My generous grandfather has given us two camera tripods, so now I will be able to take better, more stable photos than when I used my dad's little spotting scope tripod. Expect results soon.
Here are two discount codes I got and didn't use for ZAGG.com: they are for 50% off of an order of up to three items.
1) cbjdd4ds0
2) cnffjfpb0
If your code doesn't work, obviously someone else already has; there's nothing I can do about that except to tell you to enter ZAGG.com's sweepstakes, since when you enter your e-mail address, you'll be sent an e-mail with a discount code for up to 50% off an order. I think the lowest I've seen is 10% off, but now I don't even pay attention to it unless it's for 50% off.
The codes expire on October 31, but I'm not sure if it's at midnight of the 31st or when.
You're probably wondering, "What's ZAGG.com?" ZAGG sells a variety of electronics-related products, but their best well-known item is called the InvisibleShield, which is a screen scratch protector for iPhones and iPods, cameras, etc., etc. Although it isn't cheap, it includes a free lifetime replacement warranty for the life of your device, so if your InvisibleShield does get scratched, you can get a free replacement.
The company also makes skins for portable devices and earbuds.
I'm going to finish my ice cream and go outside to test out one of the new tripods. I'm going to try some long exposure shots and maybe some other stuff; I'll have to see how that turns out.
-Max out
Friday, October 29, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Humor for the Day
This was on my friend's blog (http://allegraanne.tumblr.com/).
You should find it pretty funny like I did, although my sense of humor might be different than that of a lot of people.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/miles-kington/high-court-hangups-747313.html
-Max out
You should find it pretty funny like I did, although my sense of humor might be different than that of a lot of people.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/miles-kington/high-court-hangups-747313.html
-Max out
Some Things Are Too Good To Be True
Hello readers, sorry I haven't written anything new in a while; for now I'm just trying to finish my incomplete posts (did you notice the addition of a few photos?).
Since I want better camera equipment (what photographer doesn't?) but don't have the money to simply go out and buy whatever I want, I've been looking for deals on Craigslist.
There were three incredible-sounding deals I was interested in since seeing them several days ago:
1) A dubious-sounding listing for a new Canon 7D with an EF 25-135mm lens and extras for $550
2) A slightly less-dubious-sounding Canon EOS Rebel XSi for $200
3) A Canon 650 film camera and a Canon EF 50mm Mk I lens
The first is probably a hoax; I'm not sure how I'd have paid for the camera if it had turned out to be the real deal, since it was a South Carolina listing, but $550 for a kit that should cost more than $1500 ($1800 on Amazon, minus some of the stuff that the listing included) is a bit far-fetched, there was no photo, and the "seller" didn't get back to me. Here's what the listing said:
NEW Canon EOS 7D DSLR Body+18-135mm Kit +16GB CF+Gifts
I suppose the "+ gifts" part is one of the strangest and most suspicious parts about it besides the price.
Some say, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is," and they're often right. However, there's always the possibility of the once-in-a-lifetime steal...yep, this one would have been awesome...the 7D is an excellent camera (that I probably won't have the money to afford for a long time), takes HD video, and if I had the 18-135mm EF-S lens, I could sell my kit lens with my XS body.
The second one was also strange, although a used XSi camera body for $200 isn't quite as strange as the first one - I've seen a few listings for various items on Craigslist that were quite a bit cheaper than the others. There also was no photo included with the listing, so I don't know much about that one either.
The description didn't sound as odd as the first one:
Canon EOS Rebel Xsi Body in excellent condition. Comes with case and neck strap-$200 obo
And...no response from the seller.
The third listing seemed quite plausible; here's what the seller wrote:
We have an old (20+ years) cannon [sic] EOS 650 camera with a cannon [sic] EF 50mm 1:1.8f lens. Honestly I'm not certain if the camera works, but I assume the lens alone is worth at least what we're offering. $35 or best offer.
Naturally, I wouldn't care about the 650 - I don't use film; the lens is what I was interested in.
When I first saw the listing, I thought the lens was the common 50mm 1.8 Mk II lens, and I thought that it was an excellent price, for a lens that sells for about $100 new.
However, I later looked over the photos again and realized that the lens is the 50 1.8 Mk II lens, an older, rarer, and better built lens than the Mk II version (newer is not always better), and one I'd recently found out about and wanted to get because it might feel like less of a toy than the Mk II lens and the 50mm 1.4 USM is too pricey for me to get for quite some time. Plus, it's kind of rare, and having a rare item is kind of cool, I think. Anyway, I looked at the photos, saw the focus distance "window" and metal mount ring and realized that this was the Mk I lens.
Later that day, after seeing if we might be able to take a trip out to the Cary and Raleigh areas, where the sellers of the 50mm lens and XSi were located and getting an affirmative answer, I e-mailed the seller who had the Craigslist anonymous e-mail address.
Make a guess what happened next. You guessed it; absolutely nothing.
Now if I had at least gotten a response from any of the sellers, telling me the item was sold, no longer for sale, etc., etc., I'd be disappointed (well, probably still really bummed) but not unhappy with the sellers.
As it is, I am displeased with what I consider to be a lack of common courtesy on their part to respond to my multiple e-mails expressing interest, as well as quite disappointed with the fact that I don't have the items (not only could I have used them, but I could have made money by selling my camera for, say, $350) and I probably won't find deals like that in the near future.
Id there's one thing to learn from this, it's this:
If you have posted an item/items for sale and it is longer for sale due to it being sold (or whatever reason), mark it as sold if possible and reply to people who e-mail you expressing interest.
-Max out
Since I want better camera equipment (what photographer doesn't?) but don't have the money to simply go out and buy whatever I want, I've been looking for deals on Craigslist.
There were three incredible-sounding deals I was interested in since seeing them several days ago:
1) A dubious-sounding listing for a new Canon 7D with an EF 25-135mm lens and extras for $550
2) A slightly less-dubious-sounding Canon EOS Rebel XSi for $200
3) A Canon 650 film camera and a Canon EF 50mm Mk I lens
The first is probably a hoax; I'm not sure how I'd have paid for the camera if it had turned out to be the real deal, since it was a South Carolina listing, but $550 for a kit that should cost more than $1500 ($1800 on Amazon, minus some of the stuff that the listing included) is a bit far-fetched, there was no photo, and the "seller" didn't get back to me. Here's what the listing said:
NEW Canon EOS 7D DSLR Body+18-135mm Kit +16GB CF+Gifts
I suppose the "+ gifts" part is one of the strangest and most suspicious parts about it besides the price.
Some say, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is," and they're often right. However, there's always the possibility of the once-in-a-lifetime steal...yep, this one would have been awesome...the 7D is an excellent camera (that I probably won't have the money to afford for a long time), takes HD video, and if I had the 18-135mm EF-S lens, I could sell my kit lens with my XS body.
The second one was also strange, although a used XSi camera body for $200 isn't quite as strange as the first one - I've seen a few listings for various items on Craigslist that were quite a bit cheaper than the others. There also was no photo included with the listing, so I don't know much about that one either.
The description didn't sound as odd as the first one:
Canon EOS Rebel Xsi Body in excellent condition. Comes with case and neck strap-$200 obo
And...no response from the seller.
The third listing seemed quite plausible; here's what the seller wrote:
We have an old (20+ years) cannon [sic] EOS 650 camera with a cannon [sic] EF 50mm 1:1.8f lens. Honestly I'm not certain if the camera works, but I assume the lens alone is worth at least what we're offering. $35 or best offer.
Naturally, I wouldn't care about the 650 - I don't use film; the lens is what I was interested in.
When I first saw the listing, I thought the lens was the common 50mm 1.8 Mk II lens, and I thought that it was an excellent price, for a lens that sells for about $100 new.
 |
| Photo of 50mm 1.8 Mk I lens from Craigslist listing |
Later that day, after seeing if we might be able to take a trip out to the Cary and Raleigh areas, where the sellers of the 50mm lens and XSi were located and getting an affirmative answer, I e-mailed the seller who had the Craigslist anonymous e-mail address.
Make a guess what happened next. You guessed it; absolutely nothing.
Now if I had at least gotten a response from any of the sellers, telling me the item was sold, no longer for sale, etc., etc., I'd be disappointed (well, probably still really bummed) but not unhappy with the sellers.
As it is, I am displeased with what I consider to be a lack of common courtesy on their part to respond to my multiple e-mails expressing interest, as well as quite disappointed with the fact that I don't have the items (not only could I have used them, but I could have made money by selling my camera for, say, $350) and I probably won't find deals like that in the near future.
Id there's one thing to learn from this, it's this:
If you have posted an item/items for sale and it is longer for sale due to it being sold (or whatever reason), mark it as sold if possible and reply to people who e-mail you expressing interest.
-Max out
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Lovely Photo Wednesday
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Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Photo Challenge - Color
Yes, here is yet another photo challenge I'm entering in.
Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, per se, but from what I've seen, it seems to me that there is a serious paucity of photo blogs and challenges from guys...but perhaps I just haven't heard of them. Photography certainly isn't a "girls only" thing.
Anyway, this photo challenge is from Carlotta at Pastor's Girl's Ponderings, and the theme is simply, "color".
Here is my entry:
-Max out
Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, per se, but from what I've seen, it seems to me that there is a serious paucity of photo blogs and challenges from guys...but perhaps I just haven't heard of them. Photography certainly isn't a "girls only" thing.
Anyway, this photo challenge is from Carlotta at Pastor's Girl's Ponderings, and the theme is simply, "color".
Here is my entry:
.JPG) |
| Losing Focus |
.JPG){kind=link}
-Max out
Monday, October 25, 2010
Three Bee Macro Monday
You'll see why it's called that if you visit the current Macro Monday post at Lisa's Chaos.
In Raleigh on my dad's birthday the other day, we went to an Ace Hardware, and in front of the hardware store I got some photos of the lovely flowers with water droplets on them, due to the light rain some time earlier. It's a somewhat difficult choice between a few of my better photos from there, but here's my entry:
-Max out
In Raleigh on my dad's birthday the other day, we went to an Ace Hardware, and in front of the hardware store I got some photos of the lovely flowers with water droplets on them, due to the light rain some time earlier. It's a somewhat difficult choice between a few of my better photos from there, but here's my entry:
.JPG) |
| Lavender beauty |
-Max out
Friday, October 22, 2010
My Dad's Birthday
Two days ago (the 20th) was my dad's birthday, and we went to Raleigh to do a few things...
First, we dropped him off so he could get a massage, and then we went to look for a restaurant called the Courtyard Café, since my mom had a Restaurant.com coupon for it (the reason we eat at a lot of the restaurants we do is because she has those coupons - without them, feeding a family of nine can be very expensive).
After a while, we found it; as it turns out, the Courtyard Café is so named because it's in the Courtyard Marriott hotel. When we got there and went inside, we found out that the restaurant wasn't serving meals at that time or something, so we had to go back to the van. While my mom looked through her coupons for another restaurant to go to, I used the hotel's Wi-Fi to write the update in my other post. Meanwhile, my brother got some free
Starbucks coffees and hot mochas from a Starbucks machine inside the hotel. :) By this time, it had started to sprinkle, but since the rain wasn't coming down in torrents, it was ok.
A short while later, we headed off to a tiny BBQ restaurant called Ole Time Barbecue.
On the way, we passed by (what I thought was) a sports car dealership called European Performance, where I wanted to stop by and take some photos, but unfortunately for me, there wasn't time.
Ole Time Barbecue didn't stand out very well, and I nearly missed it, but we got inside without any difficulty. It did start raining slightly as we got there or slightly after, which will affect something I'll tell about later in this post.
.JPG)
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- Max out (it's about time)
First, we dropped him off so he could get a massage, and then we went to look for a restaurant called the Courtyard Café, since my mom had a Restaurant.com coupon for it (the reason we eat at a lot of the restaurants we do is because she has those coupons - without them, feeding a family of nine can be very expensive).
After a while, we found it; as it turns out, the Courtyard Café is so named because it's in the Courtyard Marriott hotel. When we got there and went inside, we found out that the restaurant wasn't serving meals at that time or something, so we had to go back to the van. While my mom looked through her coupons for another restaurant to go to, I used the hotel's Wi-Fi to write the update in my other post. Meanwhile, my brother got some free
Starbucks coffees and hot mochas from a Starbucks machine inside the hotel. :) By this time, it had started to sprinkle, but since the rain wasn't coming down in torrents, it was ok.
A short while later, we headed off to a tiny BBQ restaurant called Ole Time Barbecue.
On the way, we passed by (what I thought was) a sports car dealership called European Performance, where I wanted to stop by and take some photos, but unfortunately for me, there wasn't time.
Ole Time Barbecue didn't stand out very well, and I nearly missed it, but we got inside without any difficulty. It did start raining slightly as we got there or slightly after, which will affect something I'll tell about later in this post.
It was very small and certainly not classy-looking, and I wasn't expecting the food to be anything special.
However, I was pleasantly surprised; the food was pretty good. Hush Puppies were served before we had even ordered anything, and they were pretty tasty. I chose a hamburger steak, which I was pretty satisfied with. So don't judge a book by its cover or a restaurant by its size and appearance.
There seemed to be somewhat of a fascination or obsession with pigs (or it was just a design theme) inside the restaurant: a pig with wings, suspended from the ceiling; a piggy bank; and many other pigs were in there...
An amusing sign was above our table:
.JPG)
After eating, I wanted to stop by European Performance, but we didn't want to make my dad wait for us.
My mom wondered if the European Performance owner/s might kick me out of their lot since I wasn't planning on buying anything, but I found out that they won't, because it's not a dealership; it's a service/tuning center for Porsches, BMWs, etc. So I don't see why they wouldn't want me to photograph the cars they're working on. That reminds me of another care place I wanted to visit: Underground Racing, in Charlotte.
They tune cars such as Lamborghini Gallardos and give them things like twin turbo kits.
I believe we met with State Fair traffic both on the way there and back (but at least one way) and we had some difficulty getting back, so it took a while; my dad said he'd been waiting for around 45 minutes. Oops.
We then headed to Ace Hardware. Helpfully for me, there were flower boxes in front of the store with some very pretty flowers, which had water droplets on them from the shower earlier.
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More photos here:
There was free hot chocolate inside, and one of my siblings brought me a cup. :)
Our next and final destination was a portrait studio at a mall called The Picture People.
We were early, so we walked around the mall for a bit and stopped at Radioshack and Gamestop.
My parents say I ruined a lot of the photos the photographer took of our family because I didn't smile well...
They could only choose one because that's how many the certificate/coupon was for.
After seeing the other photos, I agree that some of them look weird since I had a crooked grin, but I think they weren't all bad. After getting our photos taken, we get ice cream cones at Dairy Queen next-door since the portrait studio gave us free coupons (thanks!). A sunglasses salesperson let me try on some Oakleys at a stand there, but none of the shades seemed to feel perfect on me (not to mention the price tags that are a little out of my price range). And after that I think we just drove home. The end.
Finally, another boring post is ended. As "Click and Clack, the Tappit Brothers" (also known as Tom and Ray Magliozzi from the NPR radio show, Cartalk) say at the end of each episode, "You've just wasted another perfectly good hour listening to Cartalk."
I'd have to alter that to be "You've just wasted another perfectly good several minutes reading my blog." And I don't snort like they do.
- Max out (it's about time)
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