In February, D’Ann got her first doll. She’d been wanting one for some time so I hit up Volks to see if they still had any in stock. Fortunately, they still had a Miu available after the DP event so I picked her up. Even though it was still a few months before D’Ann’s birthday, I let it slip that I already had the present. Here’s what happened…

Early birthday present

Of course, Miu wasn’t the only doll to join our family this year. I had also acquired the newly released Saber Lily as well as Reimu! On the custom front, we brought in an MDD and another DDS (Umi and Kitsune). With the new dolls, we had to rethink our strategy for displaying them all…

With all these new dolls, the logical thing to do would be to take pictures of them. What better way to do that by traveling with them? They went everywhere with us this year, including to Raleigh for Animazement and our road trip to Saratoga Springs, NY, Ithaca, NY, Niagara Falls, and Louisville, KY.

Of course, we had a good time too…

Maid of the Mist in Niagara Falls

Niagara at night

Lobby of the Seelbach Hilton in Louisville, KY

Horse racing at Saratoga Race Course

Dolls weren’t the only thing we took into our home this year! We also adopted a a Flame Point Siamese cat from a local animal rescue. His name is Dakota and he is a total sweetheart! His mellow temper really lets him get along with Sophie.

On the photography front, I started dabbling in the world of film again. Since we have a few classic film SLRs laying around, I started shooting a few rolls of film here and there instead of using the D7000. I’m pleased with the results and I’ll keep doing it! Taking away the crutch of digital really forces me to be a better (and more frugal) photographer. XD

My two “new” cameras, Canon AE-1 (left) and Nikon FE (right)

So far I only have samples from the Canon, but I’m looking forward to shooting with the Nikon in 2012! It’s significantly more advanced than the Canon in terms of features and it’ll also take the majority of my lenses!

Finally, the big news of the year is that D’Ann and I got engaged. We found the perfect ring in Louisville while browsing the estate jewelry section and knew it was the one for us! It has some beautiful details and features leaf patterns around the diamond.

Unfortunately, this is the only picture I know of that shows her wearing it… XD

That’s it for 2011… I hope 2012 brings us just as much excitement!

Happy New Year!

To find out, I signed up for a macro photography workshop at Daniel Stowe. The instructor walked us through some tips and showed us some (expensive) equipment that would help, then it was off to the field!

My first attempts showed how sharp the lens is. These were taken at f/5.0 (and cropped a bit). I’m sure if I worked at it, I could get my reflection in those water droplets… Just as a quick note, all of the photos in this post will display the full sized counterparts when clicked.

Taking close ups pretty much meant leaving the camera in manual focus mode, setting the minimum distance and moving the camera until I got a good lock. That was a bit of a challenge for some shots given where the object was. I also had to keep the aperture fairly small to keep a decent depth of field.

For objects that could move, I didn’t have too much choice, program auto mode, go!

Same went for butterflies and bees. The former wasn’t as difficult, but the latter gave a much higher failure rate.

This one in particular should be blown up! The lens continues to amaze me with the sharpness of detail it was able to give the sensor. Makes me want for something with a bit higher pixel density… Maybe I’ll be moving off the D50 sooner than I thought?

One of the last shots of the day was fairly difficult to get. Since the lens was fixed length, I had to drop the camera into the grass and try to peer through the viewfinder. With the limited view of the display, I could barely see if I had a good focus lock on the grasshopper. A dozen shots later, this is what I wound up with!

This isn’t the end of my photograph adventures for the weekend! Tomorrow I plan on going back first thing in the morning and bringing Rin for another lovely outing at the garden! This time though, I’ll have a couple new things to play with, including the tripod-mountable stand from Dollfie World, the new Dollfie carrying solution, and Rin’s new outfit!

Sadly, one of the things I forgot to do was grab a shot of the front entrance. On the grounds, however, I did snap one of the greenhouse which is home to the garden’s fine collection of orchids. It wasn’t a completely cloud-free day, but I really enjoyed the cool breeze that came through.

I’d brought the wide angle 18-55mm kit lens with me, leaving behind the 55-200mm. There were only a couple places where I might have been able to use it, but overall was a good choice. I’m getting a Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens in the next couple weeks, which should eliminate my need for the two kit lenses.

Inside the greenhouse is a variety of orchids. Some are potted and near ground level while some are hung in more elaborate displays

Some are even displayed as a part of another plant… Taking close ups with the kit lens proved somewhat difficult freehand, maybe I’ll need to look into something more suitable for macro photography.

There are also several fountains and water features on the grounds, which split the garden into two walkways.

One of the best features of the main garden is this fountain. The spray of the jets is somewhat unpredictable and occasionally turns off. Unsuspecting folks sometimes get caught underneath…

Definitely don’t want to be underneath during this! Water was interesting to photograph as it moves pretty quick.

This was one of my favorite shots of the day. It took several tries to get since the wind was blowing and I didn’t have a tripod to rely on. I love how detailed the picture is (click on it!)

Before I left the grounds, I took a set to make a composite out of. Using Microsoft’s Image Composite Editor (ICE), 13 images were combined into one large panorama with pretty little effort. More information on ICE can be found at the Microsoft Research page.

This is especially nice for folks who don’t have a wide angle or fisheye lens. The seams are somewhat hard to find unless you really zoom in to look, which makes them good for printing.

It was a good day out with the camera. I also scoped out a couple spots where I may introduce Rin to for some outdoor photography. All I need to do is figure out the best way for me to bring her out into the public…

Behold, the 5-year old Nikon D50. The set I picked up included two lenses (18-55mm and 55-200mm), external flash, filters, and a bag. It was lightly used by the previous owner (~1400 shots total) and is in very good shape.

When I got it home last night, I decided to take a couple test shots. My cat seemed to be the perfect subject.

The next subject that seemed fitting was the figure display. Rin went first, followed by Lena. I also started playing with the RAW mode and the post processing features in Photoshop Elements. It’ll take some time, but I’ll get better at it!

Today I had the opportunity to take the camera out for more testing. Microsoft has a team that participates in the Dragon Boat races in Charlotte every year and today was one of the practices. I learned that the increased shot rate really lends itself to my bad habit of taking a ton of pictures. I took well over 200 shots today and learned quite a bit about how the camera handles. The lack of a VR lens didn’t impact me too badly, but it was interesting learning how to shoot without any stabilization again.

It was a gorgeous day at the lake. The ducks and fish were out in force looking for anyone who will feed them. Conveniently, there was a dispenser nearby containing pellets for for 25 cents.

It’s amazing how close the ducks will get to people here. There’s no fear whatsoever!

The refresh cycle of the camera is great and really allowed me to get some decent action shots. Even though it may not be as quick as some of the newer models, 2-3FPS is still good enough for me. I don’t think the SX10 would have been able to get either of these!

Even at the long end of the 200mm zoom lens, the pictures came out very clear. Not bad for an old model that only shoots at 6MP. I look forward to playing with the camera more. Look forward to more photo shoots over the next few weeks. I may line up some figures and do some more with the Dollfies!

Merry Christmas from Charlotte, North Carolina! Sadly, no snow here today, only rain. As with last year, some coworkers and I went to the Daniel Stowe Botanical garden to see the holiday light displays. I keep saying that I’ll bring a tripod or something with me to steady the camera, but alas, I forgot. It’s a step forward from last year, however, when I forgot the camera all together…. >.<

We decided to get to the garden a bit earlier this time, so the sun hadn’t quite set. We’d attempted coming the night before, however there was an extremely long line to get in…

Most of the lights were just hung on the trees and plants, but there were some festive displays like this one.

Even the fountains and orchid house were lit up!

Sadly, one thing I need to remember for next time is a fresh set of batteries. Partway through the walk, the dreaded battery light came on and my camera shut off soon after that.

Black Friday also came and went, and while I didn’t actually go out, I did score a couple interesting items. The first of which came in the week before Thanksgiving…

Yes, that is a brand new DLP television in my living room. Just how big is it and how much did I pay? Keep reading…

Prior to the upgrade, I had a 42in LCD from Vizio in the living room (the whole setup looked like this). The new display is a whopping 60in DLP from Mitsubishi. After some prodding from a coworker, I went to check it out at a local store. Since DLP TVs are slowly being phased out of the market (Mitsubishi is the only company still making them), the price was already marked down. On top of that, the store was running a coupon for $250 off any HDTV bigger than 52in. Final price was ~$750 with taxes. Not bad, eh?

Since the TV was much bigger, some new furniture was required. This meant several runs to IKEA and I ended up with a LACK TV stand and two EXPEDIT shelving units. Combined with the existing decor and lamps, the whole room has really filled up and looks extremely nice!

Going back a bit further, I’d also done some upgrades to my home computer setups. Chikane now sports two separate drives, with the primary disk being a 300 GB Western Digital Velociraptor. The secondary disk remains the same with a 750GB Samsung SpinPoint F1, though I have noticed a slight performance increase by installing the high performance drive. Additionally, Kagami got a space upgrade in the form of a 1.5 TB hard drive. This replaced one of the 750 GB drives already in service, bringing total drive space up to 5.25 TB (4.78 TB according to the computer).

Well, at this point, that’s really about it! Thanksgiving was full of family visits and Christmas is just around the corner! I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!

Beware, lots of multimedia ahead!

Arriving in Tokyo:

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TGS2009:

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Meiji Shrine, Harajuku, and Shibuya:

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Washinomiya Shrine:

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Ghibli Museum and Okonomiyaki:

Tokyo Tower:

Going to Kyoto:

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Shrine visits in Kyoto (Fushimi Inari, Kiyomizu, and Kinakuji):

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Photosynth of Washinomiya Shrine:

View from atop Tokyo Tower:

The passing time on the flight from Minneapolis to Narita was much easier since I chose to fly first class. Any seasoned traveler will know that First Class means super comfortable seats, in-seat entertainment systems, decent food, and all the drinks I want. That last item in particular made the flight very enjoyable.

Yes, I know… I’m a drunk

The flight in wasn’t actually too bad despite it being long. The flight landed in Narita around 17:20 JST. Following landing, I breezed through the quarantine checkpoint (didn’t appear to be active), passport control, baggage claim, and then customs.

After meeting up with Eric, it was time to convert some money over and take the bus into central Tokyo. The ride itself took over an hour due to large amount of traffic in the city. By the time we hit the hotel, we were pretty tired and hungry. This meant going out and finding something to eat…

Our hotel is right across from a Tokyu Hands department store, which has a huge selection of restaurants. We settled on a tempura restaurant, which had some pretty good food.

After dinner, I was pretty much ready to pass out. I’d been up for most of the last 26 hours and was in desperate need of sleep. A quick shower was in order and then some channel surfing on the hotel TV. We stumbled upon what appeared to be the Bandai channel, which was showing all sorts of ads and reairing some older anime (including Mai-HiME).

I managed to snap some pictures in the wee hours of the morning after I woke up at 5am JST. This jetlag is going to stay with me for at least another day, I suspect. I’ll need to struggle through the later parts of today and try to get myself on a good schedule. Fortunately, today is all about Tokyo Game Show, so I’ll probably be pretty wired.

More pictures and updates to come later on in the week!

Thanks to his friend in Tokyo, we have our tickets for Tokyo Game Show 2009, which opens to the public on Saturday! I’m a bit sad that I won’t be able to make it there for the industry keynotes, but the public exhibition should still be awesome with all sorts of interesting characters showing up. I wonder if I can sneak myself into the Microsoft booth using my badge… ^.^;;

Our itinerary for the week has pretty much been nailed down as well, with only a few loose ends to work on. Here’s a rough outline:

• Thursday – Depart United States, land Friday late afternoon JST. Go to hotel and crash.
• Saturday – Tokyo Game Show
• Sunday – Harajuku
• Monday – Lunch with some Microsoft Japan folks, exploring Tokyo
• Tuesday – Akihabara
• Wednesday – Saitama for Washinomiya Shrine, Do As Infinity concert (hopefully)
• Thursday – Ghibli Museum
• Friday – Train to Kyoto in AM, do sightseeing
• Saturday – More sightseeing in Kyoto
• Sunday – Train to Narita and return to US
• Monday – Taking day off from work to recover

It’s going to be a very packed trip, I think, and I’m getting pretty psyched about it. With our hotels booked and itinerary made, all that’s really left for me to do is pack and get on the plane next week!

…now, which camera equipment should I take, and should I bring a Figma along…