For the person who doesn't have everything, but doesn't really want everything, but just buys what he needs/wants when he needs/wants it, m'lady found one more great surprise for me for my birthday: A sweet all-in-one telephoto lens for my year-old Nikon digital SLR camera. This one's a beauty because it lets you carry just one lens around, which is huge if you're lugging the camera around to begin with.
I've been too busy to really get down to exploring how to use it, but I took it to a recent family gathering (to zoom in on facial pores) and on my rushed Radiohead/Joshua Tree trip out west. So far so good.
At the in-law abode, I messed with it by lazily shooting hummingbirds at a feeder. Figured those spastic sugar-high wings would be a nice test for the zoom. It's really ridiculous, how digital SLRs have made taken half-way decent photos so easy. I still feel like I'm cheating, with equipment I don't deserve (Why yes, I was reared Catholic. Why do you ask?)
Though the first thing you discover when trying to shoot a hummingbird is: Screw the speed of their wings -- it's their bodies that move too damn fast! They're small, they appear in your periphery like bugs, and they zoom from hovering to zipping across your range in the, heh, blink of an eye. I had to point at the feeder and just hope for the best.
Anyway, a friendly wasp arrived, too, to partake in the sugarfest. Wasps always fascinate me, but lacking the courage, I'm not going to get close enough to really examine one.
So the lens served a purely practical role, as it allowed me to examine the sucker from afar. Zoom, shoot, then blow-up the image to inspect that funky body. Those long dangling legs, the big stinger that Freaked.Me.Out. as a kid, the seemingly not-meant-for-flight physique that will nonetheless nimbly navigate your flesh when perturbed.
As you may have noticed, the site has changed. Sampa, the free-site host, did a version 2 of some sort.
Despite an FAQ that made it sound like allowing one's site to go through v.2 surgery would be okay, there were several flexibilities that surprisingly disappeared with the click of a button. (e.g. I cannot believe sidebars like this one are even narrower than before.)
And I'm told -- miraculously! -- that the conversion cannot be undone. Truth be told, I'm actually quite pissed. But free is free. Sampa has otherwise been good to me.
So I need to sort through site "features" to see how I can make do. Except that I don't have the time at the moment, in the middle of graduate classes and Lighthousehockey.com. (btw, I've removed that Lighthouse RSS feed so that you're not clogged with random Islanders hockey gibberish).
But I promise to touch up the accessories when I get a chance, and return to irregularly scheduled blogging.
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At the in-law abode, I messed with it by lazily shooting hummingbirds at a feeder. Figured those spastic sugar-high wings would be a nice test for the zoom. It's really ridiculous, how digital SLRs have made taken half-way decent photos so easy. I still feel like I'm cheating, with equipment I don't deserve (Why yes, I 
Anyway, a friendly wasp arrived, too, to partake in the sugarfest. Wasps always fascinate me, but lacking the courage, I'm not going to get close enough to really examine one. 
Comments (2) for "We all just want sugar"
February, 2008