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Scraping Through

★ posted on 30 Sep 2007 at 1:16 am under Life in General ★

Just managed to scrape through this week with odd things happening.

The last few days of the week wasn’t too fantastic but somehow I managed to scrape through.

Managed to crack my chopping board in two. The original construction of it wasn’t too fantastic to begin with, as it was like layered wood just stuck together. Due to the limited space of my kitchen, I put the board on an angle and managed to crack it in half while trying to smash garlic to remove the skin. Well, it wasn’t very bright on my part either.

Then I had no internet for a couple of days and this was bad. Heh, my net usage is from the wireless next door as per my land lady as she owns the entire floor. So if the wireless modem next door times out and if the neighbours don’t reset it, I will have nothing to use. Took the time off to watch some television shows. Now that I’m in the US, I have a better feel on how tv series work, what time they air and when the seasons start and end. Caught Heroes on Monday and Grey’s Anatomy on Thursday. Heh, something to look forward to each week now.

There was another issue with my bank account that got me fuming on Friday, but it’s part of bureaucracy, so I shall just deal with it as I have to.

* * *

The only highlights to the entire week were my colleague returning back on his trip to Manila. Heh, my office is colourful with different experiences from the various background. I am as usual, very interesting amongst most people, but others will provide a good laugh when needed with their comments and opinions. It is a lighter side to look at things and I’m glad for it.

The other highlight of the week was last night when I went with colleagues to watch some kickboxing matches. The event was called Mayhem X (where X is the Roman numeral for 10). Heh, there were plenty of people and while the tickets costed me $100, there was a DVD of the previous matches and it was 2nd row from the ring, so I wouldn’t complain too much about the price.

Arrived at sort of a ballroom, with a ring in the centre, and plenty of different lights casting their beam on the ring. On this night, there were about 10 matches, between different weight groups, number of rounds, time for each round etc.

I’ve never watched any boxing/kickboxing match before in a live place. Heh, in the US I guess I got to do more. Went to a baseball match with front row seats, ate at one of the most fanciest restaurants (Per Se), visited my boss’s lakehouse and now a kickboxing match.

I like live sports events, and while this does not match up to the atmosphere of 40,000 fans at the Telstra Dome cheering on Melbourne Victory against a team from another state, you could hear people throwing their support in, urging their fighter onwards aganst the opponent. The matches were fast and furious, and one could just spot it in the split second it takes to avoid a punch. There a few knockouts, with an outstanding one happening within a minute of the first round, where if you get hit and fall to the ground dazed, the referee rules it as a knock out.

Heh, there’s not much more you can ask from a match. There was excitement, music, shouting, sweat and blood. Even to the untrained eye, you could see who was getting pummelled and barely holding on. The night ended after 3 hours of matches and it was a good distraction from the gruelling day to day tasks at work.

* * *

As usual, I’d bring my trusty D70 to an event like this. Managed to snap over 650 photos and it would have been more if I didn’t dabble with shooting some shots in RAW format. Heh, my 17-55 just barely had enough reach, and it would have been good if my Sigma 70-200 was here as it would have been more suitable for the task. Right from the first shot, I stuck the camera in manual mode, pumping ISO to 1600, leaving the aperture at f/2.8. I wasn’t sure of exposure and made my way slowly up from 1/50s to 1/250s and got most shots. Conditions don’t change too much in this environment, so rather than let the camera guess, I decided to just lock in the settings.

So here’s where I lament my camera, although even so, compared to any current compact, it’s a dream to use. At such high speeds, the image quality suffered quite a bit. Plenty of noise in the shadow regions, but well controlled by getting proper exposure. Image detail suffered as the noise reduction in the camera murdered the edge detail of the subjects. The D70′s white balance was off here, but caught the human skin tones in an acceptable manner, so I wouldn’t complain there. Didn’t do a thorough examination, but RAW does seem to reduce the noise produced in an image.

Focus was touch and go. I knew the outlying AF sensors were useless under these conditions, so stuck to framing with the central one, which did a very good job of locking focus very quickly on a f/2.8 lens. As long as I pointed to the correct subjects, focus was generally good, although I’m not too sure if it was completely accurate as the high ISO images lose a little bit of detail in the output.

Heh, things I’m starting to put into practise with photo taking these days. Even with the not so stellar viewfinder, I just plaster my face against the camera and make sure that the framing is tight and controlled. The lousy AF means I have to centre on the fighters, and quickly move to reframe to catch both in action as I would otherwise miss the shot. I’m also checking image sharpness to ensure things are focus now, as opposed to shooting a zillion pictures only to come home and find out that I forgot to turn autofocus back on! Heh, little things you can learn each time you do a photoshoot, and the best way to learn is to just keep snapping photos.

So now I’m looking forward to the D300 when it comes out and to see how the reviews fare it. I’ve seen plenty of production samples of images from the new Nikon flagship D3. As fantastic a camera as it is, it’s not for me as my wide lenses are all for APS-C sized sensors, while the D3 is a full frame sensor camera. What I want now is an improved autofocus system and low light performance of my camera. Heh.

Domesticated

★ posted on 26 Sep 2007 at 11:59 am under Life in General ★

Today is one of those numbing days. There were the phone calls and emails like an artillery barrage. As usual I get the full brunt of it as I have to deal with fixing broken things.

Anyway, that aside, made a slight scratch on my frying pan. I should know better than to stick sharp objects into it. There is a very slight scratch, nothing serious, but I grumble about these things. Heh.

My apartment also seems to be falling apart at the edges. The smoke alarm battery is probably flat, and it’s been beeping more often the last few days. So I dismantled it, just needing a replacement battery. Then today the ceiling light fused. Fortunately have experience replacing these things in Melbourne, so didn’t feel too helpless and managed to get that light cover off to expose the bulbs. At least these things seem to have been changed more often, as I recall the fixture in my apartment in Melbourne had been there for nearly 4 whole years before any replacements were necessary. Things get stuck after that length of inactivity. So it’s off to wherever I can find replacement batteries and light bulbs tomorrow.

* * *

Picked up a PC game last Friday after work and have been playing it on and off the last few days. It’s called World in Conflict, and it depicts a hypothetical World War 3. Gameplay is interesting and it surprisingly runs on my dinky laptop quite smoothly. It was recommended by Ken and the allure of it is the multiplayer system, which is much like Counterstrike with tanks and helicopters etc.

Action is fast, without needing to spend too much waiting in between games. It’s one of those games that implement the scissors, rock, paper idea quite well and everything seems balanced. The current crop of modern games all feature VOIP technology, so instead of typing chat messages to your team mates, you can just hold a key on the keyboard and bark orders.

* * *

It is supposedly the Mid Autumn Festival either today or yesterday. Didn’t have an opportunity to spot the moon much. Heh, there should be mooncakes floating around Chinatown, but don’t really seem too keen to eat any alone. These things just remind you about home and how much one misses it. Heh, looking forward to the next trip home already. Somehow NYC hasn’t really converted me to love the place yet.

In the Park Again

★ posted on 24 Sep 2007 at 9:52 am under Life in General ★

Today I shall digress from food.

I was at Central Park again today. This park does cover a large area and I still haven’t been to the top third of it. It runs from 60th St to 110St (roughly), so it is rather huge.

Just walked around and managed a few decent shots.

This is Belvedere Castle. It’s one of the highest spots in Central Park and you can get a good view of the surrounding areas, like below.

It’s still warm on occasion, and most people just like to bask in the sun. There are plenty of tourists as well as locals who come to the park, so it’s always rowdy.

* * *

I am becoming more accustomed to my camera. Heh, it took me only nearly two half years to get the hang of it. I know I complain about the viewfinder and dinky screen, but in broad daylight, they are quite useable.

I remember to reset all the settings when taking a new lot of photos, and leaving the ISO at 1600 is a disaster waiting to happen. I’m also starting to know what settings to dial in when given a certain scene. Just continuing to work on my framing and I’m quite happy to lug my 1.2kg camera around as a form of exercise if I can get the kind of shots I want. Heh.