Still Here…

Although I have not written anything lately, I am still here!  Life seems to just be so crazy.  Not bad crazy, just busy crazy.  I have still been taking a lot of pictures, and have not got through many of them yet (editing), so that is a big thing to do on my list.  We were on vacation the week between Victoria Day and Memorial day. We went to the 1000 Islands areas of Ontario and New York, and Ottawa.  Lots of pictures from there.  We went to Algonquin Provincial Park at the end of June, but unfortunately, not a lot of pictures due to the crappy weather.  A couple of weeks ago, we went to Virginia Beach, VA, but the weather, once again, was not co-operating.  We did get some shots at the aquarium there though.  Not too sure if they are good or not because since then we once again, shot a horse show and our first official wedding.

 

Over the next few weeks, I will try to get through everything that I have talked about.

Is It Still Illegal to Take Photos in Kitchener, Ontario?

I am still working on the Issue of whether or not I can take a picture in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, without getting a $25,000 fine.  I sent an email to someone at the city, and got the following response:

Good Afternoon Ryan:

Your e-mail has been referred to me for reply.

If an individual wished to operate a photography business in Victoria Park they would be required to obtain permission from City Council as per Section 270.4.1 (a) of Chapter 270 (Parks) which states that "Unless authorized by the Board, in any park, no person shall engage in any of the following activities:

(a)  perform for reward any art, skill or service.

If permission was granted by Council the owner of the photography business would  then be required to obtain either a Street Photographer’s Licence (if a resident of Kitchener) or a Transient Photographers licence (if a non-resident)

Licensing by-laws are in place to govern, regulate or license any trade, occupation, calling or business as per Section 500 of the City of Kitchener Municipal Code.

It is not illegal for someone to take pictures of their kids in the park unless they are planning on selling them and operating as a business.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact the undersigned.

The problem is, I don’t really want to operate a business in the park.  Here is what I asked originally:

Thanks for taking the time to read my email.  I was basically concerned about the way I read the law. It reads to me that I could, as a regular person, get fined $25,000 for taking a photo in a public place or on a road.  For example, i want to take pictures of my kids (if I actually had any) at the park.  assuming that the park is a "public place" It seems to me that it would be technically illegal and could cost me a lot of money.

If I was to start a photography business, and was taking photos of my kids at the park, do the same rules apply?

What if it was a paying job, someone hired me to take their kids photos at a park?

What If I had a photography business, and did it for free for my friends?

I understand that there is probably a good reason for this law, but do you know what is the city’s reason for it is?

I appreciate your time in answering these questions for me.

I sent another email, trying to get my questions clarified, and when I hear anything, I’ll let everyone know.  I am not giving up on this one!

We Got The Lens!

Last week, the day before we were to go to Vicki’s parents place in eastern Ontario, I got a call from Henry’s (www.henrys.com) saying that the lens I had ordered is in.  I received the call around 11:30 in the morning and was going to pick it up and surprise Vicki with it.  Vicki happened to be checking the Henry’s website and noticed it was available in Brantford and Ottawa.  She wanted me to pick up one in Brantford, a city not too far from my work.   I told her that they usually screwed up and it was probably not in stock.  She then called the Ottawa store and was going to have them hold one and get her sister to pick it up for us.  Needles to say, I needed to tell her the truth and ended up just picking it up in Cambridge.

We got some good use out of it taking some family portraits when we were at her parents place.  The lens is great, it is quick top focus and produces some great results.  After I go through them, I’ll post some examples.  Bottom line, I highly recommend this lens.

My Old Canon is Sold!!! (The Update)

So, I ended up finding the email string about the guy trying to scam me (I think).  Here is how it went:

Him:

Hello,
I need this item for my Adopted-Son whose birthday is April 19th.I think this will be a great surprise gift for him.He is presently studying in a missionary college in West Africa I will need you to ship the item to him in Lagos Nigeria.Am offering you the sum of $320 for the item and $110 for shipping and handling charges to Africa through Canadian Postal Services.
Kindly forward to me your PayPal email address in other for me to make out the payment or is this your paypal email (rpmcgovern@hotmail.com)?Let me know what your thoughts are.
Sincerely,
Matt

Me:

I would prefer cash please, as I don’t have a paypal account

Him:

I want to inform you that I feel comfortable sending the payment through PayPal because they have both buyer and seller protection.I once had a bad experience while trying to send my son a laptop about a year ago,I sent money to a particular scam seller through western union money transfer and never had the Laptop shipped.But ever since I started dealing through PayPal I have always been protected.I urge you to set up an account with PayPal on www.PayPal.com   Its easy,fast,convenient and above all secure.Get back to me with the account email after you must have set it up and I will make payment to you without further delay.I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you and God bless.

Matt

Me:

Sorry, but I am not comfortable with doing money transactions online, so I guess we are at an impasse.

 

Bottom Line: be careful when selling things online.  I have noticed a few adds that are saying something along the lines of “will not ship” or “will not ship overseas”.  I will defiantly be making those statements next time.

Come on Lens…

I have, over the past few weeks been dying to get my hands on a new lens for our DSLR’s.  It is a Nikon AF-S 35mm f1.8.  Basically what all this means is a lens that I don’t have to manually focus, and that is good in low light situations.  The other bonus of this lens is the price.  It is very affordable in comparison to other lenses.  It was announced a couple of months ago (yes, photo geeks wait for announcements on things like new lenses) and has been eluding me ever since.  I was hoping that by now I would be able to just go into any camera store and get it.  Yeah, that’s not going to happen.  It has never seen the shelves of stores, as almost every camera store has a waiting list for it.  I finally got around to getting my name on the list at a Henry’s store but they could not give me a time line on when they would get mine in.  So, in the meantime, I will (im)patiently wait, and check www.Henrys.com every couple of hours to see if any of their stores got some in as a sign mine may be on its way.  Me obsessed?  Never!

Allison & Jay’s Family Portraits

Last weekend, Vicki & I went over to our friends, Allison & Jay’s place take their family portraits.  Jay & Al have 3 kids between them, one is Alison’s (Alex) and Jay has two (Katie & Michael).  We tried to treat this like a paying gig, even though we were just essentially doing it for the experience and Jay & Al wanted some family pics to put up around their new house.

I know Alex very well, as I lived with Allison and Alex for a while.  I did not know Jay’s kids that well, as I have only met them a couple of times.  We wanted a good mixture of family, and individual pictures as well as just the couple.  We were hoping on getting a majority of the pictures outside, and a few inside as well.  The weather was deciding not to co-operate early in the day, but ended up being OK later on during picture time.  Unfortunately, the backyard was still very wet and we had to modify our plans slightly.

We started outside and split up the groups.  I did photos of Allison & Alex and them Allison & Jay.  We then tried to get the whole group.  By this time the kids were getting very restless and bored and were not wanting to co-operate, much like the weather earlier.  Although I did not feel I had a good day taking their portraits (I did have fun though), I did in the end, get a lot of good shots:

View Full Album

After the end of the day, however, I learned the following:

1. White Sucks!:  I know that you do not want someone wearing white, unless it is a bride, then it is expected.  Allison was wearing a white coat for a majority of the time, as well, Katie had white on.  In retrospect, we should have had her change, but things were a little hectic and I never thought about it until we were outside.
2. When having to shot into the sun you will have glare, even if you can not see it in the LCD:  I know not to shoot into the sun, but it was still high enough (I thought) that it would be OK with the hood on.  I did loose some pics, but nothing that great anyway.  Of the ones that had the flare, and were good, most were fixable in Lightroom.
3. When shooting a group, they need ONE focus point:  During the group shots, we both were shooting, and there are a lot of pictures where we don’t have everyone looking, they are looking at the other camera.
4. Do let myself get frustrated:  I thought I did not really get a lot of good pictures, and even after getting home, still thought so.  After I went through them, it turned out that there are a lot of good ones there.

My Old Canon is Sold!!!

So, I posted my camera on various websites, and found out that there are a lot of scammers out there.

The first response was from Kijiji.ca.  I got home from work and was very excited the see a response saying “I want this item.Hope it`s still available?”.  Even more excited to see another with the basic same excitement.  I then checked my Facebook Marketplace and had a similar response.  I replied to the people who seemed interested, and awaited further communications.

I got a reply from the first person almost right away, problem is, they were offering me $500 if I could ship it.  I was only asking for $325 for everything.  Normally I would be excited about getting am extra $175 for a camera, but it seemed fishy.  The person wanted me to send it to Africa to their nephew who was on missionary work there.  I was suspicious, but did nothing right away.  Soon after that I got an message on Facebook from one of the other interested parties, and guess what?  They wanted me to send it to their son who was doing missionary work in Africa.  I somehow had a feeling that the people were not related.  I did a Google search and found that it is a scam.

In a Nutshell, here’s how it works.  they give me more money then I am asking for (for shipping and handling) in the form of a cheque or Paypal.  I send the camera overseas, to a friend or relative.  I try to cash the cheque, it takes along time to actually clear, or they send the money via Paypal.  By the time the bank comes after me for the cheque bouncing, I have already sent the camera.  Or, the paypal is a phishing site, basically a fake site, that shows that I had money deposited into my account.  I also may get a cheque for larger then the agreed amount and they ask me to send them the difference, but once again, the cheque has bounced and i just sent them money.  The possibilities are endless with this.  This is referred to as a Nigerian Scam or The Advance Fee Scam or 419 Scam.

After numerous emails back and forth basically trying to get rid of the scammers, I did get a couple of legit responses.  One was asking if i wanted to trade something for it.  After a couple emails, it turned out that they wanted to get rid of a PS3.  I had to inform them that I rarely play my PS2 anymore and was not interested.

I finally sold it to a woman who initially contacted me via Kijiji.ca and  met me at a Tim Horton’s.  I was super glad when she actually showed up and was not trying to scam me.  She offered me a bit less then I was asking, but more then my lowest price (in my head).  In the end it turned out good.  I will miss my S3, but will love the Nikon 35mm AF-S F1.8 that I will buy with the money from it.

So, here in memoriam,  are some of my favourite pics from my S3 is:

View Full Album

Selling my Canon S3 IS

So, the camera that I scrimped and saved for 2 years ago, has sat for long enough.  I have decided to sell my Canon S3 IS, a great little 6mp camera with 12x optical zoom.  Some of the great pics I have taken with it can be seen on Flickr.  So far, the only pictures on flickr from that camera are from my trip to China:

My China set on Flickr

It has sat for a long time now, and as much as I would like to keep it, it does not make a lot of sense.  It takes really good video, and as our SLR’s do not shoot video, I don’t have a camera of my own to shoot video if I wanted, I would have to use Vicki’s, which, does shoot really good video, but in Quicktime.

I posted it on Kijiji, a free classified site.  Here is my post:

Kijiji ad for my beloved S3 is

Illegal To Take Photos in Kitchener???

So, here is the short version: Take a picture in Kitchener, ON, in a public place, get a $25,000 fine, unless of course, you have a licence.

I recently came across a Kitchener Group on Flickr that had an interesting post.  Apparently someone was having heating issues in their apartment and found the Municipal Code for Kitchener, Ontario.  In the code it has an interesting law about “Street Photographers” & “Transient Photographers” .  In case you were wondering what a street photographer is, here is the definition for the code:

”means a person who uses a photographic camera or
similar device in or upon any highway or public place.”

A Transient Photographer is basically the same thing, but you don’t live in the City.  Now, you would think that there is a clause in there saying something like “if your not bugging anyone, and/or just doing it for fun, then it’s OK”.  But NO!  The only clause i have found is the following:

This Chapter shall not apply to photographers while taking photographs for
use in newspapers, magazines or other periodicals or in television broadcasts,
nor to photographers on specific assignment to local industries.

So, it’s OK for newspapers, but not the person who is trying to take a picture of their kid playing on the swings?  Or, Kitchener has some interesting things to take pictures of, like city hall, or the clock tower at the park.  But don’t dare take out your camera, or else…the fine…$25,000.  Just so you don’t think that I accidentally put in too many “0”s I’ll type it again: $25,000.

Now, you may think that this is only in certain places?  No.  This is for taking a picture in a public place. 

Want to avoid the fine, then buy a licence.  They sell them to take pictures.  Bad enough you have to drop money on a camera, now you have to buy a licence to use it in a public place.

There is a oddity about this law that I have actually emailed the city about.   There may or may not be a amendment to this law.  If there is though I can not find it.  It seems almost like a joke of sorts.  I understand that there are reasons for the law, but have not figured out what those reasons are.  I will continue to pursue this, until I can get to the bottom of it.  If it is as it looks, I think i may have to fight to get it changed.

I am not a lawyer, and may not have read this properly, but in case you want to see it for yourself, here is the link to the law:

http://code.municipalworld.com/kitchener/592.pdf

I Think It Is All Set Up!

So after being up till all hours of the morning last night (or this morning), and spending a few hours tonight, I think I have a useable laptop.  It is too the point now that I think I am packing up the old laptop tomorrow and up to the attic it goes.   I have not completely wiped it yet, and after I spent numerous hours installing updates after wiping Vicki’s (my wife) computer when she gave it to her sister 2 years ago, I think I’ll just try to delete my personal info.

I have copied all my stuff off the old desktop, and have copied it all to this one.  I did however loose all my old email contacts, but I am OK with that since most of the people on it I never talk to anymore.  And if i really need to get a hold of them, well, there is always Facebook.

I do however have a few complaints about the computer.  I bought a new Dell Studio 17.  It has all the bells and whistles i wanted.  The only thing I didn’t get on it was a fingerprint reader.  I could not justify the cost since I do not often lock my computer.  It is only Vicki & our cat Zoë that live here, and I do not think that Zoë has a lot of use for the internet.  Vicki on the other hand, will likely use it as much as me.  But getting back to the complaints.  I noticed today that the left CTRL key was not quite working as it should.  I checked the driver site for the computer and found nothing of use.  I did a search and did discover that there is an issue with the touch pad that screws up the left CTRL key.  I downloaded the newer driver from Toshiba and all is good now.  The question is, why did I have to get this driver from Toshiba, when I have a Dell?

The speakers in the laptop are also terrible, but i knew that going in to this thing.  I do not really need loud speakers, as i can always attach external speakers if needed.  I will keep everyone up-to-date as I learn about some of the cool features that it has.  I am really excited about the Bluetooth, but have no idea what I can do with it besides copy music to my phone,