lvidmar

Unscientific Lens Tests

My friend David just got a fancy new 3rd party lens (more on this after the page break), and I happen to have access to some nice lenses at work and through a coworker who is looking to convert to Nikon (trying to get me to buy his lenses), so without further ado, here’s what we came up with (click any of these thumbnails for a larger version):

(above: Canon 50mm f/1.4, Canon 50mm f/1.8, Canon 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro)

Note, I did not test the faster lenses stopped down to match the slower ones. I suppose the DoF/fall-off is mostly as expected for the different apertures. But the main reason for the compact macro is it can do this (read on): Continue reading Unscientific Lens Tests

Do I Want to be a Pro Photographer?

The answer is I think so. But the cost for entering the field of selling prints online is a bit of a hurdle.

A little backstory leading up to this entry here. About 2 weeks ago, I checked out a really nice lens, and took it with the rest of photo kit to a waterski tournament where I shot a little over 1500 photos. All this with the hopes of selling a few prints to people. Now on with the research….

The first place I looked at was ExpressDigital’s PhotoReflect (I’m not providing a link, they’re not worth it, keep reading), because it’s where the 2008 AWSA Western Regionals photos were posted. I looked around the site, looked a little clunky but usable. Their rates sounded high at first glance (I’ve since found out they are indeed relatively low). For low-sales-volume accounts, they scrape 18% off the top, but don’t charge any bandwidth or storage fees.

The second place I looked at was PhotoWorks which also has free upload and storage, but their pricing markup is severely limited. The only options are a solid $ increase (ex. adding $10 to the cost of the print, regardless of size), or a solid % increase (ex. add 400% to the cost of the print, $1.14 4×6 and $209.70 for 20×30) Continue reading Do I Want to be a Pro Photographer?

General Tso’s Chicken, finally success

In what seemed like destined failure once again, I finally had a successful batch of General Tso’s Chicken. I believe this was my third or fourth attempt from scratch (+1 attempt using sauce from a bottle). The first hint I was in trouble was when I realized I had no corn starch (used as a breadding), so I used pancake powder. Then when mixing up the sauce, I realized I didn’t have any red wine/cooking sherry. Instead I used a little bit of white wine vinegar with some water, and a little bit of Berry Splash Crystal Light powder (weird, definitely. but it came out just fine), and a little extra soy sauce. No onions? No big deal, though it is a key part of this dish, I was mainly concerned about the sauce coming out ok.

Tiny bit of back-story. General Tso’s Chicken is one of my favorite Chinese dishes, especially at Maple Garden near campus. I’ve never seen any other resteraunt make it anywhere near close to the way they do, and I have no idea what it’s supposed to be like, but it’s damn good. So it’s been a goal of mine for the past 3 years or so to figure out how to make a decent batch of it. I’m getting closer… I’m guessing another 2 attempts and I’ll have a recipe worthy of sharing.