The latest 26 Things Photo Scavenger Hunt was released today. Over the next month I will attempt this next project. I love the idea of it.
high point
familiar
too much
2PM
the end
layered
three
contemplation
warning
electric
sharp
red
reflection
movement
soft
cold
close up
new
team
oversized
intimidating
culture
energy
famous
community
shadows
Once everyone was done carving we set them up on the front porch and had the ritual viewing/photo session. The wind was pretty blustery and some of the candles had a hard time staying lit. I had lots of fun trying to take quality shots. I think I did better with these creations, than I did with the Government House ones.
I dropped my new camera off there yesterday and got them to check it all out. I just talked to Victoria Camera Service, and it was all good news. Everything checks out on it, and the only thing they recommended was to replace the light seals, so I told them to go ahead. They are a bit backed up, but the guy said a couple weeks. No problem 😛 I am just happy that there is nothing wrong with the camera. I took a chance on it, and I was a little worried, but not I am just stoked to get it back and start using it.
I wanted a professional to check it out, so that when I start using it, if the shots turn out crappy, I can blame me, and not the camera!
As you may have guessed by the above pic, I bought a new camera!
It is a Yashica FX-103, and it came with the original manual. I am going to print out a new one and keep the original in a safe place.
I am pretty stoked about the camera. I got it for a great deal, but it only makes me wonder if the camera is fully functional. Walking in to the Swap N Shop, I wasn’t expecting to buy anything, but I got talking to the guy, and this sounds like a good camera. When I got home I searched the net for more information on it, and I found some people selling it for $200 CDN. I got it for half that, so that further fuels my paranoia about it not working properly. I am going to buy some film today, burn off a roll tonight, and get that developed to see if it works. Cross your fingers for me. :cross:
After warming up at the TTA, we headed up Skull, Inventive, and up to C-Section. After C-Section it was up the Switchbacks we headed up to Snakes and Ladders, then it was down to Skull, and back to the vehicles.
The temp was awesome, the blue skies spectacular, the trees beautiful, and the trails difficult. Swooping down some of them reminded me of summer times, yet here it is in the waning days of October. Crazy!
Mike and Shane tried their hands at riding a skinny, skinny, skinny. I have ridden this one to the end exactly once. It is hard since getting on to it requires lofting the front tire onto it, and lifting the rear on as well. Then you have to negotiate a twenty foot long log that widens from 4 inches wide to about 6 inches wide. The exit is a 2 foot wheelie drop. I gave it a go yesterday, and got about three quarters of the way down the log before I lost my balance and jumped off the left side.
The rest of the ride was too fun for me to stop and take out the camera. We blasted down Snakes and Ladders, then went up the fire road and raced down Skull trail.
Back at the vehicles Sean wanted to give a skinny a go, so he attempted the barrier ride a few times.
Great ride. I totally forgot to mention that Yoshi was with us too. He had fun, but he was pretty pooped by the end. He was tired before we left the lot, so he was pretty slow the whole ride. Being th good pooch that he is, he hung in there until the end.
It started off with a haunted hay ride. This would through a very, very scary haunted building. I think I captured a picture of a ghost!
The hay ride dropped us off at the Festival site. There was a live band, Twiggly Wiggley the clown, a haunted house, goats, ponies to ride, a concession area, mazes, and more!
Very fun place, especially for kids (or adults accompanying kids).
And of course there were lots of pumpkins, gourds, and squash.
Lots of fun. Here are all my pics.
Pizza was good, and the kids were out in full force. Here they all are relaxing on the couch after eating a ton of pizza! It was quite the feat to get them all sitting still there for even a second.
Once it got dark it was time to head off to Government House. Here are my shots from the night.
I found the pumpkin art interesting, and some of the carvings were exquisite, but I found them rather boring to shoot. I had trouble making artsy shots. There are a few artsy fartsy shots there, but most were boring. Interestingly enough many of my shots were ended up being out of focus. I can’t believe I wasn’t paying more attention. Anyway, the artsiest shots I could come up with were a string of decorative pumpkin lights that were strung up in a hedge. I also found a line of pumpkins that was neat too.
It was kind of neat, and I might go back again, specially if Sue wants to go. She wasn’t there cuz she was still on her way back from Seattle.
I don’t want to surf the web. I don’t want to take pictures. I don’t want to view and modify email. I don’t want to play games on it. I don’t want downloadable ringtones that sound like the latest populare tune. I am not the target market.
You know what? That doesn’t bother me. The underlying story behind cameras with all the gizmos it the usage fees. Cell companies don’t mention how much it costs when advertising cameras these fancy phones. If SMS is $5 a month, how much are they going to charge for mailing pictures and movies over their network?
Even with a basic plan I pay more than I want to with my cellphone. Some day I am going to sit down and look at my usage of the cellphone, and maybe make the decision to go to prepaid. I can still get the features I want, but it might cost me less.
Why am I like this? Well, my cell phone is a communication device, not a PDA, and definitely not a camera. That is why I have a PDA, and a camera. I like having seperate devices. One reason I like the seperate devices is that I feel no fear throwing my cell into my pack when I go riding. If I had one of the PDA/cell/camera combo units that cost upwards of $650, I would never take it riding. It would lose its usefulness for me. My camera is small enough that I can carry it almost everywhere I go.
Besides, have you seen the quality of the pics a cameraphone can take? I haven’t seen any that don’t look grainy. I prefer good quality over bleeding edge. I don’t view it as a tragedy that I carry multiple devices with me.
Like I said, I am not the target market, even though I love gadgets, and I am a pretty techy person.
I am begining to think that I should rename this site to snottylaces.ca. This cold I acquired last week still haunts me. I must have discharged a gallon of snot by now. I was feeling great this morning, but as the day dragged on my sinuses became more stuffed up. Must have something to do with the weather.
To top it off, I set up the VCR to tape the WRC Rallye De France on Sunday. I sat down to watch it tonight, and after rewinding the tape I discovered that I had started taping halfway through the two hour show! Crap! Before I set up the VCR I checked the channel listings. It showed Speed showing it back to back. For some weird reason, I decided to tape both showings of it (I set the VCR to tape for 4 hours). As it turned out, the last hour of my tape had the first hour of the race, and the first hour of the tape had te last hour of the race. Good race too. I love watching WRC racing.
