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The other day, after class, a couple of my fellow Field Linguistics students and I were discussing the recommended readings for the course - apparently there's some issue with the availability of one of them in the library. The reaction of one bemused me.
Me: I haven't really looked in the library, I ordered them online.
Her: You bought them? They're so expensive!
Me: They're actually about half the price if you order them from America.
Her: They're still expensive.
Me: They look really interesting, though, so I wanted my own copies anyway.
Her: But all that money for books you'll use for, what, four months?
Me: But this way I'll have plenty of time to read them.
Her, looking vaguely horrified: What... in your own time?
Me: ... Yes.
Am I the only person who majors in subjects I find interesting? Doing units at university gives a structured approach to learning, and give you guidance in what to look for and in the relevant skills to the discipline, and all that, but they can't teach you EVERYTHING. It's not possible. What university really does is give you the necessary framework for working in a field - you have to go further on your own. If I want to be able to consider myself a trained linguist, I can't just do the necessary minimum to pass the unit...
Today's photo, chosen for relevance though it was taken yesterday, is the decorative statue outside Winthrop Hall, at UWA, which was the subject of the photo from which I took this icon. I took that photo about eight years ago - then, there were bushes around the statue, so it was half-hidden and seeing it, finding it, had felt like a discovery.
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I just phoned PRA Imaging to ask about a lens I'd been looking at online. Reviews have been pretty positive, that I've looked at...
... but, the guy said, they're actually really not very good at all.
So we chat about lenses, I explain that I'm interested in a telephoto lens but I don't think I can justify spending a lot of money on one. So he tells me about a couple of options for reasonable-yet-within-my-price-range.
Which, of course, I'm welcome to come down to the shop to take a look at. I know from past visits that I can take my camera and try it out properly.
You can't just chat about products with online retailers, and you certainly can't just try stuff out before you buy it.
The real world has its benefits still...
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So, this afternoon I ran errands in town. I went to the leather place and arranged to get a belt made, and went to PRA Imaging to look at lenses. They pulled out a couple of options, I slotted them onto my camera and tried them out. (I bought a Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III.) While I was there I also remembered that my polarising filter for my 17-85mm lens was a bit defective, and showed them; I got halfway through explaining the problem and the woman I was talking to was looking through the filter rack to get me a replacement.
They're really very good there.
The older guy, who I think is the owner or somesuch, thanked me for my supporting of the shop by buying my camera equipment there. I still say it works for me, because their service is good, they're knowledgable and helpful and it's just reassuring to know that having spent Serious Money on a camera I can still get local support for it, etc. If my camera were defective in some way, they would totally deal with that for me. (But it isn't, and my erstwhile feeling that it was was resolved when I realised the whole thing about iridescent peacock feathers being the problem.)
The older dude also commented that I'm getting "quite a stable" of camera gear, and said I must be getting pretty good now I've had some practice. I told him I've definitely taken some pictures I'm really happy with now, and he suggested that next time I came in I should bring some to show them... so I gave him the URL of my Gallery, where I put my pictures. (Although some of the older ones on there were taken with compacts, all the new ones are with my new camera. He was quite pleased.
He was also impressed when I told him I'd managed to take some pictures in the Nocturnal House at the zoo. I explained that the trick is to crank the ISO speed up to 3200 and have a wide aperture; it at least becomes *possible*.
e.g. this picture of a tiger quoll:
It's not easy, especially without a tripod, but it's possible. Even with animals that aren't asleep, as these two pictures show.
"Pictures of Animals" is the most populated album on my gallery page. I think it sort of shows that a major source for me when I feel like taking a bunch of pictures is the Zoo.
At some point I may get around to going through all my photos and putting proper descriptions and things on them - most of them just have names derived from their filenames. On the bright side, a lot of the shot information is put up automatically, so at least that's there.
I used to use Scrapbook (the LJ service) for my images, because I didn't have anywhere better; now I like Gallery on my own web space. At some point I'll make it prettier instead of using the default theme, but as far as I can tell nobody looks at it but me, so who cares?
I also bought a new backpack that can fit all my camera gear. Sadly, I just realised, what I forget to buy is a UV filter for the new lens. (And it's a different size from my other two lenses, which are also different sizes from each other...)
I'm still vaguely wondering if I should work on an updated version of this icon - that picture is a number of years, about two feet of hair length, and three cameras ago.
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