Archive for February, 2009
Flashy gadget
Ever since I got my Nikon D40, I wanted to have a little something for it to aid me in making better shots.
Yes, you’ve guessed it: I wanted to get an external flash!
I went out to get me a lovely Nikon Speedlight SB-400, and that is what I achieved.
I’m pretty chuffed about that. 
You’ll see me posting pics I made with it attached to my cam real soon!
Please do note the spelling-error on the bag the flash comes in.
Together with the flash, I bought an omnibounce to avoid flashing everything to pieces.
It turned out only the Sto-Fen bounce was available at the place I bought it, so I went for that one.
It really works fine for me, yet it adds to the bulkyness of the camera+flash. Oh well, with an SB-900 attached to my D40 it would look weird too. 
Below are two pics of my gear, stuffed in the bag.
You’re looking at the SB400 and an Giottos Air Rocket on the left and the D40 with the 55-200 (non-VR) attached to it in the center.
The right hand side of the picture shows you the diffuser, my IR-remote, a no-brand battery and my Hoya Pola-filter in the upper part; and the 18-55 that came with the body in the lower part.
The bag itself is a Crumpler Pretty Boy backpack, which served me well the last year.
It’s not the most professional kit, but I’m happy with it.
Currently, I’m looking into buying a macro-enabled lens with built-in focus-motor, but those are hard to get by (and pretty expensive too!) Oh well, we’ll see.
Sportive success
The weekend before last (being Saturday February 14th and Sunday February 15th) my girlfriend and I participated in a tournament at Delft.
It’s called the Delft ABCD 2009 tournament, and enables players of all four levels to compete against each other in the levely scenery of the hall.
We have attended the tournament before, yet weren’t able to win anything. Last year I ended up losing the semi-final in the men’s singles, and didn’t get far with the other disciplines (mixed doubles or men’s doubles).
This year, all is different! I played in the C-level, which isn’t too bad. I’m wishing I could do better, but the B-level is just very tough. Maybe next year?
Together with a dear friend, we lost the men’s doubles game just before the semi-finals (3rd round) which was kind of disappointing. Luckily we lost to the winners of the tournament, so all’s not lost.
The men’s singles didn’t work out differently from last year; I lost the semi-final match. (Also to the winner of the tournament, although that’s a bad excuse.)
What cheered me up though was the fact that my girlfriend and I won the semi-final in the mixed doubles! So we were obliged to compete in the finals of a tournament! A first for us.
Sunday, around 4 PM (and about 2.5 hours late) we started playing the final match, and gloriously won! I’m still amazed at this.
Here’s the proof of my losing the semi-final and winning the tournament for mixed doubles on the C-level!
Winners & my tournament.
Next weekend is the next tournament. We’ll see what happens there!
Some patience required
Finally, after over half a year of waiting, and stressing the vendor to finally complete our order, the final pieces of our table have been delivered!
With over 6 months of looking at white inserts in our table, they are today replaced for the official slabs of lay we originally purchased.
Below is the final result, and for those who’ve visited us: they look way better.
Note: yes, we’ve gotten compensation for the looooooooong wait.