D7000

So I am seriously considering getting a Nikon D7000 to replace my D3100. For what I want to do, the D3100 just isn't quite cutting it. Yes, it is a fantastic camera, don't get me wrong, but it is a bit... small, for me.

What I love about the D7000 is:
Full Magnesium body (like the professional bodies)
Closer to professional quality, as well
Dual command dials
Top LCD screen
100% viewfinder coverage (as opposed to 95% for the D3100)
16.2 MegaPixels (up from 14.2, so still a good range, not too much electronic noise)
Remote-control compatible (which my D3100 is not, and I have a remote already)
Has an Auto-Focus motor built in which means that I can use most if not ALL of Nikon's current-gen lenses (as opposed to the D3100, which can just use the AF-S category of lenses)
Much more robust shooting options
Much better high ISO performance (And shooting in a dark pool need this a lot)
HD video capability, like the D3100, but  with a much better AF system
and last but not least
6 Frame per Second burst shooting, up from the 3 that the D3100 has. This one will be best for catching the start off the block and catching the apex of someone doing butterfly.

So that is a pretty good list of reasons of why to get it. Also if I get it I might be able to go and shoot some weddings with My roomate next year, since his partner is leaving to go to school in California. But that is just a big maybe right now.

So that is what has been on my mind for the past couple weeks. And if I am excited enough about something for that long, it means that I am pretty darn serious about it.

Lately I have found that I love photography and everything that goes along with it SO much more than engineering stuff. I just love the creativity and vision that goes along with getting a good frame, getting that perfect shot. The whole process, from picking the Shutter speed to the Aperture, and even in post production. I have spent a ton of time just learning Photoshop lately, and if I had been using basically any of my engineering programs, I wouldn't have been having nearly as much fun. In fact, I would have probably been frustrated out of my mind.

I have been finding lately, from building Lego when I am home on break, to all this photography stuff, to even drawing on pencil, that I am way more creative than technical. Whenever I talk to my friend Geoff on skype, we always brainstorm new stories and characters and locations, all fantasy and sci-fi and who knows what. And we are good at it. People that I have explained our ideas to have said that they would either play that game or watch that show or go to that movie. I like how that feels.

But I have chosen engineering, and I am going to stick with it until I graduate, and then see where life takes me from there. I like it well enough, and I like how I get paid quite a bit (my internship this summer is a 30% pay increase from last summer). This job is what will let me get a D7000.

So this summer will basically be work, and shooting pictures when I get off work. Sounds pretty good.

Here is the Amazon link to the D7000:
D7000

Two days ago I started a twitter account. So far I like it WAY more than either facebook or google+. Though I really like google+, twitter is just a bit simpler. I like that.

Feel free to follow me @KevinFedde

Anyways, I'll leave you with what is one of my favorite pictures that I have taken:

 Note: No post-processing whatsoever went into this shot. This is straight from the camera.

Preow

Kevin

TV: Top Gear
Music: The National
Movie: All I Can
Game: Minecraft
Food: Almonds

The Museum of Art

So, like I said earlier, I am going to do a post just about the Denver Art Museum. More specifically, many of these shots that I will show came from the Denver Museum of Modern Art.

Here's a link to their site:
Denver Art Museum

Anyways, There was a ton of really cool, really photogenic stuff in there, and I was quite surprised that they let me take pictures in there, especially with my DSLR. I was primarily using my 50mm f/1.8 lens on my D3100, which got some pretty good shots especially since in some of the rooms the lighting situation wasn't ideal.

Now on to the pictures:

This is the front of the Museum of Modern Art. They told us that there were no right angles in this entire building save the elevator shafts. Pretty intense, if you ask me. That large, almost castle-esque building in the back is connected and part of the Old art museum (which now focus' on traditional art).
Inside, just the building itself was pretty much a work of art. Lots of interesting sculptures everywhere.

Above is the view up into the building from the bottom of the first floor staircase. I think this was taken with my 50mm lens, so it is a bit more "zoomed in" than it could have been ,but the picture that I took with my 18-88 kit lens didn't turn out nearly as well.

From the outside, on the balcony.

Back inside. I felt that this was a really interesting art piece. I'm not sure what the point was, but I guess that's how it is with all modern art these days.

Another very colorful piece. It makes my eyes hurt if I stare at it too long. Even more so when I look at the high resolution version.

Another ... thing... yeah...

This was basically made out of lots of pieces of scrap tin or something like that. Really interesting pattern, I must say.

Interestingly painted picture.

Now moving on to the Traditional part. There were a few cool things, but not really anything that no one has seen before, so I'm just going to include a couple and call it good.

 Blue vases. That is all

 This was made of bamboo fibers. I really like the light pattern that it gives off.

 I really liked this quote that was on the wall in the old museum. IT seems fitting.

I did also manage to find a picture of the atrium from the bottom that I took with my kit lens at the 18mm focal length:

 And that is basically all of my thoughts regarding it. I though that it was a really great place ( but I love museums) and would definitely recommend going there if you need something to do in Denver.


And with that, I think that I'll sign off for now.

Later,

Kevin

TV: Family Guy, Game of Thrones
Movie: nada
Game: Minecraft
Food: PB&J
Music: Gotye, The National

I have been neglecting you.

Hey people. Wow, it has been a long time since I posted anything here. I guess that Conference got a bit busy (you know, 5 weeks ago) and I was sick for the 4 weeks after that, so I guess I didn't really have any desire to blog anything, since nothing really was going on.

So, Spring break. I went home to Colorado, which is, in my opinion, the best State in the USA. It was good to be home, especially for two weeks. I took quite a few pictures while I was there, as well, of both Lego stuff and Mountains (when we took a day and went through Estes Park and Denver).
Here are a few of the shots I took:

 These shots were taken at a little Glass shop in Estes Park. Not too bad, if I do say so myself.

And last but not least, here's  couple Lego shots.

Of my Dragon Temple (which got as many favorites when I re-posted it on Flickr as the original had.) and the Phantom 7.

I took a ton more pictures over spring break, which you can see if you are my friend on Facebook. These pictures here are better though, since they uploaded through Google instead of Facebook. The Facebook up-loader does terrible things to pictures.

Anyways, I had some really good shots from the Art Museum, so I might do a new post just dedicated to that one later.

As for now, I am going Bowling, so I'm going to sign off and make another post out of the continuing story of why I neglected all of you lovely people who actually read this.

Preow

Kevin

TV: Game of Thrones Season 2
Game: Minecraft
Movie: nada...
Food: Not enough, really.
Music: Gotye, The National, Coldplay

Conference Day 1

Hello all, just wanted to give you an update on the swim meet!

Today was the 200 Freestyle Relay (4x 50's), the 1000 freestyle, and the 200 Medley Relay.

I swam in two of the events today, them being the 1000 Freestyle and the 200 Medley Relay.

In the 1000 I went a season best time of 10:16, which is only 17 seconds slower than my lifetime best time that I wet two years ago. That was before my whole major injury thing put me back a bit. But I am getting over that (albeit slowly.)

The second event I swam was in the 200 Medley Relay. I did the butterfly leg (the third one) and I went a time of around 24 seconds. That was ok, but I have gone faster in practice before. I think it was because I completely ran out of energy in my 1000 free by the end. The first 500 of my 1000 was really good, I went a 5:02! I totally felt like I went somewhere around a 5:08 or a 5:09 or something in that range. Feeling that good at this stage bodes very well for my 500 Tomorrow.

Until then

Kevin

TV: South Park
Movie: Nada
Music: Sigur Ros
Game: Republic Commandos
Food: Awesome food provided by the Valpo Parents!

Oh, I'll post some pictures eventually, probably in a couple days.

Jobs and Cameras and all thats good!

Well, I have been been incredibly busy for the past couple weeks. Lots of homework and lots of swimming and such.

Speaking of swimming, Conference is coming up in two days! The whole season comes down to this meet, basically. We are tapered down, and I will get to shave my legs again! Not something that most guys say...

I will be swimming in quite a few events, here is a list of said events (at least as of now),
1000 Free
500 Free
100 Fly
200 Medley Relay (fly)
400 Medley Relay (fly)
400 Free Relay
800 Free Relay

So I'll have a long meet ahead of me, but that's all right. It is exciting to swim a couple different things at least.

Other news is that just today I got a job! The company that I interviewed with right before my prior blog post offered me an intern position for both the rest of the semester and for the summer! I will have to find a place to live this summer, but I can do that. It is really exciting to get my first "real" job, at least that isn't either from the university or from my family.

This company makes industrial hose and cable housing links, to protect delicate cables and hoses in large manufacturing plants, or on bridges, or basically anywhere that has moving parts that could potentially destroy said hoses or cables. They said that it would be mostly doing SolidWorks or AutoCad, but I know how to to SolidWorks, and AutoCad is very similar to it, so that's good! So I'm very excited for this opportunity. It will also look very good on a resume.

And in celebration of getting this job, I bought myself a new lens (well, I was planning on getting it anyways, but this just gave me an occasion to get it!) I ordered it today, and was able to pick it up tonight! That's fast!

It is a 50mm f/1.8G lens for my Nikon D3100. It is my second lens, after the kit lens that came with the camera, and I must say that it is excellent! The lens auto-focuses much faster than the kit lens, and it is much sharper as well. Now being a prime lens means that it only has one focal length, so there won't be any zooming on it, but that's what it is for. It makes you think about your show more, to move and adapt with your environment in order to get the shot exactly right, instead of just zooming to the situation. And that is awesome.

Here's a couple pictures that show the depth of field:

The top one shows how sharp the focus can be at mid-range ISO, and the bottom one shows the fairly limited depth of field (the focus is on the center of the lens cap).

Here's a link to the amazon page for the lens:
Nikon 50mm f/1.8G

Now I need to go to bed, for some reason taper makes me exhausted.

Until Next time

Kevin

Movie: The Invention of Lying
TV: Downton Abbey
Game: Skyrim
Music: The National
Food: Popcorn Chicken and Grapefruit Juice.

It is beginning...

So I went and got a new pair of shoes today. Nice dress shoes for my interview on Thursday. Probably the most expensive pair of shoes that I will own.

Well, because of that, there was also a "buy one get one half off" sale going on at Shoe Carnival, so I figured I would buy myself another pair, as well, since the original pair (dress shoes) were already discounted heavily.

So, what kind of shoes did you get, you might ask?

Well...

I just tried them on kind of as a joke, but then they turned out to be really comfortable, and with the 1/2 off thing they turned out to be pretty cheap too. Win win. Plus hipster shoes.

A few days ago it was really foggy outside, so I took my camera outside with my brother's laser pointer and we messed around a bit. This was actually a really fast exposure with a low ISO, even (around 400 or so). Turned out pretty good.

Ok, now some engineering stuff.

Today in mechatronics lab we did some protoboard stuff, using NAND and NOT gates and such. It is kind of tough to visualize sometimes what we are doing on paper, and this really helped with it.

Here's a picture of one of our setups:

Lots of colors, but if I looked close enough (and had the chart that told us what was in each ship) I could tell you what that circuit did.

This next one is just a counter. It counts to 7 in binary with lights then resets. Pretty cool:

All of this is just skimming the surface of what you can do with circuits. Hell, my computer that I'm typing this on is millions of times more complex than that was, and I had trouble with it.

It just goes to show that there is so much more that I can learn.

I completed my collection of the CD's by "The National" today. Lots more music to listen to! Woo hoo! Also cheap because they are pretty old (2001-2004 or so).

That's pretty much it for tonight. I finished a lot of my homework today, so I'm proud of myself for that.

Later,

Kevin

TV: Archer
Movie: nada
Music: The National
Game: Rayman Origins
Food: Smartfood Popcorn!

Busy Busy Busy

Sorry that I haven't really posted anything lately. I have been incredibly busy with lots of homework and practices and swim meets and practices and such. Probably well understood by the few people who read this.

The most noteworthy event is that my girlfriend has bought both of us tickets to a Coldplay Concert! And if you read my prior post you probably know my views on that specific band.

So now I'll actually post something relating to the name of the blog! Something about engineering! I just made an appointment for my first real interview with an engineering company here in Valpo. They look like a smaller local company, but it looks pretty cool, and I'm excited for the interview on Thursday.

I have been enjoying learning about microprocessors in my mechatronics class, and if you are viewing this on a phone then you are using a microprocessor. It changed the world probably more than anything else in its time. Without the microprocessor, our devices would be much larger, much slower, and much dumber. Basically like it was in the 80's. But the advent of the microprocessor allowed us to basically make almost anything "smart." Now, for five to fifteen dollars per controller, you can have large amounts of data manipulation and control for cheap. It's amazing!

And that's my thoughts for today.

Picture!

Kevin

TV: Top Gear
Movie: nada
Music: The National
Game: Skyrim
Food: Cookies!