./janella.com

Its official: I got some kind of bug.  Aching back. Runny nose. Hacking cough.  Ugh, I hate this stuff.

Of course, I decided to go out yesterday after work and spread my germs! No, I had to pay a bill at the mall. So Farrah and I grabbed dinner at [Alexander’s Steakhouse] - more on that later - and headed around the very dead Vallco Mall. I started to feel progressively worse. When I got home I knew I was just going straight to bed.

I break out the cold & flu medicine we have and check the label. Get this: “Tylenol Cold Nighttime with Cool Burst”? What the heck is ‘cool burst’? The box says Tylenol Nighttime with Cool Burst “gives you the multi-symptom relief you need to rest-plus an instant cooling sensation you’ll feel right away.” Well, it was like taking a mint for medicine but it was effective. It knocked me right out for a very good nights sleep.

But I still feel like s@!t this morning. I think I’ll be wiping my nose and coughing away all weekend.

This sucks.

Most of the postings lately have been about birthdays.  Let’s see, birthday’s this month were for Skylar, Little Gordon, Yen, Lotte, Doug and Kevin this month. Did I miss anyone?

A lot of photo opportunities present themselves at birthdays. So I took it was an opportunity to take photos with the D70s.  Pictures of Yen’s birthday (when we took her out to dinner at Straits @ Santana Row) and of Lotte’s birthday (at [Buca di Beppo’s] in the City) will be posted on the [Photos] janella.us.  Fina took most of the photos at Lotte’s birthday.  The photos out of focus are the ones I took :)  It was funny see Fina with a Nikon since she’s such a Canon person.  (Man, should have taken a picture of her holding the camera!)  I still need to post photos from Lotte’s and Skylar’s parties.  Remember to log in to see the ‘big picture’.

Podcasts

iTunes 4.9 was released earlier this week.  With 4.9 it now makes it easier to download Podcasts.  What are Podcasts?  Short and simple, it’s like a radio broadcast you can listen to on your digital music player (see [Podcasting])  Podcasts can be anything from news to business reports to independent music programs and beyond.  I don’t think Podcasts are bound by any FCC rules so content can be almost anything.  You don’t need to have an iPod or use iTunes to listen to a Podcast, so do a search on the Net and check one out.

Current Podcasts I’m listening to:

• KCRW's The Treatment
• Cinecast
• digital photography tips from the top floor

Apple did announce one this week that sucked:  iPods now come with color screens by default!  Ugh!  Oh well, the price you pay for wanting an iPod.  You knew it was going to happen.

Feeling blah

I’m a little under the weather.  Tuesday morning I woke up with a dry throat and my nose felt dry as well.  Wednesday found me staying in bed most of the day.  Today my nose is just running here and there.  I thought it was allergies, but usually my eyes itch, which is currently not the case.  What makes it worse is that it really isn’t comfortable staying in bed with the weather being so damn hot!  I had a little ramen in Mt. View last night that helped out.

Ugh.  I hate summer colds.

Etc.

Plans for the weekend?  Still working on it.  Farrah’s lucky to have a four day weekend.  Me?  Three days, which I’m not complaining about (or am I?)

Today we had Father’s Day breakfast/brunch at Aloha Kitchen in San Jose on 1041 East Capitol Expressway..  Uh, the food was so good.  I had the Samin with BBQ Chicken and it was delicious!!!  Farrah’s dad had Samin as well, her mom Portuguese Sausage and eggs, and Farrah had Hawaiian Pancakes.

Farrah’s dad struck up a conversation with another customer.  The talk started off normal - How you doing?  Where you from?  The guy talked about what street he used to live on.  Funny thing was that Farrah’s dad new exactly where that was  and the neighborhoods' residents specifically!  So the guy would say, “Yeah, there is this short guy who lived in a house down the street…” and Farrah’s dad would reply, “Oh, you mean at 1084?"  Amazing.

Later that day Farrah and I took my mom to visit my dad’s grave.  It’s been over ten years, but still…

Rating: **** out of 5

Quick shot: The movie chronicles the Batman’s beginnings.

What I liked about the move:

It’s back to the serious Batman.  The storyline is very well structured, good acting all around, and Gotham City looks like an actual city.  Plus Batman’s toys are pretty cool as well.

What I didn’t like: 

Bale’s Batman voice didn’t do it for me, except for one scene where he was very effective.  Go catch this movie either in primetime or a matinee.  Worth seeing!

Well, I have had the D70s for two weeks. I’m loving the freedom of taken the shot and seeing the results right away, but with an SLR type camera! I know that’s how it is supposed to be with a DSLR but I’m still getting used to the feeling.

I have been messing with [aperture priority] and shutter speed the last week. The reason I have been is I want to take photos at Kayla’s dance recital. Taking photos has been a hit and miss affair. The conditions are:

• dark theater - only stage lighting
• no flash allowed
• no tripods allow (I've seen monopods though)
• distance to stage varies seats are all over

I have had various success and failure in taking photos. I’ve used high speed film (1600), opened up the aperture, steadied my hand various ways, all with mixed results. This year will hopefully be different.

What I am planning to do is take photos during the practice session. Susana said I can bring a tripod during that session and set it up - as the practice isn’t video taped. The lighting conditions will be the same. From what I understand of the advice given by the [nikonians.org] messageboard I should:

• use the fastest lens I have (which is the 50mm 1.8)
• have the aperture wide open
• and hope the shutter speed is around 100 or so

I can adjust the ISO as needed.  We’ll see how it works.  I’ll post some results later.

This photo of drinks was taken under low lighting conditions, no flash, aperture wide open - using the 18mm-70mm lens. The shot was taken hand held, steadied against the table. Farrah took the photo:

Anyway, wish me luck.

Rating: *** out of five

Quick shot: Boy and girl meet. Boy and girl get married. Boy and girl are spies for competing agencies and don’t know it. Boy and girl must kill each other, or die trying. Will this have a happy ending

What I liked about the movie: Good action - gun play, hand-to-hand combat, and car chases. Good chemistry between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Fair and snappy dialog

What I didn’t like: The distracting choice of hand held camera movement during some quiet moments during the film. The latter third of the film had issues resolved suddenly.

Overall a good matinee movie. 

I’ve been able to get some more reading and shots in the last day.  Last night Farrah, Yen, and I went out to look at fabric and dinner.  I was able to take a few outdoor shots - around dusk) and indoor restaurant shots with the D70s' built in flash.  The flash photos look a little saturated, and the outdoor photos needed adjusting as well.  The results are the adjusted photos here:

You can see more photos by logging into the Flickr album.  Of course you need to be a ‘friend or family’ to see those extra photos, so sing up for a Flickr account today!!!

I’ve been also messing with shutter speed.  These shots have the aperature wide open and the shutter speed very slow.  Check the EXIF data for more info.

Well, I’ve finally started some shots with the D70s. I haven’t read all of the instruction manual. In fact I have probably read less then 10 pages of a 100 page manual!!! I just wanted to get out and start shooting.

Yesterday, I got a 1GB 80x Corsair Compact Flash card.  I was hoping to get the [Lexar 1GB 80x Compact Flash card].  Now the Corsair is not on the test and approved list of cards, but it is working and I hope it lasts me for a while. If it starts freakin' out on me I’ll need to go to Costco to pick up a SanDisk Ultra II card which is tested and approved.

I took some test shots yesterday of Farrah while she was talking on the phone with Yen.  You can see some feet shots on the [Flickr] album.

Today I took some shots of Lucky and Bixby and Tigger too! I also took a few shots of cars that were on display at the Sunnyvale Art and Wine Festival in downtown Sunnyvale.

I’m shooting in the RAW format which is new to me. Take a look at the pictures and please make any comments on the photos you can. I’ll need to read up more about it. Ok, I’ll go read the manual now.

It’s been a pretty quiet day so far.  Not heavy on the work stuff.   I’m using the time to study some photo techniques.  Problem with studying it is wanting to apply it after reading, which I can’t do.

We had a BBQ for lunch here at work. Burgers, ribs, salad, dessert.  Not too bad, though I know I can cook better ribs :)

Plans for the weekend? A lot of picture taking.

The memory card pain continues today. I found out I can’t return the memory card I accidentally bought, even if I didn’t open it (which I did). Oh well, the card is going to go up on the for sale list at work in hopes of recovering some $$$. If I didn’t mention it I accidentally ordered a Secure Digital card and not a CompactFlash card.

The different memory cards can be a pain. I remember when I got my first digital camera I had to decide what memory card to support at the time: CompactFlash, Secure Digital or Sony’s own Memory Stick [see here for a complete list]. I initially chose CompactFlash because it was more widely used, but then switched to Sony since I liked their products.

Once you decide on a type, you then need to decide on a brand, size and speed. Ugh, headache happening.  I’m guessing I’ll go with a 1GB and a 512MB if I can afford both. I need to go look at Fry’s again and Costco, which I think sell SanDisk cards.

Wish me luck.

I received my delivery from FedEx today at work.  It difficult to not open the box and look at the D70s, but I held off for a while.  I should have open it there though because something was wrong.

After running some errands with Farrah, I was able to finally start putting the D70s together.  The body is slightly thicker in my hand then the N80,  and with the kit lens attached (18mm-70mm) the camera feels nice.  I was ready to take some test shots.  I opened the memory card, ready to load then noticed that I got the wrong memory card type!!!!!  Ugh!

It was about 8:30pm and I quickly went to Fry’s Electronics.  No dice on the card I was looking for.  Oh well.  Hopefully I’ll be able to find one before the weekend.  I really want to start testing this camera.

I hope this doesn’t sound too much like ‘look at me and what I have" but I wanted to write down why I chose the equipment I currently have. The equipment is listed on the right-hand column in no particular order.  First up is the Sony DSC-T1

Sony DSC-T1

Farrah and I were in the market for a new digital camera. When knew we wanted something small yet could take great pictures.  I’ve always been a Sony guy, so when a commercial came on showing off the size of the T1 I was hooked. Well almost hooked.

I did my research to note the positives and negatives. The positives: size, good images (if there is enough light), a big LCD, fast start-up time and it looks cool. The negatives: price, poor images in low light, high red-eye count, and price.

Well, it made the cut since we bought it.

Even though we knew a head of time, the indoor performance is really disappointing.  But if you are traveling and you are taking a lot of outdoor photos, it’s a nice small camera to own (and the price has dropped considerably).

The Nikon FM3A

I was looking for a manual camera to give to Farrah for her birthday.  Nikon just came out with the FM3A during that time.  I was sold on the reviews of the camera and haven’t been disappointed.

Nikon FM3A

The camera is a solid piece of machinery, built like a tank. You can take pictures under almost any condition with this solid work horse.  Granted, you need to get the exposure correct (use the light meters) and focus (yes, focus), but nothing feels like you have more control then with a fully manual camera.

If there is a downside to the camera it is two things: (1) the light meter is hard to read in low light, and (2) trying to catch fast action is very difficult. You can avoid the latter if you have an automatic with you, but some times you just aren’t prepared as you should be. (I guess you can tell it’s happened to me.)

The Nikon N80

The N80 is an affordable, easy to use SLR with enough features to keep learning how to shoot. It’s light in weight when compared to the FM3A, so it can be taken almost anywhere without it being a burden. Most of the SLR film photos we have taken are with the N80.

If there are any downsides to the N80 it’s the fragile plastic feeling. The camera doesn’t feel like it could survive rugged conditions, weather or physical. With the FM3A you can probably drop the body and incur minimal damage.

Nikkor AF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5D

The most used lens out of the group of lenses we have.  It’s perfect for most photo situations.  I have never really had a problem with this lens.

Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF

A nice fast wide lens, not wide like 18mm but wide enough.  It was also very inexpensive.  I wish I went with the f/1.4 though, but I couldn’t justify the extra cost.

Tamron Zoom Telephoto AF 70-300mm

The last new lens we bought. A fellow photographer at a party suggested I get a 300mm lens.  No way I could afford a fixed lens, so I went the Telephoto non-Nikon route.  A decent lens, allow us to capture shots without getting too close.

So this is the summary of I have now.  Still waiting on that D70s.  Ugh!

• Mr. Brightside The Killers
  
• Somewhere Only We Know Keane
• Sleeps With Butterflies Tori Amos
• Breakdown Jack Johnson
• Collide Howie Day
• Super Duper Love Joss Stone
• Just Like Heaven The Cure
• Float On Modest Mouse
• Behind These Hazel Eyes Kelly Clarkson
• Don't Phunk With My Heart Black Eyed Peas

tri’al
Pronunciation: ‘trI(-&)l
Function: noun
: a tryout or experiment to test quality, value, or usefulness b : one of a number of repetitions of an experiment

trib’u’la’tion
Pronunciation: “tri-by&-‘lA-sh&n
Function: noun
: distress or suffering resulting from oppression or persecution; also : a trying experience

Oh so many blogs, so much to learn, so much to write about, so little time. This is my third blog, but really I only maintain one somewhat frequently. The other two blogs are:

• [weblog] janella.com - which is I update mostly.


• My 360 site @ Yahoo! that mirrors the above site. I keep the 360 site to keep in touch with co-workers.

Why am I starting this one?

I’m trying to get back into photography. I know there is so much to learn and I have really yet to apply what I know so far. I’ve taken pictures before, and even took a black and white photography class with Fina. It was during that stretch, about a two year stretch from when I bought Farrah the Nikon FM3A and her getting me the Nikon N80, that I was into taking pictures.

For some reason my enthusiasm has been tempered. I started concentrating on cataloging what photos we (Farrah and I) have taken, and organizing them on the main web site, [janella.com]. I’m still taking photos here and there. What I am not doing is putting thought into what I am shooting, how I am shooting a certain photo at the time. There are times, for example when Farrah and I went to Yosemite this past year, where I took some time taking photos, composing shots, but I didn’t take that many shots.

Well, I recently ordered a Nikon D-70s. This purchase has gotten me very excited. I’m very very excited!!! I haven’t been this excited since I got my first SLR several years ago. This will be my first DSLR and I hope the experience will be wonderful. I’ve been reading a lot about mega pixels, curves, iTTL, etc. I’ve scoured posts on the [Nikonians.org] web site and have done searches on various equipment. There is a lot of stuff to cover.

So I’ll be mainly writing about my joys and pains with the D-70s, or other camera woes. I might post some test shots here, something not of interest most people who read the main blog. There might be a few cross posts to [janella.com] but I’l try to keep those to a minimum.

What I think I’ll end up doing is just thinking out loud here, venting any frustrations or any new discoveries I make on my quest to be a better photographer!

Now, I just need to wait for the FedEx guy to show up with the package!

Ernie @ Prolific Oven
Originally uploaded by sith_kicker.

Farrah and I had dinner with Ernie today. We ate Yan Can in the Rivermark Center - at Ernie’s suggestion.

I just wanted to post this picture because I told him I would :)

Oh, and we had another local celebrity sighting: [Raj Mathai] walked into The Prolific Oven while we were having our dessert.