Mount Forest Fireworks Festival

Mount Forest Fireworks Festival

Originally uploaded by tbphotos1

It’s been a while! A small town fireworks compilation built in Picasa 3.

Web Browsing

What do look for in a web browser? Speed? Compatibility? Ease of use? Well, I don’t think you need to look any further. Sure you could use the bloated Firefox, insecure Explorer or you could let Google know everything you do with Chrome.

Welcome to the world of Opera 10. It is an independent web browser featuring tabbed browsing, torrent downloading, mouse gestures and the fastest browsing anywhere. If you love firefox, but are using lots of add-ons, move to Opera as Opera has everything you need built in, right out of the box.

Be Part of the best 2% of people on the web! Opera only has about a 2% market share, but in my opinion, deserves the lions share. So download Opera now and try it. Just for a day. You will not switch back!

Opera is even better if you use Opera Mini on your phone as Opera has what is called Opera Link. Opera remebers your bookmarks and notes and you can access them right on your phone. It is like magic. Do it now!

The drum line

The drum line

Originally uploaded by tbphotos1

Hey! Posting this from my flickr account!

This is from the 2008 Barrie Santa Claus Parade! Enjoy!

A free RAW editor? Sign me up…

So you just got home from a day of shooting and realize that you had the white balance all wrong.  You decide that you are going to shoot RAW.  So after fiddling with some photos, you want to edit them.  But you load the software that came with your camera and… you don’t like it.  Because you are not a pro with hundreds (or thousands to spend on software), I just found a product for you.

Welcome, RAW Therapee. It is your perfect price, free. That’s right, free. But if you like it, there is an option to donate a couple dollars to the programmer, which you will want to do after using this program.

It is a fully featured RAW editor comparable to Adobe Camera Raw (a plugin for Photoshop).

You can easily edit :

• White balance
• Exposure
• Channels
• Recover highlights/Shadows
• Sharpness
• Colour
• Noise reduction

All of these things are easily accessible and easy to use. Click save and you have a proper JPEG (or what ever file format you choose) to give to your family and friends.

Check it out at Raw Therapee. It is available for Windows and Linux (sorry Mac, weird, I know).

The Church

Here is a photo from a recent trip to the Westcott United Church. The church is closing due to decreased support from the community. Very Sad. Taken with my FA 50mm f1.4 lens. I love the OOF areas with this lens.

As always, thanks for looking and comments, criticisms are welcome!

Nintendo DSi

So, after rumors and speculation, The big N finally announced a revamped DS.  The Nintendo DSi is slimmer, a little bigger, lighter, and has bigger screens.  Also Nintendo realized that they might want to compete with the PSP and the iPhone.  The new DSi has an Internet browser built in, with an .mp3 player and photo browser built in.  Which is handy because the new DSi has two (2) cameras (ala the Nokia N95), one for self portraits, and another for other people.

So wait a second. If you are taking .3MP pictures, you better have somewhere to store those pictures. Well, the DSi has an SD card slot. Awesome. After you take the pictures, you can view and slightly edit the photos right on the DSi. The self portrait camera might be used for VIOP or even “games”?  Imagine using your face in Tiger woods. Sounds good to me.

With the built in Internet browser, big things are on the way. Apparently with the new SD card slot downloadable content (like games) can be stored and played (hopefully). Is Nintendo jumping on the digital distribution revolution all ready? Sounds good to me. Maybe you can download virtual console games on to the Wii’s SD card and play them on the DSi? Another sound idea.

People (Analysts) are saying this isn’t a big enough upgrade. But if it was any bigger, It would be a whole new platform. So I’m sure Nintendos R&D is working hard on a replacement, but we will have to enjoy the DSi for now.

The Japanese price is equivelent of $180 US dollars, and should be in stores within the year. I know I will be picking one up (still have the DS fat), as soon as the DSi hits the shores. Are you picking one up?

Image copyright nintendo.co.jp

NHL 2K9 for the Nintendo Wii

I have just purchased this game and my first reaction is wha??? This game has so much going for it, yet there is so much holding it back. Everyone (me) has been waiting for an NHL game to come out on the Wii as soon as it came out. Whats wrong?

The frame rate. period. That’s the major gripe “I” have with this game. People complain that there is no on-line mode. True, but not my cup of tea. The frame rate is horrible. It looks like 30fps (max) when nothing is going on and it drops when you check someone. When you score a goal, and the replay starts, it looks like they replay it at full speed. When you manually replay the goal, you cannot go frame by frame to see every glorious move (Like NHL 2K8 for the PS2). It really makes a difference.

It does not make the game horrible though. The moves that the players make on the ice are so much more smooth than 2K8 (PS2) and feels real. The motion controls work GREAT! swinging to shoot is fun, and the nunchuck to do special moves works great. I have tried the shoot out, but not controlling the goalie. The replays are my most hated/loved feature of this game. It records and saves a lot of plays throughout the game. You can choose a player, and see all their highlights after the game. AWESOME.

If you can’t wait to get a Wii hockey game, get this game. If you can hold off or want on-line, stick it out.

7 out of 10

Canadian politics and the upcoming elections

I have been watching T.V. a lot lately, and have seen a lot of attack ads towards Dion. They keep pushing that Dion is a big risk. The conservatives don’t even mention to vote Conservative. Complete attack ads in the fullest definition, full of out-of-context tidbits.

I am a liberal thinker, but open to ideas. Because of the attack ad after attack ad, I have no idea what Mr. Harper wants to do with the country. I still have to do my research before I vote, but am I the only one who hates attack ads?

Here is a quick link to all the parties web sites.

Old Couch by the water

These pictures are becoming quite regular! This was rejected by PPG (Pentax Photo Gallery) if I remeber correctly, so you be the judge this time.

As always, thanks for looking!

Another picture!

This is my argument for ISO 1600 and consumer zooms (The Pentax DA 50-200mm f4-5.6). I love how sharp this photo is and how there is little noise. I was so impressed after I got home and reviewed this picture. enjoy!

The leafs won! I cant wait to see all of the new leafs this year.

I wonder if Sundin is going to stay or play?