Weekend of geekin’

This past Wednesday, Dwight Silverman came to the radio show packing one of the new T-Mobile Dash smart phones. It’s a slick little device. Lightweight, slim, nice big display. It features a built-in QWERTY Keypad, Stereo Bluetooth® wireless technology, a 1.3 Megapixel camera and best of all, built in Wi-Fi. Running Windows Mobile this means you can get online at any Wi-Fi hot spot and browse the web as well as instant message and send and receive e-mail without optioning up for the additional data service plan.

It was love at first sight.

As it happens, I am a T-Mobile customer and my current phone was starting to show signs of dying the death so I called T-Mobile customer care and was pleased to discover that I was eligible for a discounted upgrade. The discounted price minus the instant and mail-in rebates made it a VERY sweet deal.

The phone arrived yesterday and today I am fully operational on the new digitalia.

The built in Wi-Fi totally rocks!

Cynthia and I have begun planning and saving for our trip this year. Our plan is to go to Spain in the fall for about a month.

The last two trips I have taken a digital camera and Cynthia has brought along her trusty Pentax film camera. As we have been planning this trip Cynthia expressed an interest in converting to digital photography. I pointed out that this could be a very good way of cutting some costs, seeing as how she would not have to buy a ton of film and pay to have it all processed. As we discussed it further she became more and more sold on the idea of getting a new digital camera.

Since she already had a Pentax and a few lenses it made sense to go with a Pentax digital SLR. Perfect timing, too, since Pentax just released the K10D.

Cynthia and I have been discussing this since before Xmas and today was the day. We went this afternnoon to the camera store and picked one up.

The K10D is an awesome piece of photographic technology. It’s very similar to my Sony Alpha 100 in that it has the built in image stabilization as well as the anti-dust technology. It goes a bit further in that it is weather sealed and sports a handful of additional features that my camera lacks.

I wouldn’t say it’s a “better” camera than mine, but I must confess a certain amount of techno-envy since it’s a newer piece of technology and my camera was released a few months ago making it a relative antique in comparison.

I comfort myself by remembering the “what’s yours is mine. what’s mine is yours” agreement we have as a long term couple.

A great geek gadget weekend for us. Cynthia has a real twinkle in her eye as she is reading up on her camera. I am excited about getting to share my passion for photography with her as I am sure this new camera will inspire her to get out and take more pictures.

Brrrrr

Yea, I know. We Texans don’t really know the meaning of the word “COLD” down here. Still, temperatures hovering near freezing with a goodly amount of precipitation and we’re practically crippled. It’s not even a beautiful winter wonderland or anything. Just cold and wet and partially frozen.

Thanks to the magic of the Internet, I am home and warm. Drinking some Ethiopian Sidamo coffee freshly ground from the local Starbucks as I telecommute to work today via Citrix.

Took the camera into the yard to shoot a few pics, so that’s a plus.

Sony Alpha 100
Lens: Sony 50mm 1.4

Click any image to see the full size version.

Frozen

Frozen

Frozen

Elementary penguin singing Hare Khrishna

There’s something about Beetle that compels me to shoot them in black and white. You can always see them in color each Thursday night at the Houston Continental Club during happy hour from 7-10pm.

I’m really enjoying the fast wide angle lens.

Beetle
Sony Alpha 100
Lens: Sigma 20mm f/1.8

Beetle
click for larger image

Beetle
click for larger image

The hero of 3700 Main

In my time I have saved the computer at the Continental Club on a few occasions and bailed out Thomas over at Sig’s Lagoon. It’s my contribution to the “scene”, I suppose.

This week I got a call from the proprietress of Taco’s-A-Go-Go. Seems their PC was misbehaving and needed some tender loving nerd care. I was surprised to get the call since I had never given them my number. I assume it was acquired via my friend Nick or someone else who had access to my digits. I said I would have a look the next time I was in the area.

With the new 9/80 schedule I had this Friday off and felt I could afford the lack of sleep and headed off to go see Beetle perform their usual Thursday night happy hour gig at the Continental. Since Taco’s-A-Go-Go is right next door I popped in to have a look at their ailing PC. Turns out the wireless adapter driver was in need of a re-install. I had it up and running in about 10-15 minutes. No big deal.

Enjoyed the Beetle show, as always. After they were done playing I was talking to Jim and he suggested heading over to a party at “Bongo” Jane’s place.

I was of a mixed mind about the whole thing. I know Jane and I knew I would know some of the people there and Jim was just so darn insistent about it I headed on over. Glad I did. I saw some old friends I had not seen in over 15 or so years and just enjoyed hanging out.

Jane’s place is quite interesting. She has the best entertainment center you can imagine. It’s a sound stage right in the main living room. Jane has a lot of musician friends and they were coming and going from the stage all night.

?
click for full size

Sorry to say, I don’t know this singer’s name. She was performing with Steve Candelari on the drums and Aaron Loesch of Jug O’ Lighnin fame on guitar.

Wide and fast

Since I have begun to dangle off the deep in when it comes to photography, I have found myself frequenting the camera stores more and more.

Always on the prowl for the right accessory and taking every opportunity to pic the brains of other photographers so I can better educate myself and improve my technique.

It’s very reminiscent of when I first took a sincere interest in computers. Who knows, maybe I will have the same success if I am lucky. I have already started to ponder working in a segment on digital photography into the radio show. The idea is quite nascent but I am pondering it sincerely.

As I was poking around the Camera Exchange and talking with Charlie the subject of used lenses came up. One of the things that did not occur to me when determining which camera to buy was the second hand market. It’s obvious now that I think of it. The two most popular brands of digital SLR cameras are Nikon and Canon. Regardless of whether they are superior or inferior to any other brand is not the point. The point is that since there are so many on the market there tends to be more used lenses for these cameras than any of the others.

What this means to me is that there are practically NO used Sony lenses and relatively few used Minolta or Minolta mount third party lenses available. This is something I would encourage anyone looking to purchase a camera to consider. Being able to buy a used lens can save you a bit of money when you want something maybe a bit more specialized and you don’t want to plunk down the full price for it.

Of course I can buy anything I need brand new and heaven knows there are some damn fine lenses available for this platform. I hungrily lust for the just released Sony Carl Zeiss® Sonnar® T* 135mm f/1.8 Telephoto Lens and when and if I can ever justify the $1500 price tag I’ll just run down to the camera store and pick one up. Then I’ll show you all! Muahahahahaha!

Ahem, but I digress.

As I was saying, second hand lenses. Not many interesting lenses to be had on the second hand market (yet). None at the Camera Co-Op and a very limited number at The Houston Camera Exchange, and the ones they had were not terribly exciting with the exception of one that caught my eye. It was the Sigma 20mm f/1.8 EX ASP DG RF prime lens. What I found interesting was the high speed and the wide angle.

The Sony 50mm 1.4 has been my go-to lens and my favorite by far of any of my lenses. That being said, the limitations of the 50mm lens really reveal themselves in a small space or when trying to get a good group shot of a band or similar.

The idea of having a fast wide angle lens was very appealing and the price of this one used was way more affordable than buying it new in the box so after contemplating it for a week I went back and purchased it.

I’ve not taken the definitive photo yet. Most of the pics from the last few blog entries are using that lens and I did take it to the Big Top for the Light Rock Express show and the debut of Disco Expressions. If you’ve ever been to the Big Top you’ll know what a photographer is up against in this space. Very dim lighting and what lighting there is tends to be red. Thank heaven for good custom white balance settings.

Light Rock Express

Just add horns and voila! Disco!

I like it. I can get up close and personal and still capture a lot of what is going on. And not having to use a flash makes me far less irritating to the performers.

Of course now it’s going to be a more difficult decision when I trying to determine which lenses I will travel with to any given destination.

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