It was a pretty quiet weekend for me, despite it being a holiday and all. Friday night I hit the movie theater with a group including Cari’s very cute Scottish friend Doug to see Bewitched. I didn’t actually like it all that much. It had a few good lines, but on the whole, something about it bugged me. Nicole Kidman was too cute (though I did like her cute wardrobe), and Will Ferrell was too…something.
Saturday I did zilch. Nada. Nothing. I slept till 11, worked out, watched the first stage of the Tour de France. I did leave home to go by Barnes and Noble, then returned to sit around on my duff for the evening. It was lovely.
Sunday I spent most of the day repeating Saturday (zilch, nada, nothing, Tour de France) until evening, when I joined everyone for dinner at Carrabba’s and a showing of War of the Worlds. Dude. It was scary. Not like “BOO, gotcha” with things jumping out at you, but scary in the just plain seriously scary way. (If that makes any sense at all.) I had trouble sleeping on Sunday night, partly because I went to bed late and was worried I wouldn’t wake up in time on Monday morning, but partly because I was freaked out by the movie! It was good. And scary.
Yesterday morning I was up bright and early to shoot the Run Wild 5K over near the Galleria. It was freaking hot. It has been so hot the past month, and there has been no rain. June was the driest June in the past 70 years or something. It is SO hot. I want it to just pour down rain, not because I think the rain would actually cool things off, but just to give a respite from the oppressive heat. After almost two hours of photographing the racers and post-race party, I was as sweaty and nasty as I’d have been if I’d run the race myself.
I had a lot of fun shooting the race, as usual, except that my 75-300 lens acted up again. This is the second time that the autofocus has gone on the fritz while shooting a race, and I still have not pinpointed the reason why. The first time it happened was in April, when I was using my 10D and the 10D battery grip. I never used the battery grip again, and never again had the AF problem.
Cut to yesterday. I now own the 20D, and used the 20D with the lens without a problem a month ago at a triathlon. Yesterday I used the 20D with 20D battery grip for the first time, and the lens AF went out again. Would not autofocus under any circumstances. I got rid of the battery grip and changed to the less ideal 28-135 lens, and shot the rest of the race with that. When I got home, I put the 75-300 back on and voila, AF was back and working as expected.
I really can’t figure out what’s going on. The best I can figure is that somehow the 75-300 lens does not work well when using the battery grip. Now this would seem to indicate that somehow the battery grip contacts are not meeting exactly right such that the shutter will trip but the AF will not. I’m clueless. I have no idea what’s going on. It makes me mad that I can’t seem to successfully use the battery grip, because it certainly makes shooting vertically a lot more comfortable.
In any case, the lens works. It works perfectly. Except when I’m using the battery grip. Ugh.
Anyway. After shooting the race I came home to cool down in the loveliness of my air-conditioned apartment, then met Jason for the Independence Day showdown between the Astros and Padres. The Astros won 4-1 on a complete game from Oswalt and a 3-run homer from Biggio. Jason and I also sat in Rich’s season seats, since Rich wasn’t there, and thoroughly enjoyed them. They’re right behind the plate in the upper deck. Very nice.
Last night I went over to the Becca household for a cookout and fireworks, only the cooking lasted too long and we missed the fireworks. Oh well. We heard all about Gavin and Jen’s trip to Hawaii (so jealous) and watched poor Apache limp around on three legs. Apache was funny and yet pathetic; when I walked into the house she hobbled around to find something to fetch — she wants to play fetch despite the fact that she has a torn ACL! Becca always said that dog would kill herself if it meant playing fetch, and apparently that’s not far from the truth.
