Tag Archive for: photography

Ireland Day 2

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Most of today and tomorrow will be focused on the business end of the trip. I will have a little time today to continue to explore the city. Tomorrow is all booked. And Friday we leave to Kenmare for some personal time in southwest Ireland.

A few more photos to share.

The first is indicative of the type of housing throughout much of the downtown area. Beautiful homes. And, yes, those are palm trees in the front yard.

Irish house

The second is a picture of Examination Hall at Trinity College. This building was completed in 1791. I don’t think students liked exams any better back then.

Trinity College

This next picture is a transit streetcar. Very sleek and high tech.

Irish Transit

And, last one for today, is another shot of the Grafton shopping district. When we went to dinner in the same area last night, everything was closed. Unlike some areas of North America, the go-go lifestyle is absent here. The stores close by 6 or 7pm. And they do not stay open on Sundays.

Irish Shopping

The Emerald Island

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We left our home on the journey to Ireland at around 4pm EST. We finally made it into the hotel at around 7am EST. That would be about 15 hours of continuous travel with little sleep.

Am I a little tired right now?

Regardless, before the meetings start tomorrow, we had to explore Dublin. And I found out a few things about the people who live here.

First, they prefer to do their work at the park. Every park that we walked through had hundreds of office workers just sitting on the grass. Some were having picnics. Some were reading books or newspapers and others were just sleeping.

Irish at the Park

The people who were not hanging around the parks were on Grafton Street shopping. The place was absolutely packed with people. There were so many people hanging out that we thought we must have arrived on a holiday.

Irish Shopping

Nope. Everyone was just enjoying a fantastic day. Sunny and 25 degrees Celsius. No rain in the forecast for the rest of the week.

And, with parks like this, little wonder the people of this city take some time out to enjoy the summer weather.

Irish Garden

Winning the Lottery

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“This is like winning the lottery. Congratulations!”

So said the manager of the local Henry’s Camera store in my town. My Nikon D200 arrived yesterday and I picked the camera up last night. There is so much demand for this camera that when one comes in, it is like winning the lottery.

I had ordered the camera back in April. I am heading out to Ireland next week and I was really hoping to have the new camera with me.

What a great piece of equipment and what a steep learning curve. To say that the body is full featured is an understatement. I spent over two hours with the camera and the manual last night.

I think I was able to take a picture by the end of the evening. Obviously I will post some pictures of Ireland to the blog. I should have enough time to work out the camera before I leave.

Technology offers many things. A comprehensive user manual and a separate “how-to” book seems to be mandatory. I would not have figured out all of the features and menus on this camera without the manual.

Nikon D200

D200

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The D50 goes to my daughter. The D200 to me. Soon. Number 3 on the waitlist. Perhaps within two weeks.

Nikon D200

Homecoming

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Our daughter finished her second year at Waterloo yesterday. We travelled to the university yesterday. She needed to clear her room by 11am. And we just made it with seconds to spare.

I am so pleased to have her home for the summer. She will be taking a couple of summer courses in addition to working so she will be keeping quite busy. I am hoping that the two of us will get a chance to go out and do some photography work together. I thought about setting up a photo tour of Niagra-on-the-Lake. As spring is just starting up, this would be a perfect time to get some stunning shots of the region.

Digital Photography

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After many years of resistance, I have finally moved over to a Digital SLR camera. I did go through several point and shoot digital cameras for casual photography. I currently use a Canon SD500 point and shoot. And it does a nice job for snapshot photographs.

Knowing that we would be seeing some unique landscapes in the Las Vegas area, I finally took the plunge and purchased a Nikon DSLR. I have owned a Nikon analog rig for years however my daughter is currently using that system.

Amazing how much things have changed. In 1999, Nikon announced the D1. This pro-level digital SLR was a 3 megapixel camera that listed for almost $6,000. Body only.

The new rigs are much more affordable. Entry level Nikons, like the D50 and D70 class bodies are available for under $1,000 and outperform the original D1. I went out and shot over 1,000 exposures during my open time in the Las Vegas area. I have about 50 exposures that deserve addition to my personal portfolio of great pictures.

I use Adobe Photoshop CS2 and the Epson R1800 for my digital darkroom. My first step when I bring the photos in is to burn a CD or DVD with the original “negatives”. That way, I can always go back to the source regardless of what I might do in processing the images on the computer. I have found the Epson R1800 to be an excellent printer for archiving colour images. There are more expensive models, but for my needs, this printer does an amazing job.

I have also been considering signing up for a photography workshop in the southwest. Some really interesting options available at the Arizona Highways Photo Workshops.