Someone please buy me this from Adorama… haha!
Feb 15
Valentines Day 2010
First of all, thank you God for saving my Flowers! Haha!
I picked up a dozen rozes a few days before, hoping to save a little coin. I honestly didn’t know how to keep these guys alive – so I did what the grocers do. Keep them wet and cold.
So I picked out of my cabinets a collectible coke glass, filled it with water, and positioned the roses and cup in such a way that the flowers would remain standing. I checked on the roses a few times a day just to make certain they didn’t die on me. So far, so good!
On Valentine’s day, I pulled the cup and roses from the fridge and made a startling discovery. The cup was positioned towards the cooling vents, and the top inch of water had iced over!
I wish I had the state of mind to take a picture! Haha!
I have no idea if this hurt the roses or not. It was a little funny to me I could carry the whole apparatus from just the stem of the roses. After “thawing” out my flowers I found no trace of damage. So I packed them up along with my presents and went on my way.
Gifts of the day:
1. A card that sings “How sweet it is to be loved by you!”.
2. A red bear with horns holding a heart that says “Hot Stuff!”.
So while I waited for her to get ready, I did what I do best. I run around with my camera and take photos of stuff around the house. (Included below)
We went to Gyukaku, and we had the Kamehameha dinner for two. They handed us a complimentary rose on our way in. Thought I’d like to mention that for anyone thinking about the place next Valentine’s day.
All in all a great evening!
Feb 11
My step up to full frame with the Sony a850
The Sony a850
If my photos are looking a little better lately, it is because I have officially made the move towards serious photography. My early birthday gift to myself is the Sony a850, the worlds first Full Frame digital SLR to be had at less then 2k.
First off, what is the big deal about full frame? Well, without getting too technical, the large sensor (roughly 2.5 times larger then the aps-c sized sensor found in consumer dslr) captures a wider range of color and detail.
Also, being that the sensor is the same size of 35mm film, I can mount 35mm lenses without having to deal with the 1.5x magnification typical of cropped sensors. In plain english: A wide lens remains wide!
Finally, and here is the kicker: 24.6 megapixels. Holy cow! While the in body jpeg engine has taken a few hits in terms of noise, capturing in RAW (which is not a picture… but raw sensor data) and allowing my computer to render a jpeg results in low noise high resolution images that gives cameras that cost several thousands of dollars more a run for their money!
An example of a severe crop. Note how much detail is preserved! Click for higher resolution example.
The above is an example of cropping power. I can crop out a fraction of the image and still pull out images full of details! (Try that with your compact camera!)
So where does my a300 fit in? Well, it uses an aps-c sized sensor – which is still quite huge when compared against compact cameras. (Compact camera sensor sizes are in the bottom row.)
Sensor sizes pulled from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SensorSizes.svg
Lenses on my a300 result in 1.5x magnification. For example, this turns a 50mm lens into a 75mm lens. As a more extreme example, a 300mm lens would become a 450mm lens.
As a photographer, this means by carrying both bodies (as many do when they’re working) I can keep my wide lens wide on my a850 (with all the power resulting from full frame) and my long lenses even longer on my a300 when I need to get close to the action. I’m now ready for anything! 
