Well my Fuji s9k is back in my hands after a brief visit to Fuji Canada. A few weeks ago, the capture mode just suddenly shut down. I tried changing batteries, but it still wouldn't work. So I hand delivered the cam to Fuji, and picked it up early last week. As it turns out, they could find nothing wrong with it other than possibly dirty battery contacts.

It's working fine now, as you'll see if you drop by Flickr to see some new images.

Being without the Fuji didn't stop me from shooting, however. I have my D70 and it was quite nice to re-aquaint myself with that camera. It really is an excellent piece of equipment. Because it is a true DSLR, the lenses are removeable, so there is always the risk of dust on the sensor. I have to get into the habit of blowing out the interior of that cam before I use it, whether it needs it or not. Inevitably, if I *don't* do this, something ends up on the sensor and I find myself in Photoshop or Fireworks doing some clean up work. (As a side note, the Healing Brush and Spot Healing brush have become *very* good friends of mine.)

The weather is getting nicer so I find myself travelling around more often. For quite some time, I wasn't shooting for myself. I never realized how much I missed doing that. How relaxing and exciting it is at the same time. I've been shooting for myself  much more over the past few weeks and it feels great. A nice break from parking my butt in front of my PC all the time and it also helps sharpen my visual design skills. I have plans to go with a friend to shoot a wind farm that is about 2 hours outside of Toronto. We're aiming to shoot either early morning or dusk (for the added drama). I can't wait to see what we come up with. 

Out of all my friends, I was one of the very last to get a cell phone. Then, 2 years later, I was one of the last to upgrade (yes, at MAX two years ago, people laughed at my phone openly). Cell phones have always been, to me, a phone. They make and take calls. I'm happy.

This year, right before MAX, we reupped our plan and replaced our phones. I wanted one that would go online so I could start checking sites and such. The only one my carrier (SunCom) sold that fit the bill was a Nokia 6670.

It's been quite a transition to remember that I can do things other than talk on it. I admit, I've barely tested any web sites on it, but recently, I began to remember occasionally that I could take photos (I even put a few up from my recent ski trip on my Flickr page).

Today though, I learned something really useful. I wanted some less boring ringtones, so I went to the Suncom site. They were simply awful. Hokey. I was complaining to my friend, Jesse Rodgers at the University of Waterloo, about it (he has the same phone) and he came back with a profound statement. "Just load an mp3 over to it." Huh? How in the world would I do that? Turns out that with Bluetooth, which I use to get the photos off my phone, I can put MP3 files on my phone. Who knew! :)

Thus began a slightly frustrating journey that Jesse helped me through (did I say "thank you" Jesse?). I'm sharing it here in case someone else wants to do the same thing.

1. Find the song you want to send over from your computer. Make sure it's in MP3 format.
2. Under your bluetooth menu, select "Send file..." Navigate to the file, click Send, and choose your device.
3. You'll need to then click OK on your phone to accept the file.
4. Nokia accepts this file as a text message and thus, it will appear in your Messages > Inbox. You must move it to your memory card for it to work as a ring tone.
5. It will likely start autoplaying. Hit stop. Click Options (on the bottom left) and choose Save. Place it on your memory card in the Sound Clips folder. Make sure to delete it from your Inbox to save space in the phone memory.
6. Now go to Menu > Profiles (either choose an existing profile to change or create a new one). Look for the name of the MP3 file you just saved in the list. Select it and Save.

Voila! Call yourself from another phone to hear your new ringtone. ;)