Month: April 2018

After the disastrous attempt to sell my camera on Craigstlist, I thought maybe eBay would be a better forum. Sure, I’d have to pay shipping costs and a selling fee, but at least buyers on eBay are legitimate people. Right? Right?

Alas, no.

So far I’ve had two people “buy” the camera, but each of them had new accounts on eBay that were created literally minutes before they claimed the gear. One of them immediately closed the account, and the other started texting me to tell me his Paypal payment had cleared (it hadn’t), and he was ready for me to ship the gear to his son as a birthday gift. And his son just happens to live in– wait for it– Nigeria! In the American embassy, no less. Color me shocked.

I’ll re-list the gear again, but my hopes of a legitimate sale are fading. Apparently if you want to sell any electronic gear for more than $500, you have to deal with the bots. Sigh.

With my new camera in hand, but no time during my work day to read the manual about how to use it, I went to my ultimate league games last night and snapped about a hundred photos of our game. The results were amazing. I’m not saying I’m an amazing photographer, or even that the photos themselves were amazing, but rather that the improvement over my previous cameras was noticeable and astounding. The photos were so much sharper, and even in the fading daylight I was able to capture action in high-speed pictures.

Thom was right: a full-frame sensor makes a world of difference. Of course, I’d expect that when you buy a camera that costs more than a car, it darn well better take good pictures! I’m using low-end lenses now, so Thom’s next piece of advice is to get some better glass… but that’s another car’s worth of dough, so I’m going to have to hold off on it for a while.

When Laralee and I went on a walk in today’s gorgeous 70-degree sunny weather, I brought along my new toy and took a few photos along the path. They’re nothing breathtaking, but again, I was deeply impressed with the quality of the shots when I pulled them up in Darktable. Here are a few, with only slight editing.

Now I’ll spend the weekend reading the 404-page manual (!) and hopefully learn how to use some of the really nifty features of this camera. I’m excited for this.

So, I bought a new camera. This thing is serious, and even meets with Thom’s approval. I decided it was time to take the next step on my photography journey, and that meant stepping up from the 12-year-old DSLR I’ve been using.

Problem: The camera cost more than my first car. Yeah.

Solution: Sell my old gear! Even though it’s fairly old, it’s probably worth $600-800. Hello, Craigslist!

Next problem: Craigslist is apparently a “hive of scum and villany”, to quote Obi-Wan, because all of the text messages I’ve received about the ad so far have been scammers who want me to ship the camera to their “friend” in Florida or wherever, and they’ll pay me with Paypal. Ha, I’m not new around here, Mr. Scammer! I just start asking them questions and saying dumb stuff until they finally give up on me.

Laralee just had some eggs for breakfast, and they apparently weren’t “sitting well” with her, so she walked into my office eating a huge brownie. I asked about it, and she said:

My wife, who’s into organic free-range non-GMO non-pesticide low-fat low-carb healthy foods, just said that. It seemed blog-worthy.

Tomorrow evening is ultimate league, and NOAA doesn’t have good news for us:

I can’t think of many sports that are so heavily affected by wind… I guess competitive kite-flying depends on a good stiff breeze, but otherwise, wind just isn’t good. It should make for interesting games. I expect the scores to be things like 1-2.

Zaque’s hair is unlike anyone else’s in the family– it has a lot of body, and when he just lets it grow unfettered, it turns into a curly mass on the top of his head. The other day he admitted that it might be getting a little long.

Yeah, almost 2 inches… and that’s with it sort of matted down.

I offered to cut it for him, but he decided Mom would be best. So Laralee took the trimmers and shaved off at least an inch all around. The result actually looks pretty similar, but trust me when I say it’s half the hair he used to have:

The next day, it was funny to hear several of the girls in my seminary class commenting about how they liked his “new hairstyle”. Of course there was nothing new about it– it was just shorter. He pretends not to care about the opinions of the girls, but come on, he’s a sixteen-year-old boy…

It’s fun to see people commenting about all the good things Kyra is doing on her mission…

What an awesome girl. This must be one of those “proud dad” moments…