I’m reading the latest James Bond novel, Devil May Care, by Sebastian Faulks.
Devil May Care is set in the late sixties and is more than vaguely similar to the Ian Fleming originals. It was published to celebrate the centenary of Ian Fleming’s birth. This new instalment in the adventures of the world’s most iconic spy has been written by one of Britain’s most admired novelists, Sebastian Faulks.
Faulks, who—like Ian Fleming—was a journalist before becoming a full-time novelist, is the author of about a dozen books, including the best-selling Birdsong (1993). He also wrote and presented the United Kingdom’s Channel 4 Television series, Churchill’s Secret Army, screened in 1999. He is a Fellow of the UK’s Royal Society of Literature.
This book is pure “Bond, James Bond” right down to the hand-made cigarettes, expensive tastes and the arch-villain who likes to cheat at sports. And as Times on Line notes:
M here is still male, curmudgeonly and pipe-puffing; Bond is the battle-scarred, reluctantly ageing veteran of a tragically curtailed marriage, brainwashing and a resultant spell as an amnesiac Japanese fisherman.
In Faulks’s own words:
My novel is meant to stand in the line of Fleming’s own books, where the story is everything. In his house in Jamaica, Ian Fleming used to write a thousand words in the morning, then go snorkelling, have a cocktail, lunch on the terrace, more diving, another thousand words in late afternoon, then more Martinis and glamorous women. In my house in London, I followed this routine exactly, apart from the cocktails, the lunch and the snorkelling.
Does Faulks pull it off? I think so: it’s a cracking good yarn and a must-read for those who miss the “real” 007. Try it for yourself.
I saw these Clematis vines while shooting roses the other day. We used to have one in our backyard, but it has been replaced by a rose vine—can’t remember why. The saucer-sized blooms are lovely and come in a variety of colours. (It was a windy so these are not quite as sharp as I’d have liked.)
For Fathers’ Day, Denisé gave me a bouquet of red roses—my favourite colour rose. These were especially eye-catching since the underneath of their petals were a pale colour. (When it comes to beauty, you can’t really improve on nature, can you?)They’ve all gone now, but their memory lingers.
I posted about the versatility of Nikon’s AF-S VR DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED a few days ago, and so it was interesting to see Scott Kelby’s blog today, where he has posted several images taken with the 18-200mm.
Like many of us, Scott seems to like to travel light and this lens fits just about any situation. When I’m not sure what I’m likely to encounter—such as when on vacation—this is the lens I take with me.
Scott’s images are of a variety of subjects and, I suppose, lighting conditions—very typical of what one sees when on vacation—especially in as exotic a location as Northern Italy. Scott Kelby is no ordinary photographer, and I’m sure we would be just as impressed with his images if he had used an old Kodak Brownie. But the focal range of this lens is truly impressive. Here’s a quote from Scott’s post:
True to what I learned from carrying all my gear to Dubai on that trip (and still never having the right lens when I needed it), I essentially took one camera, and one lens; My Nikon D300, and the 18-200mm f/3.5 to 5.6 VR lens. It’s not the sharpest lens ever made, and it does sometimes vignette the edges a bit, and it’s not the fastest lens either, but I LOVED IT!!!!
Instead of constantly changing lenses, and wondering if I had the right lens on, I could just sit back, relax, and shoot. I ALWAYS had the right lens with me with that lens, and in fact, I only used the 2nd lens I brought (a small 12mm-24mm Nikon) one single time, for about 8 shots. That’s it.
When Denisé is with me, we usually take two camera’s with two or three lenses between us, and the 18-200mm is almost always one of those lenses. But on solo walkabouts it’s the 18-200mm on my D300—that’s all I will generally need.
I spent the morning photographing Denisé’s garden in our backyard. Her garden seems especially beautiful this year. This is about the fourth evolution of the garden, with major changes coming when we first installed our pool and another complete make-over when we re-did the pool nearly 20 years later.
Today I used the D50 body with it’s kit lens, a versatile little beauty that’s very light, sharp and relatively fast. (One of these days I’ll get a real macro lens of a high-quality close-up lens to take true macro shots.) Roses are a particular favourite of mine so I concentrated on these.
Let me start by admitting my bias towards Nikon cameras. Undoubtedly, other manufacturers—especially Canon, Olympus, Pentax and Sony—make fine products; however, I have made my choice and, given the level of my investment in Nikon gear, I’m not likely to make a change unless Nikon goes out of business.
In the days and weeks to come, we’ll go through my camera bag together and I’ll let you know what I use and why I chose each specific piece of gear. Our emphasis here is on digital single lens reflex (DSLR) cameras and lenses—these are the most effective for wildlife photography, and especially bird photography, which is our focus.
The very first and most important choice to make is the system (manufacturer). Since lenses generally are not interchangeable between systems, once we choose a manufacturer, we’re pretty well stuck with it, if we want to protect the investment in lenses we are likely to make over the lifetime of our interest in photography.
Canon is the leader in the overall digital camera business and certainly one of the very best. Nikon is in second place, however, they are in or near the lead in the digital SLRs segment. Runners up are Sony, Pentax and Olympus, in I’m not sure what order.
Conventional wisdom suggests that most experienced photographers recommend either Canon or Nikon to anyone who is serious about the craft. And these two companies together have such a commanding position in the marketplace, it’s hard to argue with this advise.
As I stated above, I have chosen Nikon. I am now using my third digital SLR (with a fourth as my backup), and I am extremely satisfied with that decision.
This blog is usually about photography or technology of some sort. Every once in a while, however, I use it as a forum to get something off my chest. This is one of those posts.
I am sending this message to express my increasing concern regarding patient safety at our local hospital, Joseph Brant Memorial.
My wife, Denisé, and I have been residents of Burlington for more than 30 years. During that period, we have become increasingly alarmed about the number of negative reports we regularly receive regarding patient care at Joseph Brant Memorial.
Now, the recent outbreak of Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) bacteria has heightened our concern to the point that we dread the thought of being hospitalized in Burlington. We now ask ourselves: is being sent to Joseph Brant Memorial synonymous with a death sentence? We are that disturbed about our local facility.
Although our concern is based on anecdotal evidence and recent media reports and not on first-hand experience, the reports we hear (about) are so persistent and generally consistent that we cannot ignore them. For the most part, the reports come firsthand from former patients.
Recently, we have heard of unemptied bedpans, unchanged bed linens and inattentive patient-care staff. One patient we heard about checked out of the hospital because of a fear of dying there. One recently-discharged patient has an infection that is expected to take a year to cure. Chilling reports indeed. We have also heard that when a patient’s family member complained about the situation, that person was shunned by hospital staff members on future visits — apparently a petulant attempt to punish the complainant.
Denisé and I visited the fracture clinic at Joseph Brant Memorial last April with one of our granddaughters and noticed that several hand wash dispensers were empty and a dispenser at the main door was empty. We had to hunt around to find one that was not. This, despite the hospital’s website assurance that: “Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital supports handwashing as the single most effective way to prevent the spread of infection.”
I have not copied the hospital on this e-mail message because, quite frankly, I do not believe it will do any good. I believe an independent review or full public investigation is called for, and not just into the recent C. difficile outbreak.
Perhaps an outside firm could be hired to do a community-wide survey of those who have used the hospital in the past five years, coupled with independent surprise audits into the hospital’s personal care and cleanliness.
The City of Burlington seems to have money for a performing arts centre, a business school, library expansions, lakefront promenades, sports parks and skating rinks, etc. Perhaps, in the name of taking the basic health care of our community seriously, the City of Burlington can fund surveys and audits — although I would think this is the financial responsibility of our provincial government.
Certainly basic health care is a human right and trumps any other projects regardless of how worthwhile they may otherwise be.
We are, after all, dealing with an issue of life and death. Armed with the results of surveys and audits, we may be able to find a champion in our community who will fund a class-action suit against the responsible parties.
Please take note of the deficiencies identified by the hospital itself in its Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital Annual Performance Report 2007-2008, which states:
“The (Ontario) minister of health provided us with funds to do a study last year on the suitability of the hospital’s physical structure. The study resulted in a number of disturbing findings, key among them:
The operating rooms were built in the 1960s and are not at the standard expected for the delivery of care in 2008 and beyond.
There are not enough beds for the population size and the age demographics of our community.
There are not sufficient facilities for infection control and isolation.
Our hospital is crowded. We don’t have proper facilities for hygiene in each room and we don’t have storage for stretchers and equipment. This makes for overcrowded hallways and challenges us to meet fire codes.”
I call your attention to the points about there not being sufficient facilities for infection control and isolation or proper facilities for hygiene in each room. This, I submit, is a total disgrace and should be considered unacceptable by every elected official in our community and at Queen’s Park.
Need I remind anyone that this is a hospital that has had about 90 deaths in which infection has played some role. Outrageous!
I ask you how, in good conscience, can we spend money on any other capital project in Burlington, Halton or Ontario while we have funding issues which reportedly are leading to those most vulnerable among us dying in the very place that is supposed to care for their health?
We are an affluent community in an affluent region in an affluent province in a super rich country. How then can we have such a deplorable situation? Where is the call to action? Where is the leadership? Where are the necessary funds?
Expressions of sympathy to those whose loved ones have died unnecessarily sound hollow in the face of such inaction. With much sadness, I say again, outrageous!
To those responsible for the inaction and under funding that has led to this distressing situation I say shame on you all.
I just read the latest post at Scott Kelby’s Adobe Photoshop Insider Blog—a guest post by David Ziser. While wedding photography is not really my thing, the post got me thinking about the wealth of expert knowledge that is freely available on the Internet. There are hundreds—probably thousands—of Web sites offering information about photography and several dozen of these are published by professionals.
Among the top of those professionals is Scott Kelby. His blog describes his as:
Scott Kelby is the editor and publisher of Photoshop User Magazine, Layers magazine (the how-to magazine for everything Adobe®) and President of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP).
Scott is also the author of several books and is a regular participant in audio and video podcasts, many of which are available for free.
His books, though not free, are reasonably priced, easy to read, and can be of benefit to the beginner to professional. I have learned Photoshop and Lightroom primarily by reading his books—and a few others, of course. Here are a few of the titles I have read:
If one is serious about becoming a professional in some field, I’d always recommend going to a reputable university to study in that field. However, for many of us, that just is not in the cards. Fortunately for those of us interested in digital photography, the route to becoming competent photographers can be eased significantly by the resources on the Web. And we have experts like Scott Kelby to thank for this.
Wondering through the Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) on the border of Burlington and Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, I saw this dragonfly. I’ve done very little macro photography in the past, but have become more interested recently.
Nikon D70s DSLR Nikkor AF VR Zoom Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6D ED at 300mm, ISO 400 1/500 sec at f/9
Question is: what gear would be best for me? I’ve sold both the camera body and lens this dragonfly image was taken with, so they are no longer a factor. My current Nikon camera bodies are a D300 and a D50, both DSLRs that are well capable of excellent macro work. Boils down to the glass then doesn’t it.
The way I see it, the choice is to buy something like a 60mm (or 105mm) macro prime lens or a conversion filter like the Canon 500D Close-up Lens. Nikon’s versions of the macro lenses both have maximum apertures of f/2.8, which is terrific for this sort of work. Downside is price—$650 and $940 (Canadian) respectively, which is steep if I end up not doing much macro work. At the 77mm size, the Canon 500D Close-up Lens has a Canadian retail of about $250, which, although not trivial, is much less than a macro lens.
The Canon 500D Close-up Lens is a double-element lens that screws onto the filter threads of a non-macro lens, allowing that lens to be focused at a much closer distance and resulting in higher magnification of the subject. The Canon 500D Close-up Lens is intended to be used on lenses with a focal length of from 70mm to 300mm. Apparently, the quality is very good, but probably would not be quite as good as a dedicated macro lens.
Mounted on my Nikkor AF-S 300mm f/4 telephoto lens—normal minimum focus distance of about 5 feet— the The Canon 500D Close-up Lens is said to reduce focus distance to less than three feet and to provide a maximum reproduction ratio of 1:1.1 (true macro is 1:1). This sounds like the way for me to go. I’ll save space and weight in my camera bag and some money, with only a minor sacrifice in image quality.
June 16, 2008 at 10:28 am · Filed under Technology
Mozilla has announced that June 17 is the official date of the much-anticipated Firefox 3 release. I have been using Firefox 3 Release Candidate 3 for some time now and find it much improved over version 2. One thing, though: I really miss using the version 2 add-ons that have not yet been released for version 3—hopefully they’ll be available soon.
Mozilla revitalized the Web browser marketplace by distributing Firefox 1.0 in November 2004. Even as a beta product, Firefox had become a serious competitive alternative to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE). Within a year, the clearly superior Firefox showed signs of eroding Microsoft’s stranglehold on the Web browser market. And none too soon as IE had stagnated from lack of competition.
Not surprisingly, Microsoft was forced to update the very long-in-the-tooth IE to ward of the competition supplied by Firefox—though Microsoft has never regained the lost market share especially among tech-savvy users. According to Market Share, Firefox holds an 18.41% overall share of the Web browser market, but I suspect you could double or tripple that number if dealing solely within the tech community.
My most versatile lens has turned out to be an 18-200mm VR zoom, which Nikon calls the AF-S VR DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED. This is a super walkabout lens (equivalent to a 27-300mm lens in 35mm format) that covers a broad enough focal range that you almost never have to switch lenses. You’d need two, or even three, lenses to cover the focal range of this zoom. And bearing this in mind helps justify the $799.95 (Canadian) list price that many will find a bit steep.
When I ordered the lens in 2005, there was a long waiting list that took several months to clear—the lens was so popular that some retailers were even charging a premium over Nikon’s list price. And once in my hands the 18-200mm VR did not disappoint.
The 18-200mm VR is compact, fast focusing and sharp enough for most purposes. I use it for everything from close up work with flowers and insects (it focuses from as close as 20 inches) to landscapes and larger wildlife. And the VR (Vibration Reduction) is so effective that this can all be done while hand-holding the camera. With this lens, you only need a tripod for night photography.
The 18-200mm VR is an ideal lens for photographers who only want to take one lens. It’s the perfect lens for those times when you have no idea what you’re going to be photographing. On trips, I pair it with a 300mm prime lens and take along a couple of teleconverters for the prime. With that combination, I can handle an almost limitless range of photographic opportunities. I highly recommend this lens.
PhotographyBB, of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada yesterday released the fifth edition of its free PDF magazine.
Here’s a quote from the Web site:
By way of download in either PDF or ZIP formats, PhotographyBB continues its trend through the future of free downloadable magazine distribution. In a completely ad-free format, each issue contains informative and educational tutorials for amateur and intermediate level photographers.
In addition to articles which aide beginners in getting the most from their DSLR cameras, the PhotographyBB Online Magazine also features useful and applicable tutorials on how to use post-processing tools such as Photoshop, Elements, and more, to build on digital photography post-processing skills.
I’ve taken a quick look at the magazine and it seems worthwhile. And you can’t beat the price—it’s free.
IBM Corporation has announced its Lotus Symphony 1.0 office productivity suite: word processor, spreadsheet and presentation applications.
Back in the mid-1980s, I used Lotus Corporation’s (pre-IBM takeover) Lotus Symphony software suite which was and upgrade to Lotus 123 with word processing capability added to the iconic spreadsheet product. That Symphony was not very successful.
IBM’s latest attempt to launch an office suite is built on the OpenOffice.org and the Eclipse Rich Client Platform and uses Open Document Format (ODF) as its default file format. It will also read/write in Microsoft Office formats so you don’t lose compatibility. Although it is not likely to support every Microsoft Office feature, it’s compatible enough for me, and I think I’m representative of most office software users. Lotus Symphony also saves files in Adobe’s PDF format, which is a major plus for me.
Along with nearly one million others, I downloaded the beta version of Lotus Symphony and used it for about six months. I liked the software and had no problems other than that I found it slow. The speed issue seems to have been resolved in the live release, and I’m very pleased with it.
And have I mentioned the price? It’s free! That’s right, you can legally download it and use it for free. Corporations have to pay for support, but individuals can use the online support for free.
The way I see it, IBM must be doing something right with Lotus Symphony 1, because it’s already made its mark while in beta release. Back in February, Datamation picked Lotus Symphony as 2008 Product of the Year winner in the Office Productivity Software category. Given Microsoft Office’s status and enormous installed base, it’s a major eyebrow raiser that this category was won by a relative newcomer. The fact that the software is free and is backed by one of the giants of the software industry probably didn’t hurt.
When we were at Hillman Marsh, Leamington, Ontario, Canada, we saw several Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) families. Here’s one particularly handsome pair with there goslings.
The geese in Hillman Marsh are accustomed to seeing humans on the trail, but they are wild birds and like to keep their distance. If you start getting too close for comfort, they’ll begin to hiss and show their discomfiture. There are few more delightful sights than to see these family groups—a real treat of which I never tire.
Rabbits seem to be overrunning the backyards and parks of Burlington, Ontario, where I live. Up to three or four years ago, one seldom saw a rabbit in Burlington’s neighbourhoods. Now I seldom go into my backyard without seeing at least one rabbit. So common are they that my Jack Russell Terriers don’t even bother to chase the little critters—both dogs seem to have accepted the bunnies as part of our family.
Bunnies are about as cute as wildlife gets, but they have munched through several of Denisé’s plants and scrubs and have become quite an expensive nuisance. Someone told us the rabbit population exploded because of illness that has decimated the fox population in our area. Makes sense, but I’ve not been able to confirm this reasonable explanation.
Nikon’s AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED lens is a little gem that is available in Canada for about $130. Think about it: Nikon glass, of any kind, for less than $200. That’s less than you pay for some filters.
This small, light plastic beauty is now the walk-around lens on my Nikon D50 digital SLR. The 18-55mm focal length on the D50, which has Nikon’s DX sensor, gives a 35mm equivalent of 27-82.5mm, a very useful zoom range. With this I get a moderate wide angle through to a portrait lens range.
No doubt about it: this lens feels cheap. However, there is nothing cheap about the image quality you get with it. And when I mount this on my D50 I have a compact, lightweight package capable of serious photography at a bargain price that I’d recommend as a prime kit for the beginning amateur or—as in my case—a back for serious shooters up to the pro level. I have seen D50s used at weddings by pros, and the resulting images have been excellent. This combo beats most point and shoot systems in all respects except perhaps compactness.
The Great Blue Heron (Ardea Herodias) is one of my favourite birds. Every few months or so I get a picture of one, but never anything as crisp and clear as I’d like. I’m always out of range of this spectacular bird—my 400mm lens just does not have the reach for such a shy bird. I’ll keep trying, of course, and maybe I’ll get lucky.
I the meantime, I’ll have to content myself with OK shots like the one following that I took in early May at Hillman Marsh, Leamington, Ontario, Canada. The day Denisé and I visited the marsh, there were hundreds of shorebirds—Dunlins and others—roaming about. We also saw several Canada Geese with their young families, a Snowy Egret, a couple of beavers and this heron on our 4+ km trek along the path and boardwalk through the mash—a worthwhile visit if you’re in the Leamington, Ontario area.
African Lion Safari continues to provide an excellent opportunity to observe animals in the wild. At this nature game park near Cambridge, Ontario (about 1 hour southwest of Toronto), several species of the African animal kingdom roam more or less free. True, they are cared for and fed by humans, but hey, they look pretty happy to me.
One of the highlights of any of my visits are the antics of the baboons and especially the interaction between the adult baboons and their youngsters. Here are a pair I found irresistible.
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images taken with the 18-200mm.
