Some external storage

I bought a Seagate FreeAgent 500GB 7200RPM 3.5" hard disk drive.
My laptop crashed couple of weeks back and I lost some of my early photos from the D80 along with some other personal documents and source code. So I decided to get a decent backup drive. I was looking for more GBs for money than the size or the looks. This I think is worth at $125.
I usually shop at Amazon but this one, I bought from NewEgg. It's quite fast and I don't have anything to complain about it so far.

Gopuram

On the day we arrived in Oklahoma City, we searched for Indian cuisines around our hotel through Google maps. And the first restaurant that came up in that search was the Gopuram.

The reason for this post is that service at Gopuram is among the finest I've ever experienced, and their food is just as good as their service. The waiters there are pleasant, energetic and friendly. No matter how long their day may have been, they always smile and greet you well - and most of all, appear happy. Unlike in most places, they don't get in your way or bug you. But they are always there when you need them. It doesn't matter for them that who served you first, you can ask any waiter for service and they would happily provide that to you. They'd share couple of minutes to have a chat with you but makes sure not to cause a disturbance.

So if you ever come to Oklahoma City, go there for relaxed fine Indian dining.

http://www.gopuramtasteofindia.com/

USB

Lovely friends

Enjoying the D80

Hafner Lake

Coins

1S - f/4.5 - ISO200 - 70mm - Auto white balancing

Face to Face

1S - f/4.5 - ISO200 - 70mm - Auto white balancing

Oklahoma city skyline

1S (hand held and a bit shaken) - F/11 @ 24mm - ISO 1000

Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4.5 DC Macro

I bought a AF-S VR Zoom-Nikor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED lens with the D80, which I soon realized is too narrow for most average photos (given the fact that it's effective focal length is 105 - 450mm in 35mm format). So I wanted to buy a normal wide angle zoom lens. A bit of research made me select the Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4.5 DC Macro lens.

It arrived today and so far it seems to perform really well.

Sunset

1/40s - F/6.3 - 220mm (330 in 35mm film) - ISO 1250 hand held

I love the 300mm

1/160s - F/5.6 - +0.7EV (by mistake) @300mm (into 1.5) - Direct Sunlight - ISO 100

In Oklahoma

I came down to Oklahoma City yesterday for a 18 day business visit.

Some how air travel seems to be going bad for me these days. I had the flight from Milwaukee to Chicago at 1.20, me being me, went to the airport around 12. Had lunch at the airport and went through the security check and arrived at the gate at around 12.40. The flight got delayed because of bad weather and they didn't start boarding till 3 PM. When we finally boarded the air craft, the ground staff delayed our flight for another one and half hours. All this was just for a 25 minute flight. I could have driven to Chicago within one and half hours.

By the time I reached Chicago, I was 2 hours late for my flight to Oklahoma. They had scheduled another flight for me at 9PM, which got delayed for another three and half hours. So by the time I finally reached Oklahoma City, it was 3.30 in the morning, the following day!!

I bought a Garmin GPS navigator just before I left Milwaukee and it's proving itself to be quite a worth investment. I don't know how I would have managed without it.

Through my window

The D80 arrived

I received my Nikon D80 yesterday. I only bought a AF-S VR Zoom-Nikor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED with it and soon realized it's too narrow to be a multi purpose lens - so going to require another wide angle lens together with the Nikon AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D which I had already planned to buy. I also bought a Nikon branded backpack, an extra EN-EL3e battery pack and a 2GB Sandisk Extreme III SD card.

I hope to spend a lot of time with this monster in the coming days.

New Year Wishes

May your heart always be warm
May your mind always be calm
May your health always be good
and, May you have a happy new year!