Results tagged “photography” from Test blog
Though it was, by all accounts, cold, overcast and sometimes windy, a couple of hours were taken out of my working week yesterday when friends drove some two hundred and fifty [thousand] miles over to Cambridge to have a barbecue with me. In some respects, I feel guilty for taking time away from the work I have to do for my thesis, but then overdoing it is a very real possibility, and everyone is entitled to relax every here and there. Especially when four or five people are taking time out their day to do it with you. Hot coals, delectable munchies and a troop of hungry loved ones does plenty to dispel all sorts of grey.
On the camera front, I was asked yesterday (via email) how a student could afford the hefty price tag of Canon's EOS 10D (originally £1275 ex. VAT). There's only one answer: eBay!
In July 2004, I learned that the model was to be superseded by the most luscious EOS 20D come August; I figured that some professionals would be selling off their "outdated equipment" (it's so sinful), so I sold an ancient SLR body to raise capital, ate cornflakes and endured scurvy for two months, taught some extra developmental biology classes to undergraduates, and then sat at my computer waiting for something to happen.
Within two weeks of the 20D coming out, there were dozens of 10D bodies on eBay at shocking prices; I got mine for less than the more recent, non-professional EOS 300D (itself superseded by the new entry level 350D - mrrow!) still sells for on eBay when second-hand, despite its being a more rugged camera (magnesium alloy versus aluminium-plastic body), if functionally similar. Savings: greater than £725, and the seller threw in extra parts when he discovered I was a student - I finally came to understand the true value of market research and cutting-edge professionals with a heart.
I appreciate the enquiring emails and would like to reassure that while some might wish it so, I am not yet deceased. Aside from a tremendous sensation of needing to vomit for the last forty-eight hours, I've been in excellent health, and otherwise heavily preoccupied with my research and thesis writing. It's agonising; don't ask.
The only other novel thing that springs to mind on the blog front has already been noticed by many of my friends here - that I've set up a new gallery using movable type and php, accessible at the top right of the site via the icon of my baby EOS 10D... [not any more - .ed]
...à la:
It's not intended to showcase anything in particular, other than shots I've taken, recently or in the past, that I like for reasons personal or artistic. Let me know if you have any problems with the pages; the About page is the only one which shouldn't be functioning just yet. Unless Gremlins get to it first.
And while I'm here, I'd like to ask one of you people to switch the warm weather back on; 20 ºC is pitiful for any day in June.
I'd appreciate your opinion on the two pictures linked above; which do you prefer, and why? As a hobbyist photographer, I'm trying to gain a better idea of what, on average, makes a straightforward portrait image attractive to a pair of watching eyes. I'd like to have avoided decorating the images with text, but I've had my pictures stolen and published in the past; my bad for being naïve. Hopefully it won't be a hindrance to your forming an opinion. Thanks for your input if you do participate!
Trashy Eurasian, complete with halo, demonstrates
obvious potential for papal candidacy.
complete with flowers and baby feathered-piranhas.
he fits
and rediscover
how to resent
and if you don't, it isn't
In an effort to combat the exceptional greyness of the day, I took a stroll around the nearby botanic gardens armed with a digital camera in the hope of capturing a little cheer. ISO set to 400 to avoid using the horrible, horrible flash... not too shaky!
Passiflora quadrangularis
Cambridge University Botanical Garden Hot House
(where the hot people are...)
A view through the confocal microscope; the protein tubulin has been tagged with GFP, a fluorescent marker, which fluoresces under laser excitation to reveal, in this instance, the expression pattern of the protein within the region of the apical meristem of an Arabidopsis thaliana seedling.
Gathering in London Soho for Soho Pride.
This week, a titan arum, Amorphophallus titanum, came into flower in the Cambridge Botanic garden; this is the first time that the species has flowered in the United Kingdom outside of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. The specific epithet amorphophallus refers to the central spadix of the arum, and essentially means amorphous phallus, or shapeless penis. It is the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world, but is not the world's largest flower.
Fortunately, no human penis, shapeless or otherwise, will ever smell quite so unpleasant as this one does. Unless you really do know of a man whose groin attracts carrion flies.
A birthday party is held in London; it is among the most memorable I've ever been to; there are few things more wonderful than being cooped up in a room containing almost all of your dearest friends; relaxed, fun, no agendas, no awkwardness, no playing of emotions; it can only be happy and comfortable, and makes a nice change. (collage size 720 kb)
