New Camera – PowerShot G12

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Pat

I cashed in some credit card rewards and picked up a Canon PowerShot G12. I’ve been thinking about getting a smaller, lighter camera to take with me on motorcycle rides because the full-sized DSLR just takes up too much room. I’ve been a little picky though, because I absolutely would not compromise on one point. Whatever camera it was, it had to have the ability to save images in RAW format. I’ve gotten extremely spoiled by the flexibility RAW gives me, so no compromising on that one. I settled on the G12 after a bunch of research, and it arrived today.

The battery is charging, so no time to do picture tests, but they’ve been covered to death on photo sites, so I’m not going to bore you with that. The big deal for me is that it’s SMALL. I could fit it in one of the pockets of my riding jackets. By way of comparison, the bag with the DSLR, a 17-40 f/4, a 100mm f2.8 macro, and accessories took up about half of one of the RT’s panniers. I’ve quite literally gotten back room to pack a few more days worth of clothes thanks to the much smaller size.

Is it the equal of a good DSLR with good lenses? Probably not. But that’s not the point. Image quality is good, the reviewers are pretty much in agreement on that, so it’s not going to be taking crap pictures. It’s just that carrying the DSLR was taking up so much space that I really couldn’t spare. Look for pics from the upcoming trip up to see Reese for his birthday and judge for yourselves…

Adventureland

Posted on July 11, 2010 by Pat

When we woke up it was raining, so we went out to get some breakfast and watched the weather radar hoping for a break to get over to the park. Luckily the weather cooperated and we got over there a little before 11:00. We made a beeline for the roller coasters, just in case the weather didn’t cooperate. The Tornado was as fun as ever, and I got to take Reese on The Dragon, their steel track, looping coaster. He loved it. We got to do a few more rides that he was too small for the last time we were there. After a return trip to the coasters we headed back to the hotel, and just in time because the skies opened up as soon as we were in.

The Karate Kid

Posted on July 11, 2010 by Pat

Reese and I went out to see The Karate Kid remake today. It was enjoyable fluff, mostly the same plot line as the original, just updated for today. I probably wouldn’t have gone to see it on my own, but the company made it fun.

Getting Through The Picture Backlog

Posted on July 13, 2008 by Pat

I’ve been a slacker. It’s true. But I’ve started getting through the backlog of picture posting. There’s albums up for the 2007 road trip and Reese’s T-ball practice from the June visit. I’m being a big chicken and avoiding the DC trip because there’s just so much work to do. Maybe next weekend…

They can all be found over in the gallery

Running Errands

Posted on April 5, 2008 by Pat

It was a busy day today, met some of the North Texas Netscum for breakfast at Mama’s Daughter’s Diner, then headed over to Competitive Cameras to see if I could find a more convenient bag for carrying the camera around D.C. in May. Thankfully, I did. I’ve now got a SlingShot 300 AW and amazingly enough all of the gear fits in it. I’m happy that I found something that looks like it’ll work out. After that I went up to Homebrew Headquarters to pick up ingredients for a batch of wheat beer and some corks and a corker so that I can finally get the mead bottled. Looks like that’s going to be next weekend’s project. It was a pretty successful and productive day.

MacWorld 2007

Posted on January 25, 2007 by Pat

I lucked out and was able to attend for a couple hours today. It’s the first Apple trade show I’ve been to in about 15 years and was just as much fun and a LOT bigger. There were a ton of vendors and quite a few caught my eye.

Software Bisque is about to bring out a port of their The Sky package and I will be buying it when it’s available. The demo they had running looked great and I can’t wait to have a native Mac based astronomy package. That only leaves the Garmin GPS holding me to Windows.

I also picked up a Tough Skin iPod case from Speck Products because the show discount was so good. It’s a great case, and covers up everything possible, including the screen. The controls and data ports are all still available and the thickness of the case doesn’t impair them at all.

Canon also had a big booth set up showing off all of their wares. I got a chance to play with the macro lens I’ve been looking at picking up and it’s now at the top of my list.

All in all it was a lot of fun and if I’m in town the same time next year I’ll more than likely attend.

Canon 70-200 F2.8L IS

Posted on October 30, 2006 by Pat

I went down to Competitive Cameras today and picked up Canon’s 70-200 F2.8L IS lens as an early Christmas present to myself. After seeing how soft the long distance shots from Devil’s Tower came out using my old 70-300 F4.5-5.6 I decided to get a real long lens. Well, this one certainly is. It’s a big, heavy sucker, but it takes great pictures. The image stabilization is incredible. I’m back in the position of having equipment which is better than me so I guess it’s time to find some stuff to shoot with it. I’m going to try the moon tonight to see how well the image stabilization works out.

Hatshepsut at the Kimbell

Posted on October 9, 2006 by Pat

I took a little time today to head over to Fort Worth to go see the Hatshepsut exhibit at the Kimbell Art Museum. It was a really good exhibit with a lot of small and large pieces and good explanations of each one and their significance. It’s going to be there until the end of the year so if you’ve got some any interest in seeing it, buy some tickets and go!

Afterwards I headed over to the Amon Carter Museum to look at the Remingtons and was pleasantly surprised to find a photography exhibit featuring works by Robert Glenn Ketchum. That’s another one that everyone should go see. After seeing it I realize how much I’ve got to learn about photography.

Road Trip Pictures Are Posted

Posted on September 13, 2006 by Pat

I’m still working on the ones that will end up being printed and maybe even put in to a book thanks to Aperture, but all of 497 of them, for better or worse, are posted in the gallery.

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