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Cardinal Young Alumni (C-YA) is a social and resource group for recent (and not so recent) graduates of Stanford University. I sound like I’m an old man, but when I was younger, I used to go to more of these events. In recent years, however, there haven’t been a lot of events happening in the South Bay, hence my prolonged absence.

Given that I was in Palo Alto this evening to meet up with Randy, I decided to stop by Fanny & Alexanders to see who was there. Beforehand, I was at the Apple Store checking out the new 10GB iPod that Steve Jobs announced at MacWorld. They had plenty of the new iMacs (complete with the the extra $100 price tag), but they didn’t have the stunning 23-inch Apple Cinema HD Display yet. Now that’s what I call a lovely display!

When I arrived shortly before 7:00 pm, there weren’t that many people there. Felix was there, along with Jim, whom I haven’t seen in ages. I met some Stanford alums like Elaine (’99), Sarah (’00) and Stephanie (’00), along with Amit (budding journalist) and two ’97 alums in Natalie and Ashish. Of course, I didn’t know any of these people when I was at Stanford, which proving to be the case more often than not. Our five-year reunion is coming up this October. Trippy indeed!

To say it was dark outside is a gross understatement. All the images here (except for the last two at ISO1600) were taken at ISO3200 with the 1D. I was pushing the limits of the camera’s operational range by shooting wide-open at 1/20s with the 50/1.4. The results speak for themselves — this is a kicking camera! That being said, I can’t wait until I load my Leica up with some T-MAX 3200 film and push it to ISO6400 or ISO25000. That will give my images a look that digital just can’t match today.