#53 by jjohnsen

My humble attempts at macro.

Basically getting in really close.  It bores the hell out of most people, but I think it's fun to play with.

I bought another bike. With all the ones I've bought and sold within the last three years, that makes (Stumpjumper, Peugot, Bowery, Rush, Mojo, Jake the Snake, OCR-2) seven. Good thing I've sold four of them or else I'd have no room.

Also, I'm at WebDesign World in Seattle. This town is beautiful, and awesome. I wonder how crappy it is when it's raining.

Three?  Street bike, mountain bike and some other form I've never heard of?

The third bike is a cyclocross, which is basically a road bike (larger wheels, drop handlebars) with slightly fatter tires. It's a weird Belgian sport where road bikes are raced off-road on grassy, muddy courses with obstacles like logs and fences. The idea is you ride as fast as possible when you can, and put the bike on your shoulder and run when you can't. It's a winter cross-training sport for cyclists.

I like the type of bike because they're beefy and strong like a mountain bike while still being fast on the street like a road bike. I can beat the hell out of it, hop curbs, go off-road, and still hold my own with a road bike on street. The gearing is more set up for mountain biking - take really steep hills and whatnot - so it's not ideal for the fast club riding I'm doing now.

I've always wanted to get into hardcore biking, but I just can't imagine dropping more than two or three hundred on a bicycle, even if it weighs eight ounces and is made out of titanium and can travel in time when you hit 88 mph.

My walmart bike is on the porch, leaning proudly with one working brake, a useless kickstand, and hundreds of miles on it, quietly weeping.

As he sought to renew the USA Patriot Act two years ago, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales assured lawmakers that the FBI had not abused its potent new terrorism-fighting powers. "There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse," Gonzales told senators on April 27, 2005.

Six days earlier, the FBI sent Gonzales a copy of a report that said its agents had obtained personal information that they were not entitled to have.

We're down to two possibilities again:

1) He lied to Congress.

2) He's incompetent and didn't read the reports.

I honestly don't think he lied. I think he, like the rest of the administration, simply ignores any and all reports that have the word "oversight" on the cover.

This thread combined with my compulsion to read every post is filling me with regrets.

jjohnsen:

I'd like to give a shout out for the Pentax range - the K10D is supposed to be a fine piece of kit. Pentax aren't as popular as Nikon and Canon but the K10D (and the older ist* models) have the Pentax KAF lense mount. What this means is that you have access to absolutely loads of Pentax K-mount lenses.

Wrong. The correct answer was: "Bush will commute his sentence." Thanks for playing, though.

I starting to find that as well.  I told my wife I needed a break from finals, so she told me to take off and do whatever I wanted.  Instead of playing Overlord, I grabbed my camera.  Two years ago that never would have happened.

We toyed with the idea of an SLR, but being that we're not camera nerds thought it would have been too much.

I never put too much stock in people who love the only version of a product that they've ever owned.

There's not much point getting an SLR if you're not going to learn how to use it.

"I wish my camera let me have a shallow depth-of-field"

You can get some of that with a P&S by switching to "portrait mode" (or something similar).

Hey, I take pictures too. I need to get a new camera at some point, though. I could never move to a pro model, as it would require way too much work for what I generally do with my camera.

Is the optics quality a result of it being an SLR, or just the fact that you get what you pay for?

Also, Jamie, that's an awesome shot of your daughter.

Those first two shots would've benefited from a polarizer to take the glare off the glass.

Also, Jamie, that's an awesome shot of your daughter.

There's not much point getting an SLR if you're not going to learn how to use it.  Aside from the ability to swap lenses, the sorts of things you can do with an SLR that you can't do with a PHD camera are not going to help you take better snapshots.  Really, the only reason to get an SLR is if you find yourself thinking "I wish my current camera let me _____."  The main one being manual exposure control.