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Well… this week really has been a week of firsts! I’ll note that in the post prior to this, I stated  that I had goals I wanted to achieve within the next month, with the proposed reward of dishing out for my first venture into Cosplay. To reiterate (for your benefit, as well as mine) the goals were:

• Increase my fitness
• Save money
• Find a place to live – move out of the family home
• Continue to produce work and study that I am proud of (not specified originally, but should be mentioned). This includes Work (capitalised to denote actual employment), Photography, reading and generally seeking knowledge.

I have specifics to these goals, that I will keep personal, to use as a measure and ensure that I meet these goals. It’s only been two days, but I have already crossed on of them off the list. Today I received confirmation that an application for my first apartment! It will be shared with a mate from Uni, located much closer to work and Uni itself, plus providing the freedom and excitement of moving out of the family home, which I have been living in ever since I was born (22+ years…). Point 3 taken care of. A first.

Last night I attended a Climate Change Forum at my Uni, being one of the very few “young people” to attend. Surprisingly, interesting events like this, whilst hosted by a University, attract very few student attendees. Before and after the forum, with a little spare time at hand, I sought out some chances to take some photos (see below). Combined with a a reasonably busy week at Work, I think I’ve made a pretty good go at meeting Point 4. Notably the first image, which represents my first decent capture of lightning in an image, learning technique as I went. Another First.

Oh, with almost daily exercise, Point 1 is being addressed too, but as most fitness attempts, lapses are easy, I’ll be conservative and delay claiming success just yet.

The last two pictures are of a couple of the many sculptures that have been installed around the Canberra city centre, the first is part of the ‘Icarus’ series, the second is called ‘Relic’. There has been some criticism of the amount of money spent by the ACT Government to bring these art pieces into Canberra, mainly due to their obscurity. I do like them however. I believe public art brings character to a town centre. If they stand out, to the point that people are debating whether they are aesthetically pleasing or not, I think the goal of their installation has been achieved. Art needs to stand out and be noticed, otherwise you may as well not have them. Over time, people will grow accustomed to their presence, and will form a part of the city scape.

I’m finally back to work tomorrow after a pretty nice long weekend. Today is Australia Day, which I celebrated by ensuring I spent most of the day watching cricket and drinking small amounts of beer.

I suppose I should start off with my standard photo updated. I’m really hoping to be able to take a lot more, higher quality, photos in the near future. I’ve made the investment in the equipment, so I may as well, but I discovered that I really am quite limited at the moment. I am still waiting for a 14-45mm zoom lens to arrive. Whilst the 20mm pancake lens I have currently is producing blow-my-mind images and DOF effects, it’s not that brilliant at the landscape architecture shots that I like to do [I believe in a good balance between landscape and close photography]. The prime lens is a little limiting when trying to shoot objects further than, say, 20 meters away. I don’t know if this is standard, but its probably just my technique. I noticed this especially when I went to shoot Parliament House.

On a separate note, I think I may finally make my first venture into the world of Cosplay… I have been a bit of a closeted fan of the anime/manga culture, and it had only been recently that I have really actively entertained that interest. I don’t know why I haven’t earlier, I think I may have had the idea that there was some sort of stigma attached to, particularly Western, fans of anime and cosplay, as though it was something weird. I have resigned myself to the fact that I am myself rather weird, I really dislike following the mainstream.

I have a bit of a soft spot for the PS3 game Valkyria Chronicles, made by SEGA. I was the first anime style game that I really enjoyed, so fittingly, the cosplay I am considering would be as a member of Squad 7. Such as this costume produced by Cosplay Station.

I’ve made the pledge to myself, that in the time between now and when University restarts for the year, if I look after myself, i.e. increase my fitness, save some money and find my first place to live, I’ll organise a Squad 7 cosplay in time for this years SMASH.

I’ve finally gotten around to doing a video test for the Lumix DMC-GF1. I’ve been so busy recently, the past 2 weeks at work have been really hectic and seemed to go by faster than I expected. I’m sort of in limbo between to teams at work, both of which are related, but both have their own requirements. I’m trying to transition from one team to the other, but whilst trying to tie up lose-ends, am still getting lumped with new work from the old team. Kinda frustrating, but I least I shouldn’t be criticised for not doing anything…

It’s been so hot here in Canberra, around 35C for the last three days. Not much you can really do when it’s so hot and seeing that my car doesn’t currently have air conditioning, I’m pretty limited to where I can do and test out my new camera.

Oh yeah, as I mentioned, I’ve finally done a test run to see how the Lumix GF1 goes with HD video. Whilst not entirely convinced with the quality of the actual picture (I do find there is still a reasonable amount of noise in the picture), I am impressed by the camera’s ability to utilise the 20mm pancake lens. I just enjoyed using it to shoot video and play with deep-of-field effects for the first time. I know these might be old-school tricks for some, but there is a certain novelty in it to me, that’ll probably soon wear off, but will enjoy nonetheless.

Again, due to the heat, I was pretty much stuck at home today, so the same test subjects (flowers, fruits and vegetables from our garden) make yet another appearance. Feel free to watch it in 720HD as I went to the effort of uploading a proper HD sample to review.

The video is supposed to have a soundtrack, but due to copyright issues and YouTube’s audioswap having issues, it may be disabled at the moment.

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I’ll leave you with a thought:

By not being specifically addicted to either of Coca-Cola, Red Bull or Coffee, but using each to feed a more general addiction to Caffeine and Sugar, am I able to get away with saying that I have a rational addiction rather than a problem?
Or it is worse that I have gone to such lengths to justify to myself that I’m functioning normally despite not being able to function properly without consuming at least two of the above daily?

I have finally gotten around to opening up the box of my new Saber figure made by Revoltech. Saber (from the anime series Fate/Stay Night) is the first real figure I have ever purchased. Well, besides a couple of LOST figures (Jack and Hurley), but I don’t think they count for some reason…

The Fate series always said that Saber was a representation of King Arthur, which I always thought was weird, mainly due to the fact that she was indeed a girl. Before her history was revealed, I was certain that she would most likely represent Joan of Arc (thinking Jeanne d’Arc). I think theres something about a cute girl warrior, whether real or fictional…

I currently work in a field involved with the Renewable Energy sector here in Australia. Whilst I lack the money to put a full blown solar PV system on my roof, I like collecting solar powered gadgets, whether solar collectors, or things like Solar Radiometers. Solio was the first (and probably my favourite) solar charger I have purchased. I don’t use it as much as I should, but the times that I do, I allows me to feel good to know that my iPhone or PSP is running of renewable energy.

Also, just a couple more test shots from the garden, as I gradually hone my skills at the 20mm lens.

Well, its now Saturday afternoon… whilst I didn’t quite get out and about as much as I would have liked to be able to test out the camera, its starting to storm here, I did have quite a productive day. I have working on some of the left over reports I needed to write up after my recent work trip, but I managed to get them done faster that I thought I would, whilst sitting in front of the TV watching the cricket at the same time. Not a bad day… and it’s only SATURDAY!

After being up in western Sydney for the last few days for work (visiting some of the stakeholders of the Agency I work for) I have finally been able to get my hands onto the Lumix GF1 I ordered just after Christmas. I was only able to pick up the kit with the 20mm F/1.7 lens, with the 14-45mm remaining on order, but I can’t complain. I’ll take it as time to focus and appreciate the 20mm prime. I’ve only taken a handful of shots, but have already realised the potential I have for creativity with this camera.

I’ve discovered the great potential for exploiting the shallow depth of field that can be produced from an F/1.7 lens, but also realised, because I have never shot with a lens of that spec. before, I really have quite a lot of practise ahead of me before I’ll be able to take great shots.

A depth of field test done on my previous purchase, a Leica C-Lux 2 compact, which is essentially a rebadged Lumix Compact. As a result, I already feel at home with the Lumix’s menu layout:

Well, thats about it for now. I’d only really just gotten home from the work trip and headed straight out to the camera store to pick it up. I’ve been almost 3 weeks for it to arrive, so sure enough, when it actually does make it to the store, I’m about 400 KMs away, forcing me to wait just one more day. At least I now have the weekend ahead of me, so hopefully over the next few days, I’ll be able to upload some more images as well as some HD video (the camera is capable of capturing HD720 video). The 20mm lens is not stabilised, so I may be limited to what I can do, but I’ll give it a shot. Exciting!

For anyone thats interested, I guess the re-hash of this blog is a bit of a trial. I’ve always wanted to blog regularly, with the idea that it would be a project I could gradually build upon. I think using wordpress.com is a good option. It allows some customisation without costing a load in terms of money and time. Hopefully, if I remain committed, I’ll be able to move the blog to my own site to give me some more control, but let’s not put the cart before the horse…

I guess the main reason the new version of the blog has gotten off to a slow start is due to the fact I’m still waiting for a new toy to arrive. I have a brand new Lumix DMC-GF1 on order with the local camera chain here in Canberra.

I’ve ordered the two available lenses, the 20mm prime (pictured above) and the 14-45 mm zoom. This will be the first interchangeable lens camera I’ll have owned. My current camera is a Leica compact (essentially a re-badged Lumix compact), which has served me well, but I’ve pretty much reached the limits of its capabilities.

I was so excited to discover the Lumix GF1. The first well executed micro four-thirds camera. I am really attracted to the idea of a small form camera, with the advantages of changeable lenses that you get with SLRs.

Waiting for my order to arrive, I’ve been reading up on reviews and picture/video samples. I can’t wait for it to arrive. When it does, I’ll share my creations through this blog. I’m already planning projects to do so that I can give the camera a good test.

Oh wells… more updates soon.

Okay, Welcome to the redesigned blog… It took a little longer than I thought it would and didn’t quite turn out the way I had planned (there were a few minor changes I wasn’t able to make), but hey… here it is.

My future plans for this blog is for it to become a general outlet for my experiences and thoughts. Hopefully I should be able to post regular updates, starting soon, of pictures I have taken, places I have visited and gadgets I have collected.

I guess, to begin, I’ll share some of the latests images I’ve uploaded to Flickr.

Please bear with me as the blog evolves into something fresh.

The quality of the layout, headers and links are likely to suffer in the process, hopefully everything will be shipshape again in a few hours.

Check back soon