Re: The picture thread
 

http://i44.tinypic.com/29e0goi.jpg

Escudo discontinued?
EMP discontinued?
Nightcap discontinued?
965 discontinued?

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Look at the lonely tin of London Mixture. It looks so sad.

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hahah nice one there Moo. Me like da escudo too!

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escudo discontinued?

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I don't think so, Do you know something we don't Moo.

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no, it's not. he just lives minutes from JRs cigars. ;)

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I thought Nightcap was discontinued too...I am glad I still have a bit of it left, I might need to slow down on smoking it.

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I'm just another idiot Escudo lemming, running scared when JR says they're not selling it anymore. (Greg mocks me when JR lets me down.) I don't know anything about Dunhill brands that hasn't already been bantered around for the last six months or more. All I know is this: it has been hard to get, the price has jumped and, if they stopped making Escudo (the way it is) today, I'm good for a few years.

It happens that I like the lonely little tin of London Mixture a lot - very nice flavor and easy-easy to smoke - but there are a couple of other english blends I favor and I wouldn't miss the Dunhill version terribly. Fact is, I only had two tins and just sent one to a new piper so he could try a nice-and-easy english tobacco.

The picture? Oh - I dunno. Thought I'd take one big enough for everyone to notice. :) Didja? Didja? WTH? It's a picture thread.

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Just got this today and already smoked it. I had to enjoy first before I could let you all see it. Savinelli Venezia bent pot.

http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...0423/001-1.jpg

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(nods sadly). I am such a hopeless dick.

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Thanks Dub, I have something for the wish list; Paulo Becker
http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/e...er/p0559_1.jpg
http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/e...ReallyWant.jpg

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That is spectacular.

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I can attest that Moo is indeed a dick.

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As if anyone REALLY needs a 2nd opinion.... :rolleyes: Thanks Scott. You're a dear.

My mother is gonna hit you over the head with a rolling pin.

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My latest haul from pipesandcigars.

http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...ck0423/004.jpg

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Penzance and on of my Mario Grandi pipes modeling for the camera.

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p...c/Penzance.jpg

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Very nice Tyler, I have stayed away from Esoterica as I did not like Penzance much at all but I think I should try some of their other blends.

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yep, they hve some other very good blends. Penzance is a super heavy latakia blend. they have a nice mild va/per that smells/tastes like figs and raisins, called Dorchester.

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Penzance and Margate are two of my favorites. :)

I have heard really good things about Stonehaven. Never had it, but I believe it is a Va or VaPer.

Either way, they make some good quality tobac.

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I like heavy Latakia blend but in my opinion Penzance is carried by it's reputation. I participated in a blind review on ICC and almost everyone gave Penzance so-so to bad reviews. On the other hand I know a ton of people who love it, just never appealed to me.

I do want to try Dorchester and Stonehaven though.

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Brand: Esoterica Tobacciana
Blender: UNKNOWN
Tin Description: A marriage of air-cured leaf and Burley with selected dark Virginia. Hard pressed and aged to produce brown flakes with dark undertones. A traditional English flake favored by experienced pipe smokers.
Country of Origin: UNKNOWN

from www.tobaccoreviews.com

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Man this is cool. Am hoping to contribute soon with pics and experiences!!!
:pi

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really? i must've missed that blind review over there.
hard to not know what Penzance is once you've had it.
i don't like Latakia blends much, and that one is my favorite.

it will be interesting to see what everyone thinks of the 2 blends in the "blind taste challenge" here. ;)

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dorchester sounds tasty!

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Wow that tinned Penz looks nothing like what I get from the B&M from bulk. They open the 8oz bags to sell by the oz, and so far everything I have gotten from them has been damn near solid black in color!!

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I thought it looked very light in that foto, too. Wondered if it was the photo exposure or if Pez is starting to go blonde

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There was obviously post processing done in the photo, though it was more in line with a target of color accuracy than color manipulation.

One possible idea is that this Penzance looks lighter because of the dark tones surrounding it and the lighting setup. The black point is set to the black in the stem, so the blacks in the photo should be true.

I will look at my Penzance when I get home and the photo again on my calibrated monitor and tell you how far (if any) it is off.

-Tyler

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Looking at it on my monitor and comparing it to the real thing, it is slightly darker. It looks like in post processing I must have lightened it up a bit. I didn't have it at my desk for reference like I would have if I was shooting a product for a job or something.

Though, it is more of a dark brown than a black, at least the sample I have (which is from the tin, obviously).

-Tyler

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Here are a couple shots of flakes of penzance from my jar. Bought from the B&M in Oct '08.

Both of these are just the flakes laying on my desk with my desk lamp over the top of them. No editing of either other then to resize the pic.

1st one is with just regular indoor light flash on a 5mp sony cybershot camera. Still looks alot darker with alot less lighter streaking then the one MFM posted:
http://home.comcast.net/~fuscat/pipes/pez1.jpg

Second one, one more shot, no flash. Pretty much looks just like it does to the eye laying there on my desk. MUCH darker!
http://home.comcast.net/~fuscat/pipes/pez2.jpg

Very interesting! Perhaps that tin is fairly young? I know the B&M had the bulk bag that mine was from open for quite some time in a jar on the counter (months). And this sample I have had at my house for the last 4.

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Pic #2 looks like every tin of Pez I ever opened.

But for credit due, More'sic takes a heck of a nice photo.

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Looking at the first pic under better lighting, I would say that my Penz is pretty close to that.

The darkness in the bottom pic I would say is due to underexposure and poor lighting.

The nature of the lighting I took my pic in was more of an ambient, warm light which will increase the perceptions of browns. I some of the focus was on getting the baccy light enough to see good texture too. I also combined four or five photos to get a precise depth of field, so the in-focus parts and increased texture may make it look lighter.


Or is may just be younger. Tin was bought in Nov. and opened in Dec.

I have three more tins, so we'll see what the next one looks like. Gotta smoke through this stuff first though. :)

-Tyler

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Thanks Moo. :)

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Hope no offense was taken by my posts Tyler! You have far more superior photo skills then I, as I have none! Your photo looks awesome, I just thought it didn't really look like penzance as I have come to know it, which brought curiosity along with it..

No harm meant! :)

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None taken at all. I like trying to piece together a puzzle. And while the photo turned out pretty much as I had intended, it is nice to get feedback, particularly if it isn't an accurate representation of the baccy. :D

-Tyler

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For comparison purposes, here is the picture I posted:

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p...c/Penzance.jpg

And here an unprocessed jpeg from one of the RAW (digital negative) files the above photo was made from. This jpeg was taken one stop underexposed from what the camera read as correct exposure.

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/7614/tlm1039se4.jpg

You can see how the tone enhancements have altered the tobac color a bit. I used a WB setting of around 5000 or 5500k, so it is slightly warmer than what the camera AWB selected, somewhere around 4000k.

-Tyler

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No idea what your talking about on the camera end of things, but the untouched photo definitely matches what penz truely looks like!

:D

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My first set of pipes..Any reviews? :D

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Where are the carbs on those pipes?

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Here is a blurry shot of my entire cellar up to this point. Slippery slope indeed! I just got started with the pipe last Sept, and really didn't get hard into it till about October!!

http://home.comcast.net/~fuscat/pipe...&c/celler1.jpg

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That's a good bit of tobacco for sure.

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Only six tins of Escudo? Pah!

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I'm glad to see you finally wrestled the Foodsaver away from your wife!

Nice job Big D. By the way, just showed the picture to my wife. Now she knows I'm not out of control, compared to to others!!

WWhermit
:pi

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Great idea hermit! I could probably justify another 2-3 pounds of baccy to the wife with this picture.

:hm

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lol Glad I could help you guys out!! :D

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What beautiful pics of your guys pipes. I don't smoke a pipe but have fond memories of my dad smoking his. Have thought about giving it a go but another slop just might kill me. :D

To show just what kind of a pipe noob I am, is there NC and CC slopes to pipe smoking?

Again, thank you for the great pics and bringing back some great memories of my dad.

Al

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there are a couple cuban pipe tobaccos, but most ppl who've smoked it (and judgement i trust) say it sucked.

there are other types of tobaccos, though, and hundreds of blends in each type. so, if you fell down the "Virginia Slope", as opposed to the "Balkan Slope", then yes, there are different slopes.

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what you marking those with Big D? I need a better system, mine are all hand written on post it notes...

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Brother PTouch label printer! I have an older one that is similar to the "desktop" series. You can find more about them here: http://www.brother-usa.com/PTouch/

I love mine and I use the hell out of it for all manner of things!

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Only one slope, the hoarding slope. lol you can never have enough!
With that said there are two slopes, tobacco and pipe.

With pipe tobacco being relatively cheap compared to cigars, in my opinion anyway. You will buy multiples of tins and tobacco in bulk. Why buy 1 tin when you can buy 3 or more? Why buy 2 ounces, when they sell it by the pound?

There is also the pipe slope, which if not watched is pricey.