That time of year...

"It was the Yuletide, that men call Christmas, though they know in their hearts it is older than Bethlehem and Babylon, older than Memphis and Mankind."
— H.P. Lovecraft, 'The Festival'

More Leica T Black And White Shots...

Went for brunch at the Fall City Roadhouse for their excellent "Ugly Breakfast" and "Maker’s Mark Bacon Bourbon Fondue". YUM!
Snagged a few new pictures in between downpours. These were all shot with the Leica T with the Leica 35mm Summarit f/2.5 lens. Loving this combo for high-contrast black-and-white images!

Click to enlarge:

Driving In The Rain

A little B&W to capture the weather and the mood of the season. These were shot with the Leica 35mm Summarit f/2.5 on a Leica T body.

Click to enlarge:

The Big Island In September

Hawaii was absolutely lovely as always. These were all shot with a Sony A7 paired with the Zeiss 24-70mm zoom and the Zeiss 55mm prime.
I miss it already...maybe I'll retire there someday. A nice dream anyway. :)

As always, click through for bigger images.

Martian Surface Feature

Some fun textures for a rainy Thursday evening...

Beyond My Fingertips

I think maybe for a lot of people, the Universe ends at their fingertips.
...But that's so unknowingly selfish, so sadly lost.

They're hurt so they hurt others, they're damaged so they damage, no wonder it seems, for them, the whole world is against them. Obviously all this pain is coming from the outside...but there is *no outside* when the Universe ends at your fingertips.

Those people garner my deepest sympathy and pity...but they terrify me. I want to heal them all...but I'm world-weary of the damage they inflict.

Maybe it's time to go live in a tiny house in the woods...or an island...

Who's coming with? ^_^

Mt. Ranier Scenic Railway

A few shots taken on a Sunday jaunt courtesy of the Leica X2. Click to enbiggen...

High-Contrast Gas

I recently reworked some of my photos from Gasworks Park in Seattle for a bleached, high-contrast look. These were all shot with the Sigma DP 1 Merrill and edited with Nik Software's Color Efex Pro 4. Click for bigger versions:

Blistered Tarmac

As much fun as it was to visit family, it's nice to be home. Phoenix had temps exceeding 110 degrees while we were there and I just could not function.

A quick snap at the airport with the Leica X2:

Sumer Is Icumen In

Summer is officially here...though you might not recognize it from the grey skies here in the PNW!
There have been a few hints here and there though. Here's a few recent pictures taken recently with my little Leica X2. As always, click for a larger view:

Hi there!

Some background on me and my view of the universe:

The scientific method is how we discover the truth - it has nothing to do with politics. This is why we have things like double-blind testing, control groups and peer review to remove expectations and opinion from the process. It's not perfect but its the only tool in the drawer and, thankfully, it's self-correcting.

Politics is another can of worms entirely and I'm not going fishing any time soon so I can do without the worms for now. That said, I'm a centrist politically and a pragmatist when it comes to fiscal issues. So get off my lawn or I'll turn the hose on you. ;)

Conspiracy theories are even more wormy - the more extreme your claim, the more powerful and ubiquitous your proof needs to be. Most conspiracies suffer from more than a modicum of confirmation bias or are obvious attempts at directing people's attention elsewhere.

My background is biology and geology as well as information technology though I've been an amateur astronomer all my life. I did crazy things in college and have photographed, drawn and painted thousands of pictures.

Glad to buy anyone a beer and talk about anything but am not interested in an argument...unless it's the 5-minute-Monty-Python variety. ^_^

Cheers!

The MS Optical 28mm Perar f/4 Super-Triplet

Such a fun little Leica M-mount lens! Here's just a few quick shots from around the house and yard taken with this minuscule marvel on the Leica M240 camera. Even wide open at f/4 this is stunning for color and clarity!

The (extreme) corners are a bit mush but, hey, it's to be expected with a triplet like this. It's actually *very* well corrected for a three-element lens!

Amazed at the build quality as well as the image quality! Lenses with few elements like this have such an unusual "draw" to them...very "liquid" with lots of vibrant color. I'll be using this one quite a bit I think.

One thing to note, on the Leica M240, there was little-to-none of the weird "Italian flag" color shift you sometimes see from third-party wide-angle lenses, making this eminently usable on the M!

The below pictures are all shot at f/4 except the last one which is at f/8. These are all shot with available light. Please click to enlarge them:

This is Mr Sadayasu Miyazaki, head of MS Optical R&D. I can't say enough regarding my respect for this man!

He is the designer, creator and manufacturer of these stunning little MS Optical lenses. It's amazing to see such quality and quirky innovation coming from such a small operation for such limited runs of lenses.

I got my copy of this fabulous lens from Japan Camera Hunter, a great photography blog and resource!

I previously wrote about the MS Optical 35mm Perar triplet here.

Kohala

Leica M240 with 21mm Super-Elmar f/3.4
(Click to enlarge.)