Recently I got myself a new lens for my SLR, and I have been trying to take better photos with it. The lens is a Canon 50mm 1.8 Mark I, and I have been using it on my “ancient” Canon EOS Rebel 2000. The person I bought the lens from had bought it with an Elan 7 back in 1987 or 1988 he said. Its a faster lens in terms of aperture, but the autofocus is incredibly slow on it. Because of this, I have been using the lens in Manual mode, and subsequently, I have even been using the camera in Manual mode. Its been a long time since I shot a camera without all of the automatic features, so I am finding that some of my photos are what I am expecting, and some are not. I think part of this is that I am still getting used to the camera, so I am not as fast with the controls as I might like. I do feel like I am getting better in general, but I do have a ways to go. In all honesty, it has reinvigorated me, and my savings goals have shifted again. The 7d/t2i has once again risen to be an initial savings priority. The two bodies are mostly the same, with the two notable differences being the Burst capabilities, and the storage media formats. I think in the long run, I would end up upgrading before too long, so the t2i is a better choice. (I have had the 35mm for 9 years, and the digital P&S for 3 with its predecessor lasting 5, so too long may be relative.) I could also afford the t2i and a 135mm or 85mm Prime Lens for the price of the 7d body, so that is a consideration.
Anyway, here are the recent photos, and more will be posted when I finish the rolls. Over last weekend I shot 2.5 rolls of 35mm, 10/12ths of a roll of 120 film, 20-30 digital shots, and a couple of phone pics. Though the phone pics were mostly inconsequential shots to capture gps/time metadata.
MemorialDay 2010 Photoset on Flickr
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What does SxSW mean to me?
Last night was the beginning of SxSW, which means that masses of mindless drones are in town for a music festival. As you can probably already guess, I love it when lots of people flock into the place that I live, and act like they are from here in a very short period of time. I don’t mind tourism. In fact, I love tourism. I enjoy watching people who aren’t from here while they are on vacation. However, I hate when everyone comes at once, because all of the sudden the order of life gets flipped, and these people from other places end up exerting their idiocy on everyone else. I know this is a part of life, and I learn to accept it and get around it, but, that doesn’t mean I can’t complain about it. One of the major problems of living in Austin on a day to day basis is that the infrastructure has not kept up with the population growth. The road system just isn’t expansive enough to deal with the number of cars on the road, and whenever new roads are added, they seem to be toll roads, so they sit unused. My feeling on toll roads is not the point here, my point is that on a good day we already have plenty of idiots who don’t know where they are or where they are going. Now we are going to temporarily add in tons of people who have even less of a clue where they are or where they are going, and randomly include alcohol into the mix. That just sounds like a good idea to me.
Knowing all of this, I should have taken my vacation now, and just left. Sort of like burning the houses and salting the earth when the viking ships appear on the horizon. I didn’t though, so I am here now, and I am just having to plan around it. In one positive twist of fate, its Spring Break, so the number of cars on the road during my morning commute is cut in almost half, so I don’t actually sit in traffic. Because of this, I would completely support a law denying UT students driver’s licenses. And before people complain, I would also willingly support an expansion of public transportation. I am eagerly awaiting consistent service on the metro line. When it comes time to leave, I am however into the method of just planning for it to take a long time to make it home. So, I am hanging around downtown for a while to let the congestion subside. Yesterday, I went with Evan to REI and Bookpeople after work to kill some time. I ended up getting a hat that I really liked, and was way to expensive, but, oh well. I will wear it, and it sort of makes me look like I would fit in with Castro’s Regime.
Viva La Revolución
Before I headed home, we decided not to go out and hangout at the packed bars for St. Patrick’s Day, so on the way I stopped by the grocery store, and got some fresh fish and some beer. Being St. Patrick’s Day, I of course got a 6 pack of Guiness. For the fish, it was a 1lb fillet of Steelhead Trout. When I got home, I put on some rice, and coated the trout in lemon juice, then sprinkled it liberally with dried rosemary leaves, salt-free lemon pepper and some sea salt. I then broiled it on the top rack for 5 minutes, and moved it down to the 4th rack for another 8 minutes. It was delicious. We had rice and peas on the side, and the Guiness to wash it down. Pardon my dirty coffee table, for some reason we tend to eat dinner there more often than not. I guess thats because I don’t really have a dining room, only a bar into the kitchen, and thats got a bunch of stuff on it right now.
Steelhead Trout and Guiness