i have been pretty reluctant to shoot in ISO 1600 ever. on my D30, shooting at anything over ISO 400 was already getting pretty noisy, especially in low light conditions. ISO 800? you were hurting.

on my 10D, i felt that i could take pictures at ISO 800 without compromising image quality too much. ISO 1600 had too much noise in low light and i avoided it like the plague. as for the custom function-enabled ISO 1600? forget about it!

so imagine my shock when i shot a volleyball game a couple of weeks ago at ISO 1600. i figured that the new DiGiC II chip should really clean up the images enough that i should get decent results at ISO 1600. what i found instead was a beautiful image with little noise compared to my previous cameras.

this week i was a little more adventurous and i shot at ISO 3200. i figured that i could run the images through some of the better noise reduction filters i have and the results would be acceptable.

what i found instead shocked me.

sure, there’s some detectable banding in the raw JPG, but with a little smoothing out, the image is more than just usable. i won’t hesitate shooting in high ISO anymore. virtually all of photos shot at citybeach this night were shot in ISO 3200.

i think this really opens up a whole new world of possibilities for me. we’ll see what happens from here on out.

i really do need some good sleep. i haven’t been getting much of any and i’ve been going into work late as a result. i’m going to try and go to sleep early tonight. we’ll see how that goes.

i had some people over for fondue over the weekend. i think it went quite well and i made a new oil-based fondue that i think went over quite well. i’m looking forward to doing fondue again some time soon.

i have been playing with the new studio lights that i made and i’ve come to realize that these lights run a lot hotter than i was expecting. jen helped me take a few test shots to see how it would work out. looks like i’m going to have to play a little more with this set up before i will get it done.

jen prefers me smiling in my pictures, but i’m not such a fan of the posed smiling.

jimmy, josh, and i went out biking at arastradero preserve in the palo alto hills. originally jimmy wanted to bike quicksilver (aka the hill of hell) but i protested strongly. i could not have quicksilver be the first ride of the season for me. it was just too much, too soon. jimmy then found this place and i’ve been meaning to go check it out.

the terrain is varied here, you get some decent climbs and then some nice single track downhills. i loved the downhill stretches of the trail, but i felt they were a little too short. i could have gone downhill all day long.

some statistics on the ride:
i think we did about 7 miles today.
my average speed was 7mph.
my top speed was 22 mph.
total trip length was about 1.5 hours.

it was a great introductory ride and i had a lot of fun. i actually look forward to going biking again. i may have to start up my weekday biking again. that’s going to be painful, though, because that means that i’ll have to be getting into work really early. i had a blast, though.

there’s something about mountain biking that just gives me a sense of freedom. free to be away from all of my worries. free to be away from civilization (well, except for my camera). and free to just enjoy the simple things in life.

i was mesmerized by the tall grass waving to and fro in the wind. it was like waves of sea crashing in the lush green foothills. amazing, really.

the trail was a little muddy in some places, though, and at the end of the ride i surveyed the damage. it was pretty tame, not too bad. i didn’t take any spills either, so i was pretty happy about that.

i have to say, though. jimmy is just an OX. he can chug up those hills without flinching, whereas i was heaving and about to cough up a lung.

after the ride, we went and got pearl tea at tapioca express in cupertino. we parked next to this car where there was a pair of feet propped up against the windshield and some shoes outside the car. very odd, i tell you.

i watched sin city last night and i loved it. sure, there were some moments that were a little gory and painful, but overall, i really enjoyed the movie. the style, the cinematography, and the overall feel of the movie was powerful and amazing.

jessica alba’s role was ok in the movie, nothing to really show off her amazing acting talent, but she did have some eye candy moments. i couldn’t figure out where i had seen carla gugino (the parol officer) before until i looked her up. she was the actress in the tv show karen sisco. i wish that she was in more movies, i like her.

i was also impressed with bruce willis’ performance as well as mickey rourke whose character was my favorite in the movie.

i recommend the movie, but it certainly isn’t for the squeamish.

i went to take a few sports pictures to test out the new camera and see if it was a marked improvement from the old camera. two of my chief complaints with the canon 10D is that its autofocus, though a HUGE improvement from the D60, was still a little sluggish and the camera itself still bursted a little slow for some heavy action volleyball.

one of the challenges i’ve had shooting sports photography is timing and taking pictures in low light at high ISO. usually the images look grainy and hardly usable. i must say that though i didn’t spend a lot of time taking pictures last night, i’m quite impressed with the 20D’s high ISO in low light abilities, especially when shot in jpg.

it seems everyone is jumping onto the raw bandwagon, but i just don’t want to exert that kind of effort into processing a photo. it’s just too much work for me and i’m lazy. =P

desperate times call for desperate measures. i was hungry after volleyball last night but i forgot to pick up something to eat on the way home. i had already showered and didn’t want to go out to get anything so i scrounged around the apartment to see what i had.

apparently i didn’t have much of anything. looks like i’m going to have to go grocery shopping. but this is what i ended up eating. i still cannot believe that there exists someone who lives in the united states who has never seen a waffle before. that amazes me to no end.

the villaware belgian waffle maker that i got from my sister as a christmas gift many years ago is the best waffle maker i’ve ever used. not only can you adjust how crispy you want your waffle, but it also has what they call a “waffle tone”. the waffle maker will start beeping once the waffle is ready. no longer do you have to keep checking to see if a little light has lit up to see if it is ready. it’ll just beep you. that is awesome.

geoff and i went to the city on friday to take pictures. we went to alamo square, crissy field, fort point, the palace of the legion of honor, and irving street that day. the weather was simply gorgeous and it was a lot of fun going around and taking pictures.

i went a little pano crazy that day and shot a bunch of panos. i’m playing with this new software to make panoramas and so this was a test of the software to see if i want to use it or not.

back in san francisco
-the orange peels

it’s just no good to go back there crying
but don’t discourage me from trying
i must have been confused by shallow smiles and hollow hellos
back in san francisco

i was so lost but then you found me
i was surprised by all the stars around me
they’d look me over and said i remind them of someone they know
back in san francisco

i don’t want to go
oh you promised me you’d never leave
so you smile at me then deceive me

ohhhhh…

i took a drive, i was heading nowhere
down the peninsula to get some fresh air
to get a different feel to try to get away from you
i was ready to go

i was alone but then you saved me
until the last goodbye you waved me
i just naively thought you dropped on by to tell me hello
back in san francisco
i don’t want to go

ohhhhh…

you were my first, my last, my only
i’m here without you now it feels so lonely
i guess i wanted to try to fly out here all on my own
i was missing you so

i had to go it was important to me
i had to go because you saw right through me
i had to come back home because i left everything i know
back in san francisco

while driving around the city geoff and i saw this sign. we pulled over to take a picture and then went on our merry way.

odd.