I am pretty dissapointed. I had high hopes for the class, and it just hasn’t worked out.
The fam flew across the country to Ottawa for a nice 10 day vacation. The flight out went great, way better than expected. Sprout did well, and for me having him with us helped the flight pass quicker. WestJet is such an awesome carrier to fly on. Without a doubt I would prefer to fly with them over anybody else.
Once in Ottawa we made our way to Sox’s family’s place and settled in. Then the vacation kicked in. We headed from Ottawa up to Carp to take in the Carp fall fair. A couple days after that we then headed up to Montreal for a couple days. Back down to Ottawa for a day, then we jumped in the car for a serious drive.
We took the scenic route, and ended up in St Catharines (what a gorgeous town). We stayed in a 4 Points Sheraton that was very nice. The next day we continued on the journey to Niagara On the Lake, then down to Niagara Falls. I also saw my first 2 great lakes on this trip.
After the falls we stuck to the scenic route, and got to Wallacetown where we stayed on a farm for a short stay. We took in the pretty-much rained out Wallacetown fair, and just enjoyed being away from home. That night there was a huge lighting and thunder storm that awoke me. The next thunder clap shook the whole house and Sox awoke with a start. After re-assuring her we fell back asleep.
Too quickly it was back to Ottawa after a 7.5 hour drive. A day and a bit later it was back on the plane back to Victoria. Whirlwind tour, but extremely fun and enjoyable.
I took a ton of pictures too. Just under 2 GB.
Soon I will try to gather some highlight pics and post them seperately.
Last night was the intro, talking about the outline, and how the class was going to go. Camera’s in class are necessary.
Throughout the 2.5 hour class we would take 10 minutes to go shoot a small assignment. Before hand there would be something said or done to get the class thinking, then he would send us on our way to shoot.
I did take some tidbits away. Sometimes you need to think the photograph, feel the photograph, or see the photo. Explore the box, break out of it. Shoot something you are not comfortable with. Less is more (especially with negative space). Look for randomness or look for order.
My shots from the class are here.
Unfortunately I will be missing next weeks class, but I will resume on Oct 4.
Neil Hodge is the instructor for this course too. When I have a little more time I will spend some of it exploring his work.
Good: new shredder from Costco. We burned out our last $20 shredder, so we upgraded to a cross cut. Very nice to have a shredder back in use.
Bad: I noticed that the LCD backlight on my stereo has gone kaput. This means I can’t see what track is playing any more. Can’t complain too much though, that stereo has served me well since 1991 (approx), and has travelled around the city numerous times. Some day I will get a replacement.
Happy Birthday Yoshi! Another birthday has arrived and today just is not what you want. Sorry about that bud. I promise you that you will get a walk on your 8th birthday.
Then I read about some camera armour on Gizmodo. My first reaction was cool, some weatherproofing for my camera. Then I followed the link to LetsGoDigital and read the following:
Camera Skins
Made offers gasketed polycarbonate LCD and viewfinder lenses that keep dust and fingerprints away while providing a shatterproof coverage. Each case is sized to be skin tight for the camera it protects, and allows the user to take photos and access all features, change batteries, memory cards, etc without removing the camera from the case. It is protection that never gets left behind.
Errm. No thanks, I will save my money. Adding extra gaskets, hatches, and doors to get at things like batteries and cards just increases the risk of something going wrong. I’d rather just have a weather proofing system.
There I just saved some big bucks today by not getting this nor the Zigview!
Well, ZigView has a solution to this. They have this gadget that snaps over the viewfinder and produces the LCD preview. I have read about two different models on Engadget (model 1 and model 2), and by all accounts it sounds like an interesting idea, but I definitely won’t be in the market for one.
My reasoning is simple. Most of my overhead shots, or low level shots, are impulsive, spur-of-the-moment shots. I couldn’t fathom this thing being attached to the camera permanently, so that means I would snap it on as needed, and this definitely doesn’t work for impulse shots. Also, how firmly attached is the ZigView? If it is firmly attached, then snapping it on an off is a problem, and if it is all loosey-goosey, why would I want it?
Another issue is in reality, is the tiny LCD going to be enough to give the user an accurate idea of exposure? That really is one benefit of an LCD on digital camera’s. The only way the ZigView could do that would be if it communicated with the camera. Not going to happen.
Admittedly, a comment I read somewhere said that the S2 version could be useful in some instances since it can be used remotely. The example this person gave (I can’t find where the comment was), was setting up a camera to watch a bird’s nest, and being able to take pictures using the remote. Interesting, but very niche.
Overall, I think this is interesting, but not too useful for me. If I were given one to review I would try to put it through it’s paces, but I certainly won’t be shelling out cash for one.
Next up, camera armour?
A&B Sound still doesn’t get it somtimes. BNL and Papa Roach were $9.99 and $10.99. To me those are reasonable prices for a hunk of plastic. The total for those two albums was $23.71.
The Earshot CD sticker said $29.49. Lame. As soon as I saw the price that CD went back on the shelf. There is absolutely no way I will pay that for a CD (unless it is a limited edition, and I am a huge fan of the band).
In this economy, with how easy it is to download the music you want, with how easy it is to find good and legally free music, and with how record companies treat their customers, no CD should be priced like that.
The Earshot CD will stay on my wishlist for a while longer I guess.
I found the setting, but iTunes said I had to be logged in to the iTunes store to be able to use it. I don’t know why they need me to be logged in to download some images. That is more than a little weird, but I have an Apple ID, so I started to log in to the store. I started to log in, but quickly I was stopped. It wanted my credit card information. I don’t plan to buy any music off iTunes, so why do they need my credit card information? I don’t tend to just hand this info out. I should be able to (IMO) login to the iTunes store and when they need my payment info, provide it then (or be given the option of storing it on their servers).
Another consideration is that I don’t know how they are going to transfer this info to their servers. Is it transported securely or not? iTunes says they will transport it securely, but the only way I can confirm that is to start up wireshark (previously ethereal) and watch the traffic being sent to and from the Apple servers.
In the end I am not willing to hand over my credit card info just for this feature. I will stick to third party apps.