Archive for April, 2007
Fiery Flower
Apr 15th
Today I attended a random meetup with other Flickr members from Edmonton. There wasn’t a huge turnout, but I got to meet at least a few other Flickr members from around my hometown. We met up at the Muttart conservatory, and spent some time wandering around taking photographs. I got to try out my new lenses: A Sigma 17-70 f/2.8-4.5 and a Canon 50mm f/1.4. So shiny! 
This is by far my favourite shot from the day. Of course, I forgot to take a shot of the nametag, and since I don’t know anything about flowers — I can’t identify this for you. But it sure is pretty! This shot was with my new Canon lens.
So it was a pretty cool day. After the Muttart a few Flickr members ended up at the Sherlock Holme’s pub downtown. It was good fun.
Sophie
Apr 11th
Lenses!
Apr 9th
Today I ordered a couple of new lenses for my camera. The first was an easy choice: a Canon 50mm f/1.4 USM – which will be my main lens when running around indoors. I’m actually a little disappointed that I didn’t start my research on this until really late or I might’ve had the chance to order this lens *before* the reunion which would have been beneficial several times. Oh well, I will have it soon!
The other lens I ordered took me awhile to decide upon. I ended up choosing this guy: a Sigma 17-70 f/2.8-4.5 DC. There were several other lenses I was seriously considering, including a Canon 17-85 f/4-5.6 IS USM and the Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 EX. In the end though, the one I chose won out because of its very reasonable price and the combination of features it has. There seems to be a lot of mixed reviews concerning the Canon lens. Some people love it, but a lot of people seem to hate it. The 17-70 I chose didn’t seem to have these polarized opinions (though there is some concern over getting a good copy of the lens). The 24-70, on the other hand is a really nice looking lens. However, you may have noticed that I do a fair amount of scenery photography, and I felt that I would dearly miss the wide-angle capability that I can currently do with my kit lens. When I go travelling, this is the lens I will be moving around with so I settled for the 17-70.
If you’ve got any comments for me I’d love to hear them — I’ll hopefully get the lenses soon and will give them some in depth tests while I still have the option of returning them.
Heraldk
Bayne Family Reunion
Apr 9th
Well I got back yesterday from the first family reunion on my Mom’s Dad’s side of the family since 1989 (or something in that area). It was held at Camp Nakamun, which really was the ideal place to hold a family reunion. It was away from the big city, but had all the luxuries that you don’t find at just any camp setting. I was totally impressed with the facilities and the comfort was definitely appreciated since we weren’t really out there to be camping!
The story of the weekend? Photos, and good food. I ran around with my camera for most of the weekend taking photos of people taking part in the various activities. More than a few turned out really well so you’ll be seeing some of them hit my flickr photoblog soon enough. The meals were also pretty awesome. We were called into meals at specific times and were treated to a very satisfying selection of food to choose from — and there was plenty of it!
One of the highlights of the weekend was the game of human foosball we played. Some ingenious person setup this area where players strap themselves onto rods that are basically gigantic versions of foosball rods. The difference being that the players run back and forth and kick the ball instead of there being an outside player controlling it. The game is a lot of fun, but mostly the game is filled with hilarity as the players and observers alike enjoy the rather amusing situations.
It sounds like there might be another family reunion in 3 years, which I will gladly attend. Maybe I might start to learn the names of some of my relatives a little better and I might actually start to get to know some of them a bit better. Funny how an 18 year gap between reunions doesn’t help you remember people…!
Heraldk
Susa Valley
Apr 8th
This is the beautiful scene when looking from St Michael’s Abbey in Northern Italy. The valley is known as the Susa valley and the view from the Abbey is pretty spectacular!
I pulled this photo from almost a year ago, but I’ll have some more recent photos up in the next little while. I got several really good photos this weekend at my family reunion so those photos will make there way into this collection soon!
Tired
Apr 2nd
This last week has taken a lot out of me. I’ve been quite busy working on this poker project — the results are starting to look really promising, but I’m not gonna talk about that just yet. It looks like we’re gonna have to get ready for an exciting event that should be happening in Vancouver in July. But you didn’t hear that here first!
I had a terrible downturn in poker so between that and the neteller trouble, I think I’m going to take an extended break from online gambling. (I didn’t lose all my bankroll, but I might just cash out my money for awhile). I might use some of my PSO points to start a micro stakes bankroll from which to climb back up again … we’ll see if that’s worth doing or not. In the meantime, I’m tossing around the idea of buying some lenses for my camera. The basic lens is pretty good, but it is starting to limit me in the stuff I’d like to try. So it is definitely time to purchase at least another lens. I’m kind of thinking a decent low-light/indoor lens with no zoom and a more general purpose zoom lens that borders on some telephoto capability … If anyone has any helpful suggestions on good lenses or good place to buy such lenses, I’d really appreciate it! I haven’t quite picked out the exact lenses I want yet. I’ll be doing a bit more research over the next little while before I settle on something.
So that’s where I’m at so far. This coming weekend Diane and I will be joining my family for a big reunion. So I won’t be in town for most of the weekend. Should be fun, though it might be awkward since many people will be there that I should know/remember. Oh wells. Perhaps I will take my camera down and practice some photography! Hmm – maybe I should buy that 50mm lens I’ve been looking at *before* this weekend …
Heraldk
Rainbow
Apr 1st
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