Your provocative thread title will no doubt draw many to see what you're talking about!

I always look at your photos because I enjoy seeing your work.

This is really a great shot! Interesting pose, sharp, clear details with catchlights in both eyes. I love that I can see the individual hairs.

Thank you, always.

i don't get the engagement i used to....i think people are getting sick of monkey shots. i need some new subjects.

....well, yeah, i guess i am

...i get a lucky shot every now and then.

i couldn't really enjoy their last world series victory....i had already moved on from the lifetime of pain and suffering they had caused me. the 1969 season holds some of my earliest memories. in the early 70's, i'd run home from grammar school at st. lucy's on the west side, to watch the end of home games. i went to high school right down the street from wrigley and we'd cut class to go to opening day. at the end of game 5 of the 1984 NLCS, i felt like they had broken louisville sluggers over my head and then jabbed me with the jagged, splintered ends. i was still with them in 2003, like a battered spouse, and watched them squander a 3-1 series lead, only to drop 3 straight games to the marlins and blame it on steve bartman. after that, i moved to costa rica and started watching soccer.

I saw Game 7 at a Rosati's in So. Cal. Game started at 5pm, by 2pm there was only 1 seat left and I got it. I have video of the last out, yes the place went wild & tears started flowing everywhere.
A local TV station was there to record the final out as well.

Born in 62. In 69, I was in 2nd grade and my teacher let me post the Cubs score on the chalk board.
When they finally won in 2016, I flew to Chicago with my daughter and 5 million of my closest Cubs fan, for the parade.

The Cubs did a beautiful thing, by allowing fans to use chalk and write messages on the exterior bricks of Wrigley Field. Some of the messages were so moving people were crying reading the messages. Then the Cubs announced that they will wash the walls on a specific date, so get your messages on the wall before that date. Then the Cubs took pictures of every section of the wall before they washed off all the messages. On opening day 2017, they had pictures of the wall sections in the stadium and the crying started again. Very moving.

what part of chicago are you from?

Last edited Wed Dec 20, 2023, 01:30 AM - Edit history (1)

Growing up, I went to more White Sox games, than Cubs games because my father was a White Sox fan.

Also, I'm sure you've seen the movie "A Christmas Story".
The writer Jean Shepherd, also the narrator in the movie, graduated from my high school, Hammond High.
That movie is based on Hammond. Everything he mentions from the school, street names, to the the towns around Hammond gives away the area of the movie.

I tell friends that I grew up in "A Chirstmas Story"

...and i remember watching, with my family, "jean shepherd's america" on channel 11 (WTTW) every week during the short time it aired. but, yeah, i saw "a christmas story" when it first came out and i was already very familiar with shepherd.

i was a die hard cub fan since i can remember and spent countless days in the bleachers at wrigley....but i made the trek to the south side to comiskey once in a while, as well. i was at the disco demolition double header, when bill veeck let steve dahl do his between game demolition of disco records in center field, causing the sox to forfeit game 2 to the tigers. i can't describe how sitting thru game 1 was like being in a war zone, with LPs being flung from behind and above, like frisbees, whizzing past my head constantly. i saw simon and garfunkel perform at comiskey during their early 80s reunion tour. and i used to go to the park to see seaver and pudge play, as well, on occasion.

re: "jean shepherd's america", i'm sure you're familiar with it, but if not, here is one episode i remember watching as a young kid in the early 70s and i believe it stuck with me and had some influence on a song i wrote about two decades later, about cheap wisconsin beer:

much less a Hammond High graduate.
My cousins went the Warren G. Harding Elementary school in Hammond, the same school Shepherd went to, and immortalized in the movie.
In the movie, the department store was Higbee's.
Goldblatts was the store in Hammond, complete with huge bay windows to display the Christmas toys in the window, just like the movie.
http://hhs59.com/goldblatts.htm

....i'm about 7000 frames into it and still learning. i haven't seen a difference between it and the D850 from an image quality perspective. i was hoping low light performance would be better but it's not....i mean, it's a 46MP sensor so it can't compete with a 24MP FF sensor in that respect, but i was hoping for some improvement. i have also found a few bugs (the really annoying ones deal with AF and auto ISO exposure and they've caused me to miss some potentially great shots) that i hope will get resolved with firmware updates. once i can reliably recreate them, i will report them. but the Z8 has been invaluable in a couple of key areas to me:

1. animal eye detection AF: it's not perfect yet, but it nails it most of the time and it allows me to compose freely without worrying about where my single point AF focus point is in the frame, instead letting the camera take care of finding the eye(s) and acquiring focus while i concentrate on composition.

2. in-body image stabilization: the IBIS in the Z8 is bad ass. i can hand hold 1/250 shots with the 500mm f/5.6 PF lens now. with the D850 and its legendary recoil from mirror slap, i'd have to shoot at 1/1000 minimum, and even then i would often get camera shake (my hands aren't the steadiest). so far i haven't had to use the tripod, though i am sure i will find scenarios where i need it.

note: adobe's AI denoise is amazing but with the Z8 it's best to keep ISO under 1000, which isn't that practical in wildlife photography. i will likely buy the Z6iii when it comes out and use it for shooting in the shade. my D750 was perfect for this but i've already sold it.

Nice shot