Allegedly a picture is worth a thousand words. I thought so too, until my English teacher failed the paper that I did on
Romeo and Juliet. He did say it had to be at least 2000 words, so I figured rather then stay up all night writing - like a fool - I'd just hand in a couple pictures pertaining to the subject. I figured after the whole week we spent in class learning about irony, he would be pleased that the student had now become the teacher.
I was wrong.
Of course, it probably didn't help that the pictures were of Leonardo DiCaprio in that
1996 flick - English teachers can always tell when you've just watched the movie instead of actually reading the book.
And that's the story of how I ended up in summer school.
Ok, so not a lot of that actually happened. But hey, it's the internet right? The place where facts go to die. So, seeing as that was neither a true, nor entertaining story, what purpose did it serve? Well, my little Traviphiles
*, the purpose it did serve was to introduce the topic of photographs to our little discussion.
As some as you may or may not know, my father and I share ownership of a Pentax K10D Digital SLR camera. A unit that we are both very happy with, and one that shoots very nice, high quality pictures. I'm sure all of you are very excited at the mere notion that for all of August you will have new, high quality pictures of yours truly lounging along the Mediterranean in an overly-revealing Speedo. Well, prepare to be disappointed.
Ladies, exhale a sigh of relief, because I'm not putting the kibosh on the Speedo. Even though I'm not actually going into Rome, I still plan to do as the Romans do. And the Romans (or in this case Europeans in general) rock a mean banana-hammock. What I am nixing is the Pentax. Why? Well, to answer that question, first you need a little background information on motorcycles. First of all, they don't have trunks. Second of all they don't have glove boxes. Third of all they don't have a floor in the back seat... do you see where I'm going with this? Luggage is going to be a little tight. My plan is to roll with 2 pannier bags and a backpack. I won't get too specific, because that could be fodder for an all-new, all-exciting future blog post, but just understand that the Lowepro backpack that we store the Pentax in is the size of one of my panniers. Meaning, that essentially one camera would be taking up a third of my luggage. If that doesn't seem ridiculous to you, then you probably also think Carrot Top's style of humour is subtle and perhaps a little
too smart for mainstream audiences which is why they are unable to grasp the subtle nuances of his art.
So, where does that leave me (and by extension, you) in terms of photography? Well, last night, Canada Post put our minds at ease...
I give you, the Panasonic DMC-TZ5:
• 9.1 MP
• 10X optical zoom
• 720p HD movie mode
Basically it's 230 grams of pure awesomeness. If I know my parents, they're already thinking: 'Yeah, but how much?' Well, it retails for $379, but being the ever-resourceful fellow that I am, I was able to secure mine for a final cost of $269. Pretty decent savings, so long as you don't mind buying it out of the back of a van in a dark alley...
Anyways, that combined with the Helmet Cam (above), as
previously mentioned, should make for many bright images to accompany this blog in future posts. And, seeing that a picture is worth a thousand words, then that can only be a good thing, because I think we can all agree that this current post has run a tad on the long side.
* The term 'Traviphile' refers to a person who is enthusiastic about me and my random internet musings.
