I Think I’m Learning Japanese

For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to visit Asia. China, Japan, Korea…something. Cynthia has always wrinkled her nose and frowned at the idea so I wasn’t holding out much hope.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve loved the trips we have taken and I figured I’d be fine never going east.

Still, whenever the opportunity presented itself I’d revisit the subject. When a travel show would come on we’d watch it or I would mention that someone I knew just went or came back from somewhere.

Sometime earlier this year Cynthia caught a show on one of the learning/history/travel channels about life in Japan and something clicked. All of a sudden she was very interested in the idea of going there. We bought some books and she’s done her research and now it in the pipeline. If we can afford it, we’re planning for spring of 2010.

Cynthia’s also decided she would also like to learn Japanese and has signed up for language lessons. She in a beginner course and it remains to be seen how far she’ll take it.

She’s made flash cards of the first 40 Katakana characters she has to learn this week. I’m rooting her on the best I can and who knows, I might learn something myself along the way. I now know what the Japanese language is composed of Katakana, Hiragana and Kanji characters. That’s more than I knew last week.

Iris

When I first started shooting with a digital SLR I was keenly interested in fast lenses for low light photography. During one of my early visits to the camera store my connection dealer friend Charlie showed me a used Sigma 20mm f/1.8 lens they had available. I jumped on it thinking it would be a great concert lens and give me a much needed wide angle that I was unable to achieve with my 50mm.

As it turned out the lens was a poor performer. Soft, even blurry stopped down to 1.8 or 2.0 making it fairly useless for my needs. Being the procrastinator I am, I never took it back or sought a refund.

Fast forward to yesterday and I decide to revisit the lens.

Keep in mind that the lens wasn’t overly expensive, but it wasn’t free either. I was thinking I might put it up for sale “as is” on EBay and wanted to have one more look at what the lens produced, image-wise.

Holy sharp focus, Batman!

The above shot was taken at f/1.8 and is a 100% crop only reduced in size to fit this page. If you click on the image you will see the full sized crop.

I’ve changed cameras since that purchase and have not tried the lens since then. What a difference a new camera makes. I am guessing that the lens just works better with the Sony A700 than it did with the Sony A100. It makes sense. This lens is rather old and may not have communicated properly with the first gen Sonys.

At any rate, I am very happy I hung on to it. I love prime lenses. I just love them.

Houston Roller Derby – Ring Of Fire

I was looking forward to this month’s roller derby match as I knew it would be a good chance to put the new lens through it’s paces. Shooting sports in low light presents a unique set of optical challenges and I figured the new toy would be up to the task, and it was. I ended up shooting most of the match with it and only swapping to the wide angle for some experimental shots.

I liked being able to shoot the far side of the track as well as being able to go up into the balcony seats and shoot down on the action. Much more versatile than I imagined once I began to embrace the concept of “being the zoom.” In other words, moving my physical self to change the framing and focal length. Something that’s not always easy to do, but this event lent itself well to the concept.

The rest of my shots are in the HRD Flickr site. Check them out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/hrdart/sets/72157606680709501

Beat Box

Percussion instrument used during a performance of Clouseaux.

I like the absurdity of a box being miked as it looks like it’s about to be interviewed…

Host: Joining us now, a wooden box touring with the musical group, Clouseaux…

Wooden Box: It’s great to be here!

Host: How’s the tour going?

Wooden Box: Aside from the constant beatings, it’s terrific!

More pics here

Whatchoo Lookin At?

Setup the camera on a tripod in the breakfast room and focused on the spot where the hummer was landing with some frequency. Used the IR remote and bounced it off the window pane so I wouldn’t startle the hummer when taking the shot.

The shutter noise didn’t scare him off, but did make the little guy look at the camera and cock his head in a rather quizzical manner.

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