kjp

I've just brought my clothes in from the washing line and have set a new record (for me at least). I brought in four odd socks (none match with each other). Well done me... :)

Anyhow, tomorrow is an RDO but I'm going in anyway - it's the right thing to do, I think: want to be professional...

If you're after a freeware image viewer / processor that supports a wide range of image formats; has a batch mode (eg: resize all images in a folder); and can support jpg files which have high width to height ratios (eg: panorama shots), then check out IrfanView. Very useful.

I've just finished reading "The Art Of War" - a military text written by Sun Tzu around 500/400 BC.

It goes into the strategy / tactics / psychology / deception of conflict. It's a pretty interesting read. There seems to be several translations / versions available. The book I've got has a translation of the text (from the Lionel Giles 1910 version) followed by the text again interspersed with notes, comments and applications in conflict. It was very interesting to see how the text was used in the ancient Chinese world.

If you want to read it free then you can get it here

Well I've been "sort-of-sick" for a little while now (a bit less than a week). I've had this annoying cough, and clogged up sinuses. hmmm. I've taken the advice of a few people and am taking Senega. The person behind the counter at the pharmacy said there was "some controversy" about whether it does anything. But, may as well give it a try: I suppose. It tastes pretty vile though. hmmm. To bed now: need to get lots of sleep.

Last monday I went for a bit of a walk around the city and the gardens near the QUT campus: walking mostly along the edge of river. I went from somewhere around Eagle Street (a little before Story Bridge), around the point, halfway along Goodwill bridge, under Victoria Bridge, and to near William Jolly Bridge. There's a few photos up in the Brisbane photos section.

Always use the stitch mode on a camera. For two reasons -
   (a) Taking all of the photos at the same settings will mean that the same amount of light will get in on each shot. This means that the likelihood of getting vertical bars on the composite image is reduced (and hence morelikely for a better shot). A good example of this is the far right overlap of the 2nd river panorama. The far right shot has a lot of shade in it (under the Riverside Expressway), while the shot to the left is mostly in the light.
   (b) You reduce the chances of doozing the process up by missing the overlap - so the panorama image is in two bits. ohh well. Next time.

Yesterday afternoon I went to "Tchaikovsky Favourites". The orchestra was formed by students studying at the University of Queensland School of Music. On the program:
   Serenade for String Orchestra (1st movement)
   Piano Concerto 1 - Pamela Page - who has been around for a bit was the soloist. I seem to recall her name from AMEB??
   4 bits of Nutcracker - marche, danse des mirlitons, danse russe (trepak), valse des fleurs
   Melodie for Violin and orchestra (number 3)
   Capriccio Italien. Always good fun.

A good few hours of music. I'm going to try and get a recording of the piano concerto - I really enjoyed it (but there may have been a hiccup in yesterdays go at it?). It was held in the Concert Hall at QPAC (otherwise known as the Queensland Performing Arts Centre), which is in South Bank. The hall sounded good; there is a beast of a pipe organ there, so I wouldn't mind going to a performance when it is used.

Apart from the parking and coffee after; the concert turned out to be a freebie for me - as a family friend / colleague of dad was "on the inside" with one of the sponsors of the afternoon. Sweet (but would have gone regardless).

If anyone out there plays Go, then check out the Kiseido Go Server. The client program for playing on KGS is great, easy, simple.

However, I've been spending a bit too much time there recently... Although it thinks that my rank is about 22 kyu... Either I've improved a lot since ~28k at the Brisbane Go club or else there something funny going on...

Last weekend I went to the musical: The Lion King. I thought that it was very good - I wouldn't say that it was excellent.

I liked
*   the music
*   the puppetry / costumes - they all worked together well
*   the choreography / dancing
*   the use of the theatre - don't turn up late. I was on the isle - which was good.
*   the drums on the sides of the stage

I didn't think was the best / things I didn't like
*   some of the voices were a bit thin (not strong enough)
*   that there were plenty of opportunities to buy Lion King "merchandise" - prefer they made money from the performance not from selling extras. There's an interesting discussion here about this and selling it as art, not entertainment.
*   would have liked an oboe in the orchestra: especially in "Can you feel the love tonight"

Well, who said that blogs are supposed to be kept up-to date and record current events?? Not me.

I've been busy for the past two weeks or so - the previous two weekends were pretty cool - for different reasons. During the weeks I've been busy - working at work (where else) has kept me tired when I get home. Also, in the past couple of days I've started to get a bit sick... dahh.. don't like it at all.

I'm not sure, but because I've been busy recently, and not going orienteering (other things to do), I haven't been jogging as much (at all). Probably my lack of exercise (recently) has meant that my body is a bit stuffed up? Very unsure about this. I'm taking it easy this weekend - although have a concert to go to tomorrow afternoon - Tchaikovsky. Yum.

Anyhow. Firstly two weekends ago:
My good friend J was up with his girlfriend (also J), and her best friend, and her boyfriend - got it?!. They were up for 4 days - I hung out with them for 3 - from Friday to Sunday. I was able to swap my RDO (Rostered Day Off) from the previous Monday to the Friday. I love working for a flexible company.

I picked the four of them up from the airport early on Friday morning. We cruised around the city for a bit - had some parking issues. We ended up going shopping for a bit in the morning. That was ok... The feature (for me) was good hanging out with them. Then J, J and I went back to my place (well big sister's...), got some pies from a local bakery for lunch. We then cruised around a bit and saw J's primary school and old houses (when he was living up here). Was good. I then got done up, back to their hotel room in the city, they got ready, changed, etc. Then the five of us walked over to South Bank. We were going to go to the "My Restaurant Rules" place - but the queue was too long, so we went back a bit to a Turkish place - Ahmet's where we had a whole lot of really nice Turkish food (too much). It was really nice food.

We then cruise around the markets held in the parkland / plaza area which was good. Apparently they're held every Friday evening and weekend afternoons. Then J and I walked back to the Treasury Casino (the others caught a cab). The casino is just on the city side of the Victoria? bridge that we had crossed to get to South Bank. We stayed there a little while. As per my usual conservative gambling self - little risked / little gained - I ended up the same as what I took in. We then walked back to their hotel room, then played some cards, then I drove home.

On the Saturday I didn't do much in the morning (that I remember). Went into the city to get some books (that I'm now reading) / music, then met up with the four at their hotel. Just talked, etc, in the late afternoon. Then got ready, then walked to the Pier 9 seafood restaurant - very very yummy seafood. It's good more than a few awards for it's seafood. Hung out with them for a while, then train home.

On Sunday we went to Movie World which was a good bit of fun for the day. We went on pretty much every ride that there is; five times on the Spooky Coaster, I think. Ended up making a few silly faces when they take your picture on the ride. Lethal Weapon ride was pretty cool as well - but a bit short. Annoying, but understandable, they don't let people wear glasses (neither sunglasses or prescription). Ohh well.

It was a pretty full day. They went southwards to the Gold Coast, I went back home. A great weekend. Catching up with old friends was (and is) the best, methinks.

Ok, now last weekend:
On the Friday evening we (big sister and I) rushed out the door and were dropped at the airport by a friend. Caught the plane down to Sydney. Then we went our separate ways - I caught a train up to J's family's place, and stayed the night there. On Saturday morning, we (J, myself, and J's sister's boyfriend) went to Dee-why (I think), but ended up walking along the promenade at Manly. Had a coffee, then to the national park around the North Heads. The weather was good - the views were spectacular - would they be anything but? We bumped in a person from high school - coincidences...

Back to J's place to have some pies, etc, for lunch. Then went to my Granny's place, to meet up with mum, dad, big sister, little sister and her boyfriend, and granny - of course. We did the family thing (briefly). Then into the city to our (the 6 of us) hotel. A bit dodgy - one room was too small for 4 people, the other room's hot water had issues. Got ready, then out to dinner - service was pretty poor: a table next to us walked out as they didn't get their food for ages. Then we all trondled off to the Lion King (more later). Then a drink at a bar/cafe. Then back to hotel for sleep.

On the sunday - got up, ready, then train to Circular Quay, then caught the ferry to Manly. There's a few photos here if you want. There was a sailing race on at the time - which was pretty cool. Had lunch sitting on the promenade thingy at Manly, then the ferry back. Big sister and I left the other four (who were driving back to Canberra) to meet some of big sister's friends in the city for coffee (in the QVB). Not too shabby, at all.

Then we caught the train to the airport, flew back to Brissy, and home via the trains (which was a long option - connections weren't the best). Although next time I go on a flight I'll make sure that I write down the flight information - rather than assuming that someone else has that information.....

Well there you go - two pretty cool weekends.

Theres a few songs that I've heard recently or have gotten stuck in my head that I wanted to get my paws on. And yes, I am aware that some are old and some on the poppy side of things.

*   Icehouse - Electric Blue - (from Man Of Colours). Heard this at work the other day on an "old timers" radio station!
*   "Shut Up / Kiss Me" by Paul McDermott. Not sure if this is the title of the song. It was sung in the days when Good News Week was on TV. I think that it was sung as a duet with someone??
*   "Don't Falter" by Mint Royale
*   "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" by Frankie Valli

I've just finished reading Behind the Lines - The Year's Best Cartoons (a birthday present). It's a collection of some of the entries in the National Museum of Australia's 2003 Political Cartooning Competition. The related exhibit travelled around a bit. The book is a pretty funny read.

I got Mer de Noms by A Perfect Circle the other day. It's a pretty nice album: I been listening to lighter stuff recently, so this cures that a bit. At the moment my favorite tracks are Judith, The Hollow, 3 Libras and Thomas.

This was taken on the foot / cycle path on the edge of the river, near the bend in the road where Coronation drive becomes Riverside Expressway. Left to right corresponds with South-West to North-West (about).

From left to right there is:
Kurilpa Point
William Jolly Bridge (with the Merivale (rail) bridge in the backgroun)
Bits of the Riverside Expressway

Theres a big (1 MB or so) version here. This was removed 08/05/2005.

This was taken on the foot / cycle path on the edge of the river, near the bend in the road where Coronation drive becomes Riverside Expressway. Left to right corresponds with South-East to South-West (about).

From left to right there is:
Victoria Bridge, with Goodwill (foot) bridge in the background.
QPAC
Museum / Art Gallery
State Library

Theres a big (1 MB or so) version here. This was removed 08/05/2005.

This was taken from the back of the fleet of ships.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Sydney harbour is probably one of the better looking harbours in the world.

This was taken looking out from the harbour to the ocean. The northern headlands are on the left.

On the day we went out on the water, there was a sailing race of some sort on. These are some of the ships as they approached us.

The Sydney Opera House would have to be one of the more photographed and recognisable buildings around.

Well it's on again - my yearly dose of bodgy music: the Eurovision Song Contest. SBS is putting on 1/2 hour preview shows this week. Woo-oop.

Saturday, when I was in the city, I got an album of Ella Fitzgerald's music. She had (recordings have) such a great voice.

A few weeks ago I heard some really cool music sung by Ella from the album "Ella at Duke's Place". One of the songs played on the radio - Cotton Tail - she does a great improvisation. There's a word for it, when someone singing doesn't sing real words: just "ba-di-do-di-bub-da-bi-doo", etc. I think that it either sounds really cool or bad if it isn't pulled off.

Anyhow, at the music place they had that album for a few dollars more than a compilation album. I'm not usually a fan of compilation / "the best of" albums. But this double CD got a lot more music for fewer dollars. So I go it - "Gold". It's great! She's got such a cool voice.

... is available here. Wee har.

I've put up some photos of the past few days. On saturday I went up to Mount Coot-tha and the botanic gardens at Toowong (just at the base of Mount Coot-tha).

On that trip and over the past few days there are quite a few things that I've learnt (about photography and my camera) (in no particular order).

Battery Latch
On my camera is slightly too far out - possibly a spring is too springy?

Shutter Lag
There's a slight gap between when the "take photo" button is depressed and when the image is taken. This is reduced when the camera focuses first (using the focus lock). The testing for the A70 (previous model to mine) indicates that the "Shutter Release LAG" is 0.1 seconds when the LCD is in use, less when it is not.

LCD Screen
The LCD screen is bright. This is similar to other digital cameras that I've read about. Possibly having the option for reducing the brightness may be useful, but I suspect that it would become annoying to continuously be changing the LCD screen when you really want to be taking photos. Also, the reflective(?) coating on the LCD screen (and surrounding it) got to be slightly annoying in very bright light (eg: bright sunshine). I suppose this is a reason why the images on the LCD screen itself needs to be bright.

Histogram
The histogram of an image is really useful, as the brightness of the LCD screen can be a bit deceptive. The histogram gives a better idea of how bright the image will be. It may be useful to have access to the histogram before the image has been taken, however, having it when reviewing an image is still very useful.

Panorama Shots
My first attempt at a panoramic shot from the top of Mount Coot-tha turned out badly. I was using the "stitch assist" mode of the camera, where a third (or so) of the previous image is displayed on the LCD screen to help you take the next image. This is useful. However, if you actually read the manual (I didn't), you find that the white balance and image settings have to be set for the first image, and can't be set for the subsequent images. The first image I took was on an "auto" white balance, taken of some darkish trees. So the subsequent, lighter, images came out too bright. For my second attempt I just used the landscape mode, and the image turned out pretty well. I think that better images could be obtained if a tripod is used. I may get one: not sure how much they cost though.

White Balance
The white balance function seems to be very good, with one exception. In the house that I'm currently living there is a lot of white-ish tiles everywhere with creamish walls and incandescent light. Outside, the "auto" white balance mode is great. However, when inside, the "auto" white balance function is making the images on the orangey side of things. When I set it to "incandescent" mode, the images are great. It seems to be picking the wrong mode. I'm not really surprised at this: it is consistent with the A70 model.

Low Light Photos
I'm finding that when taking close up images, using the flash is not helpful - it often results in the image being far too overexposed. I found this when I was (briefly) at the botanic gardens the other day - I was mostly in the darker "tropical" area, and also at some flowers that are in the kitchen. When there is "semi-low" light the camera wants to use the flash: I don't want it too. A way to get better images without the flash is to open the shutter for longer. The problem with this is that you have to keep the camera steady, otherwise the image will be blurred. This is another reason why I may get a tripod - to allow the shutter to be open for longer while keeping the camera steady.

To Learn About
Some things that I need to learn about include:
*   What is the P mode?
*   Telephoto / Wide angle photos
*   Photo effect mode - sharpening / blurring images?
*   When to modify flash output
*   How to use the manual focus (properly). What should the focal length for an object that is x cm away?
*   Getting good low light images without the flash.
*   The deal with the ISO setting
*   Light metering system - when to use: Evaluative / Center Weighted Average / Spot modes.
*   Try using the continuous mode (one image after the other)
*   Experiment with red eye reduction
*   And probably a whole lot more.

Well this is a poor excuse for an entry. For some bizarre reason this blog has reached the 100 post mark. It's taken (03/05/2004 - 12/01/2004) = 112 days. Astounding.

As promised, here's all the juicy goss that I've learn about digital cameras (and about buying one). I'll try and address the criteria I was considering as I go. Probably tomorrow there'll be more about the camera and the images I've taken so far.

The first thing that quickly becomes apparent when you're looking for a digital camera is that there are heaps of options on the market. Heaps. However, if you've done a bit of research you can remove a lot of the field from your consideration. There are several good (digital) camera review websites on the internet. The ones that I used were:
*   Digital Photography Review. DP Review has a good "Learn" page and glossary. A70 Review.
*   Imaging Resource. A70 Review.
*   Steve's Digicams. A75 Review.
*   Digital Camera Resource. A75 Review.

Only the last two had a reviews (here and here) when I was doing my research of the A75 model. Digital Photography Review had the specifications listed, but no review. No mention on Imaging Resource.

There were some listing of the changes between the A75 and A80 models here

OK, now for the interesting bit:

Camera Type / Size
There seems to be several broad types of digital cameras. SLR, "normal" and really compact. The SLR cameras are bigger, more powerful, more "professional", and more expensive. The very small cameras tended to be more limited functionality: reduced, or no optical zoom, for example. Also, they felt too small for my hands. This is quite important when buying a camera - there's no point to a great camera that doesn't go well in your hands - so that you don't use it. This lead me to what I would call "normal" sized cameras. I think that they are technically all referred to as "compact" cameras. The bigger sizes of these compact cameras ("normal") were what I was looking for.

MegaPixels
OK, to save me typing it out a whole lot; from now on MP = megapixels.
I've seen a A5 (half of A4) sized photo coming from a Kodak 2 MP camera. On a first and second glance it looked like photo quality. Probably, if I closely studied the image I would find that it wasn't photo quality: but I'm not interested in looking at any printouts I do with a magnifying glass / really close up. A lot of places on the web say that 3 MP will result in good quality (maybe just shy of photo quality) 8" x 11" prints. This is, for the foreseeable future (and for the lifetime of this camera, I expect) going to be the most I will need to do, 4 MP seems to be not required (and not worth the extra money).

Also, to remove some of the problems associated with expanding an image (jagged edges, etc), the image can be interpolated. This won't add any detail, but would probably make the edges smoother. The effect of this would probably depend on the subject of the photo (eg: a simple portrait doesn't have as much detail as other shots).

On an aside, most "3 MP" cameras aren't 3 MP - they're often 3.15 MP (2048 x 1536 pixels). This is an advertising thing (I assume) but not that significant.

There's heaps of discussions about megapixels and digital cameras out there. Here are a few:
*   DP-Now
*   Epinions (fairly old)
*   Peachpit (June 2002)
*   ACD Systems
*   TheTechLounge

Another thing to note is that the higher the number of megapixels in a camera, the larger the memory required to store the same number of images. Which implies a higher memory cost.

Uncompressed Format
Now, choosing a 3 MP camera limits what image formats can be supported. In particular, the two main uncompressed image formats (RAW and TIFF) aren't as well supported on 3 MP (and below) cameras when compared to 4 MP cameras. Those cameras with <= 3 MP and an uncompressed image format are mostly old models. There's a fairly good writeup of a raw vs jpeg experiment. It indicates that there are differences that can be picked out (but only bad images). For me, these aren't significant (I'd be going to 4 MP if I was really keen for better images).

Sensor Type / Size
There's a few major types of sensors - CMOS, JFET, CCD, Foveon. It seems that CCD is the standard for basic cameras. In terms of the size of the sensor: the lower the pixel density the better (see here). The basic idea is that smaller sensors have a lower SNR. For the same number of megapixels, a bigger sensor is generally better. The A75 has a sensor size of 5.27 x 3.96 mm. As far as I can tell most 3 MP cameras have this sensor size or the bigger 7.18 x 5.32 mm. So this is perhaps not the best advertising feature of the camera. However, I suspect that it's a non-issue: the camera is supposed to take better images than most 3 MP cameras, so sensor size probably isn't a key issue.

Lenses
Apparently Canon is supposed to have some of the best lens systems around.
The A75 has the ability to add extra lenses on to it: enabling increased zoom or wider images.

Batteries
The A75 uses AA batteries. It came with non-rechargable batteries. These lasted a while, but it all depends on what you do with them (ie: using the LCD and flash all the time will drain them quickly). From the reviews I read the A75 lasts quite a while when compared to other digital cameras (I've lost a link to a test of different cameras using the same type of batteries - A75 did well). I'm also happy that a non-proprietary "standard" battery is used - I can use nonrechargeable AA batteries bought from a newsagent if things go pear shaped.

I got a set of AA NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) batteries with a charger. The batteries are rated at 2300 mAhr - which is pretty high compared to other rechargeable batteries that I around.

Memory
The camera takes Compact Flash cards. I got a 256 MB card when I bought the camera.

Movies
Basic movies (up to 640 x 480) can be taken (with audio). But if you want a video camera, buy a video camera.

Audio Memo
The camera has the ability to add an audio memo to an image after it has been taken. I've found this good to record a detail of how the image was shot (eg: what was focused upon) or a detail of what is being shot.

Full Manual
The camera has this - it's been useful when I've been experimenting with "harder" shots.

Shutter Speed
Ranges from 1/2000 second to 15 seconds. When I get a tripod I plan to take some images of the city (from south bank??? area).

And finally, a few other things not specifically about my camera.

35 mm or Digital?
If you are buying a camera, the question of whether you should go for a 35 mm film or digital camera should be raised. For me, digital was the best option, primarily due to two considerations:
*   I wanted low on going costs (in particular costs per image), as I knew that I wanted to experiment a bit.
*   I didn't want to have to scan images in to send them to people (there's several people around Australia that I knew I would like to send images to, plus this website). I wanted to be able to look at images on my computer quickly and easily.
There's a good account here of the major differences between film and digital.

Guides
Finally, there are more than a few buying guides / digital photography introductions on the web. I found the following to be useful:
*   Digital Cameras Buying FAQ
*   Introduction to Digital Photography. The image on the second lesson page showing the comparison in the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 MP image sizes was interesting.
*   How Digital Cameras Work (although the images didn't load when I viewed the page).
*   The Home Digital Darkroom
*   Choosing A Digital Camera (seems to like Canon).

Buying in Brisbane
You can buy cameras and accessories (memory, batteries) over the internet. I prefer to avoid buying the camera over the internet - there's receiving the package issues / damage en-route, easier to return / replace, etc. I went to Bentleys Camera House (in Chermside), Harvey Norman (Everton Park), and Clive Peeters (Aspley) when doing research for the camera. Everyone who I talked to seemed to know what they were talking about. Bentleys ended up cheaper than the other two.

Yesterday I was taking a whole bunch of photos. There'll be more about the camera soon...

Taken just outside - just by the fence in the front yard (the fence is just visible - blurred in the background). I like the colour of the leaves for some reason.

One of the flowers in the front flower patch thing.

Well, one of my pet hates is shopping - for clothes. CDs, DVDs, books, computer games, electronics, etc., are all good fun to cruise around for. But clothes shopping is a pain - you stand around for ages, trying on a whole bunch of boring clothes. Most of which are either too big / too small / look stupid (but are "cool" - apparently) / dodgy. Bo-ring.

Having said all of that, this morning I was due to go to the shops to get (with my big sister) a new pair of jeans. Apparently the new pair "look good", but I wouldn't know anything about that... While there I got sucked into getting two shirts and a t-shirt... ahh well. Sucked probably is the wrong word: I needed some more anyway...

Also got a belt (for work). My existing one is getting a bit too worn: I reckon that it has got a week or two left. Considering that I'd like to go to work with pants securely on: I think a replacement is in order...:). After lunch I went and took some photos from / on Mount Coot-tha and the nearby botanic gardens (coming).

This was taken as I was leaving the viewing area on Mount Coot-tha. I like the mixture between the radial looking shadows of the railing and the hedges.

Taken as I was leaving the Botanic Gardens (Toowong).

There was a lot of these flowers on the wall below the viewing area on Mount Coot-tha.

I took several shots from the viewing area on Mount Coot-tha and joined them together (in software) to form one big image.

If you really want, you can click here (removed 08/05/2005) to get a bigger version of the image (9968 x 568 pixels, 1.7 megabytes). The thing is that the 1.7 MB file is the small version of the panoramic image. The big one (sitting on my hard drive) is twice as big and better jpg quality (6.5 MB). Ouch.

There's visible artifacts of the joining process. In particular there are several vertical bands that are slightly darker than the surrounding parts of the image. In some cases those areas are blurred a bit as well (presumably a slight mismatch).

Shows the skyline of the Brisbane city area. It was taken from the viewing area at the top of Mount Coot-tha.