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A beautiful view of Iloilo City at night. Who would have thought this is Iloilo? Click image to view flickr page. |
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Hinay hinay lang – according to the title. A picture of a fully loaded passenger tricycle in Dumangas, Iloilo. |
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The UP Pep Squad is the champion in the 2007 UAAP Cheerdancing Competition. More pictures are available at Mimi & Karl’s post. |
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Viswanathan Anand takes the lead, together with Boris Gelfand, after 6 rounds at the World Championship in Mexico. My bet against Val this time is for the defending champion Vladimir Kramnik while he goes for Anand. The match is a double round robin, anyway, so still a long way to go! |
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Kari Post, a wildlife photographer, explains why he switched from Nikon digital camera and gear to Canon. What could be the compelling reasons to do so? Read here. |
Deuts Top Stories 917
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I wish I was there during this Kalesa Festival in Manila. It would have been a great opportunity taking shots of those colorful kalesas. Watch the GMA News video about the event. |
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The world’s tallest man meets the world’s shortest man. Their height difference: 5ft and 5 inches. Read the story. |
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There’s a new Coca Cola endorser. He’s no other than the kid on the block, Mr. Norman Sale! |
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Psychodids has beautiful photos from the neighboring town, Guimbal Plaza. I wish I could do the same for Tigbauan. I think I need the same fisheye lens, though…:) |
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Edwin shares his experience on how he lost around PhP30,000 from investing in Mutual Funds. |
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To Marky, he loves basketball more than he loves photography. Yet, when it comes to sports photography, I think he still needs to learn more from his master….hehe |
Latest Flickr Photos 915
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The Manila Cathedral from the outside. The lens I used (28mm) was not enough to cover all the front of the church. These are the times that you realize the value of a super wide angle lens. |
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The Manila Cathedral from the inside. In here, I was facing the altar from the back. |
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The statue of Our Lady of Peñafrancia is being brought to the altar before the mass celebration began. |
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The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and Hukbong Dagat ng Pilipinas by the bay. |
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Police speedboats by the bay with the day skyline of the Manila Bay in the background. |
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The grand EB that involved only the two of us, in the Doha Zoo in Doha, State of Qatar. Nevertheless, it was fun! 🙂 |
Visit my flickr page to catch the latest photo uploads.
Sports Photography: Take One
This was my first try at sports photography. I needed a fast shutter speed to freeze the action. However, the venue was at the Philippine Navy Gymnasium in Fort Bonifacio, whose only source of light was from the windows, which could also serve as a harsh background when framing directly towards them.
How I did it
Because of the limited amount of light entering the gymnasium, I bumped up the ISO to 1600, and set the camera mode to shutter priority (Tv). I noticed that a shutter speed of 1/250 of a second is not enough to freeze the hard packed action, so I increased it a third increment to 1/320 sec. Then I tried positioning myself on a higher ground while avoiding shooting directly against the windows.
A lot of my pictures were underexposed, so I just adjusted them in photoshop, which contributed more (ISO 1600, remember?) in a lot of noise in the pictures.
More Pictures
Visit my flickr photo set to view more pictures.
Freebies from deuts.net
I should have posted this on the 1st of September. Nevertheless, better late than never.
Deuts.net offers you free wallpaper download featuring the deuts.net photography. For the September 2007, we have the photo I took of a boat in Corniche last May. Click on the image to view the larger image. Then, right-click on the image, save image/picture as on your local disk, then you know what to do.
This wallpaper was created using Big Huge Labs’ wallpaper maker and features a September 2007 calendar. It fits well in a 1280 x 800 screen resolution. You might want to adjust it if you’re using a different screen resolution (e.g., 1024×768 or 800×600).
A Testament at How Lousy Qtel Service Is
This entry serves as a testament at how lousy Qatar Telecom (Qtel) service is. In case you ever wonder how they are able to survive in this country (Qatar), it’s what you call monopoly. They are the sole provider of telecom and internet services in this place.
One of the most convenient form of paying your bills in Qtel is through phone using a credit card. However, to think of the fact that you’re already paying and they’re collecting money from you, you actually needs to wait at least 30 minutes on the phone before anyone picks it up to process your payment.
The lady in the recorded messages keeps on saying:
Please continue to hold and your call will be attended to shortly.
or….
Remember, while abroad, you may still be able to reach us at 974 438 0000. Your call is important to us, please continue to hold.
and…
Your call is important to us, please hold the line and your call will be attended to shortly.
You see, I really wonder how important someone’s call to them really is when they let one wait for more than 30 minutes. If this happens to someone paying his bills, what if you just want to inquire or needs technical support? Wait a little longer!
I guess they have a different meaning for the word “shortly“. Let’s go check out the Qtel dictionary!
Aha!
Shortly (shortlee) – in the near future; after you’ve cooked your food or wash the dishes, have done with your laundry
Whatdyathink?
While abroad, you can still reach them. Yeah, maybe after one hour of holding the line while you accumulate those overseas telephone bills!
Now, tell me, can PLDT or Globe or Smart or Bayantel beat that?
I’m looking forward to someday someone will introduce competition against Qtel. No, I’m not looking forward. I realized, I don’t care anymore! hehehe
Starbucks and Doha
Maybe, I was just being too sentimental last Sunday as I sipped a Java Chip Frappucino in Starbucks in the Doha Citi Centre.
Yes, that was supposed to be my last taste of Starbucks in Qatar.
Currently
Currently, I’m here in the waiting area in the airport ready to fly back home. Adieu Qatar! See you friends when I see you!
Gilbert Arenas Loves NBA Live 2008
I don’t know, but a good game should be a good game. On his blog, Gilbert Arenas has this to say:
Loving NBA LIVE
I played NBA LIVE ’08 against Kevin Durant and I lost bad. I sucked. It was the first time I played it though. I didn’t play ’07, I didn’t play ’06, I didn’t play ’05. After a while I thought that it wasn’t getting better so I became a 2K fan. But then the people at EA Sports came and told me they wanted to make the game better, I came on board because my first basketball game was NBA LIVE ’95. So once they started getting out of character it was like they weren’t progressing with the game so I became a 2K fan and then now I’m back to LIVE and I think all the 2K fans are going to come back to LIVE again because they’re going to see they made progress. It’s a lot smoother. It’s not as choppy as it used to be. It’s realer now. It’s not like, “Oh, this is fake. That doesn’t happen.” That’s all you used to say. You can’t say that now.
Well, what I say is let the veterans play it and let’s hear what they have to say. As for me, I’m starting to doubt EA Sports.
There are some trailer videos of the game in youtube. One example:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF5Evqm-Pco]
And it looked really good. However, videos like the ones below make me really think twice:
NBA Live 2008 – Go To Moves Trailer
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLWH99HLAwc]
O c’mon EA, you have always been into that. “Signature moves!” Haven’t you had enough? Haven’t you perfected that aspect yet. We need a revolutionary change especially in the gameplay settings!
Finally an Upgrade
Finally, I’ve made the much needed upgrade of my wordpress intallation from WordPress 2.0.4 to WordPress 2.2.2. After more than a year, I was able to finally carry out the upgrade.
In concert with the upgrade, I also brought in some new features into the site for a better browsing experience. Visit the homepage to find random quotes at the top of the page and some sideblogs.
Furthermore, we are introducing more new features. Well, they’re not really that new. They have long been in the development phase. I was just waiting for the right time to formally launch it.
- Forums
- Gallery
- Gallery based on wordpress and falbum plugin; or
- Gallery based on satellite stand-alone program
In this blog, I initiate all the discussion and everyone can participate. In the forums, any member can initiate discussions based on topics that interest them. Of course, anyone can still participate. That is, if you visit the forums.
The forums are organized according to categories and forum topics related to deuts.net.
Marky and I actually have a good discussion there regarding: if you were given a chance, the resources, and an informed judgement, which set of lenses you should have in your camera bag? (Ultimate set of lens – Dream set) Anyone can join the discussion.
I’m actually trapped into this dilemma about which gallery should I retain:
Both programs use images hosted in my flickr account. That way, I don’t have to maintain two galleries. So, for people without access to flickr, either because they’re denied access to flickr by their network servers (e.g., office networks) or their countries’ internet service providers (e.g., UAE), I’m afraid you can’t test out both galleries.
To help me with this dilemma, I would really appreciate if you find time to test the two galleries out and judge them according to their look, the interface, the speed by which it loads images, in short the whole browsing experience. Please leave your comment below.
Even though the pagerank of deuts.net recently slid down from PR4 to PR2, well, we are not actually after pagerank position at all. Deuts.net primary reason for being is to connect. So, till next time!
Canon New Releases
I call it hot releases! I can’t help myself from drooling over these new Canon products:
Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III
There are only two lines of products in the Canon EOS series that have a full frame sensor. That is the Canon EOS 5D and the 1Ds series. Now, Canon is introducing the latest in the 1Ds series, the Mark III, bragging a 21 megapixel image resolution. This 1Ds Mark III, though, is not as fast (5fps) as its counterpart in the 1.3x crop body, 1D Mark III (10fps). Nevertheless, this is a full frame body we’re talking about.
Read all the new features here.
Canon EOS 40D
The EOS 40D is an upgrade from what I own, the EOS 30D. How much upgrades were? As far as I’m concerned:
- 10.1 megapixels over 8.2 megapixels
- 6.5 frames per second (fps) over 5fps
- 3″ LCD preview screen
- EOS integrated cleaning system, that which already exists in the 400D to remove dust particles from the sensor
- LCD with live view mode, that which is like a compact digital camera that you may frame the image by looking at the LCD screen, not the viewfinder only
I said “as far as I’m concerned” because these are the new features I would have opted should I have the choice between the two (30D and 40D). There are more new features or upgrades from the previous system, which I find not that important to me. You can see all those features here.
The Live View Mode, although will more likely drain your battery faster, would be very helpful while shooting from awkward angles such as ground level macro or mounted tripod shots.
New Lenses
Canon also introduced lenses. I find these lenses not interesting, though, and I don’t intend to acquire one. Yet, for the sake of info, here they are:
- EF 14mm f/2.8L II USM
- EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS – an upgrade from the former packaged kit lens. I guess the IS at the longest 55mm would not be that effective
- EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS – this will be the longest focal range in the EF-S series
Interestingness
Unfortunately, DSLR’s are not like mobile phones. You may be capable of getting the latest in the Nokia series at anytime, but I don’t think so for DSLR’s. They are not that cheap. So, this post is actually just for the sake of info (again! LOL).