Incoming lens!

Woohoo, just got an email from the camera store that my Raynox lens is now on the way. Since they had the sense to send it on a Thursday this time I'm hoping it'll arrive on my door step by tomorrow. Perfect timing for a weekend of funky macro shooting. Still no sign of my supercard but that'll probably only get here next week.

In anticipation of my new lens I thought I might share one of my better attempts at 'macro-insectography' on our trip to Toowoomba. This was taken with a 50mm prime reversed as a magnifying glass in front of a 18-55mm zoomed to the max. Working distance wasn't very good at all so I had to get right up to the bees. It took a little getting used to as I usually bolt as fast as I can in the opposite direction when faced with insects. Subject blur was a major issue this time but at least with two lenses I could control my aperture this time and achieved a greater depth of field.



I just heard from my mum that she's planning a trip down to see us for Christmas which is going to be great! She then plans on trekking about Australia till Chinese New Year 2006 (which I believe is currently slated for January 29th) when she'll come back for a final stay before launching off on some crazy jaunt across Asia and Europe to finally arrive in the UK to spend Christmas with my Aunt. *Phew* That's quite a trip and power to her.

Mum's apparently caught the photography bug too and hopes to catalog her trip by taking heaps of portrait shots of the people she meets along the way. I think that'll be a wonderful project and can't wait to do something similar one day for myself.

Celebrate good times

Alison just heard today (unofficially) that she's gotten that permanent position at the PA. She'll probably only hear about the details towards the end of this week but it's a huge relief to know everything's going to be ok. Still no idea which position she'll be getting but signs are currently pointing to her remaining where she is at BIRU (Brain Injury Rehab Unit). Huzzah for my smart baby.

I spent my day off today walking around the city looking for an impulse buy. I was hoping to stumble across the War of the Ring boardgame but picked up Blue Moon by Reiner Knizia instead. It's basically a Collectable Card Game without the collectable bit. You just buy set decks which can be customised if you feel so inclined. The game itself has a simple rule set which is good for Alsy but there's also some meat to it. So far it seems pretty fun and quick to play. The games cupboard hasn't had a new addition in a while now anyway.

After an absence

Been a while since my last post, mainly due to being cooped up in bed or feeling too tired to draft something up. I've managed to miss three days of work this week and would have gone for four if I hadn't already booked in Friday and Monday off for flex time. Tuesday through to Thursday were lost to a high fever, which an overpriced chest x-ray and urine sample proved to be nothing more than the beginnings of a nasty flu. Friday on to the weekend confirmed that with wretched coughing spells that no ammount of herbal tonics or cough suppressants seemed to help. It's a good thing I still have tomorrow to rest and try to kill this before shuffling back into the office on Tuesday.

Teetering on Death's door didn't stop me from having a 'busy' week though. I was very happy to discover that some kind soul has released a patch tool for NDS ROMs so that they can be loaded from any ordinary GBA flash cart on a DS which has been effectively modified. Basically I got to try out some of the smaller Nintendo DS ROMs in my collection for the first time. Now I'm really keen to get my mitts on the other games so I've gone and ordered a Supercard. It's basically a GBA flash cart which takes SD memory cards rather than using internal memory.

The other bit of Nintendo DS news is that Nintendogs has just been released in Australia. I couldn't resist and bought Alison her own DS and copy of Nintendogs as well so we could both play. She has a little mini schnauzer called Bella while I have two puppies, Kiba a siberian husky and a shitzu named Princess.

Wireless play with the two DSs is a real hoot. It's great playing songs together in Band Brothers.



We also went up to Toowoomba on Friday to see John and Sheena and take some pictures of at the Carnival of Flowers. Things weren't quite so well done this year due to the difficult water restrictions and the heavy winds that whipped through last week. Most of the flower beds looked like they had been trampled on but I still managed to get a few shots in.

Here's a picture Alison took of me experimenting with my 'gun'. I stuck on my new 50mm prime in reverse on top of my 200mm telephoto for some extreme macro shots. It was the best I could do as I still haven't received my DCR-250. :'(

Ohh the pain

Staying home from work today to nurse a tender tummy. Probably wasn't a good idea to stuff myself with half a BBQ chook last night along with potato salad and a box of strawberries. Guess I'll have to detox today with simple soups but we're all out of Trident clean noodle soup sachets (great for the upset stomach assuming you don't load up all the chilli in the packets).

On the bright side Australia Air Express tried to deliver my new lens yesterday afternoon so I'll be able to pick it up at the post office on the way to the supermarket. Hopefully playing around with my new EF 50mm will draw my attention away from the loop-de-loops going on in my digestive system.

That 80s show

Alison and I attended an 80s themed party thrown by Jane and Phil from work tonight. It was a good laugh seeing everyone from work dressed up with mullets, lipstick and funky clothes. Here's a shot of us heading out the door in costume. Alison's gone for the pop girl look with the big neck top and Madonna lace glove while I'm garbed in rebel white shirt and jeans with my menthols (actually more like mentos) stuck up a shirt sleeve.



That's the first pair of jeans I've worn in close to ten years I would say. We look so bad we might actually be cool.

Jaw dropping

We just finished watching Final Fantasy Advent Children and all I can say is... wow. The story probably won't make much sense to people that haven't played the game but heck the action alone should be enough to win most people over. Pure poetry in motion, it's a visual orgasm. If I had to gush anymore I'd have to resort to screaming like a thirteen year old girl.

Alison didn't really get the movie but she's not really one for fancy choreography, especially not on this level. Years of reading manga and watching anime prepares you for the flowing chaos that goes on in the movie. Wachowski brothers take note, THAT's how you do it darnit.

I'm now copying it onto my PDA so I can watch various fight scenes on the go. It'll be a fantastic demo to show people that you can do a heck of a lot more with your Pocket PC than use it as a glorified address book.

Oh and it didn't hurt that Tifa (my favourite character from the Final Fantasy VII) looks smoking hot in the movie. :)



Side note, Blogger refused to play nice with uploading pictures so I'm giving Image Shack a go.

Teamspeak

Thought I might try playing Guildwars with teamspeak on tonight and it was a blast. Teamspeak basically allows you to talk to all your team mates while you're playing the game and it really added a whole new dimension to things. Only got to play with Donald and Ben but it was still fun nonetheless. In fact I would imagine that things could get pretty chaotic quickly with a full 8 player team.

Definitely going to have to play more Guildwars in the future. I haven't logged in to the game for over two months and I'd forgotten how beautiful and how much fun the game is. The new areas that the developers have released look awesome and the startling thing is that it's all for FREE (Guildwars is still the only MMORPG that I know of that doesn't charge it's players a monthly subscription fee).

In other geeky/game related news, Final Fantasy Advent Children is out on a torrent. I'm downloading it now so we should be able to watch it this weekend. I downloaded the trailer a few months back and I must say that it looks EXCELLENT.

End of the week

Yay!!!
It's Friday!!! The week is over!!!

Boo!!!
No lenses waiting for me when I got home. I did get an email from the company telling me that they shipped my parcel but if I read it right they're still back ordering the Raynox lens. So basically... they waited all week for the lens to ship my package... then sent it on overnight delivery that won't get to me till MONDAY (next business day). What the heck is the point in overnight delivery if you're not going to get it for three days?

Grumble grumble grumble

23 Months

Happy anniversary to us, and just a month away from the 2 year mark. Guess we'd better book that flight to Melbourne soon. I wonder if the flights are going to be any cheaper in light of the recent terror threats. :/

Now on to haphazard rambling...

Downloading Microsoft Max right now which is their new image browsing/sharing app. It probably won't replace Picasa as my main organising tool but I must say the new WinFX framework looks pretty. Am I the only one that doesn't mind the fact that MS interfaces are becoming more like Apple's?

Got a call from the camera store to confirm that my payment has been received and that they're just waiting on the Raynox lens before they post it. Looks like it'll be a fun weekend of snapping to warm up to the Toowoomba trip next week.

One of the perks of waking up earlier for work yesterday was I got to snap a lovely morning sky.



When things return to normal next week I might actually start going in early and leaving late. The train was a lot less crowded and I had a shorter wait in transit at Roma Street station.

Ah, almost Friday.

Little things

It's only Tuesday and I'm already feeling exhausted from work. Must say that I can't wait for this week to be over. At the moment I'm just trying to concentrate on the little things that I can look forward to.

Alison has a second interview with the PA (Princess Alexandra Hospital) tomorrow for a permanent social work position. She's been hard at work preparing (well a little) so I'm sure she'll do a fantastic job. It'll be great once she's firmly entrenched in the Queensland health system so I can get dibs on Q-Super which is supposed to be one of Queensland's best superannuation funds, or so I'm told.

I also ordered a new lens (Canon EF 50mm F1.8) and a macro adapter (Raynox DCR-250) from a camera store in Victoria. They say that they're just waiting for the Raynox to come into stock (probably on Thursday) and they'll ship it overnight so I should hopefully have the new toys in time for the weekend.

As an aside I've combined two of my current hobbies and taken to listening to podcasts about photography on my walks to work. www.tipsfromthetopfloor.com is a really informative podcast done by this audio engineer/amateur photographer in Germany and he covers a whole range of topics on his shows along with the occasional interview with specialised photographers.

Almost half-way through the week. Just gotta hang in there...

Additions to the family

We went down to the local pet store today to get a few more fish for the aquarium. Ended up with three new pets for our little glass house and here they are.

(Big) Bertha
Our new snail who is ginormous. She's at least three times the size of our other snail Gaston the Explorer. Either that or he's been shrinking under our scrutiny.



Jeeves
Another algae eater joins Daphne and the other house staff. Hopefully they'll all help keep the tank nice and clean.



Connie Conjunctivitis
And finally our newest 'fish', Connie. She's a fantail like Ingot who you can actually see swimming in the background.



Give 'em all a big hand *clap clap clap*

Garden Picnic

Went to the gym for the first time in over three months. After a pitifully short exercise session we stumbled out into the shopping mall to pick up some groceries and sushi for our picnic today. Armed with 8 rolls of maki, a dirty picnic blanket and our trusty cameras we drove back up to Mount Coot-tha to spend a day at the botanical gardens there.

Following a friend's advice I tried to take all my pictures today in RAW format without any compression. I must say that I doubt I'll do that again as I ran out of space quite quickly on a 1 gig microdrive and it took forever to process the images into JPEG back at my desk.

Alison and I both had lots of fun taking different types of shots which I'll be putting up on Flickr over the next few days. I've really started to notice the drawbacks of using my 350D kit lens (an EF-S 18-55) to take reverse-lens macro shots. Since the lens doesn't have a seperate aperture ring for manual adjustments I basically get ZERO depth of field which is making it very hard to compose my shots. I still get the odd one that I'm happy with but I'd like to think I could do better.



Now I'm considering getting a set of diopter lenses to trial macro shots at the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers that's going to be on from the 16th of September till the 25th. Alison and I are planning to go up for the last weekend so we'll get to take more flower shots then. :)

Grrr... no 50mm lens

It was a pretty tough day at the office today (with the promise of an even tougher week to come) so when I hit the city I was pretty keen for some consumer therapy. I met Alison at Central Station and we trekked down to the camera stores hoping to find a nice Canon 50mm prime and a camera bag. Unfortunately it seems like the lens is unbelievably popular in Brissie and usually gets sold within a day of stock arriving so no joy for me there. No one seemed to have a macro coupler ring either so my camera equipment hunger had to remain unsatisfied.

On the bright side, a quick trip into Crumpler proved to be a lot more productive. After perusing the camera bags they had to offer I found one that seemed to fit my needs. Lots of pockets, divided sections and it's nice and sturdy.



It's great because all my other Crumpler accessories (all one of them) can now be used on both my Crumpler bags. Oooh versatility.

Came home on the train only to pack my new bag with stuff and head out again for a night time photo shoot of the city. Got a good chance to use my tripod to take some long exposures but the wind was a little prohibitive when we got up to Mount Coot-tha. Didn't really get any great shots but it was nice to try more techniques and effects like ghost images on long exposures and bokeh shots. I'm sure I didn't execute them perfectly but we still had fun playing around with the camera.

Yeah, I know I should really concentrate on one technique. Tomorrow we're going to be going out for a picnic at the botanical gardens so it's going to be macro/flora all the way baby!

Flowing

Moving on from macro shots, I thought I would try the frozen liquid shots that you see in magazine alcohol ads. Before I started reading up on this I assumed that such shots would be impossible without a studio setup for lighting and a decent backdrop. It seems however that I can get decent exposures even with a crumpled shirt off the laundry line and my built in flash to freeze the water droplets.

Unfortunately the hard part comes from getting the liquid to 'pose' in an interesting fashion. Too many of my shots came out as a stale stream of water poured into the glass. I got my best results when I sloshed the water from height and off the side of the rim to create a swirling effect.

This was probably the best of the bunch but I completely screwed up the white balance.



I also experimented with coloured liquids (added a dash of cordial) though by then my beginner's luck was running out and I was getting absolutely hopeless. Here's an embarassing shot with me missing the glass altogether. Don't worry, I had the foresight to put a bowl underneath to catch such spillage.



Ah well, at least I know the effect is achievable with my current equipment even if I do have to work on my execution. Next time I might try starting simpler with water drops instead of attempting dancing torrents.

Experiments in macro

I've been meaning to try reverse-lens macro shots for a few days now but haven't really had the time. Thankfully a quick look at some of the stunning photos that my friends have been uploading on Flickr has spurred me into action and I tried my hand at a few tonight.

Arthur (our coffee table succulent) was once again my main subject. It took quite a few tries to get the technique involved and even then I'm still not getting perfect shots. Here's the best of the bunch and I must say that I'm quite pleased with the result even if it isn't exactly perfect.



For those of you that aren't familiar with the reverse-lens macro trick, it's basically a cheap alternative to using a real macro lens (which are usually pretty pricey). It involves detaching your lens from the camera body and turning it around so you basically take the shot 'backwards' with the front of the lens facing the camera. This creates the 1:1 ratio or greater effect of a macro lens and it also allows you to get a nice shallow depth of field because you can't close your aperture. The downside of this technique is that you have to manually focus the lens backwards and hold it by hand during the exposure which can be pretty hard at those focal lengths.

I was taking the pictures with a single tungsten overhead light so that might have made things more difficult. I'd imagine that outdoors shots in bright sunlight could be done with a faster shutter speed but then I'd have to worry about the wind moving my subject. Alison and I are thinking of heading to the botanical gardens this weekend for celebrate spring and take some flower pictures so I guess I'd better keep practicing this week if I intend to get some good shots. :)

Just leave me alone

A little gripe of mine, I hate it when people you barely know but see daily on the slog to work try to alleviate their own boredom by starting a conversation with you. It's something that I seem to be facing with uncomfortable frequency. If only there were a polite way to tell these losers to sod off and die without compromising this 'friendly fuzzy asian' facade that I've been cultivating.

Everyday I spend approximately one and a half hours commuting on the train to and from work. This to some people might be mind numbingly boring but to me it's valuable quiet time. It's either early in the morning or after a long day at the office so the last thing I should have to do is make polite conversation with no-names I have the misfortune of sharing a cabin with. I've spent a considerable amount of my not quite so disposable income on a plethora of gadgetry to avoid being stuck with nothing to do for entertainment. Playing with my gadgets make me happy, inconsequential chit-chat with brain dead office workers (who aren't even from my company) does not.

To the morons that can't take my blaring headphones and intimate fascination with my PDA screen as a subtle hint that I don't wish to to exchange pleasentries: please just get a clue or save a few pennies and get some personal toys for yourself. I long for the day we can all travel together on a train with headphones and VR goggles so I don't have to even pretend to ignore you.

Talking on Google

Well after much cajoling from friends and family, I've finally gone out and bought a microphone to use with this whole voice over IP craze. I'm using a logitech USB mic and quality is surprisingly good. I'm talking to Ke Wynn in Malaysia now as I type this, which is a freaky experience. I reckon this would be fantastic for collaborative work.

I've installed Google Talk, Skype and Team Speak now so I'm VOIP'd up to the eyeballs. Should be good for games (when I get back into playing Guildwars) and cheap phonecalls back home. I guess I'll have to wait and see if the novelty of it all dies off.

The Long Day

Well the Saturday trip into the office went on a little longer than we expected but at least it was a success at the end. I actually thought it was a relatively smooth launch even with the stumbling blocks we encountered on the way.

Everyone put in a huge effort to provide a decent spread to keep us going through the day. Jane rocked up with a heap of cheese, grapes, crackers, strawberries, kabanas and cashews. Dan had pineapples, starfruit, olives and a tub of cream. Ross Boss came to lend moral support and dump a 750g bag of cashew nuts (which was never opened ^_^;), lamingtons, more strawberries and a chocolate cake. I added a measely packet of tim tams to the mountain of food that was devoured over a span of eight odd hours.

Here's a belated shot of the pig out session.



Jane and I ended up pulling out a 13 hour day from 11 in the morning till midnight. We were a little drained towards the end so here we are watching the Wallabies get flogged by the All Blacks.



Dan was in the office be seven in the morning running preliminary scripts so he had a mammoth 17 hours. Here he is still going strong.



I reckon it's still going to be a long week ahead of resolving issues but at least the new versions are out there. Hurray for the team!

Al was kind enough to drive out to give me a lift at about 9 at night even thoughs he wasn't feeling too well. I'm going to have to get that darn open license soon. On the bright side she was just in time for our order of Thai food. It was nice bonus that she got a chance to see me doing stuff at work.

Oh, and Happy Fathers day to Dads out there. Dobby and Half didn't get me a present this year but I know they love me all the same. :)

Now you see it, now you don't

Amazing how much I've forgotten about photoshop in the few years I haven't used it. Having heaps of fun rediscovering the tool, though I think I might be starting to run out of pictures to modify to my liking. Guess I'd better get out there and take more snaps. With some luck we'll be finished in the office in time for Riverfire tonight.

Here's the before shot that I just saturated originally. Shame about that bench and the other kid.



And here's what a few minutes of the stamp tool gets you. I sorta forgot to resaturate to bring out the colours but I'm still happy with how it looks. In fact, I think I oversaturated my first attempt. :P

More Photoshop fiddling

I've been going through my old photos looking for more pictures to attempt to salvage. A common theme I've noticed in my collection photographic mishaps is incorrect exposure of the subject against a much lighter background. In my defence not all of these were avoidable by a simple change in angle. After reading a tutorial on the use of level adjustment layers and masks to correct foreground/background tone, I decided to try my hand at fixing this shot from Seaworld.



Probably not the best example as the background isn't especially underexposed. Figured I would try to create a level adjustment layer and use the mask to exclude anything other than the subject and water stream. Also tried a warming filter to remove the blue tinge and cropped the image for a tighter view of the subject.



Ah well, it's not exactly night and day but my 10 minute effort has turned a crummy photo into one that's passable. Would have liked to clean up the image a bit more too but I was zoomed in all the way with my old Pro90IS, taken in crap lighting at ISO 50. Yeah I know I shouldn't blame my tools. Looks like I have lots to learn about preparing for a shot and post-processing.

Chocolatey goodness

Alison and I threw caution to the wind and went to see Charlie and the Chocolate factory on opening night last night. Contrary to all the warnings on the radio there really weren't that many punters lining up and I didn't see a single brat or baby. Most of the audience were adults and everyone seemed to enjoy the movie immensely.

Let it be known that Tim Burton is a genius. Practically every scene from the movie was exactly as we'd imagined it in the book. Johnny Depp was excellent as usual in his Wacko Jacko inspired role and the Ooompa Loompas (or should I say Oompa Loompa) were great. Highly recommended along with all other Burton movies.

It seems appropriate that while hunting for confectionary to take into the movie I stumbled upon a whole range of candy bars that I had thought to be only available in the UK. The chocolate shop at the Indooroopilly food court imports heaps of my old favourites like Drifters (yeah!), Yorkies, Dimes and Double Deckers. They do charge about 40 cents more than any other store for chocolate but it's good to know that their there if I need a treat.

Now I'm really looking forward to the Corpse Bride which has Tim Burton teaming up with Johnny Depp again and Helena Bonham Carter for a new claymation. Nightmare before Christmas is still one of my favourite movies so I have high hopes for this one.