OK as much as I love the damn thing, I simultaneously hate the hell out of it. I just got it back from warranty service Friday. Yesterday when I went out to take pictures of my hella-cool new rearview mirror camera, I find that it’s making this horrible, juddering noise when I turn it on/off and the lens opens/retracts. Horrible noise, can’t be good.

Needless to say, this is getting old. TOO old.

I really hope that some sort of lemon law applies here. I’ll be calling Canon on Tuesday to let them know that their camera is GREAT! When it’s working. Not so much all the other times. Cuz I will keep sending it back until they get it right or get me a new one that is right.

Seriously. Don’t believe me? F*ck, I did it with a damn new truck, fools! A camera ain’t nothin’.

Tags: hate, Photography

Do yourself a big favor and just avoid the Canon SD1000 and the like. You know, as much as I enjoyed my old Canon Digital Rebel DSLR, I cannot say it’s been all fun & games with their Elph-Series Cameras. Let’s see, what’s the toll been?

First I got my Canon SD870. It had issues with it not selecting the right ISO & Shutter speeds when zoomed at or above about 70%. Sent it back.

Then I got a Canon SD1000 for myself, similar (except in color) to the one I had gotten for The Girl for her birthday. Peachy, right? I wish! No, not long after I had it, it developed a “Lens Error” that prevented it from opening. As I was contemplating sending it back a few days later, the problem seemed to self-alleviate. OK fine, I can deal with a strange anomaly, right?

Well, then The Girl’s camera did the same thing. It also self-rectified, but it did it too. So now we’re cautious about it...

Last week The Girl had to send hers in for warranty service. Because the camera had forgotten how to focus. It just wouldn’t do it unless it was zoomed in. Like, I wasn’t even a false focus, where the camera says “OK we’re good” but we’re not; no, the camera would look at the scene, then beep at us like “yeah, sorry, you know, I just can’t see it.”

Great.

Well now yesterday, mine developed another Lens Error. Except that this time, the thing’s not going IN. It’s stuck out, and it’s not even trying to budge.

Seriously, I think I’ll try to get Amazon to take it back and pick up a Panasonic or something else. Something. This has been utter bullsh!t.

So really, if you’re considering a Canon SD1000 or one of its siblings… don’t. Do yourself a huge favor, and stay away. I hear Casio makes some good pocket cameras. Didn’t they used to make watches or something? Yeah. Anyway, don’t. You’ll be sorely disappointed.

Tags: hate, Photography

So I popped in a fully-charged battery into the camera today. It opened. Not without struggling and at least an attempt or two. And the first time it opened it got ‘stuck’ closing. But now it seems to work fine. Go figure.



Uh, Maybe Not
Well actually maybe this is something we should watch. We took the dogs out to the Delta today, and whilst there, The Girl’s camera acted up. She pulled it out and turned it on and it… you guessed it: had a lens error. Hers though, rectified itself on the spot a moment later.

But still.

Tags: Animals, Photography

My luck with Canon Digital Cameras has been less than stellar recently, I would say.

Last time – not all that long ago, either – it was a Canon SD870 that saw fit to severely underexpose all images when at 80% zoom or more, regardless of actual lighting conditions (like, say, outdoors on a bright sunny day). This time it’s at least not a software problem, but a mechanical problem: the lens seems to be “stuck shut.” When I try to turn it on, the lens tries to extend out, and fails.

I say “at least” in reference to the hardware failure because that’s easier to troubleshoot; the software failure leaves the “techs” on the other end to question whether you are ‘doing it right,’ with ‘it’ ranging from “turning on the power” to “do you even know what the hell a camera is?” Yes I do, dumbass, probably better with them than you. But I digress. This makes it a simple “oh ok well the mechanism appears to be broken, please send in for warranty repair.” OK I can do that.

What’s really weird about it is that I had the camera out, took some pics, put it away and walked around for a bit, maybe a whole 2 minutes, before a chance for a ‘Miles Movie’ presented itself and I pulled it back out. I am not sure if I by chance had anything to do with its demise, as I pulled it out and hit the on button, then was holding the zoom function down as it was starting up. Could that have confused it or jammed the mechanical mechanism? I don’t think so, but maybe if two gears are fighting to go different directions when they shouldn’t be…

Anyway, a call is to be placed on Monday. Wish me luck.



Tomorrow’s Workout: A marathon affair
It’s going to be some 3 hours. Really. See I had planned to do my shoulders today and my biceps & triceps tomorrow with a day off on Sunday, but I’m so sore today from my chest & back workout yesterday, that the whole shoulder thing was not close to a possibility this evening. Clearly. I could not even feint the appearance of a full range of motion today.

One option was to move everything back a day, but that binds other things from Sunday on forward, and moving them back further means more than two days for some stuff, making my workout routine far too spaced for my liking. So the other option was to combine things that I could get away with, and just lengthen the hell out of the schedule. I opted for this as tomorrow I have nothing going on after work, save for dinner @ The Girl’s work, so even though I never ever do it, I’m going to go the marathon workout route.

I expect it will run anywhere from 2-½ hours to 3 hours long. Wish me luck.

Luckily I have the next day off, for my workouts anyway. Still gotta get up and go to work though, so it’s not like it’ll be a cakewalk of a day still. And I wanted to take the dogs out when I got home too, so we’ll see how it goes.

Peace.

Tags: Gym, Photography

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that bad, but it’s far, far from good as well. There’s supposedly 3 stories going on, but they’re not linked all that well, especially the two that are further along in the future. I mean, the movie didn’t do anything to explain within the movie that the future setting was the same guy, as an astronaut, ageless now, in the 26th century. I had to have this read to me off the cover material of the disc after the movie was over. Major movie faux pas, guys, assuming that the audience has some other source of information on your film that is not supplied within. I mean, The Matrix defines everyone in the movie. Indiana Jones defines everyone in the movie. You don’t define the story of the movie on the box, you define the story of the movie in the movie.

So you know, if you just sat down and watched the movie, it made no sense. If you read the box first, it made slightly more sense, which is to say that instead of being in a fog, you were in a heavy mist, I guess.

And who wrote the damn script? How many times can ONE character, in ONE movie, say “Stop it!” curtly? Watch this movie to find out.

Or better yet, don’t. Some questions weren’t meant to be answered.



The Camera that takes the best pictures…
Is the one you have with you. That’s what I’ve decided. I know it’s not a new saying, I know I didn’t make it up, just sort of reveling in it. I mean, my DSLR definitely took better pictures, but it took longer to get them processed, and quite honestly, I wasn’t taking the damn thing with me. I was hoping that if I got the right equipment, a good backpack to carry it around in, that I’d make use of it. But as The Girl was going around with me with her camera, and we’d be out together, she was taking a lot more photos that I was when I DID have my camera on me, simply because I didn’t want to be bothered taking it out and subsequently putting it back.

So even though my new Canon SD1000 takes lesser-quality pics than my trusty old DSLR, I get a lot more usable pictures out of it. Because it can go with me everywhere.

Except out to where I’m eating right now. Because I forgot to bring it.

Tsk, tsk, I know.

Peace.

Tags: Photography

Today I took my new lil’ Canon Camera out for it’s inaugural trip to the Delta. While there, I ran into an issue that I wasn’t sure was really an issue, or was something that I was doing wrong or thinking about incorrectly. But I felt it was an issue. I believed there to be an issue. I thought there was probably an issue at issue.

The issue? As I closed in on the limits of the zoom, the camera would – for some odd reason – underexpose the image mercilessly. If I backed off a smidgeon, then suddenly the image was bright and shiny. This didn’t strike me as intended behavior, and the more I thought about it the more frustrated I became, because it’s not like it couldn’t change the settings to acquire the necessary light sensitivity for the scene. We’re outdoors. In the middle of the day. It’s not like there’s a shortage of light, so what gives? It’s just not setting the aperture & shutter speeds correctly.

In my estimation, there’s something wrong with the “brains” of the machine. At full-zoom, it’s not calculating the exposure settings correctly, and it “thinks” that this too-dark scene it’s creating is proper. I called tech support over the issue, but they were very unhelpful and thought that maybe the camera itself was a lemon. Perhaps, but it’s not like it doesn’t take decent pictures otherwise, so that tells me that the parts are working correctly, but the fact that under this once circumstance (outside, close to full zoom), the “brains” aren’t computing correctly. This, then, is an SD870 issue, not a “random bob's SD870” issue. The brains in mine are the same brains in every other SD870. So I rule the lemon excuse is just that: an excuse.

So? Well the issue has already been solved as I write this. I contacted amazon.com – where I purchased it – and set up a return/refund for the defective camera. And I also went ahead and ordered a copy of The Girl’s camera but in silver (we’ll be switching as I like the black highlights of hers – I’m bigger, so I win). Overnighted it.

No, again I’m not that impatient. But with that free amazon prime membership still in effect, it cost me a whopping $4. Wow. Yeah I’ll take that overnighted, please. Thanks.



Why not go bigger?
Someone had posed the question of why I don’t go up the line a little bit here as I was sort of underwhelmed by the additional features of the SD870. Obviously I did the exact opposite and went down the line instead. Why?

Because price-wise, the SD870 was where I drew the line in the sand. Any more than that, to acquire any more features, and suddenly it becomes “so why did I sell my DSLR again?” I want good-enough photos with the least hassle. I wasn’t getting much more out of the SD870 than I could have gotten out of The Girl’s SD1000, so it just made sense to save the ~$140 and have a camera that I could take about the same pictures with anyway. Yeah, it’s not “Wide-Angle,” nor is it “Image-Stabilized,” but I can overcome those obstacles. And save ~$140 in the process.



Works out for the best, really
This was about the best way it could all go down, actually. Had the camera not failed miserably, I of course would have kept it. But the pictures I would have gotten with it would not have been that much better – if any – than the pictures The Girl gets out of hers. So yeah, it’s got some niceties, but worthy of an extra $150? Probably not.

This way, though, I have gotten to experience what that $150 was supposed to give me. And I am now able to say, with no hesitation, that it’s just not worth it. No second-guessing, I know for sure. The SD1000, while lacking in the IS department, is about the same camera as its overpriced brethren, but without the marketing talk surrounding it. Clearly a dark-horse.

I think I may like Dark Horses or something. Seems to be a trend for me.



Technical Jargon
For those that found this entry via a google search & understand camera-speak, here’s the deal for you -

It’s rated as a film 35mm equivalent of 28mm-105mm lens. If you frame a scene outdoors, zoomed to about 80mm, when you frame and set, the camera will set the aperture & shutter properly to create a decent, well-rounded exposure. However, once you zoom in on the scene to some value beyond this, say 90mm or more, even though hardly a thing has changed, when you press the button, the camera will do it’s thinking, and come up with a picture that is severely underexposed. This only seems to be an issue with under-exposure under these circumstances: Full-zoom or near those limits, on an outdoor scene. If you’re indoors, it will create a proper exposure. But the outdoor scenes, where you’d expect that if anything it’d be overexposed, rather the camera’s innards seem to be almost overcompensating for the excess light, and simply going too far with its algorithms, creating a severely underexposed frame. I cannot comment on whether it affects just the IS models, just the SD870, or anything else, only that compared to the SD1000 we already own, it’s just not up to snuff in these circumstances. I’m going with what I know, I guess, and getting an additional SD1000. Something’s up with the SD870, it’s bad, not good at all, and I don’t feel like being Canon’s guinea pig in figuring this out.

Anyway,

Peace.

Tags: Photography

So with a Friday off (yeah unbelievable, huh?) we took the morning hours as a chance to visit the beach. Now typically we do this often, but I had not seen the beach for some 5-6 weeks, so that’s where we decided to go, since I’ve been to the Delta so many times in that stretch as well.

It was also my first chance to try and make use of my new Point-and-shoot camera, after giving up the DSLR gig. Verdict?

I’m certainly going to miss the DSLR. Don’t get me wrong, the new camera is nice. It’s very nice, I got quite a few decent pics, but yeah that last 5% or so is lacking, I can see that. Of course I knew that would be the case, so it’s no surprise, but there were some shots that I was like “if only I had a lens…” And yeah, if only. BUT, if I had the SLR with that huge honkin’ lens, chances are that I wouldn’t have gotten any shots, as I wouldn’t have brought it. Seriously. That was one of the issues for me, was that yeah it takes pictures that are, on a scale of 1-10, an 8 or 9 as opposed to the 7-8 I’m going to be shooting with the P&S, but now? Now I’ll have bunches of 7-8 shots, where before – since I wasn’t taking the dang camera with me – I was only getting a handful of 8-9 shots, and for that chance extra point shot here and there was doing tons more work.

Tags: women, Animals, Photography

Which turned out ot be alright, as that gave me time to figure out some of the features of the camera by Reading the f*ckin' Manual, what they were and how to get to them. And with camera in-hand, able to compare to The Girl’s feature-to-feature, and get an idea of what I’m paying for, really. First on the list for me?

IS. That’s Image Stabilization, if you didn’t know. My camera has a feature built-in that works to steady hand shake by spinning the optics and bending the light slightly, making pictures come out in better focus. Nice. This is a good feature, and compared to hers, taking the same picture, while hers will show the shaky image icon, mine won’t. This is good. This is worthwhile. Next on the list?

Auto-ISO Shift. This feature allows you to keep the ISO – that’s the equivalent of the film’s light sensitivity – as low as possible, and the camera will still be able to “shift” that to a higher ISO if and only if it deems it necessary to combat a too-slow shutter speed that might result in blurry images. It’s a nice feature, but honestly hers has it to an extent as well. With The Girl’s, it doesn’t automatically shift it, it warns you and then you can press a button to switch between the two modes – regular and ISO-shifted – as you see fit for the situation. Mine can do that do, but it can also be selected to just do it without having to press a button. Nice, because trying to hold the shutter button halfway down whilst reaching for another button can be a real challenge, one that results in failure often. Not so nice, because now even if you wanted to keep the ISO low for a no-noise photo, the camera’s going to basically decide that that’s not a good idea. I’m torn on this one. I mean, yeah I have the option to work it like hers anyhow, but her buttons are easier to press if I was interested, and I’m not sure that I really want to use it in auto mode, you know? This one’s debatable. Next on the list?

Wide-Angle Lens. I can get more into the picture frame from the same distance. This is sweet, right? Yes, it can be, but just how much extra goes into the frame? Well it depends on the distance of your subjects, but if it’s a crowd of people at about 10 feet, let’s say an extra two peeps on each side. Nice, but the drawback is that it cuts into the next feature’s usefulness…

Almost a full 1-point better zoom. Yes, it zooms in further than The Girl’s, but since it is starting from wider anyhow, it’s not quite all it is advertised as. Still though, it’s a wider range overall, and that’s a good thing. Next on the list?

8 Megapixels. Yeah, hers is a lowly 7.1 Megapixels, so mine’s a clear choice here. Well kinda. Honestly, both still capture more pixels than my old DSLR used to, which is sorta a sad statement, and really shows how long I held onto that thing.

But the price of admission is a good $100 more. Is it worth it? I’m not sure yet. And that could be a problem. I mean, if I am going to return it, sooner is better. But it’ll take time to really get an idea of whether I’d want to pay that price of admission for the collection of niceties that it provides me. What do you think? Honestly, I’m leaning towards keeping it since I already have it, and it is better in the ways decribed. I mean, it’s not like there’s anything missing. Save for the extra $100 in my wallet, right?

Peace.

Tags: Photography

So in all the talk recently about getting out of photography as an art and getting into it more as a sharing tool, somehting was lost. Namely, action. Well no more.

Yesterday culminated a swift 24-hour turnaround from needing to sell my current equipment to purchasing new equipment. I listed my stuff on craigslist – you may have heard of it – and had a deal made within about 8 hours. A short 13 hours later, and I had cash in hand from the sale, and was sitting at my computer, shopping amazon.com, and placing an order for my new equipment. Which is now on its way here, two-day express.

Action, folks, that’s what I’m talkin’ about.

No I’m not that impatient

No, I would not actually pay for two-day express shipping; I’m not that desperate for the little guy that I couldn’t just wait the extra 3 days and not pay a dime for shipping.
But I did get it two-day express. They offered me a trial membership into Amazon Prime, which gives you access to free two-day shipping on a hell of a lot of what amazon sells.

It’s a 30-day free trial. To me, that means in 28 days, I log on and turn it off. No problem. So free two-day shipping on two items is really all it amounts to. Oh yeah, I also picked up a memory card for my new camera as well, forgot to mention that, but that’s where the second item comes into play.

Did you hear? Hell froze over

Yes it’s true, apparently, the Patriots – the team with the perfect season in the making – couldn’t find a way to rub Eli Manning’s face in the dirt.

How the hell do you go and score a lossless season & playoffs, then manage to lose the single biggest game of them all? Like, aren’t you prepared for what’s about to happen? Seriously? C’mon, you got to be joking.

I’m lost when it comes to football anymore. My team has sucked royally for the last 10 years, something that I wasn’t prepared for growing up in their glory days, and now I can’t seem to root for anything worthwhile. I’m not like most Americans who want to “root for the underdog – if you suck why the hell do I want you to win? No, I want to see beautiful football played to perfection, especially on offense, and that’s why I had wanted Indy to win big at the beginning of this decade, and why I wanted to see the Pats pull it off this year if Indy wasn’t going to… As I have been heard saying, it’s not that I like the Patriots necessarily, but how many times do you think we’ll be this close to seeing a team pull off the perfect season, especially in such fashion as they have? The last team to do it was the 1972 Dolphins. It’s been 36 years. It might be 36 more, too. I just wanted to be here for history, I guess.

Netflix: Tomorrow we watch Sunshine

I’m hoping it’s a decent movie, because otherwise it’s sort of a week wasted, huh? I coulda been waiting for other movies. But the horizon’s looking good. The Brave one comes out soon – maybe even today? – and I’m also waiting on Planet Earth, the BD set that is based off the acclaimed HD TV show, showcasing some of the planet’s rarer and more beautiful locales. Should be stunning.

In Related News

I am seriously considering a new, large (read: LARGE) television set. Think 65+ inches. 1080p of course, LCD preferred (though I hear they’re heavier, but they’re so bright and beautiful!). Why? Because I’m also considering not ever getting cable, and just renting/buying the few programs I feel are worth watching. And I might as well enjoy them in full HD, right? So Netflix, and possibly Apple TV in the future (once they get their formats up-to-date) and a TV to rule them all, and I think I’m set.

And since I won’t be getting expensive camera equipment, I could probably swing it. Yeah, it’ll be amazing. You’re invited on movie nights, how’s that?

Peace.

Tags: Photography

Right now, tops on my list of P&S cameras to get is the Canon SD870 IS. I was debating whether to go with this or to cheap out a lil’ and get a camera more like The Girl’s. What to do, what to do….

I got it! I’ll get that camera, then she can get it too. Here, let me explain.

I got her the camera I got her because it was going to be her first digital camera. It’s a really great camera, but for me, coming from what I am coming from, I really would like to have as much control/featureset as possible, to make the transition easy and enjoyable. I think I’m really going to enjoy (yeah, that’s right, enjoy) the move to a P&S camera, but I don’t want to go too far down the spectrum and just be frustrated, either.

Now here’s the hairy part. If I have a camera that’s similar to hers only better, then of course she’s going to be upset with me. She says she won’t, but let’s be frank here: it’ll look like I shafted her on her gift, but felt perfectly OK splurging on me. And it’s not like that, I swear. Which is why I’m totally prepared to get her a matching one as well. But to make sure it’s a good fit, I’ll be the first to have it, this way we can compare & contrast, then make informed decisions.

Plus, you’re totally welcome to buy it for me.



About AAA….
Yesterday I mentioned how great AAA can be, but threw in a last-minute curveball about my experience. Something that ended like “more on that another day.” Today’s another day, so how’s this?

OK so what happened was as we left, I got stuck about 4ft off the side of the paved road. Looks flat, looks fun, but in reality it was a trap. Well crap now that I was stuck it was time to get started figuring a way out of this mess I’d gotten myself and my two dogs into.

So of course you reach for your wallet, right? Grab that AAA card? Yes of course! Well, except if you make the conscious decision to leave your wallet at home so as to lessen the chance of having it a) lost somewhere in the wilderness, or b) stolen from your vehicle as you’re too far away to keep tabs on it. This wasn’t a one-day decision, I never take my wallet with me when I take the dogs out.

And for reasons unbeknownst to me, I left my AAA info in my wallet, not in my car. So I grabbed the cell phone – which luckily I didn’t forget to bring – and called…. 411. Because I also didn’t have the # to AAA’s roadside assistance hotline that’s printed on the back of the AAA card. Getting their local office yields me a recording of their hours, but luckily (as I had counted on) they had a link to the roadside assistance hotline. I pressed 5. I waited on hold. Eventually I got ahold of someone and explained that I was a member, however I did not have my ID or anything on me, etc, was there any way they could otherwise look me up?

Now thus far all of this has been my fault, and I haven’t even spoken to anyone that doesn’t bark in the night. So let’s end that streak. First thing I hear is a hesitation, followed by “I’ll have to see what my supervisor says,” followed by “Can I have your membership #?” Yeah see, about that…. You may recall about 5 seconds ago I mentioned I don’t have my wallet, ID, card, checks, cash, or shirt & shoes with me. Great. Well I’m on hold again, and eventually they come back and they try to look me up by name. If you don’t know my last name, let’s just say it’s complicated, and if you do, you’re probably laughing already. So I spell it for this older lady, and she gets it wrong. I say “no no, it’s a T, as in Tom,” and she says “P, OK got it,” to which I reply “No No No, it’s a T, as in Tom” to which she replies that she’s got it now.

Time goes by. They can’t find me. They look me up in Southern and Northern Systems, no luck. So I politely inquire if she’s got the name spelled right. Of course she does, of course she does, I hear. But hey, just for kicks, how about you spell it to me?

WHAT THE LIVING F*CK ARE YOU DOING WITH A P IN THERE INSTEAD OF A T?

No I didn’t say that but boy did the thought cross my tonsils before I bit my lip. Well after finally getting the name correct, we find me in the system – in So Cal, not Nor Cal, where it should be – and they decide they’ll help me get towed a whole 4 feet to dry, solid pavement. Now it’s just a matter of getting my location…

Where am I? At the end of a dead-end road that has no name, about a mile off the freeway off an exit that I don’t know the name (I only follow the brown Park signs), in the middle of nowhere. Oh yeah, this is a great exercise. Well she’s got the internet (I hear it’s a wonderful thing), and she says she’s been trying to use google maps all day without success. She says it has been quitting on her all day, must be the weather (no, it’s your computer, c’mon!). She keeps telling me she can’t look it up, is there any way I can remember the name of the street that doesn’t have a sign, meanwhile I’m hearing the tick-tock of minutes fly by on my pay-as-you-go mobile phone that’s running low on minutes as it is, begging her to just open up the damn map program and type in the name of the wildlife reserve.

Finally she tries again and wouldn’t you know it works. She finds my location and the street names (Pound street? Really?), and I think in another minute or two that I’ll be rescued, right? Oh no, she’s not done with this fancy internet thing yet. She wants to see if she can find the address for the reserve, the one that’s at the end of a dead-end street anyway, and could easily be described as “at the end of the dead-end.” Well this fails miserably as I told her it probably would (“please don’t do that, there’s two different reserves with the same name 15 miles apart”), and she’s no longer looking at the right screen with the street names.

Well time ticks on, and I eventually get her to just call it in as “The end of the dead-end street.” She gives me the reference # – which I don’t think will matter as I’m probably out of minutes now anyway but whatever – and tells me it’ll be 45 minutes. This after almost 40 minutes on the phone with her.

And with that the story’s almost complete. Except that I have to mention that when the tow truck guy got there, he was surprised that I didn’t have any ID, a AAA card, or anything else other than tattoos to identify me. You know, you’d have thunk that with everything considered in this particular case, that might be important info to give to the guy coming to pull me out. Seeing as how they typically need that stuff when they get there, you know? Apparently not.



Odd Timing award of the night
Speaking of how I feared my minutes would run out mid-rescue-conversation, about 2 minutes after I got off the phone with my lovely AAA roadside assistance agent, I get a call from Virgin Mobile that it’s time to “top up” my phone’s minutes.

Guess they watch that stuff like hawks, eh?

Peace.

Tags: earth conditions, hate, Photography

So yesterday I was blogging about how I want to take up some/a new hobby, right? I also mentioned something about how my fight with staying where I am with Digital Photography or moving forward was based in this idea, right?

Well enter yesterday. The decision was made for me by another blogger, who linked me to this guy’s page on the web. Go. Go ahead, take a look at his galleries; I’ll be here when you get back.

You’re back? Good, now we can continue. OK so maybe you know where I’m headed, maybe not, so I’ll just spell it out: There’s no way in hell that I have the kind of talent that this guy does. I’m good, but I’m not that good. And honestly, seeing as how I’m not that good, does it really make sense to keep spending money on it? I mean, let me break it down:

I can take pictures that are 90-95% the quality that I currently take with a $200 Point-and-Shoot Canon Elph. My kind of setup would currently cost (using the same level of goods, not the actual goods – “entry-level = entry-level”) somewhere around $1,000. So for $800 more than what The Girl has, I have gotten like ~10% improvement in my images. So from where I’m at, I could conceivably spend some $5,000-$8,000 more to have the equipment “Mr. Hot-Shot photographer” has, and maybe see another 5% improvement in my shots (I almost typed sh!ts, which ironically wouldn’t have been far off the mark considering), but still be a world away from where this guy is.

So then I have to ask myself: Why the hell should I spend $8,000 more to achieve results that are incremental baby-steps from what I could take with a P&S anyway?

The answer of course is that I shouldn’t. And honestly, I don’t I’m not going to. I’m going to sell my equipment, and the funds from that will pay for my new Canon Elph. Simple.



No more galleries?
Actually I expect that it’ll result in more galleries, as most my galleries anymore are of “me” things, not artistic things. This type of camera that I plan to have will allow me to have those types of moments caught quite a bit faster and put up on the web quite a bit faster. So yeah, maybe more pictures actually.

So I guess depending on what side of it you’re on, that’s either good news, or bad, bad news. See you on the other side.



Entertaining read
If you have a sick sense of humor, you may find this blog funny. I did.

Peace.

Tags: Photography

I tinkered with digital photography beginning in 2001. I got my hands on a decent camera and started to explore. I liked it, but I wanted to perfect it; I wanted to make the pictures what I saw in my mind. I’m a perfectionist, I admit it, OK?

Well a few years go by, and next thing I know I have purchased a DSLR, and I’m a step away from professional quality equipment, teaching myself to take photos that I see in my mind. And I actually do this for the better part of 5 years. Yay me! It’s been fun for that time, but truth be told, if I pour over my portfolio, certain things stand out to me.

Namely, “I’ve seen that flower before…” Yes indeed, I took a picture of that same photo last year. And probably the year before that. You see, I think what’s happened is I’ve hit that point where it’s like “I’ve taken that picture already.” And some that don’t read this might think “Well take different pictures,” and while that would alleviate the issue, I don’t want to take different pictures. I wanted to take the pictures I took. That’s my style. That’s what I find beauty in.

But now, my photography has become that old guy that tells you the same story about when he was a boy your age… Yeah. It gets old. We’ve heard it. We’ve seen it.



What I’ll probably be doing
Something similar to what The Girl is doing right now. Namely, carry around a point & shoot, and shoot the moment simply to share it. I’ll go to photography as a storytelling medium now. Sure there’ll be some beauty in some of the shots, but mostly it’ll give a sense of feeling to where I’m at and what I’m doing. Because honestly, it’s not as though I’m printing up posters or anything; I’m posting them on the web for friends and family – like you – to not look at on the web!



Came to this decision fast, did you?
Yes & no. I have contemplated it, but today was sort of the last example I needed to experience. We both took our cameras out on the same walk, but I didn’t see much worth pulling out my camera for, because I had shot that already, and the thing’s just big and a pain to carry around and pull out for that one shot that I already got.

She, however, got some decent ones today. Because her camera is small enough to be there at the ready when she sees something and wants to try it out on film (er, digital media card). I can’t do that. It’s too bothersome to pull out the biggie, get the right lens on, get all the settings good, then shoot and hope that all the conditions were right to get a shot that may look good.

Basically, if I want to continue on the path I have started and be happy with my output, I’d need to dive deep into it, with better camera, lenses, bags to carry them around in (and make them more accessible), and I’d need to do this all at once. Because getting the bag to make my equipment more accessible won’t cut it; my equipment won’t take the shot quite right anyway. But having just the right camera & lens? Well if they’re not readily available, then I won’t even be able to get it out in time to take the shot.

By the time all is said & done, I’d have to shell out thousands upon thousands of $$ just to take photos that are so good, no one will ever look at them.

Or I could get a nice point & shoot like The Girl’s for a couple hundred $$, and take pictures that aren’t quite as good, and no one will still look at them.

Yeah, seems much cheaper & easier to go with the latter. Sold.


Peace.

Tags: women, Photography

This very day, the MacBook arrives. Lo-and-behold, I think Mikey likes it. Except that I’m playing the part of Mikey. But I really do like it. And wouldn’t you know, it actually runs the photo editing program I use rather well! I loaded a trail copy and put it through the paces – I think it’ll be able to handle the demands of Aperture just fine…

No, it’s not quite super-fast or anything, it’s not redefining what photo editing is, but it’s still about instantaneous on almost every adjustment. So with it’s capabilities known, it really makes justifying a new MacBook Pro very very difficult. Because, for the extra $1,700, what would I be getting? A better video card, backlit keys, and a larger screen. All nice things mind you, but almost two-grand–worth? Yeah see, I’m not seeing that. At that price, I could seriously just get a 20’ iMac to do in-depth photo editing on a larger screen if I just can’t make it through on the MacBook. And it'd be larger & faster then anyways.

And this is only an issue because Aperture is supposedly very intensive on the graphics card, making the MBP a more logical choice on paper. But like I said, it seemed to do just fine overall on the MacBook, real-world case and all.

Yes, the internal debate begins once again. Though this time, I’m not trying to justify the bigger, badder version, I’m trying to write off its few remaining selling points. Damn, I think I’ll just order the new little beast now, that way there’s nothing to debate anymore.



Downside to the Newly-Lusted Machine
The screen IS smaller. Photo editing is more cramped. But pixel density isn’t all that much different actually, so while I see almost the same amount of stuff, it’s a good ratio smaller. But it keeps me from hunting with my eyes, which I guess is good. Yeah, after playing with The Girl’s new MacBook while she was at work, then getting back on my behemoth 17” PowerBook, it just felt too large.

Never thought I’d say that. But there you go.



Freakin’ Gadgets! They got Her Too! NNNOOOOOO!!!!
The Girl got all her Birthday presents yesterday. ALL of them. So in the span of about 2 hours, she got a new CD (not really a gadget, but it arrived in the same box as…), a new Canon ELPH, and the aforementioned new Laptop. As I was perusing the web yesterday before they all arrived, she’s on the old computer looking up videos on Apple’s site about how to use the new iPhoto. And now, after a couple years of watching me do what I do with camera & computer, and thinking me weird, she finally gets it. She’s telling me about all these cool things that she can do in iPhoto, like tagging pictures and creating events, and it hits her: She’s heard all of this before.

And I have to tell her, Yep, it’s official; you’re a gadget freak now, my dear. Welcome. For there is no turning back, only smaller gadgets to behold. And hold. And hold…



Leopard First Impressions
Now I haven’t been playing with the new kitty too long now, but so far so good for the most part. It feels nice and fast. I like how the new Finder connects to other computers & devices, for one. But with only one computer to test it out on, I’m not able to try some of the nicer things about Leopard I was looking forward to, such as screen sharing. Oh well, with time, my new laptop should be here any day now…. ☺

But there’s other things that I just don’t think I’ll make use of, really. Spaces, for one. I mean, yeah I get it, but to me their “Exposé feature sort of makes Spaces just more a nuisance than anything. Now I have to hunt down a new SPACE when I switch programs? Let’s see, where did I put that window…. Space 1? Space 12? Damn.

I’ve seen people talk about keeping programs with great full-screen support in their own space, but it just doesn’t make sense to me. It’ll be full-screen when you’re using it, so does it matter whether there’s nothing or something behind it? It’s all the same to you at that point, right? So just use the one Space, that way when you go away from that program, all your stuff is still right there, and you don’t have to hunt spaces to find it.

Eh, to each his own I guess. After all, I’m the one who wants the 30”, pocket-capable supercomputer. Can’t complain too much. Maybe just a lil’.



In Otherwise Unrelated News…
A family-member-of-sorts of mine just got onto city council! Yay! Good news, since I heard through the grape vine that some candidates were running a smear campaign against him.

See, he has a retarded daughter. She’s a ward of the state & lives in a home. Someone found this out and used it in some pamphlets to basically state that he “dumped” his daughter, and if he can’t raise his poor little girl, how is he qualified to help lead this little po’-dunk town full of drunkards and morons?

Wow. Politics. Just, wow. Damn, and he takes really good care of her, too. Brings her home all the time to visit, takes her places… I guess it sounds good on paper, but the reality is – having met her – she’s not the type of retard you leave around the house unattended. This ain’t Life Goes On. This is full-fledged, crap my daughter’s only 2 years old mentally, 30 years later, and oh crap, now she’s having another seizure. Crap. But somehow him doing the best that can be done for her was spun into some schtick about his abhorrent parenting abilities. Wow, Just… wow.

Guess I’ll never be getting into politics! Too many people to kill to cover up my past. And hey, I’m not that kind of Italian. Or at least that’s what I tell the authorities… ☺

Peace.

Tags: Photography

So today’s the big day. Yeppers, today’s the day I pulled the trigger, and jumped on the Leopard bandwagon. And got a new computer, all in one shot.

Got up late this morning, made some warm chocolate, browsed the Mac-related websites I’m prone to browsing, and lo-and-behold, I find that Apple updated their MacBook and MacBook Pro lineup. What’s THIS, I thought to myself… I don’t even need to wait until next year to get the latest & greatest! Apple must read my blog!

Sadly, ‘tis not the case entirely, as the MacBook Pros, the lineup I’ll probably be getting, will actually cost more, as the changes I’ve been waiting for are an additional cost above and beyond the normal retail price. Nah, I’ll just wait until they put those changes in at the old prices, thanks, and add other features I’m waiting on (like LED backlights on the 17” model).

So then how did I manage to pull the trigger? Well, The Girl’s computer is in dire need of updating. Especially since her B-day is fast approaching and one of the gifts she begged and pleaded for (that’s not all she did, btw) was a new Canon Elph camera. They take pretty big pictures (a whopping 7.1 Megapixels), and she also needed the added headroom of a larger HDD. So two birds with one stone later, she’s got a new MacBook on the way, and I have a testbed to try out the performance of that lineup.

Because the thought is, if I could do the MacBook for most of my needs, then we could get a decent Desktop machine and come out cheaper than getting the MBP 17” model that I want/need. Yes, it would be cheaper to buy a nice Top-of-the-Line iMac & the MacBook than it would be to buy the Top-of-the-Line MacBook Pro. And the desktop would still be faster than the MacBook Pro. Which is a real conundrum, because I’m sure the next MacBook Pro update will make it faster than the iMac, so there you go.

But see, I hate going down this route, because I already know that I’d do most everything on the laptop to begin with, but then I’d be irritated at the small screen. But then I would be irritated at having to sit at a desk to do some of the simpler things I use the computer for (see blog). Sigh. Why is perfection so unattainable? All I want is a 30” laptop that folds up into my pocket and is faster than a super-computer, and lasts 3 weeks on one battery charge while only costing around $1K; Is that so hard to make?



Can I have your old iBook?
No, you may not. Depending on what I decide to do for myself in the computing sphere, the possibilities are endless. I may make it a rudimentary file server for our lil’ household, or maybe like a wireless backup drive, by hooking up a large external storage device to it.

If not, like for instance we go and get an iMac and that becomes a moot issue, then we could always sell it on the ebay to recoup a good $400-$500 of the cost of the new one. Because “doing well financially” does not equal “money? Who needs money?” We could definitely use money.

So um, for christmas? How bouts sending a check this direction, huh?

Peace.

Tags: Apple, Photography

The cat’s out of the bag, and the verdict’s in: No one has a clue as to why a company called Apple keeps pumping out releases named after Large Felines. We’d think that logically, there’d be a Granny Smith, a Washington, etc. Nothin’. All cats...

I haven’t made the jump yet to the new OS, but I’m going to. Eventually. When I get that new computer I keep talking about. And talking about. And talking about. Eventually I’ll get one. Soon enough. The next time they upgrade the lineup. For real this time. No, I mean it.

No but really I do. We’re doing well-enough financially that I think we’re going to go credit-happy and splurge on some things we want. We’ll both get new computers, selling my current one and doing something else with hers (not spoiling the surprise, sorry). I plan on also getting some new camera equip, which will run me probably about $3k by the time I’m done, which now that I think about it ain’t all that bad! I’ll have two top-tier lenses, a decent body, and a nice bag to carry it all around it.



A Different Bag?
Yeah, I changed my mind about which bag(s) I want in my arsenal. I wanted to find an all-in-one solution. This solution had to be able to fit my camera with the longer of the lenses attached (as that’s what I shoot with most frequently), my 17” Laptop, and have a space for the hiking day’s essentials, namely jug of water for the dogs, a small bowl (again for the dogs), and maybe a light jacket or something.

Doesn’t exist. I can’t find it. I knew I’d be paying for a bag of this caliber, but I figured if it could do all I asked, I could use it as my hiking bag as well as my all-around bag, but the damned thing just doesn’t exist. Plus, I figured that more than likely, I’ll not want to have my Laptop with me when on a hike. Because, I fall, computer go boom, not only am I out a laptop, I’m out all the info on it. Boom.

Yeah I know I should back up more often, but even with the aforementioned release of Leopard and it’s now-famous Time Machine, if you read between the lines you know that right now it’s been crippled from its initial scope. Booh! Hey I try to get around to it, it’s just a pain. I know I know, I should just step up, but hey… I’m lazy.



This just in: Baseball sucks
The World Series of Baseball (which, with the exception of a couple Canadian towns, is entirely a US affair. Strange…) just finished. I noticed only because I was out to dinner at a restaurant that had it going on the TV. And. They. Wouldn’t. Turn. It. Off. So I had to suffer through endless replays of a double play. Endless. Endless, I tell you.

Look, I’ll play baseball, just ask me. Hell, I’ll play badminton. I’ll play Barbie if there’re rules and competition. But watching it? Yawn. Why does a game that contains 15 minutes of action require a 3-hour time slot?

And before anyone tries to even form a thought about football and replays, yes there’s replays in football, but only the exceptional plays get it, and only once, maybe twice if it’s an issue of questioned call (was he out in bounds? Both feet?) Baseball just beats every play to death like 4 or 5 times, because there’s just too much dead space to fill up. And it is for this reason that I cannot watch baseball if I have an option otherwise. There’s not enough action, and too much crotch-grabbing. And coming from me, that’s saying something. Cuz I’m a crotch-grabber, is what I’m sayin’.



Having said that…
Congrats to the Boston Red Sox. Now all of you! Go play a real sport!

Peace.

Tags: hate, Apple, Photography

Watched this flick over the last week. It wasn’t too bad, actually. Had a few laugh-out-loud moments, though it balanced with a number of lulls that almost put me to sleep. I grew curious about it when I was checking my list of “movies to see,” (yes I keep one of those), and lo-and-behold, it’s the one of the highest rated flicks thus far this year on rottentomatoes.

My only real complaint about the film was that they make the main guy a little too much of a dufus. I mean there just wasn’t much time left near the end to make him a respectable guy, yet damn if they didn’t try. And to me that was a real travesty to the whole rest of the film. You root for them, but you feel that unless he changes, it may very well be best for their split. Then suddenly presto chango, he’s different and has corrected the few things he really needed to (job, drugs).

But you didn’t really see it. Which makes it very, very fake. And the most horrible thing about it was, if you watch the deleted scenes, they actually shot the scenes that the audience needed to see, they just didn’t show them.

Which I guess makes perfect sense. For Hollywood. And all things considered, even the fact that it is a Hollywood flick, I give it a B-. It’s a decent waste of expendable time is what I’m sayin’…



Movie on Thursday?
Yeah. The Girl has been sick since Wednesday, and was pretty bad. She’s all but over it at this point, just trying to get her stamina back, but there for a while I was checking out all the babes to see what my options would be in replacing her. Turns out that I’m not that wanted, as the best I could muster was a dead fish, and even that was arranged. So thankfully she’s recovered, otherwise I’d be gettin’ none.



My new toy(s) of desire
OK, so I think I’ve decided to stay on the DSLR bandwagon. As I discussed with others (and possibly YOU), I got into the DSLR craze not because I imagined being famous soon, but because my desire to create had outgrown the lesser equipment’s offerings. The real reason I began to question my hobbyist commitment was that the creation was becoming to be a burden. Before – in So Cal – I kept my camera in the ‘runner, and it came out when the opportunity called, which was few & far between. Now though, the opportunities to shoot something awe-inspiring crop up almost daily. Between that & my desire to carry my Laptop with me more often, it proved to be quite a chore if not impossible to accomplish. At least that is, with the current state of bags in my arsenal.

So I found some bags that will suit my needs. First up, a backpack that is rugged, fully loaded with harnesses to take me into the wilderness, yet fit my camera with telephoto lens attached as well as my 17” Laptop.

Most of the time that’s probably what I’ll be carrying with me, even around town, but there are moments when I don’t want to have the laptop with me & just have the camera in a smaller case. While this won’t be all the time or for too long – think ‘beach trips’ and sand – I found a bag for those occasions as well.

And of course, if I’m going to be going around with these fancy bags, I guess I’ll need some fancier equipment to fill it up, huh?

First up? New lenses for the camera. The ones I want, though few, are kinda pricey. But this is one of those “you get what you pay for” things, this I al