Playing with mom’s camera
My next purchase (after a kettle for brewing) will be an SLR camera. I’m going to get a used rig, likely a Nikon due to a long-standing admiration of their products, and then build a lens collection on top of the initial buy. Since I can’t get that now, as a student (but maybe this fall? Who knows?) I decided to take mom’s camera for a spin. Mom received a Nikon D40 nearly 5 years ago for Christmas. Unfortunately, she never cared nor had the desire to care for the capabilities for her camera, and my attempts to swap her camera for my point and shoot never panned out. While the D40 is no superb camera, it does have some neat capabilities. (The camera I used is a D40X, the as the D40 was removed from our possession along with our other electronics in September 2007).
To make a long story short, mom lost the box for her camera which included a viewfinder cover, and we don’t have a remote trigger. Despite these shortcomings, I attempted some long-exposure shots of Summerside Harbour under our full moon. The shot linked below was taken around 11:15PM on Friday night, and is full of artefacts due to shakiness of covering the back and pressing the trigger. It’s a start.
Musings: Cappuccino Coffee Food Hipster New PEI Samuel's Starbucks Summerside
by Ben
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Samuel’s: It’s definitely not Starbucks
Summerside finally has good coffee. Not great coffee, mind you, but very good coffee. Samuel’s has been open in the old Moving Designz space at Queen St and Water St (the Journal-Pioneer building) for about a week now. While the title of this post cheekily compares it to Starbucks, that’s just not fair to Seattle’s pride. Samuel’s is better. The barista who served me seemed green – his customer service was a tad underdeveloped, and his coffee needed finesse, but it was certainly one of the better cappuccinos I’ve had on PEI – if not the best.
The space has a simple decor, with brick walls painted white (a holdover from Moving Designz, if I recall correctly), comfortable black chairs, and plenty of light. One of the neatest parts of the space is the vault, which is tucked away, providing a seating for four, in two distinct sections. If you want a quiet conversation, the vault is probably your best bet. Half of the space had yet to be fitted out, and I’m unsure as to whether they plan to expand the seating into the side room. The wifi at Samuel’s was relatively snappy. I’m a bit more of a fan of bare-brick and more wood, but I did enjoy the location.
If my espresso machine were on the fritz or if I absolutely needed a coffee downtown I’d be there in a heartbeat, but it’s hard to justify paying for a cuppa when comparable quality can be produced at home. The shop was bustling, however, with a few seemingly retired couples, a young family on vacation, and a middle aged woman working on her computer. For a Thursday afternoon I was quite impressed. I’m sure I’ll be back at least once more before my vacation is over.
I’m quite confident Samuel’s will be around for a while, and that’s great for this town. Now my focus must shift: getting a good bar with freshly prepared food and impeccable beer. Once we have that, my love affair with Halifax may finally be severed.
