It Came From Silicon Valley

July 26, 2012

Home again and to use a bad pun the return flight flew by. Both Kim and I are surprised how fast eleven hours in a tube can go. The home felines were happy to see us and gave us what for for being away.

I want to share one last set of photos we took one the trip with a Lytro Camera and talk a little about usage experience. This unique camera started shipping earlier this year and has intrigued some of the camera enthusiasts at my work due to it allowing a user to refocus an image after being taken. Take a look at this image I took of Sydney at Sagrada Família which should come up with Sydney’s face out of focus. Now click on her face (anywhere) and she should be brought into focus. Pretty cool huh? I also liked what read about the camera and found its form factor interesting but was reluctant to buy until I could test it operationally, i.e. on the road. Luckily Russell Selph who purchased one allowed me to borrow his with the promise I would report back. So…

The shape made it quite portable and easy to carry. I became quite good at being able to turn it on and manipulate it with one hand while holding my DSLR in the other. And the unique look of the camera brought the intrigued look and started several conversations in various places. A taste if the future from Silicon Valley. The picture taken results in a square image versus the rectangle shape in my DSLR and this was problematic to me. In order to take best advantage of the refocus ability you had to have items both near and far in the image and the square image made framing more difficult and I felt I had to compromise on too many issues. The camera did ok when the object was close but not great. If trying to capture image where nothing was closer than 6 feet or so the refocus ability never comes in to play unless you were doing a trick shot like this one. I also found the LCD touchscreen a bit problematic to frame with when trying to line up a special shot that I had to hold the camera at an odd angle, the image became distorted thus hard to frame.

Another thing is the resulting image can only be viewed with software that needs to be loaded on the viewing computer or at the Lytro Web site,

The result? I find the camera fun to use and will follow future developments with the company and the technology but I will wait until the next generation of cameras before (maybe) buying.The current camera is great for the artistic image (if you have time) however for the average user this may be beyond their time or inclination. So wait with me although I plan to borrow Russ’s camera in the future. Please. Russ?

Below are some select images, I hope you enjoy them.

A fun trip that had just the right compoents. All hotels were great and can be recommended. Thanks to Nancy and her crew at Ladera Travel for their help on this journey.

Lytro Images

 

Filed under Lytro, Post Trip Tagged with ,

Its All Over Except The Meowing…

July 20, 2012 1 Comment

On the way to CDG.

20120720-111214.jpg

Filed under Uncategorized Tagged with

One Last Push

July 20, 2012

Almost there and we are tired enough to prove it. But isn’t that what vacations are all about? Mentally rested but physically tired?

Caught up in the grips of having to go to reality I decided to add a visit to a place I have been putting off, Le Cimetière du Père Lachaise the largest cemetery in the city of Paris and the resting place of some famous people including Oscar Wilde, Frédéric Chopin, Édith Piaf and of course Jim Morrison. This meant to keep to the other plans for the day I had to be up and moving early arriving shortly after the Cemetery opened. That was actually quite nice, I had the place pretty much to myself although one time when I did see a person I had a “Night of the Living Dead” flashback… Since it was a quick plan I missed a few people I would have like to have seen including Marcel Marceau who I am sure would have had no comment either way. One piece of advise I read on-line that I followed and thought worked out well was that the cemetery is located on a hillside and getting off the Paris Metro at Gambetta versus Père Lachaise means you are walking down hill the whole visit. Worked for me and I saw others who came in from the main entrance huffing it a bit more than I was.

Then it was back to the hotel to gather Kim and Syd and off to the Musée d’Orsay. This is our favorite museum in Paris and has been remodeled since our last visit, now has more space for exhibits so had many new items for us to see. The remodel is great although we thought the glare on some of the larger paintings was worse and detracted from them a little. Alas picture taking is no longer allowed at the museum so you will have to visit…

Time for our last dinner on the road and for this we chose La Rôtisserie d’en Face, a restaurant quite close to our hotel that charmed us when we first dined there one cold (and I mean cold) November years ago. Loved it then, time for a return that we have put off. However… this time it is summer so the place was full of families and loud tourists including a woman with one of the sharpest Southern USA accents I have heard in years. But the service and food is still great, Kim and I were happy looked int to each others eyes as we dined and…. TMI TMI TMI… And yes Syd was with us but we think was quietly and happily contemplating returning home.

Filed under France, Le Cimetière du Père Lachaise, Musée d'Orsay, Paris Tagged with , , ,

← Older posts