Okay, so those who’ve read my blog know I’m trying to figure out which camera I want as my second body; a 7D or T2i. I’ve been doing some research, and it turns out I was wrong on my previous post. The 7D DOES have an external microphone input…so it’s starting to look better to me. I was also starting to check prices and it looks like I can get this body with the lens I want in a package, with that lens being nicely discounted.
This decision, while difficult, is starting to get easier. The T2i seems like it would be a great choice, fiscally, but I just don’t think I’d be happy with it. The size and construction would still bother me even though I knew I was saving money. Call me crazy… I know.
More to come soon.
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted, but I figured I’d write about something that’s been bugging me for awhile. I’ve been using my Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Dii lens on my 50D for a while now as my “walkabout” lens, meaning if I were to just pick up my camera and go for a walk, that’d be the lens I’d take. I generally prefer something on the wider side, though I’m starting to think I may shift my focus a bit (no pun intended) to having something that extended a bit farther into the “telephoto” range. I’d be sacrificing my wide-angleness a bit, but it may be worth it. How often do I shoot at 17mm for a real reason, anyway?
Anyways, on to my dilemma; I went shooting the other day and, for whatever reason, my images were coming out overexposed and washed out, something I hadn’t seen using my faithful Tamron before. I was shooting outdoors, and watching my meter as I always do. Granted, the environment could have been toying with me when it came to the meter and suggested exposures, but it hadn’t steered me wrong thus far. That being said, I talked to a few photographer friends of mine and all said the same thing: “Check your UV filter, it may need to be replaced.”
I’ve never shot without a filter on the front of any of my lenses. Call it paranoia, call it eccentricity, whatever it is. I don’t want the front element of my lens to get dusty. Seems reasonable, right? I mean, how much could a thin piece of seemingly transparent glass on the front of the lens affect the outcome?
I decided to do a little test of my own, and I was actually pretty surprised to see the results. I mounted my 50D on the tripod, and using a cable release took a series of shots with my 17-50mm at various apertures, and also my EF50mm f/1.4 for a “control” comparison. I loaded the images into Aperture, and did not perform any image modification. All of the pictures were taken with the rightmost AF point focused towards the rightmost edge of the “beak” thing on the “bird” thing… I’m not quite sure what it was I was photographing, but they seemed to make for an interesting subject.
Here are my findings. If you mouse over one of the images. it will tell you the details of it, and you can click it to see a larger version. First row of images is using the Tamron 17-50 with the UV filter installed, second row is the same lens but with the UV filter removed (bare front element, AAAHHH!!! hehe), then the final row is the ones shot with my EF 50mm f/1.4 prime. All images taken at 50mm focal length. Each image was taken at ISO 200, f10, f6.3, f4.5, and f2.8, at various shutter speeds.
I tried to match the composition for each of the shots, for consistency. The images were shrunk to 35% (taken RAW originally) and exported as JPEGs for this site. I didn’t think full-res RAW files were really essential for this particular test. This is more of me satisfying my curiosity, that and it was just something fun to do.
** Note – For some silly reason, WordPress decided to put the pictures in a weird order. They are all f/10, then f/2.8, f/4.5, and f/6.3 as opposed to going from largest to smallest. Due to time constraints I can’t fix it right now….
What better way to spend one of my days off than troubleshooting network issues?! For some weird reason, I’ve started having difficulties with streaming video, namely YouTube and now Netflix is acting up too. I’d start downloading/streaming a video, it would load about halfway, then just stop playing. I’d have to pause then restart the video, or scrub all the way to the end before going back to the middle of the movie to hopefully have it play through. This happened once before, then the issue magically resolved itself, and it’s now back again.
I’m curious, is anyone else experiencing issues like this? Doesn’t seem to have any bearing whether I’m connected via Ethernet or Wireless, I run both an 802.11b/g and 802.11n networks (separate, actually two different devices entirely), iPhones, iPads, all Macs in the house (hehe I’ve been waiting a long time to say that), but still I’m getting wonky behavior on the network.
I’m in the middle of a fresh backup of 600+ GB of data from my MacBook to my Time Capsule, but once that finishes I might try taking my Airport Extreme out of the equation to see if that resolves the issue.
It seems that tech support, I’m afraid, is always open…
So far so good, with my blog transfer. I’m coming across so many new and exciting things to add to my blog, and even more ways to tweak it. I’m also really loving all of the google-integration. So far the only thing I haven’t seen work yet is the Feedburner stuff, to track my blog subscribers. I know I’ve got at least 3 that should be showing up yet it still says 0 subs. Maybe it takes some time to update, not sure. I added one of my other email addresses as a subscriber, so hopefully things will be working once I get an email there. I digress.
I want to congratulate my friend Amy, on getting her blog up and running at her very own site: www.twistedbride.com – she’s a colorful writer, and I always enjoy her blogs. She doesn’t hold anything back. I definitely wish her much luck!
In the days/weeks to come, I’m hoping to get my Flickr account connected with this site so I can show off some of my pictures, I’ve also remapped jbrecording.net to point here so that should start working once the dns propagates across the net. Google analytics is working too, but not sure how often that updates. Anybody know?
I really enjoy blogging, but I am enjoying the administrative/tech support side of maintaining my blog site almost as much as I like to write on it. I’m also doing most of this from my iPad, which makes it even more fun.
Thank you all for checking this out and for reading my blogs, I do appreciate every visit to the site and hope to see some repeat visitors and subscriptions while I work on this ongoing project.
I play World of Warcraft. I can safely say I’m not an addict, at least not now. I used to be, I freely and wholeheartedly admit that. An addiction, for all intents and purposes, is defined as “[the act of being] physically and mentally dependent on a particular substance, and unable to stop…without incurring adverse effects”. World of Warcraft, from here on out I’m going to just refer to it as “WoW”, is often called “World of WarCrack”, because it’s like crack in it’s addictive tendencies. I fell victim to the addictiveness of this game, and quit once. I went back, and I think I’m about ready to quit again.I’m not going to go into details, for the most part non-WoWplayers would have no idea what I was talking about anyways. Saying things like “Gearscore” wouldn’t mean much, and it’s fine. The crux of it is simply this… People look at it so much more than just a video game, when no matter what happens, by the end of the day when we all go to sleep at night, it is nothing more than a video game.
There are aspects of the game that make it truly a different experience, like the fact that it’s played online with millions of people around the world. At any given point, I could be talking to people from across the country, or across the world. In that regard, it’s really an awesome experience to be able to meet people that one wouldn’t get to meet usually. I’ve actually made some great friendships on that game, again, from people I never would have had the pleasure of getting to know. I’ll definitely be grateful for those relationships, and the friends I’ve made.
Conversely, there’s also the down side to playing with people. There are a lot (A LOT) of kids who play, and the immaturity is abundant. There are kids who are in leader-type positions of running “guilds”, or groups of players, who really don’t know how to lead at all. They couldn’t lead a row of dominos to fall in a straight line. Seriously. Also, there are the people who take the game waaay too seriously.
Let me reiterate….It’s nothing more than a video game.
There are different types of challenges people can face in that game when it comes to content… and most require the assistance of other people, so there are things for 5 players at a time, 10 players, or 25 respectively. This introduces entirely new problems because now, you’re getting into people having to sign up to go on these runs, and you introduce the concept of “dependability”. Does someone show up for the run they signed up for? Or do they flake out, etc?
These are basic life skills here. Let’s temporarily set aside the “video game” aspect of it for a moment; In general, if you tell someone you’re going to go someplace and then flake out, you look bad. If you agree to help someone with something and you don’t, you look like the douchebag. Applying this to a video game, if you say you’re going to run a raid with some people, and don’t show up, you’re now screwing people over because you’re not there to do the role you agreed to do. That’s perfectly understandable, I get that. What I don’t get, is that people take this so seriously as to let this come between friends.
I’ve always told the people that I play with where I stand on signing up to do stuff: I refuse to put game time on my schedule, because that forces me to play. The first time I played, before going back from my 6 month break, I had a particular weekend where I was off and was down the shore. Weekends off at my job are very hard to come by. I actually had to leave early to get back in time to run a raid, because I’d signed up and said I’d be there, and as it turns out the raid wound up falling apart shortly after it started and my night was basically ruined. I’d decided from then on that I would not force myself to play this game, and that I’d only play when I wanted to, on my terms. I was exercising the freedom to do what I wanted, when I wanted. Granted, this had some setbacks, I didn’t get all the greatest gear and whatnot, but I really didn’t care. I let the game be just that…a game. I didn’t let it control me.
I am getting pretty sick of how petty people have become when it comes to loyalty on this game. I’m not going to go into specifics, but I was put in a very awkward position just recently, for choosing to stand behind a friend of mine versus others that I really didn’t know. I’m drawing the line here, trust me it was pretty stupid when all was said and done.
In retrospect… when I wasn’t playing wow, there was a lot more going on for me. I was getting more music done in the studio, I was more social with my friends, my family didn’t see me in front of the computer all the time. I found I really didn’t miss it that much. When I went back to playing it, it was fun to get back into it for a while and see all of my old friends, but eventually it started to suck more and more time from my day to day life. I stopped playing once, I think it’s time I stop again, and get my life back.
I haven’t had a personal life in a very long time, a social life, etc. It’s mostly been work and music, and WoW. There are certain people in my life who deserve more attention, that I’d like to focus on and put them first for once, most importantly myself. There are opportunities I should be taking up, there are things I should be doing with my life, and doing for myself, since I’m not getting any younger. I’m almost 29, almost 30, and I’ve got a lot to do still while I’m on this planet. The last thing I want to do is waste the time I have sitting in front of the computer, playing a video game.
Is this my 100% departure from WoW? Am I never going to play ever again? Is this completely it? Who knows. The game is fun, I enjoy it, but I don’t enjoy the petty drama and bullshit that comes with it, and I don’t enjoy the hours it sucks out of my life. I do enjoy the people, and the friends and fun. For right now in my life, I’m not even going to put it on the back burner. Going with the cooking analogy, my meal isn’t turning out the way I want to, so I’m going to turn off the flame and pour out whatever I was making. I’ve still got my ingredients, maybe I’ll give it another go some time soon, but for now I’ll just get some takeout.
First, it was HGTV and Food Network, now ABC. When it comes to pissing off big companies, Cablevision appears to be the leader in that category. As you can see from my previous post, entitled “This is pathetic”, Cablevision customers have now lost the ability to watch one of the largest major networks in the country. Why? Because someone is throwing a temper tantrum. Except instead of screaming and crying for mommy, it’s blatant arguments on respective websites. I’ve never seen anything more juvenile and petty. It really is quite pathetic.
ABC apparently rushed out and bought saveabc7.com and created a blog site about it. It might be beneficial for someone to buy all of the other “saveXYZ” domains and replace the letters with other major networks who may be next on the list. Savefox.com, savecbs.com, etc. Who knows?
ABC7 is making Cablevision out to be nothing more than a schoolyard bully on their saveabc7.com website. There’s a huge banner on the top that says “Cablevision betrays their customers again! First HGTV and Food Network, now ABC7! You have choices. Switch now.” in the hopes that customers will completely change television providers because of this. One thing I don’t think ABC realizes, is that Cablevision didn’t have anything to do with the HGTV & Food Network debacle, that was all thanks to a third-wheel company called Scripps, the parent company who runs those networks. ABC is also claiming that Cablevision was pocketing money that they were supposedly paid for ABC programming which was apparently free. Really now.
Conversely, over on www.cablevision.com/abc, there are messages blaming ABC for wanting more money. Stating that ABC wants an additional $40 million dollars for the same programming they’ve been providing.
Who is in the wrong? Who is in the right? Moreover, how the hell are we supposed to know who to believe? We, as the customers, should not be forced into this ridiculous position! We’ve got Cablevision pleading their case, ABC pleading their case, but no clear indication of facts. It’s all “Well, he said this, and she said that…”
What would parents do in this situation, if two toddlers were playing in the sandbox and wound up in tears? Separate the two, let them cool down? That’s not a bad idea, but the sandbox would still be there during this whole process. So, what’s the reason for us losing this channel? We’re dealing with two companies who want to act like babies, and there’s nobody around to knock some sense into them.
If it were up to me, I’d switch cable providers in a heartbeat. I’m not all that impressed with their “Optimum Online” internet, we have the boost package which is supposed to increase speed but hardly does so. The service is spotty at best, we get pixelation during off-peak hours watching TV, and oh yeah…they piss off big networks which drop them. So regardless of whose fault it may be for this particular instance, Cablevision is bad news regardless.
Well, it looks Ike Cablevision lost the proverbial pissing contest between them and ABC. No Oscars tonight. This Is sad. I wonder what networks are going to pull this garbage next.
(This text taken directly from an official e-mail I just received from Cablevision)
We regret to inform you that ABC’s parent company has decided to pull WABC-7 off Cablevision, even though we pay them more than $200 million dollars a year for their group of networks. They are demanding a $40 million dollar increase for the same channels we carry today. In light of these economic times we do not feel it’s appropriate for ABC to hold our viewers hostage in pursuit of undeserved millions.
Many of you just want WABC-7 back on your television. That’s why we are working hard to get WABC-7 back on the air. You can help make a difference by visiting cablevision.com/abc and sending their executives an email expressing how you feel.
While we work to return WABC-7 to the lineup, you can watch WABC-7 free over the air by obtaining a digital TV antenna from your local consumer electronics store. Or, you can watch almost all of ABC’s prime time programming free on the Internet at hulu.com or abc.com.
Thank you for your patience, while we continue to negotiate a deal that is fair for everyone.
I love geeky speed test apps, and any “diagnostic-esque” app for the iPhone. I haven’t quite bought into the “battery optimizer” apps, but this is a screenshot from a speedtest.net app… I am pretty impressed that I’ve got pretty respectable net performance on a phone!!!!!
So I can’t say today was completely nonproductive. Before I go any further, if any of my Unique Photo friends read this, I apologize for what I’m about to say…you guy’s didn’t have what I bought at B&H. Anyways, I tried out ordering from B&H Photo in NYC, I wanted a wrist strap for my camera. No problems with the order, so that was certainly good. I decided I wanted a wrist strap for the side of my camera instead of the typical “I’m a tourist” neck strap. After trying to figure out for at least a good half hour how to put the damn thing on, (didn’t come with instructions, but I think it’s one of the indications that Canon has a sense of humor… that, and why they don’t include lens hoods unless you pay for an L series lens…I digress.) I finally got it and it’s pretty nice. Definitely an improvement. I’ll still keep the other one around though, just in case I decide to revert back.
A little “Studio Rebuild” update… I’ve got a 2TB G-Tech G-Raid drive on the way. All of my audio projects and software will get backed up onto that via Time Machine. I’m looking forward to setting that up. It’ll be nice to have that piece of mind knowing that nothing else will get lost should I have any other “surprises” creep up… I find it ironic that when I had the problem at the concert it had to happen during Thriller… Anyway, moving on.
I’ve really got to give my friend Drew mad props. (Drew = My gear guy at Sweetwater, also my “brother from another mother”). The story is a bit convoluted, so I’ll try to sum it up. There’s a software company out there who makes audio plug-ins that are quite widely used throughout the industry. They let their widespread success get to their heads, so they developed this “upgrade” program that would require users to pay exorbitant fees after a year or so from the purchase date, to be protected from the possibility of them releasing new software. So, for example, if someone paid over $3500 in software titles, paying another $600-800 just for the idea of “maybe” getting a new version in another year’s time was not exactly money well spent. Luckily there were many others who agreed with me and voiced complaints. I’d even boycotted them for some time, using other software to get my stuff done. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked.
Anyways, back to Drew getting props:
This software company just recently changed their “upgrade” policies (FINALLY!), to a flat-rate system. As it was explained to me, whatever you had, you now pay a much more reasonable flat-rate to have your software updated to the latest version. I’m not going to go into specifics just in case the “flat rate” is different for other people. I’d suggest talking to your pro-audio equipment provider if you have questions (Which should be Drew to begin with, and if it isn’t you need to contact me so I can get you his info!). Being that I’d just upgraded my computer to Snow Leopard, and the latest version of Pro Tools etc, I had practically nothing when it came to audio plug-in software. Thanks to Drew, I’ve got just about all of my plug-ins back and once everything’s installed, I’ll be fully operational once again. Haven’t been there in a while, so a huge thanks to Drew.
Wow, my MacBook’s backup is 445GB. I’m goin’ to bed, I wonder if it’ll be done tomorrow morning. We shall see!
Had a really great day today at work. It was great seeing everyone who I’d missed dearly while I was away. I always know that no matter what happens, despite some of the crap that may come up from day to day, the people I work with truly are my second family. I’ll always be grateful for that.
