the anarchist @ home

3.001: iPad blogging!

This is a test post.




Does anyone know where this picture was taken?

- Posted by the storage anarchist using BlogPress from my iPad

0.012: total eclipse of the moon

Here's a composite I made of the Lunar eclipse on February 20, 2008 (EST).

All individual images taken with my Canon 40D, using 100-400L zoom with a 1.4x multiplier (effective zoom 864mm), ISO 200, f/8-f/10. Color adjusted in LightRoom, cropped and layered in PhotoShop CS3.

0.010: cape may christmas

My wife Paula and I spent the first week of December in Olde Victorian Cape May, NJ. We were down on the Jersey Shore participating in a "Victorian Christmas / Charles Dickens Extravaganza" program provided by Paula's employer Elderhostel and coordinated by the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts.

If you don't know, Elderhostel provides educational travel experiences for folks over 55. Paula & I got to go even though we didn't meet the age requirement because her employer makes most of their portfolio open to employees, and encourages them to take advantage of the program experience as often as possible. Pretty neat benny, even if we were the youngest in the group of 47 participants.

Anyway, we spent the week learning about the Victorian Era, Victorian architecture, the history of Cape May, and of course Charles Dickens and good ole' Scrooge. The program was really well put together, and we all had a great time learning from the instructors, volunteers and period characters that presented to us over the 4 1/2-day program.

Paula and I also found a lot of time to get about the town and see the sights, usually with my new camera in tow. In fact, I took over 700 shots of the houses all dolled up for Christmas, the lighthouse and surrounding wildlife, and the Cape May Show House. In the middle of the week, we got an unexpected (and rare) snow storm, which provided a particularly special opportunity for photos - the snow providing that natural icing over everything that adds that special something to Christmas photos.

I've collected some of the best captures of the week into a photo album (click on the picture below to see it)

These were all shot using my new 10-megapixel Canon 40D with a variety of lenses, and then cataloged and processed using Adobe Lightroom 1.3 and Photoshop CS3. The slide show itself is also created in Lightroom (using the customized Flash module), and I'm hosting it on my chezburke.com site. I'm moving most of my photos off of Google's Picasaweb, so if you'd like reprints of any of these, drop me a line and we can work out the arrangements.

I hope that you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. And in the inimitable words of Tiny Tim:

God bless us, every one!

0.009: abby & jeff's wedding photos

Well, I finally got all of my photos from Abby & Jeff's wedding loaded, cropped and color adjusted in Adobe Lightroom. Just click the photo to see the slide show (opens in another window).

Abby & Jeff's Wedding
 

The slide show uses SlideShowPro for Lightroom 1.1 Beta, so I apologize if you have any problems.

0.008: pix from my new canon eos 40d

I ordered a new Canon EOS40D from Amazon back at the end of August. At the time I was given a ship date of Sept. 24th but I was pleasantly surprised by an email from Amazon on the day after Labor Day that my camera body would be arriving that week. As many of you know, there were tons of things going on that week, but I've been able to make time since then to take over 1,000 pix with the new camera since then.

I love it.

Here's an album of some of my favorites that I'm using as wallpaper on my laptop.

Enjoy!

0.007: abby & jeff's jack & jill

(I know - the title isn't symmetrical - what can I say?)

Here's a collection of photos I took at Abby & Jeff's shower, using my new 40D. It was the first real photo shoot day, and I was the photographer and  the DJ for the day.

We set up everything outside at Wallace's Grove (on Silver Lake in Hollis, NH) because it was just so dang hot (in the high 90's at midday).

The afternoon started out great, with around 100 people arriving to socialize, listen to music, and drink. Unfortunately Matt's beer tap failed us, so we had to make do with cans of Bud Light until one of the guests ran over to a buddy's house for another tap.

Then the thunderclouds moved in, and it was pretty ominous. We hastened up the lobster dinner a bit, stuffed all the electronics inside the hall, and scarfed down the lobsters - all just before the skies opened up and the whole place was encompassed in a deluge.

Inside, while it poured, we had desert, the traditional Greek Metaxa toast, and then the guests of honor opened their booty, er...gifts. And man was it hot and HUMID inside - but that didn't stop this crowd from dancin'.

Thanks to all that showed up and for dealing with the rains. A good time was had by all, and I'm sure we'll have even MORE fun at the wedding in October. See you all there!

0.006: f1 racing

The guys took Jeff out for an afternoon of go-cart racing at F1 Boston on September 1st, followed by an incredible dinner at Legal Seafood's Test Kitchen. Here are some of the pictures I took there (using my old Canon EOS Digital Rebel 300D - 6 megapixel).

We did a grand-prix style challenge, with 3 10-lap qualifying races, followed by a 20 lap winner-take-all race. I was pretty pooped by the 40th lap of the day, and since I was dragging home the end of the pack (and getting the blue-with-yellow-stripe flag just about every time I passed the marshall), I pulled off and snapped the final few laps.

For the record, Chris took first place (leveraging all those police-academy driving skills).

And I was dead last.

0.003: inside the new canon dslrs

Short and sweet - if you haven't seen this, you must: CNet has an inside-the-skin look at the new Canon 40D and 1Ds Mark III digital SLRs. Enjoy!

0.002: new canon dslrs are (almost) here!

I've been debating for months what camera would be the upgrade for my current 6MP Canon EOS Digital Rebel. I've long outgrown this camera, and I've put aside a chuck of cash to upgrade.

But I just couldn't decide what to get. I've got a hefty investment in Canon "L" glass (lenses), so switching brands isn't an option. But both the Canon EOS 30D and the 5D are approaching 2 years in the market, and that generally means there's an upgrade coming (given Canon's historical release schedules). So I've been waffling between wait-and-see and can't-wait-any-longer for several weeks.

Today my wait came to an end. As has been reported widely around the Internet, Amazon jumped the gun on Canon's expected announcement later this week and posted pages for both the new 10MP EOS 40D as well as the 21MP 1Ds Mark III. Unfortunately, both links were removed after a few hours, but you can see the details over at DPReview.com on this thread.