have you ever done so many squats you couldn’t walk without muttering “shitfuckcocksuckermotherfucker” under your breath with each step? well i have! dear god, the pain. i really shouldn’t have done pilates yesterday, either. i think that just exacerbated the over-exertion from tuesday night. at this point, i don’t think i’ll ever be able to walk normally again.
even sleeping last night was an exercise in torture. every time i rolled over (did you know that you use leg muscles to roll over? i didn’t!), my sore ass would bump against a slat through my crappy futon and i’d flinch. the pain! someone please sedate me.
otherwise, i think my teaching assistant got really tired of marking our big assignments because even though my program had some serious flaws in the search algorithm, which i reported, i still got 100%. it’s like he got to mine saw the pretty colours, ran it, tested it once and then just slapped a 100 on it. hey, i’m not complaining. what with the final exam from hell coming up in six days i need all the percentage points i can get.
i think i’m going to buy a film camera this weekend. i’ve got a couple hundred extra bucks in the bank and, before i spend $2000 on a digital slr, i think i should start learning more about apertures and f-stops. a long time ago, my second-favourite jim (sorry, daddy’s got the number one spot) recommeded a minolta maxxum 5000 as a good place to start. i’m fairly confident i can pick up a good used one for under $200 and think it’ll be a good exercise for me. of course, then i’ll have to get a scanner to scan in the photos i take. if anyone reading has any recommendations about which camera to start with (or which lens!) please comment or email me.
i really want to start working on my photography. that’s the passion i rediscovered on the weekend. i was so at peace and blissful while i spent my morning in the gardens making pictures. i actually found myself giggling more than once because i was so pleased with what i was doing. that’s what i’ve been missing in my life: something that makes me giddy. i have some ideas for what to do with my photos, but they need a little bit of foundation work done before i can really go forward. i hope the couple weeks off i’ll have between classes will be enough to get the ball rolling.
hi there,
I recommend getting either a Nikon or Canon, who are both making their lenses interchangable with their film and digital bodies. Right now I would just forgo the film camera and get either a Canon Digital Rebel or the Nikon D70. Both run about $999, the Canon with a lens, the Nikon without. I’ve used the Canon and have been very impressed overall even though the silver body and lightweight design makes it look like a toy. The picture quality, however, is much improved over your basic Point-and-Shoot models.
I enjoy your pictures and think you have a prety good eye for interesting details. Its the main reason* I visit here, so keep posting them.
(*Not that you’re not a fascinating person with intersting things to say as well… )
oh yeah… go onto pbase.com, and you can do a camera search to see pictures that others have taken with various model cameras.
Hey,
I just wanted to drop in and tell you how much I love this picture…it instantly reminded me of “A Nightmare Before Christmas”
thank you! i love that movie, so the compliment is doubly appreciated.
oh, and bruce? i *wish* i could afford a digital rebel. that’s my dream camera (well, not really. the eos 1d-s is; but it’s my dream-could-become-reality camera).
unfortunately, up here, after you buy a compact flash card and batteries and all the other good stuff it’s closer to $2000 than $999.
man it kinda sucks im not haulin to Los Angeles anymore. Being a camera nut, you’d probably appreciate the kind of cameras the street-freaks were tryin to sell me down there more than I could. All I know is when the bag the camera is in is about the size of a briefcase, and it’s got like 4 or 5 dfft lenses inside it, and its covered with esoteric dials and switches that I’d never understand, I’m lookin at some pretty good $ there. Yes yes.. I know some poor dumbass tourist got held up for it, but when they’re askin me for like 40 or 50 bucks for this thing.. why god, why didnt I buy one when I had the chance?!? If you want one… try the market district of LA. 6th thru 8th and Alameda. Walk softly, and carry a big stick. If they think you’re just a tourist they’ll eat ya alive.
A couple words about cameras: my roommate got an excellent deal on a brand new display-model Minolta at London Drugs.
She also discovered at a photography class that Minolta’s require a special ($50-ish) adapter to hook up to a lot of professional systems (flash sets, etc.) – so research any proprietary accessories that you may need – it might be worth spending a bit more on the initial camera, just to avoid the additional expense down the road.
And I
i love all the great pictures you’ve been posting! they’re so wonderful!
I use a Minolta Maxxum 5000 and I love it. I bought a used 7000 for under $200 last year, although I don’t think I like it as much as the 5000. Don’t buy one of the new cheaper SLRs whatever you do. They are made with plastic, not metal like the old workhorse cameras, so they are inexpensive for a reason. I would also suggest looking at an older Canon or Nikon. They’re cheap to buy used and they last forever. Oh, and they are fully manual so they are good to learn with.
One of the side benefits of the rise of Digital SLRs into the marketplace is that it has forced prices on good traditional film SLRs to drop. A truly wonderful camera, the Nikon n90 is selling on ebay for around $300. Another great camera but with a more confusing interface is the n70 (I have one) which is going on ebay for less that $200. These are for the bodies only. Both are sturdy japanese made cameras that are fast and accurate.
I prefer the n70 to my n80, the newer plastic model, but the n70 is a little harder to navigate due to its poorly designed menu system.
If you do go with one of the older all manual type cameras you might not be able to use those lenses should you decide to go digital. Just a consideration.
my first slr was a canon eos. a few of my friends said it’s a beautiful camera for slr noobies, and it was good for me. it can be as automatic or as manual as you like, which lets you concentrate on learning individual manual things and letting the camera take care of the rest. i love my canon. :)
they’ve become so cheap lately, the second hand ones must be practically free!
Where did you take that photo? It’s amazing!
this one (and all the rest from this week) was taken at park & tilford gardens (or what’s left of them from when they built the mall on top of it) in north vancouver.