I spent money again today.
I have been looking at it the wrong way, incidentally. When I worked with film I normally had a couple of rolls of 36 (often worked out at 38) exposure film with me. It would be ASA200 or 400, and that was my lot. If I was desparate I would buy another roll; but really? generally, that was my lot.
If it was too bright for my AE-1’s 1/1000th Sec exposure then that was the end of it. If I couldn’t close down the apature and shorten the exposure enough for the film that was in then it wasn’t happening. So here I am, I’ve got a Dimage 5; not exactly new, but certainly adequate. It’s got a range of 35-210mm equivalent (I think, off the top of my head) – which is a wider range than I ever had with my AE-1 + Lenses – ‘cept when I had John’s 17 and 14mm’s on loan. And I can get 100 photos out of the 2800mAh batteries.
So I should think: (a) I’m lots better off than I was with the AE-1. With this I can flick to Black and White, I can take at least as many pics as I normally would’ve with the AE-1. (b) I don’t have to piss about changing lenses, and (c) Remember: A better camera does not a better photographer make.
So, no more drooling over the Digital Rebel XTi. Or the XT, or quite frankly the plain old Digital Rebel.
They’ll get cheaper.
Aaanyway, so, today I kicked round Union station doing buildingy photos, and then headed to St Lawrence, taking lots of terribly unsuccessful people photos. I also found James his Xmas Prezzie. So I hope he likes it. If he doesn’t, I’ll have it. I spent a lot of time talking to the guy I got James’s present off; turns out he’s a photographer, a biker, and we had a lot in common with our political beliefs; so that was fun and entertaining. It’s kinda weird; people do just seem much more friendly and open here. I’m not sure if that’s just the people I’ve met, or whether it’s truly a Canadian Trait, but hey. I love it here, and so I’ll stick with Canadians being friendlier.
Anyway, so after that I headed… hrm, where did I go. Yeah, I went over to Kensington, fancing another ‘people’ shoot – unfortunately my camera batteries died on the way there. More unforunate because dead batteries = no more photos = kate starts to look for other ways to entertain self. Anyway, I met Melissa Ryan who is an artist, who was in the process of laying her work out on the pavement. She was very chatty too… and I really, really like her work. By ‘really really’ I’m referring to the level of really really where I buy three paintings. Three. Bad Kate. Very bad Kate. Well, not *very* bad. But certainly difficult to justify. I can only hope they don’t search my case at the airport; given that the pictures feature ‘Bombgurl’ and ‘Grenadeboy’. I’d’ve liked to get some of her Dead Girl stuff too, but that was beyond ‘splurging’ and also beyond any vague justifications about art for my new house (if, indeed, I’ve got a house); and well into ‘I can’t justify this at all’. Still, I fed the poor starving artist for a few days :-)
So, after a bit of a chat, and an exhange of funds and pictures; and some signing; I headed to the Rainbow Cinema to watch Little Miss Sunshine which was truly excellent, although the cinema was bloody freezing. Possibly due to there only being about 8 of us in there…
And then I headed over and bought Alison Bechdel’s autobiographical graphic novel – Fun Home. Mostly because it’s an autographed, hard back, for a not unreasonable price. Otherwise I’d’ve left it…. for some time. As a side issue, this book buying (and err, a DVD) has meant that I’ve actually updated the ‘things I want’ page. Probably for the first time since I split up with Trey, either that or since last Xmas. So, for a while. Raaa. I thought I better, because last year some people actually used it to get me prezzies. I don’t need prezzies. Friends is what I want and need – and I’ve got them. The list, however, is for me, so I can look at it when I want to treat myself… only I never do :-)
Nikki, however, treated me to a Flickr Pro account. She said she was fed up of having to scan through each day’s photographs to get to the current days, because I didn’t have enough sets… So now I’ve got the sets, m’kay? So here, without further ado (but with much thanks to Nikki) is Day 10 (aah, computing types, who start at 0).
