Had baby Navilyn (and parents) over for dinner last night. She seemed rather contemplative. For more photos of Navilyn, go here.
The Thinker
Had baby Navilyn (and parents) over for dinner last night. She seemed rather contemplative. For more photos of Navilyn, go here.
George the Flasher
Perhaps I should qualify the title. We're talking about flash photography here, not what you're probably thinking. Sicko.
I've been in a number of situations lately that required the use of flash (and specifically, off-camera flash) to get the desired photograph. I've long since learned that the pop-up flash on your camera does little more than blanket a subject in harsh light. Sure it lets you capture the subject in low-light levels, but usually at the expense of any vibrancy the scene once had. But flash itself is not evil as I once thought. Properly applied it can open up a whole realm of possibilities.
But simply knowing about photographic techniques and actually applying them are two totally different beasts. It takes a lot of repetition to understand the variables, and even more to be able to control them effectively. Unfortunately, for most people this repetition can turn a tolerable experience into a painful one. Obviously I could practice on inanimate objects (or less grumpy people), but I feel that portraiture is a whole other world than still-life photography. Sure they are very similar, but the human element adds a dimension of emotion and unpredictability. And it's the type of photography that I'm least comfortable with, so I want to improve.
So what else is a man to do when his wife has gone off for the evening? Why, take pictures of himself, of course! I think being in control of the flash makes it seem less harsh. More importantly, having the time to make mistakes is critical to the learning process. So I spent an hour or two fiddling with tripods, flash, and camera, making serious faces (or seriously goofy faces?), and hoping that this time I was actually in the picture. I have to admit that being on the other side of the lens is a very odd experience... but I wasn't about to let that stop me!
The results? Mostly crappy photos that I won't be sharing. But I did learn a bit more about diffusing light, and also a bit more about how to control my own flash (it's an old Vivitar flash that's actually made for a Canon *hiss*). I am fairly pleased with one of the photos though. I've given it a bit of a scrub in Lightroom and Photoshop Elements. Let me know what you think.
I've been in a number of situations lately that required the use of flash (and specifically, off-camera flash) to get the desired photograph. I've long since learned that the pop-up flash on your camera does little more than blanket a subject in harsh light. Sure it lets you capture the subject in low-light levels, but usually at the expense of any vibrancy the scene once had. But flash itself is not evil as I once thought. Properly applied it can open up a whole realm of possibilities.
But simply knowing about photographic techniques and actually applying them are two totally different beasts. It takes a lot of repetition to understand the variables, and even more to be able to control them effectively. Unfortunately, for most people this repetition can turn a tolerable experience into a painful one. Obviously I could practice on inanimate objects (or less grumpy people), but I feel that portraiture is a whole other world than still-life photography. Sure they are very similar, but the human element adds a dimension of emotion and unpredictability. And it's the type of photography that I'm least comfortable with, so I want to improve.
So what else is a man to do when his wife has gone off for the evening? Why, take pictures of himself, of course! I think being in control of the flash makes it seem less harsh. More importantly, having the time to make mistakes is critical to the learning process. So I spent an hour or two fiddling with tripods, flash, and camera, making serious faces (or seriously goofy faces?), and hoping that this time I was actually in the picture. I have to admit that being on the other side of the lens is a very odd experience... but I wasn't about to let that stop me!
The results? Mostly crappy photos that I won't be sharing. But I did learn a bit more about diffusing light, and also a bit more about how to control my own flash (it's an old Vivitar flash that's actually made for a Canon *hiss*). I am fairly pleased with one of the photos though. I've given it a bit of a scrub in Lightroom and Photoshop Elements. Let me know what you think.
The times are changin'
It's a rainy Saturday afternoon, so it seems like a perfect opportunity to keep the world up-to-date on the latest happenings of my life.
October 31st was my last day at the company I have been with for over 4.5 years. No hard feelings, but it was time to move on. It certainly made for some interesting goodbyes though, seeing as I was dressed up for Halloween. I may post a picture if I get a hold of one, but let's just say that I'm sure I made a lasting impression.
I decided to take a week off before starting my new job, just to decompress, clear my cache, and get some stuff done that I've been meaning to do. I'm very excited about my new job; the product looks slick and useful and I think I'll get lots of opportunity to show my skillz. They are in north Waterloo so it's a short commute, but hopefully the Intrigue can handle a few more clicks.
[Side note: I'm not mentioning any company names because I'd like to keep some degree of separation between my work and private life. Please keep that in mind if you make comments.]
As I mentioned, I've had the week off, and while I didn't quite get done everything I envisioned, I'm happy with what I have accomplished. But instead of having one massively large post, just click here and here to see what I've been up to. Other than that I've been playing lazy househusband (fairly well I think!)... I may get used to the "stay-at-home" thing. ;)
October 31st was my last day at the company I have been with for over 4.5 years. No hard feelings, but it was time to move on. It certainly made for some interesting goodbyes though, seeing as I was dressed up for Halloween. I may post a picture if I get a hold of one, but let's just say that I'm sure I made a lasting impression.
I decided to take a week off before starting my new job, just to decompress, clear my cache, and get some stuff done that I've been meaning to do. I'm very excited about my new job; the product looks slick and useful and I think I'll get lots of opportunity to show my skillz. They are in north Waterloo so it's a short commute, but hopefully the Intrigue can handle a few more clicks.
[Side note: I'm not mentioning any company names because I'd like to keep some degree of separation between my work and private life. Please keep that in mind if you make comments.]
As I mentioned, I've had the week off, and while I didn't quite get done everything I envisioned, I'm happy with what I have accomplished. But instead of having one massively large post, just click here and here to see what I've been up to. Other than that I've been playing lazy househusband (fairly well I think!)... I may get used to the "stay-at-home" thing. ;)
I'm a lumberjack, and that's okay...
The first major task I had this week was the removal of our two unsightly and photon-absorbing maple trees in the back yard.
I have a 10" chainsaw that came with the house, and it was great for lopping off the limbs, but cutting through the 8" and 12" trunks proved to be more difficult.
I enlisted the help of sleep-deprived Ryan to assist with the trunk removal. With a combination of the chain saw and a newly-purchased bow saw we felled the trees. And that is where The Grinder came in.
This beast of a machine chewed up the stump like a demented beaver on steroids. We rented it from Home Depot, along with a good-sized roto-tiller (and thankfully we had the Suburban). After we clean up the mess and put some sod down there should be no trace of The Maple Duo.
PS: Shout out to my sister for the lumberjack connection.
I have a 10" chainsaw that came with the house, and it was great for lopping off the limbs, but cutting through the 8" and 12" trunks proved to be more difficult.
I enlisted the help of sleep-deprived Ryan to assist with the trunk removal. With a combination of the chain saw and a newly-purchased bow saw we felled the trees. And that is where The Grinder came in.
This beast of a machine chewed up the stump like a demented beaver on steroids. We rented it from Home Depot, along with a good-sized roto-tiller (and thankfully we had the Suburban). After we clean up the mess and put some sod down there should be no trace of The Maple Duo.
PS: Shout out to my sister for the lumberjack connection.
They's organized!
Between Carolyn and me, our three cameras, and the various well-intentioned but never-completed re-organizational backups, we had amassed about 160,000 files spanning two hard-drives amounting to about 450 GB. Of that, 150GB was an exact duplicate of images due to a recent migration to a bigger hard-drive. That still left me with about 115,000 photos (300GB) that were haphazardly organized, thus giving me no easy way to confidently determine which files I could delete because they were duplicates.
So, as any craftsman would do, I put my own skills to the test and wrote a program. This software would compile a list of all the images files I have, generate a comprehensive structure in which to store the files, and eliminate all duplicates (including JPG versions of RAW files). It would also convert all my (proprietary Nikon) RAW files to (open) Adobe DNG format, and embed pertinent IPTC data (creator, copyright, etc.) into each image as well.
It took me the better part of the week to do it but finally the software - Photo Organizer Lite - was finished. (I scrapped the previous two incarnations - Photo Organizer and Photo Organizer Basic, as they were really too ambitious for the task at hand.) It's actually still running as I write this, but the most critical work is complete - the photo re-organization. Of the 157,359 images the software found 89330 exact duplicates, 7260 duplicate RAW files (where a DNG had already been created), and 29228 duplicate JPGs (where a RAW version already existed).
The happy result is a sensible organization of only about 32,000 unique images (I'll have an exact number when it's complete). I've just freed up almost 350GB of space and I can now confidently find any picture I'm looking for (presuming that I know approximately when it was taken). The next step will be to tag all my images with appropriate keywords (see The Daunting Task) so that my photos will not only be organized, but easily searchable. Methinks that will have to wait until the next time I have a full week off...
PS: In case you didn't catch it, the title is a reference to Chicken Run.
PPS: Oh, and special thanks to Jack who had a hand in (impeding) the development of this software.
So, as any craftsman would do, I put my own skills to the test and wrote a program. This software would compile a list of all the images files I have, generate a comprehensive structure in which to store the files, and eliminate all duplicates (including JPG versions of RAW files). It would also convert all my (proprietary Nikon) RAW files to (open) Adobe DNG format, and embed pertinent IPTC data (creator, copyright, etc.) into each image as well.
It took me the better part of the week to do it but finally the software - Photo Organizer Lite - was finished. (I scrapped the previous two incarnations - Photo Organizer and Photo Organizer Basic, as they were really too ambitious for the task at hand.) It's actually still running as I write this, but the most critical work is complete - the photo re-organization. Of the 157,359 images the software found 89330 exact duplicates, 7260 duplicate RAW files (where a DNG had already been created), and 29228 duplicate JPGs (where a RAW version already existed).
The happy result is a sensible organization of only about 32,000 unique images (I'll have an exact number when it's complete). I've just freed up almost 350GB of space and I can now confidently find any picture I'm looking for (presuming that I know approximately when it was taken). The next step will be to tag all my images with appropriate keywords (see The Daunting Task) so that my photos will not only be organized, but easily searchable. Methinks that will have to wait until the next time I have a full week off...
PS: In case you didn't catch it, the title is a reference to Chicken Run.
PPS: Oh, and special thanks to Jack who had a hand in (impeding) the development of this software.
Best game ever
I think most people would agree that the best game of all time is pong. I remember playing black & white pong (or its variants, tennis or hockey, all in one system!) when I was a wee lad. Well, I think pong is about to make a huge comeback. Check this out:
http://www.electronicmiracles.com/?s2=4&s3=13&p=1
So cool!
[Postscript - Nov 7th, 2008]
After some joint research with my mom, we finally found the gaming system that we owned.
Those were the days.
http://www.electronicmiracles.com/?s2=4&s3=13&p=1
So cool!
[Postscript - Nov 7th, 2008]
After some joint research with my mom, we finally found the gaming system that we owned.
Those were the days.
Baby's first snow
Yes, it was our baby's first snowfall this morning. What a moment it was. She didn't show it much, but you could tell she was excited. These are the days you never forget.
A weekend at Rockwood
Last weekend Carolyn and I had our first annual Friendfest. The idea is to book a bunch of campsites, invite your friends, and have those friends invite their friends. Theoretically you would meet lots of new people, play games, eat, drink, and be merry. Unfortunately this theory breaks down in the base case, when the organizers' friends turn out to be anti-social bums. [Editor's note: Actually, my sister-in-law Erica did come to visit but we happened to be hiking at the time. Mega bonus points for Erica.]
But as Carolyn and I know, you only need two people to have friends, so we stuck it out for the weekend despite the rain. We went to Rockwood Conservation Area, north-east of Guelph. It's a very lovely area, especially this time of year with the leaves changing colour.
Saturday was a generally miserable day as it drizzled almost continuously, but the silver lining in the clouds was that all the plants were covered in water droplets - a macro photographer's delight!
Feather with water droplets.
Spiderweb with water droplets.
It's not quite a Prius, but my Matrix is pretty environmentally friendly.
Sunday provided much nicer weather so we hiked to the caves along the Eramosa river. Here is a shot of the old stone mill that we passed. They were actually setting up for a wedding as we walked by.
Here is a panorama of the Eramosa river. I have been playing with Microsoft's photo stitching software - Image Composite Editor - and I have to admit I'm quite impressed (that it's free!). This is not an excellent image, but it was fun to create.
But as Carolyn and I know, you only need two people to have friends, so we stuck it out for the weekend despite the rain. We went to Rockwood Conservation Area, north-east of Guelph. It's a very lovely area, especially this time of year with the leaves changing colour.
Saturday was a generally miserable day as it drizzled almost continuously, but the silver lining in the clouds was that all the plants were covered in water droplets - a macro photographer's delight!
Feather with water droplets.
Spiderweb with water droplets.
It's not quite a Prius, but my Matrix is pretty environmentally friendly.
Sunday provided much nicer weather so we hiked to the caves along the Eramosa river. Here is a shot of the old stone mill that we passed. They were actually setting up for a wedding as we walked by.
Here is a panorama of the Eramosa river. I have been playing with Microsoft's photo stitching software - Image Composite Editor - and I have to admit I'm quite impressed (that it's free!). This is not an excellent image, but it was fun to create.
Bad food + good company = photographic adventure!
After canceling numerous times due to pre-wedding activities (sounds much nicer than "freaking out before the wedding"), I finally fulfilled my promise to go on another photoroam with my good friend Richard. We decided to trek into the previously unexplored Monarch Woods Park near my house. No monarchs were spotted, but we did catch some of that evening sun, which always makes shots interesting.
I've been experimenting with some backlighting lately.
Afterwards I had Richard over to my house for dinner that I had prepared in the slow cooker. Unfortunately this was the first time trying this recipe, and I overcooked the chicken, and the sauce ended up congealing in the pan. Fortunately my awesome wife Carolyn fixed up a new sauce to mask the chicken (which at this point had a very leathery appearance). Serendipitously, the congealed sauce made for an excellent super-macro subject.
With Richard snapping away at some flowers, I conjoined my 70-210mm and 50mm lenses into an überlens. With this much magnification at your disposal, you can really see another world.
I took a little artistic license with this photo: I applied the "watercolour" effect in Photoshop Elements. I normally don't like resorting to such blatent manipulation... but I do like the effect.
Thanks to Richard for giving me some sagely advice about flash photography. I promise our next venture will include a more appetizing meal!
I've been experimenting with some backlighting lately.
Afterwards I had Richard over to my house for dinner that I had prepared in the slow cooker. Unfortunately this was the first time trying this recipe, and I overcooked the chicken, and the sauce ended up congealing in the pan. Fortunately my awesome wife Carolyn fixed up a new sauce to mask the chicken (which at this point had a very leathery appearance). Serendipitously, the congealed sauce made for an excellent super-macro subject.
With Richard snapping away at some flowers, I conjoined my 70-210mm and 50mm lenses into an überlens. With this much magnification at your disposal, you can really see another world.
I took a little artistic license with this photo: I applied the "watercolour" effect in Photoshop Elements. I normally don't like resorting to such blatent manipulation... but I do like the effect.
Thanks to Richard for giving me some sagely advice about flash photography. I promise our next venture will include a more appetizing meal!
The Daunting Task
I'm a process guy. I like rules and steps. I like categorization. That's not to say that I'm never disorganized or sloppy... but I'm usually aware of it and it makes a tiny part of my soul cringe in embarrassment. This is why I don't often post photos. I am currently going through the photos from my honeymoon, rating, tagging, and purging them so that in the future I could hypothetically find specific photos much more effectively. I don't think I've ever really needed to do this, but I like the promise of efficiency. Having taken over 2000 photos on my honeymoon, you can imagine this process takes a long time. That is on top of the several-thousand photos I've taken since 2005. Part of me wishes I would just give up my dream of a highly-organized collection so I could just post my good photos and forget about the rest... but it's simply against my nature. I'm resigned to my task and I am determined to follow this path, even if I never make it to the destination.
I hurt
And apparently it's not the first time. I feel like I've pulled every muscle in my body. This is what I get for playing 90 minutes of soccer after not having played in 2 months. The consequence is that today is a sit-in-front-of-the-computer-day, so maybe I'll be posting some honeymoon photos.
They can't sell beer on Sundays????
It's a good thing for Utah that they have some awesome national parks.
The first time I've ever seen Krušovice available in North America, and I can't even buy it!!! Arg.
The first time I've ever seen Krušovice available in North America, and I can't even buy it!!! Arg.
On the road again
The big day has come and gone, and another 'vnoucek' e-mail address has been registered. After all the stress and last-minute scrambling the wedding day was a huge success. Sometime this month I suspect our photographer will post some wedding photos, so check his blog out from time to time: http://justindemersblog.com/.
Now we are on our honeymoon, heading west to meet our destiny. The new car is packed (oh yeah, I meant to post about that! It's a 2009 Matrix!) and we're making a pitstop at my parents before hitting the border. We hope to post some pictures along the way but we make no promises.
See you in September!
Now we are on our honeymoon, heading west to meet our destiny. The new car is packed (oh yeah, I meant to post about that! It's a 2009 Matrix!) and we're making a pitstop at my parents before hitting the border. We hope to post some pictures along the way but we make no promises.
See you in September!
Life on the other side of the lens
Last week Carolyn and I had an engagement photo shoot with our wedding photographer. It allowed us to get a feel for how he works, and we will also be getting a photo album out of it (that matches our wedding album). The only thing I specified was that we wanted the photos to be 'naturey', so we ended up in mosquito-infested Forks of the Credit Provincial Park. It was actually the first time we got to do any hiking this year so for that alone it was great. When it came time to do the photos it was a bit awkward at first but once we learned to ignore the cameras and just concentrate on ourselves it was pretty fun. I think we spent about 3-4 hours walking around and taking photos.
Here is a link to some of the photos.
Thanks to Justin and Michelle for an awesome evening.
Here is a link to some of the photos.
Thanks to Justin and Michelle for an awesome evening.
48 hours in Japan
For those of you keeping track, I successfully made it to Japan, despite some difficulties. I seem to have misplaced a wad of cash, so I had much difficulty obtaining any yen for which to, well, do anything. I did eventually find a Plus ATM so all is well.
I'm off to Naritasan Shinshoji Temple while it's still light out.
I'm off to Naritasan Shinshoji Temple while it's still light out.
To Singapore and beyond!
Actually, I think Singapore is far enough. That's where I'm flying to tomorrow (or technically, later today). I'll be there for about a week for work, and then I have approximately 2 days in Japan before I fly home. Anyone have suggestions of what to see in Singapore or Tokyo?
Lost in the Wilderness
Another lonely day in California, but the weather was magnificent and my camera batteries were charged, so there was nothing standing between me and adventure. I had received some advice about what I should do today, but after doing some research this morning, and with some prompting from Richard, I decided to go see some big trees. If there's one thing they know how to do out here, it's big trees.
Some of the smaller big trees I saw. This photo was HDR-modified for your enjoyment. Do not adjust your monitor.
I speculated that Big Basin Redwoods State Park would provide a high-probability of seeing big trees, so at 10am I headed west, through the Santa Cruz mountains, towards my destiny. The twists and turns through the dense forest of the Santa Cruz mountains were most enjoyable, although I think 45mph is a bit fast for some of those turns.
Here is my car in Big Basin Redwoods State Park. The car itself leaves much to be desired, but I'm starting to like the colour.
I headed out on the Sequoia trail towards Sempervirens Falls. "Sempervirens" means always green.
I learned that this was the first state park in California, formally created in 1902.
Here is a long-ish exposure of the falls. I actually had to brighten it a bit in post-processing. At the falls lookout, I only had to take pictures for two groups. I hate P&S cameras... they feel so clumsy.
After the falls I headed back towards the park headquarters via another trail. I came across this little guy (and many of his skittish friends) on a rocky clearing.
I simply loved the texture on the trees; I made this photo black & white to emphasize this quality.
In case you didn't believe me, here is a gang of redwoods. (HDR)
This was a funny tree that I've seen before but I don't know the name of. The bark appears to just peel off, leaving behind this smooth, flesh-coloured trunk.
And of course, the flower shot.
Some of the smaller big trees I saw. This photo was HDR-modified for your enjoyment. Do not adjust your monitor.
I speculated that Big Basin Redwoods State Park would provide a high-probability of seeing big trees, so at 10am I headed west, through the Santa Cruz mountains, towards my destiny. The twists and turns through the dense forest of the Santa Cruz mountains were most enjoyable, although I think 45mph is a bit fast for some of those turns.
Here is my car in Big Basin Redwoods State Park. The car itself leaves much to be desired, but I'm starting to like the colour.
I headed out on the Sequoia trail towards Sempervirens Falls. "Sempervirens" means always green.
I learned that this was the first state park in California, formally created in 1902.
Here is a long-ish exposure of the falls. I actually had to brighten it a bit in post-processing. At the falls lookout, I only had to take pictures for two groups. I hate P&S cameras... they feel so clumsy.
After the falls I headed back towards the park headquarters via another trail. I came across this little guy (and many of his skittish friends) on a rocky clearing.
I simply loved the texture on the trees; I made this photo black & white to emphasize this quality.
In case you didn't believe me, here is a gang of redwoods. (HDR)
This was a funny tree that I've seen before but I don't know the name of. The bark appears to just peel off, leaving behind this smooth, flesh-coloured trunk.
And of course, the flower shot.
I'm an idiot, but that's okay
I went to San Francisco today. I packed up my awesome Slingshot camera bag (thanks Carolyn!) with all my gear: D70, 18-200 lens, macro lens, 50mm lens, tripod, circular polarizer, ND-grad filter, extra memory card, micro-fibre cloth, GPS, card reader, battery charger, water bottle, apple, granola bars. It was heavy, but I was all set for a day of shooting.
I got to San Fransisco around 11:30, and I parked at the de Young museum in Golden Gate Park. I was planning on spending much of the day there, and I was happy to finally get out of the car (see this post).
After about 15 minutes of walking about, taking pictures of random statues of Beethoven and Verdi, I found myself at the Japanese Tea Garden. I paid my $4 to enter and proceeded to photograph the serene surrounds when I noticed the battery symbol flashing on my camera. Uh oh. Well, it's a good thing I learned my lesson long ago and bought a spare battery, right?
Right.
Wrong. Thanks to new US Department of Transportation regulations, I couldn't pack my spare battery in my carry-on luggage. Of course I had forgotten this fact, so my battery remained safely packed away in my suitcase back in the hotel. Great.
I still had my battery charger in the car, but of course the other thing I forgot to pack was the car adapter. Even still, I had just paid $4 so I didn't want to leave. I had no choice but to grin and bear it.
As it happens, batteries have a remarkable ability to retain some residual charge - enough charge to focus and flip the shutter. I couldn't actually see the photos I was taken, so for the next 1.5 hours I was doing it "old school". And I really mean old school, because as in the days when they had to replace the photographic plates after each shot, I had to wait about a minute or so for the battery to recharge. In the digital age, this is very frustrating!
But, remarkably, I did manage to get some good shots. In fact, many turned out much sharper than they usually do, so perhaps I haven't been taking enough setup time for my shots. I've posted a few shots below; all but one are unprocessed because I don't have my image processing softare on this laptop. I will post final versions on flickr when I come home.
A Blue Jay that happened to hop up very close to me. If my battery had been charged I would have snapped 20-30 shots of this guy, but I only managed five in the few moments he was around. I'm really happy with how sharp this image came out. I also performed some HDR (or DRI) on this photo to lighten some of the shadows without blowing out the background.
I'm not sure what this is, but I liked the white against the red.
A shot of a tree with pagoda in the background.
A gorgeous Japanese maple, shot from below.
An iris.
I'm glad that a bunch of photos came out nicely, because the rest of the day was a bust. The battery totally gave out by the end of my stay in the garden, so no more pictures were going to happen until I got another battery. I walked around the park some more, and up Haight St. (supposedly quite famous? I saw lots of tattoo parlours and hippie shops... no camera stores though). I then went back to the car, hoping that my trust GPS would take me to a camera store. What luck, there were several camera stores to try! However, I forgot that the GPS takes pleasure in my failures. For the first camera store the GPS led me directly to a residential area where there was no sign of even a convenience store. The second location was much more promising but alas GPS tricked me again. Fool me once, shame on you, but fool me twice, shame on me. I wasn't about to be fooled a third time, so I decided I should just go back to the hotel.
Ok, so I was fooled a third time too. I thought I'd try another store supposedly in Palo Alto on University Ave. University Ave sounded promising. Not surprisingly, the Ritz Camera store was not there (I'm beginning to suspect that it's not a real camera chain at all); however, I did find a Wolf Camera store that the GPS didn't know about. Take that little machine! But, it turns out that Wolf Camera sucks. They didn't have my battery. They didn't have the lens I was interested in either (but he could order it... well, so can anyone with an internet connection). Every time I visit the US I gain appreciation for Henry's back home.
Enough complaining. My time in Golden Gate Park was refreshing and memorable. I'm glad I went. I wish I had been able to take some photographs of the Golden Gate Bridge, particularly at sunset, but I suspect I will return one day. Not tomorrow though, as I am through with big cities. Tomorrow is a hiking and relaxation day. And my battery is charging as we speak.
I got to San Fransisco around 11:30, and I parked at the de Young museum in Golden Gate Park. I was planning on spending much of the day there, and I was happy to finally get out of the car (see this post).
After about 15 minutes of walking about, taking pictures of random statues of Beethoven and Verdi, I found myself at the Japanese Tea Garden. I paid my $4 to enter and proceeded to photograph the serene surrounds when I noticed the battery symbol flashing on my camera. Uh oh. Well, it's a good thing I learned my lesson long ago and bought a spare battery, right?
Right.
Wrong. Thanks to new US Department of Transportation regulations, I couldn't pack my spare battery in my carry-on luggage. Of course I had forgotten this fact, so my battery remained safely packed away in my suitcase back in the hotel. Great.
I still had my battery charger in the car, but of course the other thing I forgot to pack was the car adapter. Even still, I had just paid $4 so I didn't want to leave. I had no choice but to grin and bear it.
As it happens, batteries have a remarkable ability to retain some residual charge - enough charge to focus and flip the shutter. I couldn't actually see the photos I was taken, so for the next 1.5 hours I was doing it "old school". And I really mean old school, because as in the days when they had to replace the photographic plates after each shot, I had to wait about a minute or so for the battery to recharge. In the digital age, this is very frustrating!
But, remarkably, I did manage to get some good shots. In fact, many turned out much sharper than they usually do, so perhaps I haven't been taking enough setup time for my shots. I've posted a few shots below; all but one are unprocessed because I don't have my image processing softare on this laptop. I will post final versions on flickr when I come home.
A Blue Jay that happened to hop up very close to me. If my battery had been charged I would have snapped 20-30 shots of this guy, but I only managed five in the few moments he was around. I'm really happy with how sharp this image came out. I also performed some HDR (or DRI) on this photo to lighten some of the shadows without blowing out the background.
I'm not sure what this is, but I liked the white against the red.
A shot of a tree with pagoda in the background.
A gorgeous Japanese maple, shot from below.
An iris.
I'm glad that a bunch of photos came out nicely, because the rest of the day was a bust. The battery totally gave out by the end of my stay in the garden, so no more pictures were going to happen until I got another battery. I walked around the park some more, and up Haight St. (supposedly quite famous? I saw lots of tattoo parlours and hippie shops... no camera stores though). I then went back to the car, hoping that my trust GPS would take me to a camera store. What luck, there were several camera stores to try! However, I forgot that the GPS takes pleasure in my failures. For the first camera store the GPS led me directly to a residential area where there was no sign of even a convenience store. The second location was much more promising but alas GPS tricked me again. Fool me once, shame on you, but fool me twice, shame on me. I wasn't about to be fooled a third time, so I decided I should just go back to the hotel.
Ok, so I was fooled a third time too. I thought I'd try another store supposedly in Palo Alto on University Ave. University Ave sounded promising. Not surprisingly, the Ritz Camera store was not there (I'm beginning to suspect that it's not a real camera chain at all); however, I did find a Wolf Camera store that the GPS didn't know about. Take that little machine! But, it turns out that Wolf Camera sucks. They didn't have my battery. They didn't have the lens I was interested in either (but he could order it... well, so can anyone with an internet connection). Every time I visit the US I gain appreciation for Henry's back home.
Enough complaining. My time in Golden Gate Park was refreshing and memorable. I'm glad I went. I wish I had been able to take some photographs of the Golden Gate Bridge, particularly at sunset, but I suspect I will return one day. Not tomorrow though, as I am through with big cities. Tomorrow is a hiking and relaxation day. And my battery is charging as we speak.
In 0.3 miles keep right...
How many meters is that?!?!
And "keep right" is different than "turn right".
I hate GPS.
And "keep right" is different than "turn right".
I hate GPS.
A week in the village of Saint Joseph
In case you didn't know it, I'm not at home (but Carolyn is, so don't steal my stuff!). I'm in the land of freedom and firearms for two weeks (although I'm hoping it'll just be one). Specifically, I'm in a place they call San Jose. I can't say I've seen much of it, but it looks like most other American cities I've visited. I am enjoying the warmish weather though (about 15-20 degrees centigrade - yay metric system!); I'm wearing a jacket, but I could take it off, if I wanted to.
I won't bore you with all the details.
But I will bore you with some.
I flew out on Sunday at 10am to Vancouver. The Rocky Mountains are awesome. Beautiful. I saw them only from the airport, but they are truly awe-inspiring. My layover was less than two hours, of which an hour was spent sitting in US Customs awaiting my fate. While my experience wasn't nearly as bad as it's been in the past, but every time I talk to a US Customs official I ask myself why did I agree to go on a business trip to the US.
"What is the purpose of your trip?"
"I'm doing software integration. I'll be installing our software and testing it to make sure it works".
"So... you'll be... testing this... software?"
"Uhm, yeah"
"Oh"
He obviously didn't get straight-A's at jack-ass boot camp, but I'll give him a B for effort. The woman who escorted me to the "nervous room" was, dare I say, almost amicable. The third guy let me through after "checking something out" in the back room (i.e. pee break) and giving me the ol' "you're lucky we let you through this time" spiel. Anyway, I didn't cry, so I think it went well.
The flights were both uneventful. I was bothered that they didn't serve food on the flight to Vancouver. That's five hours! Those jerks. When I fly to Germany it's only slightly longer and I get free wine!
My car, alas, is no Musty, but it did come with GPS which I've mentioned before is a gift and a curse. I've only had to loop around a couple of times.
So here I am in San Jose. I haven't taken a single photo yet. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not. Really, it doesn't matter because I forgot to pack my card reader. Although that does give me an excuse to go to Fry's...
I won't bore you with all the details.
But I will bore you with some.
I flew out on Sunday at 10am to Vancouver. The Rocky Mountains are awesome. Beautiful. I saw them only from the airport, but they are truly awe-inspiring. My layover was less than two hours, of which an hour was spent sitting in US Customs awaiting my fate. While my experience wasn't nearly as bad as it's been in the past, but every time I talk to a US Customs official I ask myself why did I agree to go on a business trip to the US.
"What is the purpose of your trip?"
"I'm doing software integration. I'll be installing our software and testing it to make sure it works".
"So... you'll be... testing this... software?"
"Uhm, yeah"
"Oh"
He obviously didn't get straight-A's at jack-ass boot camp, but I'll give him a B for effort. The woman who escorted me to the "nervous room" was, dare I say, almost amicable. The third guy let me through after "checking something out" in the back room (i.e. pee break) and giving me the ol' "you're lucky we let you through this time" spiel. Anyway, I didn't cry, so I think it went well.
The flights were both uneventful. I was bothered that they didn't serve food on the flight to Vancouver. That's five hours! Those jerks. When I fly to Germany it's only slightly longer and I get free wine!
My car, alas, is no Musty, but it did come with GPS which I've mentioned before is a gift and a curse. I've only had to loop around a couple of times.
So here I am in San Jose. I haven't taken a single photo yet. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not. Really, it doesn't matter because I forgot to pack my card reader. Although that does give me an excuse to go to Fry's...
One man's misfortune...
... is another man's fortune. As sad as I am for Richard having to get his camera serviced by Nikon, it did afford me the opportunity to borrow his 50mm lens and flash. I didn't utilize them as much as I should have, but I did play around a bit. Here are some of the results. Not that great when I view them on the monitor, but if you shrink them to 3x3cm they look fine. :)
This shot is taken with the 50mm lens. Cats - when they aren't sleeping - are very tricky subjects, because the refuse to sit still long enough to properly focus (let alone trying to set up the perfect composition). This was the best of a series of photos of Jack looking away.
Another shot with the 50mm. Jack got bored very quickly.
Actually just shot with my regular lens, but I had to throw it in. Jack is loving the chin rub.
This is a macro shot, aided with Richard's SB-600 flash. It's amazing what a difference the flash makes for macro photography. You can crank up the shutter speed to get a sharp image (I was too lazy to set up the tripod), and still have a small aperture to a decent depth-of-field. It is much less frustrating.
Alas, Richard's camera has been fixed and is likely in his hands right now, so I must say goodbye to the equipment that he generously lent to me. Goodbye 50mm lens. Goodbye wireless flash. I'll miss you.
This shot is taken with the 50mm lens. Cats - when they aren't sleeping - are very tricky subjects, because the refuse to sit still long enough to properly focus (let alone trying to set up the perfect composition). This was the best of a series of photos of Jack looking away.
Another shot with the 50mm. Jack got bored very quickly.
Actually just shot with my regular lens, but I had to throw it in. Jack is loving the chin rub.
This is a macro shot, aided with Richard's SB-600 flash. It's amazing what a difference the flash makes for macro photography. You can crank up the shutter speed to get a sharp image (I was too lazy to set up the tripod), and still have a small aperture to a decent depth-of-field. It is much less frustrating.
Alas, Richard's camera has been fixed and is likely in his hands right now, so I must say goodbye to the equipment that he generously lent to me. Goodbye 50mm lens. Goodbye wireless flash. I'll miss you.
Joke for the day
My friend Alex sent this to me yesterday.
A Czech man felt his eyesight was growing steadily worse, and felt it was time to go see an optometrist.
The doctor started with some simple testing, and showed him a standard eye chart with letters of diminishing size: CRKBNWXSKZY...
"Can you read this?" the doctor asked.
"Read it?" the Czech answered. "Doc, I know him!"
A Czech man felt his eyesight was growing steadily worse, and felt it was time to go see an optometrist.
The doctor started with some simple testing, and showed him a standard eye chart with letters of diminishing size: CRKBNWXSKZY...
"Can you read this?" the doctor asked.
"Read it?" the Czech answered. "Doc, I know him!"
time for a change
I've been meaning to update my blog in a long long time. Carolyn and I have been so busy with, well, the usual stuff, that I haven't been able to justify taking the time to do this. And considering that it's after 2am now, I'm going to have a hard time justifying this in the morning to myself. But what's done is done, and I like the new look. Thanks to Charm Skins for a blog template that was simple, yet well-designed. I would like to make my own template from scratch one day, but that will take far more than a few hours to learn all the requisite skills.
Anyway, I've been pretty productive lately so I'm feeling good. My computer is freshly setup with a brand new 500gb harddrive so I can finally organize my existing 10,000+ pictures. I still plan on creating a "best of 2007" photo album sometime in April, but we'll see if that ever happens.
But back to the positives. Carolyn and I finally hired an officiant for our wedding, so the last big checkbox is ticked (checked, filled-in, etc.) We also looked at rings and tuxes this weekend, so yay us! We still have plenty to do, but it all seems quite manageable. I've put a countdown timer on the sidebar as a reminder to keep on track.
That's it for now. Time for bed. Let me know what you think of the new look.
Anyway, I've been pretty productive lately so I'm feeling good. My computer is freshly setup with a brand new 500gb harddrive so I can finally organize my existing 10,000+ pictures. I still plan on creating a "best of 2007" photo album sometime in April, but we'll see if that ever happens.
But back to the positives. Carolyn and I finally hired an officiant for our wedding, so the last big checkbox is ticked (checked, filled-in, etc.) We also looked at rings and tuxes this weekend, so yay us! We still have plenty to do, but it all seems quite manageable. I've put a countdown timer on the sidebar as a reminder to keep on track.
That's it for now. Time for bed. Let me know what you think of the new look.
Learning how to flash
I'm sure you were expecting to see some photos and prose regarding my recent trip to Germany. You'll have to wait. All of my photos from Bonn were deleted (by Windows itself, thank you very much), so I'm currently in the process of recovering them.
In the meantime, I had the opportunity this weekend to learn how to flash... or rather, I visited my good friend Richard, and he opened the secret door to the forbidden world of flash photography.
Having recently visited my friends in Germany - one of which is a wonderful studio photographer - I got a little bit inspired to take off my 'outdoor/landscape/nature photographer' hat, and try on something new. I checked out the well-known Strobist blog to get an idea of what flash photography is all about... and I realized that what I don't know about it could fill a warehouse (or a blog about flash-photography).
Richard has been doing more than a little dabbling in studio photography, and I have been impressed with his results, so I was hoping to get a tutorial. I borrowed a flash (SB-600) from Ryan and Richard and I set up shop.
It's incredible to think how much altering the lighting on a subject can change a photo so dramatically. Studio photography is very meticulous work, requiring careful study of the results to determine what should be tweaked (light intensity?, aperture?, angles?, diffusers?, more lights?, less lights?, etc...) to get the shot you want. On the other hand, it opens up a whole realm of creative possibilities, allowing you to simply experiment.
Here is a sample of a series of shots I took of some lillies that Richard bought (uhm, for his wife, right Richard?). I won't explain what I changed between each shot (like I remember!), but the session was a struggle between getting a nice bright shot, while emphasizing the form and depth, and still retaining detail in highlights and shadows.
I think the end result is pretty good, at least for a first-timer.
It was wonderful being able to utilize my macro lens properly - with still subject, sturdy tripod, and good lighting. A pop-up flash doesn't quite cut it for a macro image with 'pop'. I think - one of these beautiful days - that I will invest in my own flash so that I can continue to push my creative boundaries... or, perhaps Ryan won't notice that he's missing his :P
Thanks to Richard for the help, and for a fun (albeit short) photo session.
In the meantime, I had the opportunity this weekend to learn how to flash... or rather, I visited my good friend Richard, and he opened the secret door to the forbidden world of flash photography.
Having recently visited my friends in Germany - one of which is a wonderful studio photographer - I got a little bit inspired to take off my 'outdoor/landscape/nature photographer' hat, and try on something new. I checked out the well-known Strobist blog to get an idea of what flash photography is all about... and I realized that what I don't know about it could fill a warehouse (or a blog about flash-photography).
Richard has been doing more than a little dabbling in studio photography, and I have been impressed with his results, so I was hoping to get a tutorial. I borrowed a flash (SB-600) from Ryan and Richard and I set up shop.
It's incredible to think how much altering the lighting on a subject can change a photo so dramatically. Studio photography is very meticulous work, requiring careful study of the results to determine what should be tweaked (light intensity?, aperture?, angles?, diffusers?, more lights?, less lights?, etc...) to get the shot you want. On the other hand, it opens up a whole realm of creative possibilities, allowing you to simply experiment.
Here is a sample of a series of shots I took of some lillies that Richard bought (uhm, for his wife, right Richard?). I won't explain what I changed between each shot (like I remember!), but the session was a struggle between getting a nice bright shot, while emphasizing the form and depth, and still retaining detail in highlights and shadows.
I think the end result is pretty good, at least for a first-timer.
It was wonderful being able to utilize my macro lens properly - with still subject, sturdy tripod, and good lighting. A pop-up flash doesn't quite cut it for a macro image with 'pop'. I think - one of these beautiful days - that I will invest in my own flash so that I can continue to push my creative boundaries... or, perhaps Ryan won't notice that he's missing his :P
Thanks to Richard for the help, and for a fun (albeit short) photo session.
