We are going to repaint the kitchen cabinets, remove and replace the cabinets over the desk and repaint the living areas–sans bathroom and bedroom.

Sounds like it might be a lot, but our condo is very small, so it shouldn’t be too bad.

Luckily we found some contractors to help us out.

IMG_0900

Originally uploaded by Ryoh A

I took this from the ferry at Swartz Bay as we docked. I was waiting in the line up to get off the ship, when I looked over to my right and saw this magnificent beam coming through the clouds. Of course I had both my cameras on me (did you expect otherwise?) and started to snap away. I didn’t realized the line had already subsided and I was the very last stragler. I also had my Shure earphones on, so I couldn’t even hear the lady from BC ferries trying to verbally flag me down.

Anyway, it was a very good day to be taking photos.

So, today, I went to London Drugs again and had a chance to play with the camera. It seemed like a nice camera (what do I know, right?) with some nice features. I found that turning on the live view feature took a little menu navigating. But, once it was enabled it was just a matter of pressing the “set” button. The odd thing about the live view is the fact that it doesn’t seem to autofocus. I guess you are supposed to set up the shot before hand. Of course the autofocus may be in there, but as I only had about 5-10 minutes with it, I didn’t really have a chance to check.

Very excited.

DSC01130

Originally uploaded by Ryoh A

Ever wonder where the road you drive on or drive past leads to? I do all the time. I like taking detours from regular routes to see where they lead and what’s around the corner. A little while ago, I decided to go all the way to the south end of Byrne Rd to see what’s there and found this park. The sun was setting and as usual had my camera on me. What a view.

Father & Son

Originally uploaded by Ryoh A

Looking through Christmas photos to make into a slide-show DVD and found this pic of Rob. Is there any doubt the some things are more nature than nurture? Photography is in their blood.

Cody the Photographer

Originally uploaded by Ryoh A

This is Cody getting ready to take a picture. He has a way better camera than I do! I wish we had toys like this when we were kids.

My latest project is adding a Vignette effect to pictures. It’s when you add a dark soft boarder on your photos to help bring the viewers attention subtly toward the main subject.

Below are my first 2 attempts.

Original on left. Vignetted on the right.

Orignal on top. Vignetted on the bottom.

Tutorial for Vignette in Pixelmator

DSC00684.JPG

Originally uploaded by Ryoh A

Who says that construction delays and congestion on Cambie is a totally bad thing. Granted, most of the time you (edit) it bugs the crap out of me to be stuck in traffic on the bridge. In fact, I avoid that area like the plague now. Sometimes, and only sometimes, it’s good to be stuck in traffic and take a little bit of a breather. Lina snapped this and a few more (click picture to see the rest of them on flickr) while stopping and going.

Hot on the heals of the exciting news of the Canon XSi is the announcement of the Nikon D60. Being the NERD that I am, I couldn’t wait to find out more about the replacement for the D40x. I’ve checked out the feature list and was quite disappointed with it’s lack luster enhancements. Where as the XSi added new features along with the tweaks, the D60 only seems to be a slight revision of the D40x.

The only thing that’s worth noting is the ability to do stop motion video. This new feature will let you do your own version “Wallace and Grommet.”

Canon and Nikon have battle it out very heavily in the entry level digital SLR market. In the last generation (XTi vs D40x) Canon was losing ground to Nikon but now it looks like Canon will be regaining it’s lead. We can only hope that Nikon will come out with a D60x.

[Cnet Article]

As some of you know, I want to get more into photography. And browsing through some of the pictures on Flickr has been truly inspiring. Thanks to Lina and her mother’s Christmas Gift of a digital camera, I’ve been doubly hooked. Maybe I get obsessively compulsive about things like this. I’ve been drooling over both the Canon Rebel XTi and Nikon 40Dx. Oh, the choices…What should I do? Should I get the Body only and get better lenses? Or, should I get it with the lens (or 2 lens kit for the XTi) and start snapping.

Well, now, thanks to the PMA (Photo Marketing Association) 2008 show, Canon introduced the XSi: the successor to XTi. There are some impressive new features that will make it more appealing to me (and probably many others). Notable features include: Live View, which allows you to frame the shot through the LCD instead of the view finder; Upping of the Megapixel count; DigicIII processor; and a move from CF cards to SD cards.

I guess I will have to keep dreaming about them, because cameras like these are still overkill for my level of photography.

[Cnet Article]