Shameless Self-Promotion Entry #1

When I'm not busy running The DV Shop, my hobby is photography, and every
August I put up a new photo exhibit.

This year's show is "Return to Death Valley", a series of pictures I took in
and around Death Valley in April 2007 on the Canon 5D.

This is my second photo exhibit on Death Valley. The first was from photos I
took in 1999. That trip was marked by coming down with Norwalk Virus, so I
spent most of the time vomiting and other unpleasantries. Needless to say I
didn't get very much photography done, and I always pledged to come back and
do it right. So I did, and the second trip was thankfully devoid of any
toilet drama.

For those who can't make it to the store to see the pictures in person,
click here or visit the gallery of past photo shows by clicking the icon on the blog sidebar.

Sony starts to shine

When Sony announced they were buying the photography assets of Minolta, I
expected big things from their new photography division. I figured their
first models would be okay (and they were) but the second generation would
live up to Sony's reputation of stellar quality and innovative features.

Well, their second (and third) generations were, ahem, un-inspiring. Very
un-Sony like.

But things were starting to look interesting at the PMA show in February
2010 with prototype models under glass that looked very intriguing.

And now they are delivering. First with the NEX line of compact cameras, and
now with the announcement of the a33 and a55 DSLRs, Sony is finally being
Sony in the photography world.

Now if they would only stop being allergic to 24p in movie mode.

Canon and Nikon - watch out.

Nikon finally gets it right on video

Nikon today announced their newest DSLR, the D3100. What's interesting about
this is Nikon finally gets video right on this, with AVCHD and autofocus.
We'll see how the auto-focus works in movie mode once we get our demo model,
but we're glad they are adapting the AVCHD codec instead of their ancient
motion JPEG codec they were using.

Shipping late September 2010, with a list price of $699 with kit lens.

We expect more Nikon announcements in September as we head into Photokina
season.

Nothing Kills Retail Like Greedy Landlords

I spent a lot of time on my recent vacation looking for a new store. The
lease at our present location is coming to an end, and we desperately need a
larger space. We outgrew our present location about 6 years ago, and have
been cramming more and more stuff in to the point of suffocation. So we're
on the hunt for a bigger space.

While on the hunt, it reminded me of what an "interesting" sub-species of
the human race the Landlord is. In my adult life I have rented a lot of
premises for various jobs I have done, and I gotta say, Landlords are a
peculiar lot. As you tour place after place, it becomes fascinating trying
to figure out the psychology. Do they really want to rent this space? Would
it really kill them to close the gaping hole that rats and god knows what
else could crawl into? Leaks that haven't been fixed in years? Would it
really kill them to spend half-a-day cleaning the place up?

And don't get me started on real estate prices. We briefly considered buying
a building, but that dream quickly died a quick death. You would be amazed
at what a small, lousy building $900,000 buys you in Toronto. I predict a
big drop in commercial real estate - pricing is psychotic.

This time around though, I gotta say, I was impressed with the real estate
agents. Professional, knowledgeable, and helpful. Can't say that has always
been the case, but all around a good bunch of agents this time. Refreshing.

I'm sure any landlord reading this will have counter-arguments about how
horrible tenants are, but if they want to vent they can launch their own
blog.

This is a Test of the Emergency Broadcasting System

Back from vacation, refreshed, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and this is
what awaits. Boxes upon boxes. Phone is ringing off the hook. And all the
positive calming energy that one has been immersed in for the past few weeks
is dissipated by noon. Back to reality. Back to paying the bills. If only
mortgages, car payments, leases and utility bills also took a vacation.

The vacation was a good one though, and very productive for DV Shop, as it
will become apparent in the coming weeks. Change is coming. Stay tuned.

And welcome to my blog.