CollectiveWe: Blog https://www.collectivewe.com/blog en-us (C) CollectiveWe (CollectiveWe) Mon, 16 Mar 2020 06:46:00 GMT Mon, 16 Mar 2020 06:46:00 GMT https://www.collectivewe.com/img/s/v-12/u593221304-o785796133-50.jpg CollectiveWe: Blog https://www.collectivewe.com/blog 120 120 Beautiful Weather https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2015/3/beautiful-weather Recently we have been experiencing some beautiful weather in the Pacific Northwest.  This means that we are able to come out from under our rain coats and soak up some sun again.

 

 

 

 

]]> (CollectiveWe) beautiful sun sunny weather https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2015/3/beautiful-weather Fri, 13 Mar 2015 16:05:52 GMT My 50mm https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2014/4/my-50mm I am still feeling the pain of that 50mm lens that I picked up almost two years ago...  While in Hawaii at Christmas this past year, my wife accidentally dropped the camera with my 50mm lens on it.  I took it in for repair at the beginning of January, and checked in on it last week, because it had been a few months...   It turns out I am not going to see that lens until June at the earliest.  I always knew that Leica's repairs department was slow, but six months seems excessive.

I am disappointed.

 

]]> (CollectiveWe) 50mm leica repair https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2014/4/my-50mm Fri, 04 Apr 2014 19:35:55 GMT Hawai'i - The Big Island https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2014/1/hawaii  

In December, we took the family and headed to Hawai'i for ten days.  It was not at all what I had expected.  Having been to Maui and to O'ahu several times, I thought I knew what was in store.  Sun, sand, beautiful weather, lush green forest, and fun.  The Big Island as the island of Hawai'i is often called is incredible. The micro-climates on this island are weird, wondrous and ever varied.  One minute you can be driving along a landscape that  would easily pass a a set for the Apollo moon landing, and the next minute you can be in a lush tropical forest out of the hit TV show "Lost."  On top of this, and hour later you could be winding through the rolling plains of Wyoming or surfing along the coast.  It truly is a varied place with many offerings.

 

LavaLava

HDRHDR

Fountain PlayFountain Play

DancingDancing

DancingDancing

DancingDancing

And of course what would a visit to Hawaii be without some volcano action?  Here are a few panoramas:

Kilauea Caldera - PanoramaKilauea Caldera - Panorama

Kilauea Caldera - PanoramaKilauea Caldera - Panorama

]]> (CollectiveWe) Apollo Hawai'i Wyoming alien beach landscape moon night panorama sand volcano https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2014/1/hawaii Tue, 28 Jan 2014 04:34:54 GMT Casper Babypants https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2013/11/casper-babypants We took the girls over to Vashon today to see Casper Babypants this weekend.  It was a pretty fantastic event for the Cedarsong School and hosted at The O Space.  The kids had a great time. 

Casper BabypantsCasper Babypants

Casper BabypantsCasper Babypants

Casper BabypantsCasper Babypants

Casper BabypantsCasper Babypants Casper BabypantsCasper Babypants

 

]]> (CollectiveWe) babypants casper concert kids vashon https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2013/11/casper-babypants Mon, 04 Nov 2013 04:36:41 GMT October https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2013/10/october October remains one of the most colorful times of year in my memory.  Leaves turning deep red, the spectacular scene of a sunrise over an orange valley, the scent of wood smoke in the air, and you can begin to smell, nay taste the snow that November will bring.   ...if you grew up in New England that is.

I live in the Pacific Northwest now, and all of those things are not present.  It's warmer, first off, so the idea of snow is out.  The sun, if we get to see it does not rise or set against a foreground of orange leaves and yellowed grasses, but rather the verdant green of freshly watered meadows and beautiful evergreen trees.   Cabin in the woodsCabin in the woods

 

It is a different time.  It is a different place...

 

... but it is still colorful.

]]> (CollectiveWe) Seattle autumn fall northwest pacific https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2013/10/october Tue, 01 Oct 2013 14:03:00 GMT The Weather is here... https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2013/6/the-weather-is-here The weather has been beautiful in the Pacific Northwest for the last few weeks.  Warm summery days filled with sunshine and great light!   I am as happy as can be.

 

]]> (CollectiveWe) northwest pacific seattle summy warm https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2013/6/the-weather-is-here Mon, 10 Jun 2013 04:20:23 GMT 50mm in for service https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2013/4/50mm-in-for-service Today I went to Glazers and picked up my 35mm which had just returned from Leica where it had received a new 6-bit encoded bayonet mount.  While there I made the decision to get my 50mm lens repaired.  it is still under warranty and I want this thing to work properly.  So it has gone in to get this rangefinder issue resolved.  With luck they will be able to resolve it in New Jersey, and will not need my M9 body.

This means that for the next few weeks I will be using the 35mm only... which will be nice because I haven't seen it in a couple of months.  I really do like this 35.  The images it produces are exceptionally crisp, clean, and beautiful - not something I have been able to say about my 50mm since I got it.  My hope is that this issue gets resolved and I will be able to develop as much love for the 50mm as I have for the 35mm.

 

]]> (CollectiveWe) 35mm 50mm Glazers Leica https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2013/4/50mm-in-for-service Fri, 12 Apr 2013 21:14:48 GMT Spring is coming to Seattle https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2013/4/spring-is-coming-to-seattle Seattle is slowly shedding her grey shroud of winter and stepping out into the sunlight.  

Pike Place Market

 

Beautiful summer days are in our near future.

 

Seattle has the most beautiful sunny days in all the world.  Perhaps it is in contrast to the grey that we experience during the rest of the year.

 

 

 

Seattle Sunset

 

]]> (CollectiveWe) https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2013/4/spring-is-coming-to-seattle Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:23:35 GMT Struggling with my 50mm https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2013/3/struggling-with-my-50mm I have been using my 50mm Summilux ASPH with FLE almost exclusively over the last few weeks, and I admit I find it quite challenging.  My 35mm Summilux ASPH built in 1995-ish seems quite a bit more forgiving in certain areas where the 50mm is not.  I sent the 35mm back to Leica to get it 6-bit coded (Leica's answer to a digital body detecting what lens is mounted.)  Framing is not too challenging, though i do prefer the breadth that the 35mm gives me.  Most of my challenge comes in terms of focus.  As far as I can see I have at least two issues intertwined and tangled together.  Getting them sorted out is going to be a challenge.

Issue 1:  When the lens is set to ∞, the rangefinder portion of the viewfinder does not perfectly line up with something that should be in focus at ∞...  I am talking about things more than 1/2 a mile away.   This is easily seen when looking at the Space Needle or other radio tower.  It is there... it is annoying, but is it terribly wrong.  Is there something wrong with the lens, or just the linkage to the rangefinder?  Are things still in focus though the rangefinder indicates otherwise?  I don't know.

Issue 2:  I tend to shoot wide open, or as close to wide open as I can.  SInce the 50mm (the 35mm too) is a fast f/1.4 lens, by depth of field at f/1.4 is pretty narrow.   With the 35mm I can focus and things work out great, but no so with the 50mm.  Nailing focus with the 50mm is a challenge.  While the rangefinder tells me that something is perfectly in focus, this is sometimes the case, and sometimes not...

Just how much is the first issue affecting the second?  If the rangefinder is not dead on at ∞, it stands to reason that there may be an issue across the focusing range. such that when I see that focus is perfect in the rangefinder patch, in reality things are just slightly soft on the focus. 

At at a cost of this lens, these issues really bum me out.  

I guess what I really need to do is take a series of test shots, and log what I see in the viewfinder as I go.  Then, after examining the images and the log notes, I can come up with a direction to head to resolve this issue.

Anyway, here are some images that have come out wonderfully.

 

Pike Place Market

24 Hour Surveillance

91 1/2

Post Alley

]]> (CollectiveWe) 50mm leica https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2013/3/struggling-with-my-50mm Sun, 10 Mar 2013 21:11:26 GMT The Parkway https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2013/1/the-parkway I love to sit down and enjoy a few cool beers with friends from time to time.  A couple of weeks ago, some friends met me at The Parkway in Tacoma's North Slope area.  We had a great time catching up.

 

I have always loved The Parkway.  It is a perfect blend between neighborhood bar and a place that always has something going on.

 

]]> (CollectiveWe) Parkway beer friends tavern https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2013/1/the-parkway Sun, 20 Jan 2013 07:00:00 GMT Around Town https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2013/1/around-town Seattle, the city I live in, has so much to offer a growing family.  Just this weekend we made visits to the zoo, and to the aquarium.  At 30° it was cold, certainly.  As cold as it's likely to get around here.

Our first stop was the Woodland Park Zoo in the late afternoon, where we got to ride on their carousel and Maria had a great time climbing all over their boat.

 

Next up was the Seattle Aquarium, which is alway a popular destination in our family.  Tori loves it when it's not crowded and we let her crawl all over the place, and Maria loves to hang out with the moon jellies and in the tidal pools.

 

This octopus (named Rain) scared the crap out of Maria, but Tori had no fear and made a new friend

 

And last, but not least, we went for a ride on Seattle's Great Wheel.  A tourist attraction if ever I saw one, but Maria has been enthralled for months, so we decided to take a spin.   Becca was less than impressed by the heights.

 

By the end of the weekend, we were one exhausted family.  Sunday night was filled with sleep and good rest!

]]> (CollectiveWe) aquarium seattle wheel zoo https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2013/1/around-town Tue, 15 Jan 2013 17:39:50 GMT Daily Shooting https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2013/1/daily-shooting I have carried a camera with me every day since December of 2011, and it has been fantastically rewarding.  A lot of my shots have been of my kids... it has been a wonderful way to watch them grow.  There are stages of their lives over the past year that I don't recall until I see a photograph that triggers my memory.

]]> (CollectiveWe) camera daily shooting daughters girls kids rewarding https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2013/1/daily-shooting Wed, 02 Jan 2013 23:16:16 GMT Daily Commute - 2012 https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2012/12/daily-commute-2012 I have been carrying my camera with me during my commute for just over a year.  Here is a collection of some of my favorite images from the past year...

 

King Street Station, Looking South This is the one that started it all.  I had gotten a text from a friend in North Carolina, saying he was starting a 365 Project.   I snapped this one at the train station with my camera phone and texted him back saying that I would join him in that project.  I am not sure I actually expected to complete it  at the time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mercer & Dexter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

]]> (CollectiveWe) city commute daily night seattle https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2012/12/daily-commute-2012 Sun, 02 Dec 2012 03:30:00 GMT Time to Myself https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2012/11/time-to-myself Recently I had the opportunity to spend a little bit of time to myself.  My mother had been visiting for a few days.  When it was time, she left by early morning ferry.  I escorted her to the terminal, and then headed out into the dark morning to see what Seattle was up to.  Below are some shots I was able to get that morning.  All are hand-held, using available light.   I should have had a tripod, but it was a very impromptu outing.

Space NeedleSpace Needle

 

I like Seattle when it has been freshly rinsed.

]]> (CollectiveWe) early morning needle night seattle space wet https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2012/11/time-to-myself Mon, 05 Nov 2012 21:36:49 GMT Evenings in West Seattle https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2012/8/evenings-in-west-seattle Recently we moved back to West Seattle, perhaps my favorite area of Seattle because it has a small town feel, while being in a large city.  Evening are pretty great near the Alaska Junction.  The lights come on in the storefronts and the people come out of the woodwork to eat, shop and visit.

Kids come out for cupcakes and ice cream...

...while adults move towards the music and the clubs.

Summer evenings in West Seattle really are pretty great.  I am glad to be back.

]]> (CollectiveWe) cupcake evening home ice cream night seattle summer west seattle https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2012/8/evenings-in-west-seattle Tue, 28 Aug 2012 03:45:26 GMT Projects https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2012/6/projects Late last year I noticed that a number of my friends who take photography as a either a hobby or a profession, all began some kind of 365-like project.  I found the idea to be pretty interesting, but I also felt that my life was just too busy for any such thing.  Eventually a friend-turned-pro in North Carolina announced via Twitter that he too was going to begin one.  I was standing in the train station and decided at that time to begin as well, so I snapped a quick shot of the station, and I was off.  Initially I was shooting something each day, but usually it was a frame or two of something not well planned, as a way of staying in the game.  I started to give it some thought and realized that if I was going to finish this thing, this project, then I was going to have to make some changes.  

First, it needed to become something I wanted to do, rather than something I committed to do.  Second, I needed to relax the rules.  This seems stupid since the only rule I had imposed was that I would post one frame a day for 365 days...  The problem with this constraint was that I found myself shooting just so I could post.  And that was not what this was supposed to be about...   What I really needed was for this project to be the impetus for a change in the way I relate to my camera.  In the past I had carried my camera with me daily, and I used it to document what was going on around me.  It was great fun...  Somewhere along the way the camera got in the way of my day to day life and so I set it down one day and forgot about it, pulling it out for special events only.  That was about twenty years ago. I realized that what I wanted was to get back to that kind of relationship with my camera.  The kind where it was always with me and I was documenting what's going on around me.  So I made my project more about carrying my camera and using it often.  Not necessicarily every day, just often.  And then of course I needed to post the results with some regularity.  What I have found I'd that carrying the camera has become more and more of a natural thing to do, and less of an afterthought, or a chore.  I love taking photos again!  

Also, having an end to the project seemed somewhat artificial, so I  haven't defined an ending point.  I am six months in and I don't see the end on the horizon.  Perhaps this time it will go on forever.  Life at 35mm.

]]> (CollectiveWe) 365 Project life project https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2012/6/projects Sun, 10 Jun 2012 05:37:15 GMT Good To The Last Drop https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2012/4/good-to-the-last-drop Rather than going to church on Easter morning, I went down to the Port of Tacoma with a couple of friends, and looked about for interesting things to photograph.  I love shooting in industrial areas, particularly when they are somewhat run down and deserted.  That was exactly what I found that morning.

This particular image stood out for me because as a child my parents drank coffee religiously.  We always had these large Maxwell House cans on the kitchen counter, and I remember the smell of opening a fresh can.  The cans in this photo are circa 1980... and aside form some rust, (and 2800 miles) they could very well be the very same cans that were on my kitchen counter back in the '80s.

ADC

 

This Easter I am sure my parents were drinking coffee from some other source.  Like much of America their coffee requirements have changed with the advent of Starbucks.

]]> (CollectiveWe) 1980s coffee coffee cans junk rust vintage https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2012/4/good-to-the-last-drop Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:04:35 GMT Maria https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2012/3/maria Maria has been such a constant source of change in my life over the last year.  She has provided me with an occupation while I was otherwise unoccupied.  We are closer for the time we have spent together.  Now that I am back at work I find that I miss her terribly.

]]> (CollectiveWe) https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2012/3/maria Sun, 01 Apr 2012 04:30:54 GMT New Home https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2012/3/new-home

You may have noticed recently that some things have changed.  I have moved the CollectiveWe site from my own aging server to Zenfolio.  A number of things prompted this change, the most primary being that I wanted the CollectiveWe site to be a place for me to be creative, and currently I am expressing that creativity through photography, and Zenfolio does an excellent job of hosting my content.
 
Simplicity is another driving force in this switch.  Not only can I now manage the site in a very simple manner, but now I can deliver images to you in a simple manner, allowing you to concentrate on my work, and not on the content surrounding the images.
 
The last major driving force in this change is speed.  Zenfolio hosts my content on a very fast and snappy content delivery network that makes me look really clever.  It also means that I am not waiting around forever while images upload, and the flip side of that is you don't wait forever to view my images.  This makes me more likely to post my work and will hopefully make you more likely to view my work.
 
So there you have it.  CollectiveWe has a new home.  It is a happy home that is unencumbered by technology and content from the past... and speaking of past content, I think I might just let all those old blogposts go.  No decision has been made, and I could import them here, but I don't think I want to do that.
 
]]> (CollectiveWe) change home new https://www.collectivewe.com/blog/2012/3/new-home Thu, 29 Mar 2012 22:00:50 GMT