Whistling in the Dark

When I got my MacBook a couple of years ago I got the white one because it was cheaper (the famous Apple black-tax). Big mistake. Not only does the white plastic scratch easily but unless you use it wearing a bunny suit in a clean room it gets dirty real quick. So I either have to clean it at least weekly or I look like a complete slob.

I wish Apple didn’t make you pay for the black finish but I’m definitely paying the premium next time.

Summer’s almost here and for anyone that doesn’t know the Mid-Atlantic region this means temperatures in the high 80s to 90s (Fahrenheit) with matching humidity. This Saturday is going to be 90 and sticky, as is most of next week. The worse part is this year we don’t have a car with AC so when it gets this hot the last thing we’re going to want to do is drive anywhere.

I finally took a photo of all my camera equipment. I’m linking to it instead of just embedding because I tagged the hell out of it over on Flickr.

Other than the fact that I usually only carry the monopod or the tripod at one time I have the rest of it with me 99% of the time.

My Flickr feed broke 2000 views this morning. It had taken longer than I had thought (I was getting 50 views a day for a bit there) but I’m still happy it happened. I know others are in the 100s of thousands but I’m still thrilled to get 2000.

I’ve been looking to get a camera flash that will work fully with my Canon. Right now I’m using an old Promatic flash but I want something more automatic; something that can tell how my camera is set and only fire as strongly as needed. The problem is E-TTL flashes (Canon’s standard) are very pricey. Even used they’re going for too much on eBay. I’m still looking though.

Today I finally figured out how to record tracklogs with my BlackBerry and GPS puck. This means I can finally start geotagging my photos again.

When I got my S5 I picked up a small camera bag that had enough room for the camera, flash, and a couple of SD cards. Then I picked up a 58mm adapter and a lens hood. With those attached the bag started to get tight. When I decided to always carry an emergency set of batteries it got really tight. Then my brother gave me a polarizer which was the last thing I could possibly fit in the bag without bursting a seam.

Well, I was innocently browsing eBay the other day (cough) when I stumbled across a set of 2x and 3x filters for cheap. There is no way they would fit in my bag so I had to pick up a new one tonight. It’s about 50% bigger with enough room for my current kit plus a little left over for a few more filters. I got this one because, first, it’s big enough for what I need without being so big that I feel the need to fill it and second, it was only $15.

One of these days I’ll need to borrow a camera and get a shot of my complete kit. Hopefully I do this before I outgrow the new bag.

My Flickr page is getting about 50 hits a day. At this rate I’ll have 2000 views in a couple of days. They like me! They really like me!

And I’m a photography addict. I’m getting to the point that I feel antsy if I don’t shoot almost every day. The problem is I’m running out of things to shoot. I dislike shooting people and I’ve photographed every flower, bird, and animal in the area.

Every April my .Mac account comes do and every year I try like mad to find a way not to have to resubscribe. .Mac is Apple’s service that offers email, web space, remote storage, remote desktop, and calendar, todo, address book, mail syncing between Macs. Syncing is the only part I really use and it’s indispensable. The question I struggle with every year is if it’s $79 indispensable (through Amazon, $99 from Apple). On one hand that’s a real chunk of change to just sync. On the other hand I have yet to find something that works as painlessly. Rsyc gets confused by binary files and manually trying to merge the files is a quick path to a drinking problem. I’m still looking for a solution but I get the feeling that I’ll once again be gritting my teeth and rolling pennies to re-up again this year.

On Wednesday Dani and I went to go see Jonathan Coulton at World Cafe Live in Philly. I had never been to that venue before but it was nice. It’s big enough that it feels like a concert and not just a bar gig but small enough that it feels intimate. My only gripe about the place is that the food is over priced but that’s par for course.

I had never heard of the opening band, Paul and Storm, but they were good and funny. Dani and I have both become fans. One member, Paul, is a local boy so I hope to be able to catch more of their shows.

Jonathan was great, as expected. The set list can be found here. One of the best parts was when we caused him to lose it during Still Alive by waving our cell phones (I’m one of the amorphous blobs on the lower middle of that vid). My only regret is that I didn’t bring a real camera. The tickets said no cameras but I think we were the only ones to actually listen to it. I did get a picture of Jonathan and I after the show with my BlackBerry but it is painfully bad. Next time I’m at least bringing a pocket point and shoot. Jonathan really is a nice guy and I was honored to have had a chance to shake his hand, get his autograph, and that picture. I hope he comes back to Philly soon.

Thanks to my brother I now have a polarizing filter. I haven’t had a chance to play with it but I plan to very soon