A Crash Course

Wow... that's all I can say after finally finishing reading my copy of Canon EOS 7D For Dummies. For anyone who has trouble getting through that fat camera manual -- or should I say, tome -- that Canon sticks into the box of every new camera, this is what you need to do: get out to your closest bookshop ASAP and get the Dummies book for your model of camera. My father really had it figured out when he got me the book for Christmas this year (and subsequently got himself a new camera and the corresponding Dummies book).

You probably know how much I'm in love with my Canon DSLR (I'm sure I've rambled on and on about it numerous times), and as I take it out at least once a week for some shooting, I like to think I've gotten to know the thing pretty well. Well, the Dummies book proved me totally wrong (but in a very good way). In celebration of my camera's first birthday, but mostly thanks to our impending trip this week to photogenic New Zealand, I've learned that I can adjust the intensity of the flash, create my own custom menus of my favourite functions, extend my ISO to 12800 (seriously!) and set the autofocus track a bird as it flies around in my viewfinder. There are so many functions I really had no idea were in my camera... now I just have to make sure I remember them for the right photographic moment.

When I first got my 7D, the day before we headed off to Philly last August, I tried to read the Canon manual on the 12-hour bus ride, but in the end I got through enough to figure out how to turn off the flash (ugh, flash!) and pretty much used the "Creative Auto" setting through the whole trip -- not a terrible thing, as the camera still took stunning photos, but I knew I was missing something. I guess really the best thing about reading about my camera from a "dummies" perspective is that the author really just puts everything in context, so I actually understood what having different light metering modes means for me rather than just memorizing where in the menus I could change them. What a great thing this book has been!


And while we're on the topic of photography books, I also should recommend Scott Kelby's The Digital Photography Book Volumes 1, 2, and 3 for the great tips and tricks in there. I devoured those last year after they were recommended by another photo-nerd friend shortly after I got my camera (but only vaguely knew how to use it). It's more about techniques on how to get pro photos, and Scott's awesome for making it sound easy, and he's fun to read! So check those ones out too.

Now that my head's packed full of camera know-how, it's time to take it to "The Land of the Long White Cloud" -- we're off in two days and we're sooooo excited! Photos to come definitely. -D.

Our Year in the Merde

We can hardly believe it-- today marks our one-year anniversary of travel!

Saturday, January 20, 2007 was the day we finally packed up our gear (and left a lot of it behind as well), dragged our families and friends to the airport for sad goodbyes, and hopped on our Cathay Pacific flight to Bangkok. It didn't feel real until well into the 22 hour flight, and somewhere along the way we even lost a day (so tomorrow will be our first Jan 21 in ages!). We arrived sleepy, confused, and overwhelmed in Bangkok... and you all know the story from there.

It's been a fabulous year! We've learned more than ever this year that plans will always change, and to "carpe diem" every day of our lives. If you want to go somewhere, go! And if you see something cool in a shop, buy it (unless it's zillions of dollars, or something)! There is something to be said for hard work, but what's the point if you don't enjoy it afterward? These have probably been our most important lessons this year. And saying that, we've STILL left places and things to do till "later"...

And as for keeping flexible-- well, we certainly never envisioned ourselves as cherry pickers, construction workers, living four months in the tropic jungle, flitting off to Hong Kong for 10 days, camping for almost three months, moving into a cottage in the country (with the biggest spiders we'd ever seen!) and then, never really getting out of Queensland. But it's been awesome anyway.

For those of you who keep asking the BIGGEST question of all : "When are you coming home?" We really don't know. Now that we've slaved away on the harvest trail for our three months, we'll be applying for our second year visas soon, and we'll probably stay as long as we can in Oz. We also didn't realize before we left Canada that this country is massive, and that there are fabulous things to see at every end of this land. Daisy's just resting up now for the road trip of a lifetime-- we still plan to travel around the centre (Uluru!), Northern Territory (Crocodile Dundee land), and Western Australia (an untouched beauty and THE place to explore here nowadays). And then who knows? Tassie's still on the list, New Zealand's just a short plane trip away, and then there's all the wonderful countries between here and Canada.

Only now we're starting to run into all the lovely hassles of long-term travel: expiring health insurance, OHIP paperwork, invalid return flight tickets, expiring credit cards and drivers licenses (Adrian's a Queenslander now), and digital cameras going wonky (and there's a wee bit of occasional homesickness too). But we'll tell anyone who's thinking about doing what we're doing: IT'S ALL WORTH IT. Because you just never know when Australia will be too dried-up, Hong Kong will be too polluted, or the political climate of some other country will be too dangerous to go. And with technology today, mail travels halfway across the globe in two weeks, email keeps us instantly close, and cheap long-distance calling can keep us chatting easily for hours.

If anyone needs any travel ideas, there's heaps of exotic destinations you'd never think of and gorgeous photos in Lonely Planet's The Blue List. Adrian quite enjoyed reading about tourism, Kim Jong-il-style, in Tony Wheeler's Bad Lands, and Dayle's just starting to read Long Way Round, Ewan McGregor's travel memoir chronicling Ewan and his best mate's motorcycle ride around the world. Three cheers for travel!