"UPstrap" camera strap

I've always preferred "minimalist" camera straps. I heard good things about the "non-slip" camera and bag straps from UPstrap, a small company in Tallahassee, FL. I've been using the RF (small size) UPstrap with the K10D for the past few weeks. It's a nice strap, well-made, and the grippy, rubber pad definitely stays on your shoulder...even if you're wearing a nylon type parka. I have no connection with UPstrap and therefore am only sharing my initial observations using this strap...as a happy customer :-)

Here's the link to their website, if you want more info.
UPstrap "non-slip" straps

Family Portraits

Family photographs are typically a big part of the holidays. In many cases, it's the one time each year that everyone comes together to celebrate. Here's one photo that we all expect from these type of family events...eyes open, everyone looking at the camera, and smiles all the way around.

And here's the "other" photo you don't share with the relatives. I'm not sure which photo is actually better, but we enjoy the "out-takes" as much as the final, nicely composed photos. Notice that my dear 85 year old mom has the same peaceful expression in each photo...she has no idea what is going on behind her.

Photos shot with K10D, 31mm and 540 flash.

San Onofre Christmas

Holiday Memories

Photograph of my oldest son, taken in December, 1971 in front of Rockefeller Center, NYC. Camera: Leica M4 and 50mm Summicron lens. Film: Kodak Tri-X.

Photograph of my aunt, taken in December, 1972 in her home in Farmighton, CT. Camera: Linhof 4x5 view camera. Image scanned from the Paladium print.

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These photos are two of my favorite memories of past holidays. One of the joys of photography, for me, has been capturing special moments in the lives of my family. Make sure you take photos of your loved one(s). And remember, the photos you take this holiday season will be creating memories which will become more important to you years from now.

Happy Holidays to all!

Morning Light

The blizzard that created havoc for Christmas travel in Denver, and 30" of snow where I live during the week, has passed. It was nice to awake this morning to see sun and blue skies. Here are 4 photos taken from the balcony of my condo with the K10D and 50-200mm lens.

Holiday Blizzard

What would Ansel say?

With the recent talk about inspecting jpegs on a display, versus viewing how the print looks, I began to wonder what Ansel Adams might say about this if he were alive today. As I have many of his books, which contain some wonderful comments about the craft of photography, I found a few quotes that I think are appropos...

"There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs."

"The negative is comparable to the composer's score and the print to its performance. Each performance differs in subtle ways."

"A photograph is usually looked at - seldom looked into."

"There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept."

Golden, Colorado

Here are a few photos of downtown Golden, where Pentax USA is located. We're right down the street from the Coors brewery. Photos were taken with a K10D, 50-200mm and 31mm. These "walk-around photos" were shot Sunday morning, after I picked up my coffee and newspaper at Starbucks. All scenes are within four blocks of our building, so you get a sense of the community.

Henri Cartier Bresson

Charlie Rose interview with Henri Cartier Bresson

Pop Photo Tests 21mm "Pancake" Lens

Pop Photo just published their test of the Pentax 21mm f/3.2 DA AF Limited lens. Here's a link to the review...Pop Photo Review

Which One Takes Better Photo?

K10D Imaging Strategy

Hisashi Tatamiya; photos copyright 2006 plusd.itmedia.co.jp

There have been numerous web articles in Japan that covered interviews with Pentax engineers about the K10D. Unfortunately, some of the key points have been "lost in translation". Therefore, I'm posting the actual comments or guidance Hisashi Tatamiya provided to journalists on their imaging goals in designing the K10D.


"With the K10D the PENTAX engineers felt is was important to maintain the highest possible image quality rather than using signal processing to reduce noise. They decided to keep the maximum amount of image information and to keep filtering of the image information to a minimum.

Once filtering is applied to an image to reduce noise, any artifacts of this processing are permanently embedded in the image. By minimizing noise filtering the final image obtains a more natural look, especially in the fine details, and does not deteriorate before the photographer makes their own adjustments. An over processed image losses image gradation and dynamic range and gives a rough look to the fine details.

By maintaining the maximum amount of the original data, PENTAX allows the photographer to apply their preferred method of image processing. This allows the photographer to imprint their artistic vision using their preferred work flow. PENTAX felt this was essential in a camera designed for advance photo enthusiasts.

PENTAX has designed the K10D to capture images true to the original setting and has decided to minimize the amount of image filtering. This results in images that have truer color rendition and a wider dynamic range approaching the results found with film cameras."

Product "Buzz" and "Noise"

Proof's in the Print

In my early, analog photography days, I spent many hours in the darkroom making silver-rich archival black and white prints and those vibrant Cibachrome prints. Based on this experience, the ultimate test of my photographic pursuits has always been seeing how the image translates to a "print". With this in mind, I've been anxious to see how my initial images from the K10D look when pixels are put to paper.

Last night I was able to print 14 images from my Thanksgiving photography session (images posted early) off the Epson Stylus Photo R2400 on Epson Premium Luster Paper. The photo in this post shows an array of these 13x19 prints. I converted my RAW K10D files into TIFF 8-bit files and printed the images from PhotoShop sized to 11"x16" so I could have a border around the prints.

I should also point out that I wanted to test how the K10D images printed without any user influenced tweaks, so I made no changes to the histogram, WB, color, saturation, sharpness. I used my standard print settings, which means color settings in PhotoShop were set to US PrePress Defaults, images were set to a resolution of 240, images were set to Adobe RGB, and I turned off color management in the Epson driver and let PhotoShop set the profile for my Epson Premium Luster paper.

So, my inital observation as a "photographer" and not a "blatant promoter" is the K10D can produce extremely nice prints with very accurate color, wonderful skin tones, details that have depth with nice edges and a snap that initially reminds me of my early cibachrome color prints.

Of course having said this, I think it's also important to note that similar to my experience shooting weddings with the EOS 1D and 1D-MKII, and this shouldn't come as a surprise...images have to be properly exposed! This also reminds me that intially many users of the 1D were not happy with the results they were getting from their first prints.

Turns out many of these photographers were over-processing and using "auto" controls in PhotoShop to adjust the image before they'd even tested what the default images looked like. FWIW, for any one moving up from a lower megapixel camera to the K10D, my advise would be to resist making significant changes to images until you've had a chance to see how your images print only using a workflow that sets the color space and profile for your paper. Using this process will allow you to to determine what the native image of the K10D prints like, thus giving you a baseline to experiment from thereafter.

Hope these initial observations are helpful, and if you take anything away from this post it's that your "print-making" skills are equally as important as your "picture-taking techniques.

Only in Southern California?

Biker Santas in team attire and a website to boot... and multi-million dollar homes perched on a cliff, but what a view...

ISO 800 & 1600 samples

K10D images shot at ISO 800 & 1600 in my living room with fairly dim ambient ligting, as indicated by the aperture and exposure time I needed to use. First set of images came from a RAW file shot at ISO 800 with 31mm lens; f/1.8; 1/8sec. I processed the RAW file in-camera to produce both color and BW JPEGs. Second set of images came from a RAW file shot at ISO 1600 with 31mm lens; f/1.8; 1/15sec with same processing as the ISO 800 image.

K10D in-camera processing

I had a chance to experiment with the in-camera processing at our Thanksgiving dinner. While I always shoot in RAW, when I visit our grand-kids, it seems everyone wants the photos "right away". Below are examples straight from the K10D. The first "color" image is a JPEG processed from the RAW file. The second "BW" image was then processed from the JPEG. It took me longer to burn the CDs than it did to use the K10D as my "on-site" image processor, and everyone was happy to have their JPEGs before Grand-Dad left.

Thanksgiving photos

We were blessed with a warm, sunny Thanksgiving day here in southern California. I was able to take my K10D with me on our walk down the beach to the pier in San Clemente, as well as take some family snapshots after dinner. All images shot RAW and processed into JPEGS; ISO 200; lenses used inclued a 31mm, 50mm, and 200mm.