You must know by now, that I am a wee bit of an Apple fan girl. Obviously. It’s tough to question my loyalty to Apple. Well except the fact that I still have that late 90s Compac desktop sitting in my living room. I just can’t get rid of him, he’s like my personal WALL•E.

Nevertheless, my loyalty for Apple is unquestioned. I may not be die hard enough to say, camp out for days in front of an Apple store to pick up the first released iProduct, but I’ll properly follow the guys that are and feel a quiet self-reflective disappointment that I’m too lazy or apathetic to camp out for days in front of an Apple store. I try to make up for this by posting zany Mac-related videos.

With that being said, I’m going to say something controversial… mostly so be forewarned:

I wish Apple would fix the problems with their current iProducts BEFORE hyping, advertising, then releasing the next gen iProducts.

Especially with computers. Sure Steve, go nuts with the iPods, but your loyal, creative, freelancers and students really need consistent, bug-free machines to work all the time in order to pay rent and hand in artsy school stuff.

I don’t know about how your Macs are running, but mine are far from smooth sailing. Don’t get me started about Leopard. The worst appears to be over, but OSX continues to reek havoc on audio firewire interfaces. It’s not that Mac aren’t lovely and oh so aesthetically perfect I make cooing noises when I stroke the brushed metal, but experiencing regular kernel panics, the spinning pinwheel of death, force quitting, overheating, fan noise, and major battery fail are not memories that are adding to my love of Mr. J’s Empire of hype.

Speaking of hype, ahem, the 3G iPhone, which was just released last week, receiving such massive hype that no one actually ended up getting one. Huh? I don’t get it. Me neither. What is the world coming to when iJustine can’t get a freaking iPhone?!? And already the Apple rumour mills are churning with the pulpy goodness of new sleek and sexy MacBook Touch.

Now as someone who recently got a MacBook Air, is still paying off a Mac Pro, and is still emotionally attached to last year’s MacBook, when I hear about a next generation release or major upgrade to a better, faster, more awesome and streamlined machine than the one I just bought last week, I don’t feel anything related to happy. In fact I feel a little ill, then hysterical, then I get on the line with Apple, and then I wait, and wait, and crrrrrrrrry when my call gets disconnected.

Too much Apple. Too often. Too much exposure and hype and advertising and mainstream blah! Remember when Macs were so underground that you had to fight tooth and nail to get even an once of respect? Like that time you were thrown out of computer camp for refusing to use a PC. Oh you weren’t thrown out of computer camp? That was just me? Ok fine, but It was important for me, at the age of 12, to really lay down the law. Oh and remember when you were the only one with sweet graphics in your 4th grade essay on tornados cuz you had Paint? Yeah, those were the days. Now, anyone from Beyonce to (puke) Spencer from the Hills (don’t ask me how I know that) can use and abuse a MacBook Pro. But, it’s all good right? More money for Apple, more live John Mayer keynote performances, better products for us… Yes? Or more like a n-n-n-No!

What do you think? Has Apple’s mainstream hype and lack of product accessibility (ahem… iPhone) got you feelin’ less than perky? Or are you jacked into your feed reader jumping with glee when your Apple RSS gets all kinds of new, sweet iProducts & Software?

What do you think of Apple hype?

(On top of Moscone Centre, San Francisco)

This was my first Holga lomo picture to actually come out. I took it the day after the madness that was WWDC 2008. My first roll, I accidentally exposed to light while taking it out of the camera. My second roll, I shot mostly at night in San Francisco (which looked so so cool) but I forgot to set the camera to “bulb” and all the shots were underexposed. Gah!

Film is intense. After having the immediacy of digital shots, waiting for film developing drives me bananas, but you can’t deny the coolness of the medium format. The graininess, the subtle vignetting, the saturation of colour, the sweet 70s feel it gives photos. I’m really excited about exploring the lomo now!

Check out lomography.com or the flickr Lomo group for inspiration. And if you are experimenting with lomography link me up to your flickr photos.

I love my digital SLR, and I don’t see myself ever using film as my main format, but there is something almost too perfect and unnatural about digital images, especially those that have been photoshopped. You lose all the unexpected surprises in the process of using film cameras that can produce seriously beautiful shots. After seeing my lomo shots, I realize that it is still important for photographers to experiment with film and develop a style that is independent of digital automation.

What do you think? Is there still a place for film in today’s digital photography age?

I was the special guest on an uber cerebral podcast last night called the Friday Night Party Line. I promise that I most definitely said something to embarrass myself. We talked about Esperanto, kids, video editing, environmental issues, polar bears, GPS, and what we would spend $5000 if we had to spend it.

What I would spend $5000 on if I was in some alternate universe where money grew on trees and responsibilities floated away on hot air balloons and the world wasn’t in peril (so I’m excluding things like rent, food, bills, saving the environment & polar bears et al.):

1. Shure SCL5 Sound Isolating Earphones ($400)
2. Canon 100mm Macro lens ($600)
3. Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 IS ($1500)
4. Heaps of Marks & Spencer biscuits ($200)
5. Plane ticket to Australia ($2000) + Dingo repellant ($19.95)
6. iPhone ($300 + $??? + 3 year contract + ∞)

Ok I went a bit over. Spending fake money is super easy.

What would buy with $5000?

Good lenses are ridiculously expenses, so for most of us, owning a bunch of good glass is just not financially feasible. I own one good lens for my Canon Xti/400D. The 50mm f/1.4. Such a beautiful lens, but limiting. I also have a crappy kit lens 18-55mm f/cr.ap, but i refuse to use it now, because I know the results will be sub-par.

The other option is to rent lenses, which is actually a lot more affordable than you think. Plus, you get to take the lens for a test spin, keep the photos, and not have to sell stolen girl guides cookies out of your garage. Come to think of it, that’s not such a bad idea… No not a good idea… A very bad idea…

You can rent pretty much any lens, even the elite L-series, for approx. $30 a day. And with most camera rental places, if you rent a lens on a Friday, you can keep it for the weekend. If you live in Vancouver check out Beau Photo or Leo’s Cameras.

So I wanted to ask all the photogs out there:

What is your favourite lens?
What awesome lenses do you think I should try?

PS. Thanks to my twitter peeps, I had a nice list going on twitter, but then the tweety bird freaked out again. So I’d like to compile a list on my blog, because I’m fairly certain WP won’t try to lift a giant whale with tiny songbirds.

I felt like my blog was getting a leedle to intense and serious, so I thought I’d bust out a sweet silly vid of Justine and I frolicking from or MacBreak taping at Pixel Corps to the SF Apple Store just around the corner.

As you can tell from the video, Justine and I totally don’t get along. She even yelled at me for eating her left-over Starbucks’ chicken pesto salad and wouldn’t lend me any floss when I got green junk stuck in my teeth for most of the day.

Check out some flickr’d snaps of my time at Pixel Corps’ HQ.

Also, head on over to Mr. Adobe Frederick Van’s blog for a sweet interview with me about my photography and some photos he shot of during an impromptu TWiP photo shoot. Scott Bourne also took a neat B&W shot of me.

PS. If you are a TWiP follower or photographer send out a shout and a flickr link so I can check out your awesome photographs.

PPS. Any ideas for my next meet-up with Justine? Accent off? Dingo chase? Flip Stack?

Introducing Silicon Valley’s favorite party game: the iPhone stack! I dare you to beat this stack of 13 iPhones!

PS. My ultra portable Canadian iPhone was rejected from the stack. It hurt. A lot. *sadness*
(more…)

I had a blast recording TWiP (This Week in Photography) with Pixel Corps’ Alex Lindsay, Podango’s Scott Bourne, Adobe’s Fred Johnson and photojournalist Steve Simon.
(more…)

You have to admit, those are some hardcore moves to bust out in the SF Apple store. They were so hardcore we nearly got kicked out. Totally busted.

Also, Justine’s Flip Ultras gave birth to a little baby mino on MacBreak. There were celebrations through the Pixel Corps office….. until a stray dingo was let loose…

PPS. this was only a short excerpt of a day that started at 8am and ended at 2am with the only kind of craziness that you can capture on 5 iPhones, 4 flip videos, a Canon G9, and photobooth… ooh and my Lomo!

Mostly Lisa takes the Canon G9 for a spin from Lisa Bettany on Vimeo.

I just got my gadget geeky hands all over the Canon G9 (12.1 Megapixel, Canon DIGIC III Image Processor, Optical Image Stabilizer) a few days ago, and I must say, I am really impressed.

I really wanted a high quality point and shoot that I could use capturing the behind the scenes action on photo/video shoots and for grabbing quick video for my blog videos.

Although my media company owns 2 Canon HV20s, I almost always use a 2-year-old simple point and shoot, the Canon PowerShot A510, to capture most of my videos. Even though it’s from back in the days when it was cutting edge to sport a 3.2 Megapixel camera, it’s just lower maintenance, smaller, and less fragile than the HV20 and seems to scare and anger less people than the HV20 with the intimidating Rode Video Microphone. Plus, despite it’s age, the PS A510 has a great lens and can capture good 640×480 video. Also, it just quicker to just upload to upload and deal with the footage sans TB HDs.

(aside: I always bring my Gorillapod tripod (pictured above) with me wherever I go. It’s a really handy little tripod. It can bend around things and grip them. Much more flexible and lighter to carry than a standard tripod.)

And now I’m getting all gooey with the Canon G9. I may even have “love feelings” towards G9’s video quality. It shoots really sharp and clear 640 x 480px video at 30fps which is more than adequate for web content. It also shoots HD: 1024 x 768px at 15fps. The auto exposure works very quickly when moving from contrasting light conditions and it’s cool that you can zoom during video recording. It’s not optical and it does look fairly pixelated, but it’s still great that you are able to zoom.

This is getting super technical and nerdy. I promise my next post will be super fun for those who could care less about pixels, though you must admit, pixels are pretty neat. You are looking at some pretty neat ones right now. Respekt.

Does any one else love the Canon G9? What point and shoot camera are you using? And if you use your camera to capture video, give me your impressions or link me to one of your videos. Fanks!

PS. w00t! I just convinced my mum to buy the G9. First the iMac and now the G9… we are moving slowly, but surely in the right direction. Now, i just have to get her to ditch her 15 year old, very round screen TV!

Whilst in England in February this year, I got very attached with a MacBook Air. It wasn’t mine but I wished and wished with all of my might for it to be so…

AND SOMEONE ACTUALLY SENT ME ONE!! A MB AIR!!! (CAPS LOCKS ATTACK!) How insane is that? I’m still waiting for a Darlick or a Darma dude or a cylon or Ashton or Jonah Takalua to appear…

PS. If anyone else would like to send me stuff, i still need an iPhone, more M&S Biscuits, and a dinosaur Pez dispenser to match my awesome dino PJs. Rarrrr.