless.

I ended up paying $20. I would have paid the $20 at a minimum. But the barber had no intention to give back the change anyway. Where I came from you just give back the exact change down to the penny and let the customer decide the tips, I think that's the right way or decorum to treat your client. And I think that's my experience 100% of the time until today. I am not exactly offended but just think the better way to do it is always give back the exact change and let the customer give you back the tips.

Civil War (2024)

2024-04-15T14:37:00.004-04:00

This is basically a Dorothy yellow brick road kind of story. Also, something to do with the new replaces the old, the circle of life thing. Kirsten Dunst is a stunning beauty no matter what. I think the production makes her credible as a war time photo journalist, Lee. I am not sure what Joel and the fat old guy Sammy do exactly. Joel is a dedicated driver. The old fat limping dude Sammy turns out to be a life safer. The young photo enthusiast Jessie comes out of no where and decides to tag along. She is somewhat like the Aliens little girl Newt and Lee is going to be protective of her over time and in the end dies for her. Jessie is part of the "film is not dead" crowd or some shit and shoots with his dad's Nikon FE2. I still own my first ever Nikon FE and 50mm f/1.4.

Me being another dude with a camera I can relate to some of the mental-scape of a photographer but of course I am no where near any war zones. No picture is worth dying for. Two things I can relate to to a degree. Lee just losing it. she just doesn't have the drive to take the pictures anymore. The moment she deletes Sammy's motionless picture, she can't compartmentalize herself anymore. She no long has the compulsion to record, . On the other hand, Jessie has grown that compulsion to take pictures. Jessie has no qualms taking the picture of a falling Lee. I think the film does a fine job depicting that compulsion, that compulsion to press the shutter no matter what. As a photographer I think you need to have that compulsion to go out and take pictures. Once you lost that compulsion, you are done. Both female leads have convincingly carried and held their camera. Nobody takes pictures with the rear camera screen.

"The war photographer's most fervent wish is for unemployment" - Robert Capa. Not so much for Jessie.

6/10

A Sun (2019)

2024-03-31T22:46:00.007-04:00

A Sun

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

"A Sun" tells a story of an unhappy family of four, the Chens: two parents and two brothers, in Taipei, Taiwan where the sun shines everywhere, often times scorchingly and oppressively. It's not uncommon to see people use umbrella on sunny days. In fact, the father, Wen, a driving school instructor is seen shielding himself with an umbrella in the beginning of the movie while giving a dress-down to his driving student who fails repeatedly because of his stubborn silly belief to drive a manual to get a better feeling of driving. The father is your stereotypical Chinese dad who fails miserably in expressing himself when it comes to his family or his beloved sons. He relies on a single pithy aphorism from work to reach and teach his sons. The mother, Qin, a working beautician for some questionable locales, like many households, is a loving figure, a peacemaker and the glue that holds the family together.

The two brothers are polar opposite of each other. The younger one Ho or A-Ho (sound Ar-Ho, you add A to shorten the name in conversation, Chen Jian-ho becomes A-Ho) is small in stature, a juvenile delinquent who makes all the wrong moves in life. In one of the final scenes where Ho is seen running on a highway, his jeans waist band can be seen altered with a big pleat to make it smaller than it already is just so it won't fall past his non existent butt. Ho hits a new low right from the get-go when he was put away for 3 years in a juvenile detention for being an accomplice in a machete attack where the victim, Oden's hand ended up in the soup of a hot pot. The perpetrator, Radish, who made the severed hand soup got an extra bonus three years prison term. Father Wen has no problem disowning Ho. Dragged by his wife to the sentencing and when asked by the judge what he has to say, instead of pleading leniency for Ho, he freely admits he couldn't and wouldn't be able to keep him straight and asks the court to discipline him accordingly. Between him and his wife, Wen flat out says lock Ho up until he dies. Whenever his driving students make small talks or being nosy enough to enquire Wen's marital and family status, he readily says he is married and has a son who's going to medical school next year. That son is of course the older one Chen Jain-hao or A-Hao. He's tall and has fine features and is an assiduous youngster who can't do no wrongs. That is, except he doesn't get accepted to his first choice medical school. His amiable presence is almost ethereal and proves to be ephemeral. The time Hao was caught in a reverie in class, and also the only time he tries to question authority is to ask the evening cram school teacher if he believes what he is teaching regarding a piece by Sima Guang on thrift and prosperity. The Chinese literature teacher tells him in all honesty he doesn't and tells him to get the fuck out of his classroom. It doesn't go well when he deviates from his usual obedient son persona. Though he does catch the attention of his pretty classmate Guo Xiao-zhen who apparently has a crush on him and ~~flirts~~ talks with him during dinner break after class. The feeling is mutual as Hao walks her to wait for her bus and tells her a twisted version of the very famous little Sima Guang story--not the one about frugality when Sima Guang became a prime minister. The girl is fascinated so much so that she doesn't board her arriving bus so as to hear A-Hao finish the story. Apparently they are made for each other or so it seems.

The film juxtaposes what happens between the two brothers. A-Ho being tiny and new in the big house has to fight and food bribe to live another day. The good news is he manages to make peace with his tormenters with simple multiplication skills. What's more, he gets married Wang Ming-yu, or affectionately called Xiao-yu and becomes the father of Dong-dong all while incarcerated. A-Hao on the other hand makes his first and final mistake when he jumps to his death from his home. His suicide is as shocking as it's abrupt. The only hint he left was the text he sent to his romantic interest Xiao-zhen. The text is a weird soliloquy triggered by their visit to the zoo on a hot sunny day. He laments he's always under the scorching sun with no shade to hide, even goes on to say the animals, his brother and Xiao-zhen can hide in the shade. Except him. In his world, the sun shines all around all the time with nowhere to hide. This circles back to the twisted story he told Xiao-zhen at the bus stop early on in their relationship. The young Sima Guang story told to all grade schoolers is one of Sima Guang's playmates falls into a large water vat and Sima finds a rock to break the vat to save his friend from drowning. The one Hao tells Xiao-zhen is such that the vat has no water and what's inside is not Sima's playmate but Sima himself hiding away inside the vat. I think it's Hao's round about way to say he yearns to hide from the all present sunshine but even he himself couldn't let that happen as he's the one who breaks the vat with a rock to out the Sima Guang in the dark. Hao one day woke up on the wrong side of the bed, made up his mind that the only way he can live in peace in the dark permanently and can't be outed by himself or anyone is to end his existence in this world.

The 3-year incarceration worked magic and reformed Ho. After his release, he tries to work his way back to fiscal and moral responsibly by holding down two jobs. But it's not all rainbows and unicorns. One cannot escape one's past especially one's past involves a Radish. Director Chung is a humanitarian. He's empathetic to his characters. Radish is as much a predator as he's a victim of society, circumstances, his own making and some combination thereof. Twice, director Chung lets Radish tell his story, once at the balcony to Ho's dad Wen and another time inside a Bentley with a-Ho. There is good chance that Ho is not as innocent as he claims or convinces himself to be. Radish was a buddy of Ho when Ho complains about Oden, Radish takes it seriously. Perhaps in his heart of heart, Radish does what a loyal friend does, to take care of the problem the only way he knows how. But when shit hit the ceiling, Ho claims he never intends let alone asks Radish to hack off Oden's hand or inflict any bodily harm. Radish asks Ho rhetorically if he ever asked him to just scare Oden. Ho wouldn't answer. Then Radish reminds Ho he is the one that steals the motor scooter and brings along a watermelon knife himself. The 3-year bonus incarceration apparently didn't reform Radish. Director Chung doesn't just let his characters come and go. Oden who got his hand hacked off in the opening scene is surprisingly sanguine, resilient and at peace later in the movie. In a chance encounter at the car wash where Ho works, Oden is summoned to snake the clogged up toilet. Oden tells Ho how he's been working in his dad's plumbing business and gotten more serious after he lost his hand. Oden is open and even shows what's left of his right arm, a smooth stump like a chicken neck without its head. In the end they sort of having a strong hand shake as Oden shows Ho how it feels to be handless by squeezing Ho's right hand tight till he's shaken. Ho is shaken to his core and tells Oden he is really truly sorry. Oden makes a sudden guffaw and says all right and gets going with his work. Oden is dealing and taking care of shit literally and figuratively every day with some success. This scene of Oden and Ho stands in stark contrast with the scene when Wen pleads with Radish to leave Ho alone. Radish holds a grudge against the Chens and rejects Wen's money and entreaty. Needless to say, Radish continues to pester, cajole and threaten Ho to be his runner to do his biddings.

Director Chung makes a fruit punch of a film with a deft hand. The film breezes through its 2h 36m running time exploring themes like family dynamic, the impenetrable human mind, loyalty and betrayal, suicide and murder, crime and redemption with a mix of poignancy and a wry sense of humor in balance. The film employs opposing motifs, like sun and rain, light and dark. The sun is warm and nurturing yet at times it is stifling, just like Wen to the brothers, and in some way Hau to Ho. Or on an even bigger scale a ruling government to its people. Director Chung avoids overt tear jerking. "If he dies he dies," that's how he treats his characters, protagonist and antagonist alike. Death comes quick and abrupt. It's living that's hard. Characters live with certain quiet dignity. Xiao-yu, Ho's girlfriend then wife lost her parents in a car crash at a young age, was raised by her aunt Yin who loses the window to date and have her own family as she is too busy taking care of Yu. Even character off-screen like Radish's grandma is portrayed as strong: she raised Radish and lost her flat when the government confiscated it when Radish was in jail. Oden lost his hand but he did not lose his will to live, even when he needs to deal with shit every day, literally. Director Chung never bothers to explain why Hau killed himself because something is better left unsaid. Chung's characters almost never ever explain or complain, they just quietly suffer without wallowing in self pity. Chung's "A Sun" is definitely a Taiwanese film.

9/10, 1 point deducted for photographing the bus stop scene too clean too pretty and too cheesy.

ImageMagick

2024-03-25T15:21:00.002-04:00

I don't remember if I installed that via Homebrew or MacPort.

I might have installed using MacPort. But it's kind of messed up as macOS upgraded but Port is behind so I can't even check that.

I proceeded to install IM using brew.

My primary motivation is

Anamorphic

Convert Z 9 NEF to PSD files so I can desequeeze there.

...

I don't think LR can desequeeze NEF right there. I can do that in Photoshop. One by one, right click the NEF and edit in PS then image 157.5% on the width.

I guess I can use some PS script to automate that part. But still I can't automate en masse

I tried dcraw but the Z 9 NEF is not supported. D810 NEF is fine not the Z 9 ones.

So it's kind of messy if I decide to shoot lots of anamorphic NEF and import to LR and dequeeze via Photoshop and then round trip to edit in LR or in PS....

I was going to give up to edit NEF or PSD but JPEG from NEF. But dcraw can't handle NEF from Z 9. oh well.

It's kind of messy.

update: 3/25. this should be it to get IM working at least. forget about z 9 nef for a second as who knows

brew uninstall imagemagick # without X11 support

brew install --cask xquartz

brew install tlk/imagemagick-x11/imagemagick

PocketWizard FlexTT5 Revisited

2023-12-13T23:24:00.001-05:00

Once I set them up I never bother with them again. When I first got them I updated all the legacy firmware to the latest available.

It works pretty well for what I do. As far back as I can remember they do allow me to sync up to 1/250s and even higher for my Nikon. Not high speed sync but hypersync as I don't use the Nikon SB-800 instead I use the Sunpak 120J.

Today I try that with my Quantum flash, I don't think it syncs up to 1/250s, or even 1/200s. 1/160s seems to be the safest bet. I was using the Nikon D4s. I guess if one is not use Nikon Speedlight then there is no guarantee it would actually sync up to the highest speed 1/250s.

I guess it depends on the flash duration or in other words, the power setting of the strobe. I imagine full power with the longest duration I can actually sync up to 1/250s or even higher for hypersync.

Since the Z9 doesn't accept the TT5 as transmitter if used as a TTL trigger, it needs to be downgraded to Basic Trigger in order to work as a simple trigger. And it does work when I set up C2 as basic trigger and used as such.

The D4s can also use C2 the basic trigger but then it will lose all the TTL features...One thing kind of unexpected is when I test the C2 setting using the D4s I found even the color balance shift. If I left the color balance to auto, if I left the TT5 at C1 at TTL then the WB is warmer, if I used C2, basic trigger, the WB is cooler, very noticeable difference. I don't know how the TT5 behave can actually affect the flash color temperature, perhaps the flash duration used or how the D4s interpret the WB of the flash. There is clearly a shift in WB on the picture taken using the TT5 as basic trigger. If I use the TT5 as TTL then the color is warmer like it's always been. I have never set the C2 as Basic Trigger unitl yesterday just to test out the Z9. Very interesting. I set the D4s WB to 5500 then the pictures look the same whether the TT5 set as TTL or Basic Trigger.

The Nikon Refurbished

2023-12-08T15:55:00.003-05:00

Nikon do sell refurbished items, like their flagship items. But they make no mention of where they come from or imply anything. They are just under Deals.

I got myself their flagship, a Z9. I know I won't be happy with anything less. I took a few blank shots even before I got my CFExpress Type B card. When I got around and checked the picture, the image number is 69,091 (using Photoshop File info). So the refurbished camera has more than 69K actuations before getting to me. The battery certainly looks used as it has quite a bit of rub marks.

So if you buy refurbished from NikonUSA, don't expect you will get "lucky" and got a brand spanking new item with some 1,000s actuations. Given that it can shoot 120 frames per second, it's not too difficult to rack up big actuation counts.

The Z9 itself looks decent but not new. Anyway, as NikonUSA makes no explicit or implied newness so I think it's fair or fair enough. But the 90 days warranty is just bad. I can't help but think of Apple, its refurbished has the same warranty as brand new. And in general the Apple refurbished has brand new battery and new casings or so I've heard. Well camera is a different beast so I can understand. All my other recent cameras in the last decade were bought used.

From SLR to DSLR to Mirrorless. I guess it's inevitable.

From CF, SD and XQD and now CFExpress Type B. I guess it's inevitable.

I can understand why one needs more storage and more computing power. Things just keep changing and marching on.

I've made no conscious effort to stay or move on to mirrorless. But my recent drop of the D810 together with the 24-70 f/2.8 kind of gave me the excuse to move forward. Again you are buying into a system.

Pocket Wizard and some other decade old stuff

2023-11-06T22:40:00.001-05:00

I got myself four PW FlexTT5 and an AC3. I simply don't have a clue how the names came about. So it's mildly intriguing.

The TT5 by comparison is so much more reliable than what I have used up to this point. The TT5 simply works. One of them has some corrosion in the battery compartment that was made known to me before the bid. The seller says it works even with the gunk and corrosion. So it's all fair. I cleaned it up with some vinegar and it didn't quite work so I used a pocket knife to scrap the contact a bit. Voila it works. I was on a shopping spree so I bought another quantum qflash T2. It comes with a pocket wizard plus receiver. I couldn't find any reference on the model, Plus II, III, but not just plus. Interesting. So I proceed to engage the learn mode by pressing the TT5 and somehow, then the TT5 can trigger the plus receiver.

I just have that compulsion to buy this old stuff.

UPDATE:

Per usual, I tested them out.

The TT5 can sync up to 1/8000 when the flash units are in full power otherwise normal sync up to 1/250s. The PLUS unit can sync up to 1/200s but fires at 1/250s with narrow black bar and it won't fire on any speed faster than 1/250s, in essence, the PLUS has no hypersync or high speed sync. My quantum T2 works pretty flawlessly as I would expect. I read it has a 150w/s power. The Sunpak 120J when bareblub has a 115w/s.

SUNPAK AUTO 383 SUPER

2023-03-31T17:07:00.005-04:00

Ever since I have used the Sunpak 120J, I kind of like the good old Sunpak brand for flash.

This flash just looks like your regular flash but deep down or within it has some killer specs, at least to me. It's compact just like most flashes. But it packs a GN 120 number which is pretty nice. It has 3 f/stop auto and 5 fraction power adjustments from full blast to 1/16. I think that's neat. Another killer spec is one can use external power source for long usage and fast recycle time. For an old flash the cost $20 that's pretty neat.

The 120J body and the 383 share a very similar body except the 120J has a bare bulb design which makes transportation a hassle even more so when you also carry the standard reflector. But the bare bulb design certainly has its merits.

Both the 120J and 383 can be used with an external power source. But for 383 if you were to use only external power source with no AA batteries inside the compartment, the flash will still fire but only with full power no matter what settings the unit on. I think that's pretty interesting. I know the Nikon SB-800 kind of behave like that, you need cell batteries inside even you are attaching external power source. So you might actually think the auto or fraction power functions are toast if you only bother to use it with an external power source like I did in testing initially. The 383 becomes full featured once the AA batteries are in the compartment.

A Guilty Conscience (2023)

2023-03-19T16:07:00.003-04:00

Once or twice in our lifetime, if we were lucky we got woken up from a slumber of our own making. This force majeure jolts us to remember what we long suppressed like why we wanted to be a lawyer in the first place. Nobody wants to grow up working 27 hours a day kowtow to the rich and corrupted. And yet we have grown to accept that as part of growing up and being adults. A Guilty Conscience (2023), starring the multi-talented Wong Chi Wah with an equally impressive supporting cast, tells such a story. Wong plays the titular character, an acerbic tongue attorney, and hence the Chinese title, who was passed over for promotions in part for his failure to manage up. He later quit his job at the bench as a magistrate and went back to private practice with the sole intention of cozying up to the rich or in his words to lick those assholes where presumably money is dripping out.

Lam's scheme to park himself next to the rich quickly falls apart. He was the defense attorney of a mistress who stood accused of child abuse and endangerment of her own young daughter. Her paramour and father of their love child is a doctor and a married man to the daughter of a prominent family. Both families of the married couple are well respected in Hong Kong for their wealth if not for anything else. The child endangerment case against the mistress quickly made a turn for the worst. The child died from injury sustained and his client, the mother of a now deceased child was convicted of manslaughter and was sentenced to seventeen years in prison. The conviction in large part was due to Lam's professional negligence--his failure to secure written affidavits from the witnesses, that is from both the father of the diseased and the security guard and Lam's general insouciance towards the case as a whole.

His failure to defend his client left him badly shaken with a guilty conscience, and hence the English title. The silver lining of his legal debacle, if any, is it makes him reassess his life thus far like why he wanted to be an attorney in the first place: it's about justice and helping defend those who can't defend themselves. He vows to save his client using all he's left and can muster. What he lacks in money and powerful connections he more than makes up in his doggedness and not to mention his acerbic tongue to outwit and out maneuver the prosecution. By saving his client he also saves himself from straying from his original ideal of justice for all and to a larger extent righting a rigged justice system that not only favors the rich and powerful but at times also punishes the powerless and penniless. AGC is a welcome departure from the all too common gangster genre forever popular in Hong Kong cinema since the 80s. In present day Hong Kong, people live in extreme wealth disparity and many question law enforcement and the judicial system behind closed doors. Hong Kong nowadays can't even just have simple evil like regular psychopath who kills and dismemebers for pleasure. Instead Hong Kong now has an extreme brutal murder that potentially involves cross border organized crime, corruption, and filthy amount of cash: a case that embodies everything that is wrong in Hong Kong. Lam in his courtroom closing statement utters, "In the past, all were equal in front of the law. Now, the poor suck dick before the law," a sentiment that's widely shared and believed in Hong Kong. AGC provides a two hour reprieve for an audience who has to live everyday brutality that's now Hong Kong.

Lazy Loading Jetpack and Envira on WP

2022-12-20T13:22:00.006-05:00

Full size images load at the bottom of a Envira gallery and it really shouldn't.

To make sure the full size images do not load, I need to turn off the Lazy Loading on Jetpack. I don't know any other way.

For mobile browsing, the Lightbox images are very very small and can't be fixed via the additional CSS.

For the above two issues I don't know if it's exclusive to the Lite or i.e. the unpaid version or somehow the issues are fixed on the paid version.

Stutterheim Bucket Hat

2022-09-22T16:05:00.004-04:00

The item was shipped directly from Sweden via UPS. Frankly I am impressed, then again, I maybe easily impressed.

The item is known as Beckholmen Coconut size L. Coconut refers to its color, not the shape, taste or smell of the hat.

I've always like a bucket hat with a size large enough for my noggin. The Large seems to be large enough "even" for a European brand. As I've always got the impression they run small.

The item arrived. And size wise I think it's big enough but it doesn't fit too well to me.

The bigger issue is it smells funny. Perhaps I should have known. The hat is coated with some rubber or whatever chemical so it's waterproof. So it's sweaty and non breathable, two of the things I hate or don't appreciate at all. Between polyester and cotton, I always prefer the breathable cotton. I think Gore tex is bad, try rubber coated fabric.

Oh well, I hope the smell would get less repulsive over time. I am OK just not sure people next to me.

Camera Lenses and accessories bought used

2022-09-01T18:18:00.002-04:00

The last camera I bought brand new was the Nikon D7000. It went berserk after I soaked it in rain during a cyclocross. I sent it to Melville to fix it but then it wasn't a good fix. I remember sending it back again as the AF wouldn't light up or something something. It was many years ago. Since then I've always bought used.

From eBay to retail I have almost 100% positive experience. The items are good and if the items aren't good or good enough to live up to my expectation the sellers are willing to take it back no problem at all.

I shopped at

KEH, I bought a Nikkor 28mm f/2 manual focus lens, the glass elements have lots of bubbles which isn't exactly faulty for good old lenses but ... they were willing to take it back. I am sure I bought some filters and other stuff no problem like some bazooka.

Adorama. I bought some big ticket items like my D4s with them. No problem. I bought a Good lens with them. Their Good is not what I would call it Good in layman's term, check out their definition it could have problems. But you want to think they are being conservative. Anyway, I ordered Good but it has 3 flaws. The major one was there was a scratch on the front element right in the middle. The lens where it meets the lens hood was out of shape, the lens hood couldn't screw in properly at all. So you don't know what the lens went through. Did somebody dropped it or some idiot screwed the hood the wrong way by brute force. The tripod foot was so tight I didn't want and couldn't unscrew it. The scratch did show up in one of my pictures out of some 1,600 frames. Adorama lists items with generic pictures of the items so you can't get a feel what it is like plus it won't go to describe individual item unless it's big I guess as even Good is defined as bad in layman's term. So you can't really say oh it's supposed to be Good. No. Not as defined by them. But they have good customer service, return it no problem. But I wish they would have mentioned the flaws.

Usedphotopro or Roberts Camera. I shopped directly or via their eBay store. Good experiences. Good items. I did try to return the item but they say don't even bother, just keep it and issued me a refund as the item is not functional. Probably my fault as it says untested. They didn't say it's non functional.... I bought some Excellent item and it does come in excellent. And the price is very competitive.

Buying used or selling used is about managing expectations. When you say Good, the average person would expect good as in good. I don't mind the body is roughed up with brassing and all. But for the lens has a scratch right in the middle I think it needs to be disclosed. That's just my opinion. Just remember they are used so don't expect pristine through and through. Sometimes you got lucky sometimes the Good is just as defined by the vendor.

Overall if you aren't made of money, buying used is not a bad choice and sometimes it's the only choice.

How to Geo Tag your Photos

2021-12-12T23:40:00.002-05:00

This is not meant to be a step by step guide.

The easiest way is perhaps just use our iPhone, the pictures are geotagged unless you turn off the location thingy in the setting.

I think many years ago I tried that already. Back then I was using an Android phone and some Nikon D7000 camera I believe. But things haven't changed much for me since then: my cameras still lack GPS. I still don't have any commercial reason to geo tag my pictures other than I feel like to and because I can. When exporting my pictures to JPEG, my routinely remove GPS data even I don't have them to begin with.

One of the few things I discovered is that Lightroom enables me to geo tag my pictures with the Map module (or whatever parlance Adobe uses).

So all I need is a software that allows me to create a GPX file from my iPhone. I just downloaded one from Open GPX Tracker. I proceeded to set the camera clock closest possible to my iPhone's as I suspect time will be used to match the picture taken to the gpx file time data.

Once I got the GPX file to my computer and Lightroom can just use some magic to get the GPS data to the picture files. If I don't want to be precise I can perhaps just drag whatever pictures to a location that's close enough without even the use of any GPX files.

So I just save myself some $90. Adorama used department sells some GP-1 for $59 or so without explicitly stating whether cable included or not so I take it it doesn't while KEH sells one for some $90 with cable included. I checked NikonUSA, the cable is selling the cable for $69.99 while I don't seem to find any pricing for the GP-1 or GP-1A, I think the 1A is the latest model and NikonUSA doesn't bother to say the difference. I have to find it out with a Google search. The 1A has some bigger screw on for better secured connection ... or something but feature wise, they are the same. Anyway I won't be buying one with or without the cable.

Photoshop and MacPro3,1

2021-11-13T10:58:00.002-05:00

Photoshop simply won't load when your chip is old as the one in MacPro3,1, the 2008 edition. I have done some searches on this topic and finally got some workarounds. Unfortunately those workarounds don't workaround for me. Again, after a day or two intensive digging I have to give up on it. It's not worth the trouble.

D4s and D700

2021-09-18T14:15:00.002-04:00

I've always like the pictures from my D700. There is nothing objective or scientific about it, it's just my beliefs.

I usually shoot with my D810 and D700. The D700 seems to give me more accurate focused pictures. The shutter and mirror sound is loud and oddly reassuring. Despite or because of its 12MP, I really don't know, I think the pictures always look sharp and clear. It has that clarity. I am not saying the D810 is bad, actually when I shoot with the 16-35 f/4 with flash and pan I got some very solid pictures. I actually find this is my sweet combination. Still there is something about the overall clarity of the pictures from the D700, the color is not as rich or deep as the D810 but in most situations I find them nice or nice enough.

Fast forward to D4s, I haven't bothered to do any test except one if you can even call it a test. And it troubles me that the pictures don't seem as sharp as the D700 ... though it's only based on one single event. I even tried to do some test, like with tripod and strobe with fixed shutter speed and f-stop between the cameras. The result is virtually identical between the D700 and D4s. Alas, I was shooting at 1/250, f/16, ISO 400 with qflash at manual output at 1/4. I guess I should have done a set at f/2.8. Sometimes when I shoot cycling event and the D700 returns sharp pictures, and at the line up I can see the pores of the face. I haven't got the chance to shoot with the D4s on events like that. I hope the camera can return same or better results than the D700. It's hard to believe if it doesn't but then you never really know I remember reading some online (!) review saying the D4s images are soft and have Nikon USA checked out the camera. I don't want to be that buyer. I don't think it's the AF as I feel the AF is accurate. I've never done any AF fine tune with any of my cameras, not before not now. Maybe it's the lighting condition. When there is not enough light or contrast it's hard for pictures to look sharp. I will find out from real life shooting soon enough. This kind of first world problem is annoying and embarrassing. When I tell people this kind of problem I imagine people would just roll their eyes.

Nikon Firmware Update

2021-09-15T15:54:00.002-04:00

Nikon is not particularly clever when it comes to software.

It has firmware and the lens control in two separate bin files. I copied the two bin files to the root of a CF card thinking that it would do them in whatever sequence as necessarily. The typical user behavior thinking what the machine would do instead of just following the damned instructions which by the way doesn't say you can't have both firmware and lens correction exist in the CF card at the same time.

The firmware upgrade was fine. But then the camera would only pick the firmware where it's there in the CF card even both the camera and the CF card has the same one. It even ran the whole firmware upgrade even the version is the same. It simply won't go a step further to get the lens control bin. Once it sees the firmware then it just does that nothing else.

Me being a relatively intelligent guy so I removed the CF card from the camera and plugged in to the computer and delete the firmware bin file.

Once the firmware bin gone from the CF card, the camera knew to update the lens correction. So that was it.

Dickies work pants

2021-05-29T09:39:00.004-04:00

I have a pair of navy blue dickies from way back. I don't remember when I bought them, but as far back as I can remember they were in my wardrobe. I think probably more than 20 years or so.

I wasn't a big fan for two or three reasons. I outgrew the pants soon enough as I started to grow horizontally in my mid thirties. And the pants are true to size and really hit the waist instead of low. Also it's not 100% cotton, so in terms of breathability it's not exactly great. But if you want your pants creased then they maintain the crease quite well, which I find it quite interesting, I meant these are considered work pants. But I guess back back back in the old old days, workers are expected to be well or properly dressed and groomed. Another funny thing, at least in my book is the belt loops are relatively small or narrow, not for big freaking belts but for narrow belts. So again what is the deal. If you have some cowboy belt it's not going through those narrow loops for sure. Again perhaps the idea is to make these work pants more like dressed pants with small belt loops* and creased legs, I could only reckon.

They are pretty well constructed and durable.

After some twenty plus years I ordered online another pair. And this time around I ordered online directly and I chose the Lincoln green color. I think that's the color for the sanitation workers here in NYC. I am just fascinated by that color. Black and navy blue are the most common work wear colors and Lincoln green kind of special. The model name is 874 which I think is the original cut instead of some more updated version like slim fit or something something.

*Serious dress pants should never have any belt loops anyway.

Flash Duration

2021-05-27T20:40:00.004-04:00

Flash duration seems like an easy concept... What I don't understand is how does it come into play if your ambient light is like sunny f/16, with lots of sunlight?

If your camera shutter speed is set at X sync at 1/250s with a shortest flash duration, will that even matter at all? As the ambient is continuous sunlight, how does a short strobe duration helps freezing action in this case? I understand if your ambient is jet black then sure, even if your shutter set at 1s, if your flash duration is short enough then you can freeze the action.

I read and watch, and people keep talking about flash duration or a very short flash duration helps freeze action. But they never mention only if you have no and very low ambient. Am I missing something? I really want to know.

I think a long flash duration and high camera shutter speed with well timed shutter release, that is, hyper sync works better in broad daylight.

Hypersync hack using SB-800 and a pair of Sunpak 120J

2021-05-14T15:06:00.000-04:00

I have a couple of receivers and a transmitter that say

Frequency 433MHz, Service range <= 30m

Sync Speed >= 1/250s

Receiver 2x1.5*AAA battery.

These radio trigger can't do any high speed sync or hypersync or hi-sync ...

However if I were to attach my Nikon SB-800 to the hotshoe of say my D700, Hypersync from my Sunpak 120J is possible.

I need to run a sync cable from my SB-800 to the transmitter. Then connect the receiver to the sync terminal of the 120J.

The D700 is set to do AUTO-FP at 1/250. Honestly I don't know if it's at or above or just above that speed then the camera and the speedlite will do the high speed sync, that's producing pulses of light as if continual lighting for the duration of the exposure.

For this to work relative well, I have noticed the following. There is really no black band on the frame but for high speed and small aperture, say 1/1000 and f/16, the picture looks darker. And the bottom of the picture looks brighter regardless.

Let's say I shoot about 10 ft away subject to 120J, at full power, and it says f/16

My SB-800 is set at 1/128 power as I only use it as a trigger not as a flash.

So here is my settings

D700, at 1/1000, f/8, 2-stops lower than my 120J says.

Sunpak 120J: full power

That's it, full blast and the picture looks good no black bar at the bottom.

Conclusion:

I have a pair of Godox CellsII-N which is bigger and supposedly do some hypersync. But the trigger sometimes fires randomly. So I don't like them. Plus it's only 2, one is transmitter one is used as a receiver. So any time more than 1 light is impossible. Even though most of the time I shoot with one off camera light anyway.

With this SB-800 hack I can run two 120J at full power blasting off and still run at 1/1000 or higher and the triggers is cheap and pretty reliable in my book. It can run at regular sync or hypersync, so it's all good. And if I want I can run the SB-800 as fill flash as well in addition of being a trigger only; so three lights.

Strobe qflash model T

2021-05-14T14:18:00.000-04:00

Latest fascination

The Quantum qflash.

I couldn't find any difference between T and T2. I think if I don't ever use any TTL then perhaps it doesn't really matter.

One is untested and is on its way. I am taking a chance as it says it's untested except it can power on. What does that mean, the most optimistic scenario is the unit actually works it's just than the vendor is being very forthright telling you that the unit hasn't been fully and completely tested. I wonder how many sellers actually test the whole feature set, I mean do they see if the flash duration is actually within spec at 1/2 power for example? I don't think so. Or the TTL actually works? Or the slave feature works?

Instead of getting an extra Powerpack like the Godox PB 960, I opted for the silly power pack from maxxpower. When I first got my Sunpak 120J that's what I got for the power. But now the powerpack can no longer be charged. I wonder if it's because it hasn't been used and needs to be awaken. But then I have no way to awake it or know if it's just sleeping.

Also ordered a TR 2000 cable, which doesn't fit right into the Sunpak 120J; it needs a 3 to 2 prong adapter which I have with the original TR-PAK II I got years ago.

Or I can order a quantum turbo extension cord QT49 to run 2 120J from one PB 960.

I sort of create my own problems and look for solutions on eBay.

2015 MBP SSD and Big Sur Upgrade

2021-01-21T01:06:00.006-05:00

If you do a search you probably would find lots of pertinent information.

The 13" 2015 MBP is on its last leg on being able to upgrade to the current macOS. There is no way I can upgrade my 2008 MacPro and 2012 MBP to Big Sur without major major hassles. They are in Catalina already.

The original 13" 2015 MBP came with 128GB of SSD. This certainly on the meager side. I changed the battery a few months ago after it started to bulge.

I gathered 3 items to do the upgrade.

1. The Rongdeson M.2 NVME SSD enclosure

2. SPG SX8200 PRO 512GB

3. Sintech NGFF M.2 adapter card

I didn't bother to backup anything on TimeMachine or otherwise. Just do it.

Put 2 into 1. Connect to the MBP, erase the new SSD into APFS and the rest default values.

Upgrade the MBP to Big Sur by downloading and installing on the new SSD

The upgrade will prompt you for anything it needs and it also prompts you to migrate your existing Mac to the new Mac, ie copy the old SSD data to the new SSD.

After the migration, the last step is to turn off the MBP, open the bottom cover, unplug the battery, remove the old SSD. Remove 2 from 1. Then slide 2 into 3 completely. Take 3 with 2 attached and plug 3 into the existing slot, make sure they are inserted all the way. It's like at an angle, seat it and screw it down. Plug the battery. Put the back cover back on and the screws.

Turn on the MBP, answer a few prompts like verify your Apple ID and stuff. That's it.

this is the swapped out old 128GB SSD, it's not M.2 or NVMe.

LG WH14NS40 1.03

2020-12-02T09:04:00.004-05:00

Finally downgraded the firmware to 1.02

Hopefully there are many more years to come for VLC, MakeMKV and LG to live happily ever after.

macOS 10.15.7 Supplemental Update

2020-11-06T17:41:00.001-05:00

Apple released this update on 11/5. It wouldn't be a pain if your Mac is supported. For me running on macpro3,1 with unsupported GPU, it's a major pain.

Maybe one day I will finish this update or maybe not.

Or maybe I will get a Mac supported GPU so I can do the boot screen thing when updating.

Too much work for me.

Post Stamp

2020-11-06T17:22:00.002-05:00

Once upon a time when I studied law, the post stamped date determines the date of acceptance, not the date of receipt. That's if one actually can read the stamped date on the envelop and the mail is delivered promptly without undue delay like a year later or never.

I don't know what is the rule for the US Election, it seems like people make up the rule as they go. My initial impression was the ballot mailed on Election date should be counted even it came after the Election date. Mail in ballots are a little mess given that plenty of people can't follow instructions, mostly people do not sign the envelop or cross the ovals instead of filling the ovals . . . . When one casts the ballot on site, those errors can be avoided or corrected right away. If you take any public exam in multiple choice format, those answers would be discarded as you can't follow the instructions. I don't know how those ballots would be treated like without signature or marking it kind of wrong. Or "lost in mail" or "stuck in the post office" or simply delivered days late or no clear readable postal stamped date on it.

Perhaps these errors, if any, may not be statistically significant to be important to the outcome of the race.

Catalina 10.15.7

2020-10-09T13:43:00.000-04:00

Even Mojave has some supplemental update and security update.

After a few months I itch to upgrade again.

No surprise, the Catalina patch still won't go through the second phase.

Every time I do this I do this in a feverish pace and in the end, I don't know what I am doing.

But I have to say I am calm and a little bit more prepared. When it failed to boot up to continue the second phase. I was able to recover from the Mojave recovery snapshot though I forgot the details. But it certainly emboldened me to go really to Catalina instead of just going update Mojave as I know initially I was able to upgrade to Catalina but somehow in subsequent update I wasn't able to complete.

No surprise I wasn't able to go to the second phase of the patch to complete but then it didn't destroy the last bootable OS I was able to boot back holding the Alt or Option key.

So here are the steps

Download the latest Catalina patch from dosdude1

Make the USB drive

Boot from the USB drive (for me I have to switch back to the supported GPU card, otherwise I can't do this ALT boot sequence)

The installation reboot and back to the USB installation screen and in some instances it gives me the mouse setup, just click Next or similar to back out

Reboot holding down Alt key, you should see the Install partition of whatever it's properly called, you should see the USB and other possible Boot EFI from previous failed upgrades but pick the installation thingy you've never seen before that was just created in the first phase of the update

This should complete the second part of the installation.

Once it reboots you should be home free

Good luck.

PS: you won't be able to stream Netflix on Safari, but Chrome is perfectly fine.