Picture This

Bridge001
Originally uploaded by tmhudg.

I don't know when it happened or why but I was bitten by the photography bug over the summer. I had a nice SLR camera way back when I was a teenager and I really enjoyed taking pictures with it. I stopped using it a long time ago in favor of the smaller digital cameras (and video cameras) and, in fact, just sold it on eBay several months ago. I like the digital cameras because they are small and easy to pop in my pocket and take anywhere as opposed to the SLRs that have big lenses and require their own bag to be carried in.

The small cameras though really don't have features and flexibility that the big ones do. Plus, you can't really be taken as a serious photog if you are holding a tiny digicam focusing through the LCD screen like all the other prolotariats!

So (you know where this is going don't you), I started looking at cameras. The camera I was looking at mostly was the Nikon D50. This is their "entry level" DSLR with a 6 Mega pixel sensor. It had tons of good reviews and was priced around $600 which is pretty good. I was all set to pull the trigger on it when I saw an ad for the new Sony Alpha 100. Now, Sony is not well known in the DSLR market but it turns out that they had bought the old Konica-Minolta (KM) company and had decided to take on Nikon and Canon - the giants of the SLR market. Well, the Alpha has a 10 Mega pixel sensor (much higher resolution) plus, the coolest feature of all: in-camera image stabilization.

Image stabilization is the ability to compensate for camera shake so your pictures are sharper. When you take a hand-held photo (as opposed to using a tripod), you can't hold the camera absolutely still of course. If you don't have a fast enough shutter speed, this camera shake will make your pictures slightly blurry (from a little to a lot depending on how steady you are). As you use bigger and bigger lenses (zooming in), this camera shake is magnified along with the picture and can become a big problem. Nikon and Canon have addressed this problem by making image stabilized lenses. These lenses have little sensors and motors in them that sense the movement of the lens and move the lens elements in the opposite direction - effectively canceling out the shake. Pretty amazing stuff huh? The problem is that these lenses are much more expensive than non-stabilized lenses. Konica-Minolta (and Sony by way of purchase) decided to move the image stabilzation into the camera instead of the lens. This way, any lens that you put on the camera is automatically stabilized. You buy the stabilization once in the camera instead of on each lens. That seemed like a much smarter solution to the problem.

So, as usual, I hemmed and hawed all summer over whether I should spend the extra money on the Sony or if the Nikon would be "good enough". To make a long and agonizing story shorter, I got the Sony. Interestingly enough, right after I got it home, a guy on one of the Sony forums I was reading said he had written an on-line book on the Sony and was looking for reviewers. I volunteered and he sent me a copy of the book (a large PDF file that I downloaded from his website). I spent several weeks reviewing it and providing comments. He was so impressed with my viewpoint and comments that he gave me top billing on the credits page of the final version of the book! How's that for cool? Not to mention that I was able to learn a lot about the camera through the process of reviewing the book.

Anyway, I've been having a blast taking pictures, tweaking them on the computer, and uploading them to Flickr. Flickr lets you give tags to your pictures and people can search for photos with certain tags and also leave comments on your public pictures. I'm sure the interest will fade a bit over time but I'm glad I did it - it's a fun hobby to have as I approach the Golden Years...

College Connumdrum

Ah yes, the day that all parents dream and dread - the first day of college. We took Kyle down to Wheaton on Saturday to move him in and get him started on four years of fun... From day one - back when he was deciding where to go - he really hasn't been very enthusiastic about going to college and, as the day of reckoning got closer, he was getting even less enthusiastic about it.

Well, we pulled up outside his dorm and were swarmed by student volunteers with big, wheeled bins who pretty much took care of all the lugging of belongings from the car to the floor. We found his room and were amazed at how big it was. He was on the second floor and his window looked out on the pond and a little patio. It was absolutely beautiful!

Kyle failed to see the splendor of it all...


We then headed over to Balfour Hood center which is kind of like the Student Union for him to register and pick up various pieces of information. As you can see by the photos, the campus is absoutely stunning. This picture is looking back toward the dining hall on the left. Kyle's dorm is part of that building you can see right of center but his wing is out of site on the right with his window looking out on the pond. Pretty sweet. The next picture is back in front of his dorm looking back this way.

Anyway, after he got registered, we took his computer to the tech department to be scanned and checked for viruses. We dropped it off for pickup the next day. Then, we had a nice lunch in the other dining hall and went back to his room. At this point, Deb decided to take Carly back home so she didn't have to go through all the orientation stuff and to let the Skip-dog out so he didn't pop.


Kyle and I waited for his roomate to show up since he, being a sophmore and arriving early, didn't have a key. We met Sam - from Seattle and very nice - and then headed over to the bookstore to pickup a few things. After that it was over to Haas Athletic Center for introductions and speaches by the President, the Dean, and various others. All-in-all, it was very good. Deb got back in the middle of this session.

At the end of the session, the students stayed there for more meetings and the parents went to still more sessions where we could ask questions
about parenting through the college years, athletics, academics, and all kinds of things. Again, a really good job by the college to get students and parents acclimated.
Of course, through registration, lunch, and pretty much the whole afternoon, Kyle was not having a very good time. He kept saying he just wanted to go home. He was pretty much overwhelmed by the prospect of dealing with the newness of the situation and wasn't enjoying things. When it came time for us to leave, it was pretty rough. I think it threw Deb off a bit as well. Initially, she was primarily worried about dealing with the separation and how she would handle it. With Kyle in such a tizzy about how he would handle it, Deb and I pretty much had to focus on convincing him that he would be alright and would be able to handle the situation. Primarily, we both just felt so bad for him that he was so unhappy. As we walked back to the car and he walked back to the dorm, we were wondering if we should make sure that he actually did go back to the dorm and not out to the street to flag down a taxi to take him home.

The next day, I had to leave on a business trip to Seattle so Deb was left to fend for herself in the half-empty house. Kyle had a French assesment test to take on Sunday so I left him a text message on his phone reminding him and wishing him luck. Later in the day, he sent me a message saying he took the test and thought he did pretty well so that at least was a positive.

I talked to Deb a little later and Kyle had talked to her and said that things were a little better - he'd met a bunch of people and was enjoying getting to know them and all that. He was still very apprehensive about classes and how much work he was getting himself into however.

His first day of classes was on Wednesday - he has three back-to-back on MWF, and one on TTHU. He also had tennis try-outs on Thursday. I talked to him on Thursday - he called - and he said that classes were OK but that he thoroughly enjoyed tennis. It wasn't so much a try-out but more like a practice. Evidently, as long as you can play relatively well, you are on the team - which is not to say that the team is bad. Kyle said that he hit with the #1 player and he (#1) was fantastic. He said that everyone on the team was super nice and made him feel part of the group immediatly.

When we dropped him off on Saturday, he had mentioned that he might come home on the following weekend - to which I said that I didn't think that was such a good idea. When I mentioned this on the phone, he said that he was not planning on coming home afterall. He's still worried about classes but I think he is slowly coming around to the idea that he might be able to survive this thing.

We'll keep you posted.