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This photo taken at 10:12am in Milan, Italy on April 23, 2013 represents the precise point in time when I vowed never to buy another pair of Keen shoes. That’s my 3rd pair of Keen Boston shoes in the trash can in my hotel room.

May 17th, 2013 | Tags: 10th Anniversary, apart, Arroyo, Blogging, Boston, China, claim, color, construction, customer, delaminate, delamination, detach, difference, dispose, Europe, fall, fall apart, Finlay, footwear, glue, homage, Keen, leather, Newport, online, poor, premature, present, Problem, purchace, quality, replacement, rubber, sandal, separation, service, shoes, sole, store, support, Targhee, trash, Travel, upper, warranty, wear, website, worn | Category: Life Lessons, Travel, gear, reviews | Comments (1)

To me the Olympus OM-D marks the tipping point where the Micro Four Thirds format made the leap from a good idea in theory to a good idea in practice.

February 24th, 2013 | Tags: 12-50mm, 12mm, 14mm, 20mm, 25mm, 30D, 35mm, 45mm, 5-axis, 50mm, 5D, 60mm, 6D, AEL, AF, aperture, APS-C, auto, auto focus, battery, bokeh, button, camera, Canon, chimping, compact, custom, depth of field, digital, dpreview.com, DSLR, E-10, E-M5, E-P1, easy, enthusiast, ergonomics, EVF, example, experience, experienced, eye, f/1.4, f/1.7, f/1.8, f/2, f/2.5, face, fast fifty, FF, field of view, five axis, Flickr, Fn1, Fn2, focus, FoV, full frame, full sized, grip, hand, hand held, high, HLD-6, ideal, image quality, IQ, IS, ISO, k10d, kit, LCD, lens, light, Lightroom, long exposure, low light, Lowepro, Lumix, manual, manual focus, MF, MFT, Micro Four Thirds, MKII, MKIII, motion, Olympus, OM-D, Panasonic, pancake, Pentax, photographer, prime, priority, professional, program, quality, RAW, Rebel XT, resolution, review, Robert S. Donovan, sample, sharpness, slr, small, speed, stability, studio, system, test, Travel, user, viewfinder, weather sealed, WYSIWYG, zoom | Category: Photography, Stuff, gear, reviews | Leave a comment

If you have done similar research, and as evidenced by the photo at the top of this post, you surely know that there was only one camera choice for me: the remarkable new Olympus E-M5 OM-D. So, right after Christmas I ordered up an OM-D along with an Olympus 45mm f/1.8 lens and Panasonic’s 14mm f/2.5 and 20mm f/1.7 pancake lenses. Over the first 3 weeks I have already logged over 2,000 shots on the OM-D and have sold my 30D kit on eBay. I can tell you that the OM-D is really quite an amazing camera system.

January 20th, 2013 | Tags: 14mm, 16MP, 17-40mm f/4.0 L USM, 20mm, 30D, 5D, 6D, adobe, APS-C, articulating, Canon, compact, CSC, decision, DSLR, E-M5, E-P1, EF 50mm f/1.4 USM, EVF, f/1.7, f/1.8, f/2.5, Fuji, full frame, ILC, in-body, IS, k10d, LCD, light, Lightroom, MFT, Micro Four Thirds, MK II, NEX, Olympus, OM-D, Panasonic, pancake, Pentax, purchase, Robert S. Donovan, Sony, Travel, user, X-E1, X-Pro1 | Category: Photography, Stuff, gear | Comments (6)

My current Chinese visa expires on August 19, 2012. The visas I typically get are good for 12 months and allow me to stay in China for up to 60 days at a time (not that my wife would EVER allow me to stay for 60 days). If I tried to enter China today (June 20, 2012) my visa would expire within the 60 days. The Chinese government does not like this sort of thing so I need a new visa. Unfortunately, my passport that I have had since 2003 was due to expire in February 2013. This means that my passport would expire before my new Chinese visa would. Time to get a new passport.

July 20th, 2012 | Tags: CAR-FRESHNER, Caribbean, China, departure, entry, Europe, exit, Hong Kong, immigration, Italy, Nevis, new, old, Paris, passport, RoBrady Design, Shanghai, stamp, Taiwan, Techtronic Industries, Travel, TSA, TTi, US State Department, used, visa, worn | Category: My life, Travel | Leave a comment