Pat's Cafe - Coffee morning 31 Jan 2010

[aim54x]

I have to thank Pat for the coffee once more. It was quite the experience!! Here are a few snaps from this morning (or is is yesterday morning?)





All of these have had no processing other than resize+border

[Mr Darcy]

#3 works for me the others don't. Sorry.
But then I do NOT drink coffee.

#1 just too busy. Just what is the subject here?
#2 Nothing I can point to. Just does nothing for me.
#4 Loss of stream when it enters the (frosted?) glass bothers me. Also the drip. Oddly the drips in #3 I like. Noth in this one.

[chrisk]

mmm...pavoni...i do miss mine...sometimes.
i like the concept of the dripping shots but not sure you pulled it off with the backlighting.

[Reschsmooth]

I do like the backlit shots and think, with a little processing, can really bring out the colours in the extraction.

[biggerry]

mmm...pavoni...i do miss mine...sometimes.

lol, no doubt they often incur a love-hate relationship...

In terms of images of la-crema and coffee machines, it is often quite hard to get a good composition and angle when they are being operated - love the nekkid portafilter...I think recovering some of the highlights would help..

[aim54x]

#3 works for me the others don't. Sorry.
But then I do NOT drink coffee.

#1 just too busy. Just what is the subject here?

i like the concept of the dripping shots but not sure you pulled it off with the backlighting.

#4 Loss of stream when it enters the (frosted?) glass bothers me. Also the drip. Oddly the drips in #3 I like. Noth in this one.

Thanks Greg....coffee is not for all of us

Now that I am more alert, I can actually see that that #3 and #4 are a bit overpowered by the softbox in the background, it was actually my first go with studio gear, but I think I can recover that in post.

I know what you mean by busy #1....maybe I should have shot at a wider aperture but I was already at f/2.8 and I dont own much glass that is that wide (none faster than f/2.. It was a beautiful machine though.

[aim54x]

I had a play with the this one in Capture NX2 and thought I would get some feedback...are these any better or have i pushed the colour too far?

[Reschsmooth]

Cameron, the repost is largely representative of the colours that came out of that extraction and is a signficant improvement, in my opinion.

I also like the first (of Gerry's la Pavoni) as it is a nice, environmental shot, in my opinion.

[aim54x]

Cameron, the repost is largely representative of the colours that came out of that extraction and is a signficant improvement, in my opinion.

I also like the first (of Gerry's la Pavoni) as it is a nice, environmental shot, in my opinion.

Thanks Patrick! I do like the edited version of this one as well

[chrisk]

mmm...pavoni...i do miss mine...sometimes.

lol, no doubt they often incur a love-hate relationship...

as an indulgence on a saturday or sunday afternoon i loved it. but for everyday use...not for me. my ECM is pure unadulterated heaven for that purpose...although its still a machine. there was something about the slow depressing of a lever to extract coffee that made it magical in a funny way.

[biggerry]

but for everyday use...not for me.

yeah, I can understand that, however the startup time and portability is great imo.

made it magical in a funny way

lol, not always the way I describe it...often contains expletives instead.
Inconsistent coffees, choking it when you got 2mins to get out the door and trying to use a real mans sized cup (bloody italians), does give me grief some days and question why I do not go semi -auto.

That said, I will always keep this machine and its probably the same reason why people (including me) keep playing golf...

[chrisk]

but for everyday use...not for me.

yeah, I can understand that, however the startup time and portability is great imo.

lol funny you mention that. we are going on hols this week and i'm taking my coffee machine. not exactly portable but VERY necessary. lol you shoulda seen my wifes face when i told here i was taking it. half the boot is the machine the other half is my camera gear..."i hope YOU'RE travelling light sweetheart..."

cam the rework is much better. definately needed that colour and contrast.

[Reschsmooth]

lol funny you mention that. we are going on hols this week and i'm taking my coffee machine. not exactly portable but VERY necessary. lol you shoulda seen my wifes face when i told here i was taking it. half the boot is the machine the other half is my camera gear..."i hope YOU'RE travelling light sweetheart..."

I used to take my machine plus grinder with me on road trips, with never a complaint from the missus. Now, the boot is full of portacots, prams and other baby paraphenalia.

[dviv]

New one is great! Well done Cam

[surenj]

definitely prefer the second version; You've made it stronger by cropping and popping.

[biggerry]

stronger by cropping and popping

good choice of words suren...

[aim54x]

but there was no crop!

[tasadam]

These images are sad. Why? Because they remind me of a sad time.
You see, after going to Italy in 2000 and seeing the machines for sale in the shops in Rome, we liked the idea.
So back home we did the research, lucked on to a shop in Melbourne and bought one. A beautiful machine it was, faithfully served us, for about 6 months. Then the mount on the top right where the steam comes out, developed a leak. So we sent it back to Melbourne for warranty repair. Emptied all the water out of it, wrapped it very carefully, and sent it through a courier.
It took weeks, but we finally got our machine back. This is where the problems started... They might have repaired the steam mount on the boiler, I don't know. We didn't get a chance to turn it on. They'd shipped it back to us wrapped in plastic, and half full of water. Of course the water had escaped, but for some reason it seems the plastic had caused a reaction with the varnish on the lovely shiny brass metal all over the unit, it would wipe off on your finger like goo. And the boiler had a dent in it that wasn't there when we sent it. This led to a long (months) and unhappy time while we fought our case with them, finally getting a full refund. A happy ending, but one that I dare not risk again, so unfortunately the beautiful Lapavoni lever machine will never have a place in our home. We were without a machine for a long time, finally could not handle the "i" word (insss insstsa... Nup, just can't say it) any longer, bought a cheapish machine. Here. That was retired when I knew enough about coffee to know I wasn't drinking coffee as good as it can be. Then we resolved our coffee problems with this.

OK, enough of my story telling.
Image 1 has nice lighting, though the feature of that image is the machine. It needs a location to show it off without the distractions of the yellow wall. The depth of field works well to make the sink action more in the background.

That fist in image 2 is such a distraction, did he have to be holding that handle when you took that image?

I've seen some fantastic action shots of the naked PF, unfortunately this is not one of them, not least of which is because of the very strong white behind it. It needs a direct flash to highlight that lovely stripey crema that oozes when it's done right.

And I agree, the drip that is on the lip of the glass and running down the outside makes the image messy.
Sorry, these images don't do it for me. I hope you find the critique you get from them encouraging enough to give it another go, an excellent subject for some fine photography when done right, good luck.

[aim54x]

Image 1 has nice lighting, though the feature of that image is the machine. It needs a location to show it off without the distractions of the yellow wall. The depth of field works well to make the sink action more in the background.

That fist in image 2 is such a distraction, did he have to be holding that handle when you took that image?

I've seen some fantastic action shots of the naked PF, unfortunately this is not one of them, not least of which is because of the very strong white behind it. It needs a direct flash to highlight that lovely stripey crema that oozes when it's done right.

And I agree, the drip that is on the lip of the glass and running down the outside makes the image messy.
Sorry, these images don't do it for me. I hope you find the critique you get from them encouraging enough to give it another go, an excellent subject for some fine photography when done right, good luck.

Thanks for the feedback, I will definitely have another shot at this next time the opportunity arises.