Happy Late Easter
Yeah, I am a bit late on this one, but I hope everyone had a great Easter holiday. This is the first time I can remember where Easter was not in April, which totally threw me off for a good week or so beforehand. Anyway, just an update to a previous post about the Vancouver Union Gospel Mission - John Chow members raised over $7,500 in donations, very nice!
NCAA Tournament
Are any of you college basketball fans? The NCAA Tournament is in full swing, with the Sweet 16 already announced. I am not a basketball fan, but I watch the occasional game here and there. Keith isn’t a fan either, but that didn’t stop him from joining a pool with some of this other friends. He won this pool a few years ago simply by picking “teams with funny names” - nice! He has the championship game as Memphis vs Tennessee, with Memphis taking the win. Are any of you betting in pools this year?
Tax Time
Josh came down yesterday to help me get my taxes done. I’ll be the first to admit that I am not good with taxes, but hey, I’m learning. We usually wait until the last moment to work on my taxes. I think this is the earliest they have been completed… ever. Have you prepared your taxes yet? Are you able to prepare them by yourself? And most importantly, what do you plan to do with your “economic stimulus” money?
HDR Photography
As many of you already know, I am pretty interested in photography. I love taking pictures of anything and everything. I got into infrared photography about two years ago with my old Nikon D50, but when I got rid of that camera / lens / filter setup, I didn’t pick up another IR filter for my new camera. I have been wanting to do more IR shots but can’t justify spending money on the filter since they are so expensive.
But, something new I am looking to try is HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography. HDR is a technique that “allows a greater dynamic range of exposures (the range of values between light and dark areas) than normal digital imaging techniques.” I am sure you have seen some photos online that have amazing colors and you wonder how exactly they were able to take such a nice photo, when nothing you snap comes even close. HDR is your answer.
I will be experimenting with some HDR photos in the coming weeks and if any turn out decent, I will post them up here. Have any of you created HDR photos? If so, were you happy with the results?
The Screen Savers Video
I thought this video was lost forever, but turns out, the former site owner Josh had a copy of his appearance on TechTV’s The Screen Savers. I’m not sure why I didn’t think to ask him about it sooner. Anyway, you can check out the first segment below.
