June 07, 2005
distractions
shoe and bineer
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
Distractions, yes there have been a few things keeping me from shooting and/or posting in the past few weeks. These distractions include the above rock climbing shoes. Some regual sessions at the local climing gym to get back in shape. My mind remembers how to do things, it's just not as easy to get my body to do it any more...
Then there is the Media Portal PC (our version of 'TiFaux' as Kris calls it) that's been occupying most of my free time over the past two weeks. It's up and running, and is mostly stable. Pausing live TV is fun. Even better is watching what you want to watch, when you want to watch it. But it hasn't been easy, this technology is not a plug and play solution just yet - but I highly recommend this for anyone who doesn't mind messing around a bit with a PC.
The other computer project has to do with moving myself off of Blogger and getting Amy's Blog off of Live Journal and hosting both off an old PC from home. I've got Movable Type working and a beta blog is up. Both of us have idea of where we want to take our blogs and either Blogger nor Live Journal are full featured (at least not the free versions) enough. Right now I'm trying to make sure the whole thing is relatively secure before we go live with it.
Anyway, that some of the stuff I've been up to.
Posted by yankinoz at 10:34 PM | Comments (0)
April 26, 2005
water and rock
water and rock
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
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Posted by yankinoz at 08:32 PM | Comments (0)
April 19, 2005
office chair at gun shop
office chair at gun shop
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
Found this at the gun shop in Gosford. Long story as to exactly what I was doing in the gun shop in Gosford... but it was the most American place I've visited in Australia. Well, other than Chili's anyway.
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Posted by yankinoz at 09:03 PM | Comments (0)
April 02, 2005
sparky and mat
sparky and mat
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
There's a new group of Turkish Cat photos. Mostly looks like pictures of Sparky (from Amy and me) but we aren't alone in our love of the Turkish Van.
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Posted by yankinoz at 07:28 AM | Comments (0)
March 28, 2005
blue stairs
blue stairs
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
Easter long weekend is almost over
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Posted by yankinoz at 07:27 PM | Comments (0)
March 21, 2005
a day in the life of...
dilomar05_0002
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
Flickr does a day in the life of shoot every once in a while. Today was the first one since I found Flickr so I toated my camera around with me. Since the bulk of my day was spent at work, there isn't really too much to see... Monday is usually just me being at work.
dilomar05_0005
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
So I didn't expect much, but there are some intersting things that happen as the day goes by. I ended up taking over 150 photos (mostly crap really) but right now there are about a dozen on flickr. I'm likely to add more.
See the whole set.
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Posted by yankinoz at 11:21 PM | Comments (0)
March 18, 2005
Whitewater Rafting
We had a corporate outing yesterday to the Penrith Whitewater Stadium (built for the 2000 Sydney Olympics.) I don't have an underwater housing, so I left the camera at home - there were a handful of cameras there and one of my colleagues grabbed this photo of me NOT white water rafting. See the raft to the left; the one that's upside down? That would be ours. See the guy in the water; getting pulled to shore with a rope? That would be me. And I had an absolute blast!
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Posted by yankinoz at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)
March 12, 2005
amy at doyles
amy at doyles
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
More catching up from Lynn's visit. These photos are from our trip to Doyles. Great seafood, great views...
sydney from doyles
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
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Posted by yankinoz at 05:33 PM | Comments (0)
March 07, 2005
sydney stitch n bitch
web-goddess knits
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
I'm getting caught up on photos taken while Amy's mom was down under. These photos are from the Sydney Stitch N Bitch - I tagged along to drop off a CD full of reception photos for web-godess. That's her knitting on the pub floor with my mother-in-law's feet in the background. Hmm, sitting on a pub floor, it just occured to me how brave kris the web-godess is...
and of course, I took more beer photos
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Posted by yankinoz at 09:00 PM | Comments (0)
March 04, 2005
minnamurra rainforest
minnamurra rainforest
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
From our day trip to the Illawara region of New South Wales. I love the fact that rainforest and wilderness is so close to Sydney.
black and white 4
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
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Posted by yankinoz at 09:11 AM | Comments (0)
March 01, 2005
beer, croquembouche and elvis glasses
beer and croquembouche
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
Friday night was the wedding reception for web-godess and Rodd. They were married in Las Vegas (were all the best weddings are held) back in November. The Aussie reception was held on Sunday and they asked me to shoot some photos.
elvis glasses 6
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
Since this was a Vegas wedding, many posed with Elvis style sunglasses...
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Posted by yankinoz at 10:50 AM | Comments (0)
February 26, 2005
tourists at opera house
tourists at opera house
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
Amy's mom is visiting, so we've been doing the tour guide thing. While at the Opera House I found the people taking photos to be rather interesting - there were so many, so I shot them. There's more on flikr
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Posted by yankinoz at 09:50 PM | Comments (0)
February 13, 2005
canon 10d, to date...and beer
black and white 1
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
Spent some time this evening going over the 750 or so images I've taken with the 10d so far. I did some conversions to black and white on a few that I thought would look nice. Ironically the images I chose started out a fairly monochromatic - but look nicer in black and white. I also found a couple more from Australia Day that I hadn't posted before. This picture of fried cheese was from a small celebration Amy and I had at the local Chili's - yup, Sydney has Chili's - it is amazingly like the ones back home.) Some more photos from a pub crawl with friends last weekend. I also found something that is becoming a rather common theme. Beer.
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Posted by yankinoz at 08:55 PM | Comments (0)
February 11, 2005
Message brought to you by Telstra MMS
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Posted by yankinoz at 06:31 PM | Comments (0)
February 06, 2005
watch fairy
watch fairy
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
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Posted by yankinoz at 09:54 AM | Comments (0)
spam beer and me
spam beer and me
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
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Posted by yankinoz at 09:53 AM | Comments (0)
January 30, 2005
Jackson Thomas Rose
Jackson Thomas Rose
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
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Posted by yankinoz at 10:50 PM | Comments (0)
friday lunch
friday lunch
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
A well known multi-national corporation has a rather large campus across the street from where I work. I (and a large number of others) rather routinely cut through this campus to get to the only decent restaurants in the area for lunch. It is so common a short cut most of us think of it as a public park rather than private property.
Friday morning I noticed someone on flickr is getting great colour saturation with a Canon 10D and is underexposing 1/3-2/3 of a stop. So I grabbed my camera on the way to work Friday morning and was auto bracketing right and left on the train ride in.
At lunch, while crossing the multi-national's park, I took 12 photographs of a tree (bracketing exposure and colour saturation settings.) I then enjoyed a lovely beef and peapod stir fry at the local noodle shop. As I returned from lunch (back on the private property) I hear; "Excuse me! Excuse me!" and here comes someone who saw me "taking pictures." She could not wait to tell me that this is private property and that she had 'reported' me and wanted to know my name and where I worked.
My first thought was who exactly did she report me to? But I somehow managed to realize that that would be a very confrontational question so I told her I worked across the street and my name (showing her my work ID that was clipped to my belt.) I told her I was taking photographs of the tree on the other side of the main building and offered to show them to her and even delete them. She backed right off; reminded me it was private property and said I need to get permission if I want to take pictures in the future.
Lessons for the day:
- SLRs draw more attention than compacts
- A reminder that it is not legal to trespass
- Big multi-nationals are nervous about corporate espionage
- Polite honesty worked well in defusing the situation
- The Chinese restaurant is better than McDonald's
I spent a good part of the afternoon waiting for the police to turn up at my office. So far, no word from the authorities, but if that changes, I'll be sure to let you all know!
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Posted by yankinoz at 10:37 PM | Comments (0)
January 27, 2005
mr whippy queue
mr whippy queue
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
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Posted by yankinoz at 09:06 PM | Comments (0)
A Photographer's Review of the Canon EOS 10D Digital SLR
MacDevCenter.com: A Photographer's Review of the Canon EOS 10D Digital SLR: "Nothing matches the sensation of peering through a Single Lens Reflex (SLR) viewfinder and squeezing off a series of frames. Once you become immersed in the viewfinder, the entire noisy, distracting (and often ugly) world is eliminated from your perfectly-composed image viewed directly through the zoom lens." True, so true.
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Posted by yankinoz at 08:42 PM | Comments (0)
Happiness is a clean sensor
Thank you Canon Australia. Actually this is the second time I've had to visit the North Ryde Service Office and both have been positive experiences. The first time was when the viewfinder LCD on my EOS 1 died. Now that they have my 28-105 (sticky zoom.) Hopefully my next visit will be positive as well...
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Posted by yankinoz at 08:20 PM | Comments (0)
January 26, 2005
australia day photos on flickr
bbq on the harbour
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
Here's a shot of me, taken by Amy and my conspicuously stealthy Crumpler Tall-ee Camera Bag
Rob on Bridge
Originally uploaded by gadgetgirl.
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Posted by yankinoz at 07:27 PM | Comments (0)
January 24, 2005
how 'bout that?
Seems my earlier estimate of four or five visitors to this site should be increased to six or seven. I posted a reply to Scott, but as I write this, the reply hasn't shown up on his blog. Yes, my blog did briefly have the description "A Yank in Oz" that was changed to the current description shortly thereafter. I'm not even the only Rob Barker at blogspot.
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Posted by yankinoz at 07:35 PM | Comments (0)
EOS 10D; a short review
I've had the 10D for a few days and shot close to 300 images with it. My biggest concern going into this was with the physical size of the sensor - I like wide angle shots, and the field of view of my favourite lens (24mm) wouldn't be the same. Well, it's not the same but still has a nice wide angle feel anyway (similar field of view of a 35mm lens on a 35mm camera.)
Tasman Sea at North Head
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
I've been shooting film with an EOS 1 for at least 12 years and the layout of the 10D is so familiar that it's easy to forget that it's a digital camera. The only thing that seems strange is the location of the depth of field preview. I have to hunt for it when I need it. This is not the end of the world because a) when depth of field is critical, the subject probably doesn't move and b) I'll get used to it over time.
Highs:
- responsive (no shutter lag)
- fill in flash (controllable amount of fill)
- custom functions (focus related ones in particular)
- major functions easily accessible (drive, metering, iso, ect.)
- uses my existing lenses
- 3200 speed setting - wow!
- below 400, almost no noise at all
- beep can be turned off (it is)
- Price (new 10Ds can be found for under 1000USD)
Lows
- grip could be a bit bigger
- 2 seconds to power on
- dust (see below)
- 'auto' white balance - not!
- only manual flash with my 430EZ - guess I'll need a EX flash :-)
Here's a 3200 speed test, under incandescent light with the 'auto' white balance. I really don't see where Canon can call this auto white balance - but I don't mind the colour, actually prefer it to a photoshop corrected version. The other thing to check out here is the grain, or noise at 3200 speed. It's there, and is expected but is IMO far less than the grain in 3200 speed film. And rather similar to the 800 speed setting in the Nikon 995.
3200 test
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
Dust... Dust, dust, dust. This is totally my fault. With film, if a bit of dust gets behind the shutter and gets on the film, it shows up on one photo. Then the film and the dust move, ready for the next dust free shot. I've kept my 80-200 zoom lens in an imitation Domke wrap. Next to the wrapped lens, in my old camera bag sat my 24mm, with the 28-105 on the EOS 1. In my excitement with the new camera I grabbed the 24mm and put it right on the 10D - didn't notice that the imitation Domke wrap's loop fabric was deteriorating in my bag, leaving bits of black dust everywhere, and yup, a few bits made it's way onto the sensor. It's only visible with F/11 or smaller aperture and I've got most of it off with a blower bulb but there are a few stubborn bits. The good news is that it's easy to photoshop out and the Canon repair office is a few Km from my office, so it will get a professional clean after Australia Day.
Now, I'm adopting a new anal lens cleaning routine and am trashing my trusty old Tamrac bag (now loaded with black dust) and have replaced it with a Crumpler Tall-ee bag. Review of the Crumpler coming soon to yankinoz.
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Posted by yankinoz at 07:00 AM | Comments (0)
January 22, 2005
sydney harbour
sydney harbour
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
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Posted by yankinoz at 05:13 PM | Comments (0)
honey eater in flight
honey eater in flight
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
not perfect, but I like the shape of the wings and the bit of yellow. could be a bit sharper, but check out his eye...
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Posted by yankinoz at 10:48 AM | Comments (0)
January 19, 2005
3200 test two
3200 test two
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
There's some noise, but for being set at ISO-3200 - it's not too bad. Get used to pictures of the cat, he's always ready as a photo subject. So far, the camara feels like an old friend. It has a similar heft as my old EOS-1. and shutter lag? What shutter lag?
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Posted by yankinoz at 10:11 PM | Comments (0)
Train ride home, with the 10d
Train ride home, with the 10d
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
It works :-)
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Posted by yankinoz at 10:08 PM | Comments (0)
Rescue Mission, $187 ransom
Message brought to you by Telstra MMS
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
Customs Australia put a $187 ransom on the EOS10D. I was able to successfully rescue it from the clutches of the Sydney Gateway Facility at approximately 9AM this morning. I came away with minor bruising of the AMEX card. The battery is currently sitting on its charger. By day's end photographic evidence shall be posted.
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Posted by yankinoz at 11:24 AM | Comments (1)
January 18, 2005
Black Steel
I got a letter from the government the other day... OK, really today, and they are holding the EOS 10D ransom. I have to fill out forms and fax/post/lodge in person to learn how much duty/GST and the 'processing fee' will be. From what I can tell on the customs web site it looks like duty and GST will be about 200AUD and the fee is about 50, so all up it looks like the camera is still going to cost about 100 bucks more than a 300D. This was anticipated, but I was hoping it would slip by... It didn't.
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Posted by yankinoz at 08:47 PM | Comments (0)
EOS 10D update
Shipment Activity Location Date & Time
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ARRIVED ABROAD AUSTRALIA 01/16/05 10:13am
INTO FOREIGN CUSTOMS AUSTRALIA 01/16/05 10:13am
ACCEPTANCE SANTA BARBARA CA 93102 01/12/05 2:34pm
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Nope, I don't have it yet. It's all up to Customs now.
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Posted by yankinoz at 05:43 PM | Comments (0)
January 16, 2005
Classic Taronga Zoo Photo
Classic Taronga Zoo photo op
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
Flickr's going to be down on Sunday (North American Sunday) for some sort of update. I managed to figure out why most of my photos were not getting updated with the EXIF information. Seems a bug in the Photoshop 'save for web' function was deleting the EXIF from the JPGs. This photo from our Christmas Day trip to the Taronga Zoo and a photo of our car were upload as a test to make sure I had the EXIF fixed. (note the taken with a Nikon E995) and if you are wondering - it still don't say taken with a Canon 10D cus I'm still waiting, and waiting, and waiting :-)
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Posted by yankinoz at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)
January 13, 2005
Message brought to you by Telstra MMS
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Posted by yankinoz at 09:56 AM | Comments (0)
January 10, 2005
It Came! It Came!
OK, not the 10D, but the KMFDM Australian Tour T-Shirt. There was a mix up at the show (they claimed the car with the shirts was late because they hit a kangaroo on the way from Perth) and the shirts didn't go on sale until after the show. As you can imagine, it was a bit of a madhouse - and 1AM. Those of us on the better side of 30 were ready to go home.
Good news - the shirts were (still are) on sale at the KMFDM web site. So I got one without the wait.
Check them out at the KMFDM STORE
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Posted by yankinoz at 07:38 PM | Comments (0)
January 08, 2005
Message brought to you by Telstra MMS
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Posted by yankinoz at 05:57 PM | Comments (0)
But I want it now!
I'm in. A Digital SLR is somewhere between California and Australia as I type this and I want it now. This is one of those prices to pay for living in Oz - takes ages to get things from the USA. Fortunalty most things are readily available down under, but in the case of the Canon EOS 10D - well, they are long since sold out. The 4 or 5 of you who follow this blog will remember that I was looking for a second hand 10D on Ebay. Then I found a shop in California selling out the last of the Brand New 10Ds for only a few dollars more than the used ones were going for! (and in a few cases, the used ones were selling for more than new.) So, I bought one. I'll let you all know when it shows up, and assuming that I havn't been had, I'll let you know where you too can get an EOS 10D for under 1000 USD...
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Posted by yankinoz at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)
January 05, 2005
Sparky the Turkish Van
Sparky the Turkish Van
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
one of my very first fully digital images - and still my favourite photo of our cat. Nikon 995
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Posted by yankinoz at 06:14 PM | Comments (2)
December 29, 2004
Christmas at the zoo
Chirstmas at the zoo
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
Christmas day trip to the Zoo, photos are being uploaded a bit at a time...
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Posted by yankinoz at 02:23 PM | Comments (0)
December 28, 2004
Amy walking on the beach
Amy walking on the beach
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
This photo is from a few weeks ago. Mrs Yankinoz walking on one of Sydney's northern beaches. Shot with an EOS-1 on some old 400asa film - seems really grainy by today's standards, but has a nice feel to it anyway. I'm currently seeking out a second hand Eos 10D - finally taking the digital SLR plunge. The release of the EOS 20D has seen a flood of 10Ds on Ebay, and I'm hoping a few turn up in local camera shops (I find it hard to spend over $1000 on something I can't touch first.) But the big question I keep asking myself is 'should I trade in the film camera?' - my gut answer is no, but ever since getting the Nikon 995, well, I've used the film camera maybe a dozen times. Still, I think I'll keep it.
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Posted by yankinoz at 08:36 AM | Comments (0)
December 26, 2004
More India Photos on flickr
Mumbai's CST
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
I loaded some more photos from India onto my flickr site. This is a shot form the streets of Mumbai. The building in the background is the CST. Along with the India photos, I've uploaded some of my favourite cameraphone photos. Coming soon: Christmas day at The Taronga Zoo.
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Posted by yankinoz at 06:14 PM | Comments (0)
December 21, 2004
My camera phone doesn't do rock concerts
KMFDM, Sydney
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
Seems my camera phone doesn't do rock concerts. I do like the sort of star burst on the right. Somewhere, in there, is KMFDM; I promise.
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Posted by yankinoz at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)
December 18, 2004
KMFDM DOT KOM
Tonight! Live at The Metro - Going to shows helps me feel young, but when the band has to remind me that I've been listening to thier music for close to 2 decades (I first heard them in 88) - well, it doesn't help with the feeling young part...
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Posted by yankinoz at 05:09 PM | Comments (0)
auto-rickshaw
auto-rickshaw
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
You can tell it's Mumbai, because I was outside, and it's daylight. Being a business trip, I was mostly seeing Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai from the backseat of taxi cabs. My day off was in Mumbai, so if the photo is taken in daylight, it must be Mumbai
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Posted by yankinoz at 04:52 PM | Comments (0)
December 16, 2004
Sidesaddle
Sidesaddle
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
Wider view of the couple in the first photo posted below. This is the common way traditionally dressed Indian women ride pillion. There is a small step on the side to give them a place for their feet, and some protection from the rear wheel.
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Posted by yankinoz at 10:22 PM | Comments (0)
mumbai taxi
mumbai taxi
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
On this recent trip to India I was wanting to send digital photos to friends, family and most importantly Mrs Yankinoz. I found the Shutterfly Site - it works well for sending photos to a few people, but there isn't any (easy) way to make images public. An old friend told me about flickr, and I noticed that it has a 'blog this photo' option. Mrs Y has been blogging for a while now and it really seemed like the right combination. Kinda wish I had figured this out before the last trip - then I could be writing this from Bombay... but alas, the trip was two weeks ago and at this point, this is a blog experiment.
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Posted by yankinoz at 09:57 PM | Comments (0)
CST
CST
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
Formarly called Victoria Terminus, know known as Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus or CST for short. 11 Dec 2004
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Posted by yankinoz at 06:15 PM | Comments (0)
motorbikes in mumbai
motorbike mumbai
Originally uploaded by yankinoz.
This is what got me started. A recent business trip to India and my various efforts to share photos on line with friends and family. I tried Adobe's Shutterfly, but that was a pain. An old friend suggested flickr, so here I am, blogging from flickr to see if I can get a picture of a couple riding their motorbike through Mumbai (Bombay) out there for all to see...
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Posted by yankinoz at 06:02 PM | Comments (0)
C'mon everyone is doing it
So now I have a blog. That's all for now, I'm not exactly sure where to go from here. I have photos I want to share but didn't feel like creating a web site from scratch, so here it is; my very own blog.
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Posted by yankinoz at 12:43 PM | Comments (0)
