New camera!

Woohoo, check out my new Canon Rebel XTi/400D! We bought it at Henry's from a fellow named John Sloan.



I liked John because he seemed knowledgeable about Canons and was opinionated but not pushy. He also didn't rush through a sale, and was very patient with questions. Scott Murray came with Jeff and me; thanks to Scott for his patience waiting through the whole process!

Turns out Henry's also had the Sigma 30mm f1.4 lens after all! We're also trying out a Canon 17-85 and a 70-300. Here's one of the first photos that Jeff took with the 70-300, out in our backyard:



Going through the user manual and the Digital Rebel XTi/400D Field Guide, I can tell I have a TON to learn. Holy toledo. This camera can do so much more than my point-and-shoot.

Like the ability to control aperture and focus points (with a Sigma 30 mm f1.4 lens):



and then changing the main focus point:



In this photo, I've set the focus point on the little pink thingy that Jeff bought me from The Magic Pony a while back, and turned the other focus points off:



(unmodified except for cropping)

I still have to get used to the Sigma's narrower field, compared to my point and shoot, but so far I love it. Other differences (apart from the obvious features) I've noticed so far with the XTi/Sigma vs my Canon PowerShot:

- Much faster (e.g. turning on, focusing, taking a photo)

- Colours much richer. With my PowerShot, I have to fiddle with the image (colours, sharpness, etc.) for pretty much every shot.

- The light!!!! Sorry for all the exclamation marks, but I love LOVE having so much more light to play with. So much that I can tell that I have so much to learn about just this one topic alone. With my PowerShot, taking photos iin low-light situations was always a challenge. I usually ended up pumping up the ISO to 400, with the result of much graininess. With the XTi, I can turn the ISO up to 1600 (!) but also get a ton more light through the lens.

Take a look at the following photo, for example, which I took with my point-and-shoot:



(unmodified except for cropping)

[Update: I realize that I should have taken the latter photo at the highest resolution and brightness to be fair to my little point-and-shoot, plus duplicated lighting situations exactly. Once I'm more experienced with my XTi, I'll another series of comparison shots.]

A close-up comparison:





Must go experiment some more. Thanks again to everyone who has offered camera advice on Facebook, Livejournal, Photo.net, DCresource.com, and especially Ray and Iain for letting me try out their cameras.



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Things you shouldn't say to a writer on a first date

Will Write For Chocolate has been updated. I've also made a couple of new posts to blogTO:

Grab Your Wizard Hat: Toronto Gears Up For Harry Potter

and

Interview with Patricia Storms: Illustrator, Cartoonist and Creative Dynamo: Anyone out there interested in books, cartoons or illustration (I suspect there are at least a few of you out there :-) should also check out Patricia's wonderful blog, Booklust.





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Dark Horse review in National Post

Happy birthday to my friend Amanda!

Things are somewhat busy/hectic right now, but I wanted to let you know that I've posted a review of Dark Horse Espresso Bar on blogTO; a slightly shorter version also appears in today's National Post (pg A13).

Speaking of photos, a friend kindly bought me Wiley's Digital Rebel Xti/400D Digital Field Guide yesterday, and I've been eagerly soaking up as much info as I can before we actually buy the camera and lense(s) this Friday.

I won't be giving up my Canon PowerShot even after I get my new camera, by the way. The Powershot is far easier to stick into a pocket and is better for taking "stealth shots." :-)



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Pho, Guinness Marmite, Sigma 30/1.4 lenses

My recent posts on blogTO, for those interested:

Pho Vietnam: Comfort In a Bowl (photo above, taken on my point-and-shoot)

Raccoon-Proof Green Bins: Fact Or Fiction? (Part 2)

I love the Internet. Some months ago, I read that BSAG (one of my favourite bloggers and who, incidentally, recently acquired a cat -- I know a bunch of you are feline fanatics :-)) was looking for Guinness Marmite. BSAG was the one who got me hooked on the peanut butter and marmite combo so I was, of course, intrigued.

So I posted an appeal to my British friends in my Livejournal, most of whom I have met through the filking community. My friend Lissa found some in her area of Britain, and we agreed to a trade: two containers of Guinness Marmite (mailed to BSAG and me) in exchange for some maple butter (which I've sent) and an LJ user icon (which I still owe).


Lissa and me.

This sort of thing would have been so much more laborious through snailmail. Anyway, I'm quite enjoying my Guinness Marmite; I haven't yet decided if I like it more than regular Marmite, so lots more taste tests are in order. Apparently Guinness made a limited edition run of this type of marmite for St. Patrick's Day. Thank you, Lissa!



And for those not already driven crazy by my camera research, you'll be relieved to hear that I'm actually starting to narrow down my lens choices. Talking to my friend Iain helped a great deal; he owns a Nikon D80 with a AF-S Zoom-Nikkor ED 18-200mm (actually much smaller than the lens pictured above) and let me try it out on Friday night.

After taking pics for about 15 minutes, I found that the weight was starting to aggravate my tendinitis a bit. No big zoom lens for me, I think.

Iain also pointed me to a friend's Flickr account as an example of someone who uses a low light lens (Canon 50mm f1.4) as her walkaround camera. I love this woman's pics, and it looks like she leans toward the same sort of photographic subjects as I do.

And that got me thinking more about what kind of photos I take. I tend to shoot pics in low-light conditions, with a focus on people and close-ups of objects (like food!). I don't actually use the zoom on my Canon PowerShot that much because it's more difficult to get a sharp image; I prefer shooting at higher res and then cropping instead. So I think I could possibly get away without a zoom lens, at least in the beginning.



Philip Greenspun also offered me some advice on Photo.net (where he's CEO and editor-in-chief, though I've been a fan of his since his Travels With Samantha):

"http://www.photo.net/equipment/building-a-digital-slr-system/ is our standard article on the subject. If your main goal is improved performance in low light, the best starter lens would be the Sigma 30/1.4 (captures photos in light 1/8th as bright as a consumer zoom). If you're willing to go up in weight and cost, the Canon 5D body does offer superior low light capabilities (the starter lens there is the Canon 50/1.4)."

I can't afford the Canon 5D, but I started checking out the Sigma 30/1.4. I know it hasn't got a wide a field as some other lenses, but I'm pretty excited about the image quality and low-light capabilities. I may get a less expensive 18-55mm to supplement the 30 and then (if needed) get a higher quality wide angle lens later on. Unfortunately it doesn't look as if Vistek or Henry's carries the Sigma 30, at least not on the Web site, but I'm going to investigate if either would order it for me.

Anyway, I think that the best course for me is to make sure I'll actually be able to USE the camera without worrying about my tendinitis, then get lots of practice using a digital SLR, THEN think about what additional lenses I need.

Thanks to everyone who has offered camera advice on Facebook, Livejournal, Photo.net, DCresource.com, and especially Ray and Iain for letting me try out their cameras. At this point I'm leaning toward the Canon Rebel XTi unless Jeff wants to get the Nikon 18-200 lens to use with the camera himself, in which case we'll go with Nikon.

The fellow I spoke with at Vistek, though, had a good point. In the end, the type of camera and lens isn't nearly as important as having a good eye when taking photos. So I'm going to try not to obsess too much longer over the choice, actually go ahead and BUY my new camera/lens, and then start improving my craft. :-)



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Less Than Art revamped!

Exciting news: Ookla The Mok's Less Than Art album has been re-released as a 10 year anniversary edition, fully remastered and with newly recorded bonus tracks.

My music group Urban Tapestry is on one of the tracks on this album (Still Can't Buy Me Love: Allison and Jodi do backing vocals, and you can hear my flute in a couple of places) :-) Check out their Less Than Art page on CDBaby for sample tracks and to buy the CD. Looking forward to getting my copy!

The album also has a special place in my heart because it was recorded a couple years after Urban Tapestry and Ookla The Mok met; Rand and I have remained good friends since.

Above: Adam English and Rand Bellavia, in 1994 when Urban Tapestry met Ookla The Mok.




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