Saw this one day when I was in gmail (click on it to see it full-sized):

editor’s note:  I’m writing this blog in real-time on Friday, 10 July, when I got the card from B&H.  The post will appear on a later date

Today I got my Lexar 4GB UDMA 300x CompactFlash Card from B&H.  I don’t yet have a UDMA capable camera, but I decided if I am going to buy memory cards, they should have features that I can take advantage of when I finally upgrade my camera (hopefully in 1-2 years).  This is my first Lexar card; until now I’ve been exclusively in the Sandisk camp.  However, lots of people online love to rave about their Lexar cards and they had a much bigger rebate than Sandisk for similar size and speed.  The first thing I noticed is that Lexar apparently doesn’t use those really annoying plastic pakagign cases that Sandisk tends to.  You know, the ones that you need scissors to open.  However, I also quickly learn that I’m not a huge fan of the case holding the memory card.  While it probably has less of a chance of breaking than the Sandisk cases with their (Sandisk’s) latches, I find it a lot harder to open the Lexar case quickly.  I pop the card into my Rebel XTi (400D).  The camera claims 382 photos.  I was expecting a number slightly closer to 400 since my 2 GB cards get 197, but I guess the “missing GB” problem that plagues hard drives is at work here too.

After Dan joined the Amazon.com affiliate program I wondered if B&H Photo and Video had an affiliate program as well.  After all, I exclusive buy all of my photography equipment from them.  They almost always have the lowest price and their customer service rocks!  Plus, since I live in Maryland, I can choose UPS ground delivery (the cheapest option) and get my items within 3 days!  Beat that Amazon!  So I’ve joined the B&H affiliate program.  You can see the link on the left sidebar (as of my current theme) and I’ll be sprinkling links throughout future photography posts.  I thought the best policy for you, my loyal readers, was to be forthright in mentioning this new partnership.  I promise not to make it annoying.  And, if you’re going to buy something from B&H anyway after reading my review, if you do it through the affiliate link, you can help to support this blog.  Thanks!.

Compared to last time, there are some new entries into the list.

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“The Seat of Power”] [/caption]

The last time I really blogged about politics was back around the 2008 election.  Looking over my archives, I found that, by contrast, I blogged about politics quite a bit from 2007 and prior.  My heaviest political post density (for It’s A Binary World 2.0) seems to be 2005-2006.  Why so much back then?  I think because I was already posting pretty regularly about politics and I was extremely frustrated over the second Bush term win.  I think this post best sums up the despair I was feeling at the time.  It was very interesting to read this post with 4 years of hindsight.  First of all, this sentence:  “There haven’t been any abuses of power (that we know of) … “.  Little did I know we’d find out that December about the NSA’s Warrentless Wiretapping which, I believe, would have heavily swung the elections in 2004.  ( THANKS New York Times!)  Second, this fraction of a paragraph:

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“Trying to do a candid shot, you can sometimes get spotted”] [/caption]

In yesterday’s post I mentioned how I overcame my shyness and it led to a good picture. That doesn’t mean I stopped taking candid photos. I wonder what she thought when she saw the camera pointed her way. Afterwards I shot some photos of the guy with a million balloons who happened to be passing by in the photo above. Did she think I was aiming for him? Because that was my intention - for her to think that. Although, I did want a photo of him too. I ended up taking about four and this was the best one.

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“Newspaper Guy Reading the Newspaper, but ready to take photos with tourists”] [/caption]

[caption id="" align=“alignleft” width=“180” caption=“This guy was just a block over from newspaper guy. He was also ready to take photos with tourists”] [/caption]

I think everyone has seen a street performer painted in metal and dressed in clothes with a metallic-looking surface. I’ve seen them in Miami, Vegas, and Fort Lauderdale. But only in Honolulu have I seen three of them on the same street only a block from each other. At first when I saw the guy in the newspaper clothing I thought that was pretty creative. But then I saw the metallic guy just a block over. And after that I saw the guy in the “ska” checker board suit. Definitely some points are due for them not all looking the same. But are there really that many people who want a photo with a metallic man that they will take three such photos?

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“The Quintessential Hawaii Scene: palm trees, the ocean, and surf boards”] [/caption]

[caption id="" align=“alignleft” width=“240” caption=“Diamond Head from in the Ocean.”] [/caption]

I forgot to mention, in my first post, that since I took all of my camera bodies and my GPS unit, I didn’t want to have to worry about setting it back to EST when I got back home, so I left everything in EST. So I decided to divide my days (for the purpose of these posts) as if it were in EST. So, on Day 2 I continued to take pictures as I walked about. But I also tried out the new underwater housing I bought for Danielle’s camera. It was pretty awesome being able to have the camera with me in the water. I was able to get some photos underwater and, if Danielle had been with me, we could have taken portraits of each other in the water. Nearly all of my photos from that day were with the underwater housing and here is a sampling of those photos.

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“On the flight to Chicago, I traveled with many LPGA pros”] [/caption]

Last week I boarded a plane on a business trip to Hawaii. This time my wife couldn’t come along so all I had to do after work was attend to my photography.

[caption id="" align=“alignleft” width=“160” caption=“The view somewhere between BWI and O’Hare”] [/caption]