Pics from Mountain View

[compilerbitch]

Here is the first batch of photos from Mountain View, all shot with my diddy new Panasonic Lumix LZ5.



Castro Street


The B&W conversion here is a bit weird -- I used channel mixer in Photoshop CS with blue set heavily negative to darken the sky. It doesn't look good in the thumbnail, but the bigger version is OK.

Mountain View Alleyway


More B&W messing about.

My new apartment


This architectural shot is actually inside my new apartment. It's right on Castro Street, there's a Starbucks actually in the building effectively, and my favourite bookshops are about a 4 minute walk.

Castro again


This was shot looking down the road, standing outside the Scientology shop/church/warren/nest/hive/whatever/thingy.

Chicken Katsu


Hawaiian fast food, anyone? It is basically, well, schnitzel. With dip that tastes extremely close to mango chutney.

Fountain


This is more or less below my apartment (slighty along a bit).

I see mountains!


This is a (fairly narrow) view from my bedroom window.

Crappy pano of the big windows in the living room


My apartment has a hugely high ceiling in the living room. This is a craply rapidly thrown together pano (the Lumix isn't nearly wide enough).

Lounge windows


Another arty architectural shot.

Outside the apartment


Another bad pano, but it gives you the idea. The top left balcony that you can see is mine.

Self-portrait




... because doseybat would shoot me if I didn't.

Comments

[arrhythmia.livejournal.com]

doesn't the lumix shoot in 16:9? i suppose it could still be insufficiently wide.

btw, did everything get sorted out re: your corrections? i hope it's all still on track. (do let me know if i can somehow help by moving physical objects around cambridge -- between rooms in the lab, between the lab and JS Wilson, etc -- as i am more than happy to do so.)

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

Different Lumix models seem to support 16:9 differently. This one gives full resolution at 4:3, and crops horizontally. Some of the others give full res at 16:9 and crop 4:3 vertically. I actually prefer it this way round, because I'm most likely to shoot 4:3. The lens isn't terribly wide, maybe about 35mm equivalent at its widest setting, but it does have a 6 to 1 zoom though. It's interesting to watch -- the barrel is in two concentric pieces, and obviously each set of lens elements is attached to each part of the barrel, so you can see them move relatively to each other as you zoom or focus. It's not an amazingly sophisticated camera from the user control point of view, though it is packed with tech (obviously). The image stabilisation is very good.

Re corrections, I am still waiting for David to give me a final answer. I think I'm on my 3rd resubmission now. The deadline is next Tuesday, so I'm a bit nervous about it, because I haven't heard from him since last Tuesday.