Playing with a 70-200mm lens

Prior to the big football game earlier, I took my camera for a spin with the Canon 70-200mm lens around the office...

In order of appearance: Brad Canze, CM Life Lifeline editor; Beth Kieda, Senior Mentor; Jake May, editor-in-chief... and lastly, Jake May's head with a hippo on top of it.

Michigan weather patterns

I took a trip back to Saginaw last weekend to attend my friend's college graduation party. It had been storming the entire drive home and through the first hour of my time there, so once it cleared up, I took some pictures:

Getting the lightning in a shot was tough since I'm only getting started at photography. After about a half hour of trying, I got the last picture. Not bad, huh?

...And His Armada

I moved back into Mount Pleasant last Saturday... after a day of carrying a bed, an entertainment center, several shelves and a lot of boxes from my house to two cars and to the apartment, I unwinded with a little concert that took place at The Forum behind Wendy's.

...And His Armada:

Singer Jason Horrocks and drummer Marc Van Horn were my freshman and sophomore year roommates at CMU, in Larzelere Hall. Others: Kyle Tipton at guitar and Eric Sprott at bass.

Overall, I was thoroughly impressed with them. They just got together over the summer and had a very nice set going with a few dozen attendees. And the hot dogs were pretty good, too. Be sure to say hi to these guys if you're in Mount Pleasant and see them.

Memories

It's amazing what one scene can do to provoke a plethora of thoughts and feelings.

I took a different route to my Taymouth Township board meeting today, crossing through Albee Township when I came across Albee Elementary, a school in the Chesaning Union Schools district. Next to it were four old baseball fences, with nothing that resembles a field in front of each. You couldn't even tell where home plate was.

After my meeting, which didn't last too long, I traveled back to the area:



The first thing I thought about was the last time these fields were used. It had to have been years, maybe decades. I thought about the kids that would play in the fields, perhaps for gym class. It made me think of playing sports like that in elementary school, too. The soccer fields at my elementary school, which I abused during my hey-day, are nothing but poles now.

I'm very sentimental when it comes to the past. I always think about what could have been... and the images of my past that I wish I could fully remember, or even live for even a day. The peace and quiet at this field, with nothing but insects chirping, echoes that, in a way. I'm looking forward to my future, especially as a journalist, but I always miss the past, and memories you store away only turn less vivid as you age.

I also took some close-ups on a couple wild flowers. Just trying to get used to the new toy.

Rock Band

Some video games can bring out the best in people. Or, in this case, the singer:

Credit to Brendon Fabish, 22, of Carrollton, singing "The Kill" by 30 Seconds to Mars. He's also a DJ, so you are bound to see some pictures of him at work sooner or later!

(Note: I used flash in the last 3 pictures because of how bad the lighting was in the room. See the first 3- those are some of the better-lit pictures I took. I'm still working on getting the right lighting with my camera, it's going to take practice.)

Canon Digital Rebel XSi

I got my camera today. It turned out to be neither of the choices I was looking at before. I was very close to getting the Canon 40D, but after discovering the Rebel XSi and playing with that a little bit at Circuit City, I thought the $500 cheaper price tag was a better fit. From what I've read, it's not QUITE as powerful as the 40D, but considering I'm not as serious as most photojournalists, I don't need the extra power. The XSi came with a 18-55m lens, less power than the 40D's 28-135mm, but I can just buy another lens down the road to get better zoom.

Without further ado, though, I toyed around with the camera, just taking random pictures around the house:

By no means professional pictures, I didn't do any editing, just wanted to show how it works. And it works very, very well so far. I'm still reading the book, catching up on all the different functions and features, plus trying to remember the things I learned out of my JRN 220 (Basic Media Photography) class I took sophomore year.

More pictures to come, definitely. And feel free to comment!

Looking at cameras

So I've decided that I would look into buying a digital SLR camera once I get my refund check in a week or two.

My decision's down to two:

1) Canon EOS 40D ... about $1,000 to $1,200

2) Nikon N300 ... about $1,700 to $2,000

I'm leaning towards the Canon, obviously because of price, and plus I don't think I need all the extra features of the D300. I talked to a photographer at The News about it, he suggested that I probably didn't need a D300 either, since I'm not planning on majoring in photojournalism. I just want a good camera to use for multimedia purposes and, obviously, for blogging.

Feel free to post your thoughts on what I should look into. Any help I can get on a pretty important purchase is greatly appreciated!

Welcome!

Other than the CM Life Football blog I just started a couple days ago, this is my first venture into blogging. I hope to keep this with me for a long time and update it whenever I can.

First of all, an introduction of myself. I posted something similar on the Chip Shots Weblog, so here's a copy-and-paste of that:

"First, I'd like to introduce myself- I am Brian Manzullo, entering my second year as senior football writer for Central Michigan Life. I also am entering senior year at CMU as a journalism major (although I have a feeling it won't be my last year there). Currently, I'm two weeks away from completing my Metro reporting internship at The Saginaw News. Afterwards, I am moving back to CMU and getting back to the swing of things, hopefully inching closer to graduation!"

I think that's a good snapshot of who I am.

As for what you'll find on here... anything, really. My goal is to get a good camera to use within the next few months so that I can start incorporating photos into my updates... maybe even video? Who knows.

Stay in touch.