Our web diary

Birthday July 9th

Here is a wishlist for people looking for items that would be of interest to me for my birthday. Marlene usually puts something out a year in advance. I thought a month might be better. I buy most of my photographic stuff from B&H Photo Video so gifts cards for there would probably be the best. Most of the stuff on the list are WISH items and I don't expect anyone to get them for my birthday. Happy Shopping. I also like books. Barnes and Noble gifts cards always go over well as well.

• Camera stuff
  • Lenses
    • Sigma 24-70 2.8 EX DF Zoom.  $409.00
    • Sigma 135-400 Zoom Telephoto $519.00
    • Sigma 20MM F 1.8 EX DG  $369.00
    • Sigma 180 2.8 Macro $739.00
    • Sigma 12-24 Wide Angle 669.00
  • Accessories
    • Canon Speedlite 550 EX $299.00
    • Sigma DG ST 500 $149.00
    • Stroboframe camera bracket  $119.95
    • Off Camera Shoe Cord (needed with bracket) $47.95
    • Sekonic Flash Meter $249.00
    • Radio Transmitter for Sekonic Flash Meter $25.00 (when purchased w/meter)
    • Tripod Ring Mount for 70-200 F4L $113.95
    • Pocket Wizard Transmitter and Receiver $349.00
    • Extension Tube set for Canon EOS $129.00
    • Tele-Converter for Canon EOS $79.95
    • Background Stand Kit $94.95
    • Backgrounds Various prices the above list kit can use paper and muslin
    • Cokin P Filter Kit $34.50 (requires 67 & 77 MM Adapter Rings)
    • Cokin P Filters Various prices Graduated ND, Circular Polarizing, Graduated Color, Sunset, Warming, etc
    • B800 Alien Bee Monolight Kit $279.00
    • Epson P2200 13x19 Printer 539.00 at Costco
    • Lexar 40X 512 MB Compact Flash Card $119.95
    • Lexar 40X 1 GB Compact Flash Card $239.95
    • Fletcher Match Mate 40 system Matt Cutter $176.00
    • Casio 4" Handheld TV. Used to proof pictures in the field $199.00

• Clothing

• Lands End Oxford Shirts 16.5 X 32 $19.95
• Lands End 200s Broadcloth 16.5 x 31 $115.00
• Any Dockers type khaki pants. 38 x 29
• Dress sock size 9
• Red necktie $35.00
• Dot Square Necktie Red $35.00

Posted by srivinus at 07:21 PM

Memorial Day

We went down to Columbus, Ga for Memorial Day weekend. I had taken Friday off from work to make it a four day weekend. I needed the break from work and it was a good change to see the parents. Pictures can be found on our website

This picture is near the entrance of the Horticulturual building at Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, GA

May Portraits

I finally got around to shooting the May portraits of myself and Marlene

"The Cross-stitch"

Well it's done. I have been working on this cross-stitch since January and finished it a two weeks ago. Today I ironed it and mounted it to foam board so it's ready for framing. When I first pulled the instructions out of the kit and sorted through all the thread colours I thought I would never finish this thing, or go crazy trying. There were times I wanted to give up, yet with persistence, patience and sometimes a lot of do-overs anything is possible. Working on this kept me busy for hours at a time while I was at home without my employment authorization. Now that I am working again, I am not sure that I would ever again attempt such a large project, but I have been tempted while wandering through Michael's lately

Wall Art

This i a picture of three roses we framed and hung up on the wall above our sofa. They were show with the Canon EOS 300D Digital Rebel and a Tamron SP90 2.8 lens. They have been enlarged to 20x30 and placed in wood poster frames.

Rose Picture

I just posted and image on the photoblog. I have been quite busy over the last six weeks and haven't done too much work on the blogs. I thought I would take some time to write a more proper entry.

The following image was one of two orange dozen roses I had picked up for Marlene. The one advantage Marlene has in my liking flower pictures is that she gets lots of them for the house.

I shot the picture with my Canon Eos Rebel 300D. Attached to the Canon is a Tamron SP90 2.8 lens. Tamron does not have the best lens reputation, but I have been extremly satisfied with the details this lens when I take pictures. The whole unit is mounted on a Bogen 3001Pro Tripod with a 3265G Joystick Ball Head with a quick release. I just picked up the tripod and head this weekend. What a joy! The Joystick is a handle you squeeze and the camera roatates with 360 degrees of motion. This is great for the types of shots I take. Lastly I am using a JTL 900 9' light stand with a cheap clip-light for lighting. It's simple, but it works. Here is a picture of the setup.

Here is the resulting picture. Notice the details in the petals of the flower. That is thanks to the F32 aperture setting on the Canon.

Employed

More of a headline for now, because I haven't too much to say yet, but I finally found a job. I've been searching since I got my employment authorization about 2 months ago. It's easy to imagine that resumes end up in big black holes somewhere as some kind of cosmic joke.
And yet what did come up, looks to be a job that will utilize my skills & experience in the international transportation field and even teach me some stuff -- sounds encouraging n'est-ce pas? (that's french for eh?)
The position is as an Expediter/Traffic Coordinator in the purchasing dept of Midrex Technologies. Midrex is involved in steelmaking and has diversified into selling their technology. I will be involved in moving spare parts to 2 existing plants in Venezuela as part of an ongoing maintenance contract.
I start Monday and am not too sure about what to expect, other than that things will change here in the Rivinus household.
Stay tuned....

Macro Photography

This is a macro shot of a Zinnia taken from Marlene's container garden. It was shot at 1/500 f71 with a Canon Digital Rebel and a 90MM Tamron 2.8 SP lens. Some people have knocked Tamron lenses, but I love this one. Take the time to enlarge the picture and notice the details around the petals. I had never really noticed the tendrils coming off the petals before seeing the shot.

Found something funny in the Funnies

This last Sunday's comics had a couple of good laughs. Sean is especially fond of a new strip called "Get Fuzzy". There are quite a few comic strips that have been around so long they have lost a lot of their appeal and humor, yet every once in a while one of these "oldies" will still surprise you.
This was the case with yesterday's "Cathy". I found a copy posted in Yahoo to share here.
I was reminded of it today after reading Jason Clark's weblog. Jason asks where you look up words to check their correct spelling. Umm the dictionary actually. Ok I may use the spell check on MS Word but I still tend to grab my dictionary to check if I've used a word in the correct context more often then I need to check its spelling.
This is where I determined that an Oedipus complex is "A strong, typically unconscious attachment of a child to the parent of the opposite sex, especially of a son to his mother, with antagonism toward the other parent." This is likely not what Jason meant when he described my husband Sean as "Oedipal". When it comes to describing Sean words often fail me so I have to applaud the effort even if I don't quite agree with this description.

Postscript:
OOPS! I misunderstood Jason's blog, he was not referring to Sean but Sean's concept of Dial-up over VOIP. He sent me the following note and I thought it was only fair to add the clarification:
"Got a chuckle when I read your weblog post today....I was refering to the idea of dial-up internet over Voice-Over-IP as being Oedipal, not Sean. Since dial-up internet is internet service over a phone line, and voice-over-IP is just phone service over the internet, well, I thought the idea sounded like a bad
joke about West Virginia. ;-). After I re-read it, I added a clarification to my original post."

Voice Over Ip (VOIP) Vonage

A few months ago we signed up for Vonage-The telephone over broadband service. It has been pretty successful, so much so that I will be pulling the land lines out at the end of the month. We are currently saving about $45.00 er month with it and with the Bellsouth out we sould save another $24.00 per month. Of course that means we will be without phones if the cable service goes out, but we also have two cell phones.

One of the only advantages to having a land line is being able to use Dial up for internet access when the cable modem is down. I would loose this feature in the above setup. I can deal without the internet for $70.00 per month. It did bring up an interesting question. Could you use Vonage with it's dial tone with a dial up modem. I think you could. I just think the phrase "Dial up over VOIP" was neat.

On the road again...

My husband Sean is a Sunday driver. There are few things he enjoys more than getting up early Sunday morning to hit the road and be able to travel quickly on roads usually congested with traffic at speeds somewhat above the posted limits especially on the winding roads of Charlotte.
As many of you know I, however, have avoided driving all of my life. I've had a learner's permit twice without ever actually getting behind the wheel of a car. Recently I've run out of excuses and have had had to actually use my learner's permit and start driving practice. Those who know Sean know that he does not count patience as one of his virtues but I have to say I could not do this without him.
Weeks ago we started with navigating the turns of a large oval church parking lot, he then convinced me to take to the small residential roads outside of the parking lot. Last week Sean found a small residential area and printed a map from mapquest so we could navigate the area and avoid the larger roads nearby. This meant I could practice right/left turns, the 4-way stop-signed intersections etc. etc. But we both knew it was time to get on the road, at a speed over 25mph and with more than one lane of traffic. This morning after Sean had his fun in the VW bug he came back to wake me for a morning drive in the Honda. As I made the left out of our apartment complex and the right onto Providence Rd. I thought "oh Lord!, here we go, please help!". I would like to tell you my drive through Charlotte at 8:30am was uneventful but it had its moments. Sean is prepping me for the next adventure of merging onto the interstate -- although I think he may want to invest in some rosary beads or something else to hang onto while praying for a positive outcome before I attempt it. If we live to tell about it I'll be sure to let you know how it went.