Very interested in comments, if any. They truly put my 1D and 70-200mm to the test! It was incredibly difficult to focus at 200mm while capturing the essence of the acrobatics. Pay careful attention to the detail in the water and features of the subjects – my 1D is a mere god amongst mortals. I love Canon gear – that is, when they’re not bending me over at the service desk!

Never had a decent service experience with the big C – they kind stink in this department. Just sayin’. Throwing that out there, who knows where it will land.

Keep your eye on this post for updates!!!

I’ve finally taken my first pass at photos from Italy.  It’s taken me almost a month to get through about 1,800 photos. Yes, that’s a little slow – but remember, I don’t get paid to sort and edit photos from vacation!  As stated there were about 1,800 photos in all. Of the 1,800 about 1,000 were decent enough to consider processing.  Of the 1,000 that I scanned for editing only 200 made it through the first pass.  I’m sure I will be adding to this album in the future, but not the near future.

Hope you enjoy them, please post your thoughts in the comments.

Last evening I reformatted my trusty old Powerbook. I noticed it was finally acting a tad sluggish and decided to revert to Tiger (10.4.x).  Upon rebooting the machine I realized how outdated Tiger had become!  It is merely a shadow in Leopard’s footsteps.

I can now officially declare that I take the modern conveniences of OS X 10.5x+ for granted.  Leopard took OS X into the stratosphere. I don’t think one can fully appreciate the advances Apple has made with this OS without taking a trip back in time.  Simple things like Network drive mounting, Window styles and UI organization are just the tip of the iceberg.  Tiger lasted all of 2 hours before I had to pull the plug.

I realized that I was willing to concede a few seconds in performance for the conveniences of a truly modern OS.  My Powerbook is by no means a paper weight. Although its specs are modest by today’s standards it is still a little work horse. It is a late 2004 model A10014, has a 1.5 Ghz G4 Processor with 1.5GB of RAM and a 320GB 7,200RPM hard drive.  The aspect of the computer that kills me is the screen!  This is the most discerning feature that places this machine amongst its fellow relics.  Next to my 15″ uni-body Mac Book Pro with LED screen and my 30″ Apple LCD Cinema Display the 12″ screen looks like it is only operating at half efficiency.  Clearly huge advances have been made in this area.

However obvious it shortcomings may be, one cannot deny that this little guy has really hung in there. To get 6 useful years out of a computer is almost unheard of!  My wife was using this as her primary machine up until 6 months ago.  It still functions as it did the day I bought it, even skinned in the affable Leopard (10.5.8) OS.  Sadly OS 10.5.8 was the last version for the Power PC platform of CPU’s Apple had graciously developed over the years.

I will continue to push my fine little companion until he finally decides to go quietly into the night.

Yesterday we drove two and a half hours south to visit Lecce and Otranto. Lecce was filled with beautiful churches, unfortunately we arrived during siesta so all but one were closed.

The photo count has hit 1,762. Can’t wait to upload to Flickr once we return!

Ruins from 200BC to the year 2AD. Unbelievably breathtaking ruins lie atop a pretty steep climb in the south of Italy on the “heel of the boot.”

On the trip: Cassa del Monte. Photos of the castle later.

I’ve been trying to take photos with my iPhone. But when you’re holding a gorgeous 1D in your hands, you never want to put it down!!!

As always…more to come.

It’s unbelievably beautiful here. This is my second tour of duty, the previous just 8 years ago. Will continue to post as I gather content.

For those of you subscribing to my video podcast: I will be issuing updates but they will be posted infrequently! Keep your eye on the ball and be patient. I’ll also make a concerted effort to update Flickr/The Blog.

Everything is hinged upon my locating a SIM card and pre-paid data plan over seas. Ciao!

These reminded me of place I was at in Brooklyn, back in the day. I kind of miss NYC, but Toronto is a very well balanced city.

Check out the tiny nuances in the brick, quite striking. These bricks have got to be at least 50 years old! Can you believe these shots were taken with my piddly little iPhone camera!?!?

I am constantly baffled by the horrendous service the TTC provides as a public transportation service! Can you even call it public? They receieve public funding but continuously refer to themselves as an independent service.

Amazing how Toronto announces a budget surplus a couple of months ago and we still have the same crappy service.

I’m going to say it out loud: why are we looking into more surface transit when 30-40 years of the same horrible service has dictated this is not the proper way to spend what limited funds we have?

Here are a couple photos from two of my most recent hour long waiting experiences. Notice the police cars standing in front of the street car in the distance of the second image.