Bit of a Conundrum..Liga Privada or Punch Churchill

I think Hugh gave me this last summer, I say this because it would seem a foregone conclusion that I would smoke the havana.  But there is a chance it will be the the hard core choice of many other smokers.  I don't smoke many of these Drew cigars anymore, just no time.  But the ones I have smoked have been very thoughtfully blended.  Nice smokes.  So it IS a bit harder choice than it would seem, and the weather is batshit today...GUSTY winds, 40-50-60 mph from the SW.  SO it might be warmer in air temp, it is still a tough smoke outdoors.  I might get away with one indoors today, since it is 'warm out there', mid 50s I guess.  Warm enough to flush smoke out of the house and not freeze in the process.

Went out today and shot some pics with this last new wrinkle of my overall plan to dominate the world through cameras.  I love the world that you see through a wide angle lens.  It reminds me of looking through a viewfinder and roaming the eye around in this square little world, reading what I can around it's periphery, trying to see what the camera claims its doing.  You have to get right up close to what you want to shoot, or there is really no shot.  The Sigma 10-20mm ultra-wide angle lens is fairly accurate in how it presents the world, with just a little linear distortion, which most photographers would say they prefer, to enhance the other-worldly quality of their results.  This is not something you use to go show someone how straight you are building their house.  But if you don't use a ruler to measure lines in your little world, then you can take this lens and create pictures that force a viewer to confront them.    In a private world, where people are doing candid street photography with a 200mm lens from across the street to capture private little moments in the lives of others, this lens tells you that if you want to see anything, you had better go introduce yourself to it.

  
Well HEY there, Queen Amidala, I didn't mean to catch you getting out of the tub, but I wondered if you could help me straighten something out..."

I went back to shoot some more pictures behind this bar, and was shocked at how far away I had to stand to get anything substantial in my shot.  I had been so spoiled by the field of view in ONE DAY, that I couldn't live without it.

I could take a picture of something intimate without having to wait for people to move.  Furthermore, if the background was no problem, I could get lazy with the framing and leave a ton of red bricks in the photo, or I could fill the frame with graffiti.

I tried this shot again the next day and I had to stand IN THE STREET to frame it only a little wider than this.  In this particular frame, I am standing a foot from this brick wall.  Man that lens is capable.  Which is why I really have to smoke a cigar, to celebrate the end of me buying cameras and camera-related accouterments.  I hope I never spend another cent on metal and glass, just relax in a zone where everything used somehow miraculously manages to stay intact in my hands and take great pictures until I pass it on to someone else, and on and on until it no longer functions in a world that has passed it by.  Now, to see if I can take a great picture.  For tomorrow the ninjas may take my camera.