I hate to make excuses. I just like to make jokes to acknowledge that an excuse should be made, but my recent lack of Tech Tuesdays definitely requires some justification and I realize I can't bail myself out with even the funniest of jokes.
Speaking of jokes, how about a science and a Halloween joke?
- A neutron walks into a bar and asks "how much for a beer?" The bartender says, "for you? no charge."
- What do you get if you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by its diameter? Pumpkin Pi
Click here for the answer
As many of you know, I recently left my position as a research scientist at a biotechnology company to return to school for a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology. This transition was more daunting than I had anticipated and prevented me from doing much else but focus on the transition (and shoot a bunch of awesome weddings). And since I like to give Tech Tuesday my full attention, I felt that it was 'unfair' to post while so distracted. I apologize for the delay - I'll try to make this one extra good by throwing in extra pics and even some embarrassing ones of me.Before I get to the tech part of this post, here is a summary in pics of my transition:
There are a few things that I will miss about my last job...
-Yale, because it is such an amazing and intellectually stimulating environment.
-JANUS, who is JANUS you ask? She was my secret girlfriend at work. She was big, bold, beautiful, and had two robotic arms. Also, she was my trusty robotic liquid handler and never let me down. Jade, I'm sorry you had to find this out via Tech Tuesday.
-Yale carts, what a selection of delicious food for lunch! Jade and Sophie came to visit me for 'lunch at da carts' often. It was something that I really looked forward to and a quick lunch visit at lunchtime helped me get through many a long day. Thanks guys! Also, Sophie became very popular at the carts over the last 2.5 years and there were requests made for her to come visit in the future. We will honor the requests.
-The Caseus Grilled Cheese Truck, for me...this was one of the highlights of New Haven. New Haven apizza is great but the cheese truck = the bomb. These guys make a mean grilled cheese and were recently featured on The Food Network. I used their Twitter feed to track them down so if you're ever in the New Haven area, find out where they are going to be parked and have yourself a try. They were on vacation during my last week in New Haven so unfortunately I was unable to get a parting cheese.
There are a few things (actually a thing) that I won't miss...
-The commute! Two accidents, four tickets, two flat tires, one lovely hood dent from a falling tree limb, and 120,000 miles all over the course of four years.
Yup, that's my car impailed in a snow bank. A garbage truck cut across two lanes to make a right without signaling, and to avoid driving into him, I swerved into a slushy parking lot, hit the brakes, and slammed into a snow bank. I wasn't injured and there was only minor damage to my car but the only way out of the snow bank was a tow.
Here's me on the first day of school - thanks Jade for making me look like a complete dork (insert 'you don't look like a dork, you are a dork' comment here):
Check out my new backpack, it was given to me as a gift for my first day of school (Thanks Grace!):
This is my 'first day of kindergarten' smile:
And here is my new daily home for the next several years:
Now on to this week's tech - I have two things lined up - broken tech and new tech.
Broken Tech
Recently, while shooting an awesome wedding in Manhattan, I dropped my iPhone on the sidewalk, flat on the face. When I turned it over, this was the result:
Ugh, aesthetically it is a mess (although Soph thinks I have cool spider webs on my phone) but it is fully functional and I've been using it in an impaired state since.
I did some research on repair options. There are many, but only a few are highly recommended. The cheapest option is to take it to a kiosk in a mall and have the glass replaced for about $60. This might not be the most reliable option and any non-Apple repair will void the warranty, but it is immediate and is one of the cheaper options. Another option is to repair it myself using a kit from Direct Fix for $99.99. They will repair it for $119.98 but that means you're without your phone for a few days. Then, there is Tekserve in NYC. This store is highly reputable for Apple product repair but you need to be in the vicinity for it to be worth it. They don't explicitly state their price for iPhone 4S screen repair but I'm going to venture that it is somewhere between Direct Fix and an Apple Store. Finally, there is the Apple Store. They do not repair phones, they only replace them. If your phone is under warranty, which mine still is, they give you a new phone for $200. If it's not under warranty, you're stuck with full retail price...yikes.
Is anyone getting the iPhone 5? I won't be...there is not enough of an improvement to warrant an upgrade from a 4S. Plus, I would have to get a bunch of new accessories like the olloclip because of the thinner size. Here's a funny video that almost convinced me that I needed an iPhone 5:
New Tech
Jade and I have been eyeing a delicious upgrade from Canon - The 5D Mark III! Well, we pulled the trigger last week and have added a really nice piece of gear to our camera bag. Here is the unveiling:
TA DA!
We love our 5D Mark II's but the 5D Mark III has some significant upgrades over the 5D Mark II. A few standout features for us are:
- Low noise at high ISO
- Extremely high ISO (25,600 with custom expandability up to 102,4000)
- In-camera HDR (I love HDR photography and this will be a future Tech Tuesday topic)
- 61 Focus Points
- Compact Flash Card Slot + SD Card Slot for in camera back up
- Faster shutter speed at 6fps whereas 5DII can only shoot 3.9fps
- A locking exposure mode dial (without a lock, this was easy to accidentally change on the 5DII)
Going forward, I'm going to make Tech Tuesday a monthly event. I hope you enjoyed my September post! I have lots of ideas for Tech Tuesday so I'm looking forward to October's post!
olloclip of the month (Sophasaurus with a Stegasaurus at The Museum Of Natural History in NYC taken with the olloclip fisheye):
Instagram of the month (Rowing in Mystic, CT):
I'm in love with that picture of Jadie and Soph. Nice work man.
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