So, last week, my pals in Hot Water Music kicked off yet another national tour, this in continued support of their latest release, "Exister", which debuted last May.

The drummer and one of the guitarists remain local to Gainesville, while the bassist and second guitarist live out on the west coast, so getting them all in the same room is a bit of a challenge. I did catch them twice while I was living in Arkansas, both times while they toured with stops in Lawrence, KS., but the last time I saw the band perform live was 2001, maybe 2002.

They played here in Gainesville in October 2011 shortly after my return, but I was working and couldn't make the gig. Then, recent tour dates were announced and it became clear how I would spend my two nights off last week.

I rented a Canon 5DIII, a Canon L 24-70mm f/2.8, and, regrettably, a Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8. I write "regrettably" as it turned out I would need more, not less, reach than the Canon 24-70. I had the 70-200mm f/2.8 IS in the cart, but changed my mind at the last second. Sad, really, but lesson learned.

The tour kicked off at the Orpheum in Tampa's Ybor City on Wednesday. I was late getting there due to slow FEDEX delivery combined with a ten-miles crawl down I75 related to a fatal semi vs passenger car mess. Nonetheless, I did make it there just as the opening act was building steam. Broke out the gear, did a quick set-up, and got busy.

The 5DIII is a beast of a camera. Native top ISO of 25600 is perfectly useable. I believe all of the second night's shots at the Beacham were made at ISO 25600. Color me impressed. This is the camera I've dreamed of. Take the 25600 and consider H1 of 51200 and H2 of 102400 and just ponder pushing film to such extremes and getting anything much out of it. It won't be long before such extreme speeds are the norm.

Other than that note, I've little to add, technically speaking. If I had $3400 today, I know where I'd invest it. It felt good to get some time with my pals and to do some long overdue shooting.



Full set can be reviewed here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152469308970565.964116.539750564&type=1&l=af636f2fa1

Wow! 61 years! And such a story behind you two.

Happy New Year to you both. Missing you here in Florida. Wish I had caught this thread sooner.

Craig

Nice one!

I know, I know...I've been gone far beyond the acceptable limit. But, so help me, I'm on the way back. Seriously.

One of the few pleasures I have these days, or more specifically over the last year, has been my Samsung Galaxy S2 cell phone with its 8MP camera. For years, I'd been carrying the Sony swivel-faced unit with its--then, record-setting 3.2MP camera--for which I'd shelled out nearly $450 only to discover the camera was still useless, albeit the vanguard.

After returning to Fl., I realized I was due for an upgrade. Both the iPhone4 and the S2 had great cameras, but the S2 and its Android OS allowed me to drag-and-drop manage my content. Fed up with attempting to manage my iTouch via iTunes and having concluded than an iTunes update purposely broke the only DND management tool I could find for Apple toys (Foobar), I had little trouble choosing the S2.

Still, a cell-camera's a cell-camera, ad nauseam, and it was some months before I actually began to tinker with it. I've also begun to Instagram, which seems to be the rage these days. Can't recall the last time I accessed Flickr after they began to limit uploading, etc.

At any rate, here are a few snaps from the S2. Before long, I should be the owner of something far more serious. First, I need to have some teeth pulled, then I can re-kit. Then, with luck, I'll be back in the Ozarks before summer 2013 and begin picking up the pieces of the life I left behind.

No, if site is being maintained I will have it locked down with a message indicating it is in maintenance mode.

Fellas, I am having zero issues logging in or posting. I really don't know what to suggest other than to be certain the log-in page you are using is http://nelsonfoto.com/SMF/index.php or http://nelsonfoto.com/SMF/index.php?action=login and no other bookmark(s) remain.

DO NOT Google to access the site. Make a bookmark. Use it.

Clean your caches. Thoroughly. Get rid of all possibilities of old page loads, prefetching, etc.

Again, I'm using the latest stable release of Firefox and I've had no problems whatsoever.

You post that you merely backpage and reenter password...are you getting the error when logging in?

Happy Anniversary, Nelson Foto Forums!

Next time, copy the full text of the error message and post here.

Oh, and it's a fast one at f/2.8

Preorder via B&H now:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/870179-REG/Canon_40mm_f_2_8_EF_Pancake.html

Nigh 48 hours since we came back on-line. All appears to be working as intended and minor issues have been addressed.

I will continue to closely monitor the forums for signs of trouble, but I feel confident we are out of the weeds at this point.

Please feel free to use this thread if you encounter any more of the 403 errors; there should be none. In the event you do receive any PHP-related errors, copy the link of the error page and post it here as a reply with a brief explanation of what you were trying to do when you received the notification. Host has requested this in an effort to resolve any on-going issues.

Thanks a bunch.

If you need to alert me, use the e-mail admin tool and I'll get the message in my e-mail via smart phone.

C.

Update your bookmark to: http://nelsonfoto.com/SMF/

Folks, I'm glad as always to be of service. I know, I know, I know I'm long overdue for participation and I note that many stalwarts have abandoned the forums over time. Jake, Connealy, Gene, and others. I have every intention of returning to photography and the community when the time is right.

At this time, my teeth need repair. I believe the decay of my molars to be the fundamental cause of increased trouble with sinuses and allergies, affecting my mood and my balance. I've got an idea of where to get the damned things fixed once and for all at a reasonable price per tooth, via UF's Shands Teaching Hospital, and I've got cash to get it done. I just need to schedule appointments.

I am otherwise healthy. Plump from lack of exercise, but healthy. This recent challenge with the forums was good for me, too, in that it forced me to wake up and engage the matter, intellectually.

To be fair, I've been increasingly depressed since 2008 and phoning-in most of my life, avoiding actual living. Going to hospital was a solid sounding of the bottom, truth be told, and I've been fighting my way out of the fog since. Hard to believe it's been a year since I was hospitalized.

Nonetheless, I wanted to thank all for continued patience with me. I've no plans to drop the forums any time soon.

This last bit of mayhem forced me to learn some new tricks and also helped me become more confident dealing with SQL (database code: Structured Query Language) in it's purest forum. Along with getting my own hands wet exploring under the hood, our host owner, Quinn Whipple of Qwk.net was personally available to guide me along the path of understanding some key issues, namely, how I helped hackers gain access to readily exploitable code by leaving trash/work-arounds on the server.

I could host us with a far less expensive provider, not that I consider $129/yr to be expensive, but Quinn's personal involvement in customer service and his commitment to maintaining on-site equipment rather than farming via CO-LO earns my continued trust and support. We are in good hands. Business done the old-school way, as it should be.

I'll probably be taking us to the newest version of SMF sometime in the near future.

The chat mod showed very little signs of use and will not return.

Hosting renewal is coming soon. I'll pass the hat at some point. Continued support is appreciated.

Best wishes to all.

Craig

I received this in my e-mail on the 20th. I've no idea who this person is or why they contacted me. I've never owned a Rolleiflex, assume they noted some other thread before the outage, then sent an e-mail to the only person they could think of: Me, the owner of the forums.

At any rate, if the query rings a bell with any of you, feel free to pick up the lead and run with it. I've included the individual's e-mail address.

http://
http://google.com
http://a1.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/36/5fa38c256a2c70114dedbf7191373dc7/l.jpg

Our host made some adjustments on their end and we are now able to post full URLs, without BBCode containment, and the links will auto-parse as intended.

Problem(s) solved, for now.

Cheers!

C.

Noted: modifying the thread once successfully posted without the will clearly show that the system has reinserted the and if you do not remove it, the subsequent attempt to post your edit will fail to 403.

This is a pain the ass, yes. I need to find an answer and I will. Either, there's a workaround from the SMF community, or, there's some way of adjusting the filtering, server-side, for Apache firewall.

We are not, repeat, NOT infected/compromised at this time. The 403s are caused by robust settings within host's Apache web server. All's working as should. Just need to make some adjustments.

C.