Figured it out

I think that I have finally figured it out. I have been disappointed with some of my pictures how the reds in the sky have not been showing up at all (example). I usually have my camera set to "auto" but it's been totally washing out the colour for sunrise or sunset pictures.

After doing some searching and going through some forums, people suggested for pictures like that setting the ISO setting (film speed?) lower. So I changed it to 100 and am happy with the results. Now to play around with focal lengths and other settings to make neat focus shots.

That and I like playing around with perspective. Man, I love digital photography and how much I can have fun with it. ;-)

Ghosts and the Gallows

Laura and I went on a haunted walk last weekend (?). I've been on them before in Ottawa, but this time we went on the "Ghosts and the Gallows" tour. Pretty cool. I for one never knew the old building right beside the Mackenzie King bridge was a jail and the site of Canada's last public hanging... a little weird that it's now a youth hostel. It actually looked like a pretty nice place to stay. It's funny 'cause they apparently shut it down as a jail 'cause it was no longer fit to keep prisoners there. Oie.

Some times it's fun to do the tourist things around town.

Llama! Llama! Duck!

So funny... llama, llama, duck!

There was a flash, then photos

Yes, I know flash is evil, but don't we all need a little evil now and then? Just kidding. I'm talking about the photo thing on the right side of the blog. They call it a "Flickr badge". I could have used plain ol' html or have a nice flash thing-ma-bobber. I sort of like it, mostly 'cause I think that it's somewhere that Flash does well in: images and rich media like that.

I hate Flash being used for text and put in little scroll boxes that I can't use my browser for, can't change the font size, can't load into different tabs while I read the current one. I guess it's like any tech, you can use it well or badly.

If you take a look at my photo stream and some of the pics seem old, it's 'cause they are. I'm getting around to uploading some of the shots that are several years old that my dad took (I asked him if I could put them up). I just figure that it's more likely that I will be able to see them and other's than if they are buried on my hd somewhere. Next step: digital picture frame. ;-)

New version of spam

Oh joy, there's a new version of blog spam that's been hitting me lately: pollution spam. I deleted some spam and tracked it around legit looking blogs and found what Marco wrote and why they think this is happening. I guess that's another technique that I should have paid more attention to in security class: if bad traffic can't get through, it may be enough to just not allow good traffic.

Grrrrr.... >:-|

Sad today

When I got in this morning there was a message on my phone from my mom asking me to call her back when I get in. Something in her voice told me it wasn't good news.

My dog that we got in '92 died last night. He was the my first "big dog" and lots of fun. I am going to miss Joe. :-(

Biking into work: Day 1

I finally got over my fear of biking in traffic downtown in rush hour. It's not that bad. It's just difficult because my bike is sort of broken right now which means I have 1, maybe 2 gears. That's something that I have to fix fast, perhaps by getting a new bike or getting mine fixed.

I'd love to have 1 bike that's kick-ass awesome and great to go out for a ride, and another that I can take to work all the time and if it gets stolen I won't get too angry. We'll see. At this point I am going to see how long I can bike before I wuss out. :-P