This is scary

5am, I was surfing the web this morning and listening to the rain. Unaccustomed to the very early morning, my brain must have been malfunctioning. I started off looking for Lightroom 2 tutorial and photography tips, ended up watching the Jonas Brothers (The Ring... indeed) episode of South Park. Somehow ended up on this site...

http://www.sillysallytheclown.com/church.html

Here's a picture of the silly clown loves jesus

Seriously? Would you like a brainwash with your fries?

Getting ready for the Central America Tour

After much consideration, Vickie and I finally decided to go to Guatemala and Belize for our 2x annual 2 week vacation. We had planned on meeting some friends / family in Yosemite and San Francisco and re-try climbing the Half Dome. Since these friends and family cancelled, we started looking for more interesting and, more importantly, never been before locations.

A super discounted flight to Cancun cemented the deal. So, it's decided. We have traded in Yosemite for Central America. Here's the rough itinerary:

1. Fly into Cancun from Seattle (via overnight at Houston airport, ek)
2. Take bus from Cancun to Chetumel, and stay the night
3. Chetumal to Flores (Guatemala) via Belize City - the bus leaves at 5am. Seriously.
4. Hangout in the Rainforest and visit Tikal (3 days)
5. More bus down to Rio Dulce and stay 1 night to visit the river and the monkeys
6. Ferry to Livingston (Guatemala) and visit the Markets, stay 1 night
7. More bus back up into Belize, stay 1 night in Belize City
8. 1 or 2 days at one of the Islands, snorkeling and kayaking
9. Tulum, if we have time
10. Cancun (ew) and fly out

We have decided to stick with naturopathic principles and NOT to get vaccinated. Given that it is the cool(er) season, misquotes are not as big of an issue. Most of the really gnarly stuff are transmitted by misquotes and ingested by the traveler. My plan of attack to fight off the vicious civil war stuff infectious disease is this:

1. Bugpatch.net (http://www.bugpatch.net/) - slowly releases B Vitamin to make me less tasty to misquotes.
2. Jungle Juice - Internal and external defense (incase I am still tasty to bugs) - technically not naturopathic but I really don't want to get yellow fever.
3. Mosquito net - Physical barrier between me and disease-ridden insects
4. Vodka Tonic - Vodka to elevate mood, tonic to fight off malaria, unfortunately, this does nothing for yellow fever
5. Garlic essence capsule - to fight off the bad bacteria I ingest from street food, the regiment starts now

We are expecting lots of great pictures for this trip. To that end, I have also came up with my lens dream team for the trip.

1. Nikon 50mm f1.8 prime - for going out, night shots in the dark
2. Tokina 12-24 f4 wide angle zoom - for Tikal, streets, close up of people
3. Nikon 55-200mm f3.5 zoom - light cheap zoom, for the monkeys, stealth close up of people

For security, since we'll be lugging around some nice gear (all picture taking related), my goal is to dress as light and cheaply as possible, and bring a pacsafe. We haven't thought it necessary in our previous international adventures. Then again, we have never lugged nice gear like this.

ooh, ode to the D90

True, cameras don't matter. I get that. I have always been taking pictures, though it has never been an obsession. I started more "seriously" taking pictures with my Canon AE-1P, learned about exposure, shutter speed, iso, developing film... all that. I followed all the simple rules of composition, get people closer, simplify the frame, don't put stuff in the middle... yawn.

So, my snaps were slightly more interesting than other people's random snaps, so what?
So, I occasionally get the right (by right, I mean the color I imagined when I snapped the shot), so what?
So, I took OK shots of buildings and other stuff, so what?
So, I am generally the picture taker of family gatherings, so what?

I think all that just changed with my new toy. True, cameras don't matter. But, my new camera does take better pictures.... Why?

Because it helps me learn! Despite it's infinite technical awesomeness, my favorite feature of this camera is the sharp and large LCD. I find a setting i want to try, take a picture, and see the results instantly! I never had the patience in the film world to experiment with all this. By the time I got the pictures developed, I already forgot the settings I used to take that picture. With the D90, I take a picture, if it does't turn out the way I want, I change the setting and repeat until it's "right".

And I do it again, and again until I figure out what I like best.

Of course, I am still memorizing where all the buttons are and setting my favorite settings into my menu. Hopefully, in a few more trips with my camera, I would have memorized the location of the important buttons so I can operate and change the setting for the picture I want without concentrating on the buttons to push. I hope I get it by the yosemite trip.

Ok, ok, 2 more favorite things about this camera: independent scroll wheels for shutter speed and aperture and EV compensation button right next to trigger finger.

Oooh, focus is fast enough to capture running dog after a ball (in daylight).