Went on a trip to Shenandoah National Park this weekend. Got some cool shots. Got alot to go through, but here's a big highlight. I caught a real wild snake, hehe. Only the 2nd snake I've ever seen in the wild.

In the states you can get a Canon 5D for about $1800. Thats the cheapest full frame around now. My friend has it and it is an amazing camera.

Personaly I'm waiting for the 5D mk2 thats going to be out by the end of the year. Supposedly Canon is going to be really kicking things into gear to combat Nikon's recent very feature-filled cameras.

My range of lenses is now complete! I have the canon 18-55mm kit lens, my canon 70-300mm IS telephoto lens, and now I just received my sigma 10-20mm wide angle. This lens is probably the best built of all of my lenses, and it was not the most expensive.

I also have the canon 50mm f1.8, and canon 100mm f2.8 macro.

Dwarf Fortress. http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/

More info here: http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=58103

Quote from SamH :

Here's a question for everyone.. if I take a photo, I feel okay about adjusting the saturation, exposure, contrast, brightness, white balance etc. I even feel okay about sharpening up the images, when I'm resampling down, just to prod up/maintain the impact of a photo.. but there often comes a point when I'm touching up, where I feel like I've begun to cheat.. where it's no longer the photo that I took, and it's become a photoshop production and no longer anything relating to the thing I achieved with the camera itself.

Since we're all in the digital age, now, and we're not only responsible for taking the photo these days, but also for what happens in the darkroom.. my question is, how far do you go before you feel like you're cheating? How far do YOU go before you start backtracking/hitting undo? Do you use NeatImage to get rid of grain? Do you add vignettes, or burn areas of your image? What's the limit of acceptability before you've broken the thing you've made?

When you boil it down you can do whatever the heck you want. There is no rule. Just think about what you are trying to accomplish. My friend James has made a living using photoshop since highschool. He is a master at it and can do some amazing things to turn a so-so picture into a great one. He selectively edits parts of photos, removes an errant tree limb jutting into the photo, etc. Thats his style. He is trying to make a piece of art. I on the other hand am simply trying to capture the reality of something, so I don't do any of that fancy photoshop stuff.

Quote from SamH :

I found a bit of rural decay today, which I found quite striking. Seemed so strange to find the mix of grafitti and technology out in the middle of nowhere. It's an abandoned weather research station, owned by Bradford University.

That looks like a scene out of half life 2.

Yeah I've got the grip for my XTi too. Its too small for my hands otherwise.

I'm playing. Pretty fun so far. Bugs here and there, but that is to be expected with a launch MMO.

The soles of the driver's shoes?

Yeah eyes are very smooth and reflective

Quote from STROBE :

Cheers! Yes it is a fantastic lens, especially for the money. My Sigma 70-300 is another star performer. It's APS-C only, and is a bit soft at the long end, but apart from that it provides really quite incredible image quality considering the low cost of it.

It doesn't match the Tamron 90 for detail or sharpness though. You remember the scene in Bladerunner where Deckard recrates an entire image from a tiny reflection in a picture? Maybe that's not so farfetched. I'll not post the entire image as I'd rather not splash his identity across the internet, so below is a 100% crop from the centre of the frame of a photo of my gorgeous 2 year old nephew, but I never expected the Tamron 90 (this time with A700) to capture such room detail in the reflection!

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/7089/dsc00332th8.jpg" alt="" onload="imageAutoSize(this)" />

And that was shot wide open, too (1/125s, ISO200, bounced flash). I've definitely never taken a photo before where you can see my reflection, the light fitting, the picture on the wall, the doorway etc in the reflection of someone'e eye.

Here's a similar picture of my 'baby'

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stregone/2442158312/

I can't list all mine. I have 60 games on steam. I'm a sucker for those big combo packs like the id pack or the unreal pack.

I got a 12gig CF card for 90 bucks after rebate. So far I haven't gotten anywhere near filling it up. My computer was out of comission on and off for the last month and a half and I still have plenty of space on this card, hehe.

I know with my canon 100mm 2.8 macro at minimum focusing distance it actualy has a focal length of 65mm. So maybe something is going on. I don't think that changes the f stop though.

wow, f57! Is that right?

Aww, she's cute. What kinda dog is she? She looks like a pit or staffie mix at first glance.

Quote from mutt107 :

sry for double post but ow can you make lots of cash on forza?

Use AI drivers to run endurance races while you do other stuff.

My cat

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stregone/2421609562/

Man, sweet cars

Here's some pics of my pet snake.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stregone/2351535376/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stregone/2330136520/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stregone/2330136218/

It could be the NIC. Try a different one if you have one laying around. A dodgy NIC caused a ton of problems for me on my old computer when I ran file sharing programs. Those programs create WAY more connections than simple web browsing and the NIC freaked out and crashed unless the program had a way to limit the # of connections it made.

Not bad. I've got an A720 too, its a great camera that I can carry everywhere.

Nice HDR Most people over do it and it gives the photo a neon crayon look, heh.

Here's those Korean War Memorial pics.

http://flickr.com/photos/stregone/2325276877/
http://flickr.com/photos/stregone/2326225864/
http://flickr.com/photos/stregone/2325406519/
http://flickr.com/photos/stregone/2325407397/
http://flickr.com/photos/stregone/2325408117/

Quote from Don :

http://don.vn.cz/temp/repo/2008-02-24-ctg/
...need some rally badly

Awesome I love the one of the cat running full tilt. My cat is a lazy indoor cat so I never see that