everyday

Credit: William Castleman

I really want a Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L prime lens! Unfortunately, they cost around $1,600.00 so they are just out of my $200.00 price range. This lens has a super wide aperture and is the lens of all lenses. When focused on a 35mm film frame, this lens will produce a field of view comparable to that of the human eye. This lens is supposed to be fantastic for portrait shots and just general everyday shots. The 50mm prime lens is what typically came standard on all SLR cameras prior to the decrease in price of the now ubiquitous zoom lenses. Sure you can get a zoom lens that will cover the 50mm range, I actually have a 28mm - 135mm zoom, the problem with these types of lenses is that they aren’t fast enough (lower aperture numbers allow more light in, allowing for a faster shutter speed) for low light situations.

So, for my upcoming trip to Maui, I have acquired a brand new Canon HV20, high definition video camera. This is the first video camera I have ever owned. My initial reaction to it is, WOW! This thing is super small, lightweight and feels really solid. Hopefully I will be able to get some really nice video of our wedding and vacation. So, you all have that to look forward to!

A French company, Eiffage, has constructed the world’s tallest bridge, know as the Millau Viaduct. The pictures look absolutely amazing! I wonder how long it will be until someone tries to jump off of it (hopefully with a parachute!).

The Gorillapod is an amazing looking little tripod for any size camera. They come in three sizes, one for point-and-shoot, SLR, and SLR with a zoom lens. This looks like it could be a very useful product and I may be reviewing one in the future (the price is even not too awfully terrible).

Ok, first let me start by saying that my new MacBook Pro is rad! It makes doing simple things like sharing pictures with everyone really easy. I plug the camera into iPhoto, transfer the photos, organize them a little, crop and correct, then drag them to the Flickr Uploadr… So easy!

More Pictures of Maui

We have seen some wonderully beautiful sites in Maui. The purpose of this trip was to scout out locations for our wedding on April 14th, 2007. We tasted some wonderful food from out caterer, found some really nice condos in Lahaina and visited the Alawalu Plantation House where our ceremony will be held. Oh yeah, we also got engaged! Everything is falling into place very nicely, click the below link to see some pictures from our Maui trip.

Flickr Photo Sideshow

Here is a link to a Google Map that shows my own personal annotation! This is really cool! I can imagine doing a road trip photo album on a map! Or a hiking trip album on a map, the possibilites are limitless (well, not really, but you know…).

More information on how this can be done can be found here. This really is quite easy, all it takes is Google Earth, a little HTML and some publicaly accesible server space somewhere to host the resultant KML file. I am sure that there are some free services available that will host the file for you if you don’t have your own server (you do have your own server, don’t you?).

As promised, here are some pictures of my recent camping trip with my girlfriend to Hurkey Creek Park.

For some geo-tagged, spatially referenced photos, click here: Google Map.

This camera was released in January of 2005, and it is arguably the best on the market. The competition for this camera comes mainly from Nikon. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with Nikon’s products. I do know that Nikon makes a high quality product that is preferred by many professional photographers, but I believe that is based more on tradition than on the merits of the product. There is a really good review of the Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II on Digital Photography Review. I currently own a Canon D60, and I absolutely love it. If I had an extra $8,000.00 laying around, I would buy this camera right now. That is, if I could find one, they seem to be out of stock everywhere.