ThePanda

Wat is it with time and names????? Watch ne chinese movie showing ppl of old and ull find someone or the other named Iron Monkey or Iron Fist or some such similar shit or take ze Red Indians who have names such as Soaring Eagle, White Mountain, Fast as Wind, ........ Now my name is supposed to mean ze winner of ze sun (in very very colloquial sanskrit) and do u c neone calling me by zat name…. I am sure ze chinese have nice names such as Xin Jing Tao or something and well Pocohontas was an American Indian name, so y is it zat everyone calls zem by zese strange name, is it becoz ppl can’t figure out how to pronounce zeir names…. Umm if zat is the case ze panda suggests zat ppl give zem nicknames which r pronounceable and call zem zat (like ppl early on decided to stick to the much easily pronounceable panda with him), ‘coz calling ppl long phrases doesn’t make much sense to a panda since ze names r 2 lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggggggg and who cares wat ur damn name means (umm if ppl do cud someone tell me what Timothy and John mean)...............

Bad wiring has its advantages, as does an overly sensitive trackpad…. Yesterday somehow (strangely I still don’t know how) I ended up at ze page of Iceland’s parliament (the Althingi) and umm surprise surprise its better designed than ze White House’s page…... Considering zat zese ppl have been at zis democratic process thingee longer zan most of r countries (longer zan UK, the United States, India, or most other nations) and still maintain an excellent website is to be commended, specially since the pages of the Government of India r updated once in a blue moon and dat 2 in a design which reeks of the Indian Government’s non-creative approach to everything…......... The only decently creative Govt of India thingee I have ever seen is ze India Shining ads which seem to be popping up on the telly ever so frequently zese days, but I guess that’d be ‘coz zis is an election year and ze government needs votes (as some great guy once said elections give common people the illusion zat they genuinely participate in ze governance of zeir country, so governments need to convince them zat all ze votes they gave to zem last year were used for something more constructive zan purely filling ze ministers already thick purses).....................

Me was fiddling with ze F3 and my dads 80 mm (f/2) lens which he kindda sneaked into me bag (so that I carried it to Jalpaiguri).... Umm I kindda love ze lens now (ze camera be damned, I can work with it, lenses r far more important), ze damn thing is toooooooooooooooooooo sharp and its one of the few lense zat I have seen zat actually give u a noticeable difference in sharpness, I know ‘coz I compared it with a Tamron 24-80mm which I had carried along…... While me knows zat comparing a fixed focus lens with a zoom is unfair (fixed focus lengths win hands down, its just zat zooms r more versatile and u get a larger range with carrying fewer lenses) this difference was not ze standard zoom vs fixed focus thingee, no it was a heavennnnnnnnnnnnnnn and hellllllll difference, and ze Tamron’s supposed to be pretty goooooooood. Now ze problem is I doubt I’d get a similar lens for me Pentax LX and getting one with ze same sharpness wud be next to imposssssssssssssssible, so me needs a way to convince me dad that me wannna use his F3 now…... Sad ‘coz while I stick around in India I can share ze lens and ze camera with me dad (hell I’ve done that with his Hassleblard and zat I am definitely not getting ne time soon) but as soon as I wanna go out alone or take something abroad I need to stick to ze Pentax (kindda like ze reason y me dad bought me ze pentax in ze first place).............. If only I hadn’t used ze darned lens, if only I hadn’t shot ppl thru it, if only I hadn’t realized zat it was sharper zan nething I have everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr seen…........ Besides ze F3 has a nice grid thingee on its focussing screen and none of ze split focussing window which me LX depends on (can change that finding ze focusing screen is harddddddddd, expensivvvvvvvvvve work) which really helps u compose ‘coz u can press ze Depth of Field preview lever and still continue to focus, follow and step up aperture, reallllllllllllly helping u compose a moving subject….................... Zat is ze whole problem, ze LX was a brilliant piece of machinery, probably ze best in its class (even me dad agrees with me on zis point) but it never had as many lenses as ze Nikon (F3) lineup or ze Cannon (F1) lineup ever did….. Sadly of late Pentax’s pro division has been focussing on medium format, rather than 35 mm cameras, making it next to impossible to come across new Pentax pro lenses, and ze number of pros who did wildlife or sports photography (both require verrrrrrrrrry similar lenses) on Pentax’s 35 mm systems and also ended up selling zeir lenses in India asymptotically approach ZERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRO…...... And at ze end of it all I am still unsure as to which to use, ‘coz eventually someday I shall have one huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge chunk of Nikon’s lenses and cameras both old and new, sharp and soft, good and bad, but I have stuck to ze Pentax system for some years now (actually ever since I got my first SLR at 14, before which I used to use a Cannonnete 28 which was a rangefinder Cannon used to manufacture in ze early 1950s and which like most Japanese cameras of zat time was a copy of German cameras and was dirt cheap, kindda like y I used it) and I am more used to it zan I am to ze Nikon lineup which has much fancier opions I have to get used to, lenses which open in a direction opposite to what I am used to, and which uses strangely user unfriendly symbolism perfect for use by someone whose color blind…... And to think of it all zere was a time, not so long ago when I wasn’t even sure abt whether I’d ever wanna do photography, and now as each weekend approaches I am more excited at ze prospect of having opportunity to photograph, zan is my dad, who kindda introduced me to ze whole thing in ze first place (ya right when he helped me take a photo of my first flower, and my first crow, still have those photos lying around somewhere).......

Me downloaded ze theme song from ze Mask of Zorro yesterday and well its nice, has zis nice slow beautiful tune to it, much unlike ze movie itself which is fast…. That’s one thing me reallllllllly likes abt a lot of zese movies with Spanish undertones (movies based in California of old, movies based in South American countries and ze like) they have these very fast action sequences, combined with slow haunting songs, which kindda always catch my attention and zen refuse to stop playing in my head, keeep on going on and on until I finally give in and get zem (zat is if me can find ze songs in ze first place).... For those who haven’t heard it (there’s only a very faint playback of zis song in ze movies ending title) I suggest u get The Mask of Zorro’s theme from somewhere and play it (oh and don’t blame me if u don’t like it).........

Ze Panda
Still wondering abt what system to stick to, and how to convince ppl zat he lovvvvvvvvvvvvvves ze 80mm….....................

This entry was posted on Friday, January 2nd, 2004 at 3:29 am and is filed under article. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.