Hi all. I'm sure at this point some of you are under the impression that I may never again make an entry here. Well, I'm getting back on the horse and I will try to get some stuff out for your viewing pleasure (and for my own personal enjoyment) in the next few weeks.
Currently, things are in a bit of disarray here at the Barter house. We're in the process of moving and the boxes are piling up. I just finished writing exams at York U a few weeks ago and have jumped back into working at Stonehouse (men's clothing) along with some early training meetings with the City of Toronto for a summer job which may end up being consumed in a strike (at least for a little while) -it seems that this is an on going theme in my life this year, stuff happening that effectively places me in a limbo-like holding pattern.
So through all this stuff happening, I'm hoping that I'll get one post out before I move and then afterward, get back to showing off photos and telling stories.
Thanks for staying tuned.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Holy Crap!
As many of you may have heard already, there's news at the Barter house. Within 10 seconds of peeing on this thing, we got the results.Those results were later confirmed by yet another pee test at a doctor's office (I don't know if the peeing was done in the office or not). I was pretty sure I got the job done three weeks in advance, call it father's intuition.
It's kind of funny how it works. You get this test and it tells you that you're going to have a baby, but there is little evidence of that fact otherwise. For the first month or so, it was a little unreal. Then my wife started to feel a bit tired and regular physical changes began to follow. She's doing well and to this point has no morning sickness. I think it's in part because she is determined not to be sick, because she hates it so much. After seeing the results of the test it took all my energy not to tell it to the world (until I got the green light from the Mrs.), but now that most of the people I keep up with know, I can make this announcement digitally official.
I will never look at the end of Star Wars Episode IV the same way again. There's just too much double entendre when it comes to baby making not to have a laugh at it. Guys: think back to high school when you had some old man teaching you sex-ed (the experience may be similar for women too) and now replace that image with another old guy telling a group of young fighter jocks that they need to maneuver straight down a trench, shoot their torpedoes and hit a small opening which will set off a chain reaction. One positive thing that I learned, was that you don't need any high-tech targeting computers to get the job done.
That being said, it's been a little busy for me over the past couple weeks. I will have some new stuff up for you soon though.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Newfoundland -it's a little wet
Being on an island, I naturally got a lot of photos near water, so here are some of the more interesting aquatic themed shots I took.
This is Bottle Cove, one of the places I visited on my westward venture. I think I mentioned this place in my last post, but I didn't have the pan all cleaned up for upload. Shooting a pan across a wide angle in changing lighting conditions (as you get with this cloud cover) and having a polarizer on, makes for a lot of photos that are hard to merge cleanly. If anyone has some tips on getting a real clean blend, I'm open to them.
This photo shares a few of the same problems as the last one and took a while to get looking like this. I took this just outside the Tablelands in Gros Morne. The opposite side of the top of the mountain on the right is pretty much where the Tablelands begin. Such a drastic difference from one peak to the next.
As I had mentioned earlier, Toshina and I took a trip out to Blow Me Down Provincial Park. There are walking paths which take you along the valley between the mountain peaks, then there are hiking trails (it's not really a trail, just a few markers on trees) which take you up the side of the mountain. We had started out walking along the foot path and then realized that we were going away from these falls (which was where we wanted to go). We didn't have a map of the area and so I thought we'd just start making for the falls directly. That turned out to be a difficult choice. We spent the next 1-2 hours picking our way through trees, bushes, mud and rocks. There were a few times where we would step on some small brush or moss and it would be covering a hole. Fortunately, there were no injuries from falls like that. Eventually Toshina spotted trail markers going up the side of the mountain and then some hikers passed us, leaving me feeling a little dumb over our choice of route. When Toshina had enough of climbing up the mountainside (about half way up) -and in fairness, we were not really wearing the right shoes for that kind of business anyway- we stopped for some food and then I made my way to a nice tall rock to get above the trees and take this photo. Afterward we made our way down the marked route, which was a lot easier than the way we went up.
This is a boat launch from a little shoreline shack
in Frenchman's Cove. This was a place where my Dad went as a boy with his family to hang out and do family stuff. I don't actually know what he did here, but I'm going to guess that it was fishing, fooling around on the rocks, and maybe grabbing crabs and muscles. When we were driving along the coast, my Dad remembered this about this place, but couldn't remember how to get there (since it has been nearly 45 years since he was last here). We ended up going down the wrong road, where my Dad stopped at house to ask directions. It went something like
"Hey dere bye, how d'wee get ta Frenchman's Cove"?
"Oh, ya wants ta go back up dis road and make a right and follaw 'er down a little and you'll be dere".
"Ah, we turned too early, I taught so. Just a little ways den"?
"Yes mi bye"....
My Dad and the man briefly exchanged stories of what they were doing here and we were on our way again. Hearing Newfies speak is a pretty cool thing I think. It's English, but the dialect is so different at times, that it's almost like speaking a different language. It's too bad that globalization is causing the distinctive accent to disappear. Listening to my Grandfather speak, I can hear the accent quite strongly, but when I hear younger people speak, it's quite faint by comparison.
Another photo from Gros Morne. We stopped on the side of the road for a break and to take in the view (which is spectacular) as we were making our way into the park from the south. Most of your trip through Gros Morne is on winding mountain roads, with a new impressive vista around each corner. It's really something to see. There was a little waterfall coming off the side of the blasted road -probably just some spring melt water- and I got this photo. Another nice thing about the water that is coming off the mountains is that it's drinkable (drink the moving water, not the standing stuff) and refreshing. Sadly the same can't be said for Lake Ontario.
These photos come from St. Anthony. It was a windy day and the waves were beating on the rocks, making for some nice blues and greens as the water was churned around in the shallows. This was actually taken from the top of hill where the lighthouse is, using my zoom lens. There were a few boats going in and out of the harbour, setting up one of those classic Newfie scenes. Toshina and I had planned to come here to take a boat tour to see icebergs and whales. A couple hours after these were taken we were off in the Atlantic on a little boat with Newfie 
jigs playing on the radio. The boat was a converted fishing boat -a testament to how the fishing industry has changed in Newfoundland. The guide had gone to Memorial University in St. John's to study marine biology, but before that he had worked alongside his father on the boat when it was catching fish. For the first 20 minutes or so, Toshina and I were having fun listening to the music, and rolling on the waves, but not long after that we discovered that we weren't cut out to be baymen. At least neither of us lost it (though it might have come as a relief). The return trip (from which we saw this impressive iceberg, but no whales) was spent below the observation deck just wanting the trip to end quickly. Ah, memories. The operators of Northland Discovery Tours were nice enough to offer us a free return trip the following day since we missed the whales. Unfortunately, we had to get moving southward again so we passed on that one. We weren't going out in prime whale watching time either, which is usually in July, so at the time we went it was kind of hit and miss.
The following day, we stopped at Port Au Choix, which is another historic site in Newfoundland. Natives, French colonizers, and something called the Limestone Beds are here. Well, I think the native people have either left, been removed or become extinct -I can't remember but there is a visitors centre there which explains all that. The Limestone Beds are a bit like the Tablelands,
which is to say, pretty barren. There are a few flowers and small plants that grow on it, but nothing else. These photos were taken at "Gargamelle", though that place is also pretty empty. At the top of the point, there is a lighthouse (which was being restored at the time, so it didn't make for a nice photo) then a steady descent of rock to the coast. Because of the flat nature of the rocks, a lot of tidal pools have formed, up and away from the ocean. There are muscles and fish living in them and I suppose the gulls are happy about that.
In all of the coastal towns I either visited or passed through, I was amazed at the extent to which people in Newfoundland (past and present) live off (and until recently in harmony with) the ocean. The early inhabitants moved with what was available in the water and depended upon it for their lives, not just food but even their clothing and their homes came from things like seal and whale. In modern times, that dependence is similar, with many Newfoundlanders making their living in the summer when the fishing and trapping of crustaceans is good, then going on unemployment in the winter when there is no money to be made. That is the unfortunate side of commercialized fishing. That and the fact that we are fishing more than the fish populations can sustain. The sad part of it all, is that when your ability to provide is dependent on catching a lot of fish, destroying an eco-system pales in comparison to watching your family starve.
This is Bottle Cove, one of the places I visited on my westward venture. I think I mentioned this place in my last post, but I didn't have the pan all cleaned up for upload. Shooting a pan across a wide angle in changing lighting conditions (as you get with this cloud cover) and having a polarizer on, makes for a lot of photos that are hard to merge cleanly. If anyone has some tips on getting a real clean blend, I'm open to them.
This photo shares a few of the same problems as the last one and took a while to get looking like this. I took this just outside the Tablelands in Gros Morne. The opposite side of the top of the mountain on the right is pretty much where the Tablelands begin. Such a drastic difference from one peak to the next.
As I had mentioned earlier, Toshina and I took a trip out to Blow Me Down Provincial Park. There are walking paths which take you along the valley between the mountain peaks, then there are hiking trails (it's not really a trail, just a few markers on trees) which take you up the side of the mountain. We had started out walking along the foot path and then realized that we were going away from these falls (which was where we wanted to go). We didn't have a map of the area and so I thought we'd just start making for the falls directly. That turned out to be a difficult choice. We spent the next 1-2 hours picking our way through trees, bushes, mud and rocks. There were a few times where we would step on some small brush or moss and it would be covering a hole. Fortunately, there were no injuries from falls like that. Eventually Toshina spotted trail markers going up the side of the mountain and then some hikers passed us, leaving me feeling a little dumb over our choice of route. When Toshina had enough of climbing up the mountainside (about half way up) -and in fairness, we were not really wearing the right shoes for that kind of business anyway- we stopped for some food and then I made my way to a nice tall rock to get above the trees and take this photo. Afterward we made our way down the marked route, which was a lot easier than the way we went up.This is a boat launch from a little shoreline shack
in Frenchman's Cove. This was a place where my Dad went as a boy with his family to hang out and do family stuff. I don't actually know what he did here, but I'm going to guess that it was fishing, fooling around on the rocks, and maybe grabbing crabs and muscles. When we were driving along the coast, my Dad remembered this about this place, but couldn't remember how to get there (since it has been nearly 45 years since he was last here). We ended up going down the wrong road, where my Dad stopped at house to ask directions. It went something like"Hey dere bye, how d'wee get ta Frenchman's Cove"?
"Oh, ya wants ta go back up dis road and make a right and follaw 'er down a little and you'll be dere".
"Ah, we turned too early, I taught so. Just a little ways den"?
"Yes mi bye"....
My Dad and the man briefly exchanged stories of what they were doing here and we were on our way again. Hearing Newfies speak is a pretty cool thing I think. It's English, but the dialect is so different at times, that it's almost like speaking a different language. It's too bad that globalization is causing the distinctive accent to disappear. Listening to my Grandfather speak, I can hear the accent quite strongly, but when I hear younger people speak, it's quite faint by comparison.
Another photo from Gros Morne. We stopped on the side of the road for a break and to take in the view (which is spectacular) as we were making our way into the park from the south. Most of your trip through Gros Morne is on winding mountain roads, with a new impressive vista around each corner. It's really something to see. There was a little waterfall coming off the side of the blasted road -probably just some spring melt water- and I got this photo. Another nice thing about the water that is coming off the mountains is that it's drinkable (drink the moving water, not the standing stuff) and refreshing. Sadly the same can't be said for Lake Ontario.
These photos come from St. Anthony. It was a windy day and the waves were beating on the rocks, making for some nice blues and greens as the water was churned around in the shallows. This was actually taken from the top of hill where the lighthouse is, using my zoom lens. There were a few boats going in and out of the harbour, setting up one of those classic Newfie scenes. Toshina and I had planned to come here to take a boat tour to see icebergs and whales. A couple hours after these were taken we were off in the Atlantic on a little boat with Newfie 
jigs playing on the radio. The boat was a converted fishing boat -a testament to how the fishing industry has changed in Newfoundland. The guide had gone to Memorial University in St. John's to study marine biology, but before that he had worked alongside his father on the boat when it was catching fish. For the first 20 minutes or so, Toshina and I were having fun listening to the music, and rolling on the waves, but not long after that we discovered that we weren't cut out to be baymen. At least neither of us lost it (though it might have come as a relief). The return trip (from which we saw this impressive iceberg, but no whales) was spent below the observation deck just wanting the trip to end quickly. Ah, memories. The operators of Northland Discovery Tours were nice enough to offer us a free return trip the following day since we missed the whales. Unfortunately, we had to get moving southward again so we passed on that one. We weren't going out in prime whale watching time either, which is usually in July, so at the time we went it was kind of hit and miss.
The following day, we stopped at Port Au Choix, which is another historic site in Newfoundland. Natives, French colonizers, and something called the Limestone Beds are here. Well, I think the native people have either left, been removed or become extinct -I can't remember but there is a visitors centre there which explains all that. The Limestone Beds are a bit like the Tablelands,
which is to say, pretty barren. There are a few flowers and small plants that grow on it, but nothing else. These photos were taken at "Gargamelle", though that place is also pretty empty. At the top of the point, there is a lighthouse (which was being restored at the time, so it didn't make for a nice photo) then a steady descent of rock to the coast. Because of the flat nature of the rocks, a lot of tidal pools have formed, up and away from the ocean. There are muscles and fish living in them and I suppose the gulls are happy about that.
In all of the coastal towns I either visited or passed through, I was amazed at the extent to which people in Newfoundland (past and present) live off (and until recently in harmony with) the ocean. The early inhabitants moved with what was available in the water and depended upon it for their lives, not just food but even their clothing and their homes came from things like seal and whale. In modern times, that dependence is similar, with many Newfoundlanders making their living in the summer when the fishing and trapping of crustaceans is good, then going on unemployment in the winter when there is no money to be made. That is the unfortunate side of commercialized fishing. That and the fact that we are fishing more than the fish populations can sustain. The sad part of it all, is that when your ability to provide is dependent on catching a lot of fish, destroying an eco-system pales in comparison to watching your family starve.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Newfoundland -Pan Fried
It's only been two weeks and I'm already off the pace which I had hoped to maintain. I have been working on some new stuff (along with all the other exciting things that tend to keep me busy) and though I am having a bit of trouble taking the photos I want to take, the idea still excites me and I'm trying to find a way to make it a photographic reality. I hope to have something from that series up in a few weeks.
In the mean time, I thought I would share some of my trip to Newfoundland last June. My Grandparents are from there and are still living in a little town called Pasadena . When Toshina was at work one day (and I was probably playing video games at home between class or something like that) she called me and told me about a West Jet seat sale. To make a long story short, we decided to go and see my grandparents (whom I haven't seen since I was 5 or 6 years old) along with my father and his wife.
There are quite a few photos and I wanted to start with some panoramic shots, because printing them is just a little impractical when they're 8x30 or something to that effect. It will probably be necessary for you to click on the pictures to get a good look at them.
This is in a little town called Lark Harbour, and like most little towns in Newfoundland, fishing is a big thing here. The four of us took a drive out as far west as the roads would take us, which was about 15 minutes of slow driving from here (to Bottle Cove). You can actually make out the docks in a smaller cove just south of the marker on Google. This was my first day in Newfoundland and I quickly got a feel for what the weather was like here. On June 1st it was about 15c and really, really windy.
This one is from a place called Cape Onion. Toshina and I wanted to take a drive up the west coast of Newfoundland and take a look around. While looking for a nice little B&B to crash at, we came across the Tickle Inn (at Cape Onion). 
This view was a short 10 minute walk from the Inn, seen here, which is sitting along with one other house on the beach of Cape Onion. The people who run the place are fantastic. The Adams family has lived in this place for quite a few generations and on the top of the point where this photo was taken, there is a cemetery where the Adams' family forebears are buried. The weather continued to be pretty poor and as you can see in the photo, there is still snow on the ground. Toshina and I did a bit of exploring on the tops of the "mountains" (in Ontario they would be called such, though they are only 274 ft. high) before returning to the inn for a homemade meal of pecan encrusted cod and local veg. After dinner we gathered in the parlour with Dave Adams to listen to stories of his family and life in Newfoundland. Dave is actually a teacher in St. John's which is a good 16h drive from his family's place, but returns in the summers to keep the place up and meet new people. This might sound a bit like a pitch, but after our night at the Tickle Inn, we would highly recommend it to anyone passing through the area. Hopefully, we'll get back there one day.
On our 4th day in Newfoundland, we were headed south to Pasadena on our way back from our visit up at Cape Onion. While we were passing through Gros Morne National Park (which is huge) my Dad wanted to show us the Tablelands, which is pretty much a highland range of rock which is usually well below the Earth's surface. As you can see it's pretty barren. They make for great hiking and we could have easily spent a whole day there, but by the time we arrived, there were only a couple hours of daylight left, so it was a quick tour and on the road again. This little detour reminded me of my trip to Arches National Park in Utah, except I think that this landscape was a little more devoid of life. There were patches of grass and the odd Pitcher Plant (the plant that you see on the Newfoundland and Labrador tourism commercials), but other than that, just rock. The strange part about that is that not a kilometer away from where I was standing, there was a lush verdant forest surrounding lake after lake.
On our final day in Newfoundland, Toshina and I took a break from the parents and grandparents to go off and explore. We had gone through Corner Brook and visited with a relative of mine (her name is Elsie and I can't remember how we're related). It was nice to visit with someone new and hear about their stories of life on 'the rock'. She also let me photograph her old photo albums from the late 50's. I am working on making the digital version of that photo album. Looking at old personal pictures can be pretty interesting, usually because there are a lot of day to day stories that go along with them. After our visit with Elsie, we went out to Blow Me Down Provincial Park to do some hiking on the mountain side. We weren't all that well prepared to hike and for the most part got wet feet from mountain runoff and mosquito bites. At least there was a nice view (some photos of that another time). The nice thing about hiking up a mountain is that hiking down is a lot easier than going up.
After finding our way back to the car, we made our way into Corner Brook for some dinner and stopped along the way for this photo. The paper mill in Corner Brook is the business there. There are other things going on, but this is a huge employment hub for the people there. The field of felled trees is immense and they are carried away by the truck load from the lot into the plant. I wanted to get out and photograph what was going on here and Toshina thought it would be a good idea to get this photo. I'm glad she did, because I think it looks better than the one I took. It just captures the size of this place so well.
The other photo I really wanted to take in Corner Brook was on the opposite side of the mill. It was one of those moments when I saw something that I needed to photograph. On our first day here, we had stopped at this spot to get some fries with Newfie dressing (I don't really know what went into it, but it was really good) from a chip truck. While we were eating away, the local gulls were doing the same thing (not eating our fries fortunately). I went down to photograph the birds and came up with this shot.
This was when I learned about sensor dust and also learned how fast you can burn up a battery when shooting continuously. It turned out that I had a little hair on the sensor and that showed up pretty well in most of the photos I took between this one and the end of our three day trip to Cape Onion and back. It made for a lot of extra work to get things looking good again, but now I know, and knowing is half the battle.
After that busy day we ate at Jungle Jim's. It's a pretty tacky name but the food is good. Imagine a Jack Astors with a jungle-safari type theme to it. It's also one of the few restaurants in Corner Brook, which was a fact that took me by surprise.
Well, that's enough for now. I probably have a lot more to show you from Newfoundland. It really is an amazing place, not because of what was made there, but because of what is there.
In the mean time, I thought I would share some of my trip to Newfoundland last June. My Grandparents are from there and are still living in a little town called Pasadena . When Toshina was at work one day (and I was probably playing video games at home between class or something like that) she called me and told me about a West Jet seat sale. To make a long story short, we decided to go and see my grandparents (whom I haven't seen since I was 5 or 6 years old) along with my father and his wife.
There are quite a few photos and I wanted to start with some panoramic shots, because printing them is just a little impractical when they're 8x30 or something to that effect. It will probably be necessary for you to click on the pictures to get a good look at them.
This is in a little town called Lark Harbour, and like most little towns in Newfoundland, fishing is a big thing here. The four of us took a drive out as far west as the roads would take us, which was about 15 minutes of slow driving from here (to Bottle Cove). You can actually make out the docks in a smaller cove just south of the marker on Google. This was my first day in Newfoundland and I quickly got a feel for what the weather was like here. On June 1st it was about 15c and really, really windy.
This one is from a place called Cape Onion. Toshina and I wanted to take a drive up the west coast of Newfoundland and take a look around. While looking for a nice little B&B to crash at, we came across the Tickle Inn (at Cape Onion). 
This view was a short 10 minute walk from the Inn, seen here, which is sitting along with one other house on the beach of Cape Onion. The people who run the place are fantastic. The Adams family has lived in this place for quite a few generations and on the top of the point where this photo was taken, there is a cemetery where the Adams' family forebears are buried. The weather continued to be pretty poor and as you can see in the photo, there is still snow on the ground. Toshina and I did a bit of exploring on the tops of the "mountains" (in Ontario they would be called such, though they are only 274 ft. high) before returning to the inn for a homemade meal of pecan encrusted cod and local veg. After dinner we gathered in the parlour with Dave Adams to listen to stories of his family and life in Newfoundland. Dave is actually a teacher in St. John's which is a good 16h drive from his family's place, but returns in the summers to keep the place up and meet new people. This might sound a bit like a pitch, but after our night at the Tickle Inn, we would highly recommend it to anyone passing through the area. Hopefully, we'll get back there one day.
On our 4th day in Newfoundland, we were headed south to Pasadena on our way back from our visit up at Cape Onion. While we were passing through Gros Morne National Park (which is huge) my Dad wanted to show us the Tablelands, which is pretty much a highland range of rock which is usually well below the Earth's surface. As you can see it's pretty barren. They make for great hiking and we could have easily spent a whole day there, but by the time we arrived, there were only a couple hours of daylight left, so it was a quick tour and on the road again. This little detour reminded me of my trip to Arches National Park in Utah, except I think that this landscape was a little more devoid of life. There were patches of grass and the odd Pitcher Plant (the plant that you see on the Newfoundland and Labrador tourism commercials), but other than that, just rock. The strange part about that is that not a kilometer away from where I was standing, there was a lush verdant forest surrounding lake after lake.On our final day in Newfoundland, Toshina and I took a break from the parents and grandparents to go off and explore. We had gone through Corner Brook and visited with a relative of mine (her name is Elsie and I can't remember how we're related). It was nice to visit with someone new and hear about their stories of life on 'the rock'. She also let me photograph her old photo albums from the late 50's. I am working on making the digital version of that photo album. Looking at old personal pictures can be pretty interesting, usually because there are a lot of day to day stories that go along with them. After our visit with Elsie, we went out to Blow Me Down Provincial Park to do some hiking on the mountain side. We weren't all that well prepared to hike and for the most part got wet feet from mountain runoff and mosquito bites. At least there was a nice view (some photos of that another time). The nice thing about hiking up a mountain is that hiking down is a lot easier than going up.
After finding our way back to the car, we made our way into Corner Brook for some dinner and stopped along the way for this photo. The paper mill in Corner Brook is the business there. There are other things going on, but this is a huge employment hub for the people there. The field of felled trees is immense and they are carried away by the truck load from the lot into the plant. I wanted to get out and photograph what was going on here and Toshina thought it would be a good idea to get this photo. I'm glad she did, because I think it looks better than the one I took. It just captures the size of this place so well.
The other photo I really wanted to take in Corner Brook was on the opposite side of the mill. It was one of those moments when I saw something that I needed to photograph. On our first day here, we had stopped at this spot to get some fries with Newfie dressing (I don't really know what went into it, but it was really good) from a chip truck. While we were eating away, the local gulls were doing the same thing (not eating our fries fortunately). I went down to photograph the birds and came up with this shot.
This was when I learned about sensor dust and also learned how fast you can burn up a battery when shooting continuously. It turned out that I had a little hair on the sensor and that showed up pretty well in most of the photos I took between this one and the end of our three day trip to Cape Onion and back. It made for a lot of extra work to get things looking good again, but now I know, and knowing is half the battle.
After that busy day we ate at Jungle Jim's. It's a pretty tacky name but the food is good. Imagine a Jack Astors with a jungle-safari type theme to it. It's also one of the few restaurants in Corner Brook, which was a fact that took me by surprise.
Well, that's enough for now. I probably have a lot more to show you from Newfoundland. It really is an amazing place, not because of what was made there, but because of what is there.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Cameras
Now, I'm not really a camera buff, in that I don't know the ins and outs of every camera on the market, so with that in mind, this is not a discussion on why I'm using one camera over another or what's the best camera in the world (though from what I hear the new Canon EOS 5D mkII is going to be something -take a look at the video shot by Vincent Laforet with this camera). I wanted to tell you what I'm using, partly because it's interesting to know what photos are taken with what cameras, but also to show people that even with a cheap camera you can take some good photos if you take your time.
So here's what I'm using these days:
This is my newest camera, a Nikon D200. It's my first DSLR and so most of this last year I've been figuring it out and growing into it. I picked this up at Henry's Outlet in Toronto for about $1,300 which included the body (and things that come with it), lens (Nikkor 18-70mm), polarizer, memory and a bag. All in all, I think I did OK, but of course, being almost a year later, it probably looks like I got a bad deal. Ah, digital life. This was the most I've spent on any one thing next to my computer, which was just a little more than this. Afterward I had this overwhelming feeling of guilt. Fortunately that has passed and I like my new (to me) camera. One of the cool things about it, is that it will take old lenses, so I've got a 70-300mm Sigma zoom which was made for an older Nikon AF film camera. I also picked up a 50mm prime lens that goes down to an f-stop of 1.8, which is much lower than the 3.5 I get on the lens I picked up with the camera. I like the fact that's all manual and that I picked it up for about $25. When you're on a student budget, it's a big deal. It looks a little funny when this small lens is mounted on a big body. I'll let you draw your own mental picture from that one.
The other SLR I have is an old Yashica FX-3 2000. Seems like a long name when you type it out, but I guess there's an evolutionary reason for it. This is my first SLR camera, which I picked up (also from Henry's) back in 1995 when I took an interest in photographing for my high school's year book. If I remember correctly, I paid about $280 for it used. Those days were pretty fun. Since then I've got a lot of use out of this camera. I picked up the Tamron 80-210 zoom about a year later, which came in handy for sports and other things that I couldn't get close to. When I started shooting some landscape scenes last year I popped into Henry's outlet and got a nice little Sigma wide angle 28mm for about $20. All in all, this has been a great camera for me aside from the advancing arm getting a little busted (probably from the previous owner, because it's never had that problem since getting fixed 12 years ago). Very durable and good for learning on due to it's simplicity. I would recommend anyone who wants to learn about making photos to get into a camera that has a lot of manual controls or make use of the manual capabilities that their camera has (that they might not even know about).
This one is my little take everywhere do anything point and shoot Canon PS A520. It's actually a replacement for the A60 I bought at Futureshop in 2003 for way more than it's worth now -I think I paid about $300 for the thing and to think of what $300 could buy now... The A60 just kinda died one day and so I took it back and with the product service plan I had, ended up getting an upgraded version, because Canon stopped making the A60. It's nice to have a camera that's compact and relatively inexpensive to carry around because the only thing I'd feel bad about losing the camera is the lost photos on the memory card. Toshina has taken over using the camera (mostly because I am gently prodding her to learn how to use a camera and take pictures) and I find that I occasionally think of getting a new PS camera for those moments when I say "I wish I had a camera". The one thing I dislike about the A520 is that it only takes 2 'AA' batteries. Some of you might say, "well, that's good, because it's cheaper to operate". The problem with this is that whenever the flash fires, the camera takes a good 10-20 sec. to recharge the flash for another shot. The A60 never had this problem, because it used 4 batteries and since I use rechargeable batteries, I have no problems with that.
Earlier I was talking about learning about making photos and using manual settings. This camera (and the A60) have a lot of manually controllable features, which I have seen missing on other more contemporary cameras. So if you're one of those who are looking into getting a camera with the intention of learning and not just taking pictures, then more manual settings is something that should be on your list, besides mega-pixels. The cool thing about digital is that you can play with settings and immediately see what impact they have on the image you produce.
2 cool things to try with a digital camera:
So here's what I'm using these days:
This is my newest camera, a Nikon D200. It's my first DSLR and so most of this last year I've been figuring it out and growing into it. I picked this up at Henry's Outlet in Toronto for about $1,300 which included the body (and things that come with it), lens (Nikkor 18-70mm), polarizer, memory and a bag. All in all, I think I did OK, but of course, being almost a year later, it probably looks like I got a bad deal. Ah, digital life. This was the most I've spent on any one thing next to my computer, which was just a little more than this. Afterward I had this overwhelming feeling of guilt. Fortunately that has passed and I like my new (to me) camera. One of the cool things about it, is that it will take old lenses, so I've got a 70-300mm Sigma zoom which was made for an older Nikon AF film camera. I also picked up a 50mm prime lens that goes down to an f-stop of 1.8, which is much lower than the 3.5 I get on the lens I picked up with the camera. I like the fact that's all manual and that I picked it up for about $25. When you're on a student budget, it's a big deal. It looks a little funny when this small lens is mounted on a big body. I'll let you draw your own mental picture from that one.
The other SLR I have is an old Yashica FX-3 2000. Seems like a long name when you type it out, but I guess there's an evolutionary reason for it. This is my first SLR camera, which I picked up (also from Henry's) back in 1995 when I took an interest in photographing for my high school's year book. If I remember correctly, I paid about $280 for it used. Those days were pretty fun. Since then I've got a lot of use out of this camera. I picked up the Tamron 80-210 zoom about a year later, which came in handy for sports and other things that I couldn't get close to. When I started shooting some landscape scenes last year I popped into Henry's outlet and got a nice little Sigma wide angle 28mm for about $20. All in all, this has been a great camera for me aside from the advancing arm getting a little busted (probably from the previous owner, because it's never had that problem since getting fixed 12 years ago). Very durable and good for learning on due to it's simplicity. I would recommend anyone who wants to learn about making photos to get into a camera that has a lot of manual controls or make use of the manual capabilities that their camera has (that they might not even know about).
This one is my little take everywhere do anything point and shoot Canon PS A520. It's actually a replacement for the A60 I bought at Futureshop in 2003 for way more than it's worth now -I think I paid about $300 for the thing and to think of what $300 could buy now... The A60 just kinda died one day and so I took it back and with the product service plan I had, ended up getting an upgraded version, because Canon stopped making the A60. It's nice to have a camera that's compact and relatively inexpensive to carry around because the only thing I'd feel bad about losing the camera is the lost photos on the memory card. Toshina has taken over using the camera (mostly because I am gently prodding her to learn how to use a camera and take pictures) and I find that I occasionally think of getting a new PS camera for those moments when I say "I wish I had a camera". The one thing I dislike about the A520 is that it only takes 2 'AA' batteries. Some of you might say, "well, that's good, because it's cheaper to operate". The problem with this is that whenever the flash fires, the camera takes a good 10-20 sec. to recharge the flash for another shot. The A60 never had this problem, because it used 4 batteries and since I use rechargeable batteries, I have no problems with that. Earlier I was talking about learning about making photos and using manual settings. This camera (and the A60) have a lot of manually controllable features, which I have seen missing on other more contemporary cameras. So if you're one of those who are looking into getting a camera with the intention of learning and not just taking pictures, then more manual settings is something that should be on your list, besides mega-pixels. The cool thing about digital is that you can play with settings and immediately see what impact they have on the image you produce.
2 cool things to try with a digital camera:
- Look at a remote control with your camera and push some buttons.
- Take a photo of your stove with the lights off and cycle through various lighting settings (ie. day light, fluorescent, cloudy, etc.)
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Setting things up.
So, here is the first photo, which I think is kinda relevant to getting this idea of blogging off the ground.
The photo was from a narrative series which discusses how we go to a lot of work to present ourselves to others who, in the end, are paying little attention to us (often because they are attending to themselves).
Here's the rest of the story:
There isn't too much story to this one. It was fun to shoot this since I think it was my first "staged" shoot. I often am photographing outside and capturing things as they happen. A few of these are shot with a timer, while in others, Toshina got her first crack at being my photo assistant. Sadly, there was no actual meal that came out of all this work.
The photo was from a narrative series which discusses how we go to a lot of work to present ourselves to others who, in the end, are paying little attention to us (often because they are attending to themselves).
Here's the rest of the story:
There isn't too much story to this one. It was fun to shoot this since I think it was my first "staged" shoot. I often am photographing outside and capturing things as they happen. A few of these are shot with a timer, while in others, Toshina got her first crack at being my photo assistant. Sadly, there was no actual meal that came out of all this work.
Creation of the new...
OK, so it's not new, it's new to me. I've been thinking of blogging for some time now, but setting up an online forum for gushing my feelings out to the internet was not something that appealed to me. However, I was talking with a friend of mine who said I should think of starting a website to show off some photos. Since I'm not all that HTML literate, I am here at blogger.com, making my first attempt at getting photos out there for people to see. I also expect that this will become an interesting mode of generating ideas, because to keep all you readers interested, I'll have to post a little more frequently than once a quarter, which means I need to make new material for you to see.
To sum it up, welcome to the new blog/photo show that is Brian+Photographs.
I suppose this would also be a good time to mention that the photos posted here are my own, which have (for the most part) had a lot of work put into them, so I would expect you to respect copyright laws. If there is something I have made that you would like a copy of, contact me and we can work something out. I'm not asking for a million dollars (unless you're willing to give that much) but I am asking for the ability to control where my work goes.
To sum it up, welcome to the new blog/photo show that is Brian+Photographs.
I suppose this would also be a good time to mention that the photos posted here are my own, which have (for the most part) had a lot of work put into them, so I would expect you to respect copyright laws. If there is something I have made that you would like a copy of, contact me and we can work something out. I'm not asking for a million dollars (unless you're willing to give that much) but I am asking for the ability to control where my work goes.
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