Australia Day, Photography and Cosplay thoughts

I’m finally back to work tomorrow after a pretty nice long weekend. Today is Australia Day, which I celebrated by ensuring I spent most of the day watching cricket and drinking small amounts of beer.

I suppose I should start off with my standard photo updated. I’m really hoping to be able to take a lot more, higher quality, photos in the near future. I’ve made the investment in the equipment, so I may as well, but I discovered that I really am quite limited at the moment. I am still waiting for a 14-45mm zoom lens to arrive. Whilst the 20mm pancake lens I have currently is producing blow-my-mind images and DOF effects, it’s not that brilliant at the landscape architecture shots that I like to do [I believe in a good balance between landscape and close photography]. The prime lens is a little limiting when trying to shoot objects further than, say, 20 meters away. I don’t know if this is standard, but its probably just my technique. I noticed this especially when I went to shoot Parliament House.

On a separate note, I think I may finally make my first venture into the world of Cosplay… I have been a bit of a closeted fan of the anime/manga culture, and it had only been recently that I have really actively entertained that interest. I don’t know why I haven’t earlier, I think I may have had the idea that there was some sort of stigma attached to, particularly Western, fans of anime and cosplay, as though it was something weird. I have resigned myself to the fact that I am myself rather weird, I really dislike following the mainstream.

I have a bit of a soft spot for the PS3 game Valkyria Chronicles, made by SEGA. I was the first anime style game that I really enjoyed, so fittingly, the cosplay I am considering would be as a member of Squad 7. Such as this costume produced by Cosplay Station.

I’ve made the pledge to myself, that in the time between now and when University restarts for the year, if I look after myself, i.e. increase my fitness, save some money and find my first place to live, I’ll organise a Squad 7 cosplay in time for this years SMASH.

First ever HD video test

I’ve finally gotten around to doing a video test for the Lumix DMC-GF1. I’ve been so busy recently, the past 2 weeks at work have been really hectic and seemed to go by faster than I expected. I’m sort of in limbo between to teams at work, both of which are related, but both have their own requirements. I’m trying to transition from one team to the other, but whilst trying to tie up lose-ends, am still getting lumped with new work from the old team. Kinda frustrating, but I least I shouldn’t be criticised for not doing anything…

It’s been so hot here in Canberra, around 35C for the last three days. Not much you can really do when it’s so hot and seeing that my car doesn’t currently have air conditioning, I’m pretty limited to where I can do and test out my new camera.

Oh yeah, as I mentioned, I’ve finally done a test run to see how the Lumix GF1 goes with HD video. Whilst not entirely convinced with the quality of the actual picture (I do find there is still a reasonable amount of noise in the picture), I am impressed by the camera’s ability to utilise the 20mm pancake lens. I just enjoyed using it to shoot video and play with deep-of-field effects for the first time. I know these might be old-school tricks for some, but there is a certain novelty in it to me, that’ll probably soon wear off, but will enjoy nonetheless.

Again, due to the heat, I was pretty much stuck at home today, so the same test subjects (flowers, fruits and vegetables from our garden) make yet another appearance. Feel free to watch it in 720HD as I went to the effort of uploading a proper HD sample to review.

The video is supposed to have a soundtrack, but due to copyright issues and YouTube’s audioswap having issues, it may be disabled at the moment.

I’ll leave you with a thought:

By not being specifically addicted to either of Coca-Cola, Red Bull or Coffee, but using each to feed a more general addiction to Caffeine and Sugar, am I able to get away with saying that I have a rational addiction rather than a problem?
Or it is worse that I have gone to such lengths to justify to myself that I’m functioning normally despite not being able to function properly without consuming at least two of the above daily?

Solio, Saber and more test Shots

I have finally gotten around to opening up the box of my new Saber figure made by Revoltech. Saber (from the anime series Fate/Stay Night) is the first real figure I have ever purchased. Well, besides a couple of LOST figures (Jack and Hurley), but I don’t think they count for some reason…

The Fate series always said that Saber was a representation of King Arthur, which I always thought was weird, mainly due to the fact that she was indeed a girl. Before her history was revealed, I was certain that she would most likely represent Joan of Arc (thinking Jeanne d’Arc). I think theres something about a cute girl warrior, whether real or fictional…

I currently work in a field involved with the Renewable Energy sector here in Australia. Whilst I lack the money to put a full blown solar PV system on my roof, I like collecting solar powered gadgets, whether solar collectors, or things like Solar Radiometers. Solio was the first (and probably my favourite) solar charger I have purchased. I don’t use it as much as I should, but the times that I do, I allows me to feel good to know that my iPhone or PSP is running of renewable energy.

Also, just a couple more test shots from the garden, as I gradually hone my skills at the 20mm lens.

Well, its now Saturday afternoon… whilst I didn’t quite get out and about as much as I would have liked to be able to test out the camera, its starting to storm here, I did have quite a productive day. I have working on some of the left over reports I needed to write up after my recent work trip, but I managed to get them done faster that I thought I would, whilst sitting in front of the TV watching the cricket at the same time. Not a bad day… and it’s only SATURDAY!