Monthly Archives: October 2010

Post Exams

★ Posted on at 06:22 pm ★

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These were taken on the way to my second CPA paper for the semester. It really is true the best camera is the one you have with you. These here look like little postcards.

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It was pouring the whole afternoon, but managed to get Alfie out and about for a bit of a run around. Heh, he’s regressed a bit, now peeing indoors again after doing so well for a while. It might be the rain and he’s reluctant to go out to do that so we’re trying to positively reinforce him to go to the right place to do it. Only noticed how long it’s been since I had to wipe up after him when the cloth I normally use was completely dry.

I’m finally relieved to have my exams over. Now just doing things round the house. Heh, hay fever is driving me insane with irritable eyes and an over sensitive nose. Medication helps but I still don’t feel 100%.

Have the long weekend to look forward to, due to the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday and my department deciding that everyone should take a break on Monday. The last few days I took study leave and went for exams, so it’s been relatively relaxed for me. I’m halfway through the CPA program now, and 2 subjects isn’t as horrible as it sounds. I started as soon as I got my notes, so had about the full 3 months to go through the material. Heh, just hope I pass the papers, then I can plan for next year’s subjects.

Time to start planning what I’d like to do over the next few days.

Sidetracking

★ Posted on at 09:13 pm ★

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Took Alfie for a walk yesterday and decided to give my 85mm a workout. Out in the open, this lens is stunning and while it has lower contrast wide open, there’s nothing you can’t fix with post processing. I like the effect of the trees and the houses fading into the background.

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Grabbed some really nice shots of Alfie running around chasing a tennis ball (ball not visible in the pictures here). He absolutely adores the grass and can run up and down it all day long. Here the setting sun sort of gives a hair light that gives a nice outline to his shape against the grass.

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Apple announced new Macbook Air models this morning. Heh, I wonder if this will be the first Mac I buy? It’s a decent price for the spec, with a high resolution 11.6″ screen and at 1kg, you can’t argue about how portable it is. Watched the design video (Apple makes great videos to describe their new products) and it’s impressive that Apple thinks outside the box and customises everything so that the final design is elegant and efficient. People compare cheaper laptops from other manufacturers and sure you can’t upgrade anything in the new model Macbook Air (everything is customised so you can’t mix and match commercial parts) but I suspect that the designs are robust enough to stand up to the rigours of daily use so even if they cost a premium (the base model is $ AUD1.2k, but there’s nothing else on the market that comes close to matching the performance and size of this thing), if you value longevity, these are the laptops to get.

The base specifications would probably be sufficient to serve me as a portable device for surfing the web, typing emails/blogs and doing basic photo editing and management. Due to the usage of flash storage, you can just put it on standby and get the PC to come to a fully activated state instantly. Standby time is 30 days, so I really don’t need to turn it off and it doesn’t really consume that much power even on the battery. My Eee PC had a trial run in Taiwan and while it worked, the Atom processor does reduce the experience quite a bit.

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Heh, so many things to want, but only limited allocation of funds to get anything. Tempted to import an electric guitar from the USA, or to get the GF1 and pancake lens, with a Nikon lens adapter and a really tiny Sunpak flash unit. The Macbook Air is enticing, but it won’t really add any more value to me trying something new. Neither is the GF1 ‘necessary’ for that matter, as I found that if I really want to take proper pictures, I need to bring my D300 along. So I’m left with the guitar, as after the advice I got from posting on the local forums, I’d want to get something half decent (something more than a beginner’s guitar) and an el cheapo amp to be happy with it. I’ve been playing Guitar Hero on the Playstation and there’s a thrill to completing the game on the Hard/Expert modes, but I really do want to pick up the instrument again to make some music.

All this will have to wait for the next few days as I try to tackle my two exams. Have the next 5 days to memorise the syllabus in my head.

Enjoying Photography

★ Posted on at 09:01 pm ★

tuna pasta

My signature dish of tuna pasta, something I learned watching TV on my first trip to Sydney. I do slight variations of it every now and then but the basic taste is usually the same. Having moved to the new place, acquiring new crockery and other stuff, I can now make pretty decent looking food pictures out of the camera.

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So my friend bought his NEX-5, and I managed to compare it side by side with my cousin’s GF1. They both have pretty compelling features, even some features that I wish I had on my D300 (like a magnified live view when you manually focus your lens that really helps you get the focus point spot on, and of course, video). Having tried both, neither will replace my D300 anytime soon. Even as I read in forums about people having these new wonder, miniaturised cameras take amazing photos, the D300 still win hands down on certain areas. AF performance still can’t be beat, and being heavy allows you to take those low light, slow shutter indoor shots (although this is negated by image stabilisation in either the lens or camera system) and this is also helped by using a viewfinder (an electronic view finder is an add on and extra cost for the other cameras) which makes your face double as support for the camera to hold it steady.

The last reason is probably the most important in that I have an awesome set of lenses at my disposal to be used for taking pictures. Brought my 85mm f/1.8 to the park with Alfie and decent high ISO, fast AF plus large aperture of the lens allowed me to take some really great photos of Alfie running in the park, playing with Vyanne and catching the tennis ball. Will post some of these pics in a subsequent post as I think I have too many Alfie picture in the past few posts.

I tell people that you can do most general photography with the kit lens of whatever camera you buy, but there are times when the other lenses you have in your stable prove to be more useful for the occasion. This was one of those instances and now that I’m more familiar with my equipment, I find that I’ve become more proficient in getting better images out of it. Heh, it just makes me want to grab the camera more often to make photographs.