A Camera's Journey..... Continues on...

[mee]

Looking forward to seeing your pics, and watching the camera continue on it's journey! More members should definitely get on board to be a part of this awesomeness!!!

[rickztahone]

It amazes me what kind of pictures I could pull out of this camera. Although many would call this camera outdated, it gave me a great refresher on getting out of the mentality that gear is everything. If I have learned nothing else from this experience it is that, and that alone has made the whole thing worth it for me. I had fun just walking around with the camera and not being paranoid about getting mugged or something, lol. Not that I wanted to get mugged with this camera, but this camera is far less intrusive and doesn't scream, TOP OF THE LINE! You decide for yourself, is this camera still capable of good pictures? Here's a teaser of the set I took with this camera. I am beat today and will try to edit some shots but tomorrow I should be able to knock them all out:
Shutters on the Beach and Casa Del Mar by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr

This was an 8 photo stitch. Only corrections I had to do was WB as the Daylight wasn't that true to the naked eye, and I had to clone out some sensor dust spots which are now gone btw, I cleaned it for you Al. All stitched in photoshop. Orientation had to be rotated a bit which was weird as that had never happened prior, but the horizon shift made the shot look more natural. Brought out some color via saturation, and there was enough information on the RAW file to pull out some really great colors. This was close to sunset and the light is almost 100% representative of how it looked.

Btw, the hotel on the left is actually my place of work . That is the infamous "Shutters on the Beach Hotel" and to the right of it is our sister hotel "Casa del Mar". The two most expensive hotels to stay at in Santa Monica for the night . My mother happens to work at Casa Del Mar and boy does she have some stories about this place. It is one of the oldest buildings in Santa Monica. It was built in 1903. It has been many things, one of which was a convalescence home, a mental institution, a rehab center, and opened as Hotel Casa Del Mar in 1999. Shutters on the Beach was opened in 1993, so although we are older in opening, the Casa building is much older overall.

Consider this the teaser, more to come!

[Second Hand Pat]

Sweet Ricardo, just plain sweet.

[rickztahone]

One more before I'm off to bed. The Santa Monica Pleasure pier Merry-go-round. Established circa 1922 . 3 photo stitch
Santa Monica Merr-Go-Round by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr

[mee]

Very nice shots Ricardo, and quite the trip down memory lane for me. I stayed about 2 years in Santa Monica working for S.M.R.R. Very interesting experience as I got to go door to door meeting lots of interesting people, including a cool old women that used to party with The Doors, and puts on the coolest Halloween stuff for the neighborhood kids.. I believe Casa Del Mar was the hotel me and my friend always snuck into to
steal wireless for his laptop =) Very fancy hotel, with pretty impressive art.

Looking forward to seeing more pics

[Keith Perkins]

Kind of funny, just looking at the picture before reading the text I looked at the Casa del Mar and thought mental institution. It definitely has a certain institutional look to it.

You're making me scared to get the camera this summer Ricardo...too much pressure.

[ericNH]

Alright, my first attempt without delving into the manual........

...

Holy Canoli - I have never seen coloration and pattern like this on a discus - they are unREAL. Do you breed them, nc0gnet0?

[brewmaster15]

It amazes me what kind of pictures I could pull out of this camera. Although many would call this picture outdated, it gave me a great refresher on getting out of the mentality that gear is everything. If I have learned nothing else from this experience it is that, and that alone has made the whole thing worth it for me. I had fun just walking around with the camera and not being paranoid about getting mugged or something, lol. Not that I wanted to get mugged with this camera, but this camera is far less intrusive and doesn't scream, TOP OF THE LINE! You decide for yourself, is this camera still capable of good pictures? Here's a teaser of the set I took with this camera. I am beat today and will try to edit some shots but tomorrow I should be able to knock them all out:
Shutters on the Beach and Casa Del Mar by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr

This was an 8 photo stitch. Only corrections I had to do was WB as the Daylight wasn't that true to the naked eye, and I had to clone out some sensor dust spots which are now gone btw, I cleaned it for you Al. All stitched in photoshop. Orientation had to be rotated a bit which was weird as that had never happened prior, but the horizon shift made the shot look more natural. Brought out some color via saturation, and there was enough information on the RAW file to pull out some really great colors. This was close to sunset and the light is almost 100% representative of how it looked.

Btw, the hotel on the left is actually my place of work . That is the infamous "Shutters on the Beach Hotel" and to the right of it is our sister hotel "Casa del Mar". The two most expensive hotels to stay at in Santa Monica for the night . My mother happens to work at Casa Del Mar and boy does she have some stories about this place. It is one of the oldest buildings in Santa Monica. It was built in 1903. It has been many things, one of which was a convalescence home, a mental institution, a rehab center, and opened as Hotel Casa Del Mar in 1999. Shutters on the Beach was opened in 1993, so although we are older in opening, the Casa building is much older overall.

Consider this the teaser, more to come!

Nicely done my friend! you took an old camera and created a beautiful new Picture!

it gave me a great refresher on getting out of the mentality that gear is everything. If I have learned nothing else from this experience it is that, and that alone has made the whole thing worth it for me. I had fun just walking around with the camera

excellent!

al

[RogueDiscus]

You're making me scared to get the camera this summer Ricardo...too much pressure.

Same here, and I'm next! An 8 photo stitch. Does that mean you connected 8 photos end to end?
Steve

[rickztahone]

Sweet Ricardo, just plain sweet.

Thanks Pat

Very nice shots Ricardo, and quite the trip down memory lane for me. I stayed about 2 years in Santa Monica working for S.M.R.R. Very interesting experience as I got to go door to door meeting lots of interesting people, including a cool old women that used to party with The Doors, and puts on the coolest Halloween stuff for the neighborhood kids.. I believe Casa Del Mar was the hotel me and my friend always snuck into to
steal wireless for his laptop =) Very fancy hotel, with pretty impressive art.

Looking forward to seeing more pics

Yes, we are actually known for our art work. It is plastered all around our hotels as if they were regular family photos lol. I'm glad I can take you back to memory lane

Kind of funny, just looking at the picture before reading the text I looked at the Casa del Mar and thought mental institution. It definitely has a certain institutional look to it.

You're making me scared to get the camera this summer Ricardo...too much pressure.

No pressure, these pics shows what this bad boy can do, which means, you can do it too!

Nicely done my friend! you took an old camera and created a beautiful new Picture!


excellent!

al

Thanks Al for having started this cool project. I don't know of anyone else willing to put their gear in the mail for the sake of photography

Same here, and I'm next! An 8 photo stitch. Does that mean you connected 8 photos end to end?
Steve

Yes Steve, 8 shots connected with each other. However, I want the one that sat there and placed the pics end to end. Photoshop's algorithm is the one that stitches everything seamlessly

[Discus-n00b]

Like I said before, this camera really impressed me color wise/dynamic range wise for it's age. Really nice Ricardo.

[rickztahone]

You guys are probably tired of Pano's, but this is the last one, I promise. This was 7 stitch. This is my exact view every day when I go on my lunch break.
Santa Monica Pier Pano by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr

[rickztahone]

Now that I see it posted, I may have pushed the saturation too much. I needed the sky to pop more, but didn't localize it. Should have. I'm having intermittent internet problems so I just wanted to get it up and posted. I have a tech coming out on Friday to check my connection out. Hopefully it isn't a big fix.

[mee]

Now that I see it posted, I may have pushed the saturation too much. I needed the sky to pop more, but didn't localize it. Should have. I'm having intermittent internet problems so I just wanted to get it up and posted. I have a tech coming out on Friday to check my connection out. Hopefully it isn't a big fix.

I think it is fine, but I see a tiny bit what you mean on some of the clothing.. I notice sometimes uploading and compressing can boost saturation a bit. Curious if you can upload the full quality images somewhere, I'd love to see them (guessing pretty big).
Btw, looks like your break time is right near where the drum circle usually is? I am trying to remap the area, but it's been about 10 years.

[rickztahone]

I think it is fine, but I see a tiny bit what you mean on some of the clothing.. I notice sometimes uploading and compressing can boost saturation a bit. Curious if you can upload the full quality images somewhere, I'd love to see them (guessing pretty big).
Btw, looks like your break time is right near where the drum circle usually is? I am trying to remap the area, but it's been about 10 years.

If you click on the picture, it will take you to my Flickr. That shot is almost 12,000 pixels across. I can't believe I uploaded such a huge file, lol. In any case, you can get pretty darn close on the Flickr file by zooming in on the large file.

The drum circle is more towards Venice, so South. About a 10 minute walk, not too bad, but Venice has gotten really bad lately unfortunately. Homelessness is rampant and there are many reports of people being assaulted there. There is a whole bunch of "medical marijuana" shops there now too which have made it a stronghold for the community. The locals are not too happy about that. Needless to say, we never point our guests towards Venice, but towards Santa Monica side, Dockwilder, Malibu, Paradise Cove, Zuma beach, and point Dume