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Archives for December 2003
December 16, 2003
As promised, here are
a few more images from my venture into the
wintery landscape around my house.
Image of the Day:
![[]](http://simone.seeto.com/photography/galleries/oregon/35_Frozen_bush_reflects_in_river_V.jpg)
Snowladen and frozen bush reflects in the river
December 20, 2003
The Luminous Landscape has
a first glimpse at the
new high-end photo printer from Epson - the 4000.
It looks like a splendid piece of machinery, but
the price tag of $1,795 will restrict me to salivating
from the side lines. Plus, I'd have to start a
saving account for the specific purpose of being
able to afford the ink cartridges. While large and
certainly long lasting, the price tag Epson has put
on one 220ml cartridge (and remember - there's
eight needed!) is clearly insane: $112.
I think I'll stick to my Epson 2200 instead.
At least its ink costs are reasonable to a point
where I won't have to fear that I can't pay my
mortgage anymore...
December 18, 2003
Film Review: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
If movies are eye candy, then director
Peter Jackson's trilogy stands alone as one of
the most sumptious visual treats in cinematic
history. And as expected, "The Return of the
King" is no exception.
In an epic that has enthralled fans for the past
3 years - ever since the first teaser trailers
were released onto the internet - spawned 2
(so far) Academy Award Nominations for "Best
Movie", made millions of dollars in ticket sales
and merchandising deals (down to the rather
dumb "Duracell" battery commercials), and has
ignited the economy of an entire country -
New Zealand - the "Return" is indeed the
crowning achievement....
Read entire review ....
December 15, 2003
I'm finally online again!
My satellite connection was down since Saturday
evening, when a heavy snow storm dumped about
half a foot of snow on the region. As it turned out,
the snow was pretty sticky and it stuck to my
satellite dish like white on rice, effectively
disabling the signal.
This morning, I finally got fed up and
jerry-rigged a small hand broom with duct tape
to the end of two pieces of plastic ducting
(my dish is about 15 feet off the ground on top
of my garage roof). With that, I was able to
brush off enough snow off the dish that my
signal was restored again.
Funny - my satellite ISP DirecWay doesn't mention
anything about snow on the dish in their user
guide ...
On the Bright Side however - I'm surrounded now
by a magical, frozen winter wonderland!
So the 10D begged me to go out and explore. I yielded
gladly.
Most of the shots are still in the
post-processing stage, so more will be up on the
site tomorrow, but I managed to get at least my
favorite up today:
![[]](http://simone.seeto.com/photography/galleries/oregon/34_Icyle_w_waterdrop.jpg)
December 12, 2003
And for today - the spell-binding disclosure of
yesterday's image riddle: a lampshade! A stained
glass lampshade, to be more precise. The black
lines of course are the lead lines, holding the
glass pieces together.
Two alert readers wrote in with the correct answer -
one of them, Luke, gets an extra point for brilliant
guesswork due to the fact that (in contrast to
the other correct respondend, Laura) he's never actually
been to my house, and hence couldn't have known
about the lamp over my dining table.
Thanks for playing, folks. I'll try and come up
with something again tomorrow. :-)
December 11, 2003
You know, sometimes things just catch your eye.
Everyday things.
Like the reflection in your cup of tea in the morning.
Having a digital camera to capture that moment,
to deliver that immediacy to the world, is a
kind of magic. Having that image be exactly what
you want, have it be high-quality and in glorious
crispness (or blurriness - your choice), is the miracle of the Canon 10D.
So what exactly *is* the reflection in the cup?
Tune in for the exciting revelation tomorrow. ;-)
![[Reflection in a Cup]](http://simone.seeto.com/images/Reflection_in_cup.jpg)
December 10, 2003
Maybe it's just me. But I'm simply a sucker for
volcanic mountains. I never get tired of looking
at them. And when they're veiled in a blanket of
virgin white snow, glowing like a golden torch
of the gods in the evening light, they are at their
most majestic - kings of all mountains.
Or maybe I'm just prejudiced - because *this* is
what I see all day long from my living room
window:
![[]](http://simone.seeto.com/photography/galleries/oregon/30_Bachelor_snowcapped_closeup.jpg)
Mt. Bachelor
Grandeur aside, there is delight in even the
smallest of things. I have four bird feeders I
keep stocked regularly, and yearround, they
attract close to 45 different species of
feathered friends. Out of all of them, the
Pigmy Nuthatch is probably one of my most
favorite. Only about 4 inches from beak to tail,
this delicate and agile flyer stops by not alone,
but usually in small flocks. It is fearless, smart,
and filled with a vibrant energy.
![[]](http://simone.seeto.com/photography/galleries/oregon/31_Pigmy_nuthatch_on_feeder.jpg)
December 8, 2003
I admit it. I spent the last three days buried
in my office - chained to my computer, deeply entrenched in the bowels of
Photoshop, and enchanted by my new camera.
I found out about the power and flexibility of
a Photoshop function called "curves".
I delighted in the never-seen-before sharpness of
a 8 x 10 print from my camera. At 400 ISO, there
was zero (and even my discriminate eye had to admit -
really ZERO) grain. Without having to even apply a
sharpening filter, I could see the fine lines of a
person's facial faint wrinkles, the individual
eyebrow hair - and yes, every skin blemish too. The
truth can be cruel.
And yet I also faced a darker problem - the quirk
that some of the images I downloaded from the 10D's
memory card opened up very very dark in Photoshop.
Almost indistinguishable, as a matter of fact.
Yet all the while, they looked just perfect in the
camera's LCD display. And most disturbingly - they
were all shot under controlled studio conditions,
with the exact same amount of flash, the same
f-stop and shutterspeed, even the same ISO.
Very, very strange ...
![[]](http://simone.seeto.com/images/Jeffs_eye.jpg)
December 5, 2003
Ok, I think I've tortured y'all long enough.
My trials over the Thanksgiving holiday with the
new 10D turned out most satisfactory.
Cruz, my
mom-in-law, had set up a makeshift studio and
after the family members had sufficiently
feasted on the bird and were in a fuzzy and
forgiving mood, we dragged them onto the stools,
to be posed tirelessly for the eternal family
record.
If some people have that deer-in-the-headlights
expression on their face, it's mostly due to the
fact that the sharp light from the flash must have
momentarily woken them from the turkey-induced haze...
![[]](http://simone.seeto.com/photography/galleries/portraits/02_Cruz_Angelito.jpg)
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