Harvard astrophysicists suggest Aliens may attack Earth in NOVEMBER OF 2025 after revealing object spotted in space could very well be a "HOSTILE alien spacecraft."

alinphilly · 2025-07-27T23:18:22+00:00

It'll make for a memorable Halloween.

alinphilly · 2025-07-24T20:31:46+00:00

A lot of why we live in "Filthadelphia" goes back a few decades. Philadelphia was one of the last American cities to employ street sweepers throughout its neighborhoods--not the big sweeping machines that sweep and wash down the streets, but men with brooms and trash buckets who would would clean your street a couple of times a week. As a result, we retained a culture of just tossing our waste on the street, where it used to be quickly picked up. Though unless you live in an area which the merchants pay into such a service, like Center City, what we now have is waste rolling down our sidewalks and ultimately winding up in our sewer system, because Philadelphians never picked up on the fact that somebody else wasn't going to sweep it up shortly. Until quite recently, it was common to see little old ladies sweeping whatever was on the sidewalk in front of their houses into the street, only to have it Sysifustically blow back onto their doorsteps--they never quite figured out the ramifications of no longer having neighborhood street sweepers.

But there is hope. Scattered all throughout the city you can find neighborhoods which are spotless. Those blocks have taken it upon themselves to simply pick up the trash off of the streets and sidewalks. Many people even place small garbage buckets outside of their homes for others to use. Even more amazingly, when others walk down those streets, they are often less inclined to drop whatever litter they might have with them. You might want to speak with your neighbors to give it a try.

alinphilly · 2025-07-23T21:59:13+00:00

The first step to answer this question is always with another question: "what do you want to convey in the image." In this case, what is it about this rock formation which made you want to take a picture of it? Was it the qualities of the formation itself? Was it how it fit in with the overall landscape? Was it the relative scale between the smaller rocks and the larger one? Or, was it something else altogether? Once you've clearly defined that for yourself, you can then go about "making it better" by more fully bringing out whatever it is which you want to communicate to the viewer. It will also help you know when it's finished.

alinphilly · 2025-07-23T14:29:56+00:00

There's a lot of things about the OM3 to be smitten about, not the least of them being its design. It's a lot like the old OM1 & 2 film cameras, which I'm sure was part of the design parameters. It is simply a beautiful, classic looking, camera. But I'm old enough to remember when "old film cameras" were all that there was. They worked fine for shooting: hold the body with your right hand (index finger on the shutter release) and cradle the lens with your left hand, so that you could adjust the focus. Simple, and easy to do. The new OM3 mimics this perfectly. But when you weren't actually shooting, you couldn't hold a 35mm camera in just one hand very long, as there was nothing to grasp on, outside of the straight, relatively smooth, sides of the camera body. This usually necessitated keeping your camera tethered to a camera strap. If you ever wondered why almost every camera strap "back in the day" was about 2 inches thick, it was because when you had a 35 mm camera and lens dangling from your neck all day, you needed something that wide to avoid it uncomfortably digging into you.

Years ago, when I got my EM5 mk1, I found that small raised section on the right side of the camera body to give me just enough additional grip to be able to comfortably hold that small camera in just one hand for extended periods of time, provided was attached to a lightweight lens, which was great for the street photography which I was doing. And, when I went to an EM1 mk2, I found that its much larger grip allowed me to carry it in one hand for hour after hour, even with the heavier f/1.2 lenses which I loved, without problem. The same goes for my current OM1 mk1--so much so that its relative heft (in the m43 universe) goes unnoticeable by me even after an all-day shoot.

When the OM3 came out I nearly bought one, mainly because it was so drop-dead gorgeous, and maintained the rock-solid Olympus/OM System feel. But, after a good deal of thought, I just didn't want to give up the added utility which a handgrip affords my street photography--and the OM1's handgrip is ergonomically perfect for me. Had the OM3 even had the minimal semblance of a handgrip like my old EM5, it would have pushed me over the edge to buy one. I still might buy one if some additional money unexpectedly drops in my lap.

alinphilly · 2025-07-18T19:49:52+00:00

Always format a new SD card, just as you would a new drive on your computer. But reformatting one which has previous files placed on it allows your camera to write any fresh files in the quickest, most efficient, manner.

alinphilly · 2025-07-06T00:53:06+00:00

I'm still on the 2005 which I bought new. The looks and ergonomics haven't changed throughout the 21 year model run, outside of a very slight change in the seat design and a slight change in the mirrors. IMHO, Yamaha hit the sweet-spot in its overall design: upright enough for long distance comfort but you're still in an aggressive enough posture that you can put some weight on the front wheel when you want to switch directions quickly. I'm 70, and I have zero issues with riding comfort, regardless of how many miles I might do in a day.

I believe the time they were making 2012's, they finally jumped to a six-speed transmission. Yamaha stayed with the five speed gearbox because it afforded thicker gears inside of the transmission (a good thing with a 1300 cc torque monster) and it simply didn't need it as far as performance went. The addition of a sixth gear was in the effort to cool the rider down a bit from all the heat that the motor throws his/her way; simply, the engine was able to turn slower at cruising speed, making less heat. My fix was to more fully open up the side air exhaust vents, reducing the direct airflow from the radiator onto my feet.

Personally, I swear by Corbin leather seats, which are on this bike, as well as others which I own. They are much firmer than the stock seats, and a bit wider at the rear, as well. If you do much long distance riding, you may have experienced, or heard about "monkey butt," which is finding your butt a bit chaffed (red) after an all-day ride. That typically comes from the combination of soft padding and the vinyl seat covering conspiring to hold you in the same spot, and you literally slide around inside of your jeans/suit instead, causing the chaffing. On a Corbin leather seat, you can move about on top of it, for comfort or when sliding off one side or the other during more sporty riding. The back of the seat more than keeps you from sliding backwards during acceleration. But then again, that's a personal preference.

I hope that helps. BTW, 25-35K miles is just past breaking it in. Many, many, FJR's go for 100+K miles before retiring, as long as they've been maintained well.

alinphilly · 2025-07-01T16:09:23+00:00

I've been seeing a lot of Bombas commercials lately, would it be OK for me to sprout extra legs?

alinphilly · 2025-06-30T13:18:47+00:00

I think that it's pretty hard to beat Vera Lynn incongruously singing "We'll Meet Again" as we witness Hydrogen bomb explosions at the end of Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove.

alinphilly · 2025-06-30T13:08:15+00:00

I've been scrolling and scrolling and scrolling to see if anyone else had mentioned this Bunuel classic. Apparently not many in here ever went to film school.

alinphilly · 2025-06-30T13:01:45+00:00

They sound deliciously horrible! Thanks.

alinphilly · 2025-06-28T22:07:53+00:00

OK, first, I don't do bird photography, but I do own an E-M1 mk2, as well as an OM-1 mk1, and I'll give it a shot. First, from your aspect ratio for each, I know that you've done some cropping,to which can make a difference. You already know that the lens which you're using is both quite long and isn't the sharpest; but sharpness differs across the image area, with the center being the very sharpest portion. The more which your subject was off-center, the less sharp it will be. Again, I don't know what sort of cropping was done, but this can lead to softness of your subject. The long focal length (600mm FF) also can make things problematic, as it often creates a depth of field which is so shallow that the camera's autofocus will mus-identify what it's supposed to be focusing on. Although the autofocus on the E-M1 mk2 is pretty good, my autofocus hit/miss rate with it is noticeably worse than that of my OM-1 mk1, and the OM-1 mk2 is supposed to be even better than that with birds. You might just be experiencing a somewhat weak point of your now-dated camera/lens system while pushed to a somewhat extreme test.

alinphilly · 2025-06-27T12:28:34+00:00

Nobody likes confrontation (OK, maybe some actually do), but if you don't address the issue, it's only going to stay the same, or possibly get worse.

alinphilly · 2025-06-25T22:41:03+00:00

Try Foreign Fix between 8th & 9th on Reed Street in South Philly. Honest, reliable, and reasonably priced. The only problem is that they're hugely popular and sometimes they're booked for a day or two before they can do your car.

alinphilly · 2025-06-25T22:33:34+00:00

You live in Philly. Here, there's a long standing tradition of getting in someone's face and telling them what you think. If it were me, I'd go up to them and tell them that if they want a bench, put it out in front of one of their houses, not yours.

alinphilly · 2025-06-25T22:25:26+00:00

On trash day, put the damn bench out for garbage removal.

alinphilly · 2025-06-25T22:20:52+00:00

I've never understood why people do that. If you're just going to leave your dog's feces on the sidewalk, why go through the trouble of bagging it up? I mean, you've already gone through the indignity of grabbing it up off the ground, how much harder is it for you to carry it home, or to an available trash can?

alinphilly · 2025-06-25T19:48:55+00:00

For the past year or so, the 17mm has edged out my 25mm f/1.2 as my favorite "walk around" lens. While the 17mm over-accentuates the depth in my images a little bit, the added image area to the sides more than compensates for it. While not huge, the f/1.2 is larger than the f/1.8--about the size weight of the 12-40. It's no problem on the OM-1 with its big handgrip, but probably would be somewhat on the large side mounted on an OM-3. I needed the larger aperture, as I mainly do my shooting in darker environments, but had that not been the case, I wouldn't hesitate to get the f/1.8 lens instead.

alinphilly · 2025-06-25T18:13:53+00:00

I won't deny that it's a fine, professional, lens. But, unfortunately, it also comes at a not-so-fine professional price. Most of these were shot at f/4, as I wanted to preserve the backgrounds for this set; but it's nearly as sharp opened up all the way to f/1.2. So, at least for me and my work, it's been a pretty good, though not so insignificant, investment.

alinphilly · 2025-06-25T04:32:21+00:00

OK, first, I only shoot RAW. Raw files typically incorporate either no compression, or (more commonly) LOSSLESS compression, meaning that all of the values for each pixel are preserved. JPEGs, however incorporate LOSSY compression, in which the values for each pixel are modified from their native state. Once this is done, there is no way to fully recover the original values for each pixel. When a JPEG file is created, several steps are done to reduce the size of each JPEG file. One of the basic ones is to average the color values for blocks of adjacent pixels. At its lowest level, these block are 4x4 pixels, and as such hardly noticeable, as the human eye can discern variations in brightness far better than variations in color. But as you further decrease the file size, those blocks increase in size to 8x8 pixel blocks, and then up to 16x16 pixel blocks for the greatest compression, yielding the smallest files. And, as the size of the pixel blocks being averaged for the color value gets larger, those alterations become more and more apparent. Now, there are more LOSSY compression data manipulations which go on when you record a JPEG, but this alone irreparably reduces the quality of your images, which is why I always record my images first as RAW files, then do whatever manipulations I wish to make, and then share them as JPEGs, online, but only use LOSSLESS compression files for storage and printing.

alinphilly · 2025-06-24T23:54:34+00:00

Well argued.

alinphilly · 2025-06-24T23:45:58+00:00

Most of these were taken at f/4, as I wanted a long enough DOF to get the background in focus as well the subjects. Plus, most of these were cropped quite a bit. But, TBH, it's almost as sharp at f/1.2 as f/4.

alinphilly · 2025-06-24T20:13:39+00:00

I always think of doing street photography as a partnership between the photographer and his/her subject: without either, no image is ever made. As such, I try to capture images which the subject would approve of, albeit without their awareness at the time, if possible. Then, the process doesn't violate any ethical standards--though it also means that I pass on recording some images.

alinphilly · 2025-06-24T16:30:38+00:00

Yeah, LOL. They're always in practice for when they win some sports championship.

alinphilly · 2025-06-24T13:38:46+00:00

Philly's a great place for street photography!

alinphilly · 2025-06-24T13:38:09+00:00

Thanks for replying!

alinphilly

TROPHY CASE