Loud ramblings of a Software Artisan

A Canadian goose.

Deschenes Rapids, Ottawa, ON - June 6, 2009

Canon 20D EF 100-300 f/4.5-5.6

flickr

Meeche Lake, Parc de la Gatineau, Chelsea, QC - October 19th, 2008

Canon 20D 24-85

flickr flickr

Hampton Park, Ottawa, ON - October 18th, 2008

Canon 20D 24-85 @24mm

flickr flickr

A passerby watching the steam clock, me watching from the other side.

Water St, Gastown, Vancouver, BC - March 27th 2010

5DMkII EF 50mm f/1.4

flickr

Domaine MacKenzie King, Parc de la Gatineau, QC - October 4th 2008

Canon 20D 24-85 @24mm

flickr

Catching the tram at the (now gone) Granville Island Station, Vancouver, BC - March 19th 2010

5DMkII 24-105 f/4L @24mm 1/25sec f/8 ISO 200

This picture was taken for the Dailyshoot assignment 124 - taking a picture at 30cm off the ground. It is also my first attempt to properly use the "live view" instead of the optical viewfinder. It is probably one of this case where it is convenient.

flickr

Daffodils on Granville Island, Vancouver, BC - March 19th 2010

5DMkII, 24-105 f/4L @24

flickr

I finally read C++ coding standards by Herb Shutter and Andrei Alexandrescu. One of these books I should have read a long time ago and for which I felt I learned something when finishing it.

Coding standard is about code quality and language usage, not about indentation and other cosmetic and personal taste. This book list 101 things to following when coding in C++. Includes things on topics including type safety, STL, coding style (semantics, not presentation), design, etc.

Several projects I know don't even enforce or follow what's is told in this book, even though they should, and I just wish we all used tools that could enforce most of the issues listed in there at compile time.

To celebrate spring I went to the barbershop to get both my hair cut and my beard shaved, five years in the making.

Photo by somecancuckchick.

up, coffee, drilling, cleaning, emailing, phoning, reading riot act, showering, walking, reading riot act more nicely in person, book shopping, clothes shopping for teh lady, caffeination, shutterbugging, getting shaved, back home, watching the leafs winning *cries*, groceries, dining, blogging.

and it is spring !

I finally upgraded. Sunday, I got myself a Canon 5DMkII to replace my aging 20D. Not to be mistaken ; I do like my 20D a lot, but I'm feeling encumbered in my creative process with the 1.6x crop factor turning by 24mm to the equivalent of a 38mm in term of field of view. That's a bit narrow for somebody like me who like wide angle.

Amongst other things, the main feature I get are:

• full-frame (good idea I had not to invest in EF-S lenses): that's something I was really missing from film. Despite having more wide angle capabilities, it also helps controlling depth of field.
• better noise contol. I was first impressed by the 6400 ISO shots I took. We'll see how it goes.
• A larger buffer: I never thought I'd be limited by this in the past, but I have run into more than often lately with the 20D.

Things I might use experiment with:

• movie mode: the interesting part with the movie mode is that it has been the subject of the last firmware upgrades as it is being used more and more in the movie industry for second unit photography and digital plates (for use with green screen)

It came with the firmware 2.0.3 that Canon released yesterday.

With it, I got the "kit lens": EF 24-105 f/4 L IS. Unlike other "kit lens" this is actually a not cheap and good piece of glass. Well build, sharp, etc; so much better than the 24-85 or 28-105 I was using. And better than the 28-135 IS that Canon was putting as a kit with models like the 40D (with 1.6x crop). With a significant rebate when purchased with the camera, I was afraid it wouldn't come with the lens hood nor the pouch, like the retail version. But no. It is the exact same deal. Note had I had the EF 24-70 L, I wouldn't possibly have gotten this lens.

I'll write more about both of these later.

The test pictures. Because I love the challenges, they have been shot at ISO 6400. Is just corrected the white balance because of the difficult lighting conditions.

@24mm:

@55mm

@50mm