I went and bought a tripod yesterday, after much consideration and thought and encouragement from my father. It’s a Manfrotto 190XPRO along with a Manfrotto 804RC2 Pan and Tilt Head. I spent a lot of time experimenting with it today and I can safely conclude that it is very very sturdy. It has an innovative middle column which can be used either horizontally or vertically. Its little hard to explain so I’ll let this image explain.

I have the same head as picture above and its the perfect combination for the tripod. I took a panorama of my room with the tripod but unfortunately, my laptop takes forever to render it so I’ll try and post it some other time. And while testing the tripod, I also was experimenting with new flash techniques and found out that bouncing the flash off a mirror gives the most amazing results ever. I’m eager to try it out on more things soon.

We have Daylight savings time from today but I didnt realize that in the morning. I looked at my watch, and it said 8:30 and then a few minutes later, I saw the time in the computer and it said 9:45. I was thinking whether I really spent that much time awake, and after checking with friends, I realized that I was living in the past.

More later, I’m off to spend more time with the tripod, camera and flash.

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I went to town today, had a nice long walk for about an hour while searching for the bank. And during this walk, I walked past 2 camera stores and I went in, to ask directions to the bank but ended up spending about 35 minutes in each. Nothing special in the first one, checked out the new Sony A700 and general new goods. The second one was more special. I spent quite some time drooling over the Canon 70-200 f/2.8, Canon 50mm f/1.4, the Sigma 50 - 500 and loads of more spectacular lenses. They weren’t too expensive but I wasn’t willing to spend more on my camera, atleast for a month or two. And then just as I was about to ask the directions to the bank, I spotted a woman buying a tripod and as expected I was slowly drawn towards it. It started off as an innocent enquiry of price, but then went on to a fully fledged discussing about tripods, heads and a lot more. The salesman was more than happy to bring out another of the tripod which the woman was buying, it was £60 and was good but not very sturdy. Noticing my look of concern, he showed me this amazing tripod which seemed like it would last my life and infact, it came with a lifetime guarantee. However, I didn’t like the pan-tilt head on it and was still leaning towards the other tripod for that reason. And then, the salesman brought out the god of tripod heads, it was just so amazing and perfect. The price, however, wasn’t perfect. The tripod and head together, came to a slightly expensive £180. I was about to take out my debit card but had to hold myself back and force myself to inform the salesman that it was a bit expensive for me but that I would definitely be back in the future to buy it.

I finally did find the bank and I spent hardly 20 minutes over there. I came back to the flat feeling slightly disappointed that I couldn’t buy the tripod but I had something to cheer me up. My new MP3 player had finally arrived and I was quite happy to see it.

Its nothing too fancy, manufactured by a company called Wharfedale, who specialize speakers and audio systems. Its tiny, one of the main reasons I bought it. I wanted something portable and simple and this fit the requirements perfectly. Its only 2GB, it cant store my entire music collection but is fine for everyday use. The headphones that came with were pretty much unusable. Luckily, I have a pair of excellent Sony Headphones.

University life is going on well, I handed in my first essay of the year today. Looking forward to the weekend.

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Two Words - Mind-Blowing!

I went for Gliding today, and we spent almost the whole day at the airfield. After a very small intro talk to the basics of the various parts of the glider, we were ready to fly. I was the second person to fly, and after seeing the first glider go flying into the air, I was quite anxious to try it out.

The gliders are propelled into the air by means of a cable attached to a winch, and once airborne, the cable is released. The time spent on land is hardly any time at all, the glider is almost instantly in the air and in a few seconds, at a steady altitude of more than 1000 feet. The feeling you experience in those initial moments is something that words cant describe, its just amazing.

On the first flight, I was run through the basics, and I was given control of the glider for about a minute or so. The glider was very responsive even to the slightest movement of the control joystick and pedals. It was fun having the whole glider under my control, I played around for sometime before the instructor took control again. The second flight was exclusively for taking photographs so I was happy clicking away to glory while we did a good round of the whole airfield.

I took a break after the second flight, and had lunch before the third and final flight. The third one started off like the others but once we stabilized, the instructor asked me ‘Do you want to have some fun?’, and I think I said ‘yes’ because right after that, he said ‘Okay, hold on tight’ and nosedived. We were at around 100 knots, which is about 140 miles an hour, rushing towards the ground when he suddenly pulled out of the dive and took a steep left turn. The turn continued into a circle, with the left wing facing the ground, and the glider was at a right angle to the horizon. It felt totally crazy but great at the same time. After landing, the instructor told me that we were facing around 4.5Gs during that crazy maneuver.

This was all in an army base, I managed to get quite a few good photographs of the place and the gliding and the great sunset. I had a wonderful experience, I’m already looking forward to the next gliding trip.

I’m feeling tired now so I’ll upload the photographs tomorrow.

UPDATE - I have uploaded the photographs and you can view them here.

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…you buy a lens that is as much as one months rent.

…you own a $600 car and a $4000 camera.

…you look at a beautiful view with the woman you love and a voice in your head says “f8 at 1/250″.

…you have more photo hardware and software than most Wal-Marts.

…you can’t walk past a camera store without walking in.

…you have thousands in gear but arn’t as happy with your pictures as people with a $100 P&S.

…you can tell what what kind of camera that guy’s using from 30 ft. away.

…your family members and friends start referring to you as “the paparazzi” .

…you spend hours at one spot to get one picture.

…you’re more interested in what the photographer is doing than what the bride and groom are doing.

…the first thing you notice about a pretty woman is the camera she’s holding.

…you base buying a new car on seeing if your light stands and background stands will fit in it .

…your cat sees you pulling out a camera and runs and hides.

…your friends have a tan from all the flash pictures you’ve taken of them.

…you feel naked if you’ve left the house without your camera and you’re sure you’re going to happen upon the big one.

…your wife begs you to stay in bed for a little something special but you insist you have to get to the lake before the sun rises.

And finally,

…you look at this picture and try to figure out which lens she is using.

Several of the above have actually happened to me, so I consider myself to be obsessed with photography.

Many thanks to all the members of PopPhoto.com who participated in this topic, for contributing their thoughts and ideas.

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I’ve finally got down to updating the gallery with the latest photographs from the University.

You can take a look at the university campus in the sub-category of ‘University of Essex‘ under the category of ‘People and Places‘. You can also take a look at the friends I’ve made here in the sub-category of ‘University of Essex‘ under the category of ‘With Friends‘. Around half of them were taken with my new camera.

I also bought the required books for my subjects and they weren’t cheap. We had our first class today and it was pretty good, we also had the last lecture for the week, and I think I should do some studying during the weekend. I still have to get settled down in terms of studies, so I think I should go through each subject one by one, and sort everything out to make sure I haven’t missed anything.

Thats it for now, make sure you browse through the newly posted photographs!

I have also updated the Wishlist page to keep up with my latest purchases and wishes.

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I cooked a complete proper meal today for lunch and I must admit that I enjoyed cooking it. I never wanted to cook because of the fact that a meal took too long to cook and I would eat in a matter of minutes. But that’s just theory, but once you actually do cook and eat it, its a great feeling.

We had our first lecture yesterday which was quite boring, and to be honest, we had a hard time keeping our eyes open. I had already learned everything which was taught. Today’s lectures were a lot better, thankfully. Our first lecture was just a basic introduction and didnt involve any in-depth teaching of the subject. The second lecture was very good, the lecturer was lively and made sure the matter got into our heads. Tomorrow is my day off, i.e, no lectures and classes, I’m planning to go to town, lets see how everything turns out.

I have finally updated the 365 Day Project Album after sorting out the FTP Problems. Th update includes photographs of my new camera, my room at Uni and several more! Take a look here.

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We had tryouts for the football team today. And for the tryouts, the put us all into teams and we played matches. And to be perfectly, I had never played so much football continuously all my life. I played from approximately 2 hours which drained our every single molecule of energy from my body. And the worst part was that I wasnt even that good at the game, I barely managed to play satisfactorily. And the game was also quite intense and serious while I was looking for something more casual and fun. After the 2 hours, I decided that I cant play such dedicated football and should probably try out the other sports or just play some casual football here and there.

We didnt do much today, time flew by without us realizing it. I organized my timetables for the lectures and classes on Google Calender along with SMS alerts, which is pretty useful. We only have about 7 hours of lectures the coming week, and the week after that will have classes too which will make a fuller timetable. I also took my 1000th photograph with the new camera yesterday, and it is certainly a pleasure to take photos with the camera.

The internet speed here is mind boggling fast and I’ve been watching several videos on YouTube over the past few days. We had our Freshers Fair yesterday, I only joined a couple of clubs for the time-being but I can join several more online throughout the year depending on my mood.  More updates of life here and photographs coming soon!

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My dad came to visit me today. After a slight confusion, I finally met him at the University.

He bought me the Canon 40D today along with a Tamron 18-250mm lens, a Kingston 4Gb CF Card and a LowePro bag. The whole thing was quite expensive but after I held it in my hands, it felt like it was definitely worth it. I still havent taken too many photos yet, there isnt too much available light but it manages to take good photographs. I’ll definitely take lots of more photographs tomorrow and post them up.

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I arrived in London last night, and after waiting for about an hour for the bus, we finally left for the University.  I didnt have a good view of the surroundings because we arrived at the University at 10 in the night.

The trip was good though, Dubai Airport was great, I spent 2 hours there. The plane journey got slightly boring after a while but nothing too bad.

My room has an excellent view since its in the corner of the building on the 13th floor and has 2 windows. I will be getting internet access on my laptop only after Thursday so I will be able to upload photographs only after that. I’m using the University Lab for the moment. We havent had much to do so far, a few introductary talks and things like that.

Met lots of new and interesting people, mostly from the flat. Getting proper food has been slightly tough but I’m managing alright with friends.  The weather is quite cold when compared to Hyderabad but I fortunately packed some warm clothes. The place is quite big, we had quite a long walk to the Tesco Supermarket today morning to get food supplies.

I’m not missing Hyderabad too much since I’m having a good time here but I still miss my family and friends.

Also I havent been able to update the 365 Day Project but I have been taking photos and will upload them all once I get internet in my room. And I’ve made a new category called ‘University’ for all posts related to my life at University.

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