Photography

Haven’t done one of these random thoughts posts in a while, so thought today would be good as I need to write this, head to the gym, then to work.

Anyway…

As many of you know, I’m quite big into my photography. I’d love to have some of the newer and cooler things, but the truth is, I can’t afford most of them. So I get by — and decently well I think — with the items I have.

How about this one though?

Saw this on the B&H Photo website. First, it’s used. How about some specs:

This is an F5.6 (so fixed, which is good) lens that is set at 1,200mm. Yes, you read that right. The longest fixed telephoto Canon has ever made.
Let us take a quick peek at the specs for this one: The closest focal length is 49 feet. Yes, 49 feet. The sucker is 32.9 inches long – so nearly three feet. AND it weighs 39.6 pounds, so I don’t think you’ll be hand-holding this one anytime soon.

Oh, the price tag? $99,000. And it’s used. Yikes!

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I see it’s snowing out a little. We’re not supposed to be getting much, thankfully. We’ve had some odd weather lately. Rain (and quite heavy at times with a flood warning, actually) and then some snow. Warmer temps and freezing cold.

Ahhhh, living in the Northeast.

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I’m taking the GREs again Saturday. Haven’t taken them in six or so years and if my plans are eventually to possibly go back to school for a second masters degree or Ph.D, I need to have these. So, I signed up, am studying pretty hard and going for it.

The math part is Greek.

I was never that good in math as it is. Not in junior high. Not in elementary school. Especially not in college. And the GRE supposedly takes math from your junior high days.

Good luck with that.

I’ve been reading over this one guide — and it’s been good prepping me for the other parts — but the math stuff is just way out of this world. I can do the basics — add, subtract, multiply and divide. But when you get fractions and algebra and blah blah blah blah blah blah…

Being I wouldn’t be going back for anything math-heavy, hopefully it won’t hurt me too bad when I crash to the ground in this section. Watch my guessing skills go through the roof and I get some bad-ass score in this section.

A guy can hope, right?

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Think you’ve seen enough of the Manning’s on commercials? It’s only going to get more crazy (personally, I find these things to be a riot).

Here’s a PSA from the Manning family that got me laughing pretty hard:

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Any of you use Google Reader? Ever have any odd things happen?

For example, I signed on today and saw there were like 5-6 blogs that had postings of like 150 new things. All of them were old and from long ago. Seems like the reader sometimes goes wacky. Some sort of bug.

It’s annoying because I had been cutting down on what I had to look at. Then I sign on today and there are more than 1,000 new things!

In one night!

Thankfully, when I went and axed all of those, I’m back to a more manageable number!

Anyway, that’s it for now. More later.

And 2008 is fast underway!

Can you believe January is over already? Yikes!

Sending the camera out tomorrow (Friday) finally. Hopefully it won’t take much more than a couple weeks. Went to the Baseball Hall of Fame today and remembered I couldn’t attach a flash, so it’s time to send it. I just hope whatever they end up having to charge me, I can afford.

Groundhog Day is coming! I hope the varmint does whatever he needs to do so we have a shorter winter!

Well, looks like I’ll be cameraless for a couple of weeks. 🙁

I’m finally going to have this bad boy sent out and get fixed. It’s been dinged up decently well, I’m just worried about the amount of $$$ it’s going to cost me. It is still under some warranty, so maybe some will somehow be covered under there. I’ll be sending it out in the next day or so and I’ll wait to hear back from them.

Canon claims the service takes about seven days from the time they receive it. We’ll see what happens there. Maybe I’ll get lucky and they’ll just opt to send me a factory refurb. That would rule.

Either way, I’m just looking forward to having my camera fixed up and back to normal. Just doesn’t want to focus all that well, which is annoying.

Guess I could dust off the Digital Rebel if I want to go shoot anything over the next couple of weeks. But maybe this will get me to do a couple things I really need to do. 🙂

More later!

OK, the gym is one thing. You do some cardio, you do some lifting, you call it a day.

These photo days are becoming like work!

Went on a photo outing with Dylan, Darren and his wife Jody (I hope I spelled that right). Went looking for waterfalls again as well as getting to a covered bridge I had never heard of or seen. I need to do some research on this one.

Anyway, the one place we went was a workout. Longer trail, down hill, no footing. I took a spill, smacked my back and all. Probably did a more powerful cardio workout today than at the gym though!

Saw several waterfalls as we went out and about. Really cool. But man, I’m tired. Heading to see the movie Juno tonight. I have a feeling when all said and done after that, I’ll be ready for bed!

If I am catching a second wind, I’ll post thoughts on that movie later tonight. I’d love to see the Jones/Trinidad fight, but don’t think anyone is getting it. I’ll see it when HBO shows it next weekend, I imagine.

Anyway, more later. If my eyes are open!