Archive for September, 2009
Busy Days
Presents
I wanted to take a photo of some of the presents I received for my birthday but I’ve been quite busy and (as a result) lazy, so I suppose that will wait. Besides, I’m still waiting on a couple of presents. But thank you, thank you, everyone. Bottom-of-my-heart thanks.
Business As Usual
So the semester bustles into Week 6 with all the fury of a truck armed with an angry driver. I’d like to think that this semester’s going worse than any of the ones that preceded it, but I suppose it’s impossible to compare that fairly and I’m always going to think that anyway.
I had at first thought that this week, being the one before the mid-semester break, would be slightly easier to get through, but it’s turned out to be quite the opposite and it’s in fact crunch time for a couple of subjects. Not looking good. Not looking good. But I’m sure it’ll all sort itself out. Eventually.
Brontosaurus
For some reason, I enjoyed this xkcd a lot. [via xkcd] I think maybe because it has to do with love. And then also that it has to do with dinosaurs. Few things are more awesome than these two put together.
Neuron Gene
“Scientists discovered a gene – called AP2gamma – crucial for the neural development of the visual cortex, in a discovery that can have implications for the therapeutics of neural regeneration as well as provide new clues about how the brain evolved into higher sophistication in mammals.”
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Camera Quandary
Of course I wasn’t seriously considering the M9. In fact, I’m hoping to step up with a serious-pro sort of set, having messed around with my D40x and jack-of-all-trades 18-200mm lens for quite a bit now. (My very first photograph from the D40x was put up on Flickr on the 1st of January 2007 [via Flickr], so it’s been almost three years.) It’s been a wonderful learning experience, but I thought I ought to settle for a configuration that I could get comfortable with over the next decade or so, with maybe the occasional update.
I think there are some rumours of a Nikon announcement this month or the like, so I’m just going to hang around and wait for that before I decide on a plan, but here’s the likely set-up. I started with the rather famous AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor ED 70-200mm f/2.8G IF, although the imminent update AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II will fit the bill too. This being what I suppose is one of the strongest Nikkors will be what I hope to build my kit around. It’s costly, but I guess you get what you pay for. (Most of the time, anyway.)
Then I tried to cover the short end, with a AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED. Reviews that I could find were generally very positive, though again, you pay for what you get, so this doesn’t come cheap. I’m supposing that I won’t need the very short end (say, 12-24mm), with this sort of money going in (and out of my bank account), so it all looks pretty good.
This notion is helped by the fact that I should probably get that macro lens that I’ve always talked about. I’m waiting to see if there’ll be a 200mm update (with VR), so that will be on the backburner first. And maybe, just maybe, to round it off at the other end, we’ll get to 300mm with the Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED IF AF-S, though this I think won’t be too important.
I’m thinking of a flash, but I don’t think it’ll be too useful given my flavour of photography.
This set-up looks good for whatever I’ll be doing even ten or twenty years from now. I suppose I may sometimes be tempted to get an exotic telephoto or a tilt-shift or the like, but those are easy to bat away.
Now for a body, and I’m thinking, as most everyone is, that there’ll be an update to the D700, so I’ll keep an eye out for that.
Being a poor kid, however, I’m going to have to depend on some quite ruthless spending cuts and excellent second-hand deals to get me through. It also unnerves me slightly that this plan is founded on the thought that these things should see me through for a decade or two, with maybe the odd change of camera body. I’m just not used to planning like that.
I reckon I could garner enough money for one second-hand lens by selling my D40x and a lens or two (Jolie!), plus maybe my 360. I suppose I can also pass on presents and ask people to contribute to my camera fund instead. And a part-time job or short-term assignment wouldn’t hurt either, though given the stuff I do, that’s actually a bit difficult.
The stuff I won’t compromise will include books, gaming (well, at least not too much), and stuff for friends. I think that’s fair, although I’d probably save quite a bit per year if I cut out any one of those. I’ll just be more careful with the random spending, and also reduce some of these things by a bit. I’m just afraid that I’ll get used to this miserly lifestyle.
But that’s the plan. We’ll go for the 24-70mm and the 70-200mm first, preferably some second-hand deal with a slightly reduced price. I’m pretty sure I can find a second-hand body if I want too, and even if I don’t take it all the way to the D700 (or its update), I’m fairly sure I’ll do fine with a D300 second-hand.
On a side note, I’ve just learnt that quality telescopes are in general much cheaper than camera lenses. It caught me by surprise, really, but I reckon it’s down to simpler optical technologies being in a telescope than a camera lens.
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Link Rojak on a Friday.
Today is a link rojak day, so here are a few links.
School Link
Here’s a link that has been quite helpful for one of the subjects that I’ve been studying. [via Online Ethics Center] It is, shall we say, one of the more interesting subjects of this semester.
M9 Preview
A nice long preview of the Leica M9. [via Digital Photography Review]
Apple Tree
New iPods. [via Engadget] I actually want a Touch with an even greater capacity than they’re offering. So I guess I’ll be keeping my money this time round.
Man Booker Shortlist
Here is the Man Booker shortlist for the year. [via The Man Booker Prizes] The candidates are: A S Byatt’s The Children’s Book; J M Coetzee’s Summertime; Adam Foulds’s The Quickening Maze ; Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall ; Simon Mawer’s The Glass Room; and Sarah Waters’s The Little Stranger .
Hubble, Hubble
New beginnings for the Hubble. [via The Online Photographer] Yay, space!
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M9!
Oh look, it appears that what’s going to be announced today (or so) is the M9. Well, I suppose it wasn’t unexpected.
“The news: the M9 will have an 18-megapixel, full-frame CCD sensor. More explicity—quoting from the brochure—the image area is 23.9 x 35.8 millimeters and image size is 5212 x 3472 pixels. It will come in “steel grey paint or black paint.” The camera comes with its own copy of Adobe Lightroom equipped to handle the camera’s 16-bit DNG raw files.”
Ah, perhaps I can aspire to this in my dreams. In the meantime, it’s the Beatles remasters day too. Happy 09.09.09.
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Today is Gloomsday.
Long Day
It’s going to be a fairly long day again, as Mondays tend to be, but today is Gloomsday, as I somehow over the past couple of years started to call my own birthday. I’m sure something will go terribly wrong today, a yearly tradition of sorts (thus Gloomsday), but I suppose we shouldn’t let the bastards get us down.
I am gradually becoming a creaky old man and a sore curmudgeon with every passing year, though.
Philharmonic
Went to watch the Philharmonic Winds last night with my sister. It was called Spanish Fantasia, as I recall. I think ‘fantasia’ is a Spanish word, which makes it look funny because ‘Spanish’ is an English word. Though I suppose the same clever wordplay is achieved by saying ‘Japanese sashimi’. That said, it is the first band/philharmonic/orchestral-type concert I have attended in a very long time, and without being able to be very much of a critic on these things, it is arguably most fair to say that it was entertaining.
Okay I suppose I should say a bit more than that. Most of the pieces were written by Luis Serrano Alarcón, and I quite enjoyed all of them. (Although I must say the one inspired by the poet sounded as if the poet had lived in a jungle full of killer crocodiles and barbarians and was really Indiana Jones by night.) He was also conducting for the night and he did so with vigour and relish, and for me that became the highlight of the night. The soloist was not bad, and I suppose the overall musicianship was adequate, so it was all quite entertaining.
And it was, I suppose, nice to finally fulfill my promise to go support Jolie at the Phil Winds.
Neil Gaiman’s Bookshelves
Here is a look at Neil Gaiman’s bookshelves. [via Shelfari] That is… impressive. And certainly quite humbling. (“You call those book storage problems?”)
Possibly Nice Books
Here are a few books that might imaginably be good that I also noticed were recently released. First up is Nick Brandt’s latest collection of photos of African wildlife, A Shadow Falls. [via Amazon] There is also a new Roberto Bolaño novel, The Skating Rink. [via Amazon] Asterios Polyp is not so new, but I’ve heard a lot about it, and it seems to be quite a monumental graphic novel. [via Amazon] Jerry Pinkney’s The Lion And The Mouse is a picture book adapting one of Aesop’s fables without text. It looks and sounds brilliant. [via Amazon]
Of course, I haven’t actually read any of those books, and it may be a while before I get to them, but they might be good ideas for your next book shopping trip.
Onwards to my curmudgeon evolution, I suppose.
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