Archive for the 'Photos' Category
Pentax K20D
I have a penchant for overly expensive hobbies. When I’m not playing an over-priced game on an expensive console connected to an even more expensive HD television — like right now, with the XBox dead in the water — I like to go out and take pictures. Photography, even if you go digital and remove the film and processing costs, is not a cheap hobby if you want to pursue it seriously. It’s a relatively new interest for me but it is, yes, something I want to pursue seriously. Hence, I bought a new camera. It was an impulse purchase.
Those that are in the know would ask “but didn’t you buy a new camera less than a year ago?” Well, I did. It was the Pentax model previous to this one. It was a fine camera and was a very good introduction to the world of SLR and I took many photos with it, but I gave it to my sister for Christmas. She had more use for it than I did, being a third year photography student and all. After several months, however, I started to miss that camera. Lucky for me, a new model was just around the corner. No, I did not need all the new stuff — the K10D was perfectly good — but something about the new and top-of-the-line appealed to the technodork in me. When I found out that it was released, earlier than I anticipated it, I had to have it. I like being bleeding edge on the pro-sumer front.
There isn’t a whole lot of difference between the two cameras, especially to an amateur that’s still learning. The body is practically identical. The UI is practically identical. The features are mostly the same, except for some additions like better ISO, “Live View” and other more advanced features. I think the sensor is new too, but I’m not sure. Most notably the biggest change is numerical: the K20D has 14.6 Megapixels compared to the K10D’s 10.2.
That is a fucking lot of pixels. The uncompressed RAW files it generates are over 24MB each with a resolution of 4457×3104 at 240dpi. That is a fucking lot of pixels. To better visualize what that means, here is a picture at a 1:1 pixel ratio:
Now here is the picture it is taken from, scaled to fit:
It’s really quite striking. I can’t imagine taking too many photos at that full resolution, but it’s nice that it’s there. Of course, any photos I take as I learn and familiarize myself with the camera will be posted to my flickr feed so if you’re curious about what the camera can do check that out and also look at the fledgling K20D flickr group.
Oh. I should also mention one other reason why I purchased this camera: I quit my job, I am moving out of my apartment and moving to Europe. It’s a minor thing.
2007: A Year in Photos
2007 was the most documented year in my life. The sheer number of photos taken this year is astounding. Various logs and notes have tallied where I ate my lunches, what games I purchased and what movies I watched. Actually, I tapered off with my OCD note taking half way through the year so the last few months are a void… but next year I’ll do better. Anyway, going through my photo library is very much like traveling through the year all over again, so I have compiled the best and most descriptive (and “only” for some slow months) photos of the year. Low bandwidth users beware!:
Zombie Walk Toronto
Sunday afternoon was the annual Toronto Zombie Walk. I didn’t partake but I was down to take a picture of the quite organized horde of zombies shuffling up Bathurst Street, sticking to the sidewalk and obeying all traffic signals. They might be undead but they aren’t barbarians!
Apart from one kid getting completely freaked out — his parents had to reassure him that it wasn’t real — the actual walk was kind of dull. The real amusement happened away from the main route with the straggler zombies. There’d be guys casually walking down a street talking on their cellphones with their shirts completely covered in blood and girls with putrid makeup on their faces and blood covered stockings boarding streetcars. The looks those people would get were worth the price of admission alone and because they weren’t part of a giant procession many onlookers had no basis to dismiss it as part of an event. I saw plenty of confused and scared people on the streets that day.
Hulk Promises Violence
I went to see Eastern Promises a few evenings ago (it was good but A History of Violence was better) and the walk to the theatre took me right by the set for The Incredible Hulk. The stretch of Yonge Street between Gerrard and Dundas, a busy area, was closed for evenings and nights for a few days while the film’s final showdown was being filmed in faux-Harlem. You would think that in this day and age of CGI a blockbuster of this sort wouldn’t need to close down such a busy street to do its filming. But no, here they are inconveniencing everyone but the Teamsters, the extras and the cops getting paid extra to sit around doing nothing.
My camera, and its new lens, was with me so I pulled it out, took a few photos and quickly packed it away. I’ve always been a bit self-conscious with the camera — more so with the large and bulky SLR — which is why the photos I’ve taken have been predominantly landscapes or cityscapes that involve few, if any, people. Most were taken in isolation where there was no reason to be self-conscious. It feels different in the city.
Anyway, with it packed away I made my way to the movie just in time for the 9:30 showing. The movie started a little after 9:50. Twenty fucking minutes of trailers and commercials. I thought “oh yeah, this is why I don’t go to the theatre anymore!” The shock was even more pronounced after seeing 31 movies at the film festival where I never had to endure more than two minutes of pre-film bumpers. But twenty minutes? For a film that I paid more to see than at the film festival? I think I’ll save the “cinema experience” for the next film festival.
On the way back I stopped by the south side of the film shoot for a different perspective. After taking a photo or two a group (gaggle?) of women walked by pointing and saying “Paparazzi. Paparazzi.” One of them pulled out a cellphone camera. I looked at them and said that I’m not. “I’m just a guy with a big camera.” They didn’t believe, said “paparazzi” one more time and moved on. If random women are going to be conversing with me on the street then I’m not sure if I should remain self-conscious or if I should wield that camera exclusively.
ROM’s Crystal
Amongst the many recent and upcoming architectural works happening around Toronto as part of the “cultural renassiance” (I don’t know about that one), the Royal Ontario Museum’s crystal has remained my favourite. I liked it during the concept (even if it invoked a little bit of the Louvre deja vu), I liked it during construction once it started to jet out over Bloor St., looming behind all the generic high-end retailers of Yorkville, and now that I’ve seen it from the inside I like it more.
After a concert and gala celebration, today (from midnight until the evening) was the free “architectural opening” of the new addition. That is a fancy way of saying “you can come inside and look at the structure, but ignore the fact that none of the exhibits are set up since we’re months behind schedule.” And much like their scheduling, their planning for the day was atrocious. It was a ticketed free event, which meant that you can get in for free so long as you got yourself a ticket in advance. Many people lined up last night, during and after the concert, to get tickets that they would use in the morning.
I was not one of those. After watching game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals, I was in no mood to venture out into that sweltering June humidity. I figured that I’d just take a chance with the morning weather instead.
After breakfast and a rather brisk walk, I was at the back side of the ROM. A hand written sign informed me “TICKETS AT BLOOR ST ENTRANCE”, so I wandered towards Bloor St. only to be greeted by a giant line. I took a spot and asked the lady in front of me if that was the line to get tickets.
“No, this is the line for those that already have tickets.”
OK. I worked my way around the line to Bloor Street and saw that there wasn’t a secondary line. Maybe the tickets were all accounted for? I went back to the end of the line, which was now further down University Avenue. “Excuse me, where do you get ticket?”
“You have to go to the back, I think. This line is for those with tickets”.
I returned to the back of the ROM, past the “TICKETS AT BLOOR ST ENTRANCE” sign and into the rear security entrance. “Where exactly do you get tickets?”
“You have to line up on Bloor Street.”
“But I was just there and they told me that it’s for ticket-holders…”
“It’s the same line.”
Back to the line I went, now ending even further down University Ave, and ignored everything and anything that anyone not wearing a “ROM” shirt said. I put my headphones back on, put the volume up and hummed along to myself Automatic crystal remote control, we come to move your soul
By the time my point in line made it to the Bloor St. corner it was clear that the ROM officials totally underestimated the turnout and that the ticket-holders line was the same as the ticket-getters line, to the dismay of all those that lined up beforehand to get them. I was glad I didn’t bother the night before.
Once inside, the building feels a lot more welcoming than menacing. Some might decry the lack of curves or, even, the lack of 90 degree corners, but I welcome it. Walls and pillars jet out of the floors at odd angles and disappear into the ceiling, illuminated. There are windows and gaps all around through which you can see other levels and sections of the crystal, all full of activity. Once the exhibits are installed this will unify them together in the space. The light and the openness will complement them well. The current spaces in the old building feel too much like the tombs from which the pieces of its collections were taken.
Yet the crystal doesn’t forget about that old building. Inside the crystal there are signs of the old brick architecture, seemingly breaking through the white walls. Doorways and walkways seamlessly take you from one building to the other and in the central hallway it’s as if the crystal is hugging the old facade. It’s ying and yang, but as Andrew Blum writes, Like the city itself, they all connect—far more than they collide or coalesce. This building is a monument to that Toronto, and to its future.
Sure, it has its detractors, as expected, but the mood on the floor was positive. There was a lot of discovery and playfulness and when you consider that it’s going to be host to a large number of dinosaurs and, naturally, kids that’s a good sense to exude.
I’ll be posting more photos in my flickr ROM set over the next couple of days.
E3 2002
With E3 being scaled down next year, I figured it was time to belatedly reminisce about the extravagant and smelly spectacle that it once was. So I’ve uploaded a number of photos from the 2002 show, the one and only time I attended.
Bonus content: The Decline of Western Magazine Design and The Final Decline and Total Collapse of the American Magazine Cover. Also, My Animated World, a stop-motion day in the life of a gamer.
Sony DSCN1
Those that follow my flickr stream might have noticed my new acquisition:
To be honest, I was very hesitant about getting a Sony. Their brand identity with personal electronics is to me like Firestone is to tires. In other words, when I get a Sony I half expect it to turn into a crashing wreck.
Unfortunately, one of the reasons why I opted for the Sony was because I fell into that Sony Proprietary Trap of Doom™. I already bought a 2GB Memory Stick Duo Pro Super Duper for the PSP and I didn’t want to buy another memory format or risk being stuck with someone else’s proprietary trash. I already have a camera that uses Smartmedia, which is useless to me as it’s a dead format. In fact, I don’t think it ever went beyond the 128MB range. At least with the Memory Stick, if my camera becomes obsolete, I can continue to use it with my PSP.
The other obvious reason was that the Cybershot had fairly positive reviews. I was cautious about the touch-screen interface, some like it and some hate it, but playing around with it in the store eased my worries. I still prefer the UI on my old Fuji Finepix, but the Cybershot is intuitive enough (though I haven’t played around with the manual settings enough yet.) The photos are fine too, I guess.
What I really want to bitch about (always need to be negative) is the battery. This is my biggest problem with the Cybershot: to charge the battery, you have to take it out of the camera, put it in a charger and plug it in. On its own this isn’t so bad, but the problem arises from the fact that when you plug the camera to your computer via USB, it doesn’t draw power from it. Thus, if you are charging your battery, you can not connect the camera to the PC. Similarly, if the battery is in the camera, leaving it plugged in drains it. I’ve already had the battery die on me in the middle of a file transfer.
This is a basic feature that I expect from a camera, especially at this price. Not to my surprise, I did discover that there is a dock for the camera, but it’s a $100 more!
That right there is the Sony that I have grown to despise.
Max Requirements
Microsoft releases Max. A free photo organization app not at all unlike Apple’s iPhoto or (Ballmer: “I will kill”) Google’s Picasa, but late and with more Microsoft. Worry not, though, because this piece of software is not made by robots, as they boldly say right there on the site.
That seems like an odd thing to mention. The kind of thing robots would say to mislead the general public. But they might be right. After seeing this new product that is not like any other product
(but actually a heck of a lot like iPhoto or Picasa) come out after their competitor’s products, I can only conclude that they are actually clones. Possibly with cybernetic implants. So, not robots, but close enough on the evil future overlord scale.
I can’t comment on the actual merits of the software, as I have no need for such a tool (and if I did, Picasa works fine enough.) If I did need this, though, I think I’d choose something with slightly more realistic requirements. It’s not that I don’t meet the system requirements — I do — but a fucking photo app shouldn’t be recommending a 2.4 GHz processor and 512 MB of RAM. To compare:
Microsoft Max (photo organization)
- 1.0 gigahertz (GHz) processor.
- 256 megabytes (MB) of RAM.
- 200 MB of available hard disk space.
- Super VGA (800 x 600) resolution monitor.
Google Picasa (photo organization)
- PC with 300MHz Pentium processor and MMX technology.
- 64 MB RAM (128MB Recommended)
- 50 MB available hard disk space (100MB recommended)
- 800 x 600 pixels, 16 bit color monitor.
Half-Life 2 (full 3D game with physics and AI)
- 1.2 GHz Processor
- 256MB RAM
- DirectX 7 capable graphics card
Microsoft’s photo organization app: slightly less system intensive than Half-Life 2. No wonder Vista is going to be a major system hog, they can’t even get their photo software to be light. Screw that.
Airshow
The final weekend of the Canadian National Exhibition is the final weekend of summer (sort of.) It is also the weekend of the Canadian International Air Show. As with all things happening over the lake near Ontario Place, I have a pretty good view of the event. So I just sat around on the balcony a lot this weekend, got my arms sorely tanned, and took a crap load of photos. Well over two-hundred. A few of them actually didn’t turn out quite so crappy! I’ve posted those to my Flickr account.
It was good to see the Snowbirds, because without their appearance (which was up in the air due to recent problems), the show would have been quite boring.
Cheltenham Badlands Photo SetUmbrella
This morning I could not find my umbrella. I searched all the obvious places in vain. I thought about the last time it rained and where I took my umbrella. I remembered walking to a GO Station with the umbrella, but I did not go on that train. I remembered taking it with me to work. Did I leave it on a Streetcar? Did I just forget it at work? No, I remembered taking it with me after work. Where did I go?
Then it dawned on me. The umbrella was in the refrigerator. How obvious!
Apparently, I had taken it with me to the liquor store after work, when I went to buy Killer 7 (these two things are not related, though after playing the game, I can concede that they might be.) Upon purchase I threw the umbrella into the bag with the beer. Once I got home, I placed the whole bag into the refrigerator, umbrella and all. Then I forgot about it. duh.
While I was in Atlantic Canada, taking many pictures of the highway, my sister was in Poland taking many pictures of buildings. When I went to get my disposable camera film developed I dropped off her rolls of film too. They were supposed to digitize my photos, but as I found out at home, they had digitized her photos instead. Since I have them here with me, I present a sample of my hometown (with an extra cock photo as a bonus!).
