Now that we got a Panera Bread open in town, we’ve got an additional option when it comes to lunch. Unfortunately, we’ve also lost 2 places in the process - Lagniappe’s (going to Athens) and The Coffee Bean. The latter was only open for 2 maybe 3 months. It looked promising, but parking and maybe it’s location played a part in their demise I’m guessing. The Brick’s new location seems to be working out well. I’ve been there several times for lunch. Maria Bonita is also another alternative. It’s most “upscale” of the Mexican restaurants in town. There’s a place near my house I eat at when I can - Westside Coffee Place. It’s more of a deli-type eatery. Home cooked food and fresh sandwiches. They are also close to the Panera place and I think they’re losing some business to the new kid in town. If everything works out like it always does, as soon as the “new” wears off, everyone will go back to being evenly spread among all the regular eateries.
When I get over to Huntsville anywhere near lunchtime, I try and meet a friend or two… or three… or more.
Almost in the blink of an eye, my 4-day weekend is at its end. Thankfully, I actually accomplished a few things so while I got some rest, I definitely didn’t waste my time. I did manage to get out on Friday to do some shopping, but not until later in the day when I went to Staples to pick up a few of the 2-gig memory cards they had on sale for cheap. You almost can’t have too many of those especially if you shoot events or weddings. I think this is the last time I’m buying the SanDisk Ultra 2 cards though. Next time I’m getting Ultra 3’s or 4’s. What’s the difference? Besides being more expensive, they transfer data to my PC twice or triple the speed of what I’m using now. The 3’s and 4’s are still at a price premium though so I’m not really in any rush to replace what I have yet.
In my last post, I mentioned doing some cleaning and also getting rid of things I don’t need or use anymore instead of storing a bunch of stuff away thinking I might use it again in the future. I found a couple of items I hope to either sell locally or put on eBay. Here’s what I’ve got so far:
An Audix SCX-1 condenser mic with a cardioid capsule. This mic sells for around $500. It’s a great mic that I picked up awhile back when I was putting together the mics I would need for my drums. I’ve got all I need though and can let this one go. It’s a great instrument mic.
Olympus B-300 Teleconverter: Basically, you stick this lens in front of a lens you already have (its threaded) to give you 1.7X magnification, almost double what you currently use. I used it on my old Olympus 2020Z and 5050Z. I think it was around $150 when I got it.
Sony PSP. Yeah, I’m not really getting the use out of it that I thought I would. It’s fun, but I’ve got other things to do. I’ve got 5 games for it as well as a flip-down screen protector. I think I paid around $200 for it when it came out. Games are in the $30-50 range.
Deering Deluxe banjo. This is a most excellent musical instrument. If I end up keeping it, that wouldn’t be a bad thing but the reality is that I just don’t play it anymore. This would imply that I did play it at one time which is true… This banjo is special in that it was the grand prize at a national banjo competition back in 1997. The armrest on it was specially engraved for the event. Want to see sort of what it looks like? This dude retails for over $3000.
A Tenba D-12 camera bag. Another thing I can either keep or let go. I can use it but don’t really need to. The bag is heavily padded and has some nice features that let you access the contents through many ways without having to open the top of the bag. You flash or lenses can be accessed through large side zippers. It also has a rain cover built into it to keep your crap dry. It will hold a large camera body and a few lenses and accessories. Between my Lowepro backpack and Think Tank waist pack, I’ve got all my camera bag bases covered so this is an extra. I think this was around $130. It’s in perfect condition (like most of my stuff).
I’ll probably start doing something on eBay in the next week or so on a few of these things but if anyone that reads my blog (this means both of you) is interested in any of this stuff, leave me a comment.
Guess what? I don’t have to play drums next week! YESSSSSS… Jeremy is back on the schedule again so now he and I can share the drumming duties. This may also give us a chance to work our percussion stuff back into things as well. I’ve got congas, bongos and a djembe in addition to all sorts of small music toys. It could really add some pizazz to our sound. The downside is that I don’t normally play hand percussion and it kinda hurts to play for extended periods if you don’t play regularly. Such is life though.
Guess I’m off to bed. It’s getting late and it’s back to work tomorrow. Hope everyone has a good Monday.
I try to stay pretty up to date on what’s going on in the world, one thing of which is the “Soulja Boy” song. I’ve since found out that there’s a dance that goes along with that one of my co-workers and I were going to try and learn. Not sure where we’re gonna use it though. Anyway, it’s a hip-hop rappy kind of tune as you probably surmised. Well, Travis Barker - you know Blink 182’s former rocker put his own spin on the tune. It’s actually pretty cool!
It’s been awhile since I’ve had a 4-day weekend. As such, I made a big dent in my list of things to do that’s been piling up on me. One major thing is throwing out stuff I don’t need anymore… like magazines. Granted, some have some value in keeping if there are articles or something that you would realistically refer back to. Some things though, you definitely know you’ll never look at again. I also got rid of a lot of paperwork in my files from years ago. I’ve had my shredder running Enron-style all day today - even managing to jam it once and overheat it several times. Anyway, I can finally fit current things into my filing cabinets without having to wedge stuff in there like before the purge.
I went grocery shopping yesterday to restock my fridge and cupboards. I had them bag my stuff in paper instead of plastic for once. The nice thing is that all my items fit in 3 bags. If they used plastic, it probably would have taken almost 10 bags - no lie. Saved me a lot of time unloading when I got home. I recycle both paper AND plastic so I figure I’m going to use whatever makes my life easier.
Did I mention I got a GPS for my car a while back? I got a Garmin 530c. It works great. The only feature I wish it had that this particular model doesn’t have is the text to speech capability to announce street names. Getting that functionality would add a couple hundred bucks to the cost and I really didn’t feel that justified the extra cash. In shopping for a GPS, they put some strange features on some of them… MP3 players, picture viewers and Bluetooth. First off, I have a stereo so there’s no need for me to listen to music from my GPS speaker. Secondly, when would you be showing pictures to someone… on your GPS? Bluetooth on the unit I didn’t understand at first but it turns out that it’s usually implemented so the GPS functions as a hands-free speakerphone. I’ve got a Bluetooth earpiece so that doesn’t really matter to me either. Anyway, I got a wild hair to try out another slick-looking (and cheaper) GPS - the Navigon 2100. It’s got text to speech! It’s got cool little icons! AND it’s a pain in the hiney to use. It’s slow to respond to keypresses, the keys themselves are miniscule (and I have relatively small fingers) and the speaker sucks. The Garmin is really a much more “mature” unit in that it’s interface is miles ahead. I’m going to stick with that one. The Navigon went back to the store.
I know things look a lot different at the moment, but I had some free time to play around with my blog a bit. We’ll see what happens. In the meantime, I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving!
We’ve had the gamut of temperatures down here. A week or so ago, we were down below freezing. Yesterday, we were up to 75. Suprisingly, I’ve managed to avoid getting sick in the process. Sometime during the season changes, I manage to get myself sick for a few days then everything’s back to normal. Weird huh? Anybody else have that happen to them?
Good news on the drumming front - one of my friends will now be sharing drumming duties with me again at church! This makes me happy because while I enjoy playing, playing every week makes for a very busy Sunday for me. It’s almost like I just have a 1-day weekend instead of 2. If I happen to have a photo session on Saturday then my weekend is really wiped out.
Anyone (local) been to the new Monaco Pictures theater at Bridge Street yet? I went last Sunday to see American Gangster there. First, the location is very nice and upscale. They have a fantastic tapas restaurant and bar there - Scene. Again, nicely designed. You feel like you’re at a bar in a big city. Upstairs in the VIP or “Prive’” section as they call it, there’s another bar there as well as a unique wine vending experience. More on that later. In the VIP section, the seating is spacious and leather covered. Armrests are wide and the seating is deep and comfortable. Unfortunately, you still have idiots that somehow think it’s okay to carry on a conversation while others are watching a movie. I almost had to say something but after turning around and looking at the yappers, they eventually got the message and shut their holes. Despite that, I had a nice time. I plan on going back.
I was out and about a little yesterday to find some fall-flavored shots for my city’s website. Here’s two I got:
Today was a very big day for a longtime friend of mine. Everything seemed to go perfectly today for his wedding. All were in a happy mood on this beautiful fall day in Alabama. Congratulations to Kyle, Jawana and Shayla as they begin a new life together!
…and my buddy Kyle gets married. Tonight was the rehearsal. I’m glad I went so I at least know that light may be an issue when shooting tomorrow. I did find out that I can use my strobe for everything but the actual part of the ceremony that happens at the altar. Then I’ll have to rely on the high ISO performance of the Canon 5D to get the shots. I plan to use that as the primary camera tomorrow and the 20D as a backup. When shooting something as important as a wedding, it’s gives me peace of mind to have a backup camera body, strobe, plenty of memory cards and charged up batteries just in case.
Back in May, my buddy Jonathan Palmer and I were trying to find a subject to try some “light painting” on. While he was out roaming around, he came across a row of haystacks that were not too far from one of the roads in our area. In the distance he saw a farmer and correctly guessed that he was the owner of the property and the right person to ask permission to “paint” the hay. At first, the farmer had no idea what my buddy was talking about and thought we were going to be spray painting his haystacks - needless to say, he wasn’t too keen on that proposition. When Jonathan explained that the painting would be with light, he agreed but I still don’t think he fully understood what the plan was. At any rate, we showed up later that night with cameras in hand to see what we could get. Joining in on the fun was also David Higginbotham, another photographer friend. Between us, we had flashlights, spotlights and strobes. Also present were some HUGE mosquitos that seemed to have a fondness for JP, but that’s another story.
It’s hard to focus in the dark.
The image above was my first attempt at doing something with the photos that evening. There’s another one I want to tinker around with also. I’ll post that as soon as I get a chance.
