CHROMAGENIC

Enough was enough. I was starting to notice a lot of focus problems with one of my main lenses I have loved for 20 years. When I was still in high school and working at the local island camera shop, I bought a Nikon 20mm lens to use on whatever film camera I was using at the time. And it served me well through the rest of school and into my first 20 years of work trips. But the front focus ring was starting to move on its own. Looking online, there were plenty of reports of this. It looks like it is a cheap repair, and I will probably go through with it, but it was time to replace the lens. From all accounts I have been able to find, the much newer Nikon 12-24mm/2.8 lens is an absolute dream for everyone. Well, except for the massive weight of the beast.

On the 13.5 hour flight from Singapore, I had plenty of time to justify it to myself in my head. So when I arrived in Amsterdam I started looking for places to buy it locally. Kamera Express down towards Delft has everything, but it was 1499 Euros. FotoKonijinenberg, another shop I go to often had it for 1399. Was the extra hour to drive there worth it to save 100 Euros? Another more local shop is FotoBooms and they often have some odd things at good prices. Looking on their website, I saw they had it for 1389. Fantastic!!! It was cold and blowy outside, so I splurged the 10 cents for parking and drove over.

Within 10 minutes in the shop, I had purchased it. They are obviously not making a lot on this sale, so in order for me to keep up my habit at a reasonable price, I encourage the one or two Dutch readers to buy lots of stuff at their shop. Since my PIN card was broken, I had to use my American Express card which meant an extra 3.5 percent, or about 50 Euros. But that still was less than I would have paid at Kamera Express and who knows how I would have paid for it.

Now I am sure someone is going to tell me I missed my chance to get a better deal in Singapore at a place like Sim Lim Square. Well, not really. Now that we are in this global economy, it rarely makes any sense to buy anything outside of your home area. Electronics are no cheaper there than anywhere else on the planet. Of course there are some companies, like Apple, that come up with screwy pricing for Europeans, but for the most part, we are in one large consistent marketplace. The best price I was getting in Singapore was 2600 Singapore Dollars. That is the same as about 1315 Euros.To make up for the difficulties in getting things repaired, it would really have to be a difference of at least 20-30%, so I still feel that I got a great deal.

When I got home, it was time for bed. Even though I was asleep for 8 of the 13 hours from Singapore, I had only arrived a few hours earlier and I was beat. But the next morning I was eager to try out the lens. And thankfully the gods were in agreement and it managed to snow a few centimeters overnight. So I had a perfect chance to capture some of the canals of Amsterdam under fresh snow. The clouds aren't great in these, but I am very pleased with the results nonetheless.

Early January 2010 was a rough time in the UK weather-wise. I was there to attend training with some of my colleagues, but the snow started coming down hard on the first night. In fact, by morning about 7 inches had fallen around the hotel in Reading. The UK doesn't get a huge amount of snow, so anytime they get more than an inch or two, things start to shut down. 7 inches means everything comes to a complete stop. On the second day of our class we couldn't get to the office and neither could the trainer. Class was cancelled.

A few of us decided to go out for a walk on that first morning. Although traffic was light, occasionally a car would sneak up on us. It resulted in all of us frantically trying to remember what side of the road they would be driving on. While the roads were clear, I caught this typical view.

3 image HDR, then processed with Topaz Adjust.

One of the problems with traveling so much is that my sleep cycles are often completely screwed up. One day last week I decided to take advantage of my earlier waking to wander down to the Bainbridge ferry to take some photos. I couldn't get the angle I was looking for, but on my walk back to my parents' place I did catch the sunrise.

Whenever you go to a third world country, the number of options for alternative transportation seems to go up exponentially. And they all seem to exclude Westerners by design. This little enclosed tuk-tuk like vehicle packs 7 or 8 people and there must be a system for getting from A to B but I have no idea what it is. They are all over the place in Kathmandu. 

I had actually posted this once before to my Flickr account, but I think I prefer the way I have done it this time. I am using Remask2 a lot more now too, here I used it to ensure that Adjust wouldn't affect my main subject, the money taker.