made

Today, I had my first affirmation that I am a serious photographer (even though I'm not really).

I was taking pictures of buildings in Oakland City Center when a security guard came up to me and asked if I had permission to take photographs there. I replied that I was not aware I needed a permit to take pictures in a public area. He replied that Oakland City Center is in fact private. I was not allowed to take pictures there, "especially not with a tripod." Just goes to show how professional a wisely-invested $27.99 will make you look. (For those who want to look like a pro, you can pick up your own Sunpak 9001UT from the 'zon).

Having said that, the incident only further convinced me that my next zoom lens needs to have image stabilization, so I won't need a tripod in busy places.

In other news, I'm officially pronoucing Kingston Technologies the culprit behind the pictures I've lost over the last month. I've taken hundreds of shots with a (cheaper) SanDisk CompactFlash card for the last couple of days with nary a glitch. Where's that warranty card?