LR CC HDR sample

This is not an inspired photograph but it is an interesting one to me.

This is a seven shot .3 stop per shot HDR created in LR CC.

I did not bother with any anti ghosting as it did not appear to my (untrained in the art of HDR) eye to need any.

To shoot this, I set the camera to the appropriate bracket mode, pointed the camera at the end of the couch, and squeezed off a burst of seven photographs. LR more or less did the rest and gave up a nice and easy to manage DNG.

Here is another. Five shots, five stops. Not inspiring, but the results are ok. There is some "ghosting" (if I am understanding it correctly) right at the edge of the marker package. Again, it was hand held.

I am going to definitely have to do this again with a proper subject matter and a tripod. Sunset, here we come...

Stephen King time-travel miniseries “11.22.63”

Yep, the movies have come to town again.

Yawn.

I went for a walk tonight with the family to check out the movie site. Locally, the mini series is being filmed on the main street of Hespeler, one of the three cities which was forcibly amalgamated into Cambridge quite a few decades ago.

It has been roughly, and anachronistically, transformed into 1950s America.

I do hope they don't include the stuff picture left. Time travel indeed.

The newspaper being sold in the newspaper box is dated 1960. Matte Scotch Tape was not invented until 1961. Oops.

5 cents for a paper. The box says 25 cents. Oops.

In honour of it being the movies, I cropped it to 16x10. Very cinematic of me.

I did not get any pictures of the actual filming being done, but did see some nifty gear.

I also saw some traffic cops looking tired.

It is weird to see those foreign flags here...

I did not see any of the film stars and wouldn't have cared if I had. The star system of Hollywood and beyond is of so little interest to me that I could care less only with a major effort that is not worth exerting. I do like meeting and talking with musicians and photographing them at work, but could care less about film stars.

But the cars... oh the cars. 

The cars were kind of cool.

this moonscape brought to you by minecraft

Well, brought to you by real life minecraft anyway.

There has been, for as long as I can remember, a gravel pit here bisected by a gravel road. But it has changed into this much larger moonscape in the last year or so.

The view off to the left and back from where I stopped the car.

Looking back...

Off to the right...

It really is incredible, when you think about it, what we do to the landscape in order to build roads, buildings, and other things we take for granted.

black and white

More fun with black and white.

These are out of the camera jpegs again. The only adjustments are to exposure. I lifted most of them a little bit. Otherwise, this is what the camera gave.

black and white OMD

Inspired a bit by Kirk Tuck, I decided to operate my OMD as a black and white film camera. This is what I created.

These are out of the camera jpegs with no adjustments done in Lightroom but for a minor crop or two.

Seems to work. I think I have found my new normal for a bit.

I think that one day very soon, I will go out and use these camera settings and "shoot a role of film" - iso 400, monotone superfine jpegs straight from the camera, shoot in manual and nail exposure in camera, PanaLeica 25mm f1.5 lens, OMD E-M5 camera body, green filter on the monotone, and contrast up one tick - and see what I get. Should this come to pass, I will share the results here.

the roar of crowds of old : a brief photo essay

somewhere over the rainbow

why nothing but nothing will replace a summer sky

I think I will let the pictures do the talking tonight. Here is a sampling of tonight's light show.

Do please enjoy.

oh you pretty pretty girl

you pretty pretty girl

down, down on the farm

MonigraM Coffee Roasters

So what does one do if one desires a good cup of coffee?

Open a coffee shop of course.

And roast all of your own coffee.

And so, with that thought, MonigraM Coffee Roasters was born.

And a good thing that is.

Tonight, my lovely wife and I were out for a walk around Downtown Galt and happened, quite by chance, on this coffee shop.

Bit of a coffee snob that I am (bit? a lot try) I was immediately intrigued with the idea of a coffee shop that roasted its own beans. Clearly, I mused to myself and all who would listen, this may mean something good is in the air. Clearly as well, my detour into a back alley and my wife's exclamation of, "Hey look! A coffee shop!" was fortuitous as well.

The first thing to note when entering the shop is that this is not a canned environment. No canned coffee. No canned food. No canned music. Decor. Flooring. Chairs. Counters. None of it canned. It was also packed with people. We were quite honestly lucky to get a table.

A good sign that.

Upon securing a place to sit and ordering, we were struck by the incredible hospitality of the owner, Graham. The name of the company is actually a combination of his name and that of his wife. Very clever.

Graham is a genuinely nice guy. He refused payment until we had sampled our food. He brought us what we wanted promptly, and positively gushed over the food and coffee he was serving. If it sounds like I am gushing over the shop and the owner, it is with good reason. Let's just say it is several cuts above what I have come to expect even from high end one off coffee shops.

Speaking of the coffee.

The above cappuccino was so good that George Takei likely would have exclaimed as only he could exclaim, " Oh Myyyyyy".

It was perfect. The flavour appeared like a vapour and the foam was just so. Bitter, but not overpowering, the small cup was just the right size. I would not want more than this.

Mel, on the other hand, not being a coffee drinker had her own special yummies.

The soda pop was superb, and the jam? To die for. Chocolate raspberry. And Graham did not even blink when she asked for a spoon to eat it. It made perfect sense to him that this jam would be eaten in such a manner.

Sadly, there was no dark chocolate to go with my coffee, but I was able to snag a delicious pastry and nibble on it for a bit.

Yummy, just don't inhale the icing sugar...

So will we go back? Yes.
Has this place become my de facto South Galt coffee shop for post ride coffee? Yes.

Long live the independents!