IndyCar Races Through Richmond

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Saturday night's SunTrust Indy Challenge at Richmond International Raceway was my first time attending an IndyCar race. The first time that I had even watched an Indy race was about a week prior to this race. Sexy driver Danica Patrick (#7 Motorla/GoDaddy car)peaked my interest to check it out and now I'm officially hooked!

I used to be a smoker (can't stand it now) and occasionally get promotional offers from Marlboro. I usually pass them up, but this time it was two free tickets for the SunTrust Indy Challenge in Richmond. When I claimed my tickets (normally $37 each) at the race, they also provided two nice mesh bags, binoculars, a disposable camera, ear plugs, a lighter case, and two headsets (normally $60) to listen to the drivers and pit crew. I guess all those years of smoking paid off!

The first half of the race was plagued with yellow flags. 102 of the 300 laps were under caution. That's the second most in IndyCar racing history! The record is 116 laps under caution during a 2002 race at Nazareth. Most of the yellow flags took place during the first 200 laps of Saturday's race. The last 100 were relatively flag free.

Some guy attempted to throw his hat over the fence and onto the race track. I don't think the police realized who did it, so what did the guy do? He went and picked up the hat and attempted to throw it over the fence again! He then resisted when the police officer tried to escort him out, so the officer signaled for his buddies and about five other cops arrived and persuaded the guy out of the race area.

I've never photographed a race before... much less one at night, so I didn't quite know what to expect. Poor lighting, cars flying by at high speeds, and the fence were all interesting hurdles. They don't let you stand next to the fence to photograph the race, so I had to take pictures from the stands. Half of my shots were perfectly in focus... if your focus was the fence links! I had to do a lot of manual focusing that night.

7-Eleven car (#11) driver Tony Kanaan won the race. It was his 13th career victory. Danica Patrick finished 6th.

Here's a few of the shots from the race. Enjoy!

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Switching from Canon to Nikon

I am going to make the switch from Canon to Nikon for my DSLR in the coming months. The Nikon D300 has captured my interest and envy.

I have been thinking about upgrading my Canon EOS 30D for quite some time. The Canon EOS 40D has some really nice features that I would like, but the improvements just aren't enough to justify the cost to upgrade.

So I have been holding out for the mythical Canon EOS 5D replacement to be announced to see what that brings to the table. Every few months you see an uproar of posts on the Flickr forums about the imminent release of the 5D replacement. We're all still waiting... and waiting.

Recently I started evaluating whether Canon was the best choice for *me*. I am certainly not saying that Canon is a bad product. Quite the contrary... I have been extremely happy with my camera. You can't go wrong with either Canon or Nikon for DSLRs. Those are the only two DSLR brands that I would recommend to my friends.

However, my friends and family (that have a DSLR) all use Nikon cameras. Most of the pro/semi-pro photographers that I follow use Nikon cameras. If they all had Canon cameras I wouldn't be questioning which brand is right for me.

One of the things that influenced me to choose Canon was the famous white professional lenses that you see at football games. I have one of those lenses: the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens. It's my favorite lens, but it draws a lot of attention. So much so that it's turned me off of the 'white' lens envy. I wish now that it were black. I will definitely be purchasing the Nikon equivalent of this lens.

I have to recover from a recent home repair, so I've got some time to think it through. But that Nikon D300 is drawing me in like a moth to a flame.

Geotagging Photos With The 3G iPhone

In my last post, I mentioned that I hoped the GPS built-into the 3G iPhone would permit me to use the iPhone for geotagging photos. Apparently Apple already had that in mind. However, it is not clear whether this can only be done for photos taken with the iPhone's built-in camera or if you can use this feature with a real camera too.

Here's an excerpt from the 3G iPhone GPS information page:

iPhone 3G provides GPS-powered location feeds to built-in applications as well as to applications available on the App Store. Take a photo with the camera, for example, and iPhone can geotag it with GPS location information. That way, when you share photos online, friends and family can see where every snapshot was taken. And you can shop the App Store for GPS-enabled applications such as mobile friend finders or interactive city guides.

3G iPhone announced today

To no surprise, Apple announced the 3G iPhone today. I remember waiting in line for a few hours to get my iPhone the day it was released approximately one year ago today. It has easily been my favorite and most useful gadget that I have ever purchased, although I can't get a signal inside my home without running to a window on the opposite side of the house. Damn you AT&T! I had excellent reception in the same location when I had Verizon. But life's not perfect. I could get a signal repeater but it's just been a minor inconvenience. If I had to go outside to take a call then it would be a different story.

The 3G iPhone has everything that my current iPhone has PLUS the 3G speeds and built-in GPS. The 3G network speeds are nice, but the built-in GPS is what I am really looking forward to!

It will be interesting to see how the GPS can be used. Obviously, it can be utilized with the iPhone's Google Maps software. But can it be used for geotagging photos? I hope that if it is possible that someone create an iPhone program to do so. That would be worth it's weight in gold!

The only real thing that I feel is lacking now is an SD memory card slot. As it is now, there is no way to add additional memory. If you want more memory then you have to purchase a new iPhone with a higher capacity (if there even is one). That doesn't seem like a huge deal now, but once the iPhone apps are released I suspect that they can fill up the memory fast, leaving less room for your music and videos. And a file browser (sorry... that's two things).

I am disappointed that they chose plastic for the back of the case rather than aluminum used on the current iPhone. The aluminum was a draw because it can be easily recycled.

I am also interested to find out what people are to do with their perfectly good 1st gen iPhone that is being replaced. I think that Apple should create a way for iPhone owners to disable the phone features to convert their iPhone to an iPod Touch for use without phone/data service. It's basically the same equipment. I'd like to give my iPhone to my sister once I upgrade. She needs a good iPod, but has no use for an iPhone since she is locked into a contract already with another phone carrier.

The 3G iPhone will be released on July 11 and requires a 2-year contract with AT&T.

Obi Wan Kenobi

Obi Wan Kenobi, originally uploaded by JodieBean.

Don't let the cuteness fool you. He's using the Jedi mind trick! You can't look away, can you?

The weather has been uncomfortably hot and humid lately so I have been spending some extra time in Flickr, where I found this little fella.