Family Portrait

We have been planning to do this one since November for our Christmas card to friends and family. After Missy's doctor's visit and a 'long stop' in Ikea, we rushed home to do this year's family portrait. No time to go to the park or set-up for a studio shoot thus the backyard had to suffice. I would have wanted to do it an hour earlier to catch some nice backlight for accent but everybody had to be ready and it was not the case. As usual, making self portraits is always harder since nobody is really behind the camera to give ample directions and corrections and the only way to do it is shoot a lot and sort later.  Thank God for wireless triggers. Anyway, this will have to do or else we have to do a re-shoot which is quite unlikely given the busier Christmas season schedule.

David and Missy Dancing the Cha-Cha Slide

December has always been a month of going to parties and get-togethers. Last Dec. 13 was MRH's 6 Central's Christmas party so off we went there.  I have been enjoying my Lumix DMC-LX3, mostly shooting some videos with it and the party was a good way to test it's capabilities. I already signed up with a free Vimeo account but haven't decided yet if I want to get the $60 per year premium membership for unlimited HD uploads with a 2GB weekly file size restriction. Right now, I'm getting by with a once a week HD video upload with a maximum 500mb file size, roughly a 3-minute video thus a clipping is usually needed.  I've read that 'youtube' has HD uploads now but I still have to check it out.

I thought I can do some serious editing when I came across a free MOV to AVI converter without compression called MP4Cam2 AVI Easy Converter v2.79 but the audio was not syncing properly and the delay was like at least 10 seconds. So much for thinking it was a goldmine but I'm sure there's a way to fix it. I just need to explore it more.  Anyway, here's a sampling from the LX3's night scene capability. As usual, the HD version can be seen only by clicking on the link and when you want to view it full-size.

6 Central's Christmas Party-2008 from Ariel Magno on Vimeo.

Missy is Student of the Month

Missy is once again Student of the Month.  It's her first for 2nd grade and we went to Somerset to watch the program last Wednesday. This time the award is for 'Citizenship'. I can't agree more. She is such a wonderful, kind, thoughtful, obedient, friendly little girl. We are so fortunate to have this gift from God to daily show us that God is real in our lives. Hopefully, our other gift, David will also get chosen in due time.

I was able to test my new toy, the Lumix LX3 and it does make wonderful HD videos (still too). The video here is not actually HD but if you click on the link to the vimeo site, you'll find the HD version of this video.

Student of the Month Assembly-Dec 2008 from Ariel Magno on Vimeo.

I also took some snapshots with the LX3 and here they are.

At home, available light with the LX3.

New Toy

Finally, I was able to find a serious compact to fill-in those days I'd like to shoot but I don't want to bring a full-size DSLR. I'm not aware of any digital point and shoot that a real photographer would like to use. One thing is picture quality. Full control is another thing. Shutter lag is the worse.

Enter the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3, which is basically a carbon copy of the Leica D-Lux 4 but at about 50% less in price. It still has the Leica lens and operates at the same focal range. It was introduced sometime in August but I was not in the market for a compact thus I was not really aware of it's existence. There is the Canon G10 but I was not convinced that it's the right compact for me. What I had my eyes open is for a small videocam that would shoot HD videos and it should have optical image stabilization  but it shouldn't break my wallet. I was not successful in finding one with the right specs. at the right price. I'm glad I waited and not just took the plunge or else I'd miss this wonderful little gem, the LX3 which also makes wonderful HD videos. 

In reality, it has controls much similar to a full pledged DSLR, full manual control capability including manual focusing,  almost no shutter lag if prefocused, can shoot RAW, has continuous autofocus, dynamic tracking and multi-area focusing capability, can do 6 frames per second and so on. I'm a sucker for fast lenses and this small compact has a max. aperture of f/2.0 at 24mm super wide focal length and f/2.8 at it's max. focal length of 60mm. I know, it's only 24-60mm range (35mm equivalent)  but for day to day snapshot kind of thing shooting, this will cover probably 95% of what I'd like to use it for. Of course, I don't see sports photographers using this on the field but for parents with kids who would like to capture the precise moment (not when the subject is already 10 feet away), this will suffice.

First impressions... picture quality is quite good, not SLR quality but for prints up to 8x10, I believe it can manage. With software, it can be pushed for sure. I don't want to do a full review. There are tons on the net right now and all I can say is that I'm pretty amazed with this one. The only drawback I see is that the video format is MOV. Not that versatile in terms of the capabilty to edit unless you are a MAC user. With Windows, Apple's Quicktime Pro can do a quick edit but there's no bell and whistle here. Forget converting it to AVI or other formats, the quality will suffer. Anyway, still there's no buyer remorse here.

Thanksgiving Weekend

This time, we opted for a simpler Thanksgiving dinner at home. Of course, there was the usual roast turkey, cornbread. the fixins and pies. It had to be traditional or why bother at all, right? It had to be turkey, there are just so many things you can do with the leftover as well, lol. 

My brother-in-law Alan arrived from the Cayman Islands together with his friend Larry on Thanksgiving day to do some bargain shopping since the best time to do real shopping is really on Thanksgiving weekend. That is if you're okay with waking up early or not even sleeping at all to take advantage of the deals. Sawgrass Mall was open from Friday midnight instead of the usual  5 AM store openings for the big stores on Black Friday. They said that when they got to Sawgrass at 2 AM, they can barely find a parking spot. So much for the 'recession' unless the mall was saturated with non-stateside tourists like them. Anyway, I was able to snatch some bargains too. I went to Sears and Home Depot to get some more power and hand tools. Aside from trekking to the brick and mortar stores early Friday morning, I did some online shopping too. Thank  God for the online deals as well and together with Microsoft Live cashback scheme, I was able to add as much as 30% additional discount for Ebay purchases. Checking back recently, it's now at 8% cashback. I'm glad I took advantage of the deals.

Saturday evening, Ophine's cousin Cris Kabiling together with hubby Mike and kids Mark and Angela visited us from Jacksonville. It was a full house all right and the kids enjoyed playing Wii with their 2nd cousins. They stayed overnight. Alan and Larry left early Sunday morning before most of the people were awake for their trip back to the Cayman Islands.

The Day After...

CRCC Family Fun Night

Our church CRCC holds 'Family Fun Night' every year and it has become a well anticipated event not only for the church members (esp. the kids) but the whole community as well. It was done to have an alternative to how people celebrate Halloween. All the people who have become regulars to the event enjoys a special time with their kids without really spending a dime. Everything is free from the rides, fun activities, bounce houses, inflatable slides and even the food and drinks and most importantly the candies. Who wouldn't want to come here every year. Aside from having an excuse to 'hide' from the trick or treaters, the night has become a memorable event for people who just want to have fun in a safe and family-friendly atmosphere.
The church also puts up a prayer tent who just wants to talk and be prayed for. Although we were not able to really watch the shows, we have them there too.