Ricoh GRII

Colors

I’ve been posting a lot of either signage or black and white photos lately and wanted to change things up. So here is a short series of photos that predominantly feature one primary (or near-primary) color.

A large, red, cinderblock wall. A green wooden door is set into its center, surrounded by light blue wood panel. One way street sign on the far left.

Red
November 9, 2022
Bellefonte, PA
Ricoh GR II

The underside of a bright orange storefront awning.

Orange
May 11, 2011
Somewhere in Midtown East, New York City
Canon S90

Shrubbery with bright yellow leaves in a front yard. Green grass and fallen leaves below; fence and stone house behind.

Yellow
October 20, 2020
Pleasant Gap, PA
Ricoh GR II

One open green door on the left, propped open and overlapping a closed one on the right. Three printed signs with directional arrows read: MEN'S BATHROOM <-. WOMEN'S BATHROOM <- ("(ANOTHER)" hand-written across the top). WOMEN'S BATHROOM ->

Green
May 16, 2015
Collins Auditorium
Fordham University, Bronx, NY
iPhone 5S

Trees and leaves would've been the obvious picks for green, so I'm trying to be a little clever. I found that I had two copies of this photo—one that included more of the door frames and surrounding area, and this one, cropped so there's nearly nothing but green. There's something comforting about recognizing that the same sorts of things have caught my eye over time, and this photo has two of them—signage and large swaths of color.

Evening. Overcast sky, saturated blue clouds. Silhouettes of trees. Foreground: shadowed house with yellow light visible through windows.

Blue
July 3, 2021
Ricoh GR II

Indigo
January 11, 2005
Italy
Sony Cybershot DSC-P93

Indigo's a tough one. I'm kinda guessing here. Unfortunately, I don't recall exactly where in Italy this was taken, except that it was at a point in the trip when we were doing day trips to towns in Umbria.

Violet
May 16, 2021
Ricoh GR II

State College in Black and White (Post 7)

 
Black and white. A person wearing a messenger bag and riding a bicycle. In the frame, they're riding from right to left, beneath a ONE WAY sign pointing in the same direction.

One Way
September 20, 2022
South Allen Street and West Calder Way
Ricoh GR II

From behind a floor-to-ceiling plate glass window at the end of a hallway. A person below at a sidewalk intersection on a college campus. Dappled light through the trees on the hallway floor.

Framed from Burrowes
September 20, 2022
From the Burrowes Building, facing the library mall
Ricoh GR II

Black and white. A closed storefront on the first floor of a brick building. Paper covers the large glass windows. Hand-painted on the paper are the words "Thank You State College."

Thank You State College
January 5, 2022
Saint's Cafe
Canon 60D, Sigma 30mm f/1.4

Wide angle, high contrast black and white image. Roofs of buildings and a parking garage. A large apartment building in the distance. Thick clouds overhead.

Cloudy Sky
September 22, 2022
From atop one of the downtown parking garages.
Ricoh GR II

Black and white. An old wooden door in a brick wall. Thin, short vines trail down over the top third of the door.

Door
October 10, 2022
Canon 60D, Sigma 30mm f/1.4

Click here for all photos in this project thus far.

Rhinebeck, NY

 
A three-story Victorian home at dusk. Golden lights on in the bottom right two windows.

A home in Rhinebeck, NY
December 4, 2021
iPhone 12 Mini

Four persons in colorful costumes strut down the street. Smiling spectators and bare trees in background.

Parade
December 4, 2021
Rhinebeck, NY
Ricoh GR II

Black and white. Parade on a town main street, from behind framed windowpanes of a shop. Musicians walking by on stilts, crowd along sidewalk.

Parade, Framed
December 4, 2021
Rhinebeck, NY
Ricoh GR II

Starr Institute
December 4, 2021
Rhinebeck, NY
Ricoh GR II

Looking onto the water
December 5, 2021
Staatsburgh State Historic Site, Staatsburg, NY
Ricoh GR II

Nittany Lion Inn Furniture Sale

 
Black and white. Penn State’s on-campus inn in the rain.

The Nittany Lion Inn
Penn State, University Park
December 6, 2022
Ricoh GR II.

Took this on the way to the furniture sale. The inn is closing down for two years while it’s renovated by its new owners. So all the furniture and furnishings were being sold off this past week.

Pillows
The Nittany Lion Inn
Penn State, University Park
December 6, 2022
Ricoh GR II

Black and white. Two framed pieces of wall art, on the floor leaning against a wall. Rough beam of light from upper left.

Pictures
The Nittany Lion Inn
Penn State, University Park
December 6, 2022
Ricoh GR II

CAUTION / CUIDADO
The Nittany Lion Inn
Penn State, University Park
December 6, 2022
Ricoh GR II

For Sale
The Nittany Lion Inn
Penn State, University Park
December 6, 2022
Ricoh GR II

Black and white. A wooden ceiling. Sunlight coming through a cupola at its center.

Until next time.
The Nittany Lion Inn
Penn State, University Park
December 6, 2022
Ricoh GR II

Fall 2022

 
Bell tower of a central college campus building appears between trees with bright orange and red leaves.

Old Main
October 18, 2022
Penn State, University Park
Canon 60D, Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM

Sackett Building
October 18, 2022
Penn State, University Park
Canon 60D, Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM

October 24, 2022
Penn State, University Park
Ricoh GR II

Birch tree with golden and green leaves. Background: partly cloudy sky. To the right: Maple tree branches with green leaves.

October 16, 2022
Canon 60D, Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM

A campus mall, tree-lined. Fallen leaves on green grass, and golden and green leaves in the trees above.

October 18, 2022
Penn State, University Park
iPhone 12 Mini

Tree with golden and yellow leaves, framed by the window opening of a parking deck.

Framing Fall
October 26, 2022
Nittany Parking Deck
Penn State, University Park
Canon 60D, Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM

Blue and Yellow
October 26, 2022
Penn State, University Park
iPhone 12 Mini

Back to School

 
Photo of birch tree from behind the windshield of a car. Dew accumulated on the windshield.

That school morning feeling | Back to School series | August 18, 2022 | iPhone 12 Mini 

Persons waiting in line to get onto a bus. Person just to the right of center is wearing a black facemask.

August 24, 2022 | Back to School series | Ricoh GR II 

Black and white high contrast photo of light coming through the windows of a parking garage elevator lobby.

Parking Deck Light | September 2, 2022 | Back to School series | Ricoh GR II 

Phot of a red birch tree. Backlit by the sun, so that the frayed paper-like bark appears orange red.

Backlight | September 15, 2022 | Back to School series | Ricoh GR II

Black and white photo of sidewalk paths intersecting on a college campus. One person walks through the middle of the intersection; the other is 20’ to their right, walking in the same direction.

Intersection | September 2, 2022 | Back to School series | Ricoh GR II

Black and white photo of a small tree, leaves backlit by morning sunlight.

Backlight | September 2, 2022 | Back to School series | Ricoh GR II

Black and white photo. Exterior of a brick dorm building where two wings intersect. The shadow of the one on the left cuts diagonally across the one on the right.

September 15, 2022 | Back to School series | Ricoh GR II

August 2022, Centre County Grange Fair

 

I took these photos during a brief recent visit to the Centre County Grange Fair in Centre Hall, PA. For more photos of this event (albeit from a few years ago), check out my post from my August 2018 visit.

Festively decorated top of a large food trailer. Brightly colored signage reads FRENCH FRIES, CHEESE FRIES, CORN DOGS, LEMONADE, FRENCH FRIES. A row of flags above. Partly cloudy sky in background.

French Fries | August 20, 2022 | Centre County Grange Fair | Ricoh GR II 

Two-story yellow slide on a fairground. Partly cloudy blue sky in the background. Green-brown grass and red wagon in the foreground.

Slide | August 20, 2022 | Centre County Grange Fair | Ricoh GR II 

Fairgrounds. A main pedestrian thoroughfare, with persons walking towards and away from the camera. Sunlit American flag in the upper left.

August 20, 2022 | Centre County Grange Fair | Ricoh GR II 

Large red tractor with a logo reading “Turbo” towards its front. Row of trees behind. Green grass in foreground, partly cloudy sky in background.

Turbo | August 20, 2022 | Centre County Grange Fair | Ricoh GR II 

Large number of cars parked in a field. Bright blue sky above.

August 20, 2022 | Centre County Grange Fair | Ricoh GR II 

Long, two-door, black classic car parked in front of a one-story building. Faded awning above. Hanging on the front of the building is an American flag in black and white, with a stripe of blue added over one of the white stripes.

Seen on the way to the fair. | August 20, 2022 | Centre Hall, PA | Ricoh GR II

Snowy Morning

Keep that A Charlie Brown Christmas album in the rotation.

Black and white. House across a street. Snow on the ground and house, and brushing giant evergreen trees to the L and R. Overcast.

January 7, 2022. Ricoh GR II ISO 100 f/4 1/320s

I’d wanted to shoot this at a narrower aperture, so as to get a deeper depth of field, but my GR II has accumulated some sensor dust over the years that gets more obvious (and requires more fixing in post) the more that I stop down. It’s a bit annoying to deal with, and expensive to get fixed, so I’m trying to get accustomed to sticking at f/5.6 or below and making do.

Christmas Miscellany

Since the photo sale shipping deadlines for a "by Christmas" arrival have all passed, I thought I might switch gears for a few days to share some seasonally appropriate photos (I'll get back to the photo sale posts towards the end of the month, since that code will expire on 12/31).

Sculpture of coiled snake in outdoor arboretum, pink ribbon wrapped around its neck.

December 19, 2021. Canon EOS 60D, ISO 640, Sigma 30mm 1.4, ƒ/2, 1/125s

Penn State's arboretum has some beautiful lights up right now, and it's certainly worth a look. Having gone two weekends in a row with family, it does feel like dusk (around 4 p.m.) is probably ideal—it's light enough that you can still see the rest of the garden, but dark enough that the lights have some pop. We were delighted to see that all the animal sculptures in the Children's Garden had been given some sort of festive flair.

Christmas lights tightly wound around a tree trunk.

December 5, 2015. Canon EOS 60D, ISO 100, Sigma 30mm 1.4, f/1.4, 1/500s

This shot’s from December of 2015, in New York City. This looks well-suited for one of those "can you believe it?" comparison statistics, like, if you took the light strands from all the trees in front of this building, and laid them end by end, they'd reach from the AC units to the sub-basement or something like that.

Santa Claus driving a pedicab through Times Square on a rainy night.

December 17, 2016. Ricoh GR II, ISO 140, f/2.8, 1/60s.

I think I've posted this at least twice in the past few years, but I do not care, because Santa Claus driving a pedicab through Times Square on a rainy night never gets old.

A crowded, ornate hallway filled with persons in formalwear. Tall fronds to L and R wrapped in Christmas lights.

December 1, 2018, Ricoh GR II, ISO 1600, f/5, 1/160s.

From New Orleans on December 1, 2018. As I scroll through my photo library, I realize that I don't have a ton of Christmas decor photos that aren't from NYC. Which is fine, but for a series of posts, I thought I may as well try and diversify a bit!

Black and white. Wire sculpture of an angel holding a trumpet.

December 20, 2010, Canon PowerShot S90, ISO 400, f/2, 1/60s.

Merry Christmas!

From December 20, 2010, Rockefeller Center.

Grant Swift, Live at 3 Dots Downtown, State College PA. October 19, 2021.

 
Black & white. Musician playing guitar on stage. Intersection w/ receding streetlights in background.

Shots of Grant Swift's show last Tuesday night at 3 Dots Downtown in State College, PA. Grant is an old friend who’s touring right now to promote his new album First Elephant (available for purchase or streaming here). It was a treat to be able to catch up and see him play again, and I encourage you to check his schedule of upcoming shows in case he’ll be in a town or city near you. Upcoming stops include Baltimore, Austin, Nashville, and more.

Night. Wide angle photo of a terrace. Guitarist is playing and singing. Bistro lights and apartments in the background.
Close shot, from musician's left, of musician playing guitar and singing.
Black and white. Close shot of musician playing guitar and singing into the mic.
Black and white. The back of a station wagon, filled with amps and PA equipment.

Touring life.

High Contrast Black and White

Hello from London! My wife and I are presently enjoying our honeymoon, and in anticipation of that, earlier this month I put together the below post in advance (more fun with the Ricoh GR II, this time focusing on street photography using its high contrast black and white setting).

We're still traveling for a few more days, and I've posted a handful of photos from the trip so far on the Facebook page. I'll probably put together a post in a few weeks with other select shots (most likely one with street photography, and another on signs and signage that caught my attention).

Hope you enjoy the below!

Cheers,

Rob

--

Since I post-process just about everything I shoot, I've rarely looked closely at camera reviews' discussions of in-camera JPG processing. But people seem to really like how Ricoh cameras process their black and white JPGs, so I thought I might spend a few days shooting only in the High Contrast Black and White JPG setting, with minimal post-processing. It was tough to keep minimal "minimal"- ultimately I did a lot of cropping and some adjustments to exposure and vignettes. But in the end, the time it took to edit these did turn out to be much shorter because the in-camera JPG processing actually did a pretty good job in the first place.

I don't know if I'll use this approach too often, as giving up the control of working with the full RAW file does feel wrong somehow (If I really like this look, theoretically, I ought to be able to create it in editing anyway). However, I do like the idea of using a filter like this to push me in a different direction than I would have gone if I were starting from scratch, so it will no doubt be a useful tool to shake things up once in a while in the future.

Scooter Man

Pedicab

Work Ahead

Crossing Madison Avenue

Caught

On the Job

Smoking

Mannequin