I’ve just uploaded some new photos from a couple of BBQ’s I went to this week. The first one was at Southbank, where I went with Cass to a private gathering that The Grates had organised for friends. Cass’ sister Lauren and her new fiance Nathan are good friends with both Patience and Jhon. I played random photographer, taking random photos.

Marc was back for a couple of days after being in Bourketown far north qld. We met up at his parent’s new place for a BBQ. Ok maybe the place isn’t “new” but it was new to most of us. I drank some of Glenn’s Jack Daniels and Cam, Marc and I had Jager Bombs! yummo! Anyways, I took some photos.

This is the first time I’ve taken photos at night outside using full manual on the camera and ettl flash metering with my external Canon Speedlite 550EX. Most of the photos were set at 1/250th and f5/6. Paul took some photos also, I had set it up to full-auto mode for him. Post production was done in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Beta 4. I picked a few images that were better than others and processed them with more attention.

Last night I met Patience (above) and Jhon (below) from the rad 3 piece Brisbane band The Grates. In the picture above I was feeding the bunny on Patience’s top M&M’s. Patience was really cool, she thought my hair looked soft and fluffy!

Jhon and I had a conversation about those crappy video game “consoles” that are sold on the morning tv shows. Like that one that has 150 odd games for only $149… less than a dollar a game! “Don’t spend 80, 90 or $100 PER GAME, buy this amazing console, your kids will love it!” Those poor kids… considering you can get a Nintendo Gamecube for less than that, it’s a joke!

Anyways, The Grates, listen to their music. They are really cool people, well… 66.6% percent of them are cool but I take their word that the other 33.3% is cool also. You do the math, or maybe just listen to their music.

Their myspace profile is here

Today, well yesterday, Sony released a new high definition camcorder to their arsenal of HDV camcorders called the HVR-V1U. It features true progressive sensors, which means it can film in 24p/30p/60p. Chances are, the australian version will be 25p and 50p. Along with this launch is the new optional hard disk recording unit that sits on the hot shoe of the camera, by the looks of the pic above, kinda looks out of place, but hey, it’s not a beauty contest… or is it?

The very newest LCD’s are starting to come out supporting “true HD” or a full 1080 resolution. It won’t be too long before we see the current “HD ready” televisions drop in price dramtically.

Here is a link to the latest review by Douglas “spotted” Eagle from VASST:

VASST review