Dawn at...

 
 

...Bay Street, between Front and Wellington, in downtown Toronto.

Went to see...

...the Body Worlds exhibition at the Ontario Science Center in Toronto last Friday with a university trip. Well, for a one time viewing the exhibition is not bad. Plus its not something that you see everyday. It is a little creepy, in that you are looking at dead people whose bodies have been preserved and are presented in weird poses and different stages of dissection, but its pretty informative as well. I think medical students might as well drool at the sights presented, but for me, a casual look at each specimen was enough. Lots of good information was also provided in the exhibition, and I found it amazing (and also more creepy than the dead bodies) that the famous cyclist Lance Armstrong has a heart which is almost 30 % larger than the size of a healthy male, and his heart beats only 30 times a minute while he's at rest, compare to the 70 times a minute of an otherwise healthy male!!
The thing that I disliked most was that photography inside the exhibition wasn't allowed, due to some weird copyright issues, as told to me by a security guard who spotted me with a heavy camera (this time around I had the 420EX flash attached) hanging around my neck, and sympathized with me for not being able to take photos.

Apparently there is...

...room enough for an over-hyped and over-priced tablet!!

Some photos of...

...motorbikes taken at the North American International Motorcycle Supershow 2010 in Toronto on Jan 16th.

Look at the guy shining the motorbike in the third picture.

The last one's the coolest (too bad didn't frame the whole of it in the picture, the front wheel's cut).

There are a...

...few things I have realized in all the years I have been using a camera, but more so since I got myself a Canon EOS 20D more than 5 years ago. One is that the lens is more, or at least as important, as the camera. Canon's L-series lens are really good, very expensive, and result in excellent photos. I have a 17-40mm f/4 L attached permanently to my 20D since about 5 years now. Since about more than a year, I also have a 70-200mm f/4 L. It is considerably less expensive that the fancy IS and f/2.8 ones having the same focal length, but has allowed me to take some really good photos.

I have also been using a battery grip since I had the analog EOS 300V. I got my EOS 20D with the battery grip, and it has been attached to the camera ever since. It does add bulk to the camera, but the ease of using the vertical shutter release button, which means you don't have to contort your hand if you want to turn the camera around 90 degrees to take a vertical photo, and the ability to use 2 batteries in the grip outweighs the added weight. I did think about taking it off some time ago, just to check how the camera would feel in the hand lighter and without the vertical shutter release, but then realized that I have either lost or misplaced the battery compartment door on the camera, which you have to take off in order to slide the battery grip in. So the battery grip remains on now, out of conviction, of course, but out of necessity as well.

While I had the EOS 300V, I also got the Canon 420EX flash. It swivels horizontally and vertically, and I have used it extensively. However, keeping it always attached to the camera makes it unnecessarily bulky and also awkward to carry and store in a rucksack or bag. A few months ago, I bought the new 270EX, which is small, light, but, importantly, swivels vertically. I have it attached permanently to the 20D now, and using it indoors has been very effective. However, two days ago I took my children to a motorcycle exhibition, and found out that using a small flash in big halls, even if you have ISO set to 400, is not enough at all. Having learnt the lesson, I think the 420EX will see service again.

As far as hanging the camera around your neck is concerned, I had been using the strap that comes with the camera. With that strap it is not fun to carry a bulky camera. Some time ago I learnt about the BlackRapid R-strap. The price is pretty steep for a strap, but it is a good thing to have if you want ease of use carrying your camera. The website has some videos to show how to use the strap, and I used it two days ago to carry the camera around on the motorcycle exhibition. It is easy to carry the camera, and to bring it to your eyes to take a photo, however there is one issue. This is that since the strap is attached to the camera using a fastener that goes into the tripod mount socket, it becomes difficult to use the vertical shutter release button on the battery grip, because the fastener and hence the strap blocks your hand. In the videos on the BlackRapid website the fastener is attached also to the tripod mount socket on the lens, in which case the issue I have mentioned would be moot. But not all lenses have tripod mount sockets. So even though the BlackRapid R-Strap is good, it is still half the solution.

While I was in Lahore last Nov/Dec, I also bought a 4 GB CF card, to replace the 2 512 MB ones that I had been using till now.

Too much is...

...happening on the technology front these days. Engadget is choke full of details.

This thingy looks promising though.

What do I...

...dislike most when reading a book? Not dislikable content, but bad editing/proof-reading. Is it that editors/proof-readers rely just on spell-checkers, and do not bother to read each and every word of the book?

It may be...

...the tallest building in the world, but this is still funny:

"If you look at it, it's a really bad idea. It uses as much electricity as an entire city. And every time the toilet is flushed they've got to pump water half a mile into the sky,"

Read the report on CNN.