Photography Friend

I have found a photography friend in another brother-in-law! Now we are both madly taking pictures (a bit of an overstatement :P). He has recently acquired a Canon EOS Elan 7e and a 50mm f/1.8 II. I hope he does not regret the decision as I was instrumental in his acquiring the lens and the body (fingers crossed)!

I wonder whether all the great writers wrote under the influence of alcohol :-?

:P

Sentimental

Somehow alcohol brings out the best in me. I seem to be a much better, mellow person after imbibing (yeah, I checked the spelling of the word :P) a couple of drinks ;-). It does make me a bit sentimental too. Recently my bro-in-law offered me a job in his newly formed software company. Although I have fantastic amount of faith in him as a programmer, something held me back. I guess it was mostly inertia, I was sort of well settled in the job that I was doing at the moment. Although I had very good reasons to leave, being bypassed for a raise primarily among them, I loved the colleagues I worked with. One person, Nirmalaya, will forever have a soft corner in my heart, having learned a lot from him. One hell of a unselfish guy. I guess I learned a lot from him.

I seen to have lost the thread :-? Anyway, join I did and I do not regret the decision one bit. I never knew changing jobs was so difficult.

On a different note, have just bought the Canon EF 75-300 III USM lens! The preparations for the holiday are in full swing!

Planning a trip!

We, my wife and I, are planning a trip to Panna National Park, in Madhya Pradesh. We wanted to visit Bandhavgarh National Park, Khajuraho and Orchha initially. We abandoned the idea of going to Bandhavgarh after being unable to figure out how to reach Khajuraho from Bandhavgarh, a distance of around 250 kms. So the hunt was on and we decided to go to Panna and stay at Ken River Lodge. Bandhavgarh was abandoned more so as we could not get a booking for three nights. Doing some extensive research on the Net we decided to take a chance on the Ken River Lodge. The other two we are yet to book. I never knew planning a trip so well in advance could be such a big hassle. The M P tourism website obviously is not too Net friendly. The online booking does not work! The Calcutta office works with a a dial up connection :-o. Anyhow, the first part of planning is complete. Now planning the second part. Wonder what and how much film I need to buy?

Rant!

Finally got my hands on the scans. They are so terrible that for a moment my heart stopped and I thought I had a lemon of a lens and a totally malfunctioning camera. I checked the prints. They were decidedly better. It takes me back to what I have always felt before. In my city (Calcutta, India) there is not a single D&P shop that gives reasonable prints for amateurs. I had almost given up on colour print film and started using Black and White and slide film. So it is back to the same for me. Hopefully in around 15 days I will have something worth uploading.

Film vs Digital

There is so much talk about film vs. digital. For those of us living in developing countries it is still not economically feasible to go out and get a DSLR. I got the secondhand A2 at a fraction of the cost of a entry level DSLR like the EOS 350D. For me the best part of digital is that there is no waiting period between clicking and checking out the results. The realtime editing is a cool feature too. I still like the whole feel of holding a good print in my hands, black and white or colour which is lacking in digital pics. Even if the cameras eventually go digital, printing on paper will remain.

Waiting for the first roll

Waiting for the first roll to be developed and scanned. Waiting for something is so boring. The person responsible for collecting the pics and the cd ditched. This is so annoying. He has promised to get the stuff today. So the wait continues. Keeping my fingers crossed! Hope to be able to upload something tomorrow.

:-)

Photography

Got interested in photography all over again after a two year hiatus. A brother-in-law got a small digital P&S and rekindled my interest.

Another cousin was in San Jose, Ca at the time so I started hunting on eBay for a good camera. I am a Canon nut. I had a Canon EOS 500N and wanted a better body along with a new 50mm 1.8 II as that was within my budget. Being badly bitten by the bug I decided going retro would be cool as I would be able to get much more gear for my money. So the hunt for a Canon A1 with some FD lenses started in real earnest. Another friend piqued my interest with a F1. Being a long time lurker on http://www.photo.net I started looking at the classifieds there. I decided to check out the secondhand offerings for Canon EOS gear. Pleasantly surprised with the prices there I started a thread on photo.net for suggestions on a second camera body. Amongst the suggestions, one for an A2 caught my fancy. A quick read of the reviews and comments and I was sold on it. In the meantime, I got a call from a local chap about a Canon A1 for sale, cheap. One look at the condition gave me a mild heart attack and I abandoned the idea completely. Another call, this time from a friend whose friend was selling some FD gear. He had (the friend of the friend) three Canon F1s and a Canon A1 with an assortement of FD lenses. So off we went, my friend, significant other and yours truly. One F1 was totally dead, the other one had a working shutter which froze as soon as the battery was inserted, the third he refused to show. The A1 had the infamous Canon squeal. The person selling acted really coy about the prices. We came home with two bodies (both F1s). After the initial rush of madness, my SO asked me, if the Canon F1 is so legendary, how come this person had three non-working Canon F1s? That settled it. The F1 was out. Totally.

Back to photo.net. An A2 with a great price came up. What was most interesting was the person was only 20 mins from my cousin in San Jose. I shot off a couple of emails and a couple of calls. Cousin met seller. Deal clinched. She came back to India on the 20th of Oct. After a long wait I finally got the camera in my hands on the 10th of Nov.

What can I say? Compared to my Canon 500N, which is an entry level camera this one is manna from heaven.

So, watch out people. You are going to be bombarded with pics taken with the A2 with the new EF 50mm f1.8 II.

Whew! that was one long entry.

:D

Starting out

Hi

I am just starting out with Systems Administration. Both Windows and GNU/Linux. So I am going to keep track of stuff that I learn.