A whole bunch of stuff happened yesterday…
The morning was spent for a quick trip to Infomax Megamall where I purchased yet another bag.
The middle [and actually a whole chunk] of the day was spent with Nono, his brother Winch, Tuna, Noel and Benedict in San Agustin church where we shot the wedding and reception of a batchmate of ours.
The night was spent eating desert in the last stretch of what was supposed to be our family’s thanksgiving party. Now why we celebrate Thanksgiving in the first place – I haven’t the foggiest of ideas. (feeling Amerikano kme eh is what I’d like to say hahahahaha)
details below…
“Canon EOS 20D”
Another day, another bag
Sunday morning was spent on a quick trip to Infomax (Megamall) where I got myself a Lowepro CompuTrekker AW.
Our last trip to legaspi told me that if you ride a plane, and want to hold on to both your laptop and camera gear easily – then you need a bag that can hold both. I was able to hand-carry both my Nova4 AW and Mentor on the plane, but with much ado… plus the fact that I had a monopod with me didn’t help things at all.
Luckily, the CompuTrekker AW can hold all three (yes even the monopod). The downside is that it’s enormous, not to mention expensive (8.5k). But I found out that it was one of the cheapest of any camera/laptop bag of this grade (the Crumpler “Brian’s Hot Tub” costs about 12k last time I checked).
Overall, however, it is a very good investment considering how often we go out of town/country recently. One of my few “investments” that are worth every penny.
I also am glad that I took Nono’s advice to go backpack style instead of messenger bag. Tamrac had messenger type bags, which I dug since it’s really hard to find a large-ish backpack that will not dwarf lil’ old me at 5’6″
And indeed the CompuTrekker did just that! But considering the weight the camera gear+laptop we’re putting in the bag, I doubt I could even carry a messenger type version for more than 5 minutes (before my arms break off) A small price to pay for comfort… besides, if it’s cool I want, I’ll just strap on my Mentor hehehehe.
Wedding of the Je[c/k]s
The Eegol Iskwad shot at the wedding of two of our batchmates: Jessica (Jec) and Jeric (Jek). Nono mentioned that no once expected that they’d be the two who were to tie the knot… but I’m still stuck on the coincidence of their names… what are the chances di ba?
It was like an Ateneo batch 2001 reunion, practically everyone knew each other. And so much of our women suddenly were hot. Those friends of ours who normally were considered “normal” suddenly got us thinking “damn, she got hot!”
Anyways, onto the techical stuff…
The lighting was cool outside, but dismal in the church. Nono bought auxillary bulbs for lighting, but they didn’t really help cuz of the sheer size of the church (the lights however were very useful during the reception). Anyways, it was the first time I actually opted to use flash religiously. Usually I just switch to my 50mm f/1.8, but I really needed zoom since the church was so huge and I didn’t want walking in the middle of everything. Since my 28-135mm wasn’t a fast lens, 2nd curtain sync flashing saved the day (or at least died trying hahaha).
Suffice to say, I found myself understanding the whole point in Canon making 2.8 IS telephoto lenses hehehe… I wish I had one then! Scrap that, I wish I have one period!
The reception was great and fun. The lighting was better, (plus we made good use of Nono’s bulbs), plus it was so much easier to move around without looking like idiots since there were tables everywhere.
The 20D’s LCD sucks, I was afraid that my shots wouldn’t cut it, especially after seeing the previews on Tuna’s and Benedict’s 300Ds. But I was relieved to see that the shots turned out quite nicely… which was totally different from what I was seeing in the LCD. NOw I really have to get used to the histogram. I’ve been using it to verify exposures, but it doesn’t deal with color balance information… and the 20D’s LCD screen is totally washed out when it comes to colors. Takes some getting used to.
Thanksgiving
Not much to talk about here… humabol lang ako sa dinner namin. I was able to take a few pics of our nephews, about 5 hahahaha, my arms we’re so tired.
nBlog updates
I’ve been using MarsEdit religiously now for blogging. It supports the Markdown plugin which is a biggie, and has rudimentary spellchecking. So at least now I only have to worry about grammar since I hate proof-reading… but I think that it won’t make a difference hehehe.
Also I’ve taken out the BlogTimes plugin. Joel reported the same problems with his blog, so I guess it’s really messed up when it comes to this time of the month (since the script is heavily based on time)