January, 2008

After I noticed that a few of my close friends were not camera shy and very photogenic, I thought I'd ask if they would mind posing for a few pictures. To my surprise, they were very enthusiastic about it and it turned out to be a great learning experience. Again, something that I want to document and improve on.

So, I had a few people ask me why I had released 2 versions of Kingston Kitchen (Take One and Take Two).

If you look at the pictures side by side, you can clearly see the colour difference. Take One is dull and muted, where as Take Two is vibrant and exactly how I wanted to capture it.

After what seemed like months, we finally saw a full day of sunshine here in Ottawa. It was a warm -2^oC degrees with a light wind that made it feel like -5^oC, not too bad considering we're in the middle of January.

I took this opportunity to go out and get some good shots. I left my house at around 2pm, and headed for the Ottawa River Parkway. Close to my house, and quite scenic.

I installed Apache 2.2, PHP 5.2 and mySQL 5.0. Everything seemed to be going great, until I tried to open a connection from PHP to mySQL. I got the dreaded error.

Call to undefined function mysql_connect()

So, off I went looking for a solution. I checked Google, I read though about 50+ threads/posts on various websites. I checked Experts-Exchange, and read a bunch of posts there, and nothing.

I tired all the normal stuff:

Before school gets way to hectic and I don't have time to play games, I thought I'd rent another title that I'm a fan off - Need For Speed. Their newest release called Pro Street. I downloaded the demo on the PS3 and looked like fun, I though I'd try it.

The intros are fun to watch - once or twice, after that you'll just end up skipping them. The in-game intros and cut scenes get repetitive very fast, and there is no way to skip them. The announcer who 'believes in you' get annoying really fast because of the clips repeat over and over again during the course of the game.

I bought the Nikon Speedlight SB-800. I had already made up my mind that I needed a flash - it was just a matter of weighting the pros and cons between the SB-600 and SB-800 models. I decided to go with the SB-800 because my philosophy has always been to make an investment. I don't like buying cheaper stuff and then having to upgrade later. I'm not saying that the SB-600 is cheap by any means, but I

I have always hated the built-in flashes on cameras, no matter how fancy the camera is. Maybe my D80 isn't the pro top-of-the-line model, but it is better than point and shoots, and I still hate the built-in flash. It's a little more bearable because it has more power and control (EV), but at times that just causes harsher shadows and blown-out highlights.

I have played around with a lot of the settings, trying to get the best exposure, but in the end, the harsh lighting that they cause is a turn off. I'm not blaming the manufacturers, because they can only put so many features into a camera. I’m also getting annoyed with the reflections I get from different surfaces with the built in flash.

Since I’m not a fan of pumping my ISO up to 1600, to shoot with a faster shutter, I’m thinking about alternatives for the built in flash. I know my goal should be to improve other elements, but living in Canada a lot of my photography happens at parties, get-togethers and generally indoors, where I don’t have good, bright lighting.

Since Warner Brothers is going to exclusively release their movies on Blu-Ray beginning May 2008, it looks like HD-DVD is going to die out fairly soon.

This means that my $700 CND investment for the PS3 when it just came out won't be going to complete waste. It might be a horrible gaming system/platform, but it's a pretty decent Blu-Ray player and the cheapest one you can buy.

For the first 350 shots or so that I took with my new D80, I was very stingy with the ISO setting. Even in dark situations I would change it from 100 to 400 which didn't really help much in terms of increasing the shutter speed. I was always worried about introducing too much grain into my pictures;

About 13-14 years ago, as a kid, I remember watching a news program where they were showing off the latest in technological innovations. One of them was the spellchecker. A reporter typed out some misspelled text. Then he pushed a button on the keyboard, and the computer pointed out the wrong words. At the time, this was amazing; a computer having the power to correct spelling. Wow!!

Happy New Year to everyone... 

So after a busy and hectic two weeks, this was my first chance at another post. Shopping, relatives, food and fun in the snow - time flew by. I am also having tons of fun with my new D80, and I'm going to start a gallery on here soon. I'm also going to turn some of them into wallpaper versions for anyone who would like them (Yes! I will also include widescreen versions where applicable.)

Which brings me to my to-do list for the New Year: