I had a chance to play with my Rokinon 500mm f/6.3 lens on the weekend, and I took some test shots of the sunset from my deck.  It’s definitely a difficult lens to use, but you can get some pretty cool shots if you keep at it.

Sunset Over Kelly Creek

For this shot, I used the 2x teleconverter for an effective focal length of 1500mm (I have a D80 with a crop sensor).  The hardest part of taking this shot wasn’t actually the focus, although as you can see, I didn’t quite nail that either.  The most difficult thing was positioning the camera on the tripod so that the sunset was in the frame correctly.  Even the slightest movement caused the sun to jump out of frame, and as we all know the sun sets very fast.  So, that’s why I only got the tail end of this one.

I think I had to take about 20 shots to get this, and even then I had to straighten it because I couldn’t get the camera positioned properly before the sun went down.

Sunset Behind Tower

I wasn’t going to attempt another shot like this so soon, but I took this one yesterday because the clouds were just breaking at sunset and the way they were sitting before the sun was awesome.  I had to give it a try, but I knew from the other day that I didn’t have time to mess with the tripod.

Normally the rule of thumb is that you can hand-hold the camera if your shutter speed is greater than your focal length.  So in my case where the focal length was 1000mm I would need to use a 1/1000th sec shutter speed.  At sunset, with an aperture of f/6.3 – 2 stops for the 2x teleconverter, that wasn’t going to do me any good.  Because this is a mirror lens, I was able to get away with 1/200th of a second if I held my breath while shooting.

I really can’t wait for the snow to melt so I can get out there and experiment a little more with this lens.  Knowing that I can hand hold it is giving me an itchy shutter release finger.

I had a little time this week, so I decided to rewrite my WordPress template. I liked the overall look of it, but I just customized somebody else’s work, and things were just a little off.

I’d never written a template for WordPress from scratch before, but it turns out to be pretty easy. I used the Blueprint CSS framework because I’ve really come to love using it, and I added a graphical logo to the header instead of plain text.

I also made changes to the categories.  I felt there were way to many, so I consolidated them into 5 areas.  After that, I think that it’s important to utilize tags instead of categories.  As a result, those of you who subscribe to my RSS feed probably saw a lot of old posts show up.  Sorry about that.  Wordpress automatically adds an edited post to the feed.

So, let me know what you think works, or doesn’t work.  If there’s a problem in a particular browser/OS, let me know that too.

UPDATE:: I got a call from Bell last night wanting my feedback on their service. It was automated because they care so much…

What is it with companies trying to nickel and dime people at every turn? Why do I need to subscribe to the largest possible cable package to get 3 channels? Why do I need to harvest my own kidneys to pay a whopping cell phone bill just to get the only two features that matter to me?

Bell sucks. If I want nothing but The Discovery Channel and TLC, I need to first subscribe to at least the basic package which has over 100 channels. You get the major networks like Global, CTV, NBC, Fox, etc…, and crap like OMNI and the Aboriginal Peoples Television (which I’m sure even the Aboriginal peoples don’t watch).

Now, to get those two channels I mentioned (Discovery and TLC) you need to subscribe to not one, but two theme packs. They’re not really theme packs because you only get half a theme. To get the two channels I want I need to subscribe to News & Learning 1, and News & Learning 2. That means I get 20 channels I don’t want. Crap like Book TV, and Business News Network, and VIVA (whatever the hell that is).

Now I have over 120 channels, and I’m paying about $40. Oh, and don’t forget about the service charge. Fuck me, but I though the subscription I was buying was the service. I guess I have to pay a few bucks to cover the cost of that automated infinite loop of a phone system they have. Now I pay about $50 for the 2 channels I want.

So, I canceled. I don’t need this shit. I have the internet. Do you know what Bell told me? They told me I needed to give them 30 days notice and pay a $99 cancellation fee. Do you know why they need 30 days notice? I guess they were really banking on my 50 bucks, and they have to find somebody to take my place. Right. So they got another $50 out of me. Same thing for the cancellation fee. Actually I bitched enough about how stupid that was, so they only charged me $50. Thanks ever so much Bell.

Hey! I have an idea. Why doesn’t Bell just provide a service that people actually want to pay for? Why not allow me to pay them for 2 channels? Why split up the themes so that I have to buy all this shit I don’t want?

It’s the same thing with Rogers. I have an iPhone, and if I want caller ID, I have to pay about $100/month because of all the bundling I have to do. Ridiculous.

I guess the whole point of this rant is that Value Added Services add cost, not value. Greedy companies just use this term as a way to describe the practice of adding perceivedvalue to their offerings. Go fuck yourselves.