Archive for June, 2005

My First D-SLR !!!

Tuesday, June 7th, 2005

Just ordered my first Digital SLR - a long awaited, tempted, ogled, starved for Nikon D70 !!!

Being in California, with people at the street fairs, the sunny weather and occasional scenic drives, I couldn’t anymore afford to be crippled by a much computer-unfriendly film workflow. I still would love to work with slide film and B&W, the reason I am keeping my faithful FM3a till my death bed. But everyday photos and the spirit of sharing can’t anymore wait to be digitized. It took me long enough to afford the D70 when it is already outdated by the two newer models, but who cares. It is one of the best cameras of my time and I just cant wait for the shipment to come.

Long live Nikon.

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A Casual Sunday, Sunnyvale CA

Monday, June 6th, 2005

Needed to buy a digital SLR very soon. No vehicle to move around, found from Ritz camera website that the closest store is one mile away. Even a walk-hater like me had to go out with the GPS to find the shortest way through the residential lanes.

Unfortunately the store didnt have a Nikon D70 that I was looking for and it made the whole walk seem like a waste. Suddenly I noticed a vietnamese restaurant “Pho-Nam”. Remembered from a BMW motorcycle tourer’s article that while in vietnam, the pho soup is a must have. A little wary of the taste and cooked condition of beef and steak, I ordered chicken pho soup, small size for $4.55. It was beautiful, served with cilantro, green pepper and lemon on a side dish. Great ambience of vietnamese people. Totally like the place and food, would go there again soon.

On the way back, I stumbled across a street fair and a big crowd. The scorching sun, the people, the stalls, and the smoke from the chicken teriyaki corner made me feel very much home.

There were some amazing nature photographs for sale - by photographer John Gavrilis. I personally met him and was totally impressed knowing that he only uses a Large Format (LF) film equipment - the legendary Linhof Master Technika. His site www.gavrilisphotography.com is a must-see for all nature photo enthusiasts.

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