Mountain Bike Racing!
My brother-in-law was racing, and I’ve always wanted to shoot a few pictures of him at his game, so I came out of the wilds a day early. It was a lot of fun, and after shooting in the dark of theaters, I was amazed to have all that light to work with. Wish I’d had my 70-200 lens with me though...
Here are a few for your perusal...
And this determined young racer...
The Tooth Fairy - Plan B
And by dance I mean this:
Child X looses a tooth and excitedly places it under their pillow in the expectation of the tooth fairies visit and the rich profits from such.
We, in our busy world, forget all about it and when morning comes, the child immediately forms us that they were stiffed.
Kristin and I look at each other and mentally draw straws. The loser (always me for some reason - my mental straws apparently suck) sneaks up stairs and hides a dollar or two under the mattress. Yes, under the mattress. I realize convention is the pillow, but we’ve overshot that.
We then I come back downstairs and as child X is talking about the oversight to my wife, I mention that sometimes the tooth fairy likes to “hide the loot really well as a game”. They excitedly head back up stairs to look.
And to our surprise, it always works. I guess they’re just so excited about having the buck or two that they don’t realize that a) the tooth is still there and b) hiding money under a mattress seems a bit odd.
But it works, and we smile and move on.
PS. We don’t always do this. There is the random time where we remember the tooth and execute to convention. But not often.
Lighting Workshop
This was a workshop only in the broadest sense - it was more of a get together - Mark spend a bit of time covering some lighting basics and then opened the stations for live shooting and discussion.
The workshop was sponsored by PocketWizard, and I got to talk with one of the main PocketWizard guys about my iffy experiences with the TTL features of their latest Mini/Flex products. I picked up a few tricks that will hopefully change my tactics for using off camera TTL flash - which can be a real timesaver if you can get it to work.
I was quite happy to see the images pop up looking quite good in Lightroom, and here is one of the first that struck me...
I’m sure I’ll have some
more to say (and pictures to share) over the next few
days.
P.S Yes that is a TTL off camera flash picture.
Sweet.
The Tranny
The bike is quite interesting. It can be both a single speed and a geared hard tail bike, due to its adjustable-length chain stay. Kinda cool. Here are a few pictures...
Great Big Sea!
Great Big Sea is a folk band
hailing from St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. They
play a combination of folk tunes (mainly focused
on the island’s heritage), sea shanties and some
original rock and roll. Funny enough, I heard of
them from a Southerner - they formed in 1993 when
I was already living in the US. Their live shows
are quite fun, and the combination of ballads, sea
songs and rock & roll really works.
For a guy used to seeing punk and industrial shows,
the audience is always a bit of a change - people
sitting politely in their seats or awkwardly dancing
in a way that only those unaccustomed to such moves
are apt to do. These are not the crowds seeing
Fugazi, Skinny Puppy or the Dead Kennedys.
Still, I’ve always loved fun music and GBS is all
about fun. Here is an iTunes playlist of some samples
for you to consider adding to your iPhone/iPod.
Here are a few pictures before I got shut down by
security...
They’re highly
recommended, especially if you like songs about
drinking, horses falling thru the ice, the sea and/or
abusive wives 
. Trust me, they’re a handsful
these guys. And who does not like songs about
horses falling thru ice?
Window LIght Rocks
My oldest had a soccer game out there (don’t ask - it wasn’t pretty) and so we took advantage of the fact that Yakima is often sunny while its pouring on our side of the mountains. We headed out early and stayed the night in a local hotel. We’ve done this before and it always turns out well - slide into our room, hit the pool, watch a movie and eat the “free” continental breakfast downstairs.
It was indeed beautiful, and I noticed as we got ready to head out that the window light was gorgeous, so I made each of the kids sit down and pose for an informal portraiture session.
Yup. I gots me some cute
kids.
Good Morning
Halloween: Kids Edition
After my day of zombification, Chloe wanted to get in on the undead action and went likewise. No princesses. No cutesy costumes for my girl. Just plain, old fashioned scary stuff. You know, like Halloween used to be all about before the cute-police invaded.
The two boys just wanted to bring some ninja stealth.
They brung’ed it.
Aidan just wanted some
easy to don/remove gore.
Ok, we had one cutie.
Leyla, my niece came down to show us her
“minimininimouse” costume.
Kristin? She just wanted me to be done with my costume...
When the work is done...
We had a great 3 days in the Smugbooth. I swear I talked non-stop for the entire time in the booth; I'm certainly capable of it, even if I grow increasingly less apt to do it. We met a billion people and had alot of fun chatting them up, talking about the biz and the things we can help them do. Overall, it was a great show and a wonderful event for SmugMug.
And, then it came to an end, so Chloe and I headed for the Metropolitain museum to have some fun.
Here are a few photos from our adventures...
Animoto Vs. Lightroom Slideshow
The booth was mobbed. We gave out a heap of SmugMug bags, flyers and fielded a host of questions. The buzz on SmugMug is much higher this year, with most people having heard of us (having a silly name helps) even if they were unsure as to what we could do for them. So we gave them the 2 minute schpiel and sent them off happy.
We've partnered with Animoto, an online fusion/slideshow service that takes your photos/videos and makes them into a video presentation. Think slideshows plus some. Much like David Jay's Showit Web (anthother great SmugMug partner).
So when I got back to the hotel after a walk thru Times Square, I threw 9 images from today at both the LR3's slideshow and Animoto's tools. Exporting from LR and building an Animoto slideshow online take awhile to render, although I think Animoto was faster - and since it was already online - it skipped the "gotta upload it now" step I had to do with the LR sample. Oh, and LR had a Tango Uniform moment during the export. Doh! Repeat after me: Beta. Beta. Beta.
Here are the two, side by side:
Lightroom 3 Beta
Animoto
Verdict?
I think the LR3 beta has promise, but its really just
a simple slideshow, which was fine, but somehow it
really mangled the images. They are all unacceptably
blurry, and I can assure you, they didn't start out
that way. Hmmm. Odd. And playing on my machine, the
Gradient BG wash was really blocky as well - it does
not look as bad on the web - go figure. But it is
free, and maybe it looks better at bigger sizes?
Animoto' s slideshow was more pizzazy, with lots of
interesting transitions and the like. Its pretty cool
for the minimal work that goes into it. Note: their
default settings pace things ridiculously fast and
you never get a real look at the pictures - a Ken
Burns effect at warp speed isn't that useful. I ended
up having to pay to get an extended credit (time to
hit up the guys for a promo code). I didn't see a way
to control which animations the use either. The
second one I created did some that I'd probably opt
out of. Seems a bit spendy for the commercial license
too at $250 for a year. Ouch.
Cello, For the Win!
Not sure how this became important, but once she gets a bug in her ear, it usually happens. That she gets from me.
Well, the waiting is over, and after going thru a roller-coaster trying to find a local store to rent one, we succeeded. Now it means we get to drive her and her massive cello to school at 6:30 several times a week.
Go Chloe!
Thank goodness it comes with rental insurance.
On another note, I’m getting on a plane for New York
this AM. If you’re going to PhotoPlus East, drop by
the SmugMug booth and say hello.
Denver is High
I spent a few days there and it was like fast forwarding my seasonal clock by a month or so.
When I left Washington, it was warm and sunny. The leaves had not even changed yet.
I get to Denver and it snows on us. Lots of cold and snow. I like a crisp morning as much as the next guy, but I have a hard time letting go of summer. Something about the warm sun on your face and all that...
So as I was leaving Denver last Sunday, I stopped to snap a few pictures of the fields near my friends place. It captured beautifully how it was feeling...
Here is a panorama of the
same thing...
Love those wonky power
lines...
Have a great day.
PS. Speaking of elevation, I was in Moab last weekend
and did the trail enthusiastically called “The Whole Enchilada”. We
started at 11,200 feet and rode 30 some miles back
to the Colorado river at about 4200 feet. Hows
that for elevation loss.
Leyla
Mutton Bustin' and Other Fair Tales
This is *the* fair in the Seattle area. Or so I’ve heard, because we’ve never been. It is hardly our kinda thing.
Its big, its popular and crowded. Reason enough to stay away.
However, last year my sis-in-law took her kids to the fair and they came back with tales of “mutton bustin” which I soon learned was analogous to bull riding, only for kids. And on sheep. They even had a video of his triumphal ride. It was hilarious in a slightly disturbing way...
So this year, as they rolled in, my two younger boys wanted to give it a go. And since we’re all about providing opportunities, K hustled them off to the attraction, got em suited up and ready to roll.
Steen did fine, although he hit the ground pretty quick. No records there...
Liam was getting settled, when his sheep reared up and got half way out of the cage. That freaked him out. So we spent the next few minutes letting him think about it.
He decided not to, which
was fine by us. What a weird ritual...
Here are a few other shots from the fair...
More Goofin' Before School
This is my fault...
I agreed without quite paying attention to the reality of what was being asked - I have this email to finish you see and my attention hadn’t quite focused his direction yet.
And when I turn around, this is what I see.
My wife wants you all to know that this is my fault...
Back to School
That, my friends, is the sound of silence. Not in the Simon/Garfunkel way. In a good way.
School started today, and my kids are all out the door at 8:45 AM. This summer was a blur, with lots of travel, excitement and adventure. But I was ready to have some quite time. My youngest is now in 4 days a week pre-school and will hit Kindergarten next year. That gives my wife at least 12 hours a week with no kids around. Whoop! Its taken us 12 years to get to this point, and it was hard won.
So I’m going to relax, play some calm piano music and veg a bit while my wife reads a book.
Noon will come too quickly.
PS. Took a couple of portraits of my kids for back-to-school. Here is Chloe. She then went and got 11 inches of hair trimmed off after school.
Goat Rocks
Two words: Fan Tastic
There really are few words for how I feel after spending 5 days tromping around in the crown of these mountains. On most mornings we had at least one volcano staring us in the face. Yesterday, we had three: Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainer. The wildflowers were blooming, the sky was clear for hundreds of miles and the views caused repeated gasping by all in my little troop.
I mean, what more can you ask.
A quick peek, almost at random from the photos importing into Lightroom as I type this.
Much more to come...
Fireworks!
Growing up in Canada, we never got overly excited about fireworks, because you couldn’t buy them and it wasn’t a big part of the whole Canada Day celebrations either. I think I remember bigger cities putting on a big show, but personal use was very limited to stuff smuggled over the border. And a few of us did that on occasion, focusing on firecrackers and bottlerockets. The good stuff, as it were.
So now that I’m an ex-pat living in the great state of Washington, I just don’t think of it as the 1st/4th rolls near.
But my 12 year old son is certainly enticed by the possibilities, so this year he requested (repeatedly) if we could get some fireworks. So this year I relented and we stopped buy, uh I mean by (woah, talk about freudian slip) and bought a variety of things from the local Kiwanis booth.
The kids had a hoot. Here are a few pictures of the neighborhood shoot-off...
PS. Some of these are very Lord of the Fliesesque.
The Traveling Men Hit the Rodeo
The Sand Dunes were awesome. Hundreds of acres of towering sand dunes (highest in North America) and a crazy ecosystem that feeds and maintains them (yes we watched the 1/2 hour movie in the visitors center). We spent quite a bit of time running around the dunes, the boys loving the soft landing when jumping the lip of a big dune, and Wednesday morning we climbed to the top of the largest dune in the system - no small feat as it turns out. It took us 1 hour 20 to climb, but only 15 min to run back down. Somehow, running with a gait of 6 feet per step makes for good time.
Awesome.
After the climb, we rode bikes around the park for an hour or so, and then headed for a shower and to Alamosa for a movie. The kids had seen that the new Harry Potter movie was opening, so we spent several hours waiting in line to get tickets for the 7:30 show. Fun, and we returned to camp in the dark with exhausted boys.
We packed up Thursday and headed towards Fort Garland, an old adobe fort once commanded by Kit Carson. It was pretty cool, and we ran into an archeological dig being run by a prof at the local college. He was very interesting to talk to and he ended up giving us a 20 min personal tutorial on how to fire one of the mountain howitzers they had in the fort. Turns out this was one of the canon that the confederates brought from Texas to invade Colorado in the civil war. They lost and buried the canon, but they were recovered and still are fired at the fort on occasion. I have the entire thing on HD video (thank you 5D MKII) so I’ll post it when I get the horsepower to actually edit it.
We then headed north, with the intention of going all the way to Black Canyon. However, on hitting Gunnison, Coloroado, we saw that it was the town’s Cattlemen’s Days summer festival and that meant a fair (rides) and a rodeo (rides, of a sort). So we stopped and checked into the local KOA to take it the sights. Being spontaneous rules.
The fair/rodeo turns out to be an expensive proposition - the tickets for the rides/games were expensive and easily spent. After some rides and some not-good for you food, we headed in to watch the steer wrasstlin, ropin and “the ladies” racing barrels. It was quite fun, even though we were not exactly in our element. Crowd watching was also a hoot.
Yeahaw to you, as it were.
Here are a few assorted picts from the past few days.
Today we head back to
Moab. Unless something cool gets in our way.
Cheers!
Mesa Verde - Now with Picts
We woke up early and headed into see some of the self guided walks before our scheduled ranger-led tour at the Long House complex. Yesterday we went and saw the Cliff Palace complex, and it was cool, but today was much better.
The Long House tour was a small group, and we got to go down and walk thru more of the ruins (in a sensible way of course). We got to handle some artifacts (pottery, corn cobs) and got some great insight into this massive series of buildings. We saw pit-houses, pit-rooms, tall ladders, kivas, ancient masonry (urine, ash and sand), corn cob impressions (decoration), water seeps (with hand-carved catch basins), the result of some big lightning strikes, majestic canyon vistas, hand painted wall art and about 100 french tourists doing the same. Bienvenue mes amis!
Here are a few photos:
That is all for today.
Cheers!
Mesa Verde!
I’m on vacation with my two older boys - we’re running around like madmen, exploring the desert southwest (Utah, Colorado so far) and having a ball. I’ll be back Tuesday with the Lightroom stuff and hopefully a few photos as well.
Tomorrow we’ll be exploring some of the wonderful sights in Mesa Verde, so that should give my 5DMKII a workout.
Cheers all.
Wow, what a week
What is more, I’m coming up on a 3 week road trip to Utah, Wyoming and parts beyond and I’m furiously packing for that.
However, a few new props have shown up at the ranch recently, so I pulled them out and had my son Steen model them.
Go Steen.
Have a great 4th of July
weekend everyone in the US. Those of you outside,
just marvel at how few black powder injuries there
are with all the fireworks play.
Oh Ballroom!
I was on hand to record it for posterity, which came out to over 100 GB of images. I’m still hard at work on editing the results, but here are a few that I really liked...
To be completely honest,
you should listen to this while
looking at the pictures. And yes, I’ll be doing a
slideshow with music as soon as these pictures are
all ready.
Its been a busy week.
Lots going on and I’ve got to prep for a road trip
next week.
Have a great Thursday.
Dress Rehearsal
Various Photos
5D MK II Holga
Yes. A cheap plastic lens from China, complete with outrageous aberrations to stick on my 3K camera body. What was I thinking?
Well, I’ve owned several holgas, and they’ve always given me the wildest results. That is the point, but still, it can be alot of fun to see what comes out of the soup when developing that roll of 120 film. Well, all I’ve done is removed the middleman (i.e. the soup) and went straight to digital. No photoshop necessary.
Of course, its slightly pretentious (just as any toy camera pictures are) but its kinda fun in the same way that a Holga can be.
So feast your eyes on the best a random piece of plastic can give you...
Kinda fun. Certainly a
change from the “oh look how sharp my 1K lens is
dance...
PS. the lens I bought comes from Holgamods.com is just a holga
lens mounted to an EOS body cap (as far as I can
tell). The construction is a bit crude - dremel
marks and glue residue - something you wouldn’t
expect in the L lens, but right on par with the
goods being delivered. The only issue I have is my
example won’t lock on the body - so focusing it
sometimes removes the lens (I’ve emailed them).
I expect in general that this lens really sucks for
my poor sensor. Good thing the MKII has dust removal
built in to temper this somewhat...
Farzin Plays Guitar
I Bought This (or On Getting Paid)
Ok. As the reluctant capitalist, I’m not sure how I feel about it. Seems a bit crass. But it does encourage the artsy kids to break out the sketch pads, toothpicks and glue and get paid for it.
Or in this case pom-poms...
Interestingly, they deal in school credits, not the
coin of the realm per se. No crossing of palms with
actual silver.
Makes me wonder if they have vendors with tables that
buy and sell debt and create these things called
derivatives...
Oh, I kid. I kid.
Speaking of the exchange of goods, I got
another unsolicited email from
magazine editor in the Netherlands who was gunning
for free photos of mountain biking in Moab for a
commercial magazine.
I mean, really? Really? Work for free? Really? My
next question when he gets back to me astounded that
I asked for payment predictably will be: so, do you
get a salary to edit and write for this magazine?
Which then leads to this rant I saw some time ago
(Warning: there are some
expletives in this short blurb).
Told you I was a reluctant capitalist.
Ring of Fire
Mohawk Boy
Color V. B&W
But I loved the black & white process.
Shooting Tri-X and pushing it a few stops then using a custom development ritual (and it was a ritual) to get what I wanted was a known thing. Printing in the darkroom was a bit of a pain (especially with 35mm negs) but there was something to be said for that darkroom ambiance; put some good music on the ipod, turn on the safelight and lock the door. Nice. Kinda miss it sometimes until I think how much more productive I am these days.
Back then I shot 99.999% black & white film. Want color too? Carry another body. Yes, kids, you had to choose. Don’t get me started with ISO adjustments.
I still see primarily in the tonalities of black & white. It just gets burned into your vision, and that was kinda the point.
But now I have the option of either color or black & white, and sometimes I hesitate. I have grown to love color for its own idiosyncrasies - as someone famously said (and I paraphrase because the speaker/words escape me at the moment) color is for the crass. And sometimes crass is good.
So today I was editing a series of pictures shot last week and came across this image. In all honesty, I’m completely blown away. Its beautiful, even if I do say so myself.
I mucked with it in black & white and then in color. I liked both, each for slightly different reasons. Here they are...
So which do you like
more?
PS. I’ll have to admit that the color version is
largely a black & white presentation with some
subtle color. Its all about tonalities - told you its
burned into my head.
iPhone Friday - Da Boyz
This is a picture of the boyz hanging in our Kamping Kabin at the KOA (note the consistency of the K in their naming conventions - very clever) in Moab during our spring mountain biking fiesta.
Glad to be home after a
lot of road travel. Its sunny and warm, and I have
work to do.
Oh, and for you folks from the US/Canada, have a
great Memorial Day weekend!
Fun with a Speedlight
Traveling
Saturday we got a call that we’d need to jump in the car and drive 22 straight hours. Family emergency type stuff. It wasn’t planned, and was quite a surprise, but we’re here. This has necessitated staying in a series of hotels with my two youngest boys. They love it. They love the pools, the weird “flat” TV and the newness that is all around. Even after 22 hours straight in a car, this has been “the awesomest trip ever” they say.
I’d beg to differ, although we’ve been successful in what we came to do. Never underestimate family support in times of challenge.
So here are a few pictures from our little world over the past few days.
At the Barre...
The Bennetts
Dascha!
Slickrock by Night
Here is my favorite pict from the shoot...
We had a ball, got some
interesting pictures, and even learned a few things.
Then on the ride back I lost my Wescott collapsible
umbrella out there. Somewhere. Just fell off the back
of my pack. Go figure.
Can’t wait to get back and try some new things...
That's What I'm Talkin Bout
More Photos from Uranium Bicycles Shoot
A special thanks to the gang at Uranium - Dave, Linus, Angela, Marshall and Christie - for tolerating the repeated stopping, posing and re-dos when all we really wanted to to was barrel down that mountain at breakneck speed.
Biking and photography are hard to mix for that very reason, but the results can be spectacular.
I’m really pushing my
poor Macbook Air with these. I can’t wait to get home
on the big monitor and my beefy Mac Pro to finalize
these images.
Uranium Shoot
Still working thru them in Lightroom, but here are a few early selects...
Lots more to come, but its time to go ride again...
A Night Out With a Young Dancer
And the best part was: it
was a complete surprise.
She had Flamenco class Friday afternoon, so I hid our
finery in the trunk and drove her to class, smiling
the whole way. After class, I handed her a package
with her dress and told her to get ready to go to the
Ballet.
She was ecstatic. Big grins. Ear to ear. Love it.
It was sunny an warm. We at a lovely meal before hand
and walked to McCaw Hall. We were in our seats with
plenty of time and over the next three hours we were
mesmerized. PNB really shines, and no better ballet
than Swan Lake to prove it. Chloe’s favorite part was
the Little Swans. It was easy to see why. Intricate,
powerful, and demanding.
Here are a few pictures. She gets inspired by dance,
as you’ll see.
And best off, today I got
an email from her:
daddy,
Thanks for taking me to swan lake, I had a great
time. I love the poster! your the best dad ever.
the e-card from american girl is from me!
Chloe your 10 year old daughter!
Happy Birthday Chloe. Keep Dancing.
PS. Wore the kilt. Thats what I’m talking ‘bout.
Random Goodness
The Painted Desert
I’m a happy denizen of the Pacific Northwest, but there is a side of me that craves the baking sun, the parched landscape and the beautiful red rock of the Colorado plateau. Especially in May when its still raining in Seattle.
Here are a few pictures from last week’s trip...
Back Home!
Last week my son and I spent 5 days exploring some little-known canyons near Ticaboo, Utah. The canyons, abutting Lake Powell at several parts, were quite remote and I was amazed to see nobody else in the 5 days we were there.
Not one person. I kid you not. Awesome.
I don’t think I’ve ever gone backpacking without seeing at least one other person. I came close one time - but on the second to last day we saw some geologists helicopter in to check out some thing or other nearby.
Here is a topo map of the area we were in.
Click to see a detailed look at the area, with GPS
data and everything. You can even look at it in
Google Earth if you want. Its
cool, but its not the same - trust me.
We camped, played cards, read books, explored, swam
in Lake Powell and just goofed off. As usual, it was
a blast. Then we headed to Moab for a few days for
bikes, food and fun.
A great trip.
Here are a few photos...
I love the ghosts of the
canyon photo...
More to come. Lightroom is still having its way with
the previews...
Birthday Climb
Let me qualify that sightly - I’m no mountaineer wearing crampons and plastic boots, struggling under 75 lbs of gear. I’m a fast/light kinda guy to begin with, and don’t much like travel that requires ropes, ice axes and self-arresting near a cliff. In fact, as funny as this sounds to people who know me well, I’m a pretty conservative guy when it comes to life/death situations. I’ve never been to the top of Mt. Rainier or Mt. Hood. Or Shasta. I’ve walked around some of them (often that equals climbing them a couple of times), but never gotten frosty beard at 14,000 ft.
But for the past few years, on my birthday I climb a mountain. Its kind of a tradition. Luckily we have several right next to my little town that do nicely - they involve 4-8 miles and 3000-4000 feet of climbing. At this time of year, it also means some snow and the probability you won’t see anything at the top, but I’m usually done by noon.
Today I decided to do Mt. Si, a popular local route that goes up to about 4000 ft in 4 miles. I didn’t get an early start, but I got out and back by just after lunchtime - just in time to go eat out with my wife. Life is grand.
Here is a photo from the icy top of the ridge overlooking North Bend, WA.
It was a great climb. The
top was knee deep in snow, and the route took a bit
of work to find/get up.
Fun stuff.
...or a Flashlight
Here are some portraits shot last night with just a small LED flashlight for illumination beyond the very limited ambient light.
Very nice methinks. Going to do some more of these today...
Window Light
I’ve spent the last few years learning how to use all this lighting gear, and sometimes you need to step back and just let the morning light flow thru the window.
‘nuff said.
Of course, here I am packing my lights up for a
photoshoot today...
PS. Forca Brasil!
Ouch!
More Examples from the Sigma
Overall quite happy with
the lens so far...
PS. Yes, my son got into the stamp kit yesterday.
When we went out for ice cream as a family, my oldest
goodaturedly remarked that he hoped nobody from his
school would see his nutter of a brother with stamps
all over his face. So it begins...
Mt. Rainier
Living in a perpetually rainy world, one tends to forget how close that snow really is. Just add a little altitude and that rain turns to snow. Lots of it. And this is an admirable quality of the Pacific Northwest. Want snow? Drive to 2000 ft. Don’t. Stay put.
Well, mostly.
Here are a few pictures of the environs as we built our icy accommodations.
Did I ever mention that
building an igloo is hard work?
Dark Garden
Here are a few early photographs coming from this series...
I’m going on a week-long
hike in April in Southern Utah, so I’m sure I’ll be
adding to these.
See more here...
Happy St. Paddy's Day
My daughter took up Irish Dance this past year, so we’ve had a chance to get to know a bit about our fine friends from the Emerald Isle. This year she was invited to perform with her school (Baile Glas Irish Dance) in Seattle’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade and then at the Irish Festival at Seattle Center.
So it was with a bit of trepidation as we headed out of the house, headed for the city, in a downpour. The thought of how wet we were going to get crossed our minds. Happily, it cleared up 10 minutes before the parade and we saw nary a drop all day.
So in celebration of St. Patrick and his Day O’ fun, here are a few photos...
There were lots of pipes
and kilts in the parade. I’d not worn my kilt for
fear of cultural insensitivity, but apparently the
pipes and drums make everything all better. Next
year...
PS. Yes, the wigs are a bit much.
P.S.S My son reaffirmed his desire to learn the
bagpipes. Steen, the bagpipe man!
Irish Curls
Henry Coe State Park
One of the benefits of working for a company located in the Bay Area is that I spend time there for work, and at least once a year I find time to tack on an extra few days to spend in the hills just beyond the sprawling valley.
Henry Coe is a spectacular park, with over 87 thousand acres of space to explore. Be warned, it extremely brutal hiking terrain - the trails are often straight up or straight down the rolling Diablo mountains in which they are situated. This helps limit visitors and gives you a bit more solitude. Good thing.
I’ve been hiking here since the late 90s - going back to when we lived in the Bay Area. I’ve managed to explore 80% of the trails myself over that time, no small feat, and I’v even found myself in the largely ignored wilderness areas beyond the park entrances. This year I stuck to the well known western area, just for a change.
One of the striking things about Henry Coe, beyond the rolling mountains is the presence of some majestic trees, including various types of Oak, Ponderosa Pine, Laurel, Madrone, Bay, and the ever lovely Manzanita. Pair these with some lovely rolling hills with steep ravines and bare ridge-tops and you do little but smile as you walk.
Here are a few pictures fro last weekend’s trip...
I head home tomorrow AM,
so I’m pretty excited to see my family.
Have a great Thursday.
A few pictures...
I’m preparing for a
week-long trip to the Bay Area today. I’ll be down
for work, plus getting in a few days of backpacking
in Henry Coe State Park as well. Should be fun.
My planned base backpack weight is about 7 lbs before
food/water/camera. The camera should add 4 lbs. How
crazy is that.
Just Da Boyz
I grabbed the boys from school and we all went to see Coraline. Aidan had read the book and I’m a sucker for Selick/Burton-like movies. Lots of fun, a bit creepy, and some lovely visuals.
Image © Selick et al
Today we’re going to
soccer games, basketball games, for a bike ride and
maybe a hike. Then we’ll come home and do a Jurassic
Park marathon...
Here are two pictures of my two youngest from this
week...
My goofy kids rock.
Crazy Hair Day
Orbis-O-Rama!
Here are a few pictures from my my inagural use of the Orbis with ETTL.
Nice. I’m quite happy
with the subtle effect here. Very ringflashy. The
tones are quite nice too. I’m still going to get
around to making a diffusion panel for the Orbis at
some point.
Cheers!
PS. Gotta love goofy boys.
Alzo Mini Softbox: A Review
I’ve been meaning to get a small softbox like this for headshots and I figured it would be good to see what was offered for small strobes as a way to add to my Strobist street cred. There are several on the market: the Lastolite EZbox, the Photoflex LiteDome an the Alzo Mini Softbox.
I went with the Alzo because my wife gave me a sideways look for all the packages that showed up that week. Total was just under $58 bucks with softbox, mount and carry case. Not to bad, and alot cheaper than the Lastolite. The Photoflex is new to me, so I didn’t consider it, but it looks like it fits right in between the two price-wise.
Anyhow, the Alzo is an
interesting little unit. It sets up quickly, by just
unfolding it much as you do a reflector, which is
really nice. You attach the single white diffusion
material to the front with velcro. I’ll have to admit
the supplied front diffusion panel was a bit smaller
than it should be - it takes a bit of work to get
that material even, but it works.
The flash attachment actually threw me for a loop
when I actually went to attach it to the softbox - it
just fits in the back and is held on by friction. I
had to think about it for a minute before I decided
that was indeed the design. And then I went to the
website to double check that I wasn’t missing
anything. Honestly, I’m not sure I like that. On
doing some research, it seems the Lastolite uses the
same mechanism. Oh well.
Here is how it attaches:
Overall, I was surprised
by the build quality of the softbox itself. It seems
every bit as sturdy and well put together as my Alien
Bees softbox. The stiching and fabric seem sturdy and
should stand up to the use intended. The bracket is
serviceable, although, as mentioned, I’m not sure the
friction mounting system will be a durable.
Anyhow, setting up from there is straightforward. The
nice thing about this is that its pretty much
speedlight-nostic. It will let you use most flash
units, including my Vivitar and Canon 580 EX lights.
I found the light quite nice - I was a bit concerned
that there wasn’t an internal baffle like there are
on larger softboxes (the EZYBox has two diffusion
panels) but the light was exactly as I expected from
a softbox. Very nice.
Here is a shot from today with my son modeling his
new watches (Happy Meal toy. Hey, it wasn’t me).
Very nice. This is
tentatively titled “I gots me some watches.”
The light feels just right. The softbox in this
picture was about a foot away from the model’s right,
and set on 1/8th power, giving me plenty of light for
a 1/200 f9 exposure. If I compare this with the ring
light I got a few weeks back, its *much* softer and
pleasing. In fact, I’ve been toying with the idea of
sewing an external diffusion baffle for my Orbis
because of its harshness.
Speaking of diffusion, I’ll probably add a second
diffusion panel to the Alzo myself as well. Shouldn’t
be too hard.
In short, this is a recommended unit. Buy it here or on Ebay.
Battle Droids: Fight!
But when it snows in the hills around Issaquah, the school bus runs on a later schedule.
So the kids had some extra time this AM before meeting the bus - time happily spent drawing on the living room floor.
Those are Battle Droids lining up for an epic match of Jedi vs. Robots.
Joshua Tree National Park
To be honest, I’m not really much of a landscape photographer, but I spend a fair amount of time in beautiful places, so I do end up with a few pictures because, well, they deserve to be taken seriously.
So, anyhow, I headed out at 5 am for the cholla garden along one of the major routes thru the park and found a few interesting things.
Orbis Ringflash
This morning I had some down time and wanted to play with some of the new gear that arrived at my doorstep in the week I was gone. This included a small strobe-based softbox and an Orbis Ringflash adapter.
As I’m pretty down with the Strobist mindset (and yes I have big lights too), I wanted to get some additional light modification gear for my Canon 580 EX II speedlight. I built a few items in the last month (Snoot, Grid, Beauty dish) but I decided to “outsource” on the ringflash and softbox for obvious reasons.
The ringflash is something that has always intrigued me, and its pretty hip right now in the light modifier market. Buts you gotta pay to play, and I’d not gotten around to getting one of the new units that uses your speedlight for power. I chose the Orbis because it lets you use ETTL mode when you are in a non-studio environment (via a off-camera hotshoe cord). For run and gun, this makes sense. Here is the unit (from their website):
So I setup the seamless,
grabbed my goofy kids and had a short studio session.
Then my youngest came
running in with the goofy teeth. The goofy teeth were
a gift from their cousin in Utah, and we’ve had many
hilarious sessions with said redneck accoutrements.
And finally, a slightly more serious portrait of my
son.
Using the Orbis was prety
straightforward. I set it up on a lightstand using my
flash mount, pulled down my white seamless and setup
the meter for 1/4 power at 2 feet from the ring. I’ve
got the off-camera hotshoe on order, so I used my
radio control triggers and went manual. I’ll try the
ETTL mode when it arrives. The light was exactly as I
expected - a nice soft halo that is characteristic of
the ringflash setup. And the best part is I don’t
have to sink all that extra cash in a dedicated ring
light. For most work I do, this should work
perfectly. Recommended.
That is it for today.
I’ll try to break out the softbox this week and give
it a whirl as well.
Have a great Sunday.
Random Picts from the Road
Julia
Tahoe Sledding
Young Dancers
I was glad I did.
Two images really stood out for me, mostly because they capture the “dance” experience for a new student. The world is big, they are small, and it is these new things that often make them a bit more reserved than they may be elsewhere.
And sometimes the camera catches them in this uneasy state...
Of course, they grow out
of it. Or at least most do. And a few truly learn to
dominate the stage with their smile, their movement
and their personality.
But for these young dancers, this transformation is
still to come.
Shooting Backstage
Anyhow, I’m quite adept at it, and its always exciting to be back amongst the performers and the accoutrement of the stage. Here is a photo I ran across today that kinda sums up the experience for me.
Motion, light, darkness,
hustle, busy, hectic, grace and beauty. That about
sums it up.
Besides the stage work, I love shooting pictures of
the dancers in the wings. Her are a few portraits in
this no-light nightmare over the course of a few
day’s this past Nutcracker...
This is the land of f 1.2
and sometimes a bit of softness because I’m shooting
at 1/15 or worse. Which sometimes is not a problem
when the image is spectacular.
More of EBT’s 2008 Nutcracker
images here...
Beauty Dish
Here are a few pictures
of the light itself. Its mounted on my Canon 580 EX
II speedlight on a lightstand with an AB Cybersync
wireless trigger. Simple to setup, nice light and
cost me about $15 bucks. Love that.
Busy day. Gotta run.
Seamless at the Ready
Any-who, I wanted a quick way to get a background
down without having to setup my backgrounds stands
all the time. This way they are mounted right there
in my office, above the closet at a moments notice. I
didn’t polish it much - just 20 min in the garage and
then quickly screwgun’ed to the wall. Works for me.
Total cost: $25 or so for the brackets and dowels. I
had a few pieces of scrap plywood lying around for
the rest. Badda Bing.
To test them out, I grabbed my nephew/neice and some
accoutrements laying about the house...
Perfect. I end up using
it like a family “Crazy Booth” that I sometimes do
with clients and my kids love it.
Cheers!
Portraits, etc...
Nutcracker Gallery - Dress Rehearsal
This first gallery contains approximately 100 images from Friday evening’s dress rehearsal.
Here are a few of my
favorites so far...
More to come...
More Ballet Than You Can Shake a Stick At!
I found several images I’m quite happy with, and I have a pretty large gallery uploading right now.
Have a great Sunday!
Christmas comes!
Tomorrow I head back to
California for a day long meet-up with a bunch of
wedding photographers at SmugHQ. David Jay and a posse of
like-minded shooters will all be there and it otta
be fun. There are few things, besides shooting,
that I like more than talking shop with photogs.
We’ll talk Pro SmugMug accounts, Showit slideshows,
Lightroom and all kinds of goodness. Looking forward
to it.
Things of interest:
- Imagenomic’s new Portraiture Plugin is out. Very cool. The new UI looks a bit familiar. Its free if you own the previous version.
- I’ve seen people who managed to score Lightroom 2.0 for $125 at Amazon. Yeahaw. Prolly too late for you. But you should own it anyway.
- Top 10 Gifts for Photographers
- Cut & Paste for iphone? Hope so. This is a sign of SteveHubris.
Have a great Thursday!
Flamenco
Here are a few pictures of the lovely young ladies stomping and flicking those long skirts about.
Lightroom Tuesday approaches...
Goggle-Mainia!
Back Home
One thing waiting for me when I walked in the door was a package from a military surplus place - I’d ordered some props for portraits and they had arrived in my absence.
Here is one being modeled by my son this AM (what we did instead of get ready for school like we should have, my wife adds).
These little treasures should be alot of fun. Cheers...
More Marianne
I’m off to Southern
California in a few hours to attend a good friend’s
wedding. He’s a bit of an eccentric fella, so I
suspect his friends will make for quite a sweeping
panorama of interesting.
Camera? Check.
Have a great weekend.
Marianne
Visiting 'Da Doc
More exciting for me, it means I get to take pictures of all the cool contraptions hanging about is office like so much steam-punk candy.
Here are a few photos from Saturday afternoon’s shoot for your perusal.
I’m flying down to the
Bay Area tomorrow for work, so I’m trying to tie up a
few loose ends here at home before leaving. Might
those loose ends involve setting up a Christmas tree
you ask? Indeed they would.
As I’ve probably mentioned before, my wife is
something of a holiday junkie. So much so that she
has trouble keeping them all straight - if she had
her way, the Christmas tree would be up mid-November.
In my book that would be a serious confusion -
holiday inflation if you will. One at a time, I say.
But now that Thanksgiving is over, its time to light
the lights and setup the tree. And yes, I had to
listen to Christmas music on the way home from our
little Thanksgiving trip.
PS. It looks like I’ve been doing the blog thing
regularly for about a year now. Wow. 258 odd posts.
Not too shabby.
Cheers!
Buzzbomb!
Got the Cover!
Ha! I wish. I’m getting on a plane Tuesday to go down to the Bay Area for the week and a friends wedding on the weekend in Joshua Tree. Its going to be another hectic week, so blogging will be as sporadic as it was this past week...
While in Montana, I shot a series of portraits of my brother and his kids - I expect to have those edited and ready to review soon.
I’m pretty excited on my
latest magazine cover for City Arts Magazine here in
Seattle.
I shot the cover and the
images for the 4 page article inside. I was pretty
excited as this is a great way to highlight Viktoria
and her work with the young ballerinas of Emerald Ballet Theatre.
More EBT photography here...
If you have not gotten tickets for the EBT Nutcracker this year,
you’re running out of time. They
always sell out.
Steen in Squares
He looks really good in very short hair, although he tends to want to grow it longer like his older brother. The funny thing is that we were goofing thru the entire shoot, but I asked him to be serious at times and those were the ones that came out best. Its amazing to see his complex personality come out - this is certainly the serious and sensitive side of my little guy.
Family Book Time
Every year I comb thru my massive archive of images from the past year and build a book that contains images of our family and its varied activities. Its kinda like mailing grandma that double set of prints from the drugstore back in 1996, only it is a bit more curated, organized and its built to be thrown on a coffee table and shared with others for years to come.
Excitingly, each year the book gets bigger. What began in 2006 as a 30 page book with ~100 pictures and has grown to triple that. This year may be even larger.
I make a bunch and send them to grandparents and keep one for our family. They are a hoot to have lying around and they are a great way to involve others in your family from afar. Traditionally I’ve used Blurb and have been reasonably happy with the cost/quality/format of their offerings.
SmugMug this year has a new
partnership with MyCanvas.com that has an online
flash-based book creator that I’m going to play
around with.
Books: go make one.
Here are a selection of images bound for our Family
book this year. The tip of the iceberg, as it were...
I'm Babysitting
Of course, the beast to which I refer is our 3 year old son. It’s his informal nickname, and we mean it in the best possible way. He’s a firecracker, and I have no-one to blame but myself. I like to say that he is me, without the temperance of age.
Any-who, I was left to babysit this young upstart and having work to do, I set him up with some legos with Bob the Builder on reserve in case he balks. Five minutes past and I’m working intently on a problem. Ten pass and I notice an unsettling silence. My ears perk up at this because I’ve got 3 other children. I’m an expert.
Silence to a parent is like a canon shot across the bow of HMS Holy-Hell. Something is not right. Especially with this kid, as he jabbers like a madman while playing legos. I wander out, expect one of several things:
- He’s into something he shouldn’t and thinks silence will act as cover. Like aural camouflage. Parents know better.
- He’s packed his bags and moved out to somewhere more tolerant of his outrages. He has threatened.
- He’s fallen asleep. If its before noon, this is acceptable. If its after, it means he’ll be with us until 10 pm. Not good.
Turns out it was #3. And it was before noon.
I’m really good at
Babysitting.
Another Selfy
Self Portraits
I find that most pictures turn out best when I’m on the non-sensitive side of the digital sensor*.
But I was asked to submit a self-portrait for a magazine that I contributed work to recently. After digging for awhile and coming up empty - I pulled out the lights/backdrop and tripod and shot something new.
* This is a digital update to the joke I told for years that referenced the film plate. It remains true, I’m afraid.
A New Tutu
Yesterday, my little niece showed up dressed to dance in a new tutu, and it was too cute to not break out the backdrop and try to con a 1 year old into staying still/standing/lookiing at the camera for a few minutes.
This one turned out quite nice.
As did this one.
Have a great day...
Soccer Tournament
Soccer tournaments are one of the things we enjoy most about having our son play club soccer. We get to go somewhere fun, stay for a couple of days and just live/breathe soccer. Well, and eat some good food in between. Usually they are summer affairs, but this one was late in the season, and given it is already almost mid-November, the weather was pretty nice for the Pacific Northwest.
We won our first two games handily and lost our third by 1 point to a team we really should beat. They played well for the first two games, but the final found them faltering in the second half. Aidan really applied himself and showed quite well in all three games. His aggressiveness was perfect and he was always on top of the ball when it came near him. Right on Aidan!
A few pictures...
A Visit to Polson Family Eyecare
Well, he recently graduated from optometry school back in Ohio and moved back west to start his own eye-umachacallit-dealio. He wanted somewhere that was close to the families in Canada (his wife is also Canadian- from a town that makes ours look huge) and Polson, MT seemed to fit the bill nicely. Happily, he found an older doctor that was retiring and bought the practice. Its nice to have him back in the west so we can see him on our twice-yearly bike trips to Moab.
This is him trying to ride as expertly as I do. The form is flawed, as is the technique, but you can’t fault him for trying. I kid, I kid.
Polson is on the south end of Flathead Lake in
northwestern Montana. This is a very familiar place,
as we spent a lot of time as kids tromping thru this
area. Some friends had a cabin on a lake near by and
we’d always go down once or twice a year to ski, swim
and muck around. Its only about 3 hours from Cardston
and is just a lovely place to visit. Its very
Montana, with the Rockies staring down at you and
pine trees galore. The Kalispell environs bring back
lots of good memories.
So anywhooo, we stopped by his business for some
quick check-ups - my daughter was in need of some new
glasses and we ran the others thru as well. Being who
I am, I yanked out the Canon and snapped some fun
pictures of the kids trying on goofy frames and doing
the check up thing.
A few more here...
Hey, its the weekend almost! Huzzah! Have a good one...
Hip Young Man
He’s quite a bit different from the other children - much more introverted, shy and sensitive. But he is also a trend setter - often leading the family in jokes told per hour and interesting inventions. One of his recent ideas is a new family holiday - entitled “Quensos Day” - that is focused mainly around the adoration of sugar cereal. According to him, it is celebrated November 13th and is marked by many bowls of Captn Crunch (3x a day) and a 1 hour break in getting to school. We celebrate our first in a few weeks - and something destined to be a family tradition.
This trend setting extends to fashion too - his go-to-school ensembles often show a hint of originality and style usually lost on 6 year olds. Here he is in his Fox apparel getting ready for school the other morning.
Rock on Steen. You’re my
guy.
Remember last week when I
mentioned I had a hard drive fail. And how important
it was to backup stuff? Well, I had another one go
down yesterday. This one was, I’m happy to say, in my
Drobo. I sat down to do some
editing on Sunday afternoon and instead found an
alert that one of the drives had died. Dead. I
quickly ran down to a local shop and purchased
another drive to replace it. Worse, the drive was
less than a month old and I paid a pretty penny
for it.
The thing that really irks me is that Seagate won’t
provide acceptable support for their defective drive.
The last internal drive I had go bad was several
years ago (it was a Western Digital I believe) and
they shipped me a replacement gratis, with a box to
put the defective drive in for return shipping (which
was also prepaid). I was out zero dollars and had a
drive within a day or two. Seagate? They pretty much
told me I had to either wait two weeks (and pay to
ship the defective drive back myself) or I could pay
$20 to get the service the other guys gave for free.
Are you kidding me? was my reply. That is our policy
sir.
And so I have a new policy: no Seagate drives. Sorry.
You lose. Bzzzt. And don’t forget that Maxtor is
owned by Seagate as well.
A Few Kid Picts
Zions & St. George
And two from our return
to Las Vegas thru St. George.
Have a great day...
Family Portraits
Sadly, part of our extended entourage had left earlier that morning so we didn’t get everyone. Regardless, here are the results...
Have a great day...
Moab Galleries
All images are available
for immediate purchase in a variety of print sizes on
paper and mounted canvas.
Have a great day.
PS. I had a hard drive
fail today. Most everything is safe, except I found
that the Chron script I had running to backup my
lightroom catalogs last ran on Sept 19th. The
photographs are all where they should be, but it
looks like I’ll loose a bit of time reworking some of
my organizational structure.
What a pain. Backup now. Backup often. Honestly.
Uranium Bicycles
I’ve gone to many of the bike shops in the area, but my favorite is the new kid on the block: Uranium Bicycles.
Uranium just opened this spring, and they were the
easiest to work with when I was looking for a quick
rent when Aidan and I were in town this past March.
From there we’ve just kinda tried to default to there
because the people were spectacularly nice.
This past trip I got talking with Christie and she
mentioned they were wanting to start a Flickr page
for photos of the area - that wouldn’t stand
considering I work for SmugMug - so I hooked them up
with an account. One thing led to another and I ended
up swinging back by the shop on my way out of town to
snap a few pictures for them. Mainly for the website,
but also just for fun. One of their mechanics was an
interesting guy, and I figured a portrait or two of
him would be really cool. We had a ball, with
pictures galore of their two younger shop-girls as
well as some stuff for their website. And next spring
I’ll be back and we’ll do some riding and take some
more pictures.
So here is to the guys/gals at Uranium (they guys are
outnumbered, btw)...
Sovereign Trail
The Sovereign Trail is a newer Moab trail - it was built in the last 5 years - and it is mercifully for two-wheeled riders only. For some reason I’d heard that it wasn’t very long and wasn’t that fun, and so I’d avoided it until this spring when we were looking for something new. I’m sure glad we did as its is really in the top 2 or 3 rides in the Moab area. Its just an awesome number that has a little of everything Moab can offer (dirt, slickrock, sand, more dirt).
Here are a few pictures from our morning on the trail...
Now that’s what I’m talking ‘bout.
Arches National Park
Here is a picture I shot at Natural Arch in Arches National Park last week after doing just such a hike...
I’m pretty pleased with it.
Rock Hopping n' Dropping
Let me get my camera out of the pelican case...
Here he is trying to coax
a friend into doing the same drop.
He did it too.
Riding Sovereign trail
today before heading north. Hopefully not into snow.
Snow? Summer just barely ended...
Hazard County to Kokopelli to Porcupine Rim
We started from Uranium Bikes in Moab to shuttle up
to the Hazard County trailhead at almost 9500 feet
above sea level. We huffed to almost 10,000 feet
before beginning our descent.
We rode all kinds of wonderful. Technical, fast,
challenging. We dropped and dropped until we hit town
at 3700 feet almost 5 hours after departing.
Sweet. I’m beat...
More from Moab
The Moab Maxim: ride/hike and take pictures...leave the editing till later when you’re out of that splendid desert.
And a panorama from Arches near Balanced Rock...
I’m on my way home tomorrow afternoon after riding the Sovereign trail system.
Moab!
A few times a year we get to travel to interesting places and photograph them with a group of our customers. It is co-sponsored by Dgrin, a SmugMug affiliated photographic forum. Fun!
This fall we’re in Moab, Utah. I’m here several times a year for mountain biking or backpacking, so it was a natural to head back for this event.
I had a marathon driving session Monday to Tuesday to get here, and today I setup, scouted some locations and shot a few night pictures from the top of Sand Flat Road looking over the Moab valley.
Here is one of my favorites...
There is plenty more to come. Stay tuned.
More from Ivy
Weekend Fun
I rode my mountain bike for 25 or so miles, we went to a soccer game in Yakima and then down to Seattle for a cancer benefit called “Light the Night” in Greenlake Park. Everyone walked the 2.5 miles around the lake with red/white balloons to raise money for cancer research. Team Hans raised over $3000 I hear. Right on.
Here is a short visual chronicle of that day.
Micro Soccer Begins
Here are a few pictures from Friday’s meet-up...
Not to be outdone, my
youngest was in fine form as well...
Such a proud moment. I
have no idea what he was up to...
Photo Shoot: Pirate Party
Zion National Park
I was on vacation over the weekend with my wife in Zion National Park. We had a ball. Hiked the Narrows, hiked Angel’s Landing, and rode a tandem from Springdale to the Temple of Sinawava and back. We ate well, slept in and just enjoyed ourselves. Its been along time since we spent an extended amount of time sans children, and it was nice.
Here are a couple of images from our hike up to Angel’s Landing.
I’m still going thru the rest. I promised not to do more than download images at night and stuck to my word, so now I have to sort thru the rest.
Skoolz In! Skoolz in!
The kids were in fine form this morning, new clothes on and ready to roll, so I threw my gray backdrop up and shot a few pictures.
Have fun kids! Its quiet around the home office today...
Photo Shoot
I was in the studio Saturday with a lovely young lady and here are a few of the excerpts from that shoot:
Hope you had a great
Labor Day - we spent the entire time getting the
house clean for the impending parental visit. My wife
and I will be going to Zions National Park for a long
weekend away from the kids to commemorate 15 years of
marriage.
My wife rocks. And to celebrate, we’ll go climb thru
oodles of giant red sandstone in one of the most
beautiful places on earth.
Soccer Tournament
The boys did OK and we had a nice time at our beach cabins in Birch Bay. Here are a few images from the weekend...
Have a great Sunday.
Views from Canada & Idaho
First up is Southern Alberta, including wheat fields, my old elementary school, the view from Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump and a couple from Fort MacLeod. And of course, my goofy kid playing in the gravel.
I spent summers on my
grandpa’s ranch near Mackay, Idaho. The Lost River
Valley. I and went back a few weeks ago to see what
had become of the place. Its changed - it has been 20
years mind you - but somethings were as I expected. A
few things at least.
My favorite is the bridge, stamped with a big 1977,
which was the year I started going down. I vividly
remember this bridge and the land just beyond it that
was part of the ranch.
Have a great weekend.
A Visit to the Velodrome
Here are some images from the racing that night...
As to the Lightroom 2
world, I’m hearing a few rumblings about Lightroom 2
having some issues. Here is my take, given my
expereince:
- It seems to me that importing takes more time than it used to. Nothing scientific, but its bugging me.
- Day to day catalog use seems about the same.
- I’ve seen more crashing using Lightroom - sometimes it just goes down and reports “Hey, I crashed”. I always write XMP to the file, so I’m never losing anything, but its still a pain.
- I experienced no catalog upgrade issues.
- I’ve seen a few small bugs either stick around from 1.x (Command-Delete sometimes says there are no files to delete when there are) or new ones (Edit in Photoshop never shows a dialog for me). I’ve noted that some third party web galleries don’t work right or are having drawing issues in the right hand track.
- Some say that turning the Local Corrections on/off takes way to long. Have not really seen this.
Overall, Lightroom 2.0 performs about as well as 1.4 on my machine (which admittedly is a fast one with lots of ram). I’m looking forward to some bug fixes and I realize that the angst this stuff is causing people is a pain, so stick in there. My advice is to make sure you have a good machine, treat it well and be conscientious about your work and you’ll be happy.
Here are a few tips on boosting Lightroom performance.
Got any LR bugs? Put a comment and I’ll forward it to the team.
Also, here is a great link to some new Lightroom 2.0 tutorials on the Photoshop Cafe (via the Imaging Buffet).
Curtis
Back Home
I have a bunch of stuff to do today, and it can’t wait. Gotta mail an old camera I sold recently. I have to print out a bunch of pictures for a client. I have to prep an image for upload to Photoshelter for a special fine-art promo they will be doing (details forthcoming). This is the image, one of my all time favorites and one that sells quite well.
I also have to work on some images for another client
and cull thru the collective work of the last two
weeks - I shot several thousand images and have some
real good stuff in there.
Work. Work. Work.
We had a friend from AZ visit last night as well. She
was in town doing a wedding photography workshop
downtown - we know her and her family from the Bay
Area when we lived there. It was fun to sit and chat
about old acquaintances and such.
I’ve got several
mini-tutorials for Lightroom ready to roll in the
next few days, so stay tuned.
Ride Report:
Road. 30 miles in the Snoqualmie Valley area. It
was cool and a bit humid but wonderful road
biking weather.
Hometown
Yesterday I rode up to my old elementary school to snap a few pictures and ran into a friend of mine who is the IT director for the school district. He gratiously let me go inside and tour the bulding - somewhere I have not been since I graduated to Jr. High in the early 1980s. I hear they are going to tear it down soon - accessiblity wasn’t as big an issue in 1970 as it is today - and I’m told it just can’t be retrofitted. It will be a sad day for those of us who went to the odd round pod-school on the southern Alberta prairie.
It was pretty cool to be back inside after so many years. I was suprised at how much had not changed. Here is a selection of images...
Here are a few other images from the last few days.
We left Cardston
yesterday at noon and drove down to my brother’s
place in Poulson, MT. He just graduated from
optometry school and has been working at his new
practice in town for a bit over a year. Its a nice
little place on Flathead Lake and close to our old
stomping grounds around Echo Lake and Kalispell. A
bit of nostalgia all round.
Now back to Seattle today...
Back in Big Sky Country
We’re camped about 20 miles from Yellowstone with about 80 members of my wife’s extended family. Its safe to say we’re overrun with kids. The boys have already formed small roving gangs of stick-weilding neer-do-wells and the girls have stetup elaborate ruses on how to “get back” at the boys for their alleged predetations...
Yes, its family runion time. I remember my family reunions when I was a kid - the heninger family was big and even produced a few notables including the actor behind Napoleon Dynamite. I kid you not. I remember him as a twin with shirts claiming they were the other one. Funny.
Today we went into Yellowstone and did the typical tourist stuff - drive, drive, drive and see Old Faithful. The kids were suitibly impressed with Old Faithful’s height for about 10 seconds and then went on to dig in the dirt near the boardwalk.
Here are a few images from the past two days.
A Summer's Walk
I was strolling along in the industrial park near our house and shot a few pictures that I quite enjoyed.
Also, a few of my goofy
boys.
I was rushed today to get
a book done for a client of mine - she wanted
something to take to Russia for family and friends
and just managed to get me a list of the images to
include. So I spent some fo this evening putting it
together and I’m *very* happy with it. Here is the
cover...
I’ll be traveling with
the family over the next few weeks - into Montana and
Wyoming again - this time for a reunion. And then up
to Canada for my 20 year high school reunion. So
updates to the blog will be a bit more sporatic while
I’m gone.
Cheers.
Wyoming Revisited
Here is the result of that 5 image shot (drum roll please)...
I must say that Photoshop
CS3 makes this super easy - gone are the days when
you really need a third party tool for this kinda
work. It is almost 10,000 pixels on the long side.
That’s what I’m talkin’ about.
And now, the galleries. There are four, with a total
of about 100 images.
A shout out to all those
from the dig checking in! If you are interested in
using any of the pictures for websites or facebook,
please contact me and I’ll send you a password
protected gallery that lets you download internet
resoution digital files. Cheers!
Ride Report:
Road. 30 miles from my home to Fall City, to
Snoqualmie, to North Bend (via the road running
right by Mt. Si) and then home. Lovely ride,
just the right temperature at 7 am.
Lazy Sunday
I had a photoshoot setup for this afternoon, but the wind came up and the clouds closed in and it drizzled some, so the parents asked to reschedule.
I put up a gallery for another client tonight and have to make several calls to prospective clients tomorrow. Busy Busy. That and I’ve got to prepare for our upcoming trip to Yellowstone (family reunion) and Canada (20 year high school reunion). Summer is burning fast and I’d prefer it stay longer, given the goofy spring we just had.
Here are a few pictures
from a few months back that I just love. Both taken
with the M8 and an old Canon 1.2 screwmount lens. As
I’ve mentioned before, I’m not much of a sports
shooter - I do it and capture a few good images here
and there - but it isn’t my joie de vivre. However, I
love the sidelines...
Love that glow I get from that combination.
Just less than 2 days
left in my eBay gear auctions. Check them out if you
are in the market for a good deal on some great
hardware.
Before the Feis
The Irish dance world is another beast entirely, and we’ve already had two dance teachers fight over her and our introduction to the crazy world of dance competition is probably going to be more than we can bear. Sometimes parents are just crazy with their kids. I mean, honestly, live your life first and let your kids live theirs - people having proxy childhoods are sure annoying.
So she walks into this contest today like a lamb, hopefully things will go well and she’ll get to compete and dance on her own merits - and for the love of dance.
Last night she put in the curlers - apparently curly hair is a must for Feis competitions - and I’ve heard rumor of completely ridiculous wigs as well. I mean, honestly, does that look natural?
Regardless, my girl has very straight hair, so her chance to keep those curls is low. But they sure are cute for the first 20 minutes. Here she is last night before bed - curlers in and ready.
Update:
She took first in the Reel for new competitors,
fourth for the Jig and third in the overall category.
Not bad for a girl with 3 weeks of training - ballet
training really pays off.
Here is what the curls looked like this AM...
Ride Report:
Mountain. 10 miles at Tokul Creek. One of our
favorite trails there dead-ended half way thru
into a new logging road - that really sucks.
Ugh. Rode with Brett and had a ball.
Tools, Part III
Here is a small selection of images from last week’s shoot. Included are some interesting items - see if you can figure out what some of the more esoteric ones are...
In
Lightroom news, Scott Kelby
announced the latest version of his Lightroom Book -
this one for Lightroom 2.0. Its almost as if he knew
something was afoot in Adobeland.
Ride Report:
Road. 15 miles from my home looping around Fall
City. Lovely ride, but a bit short because I had
to take the boys to Bellevue to a capoeira day
camp.
Firearms
One of the tools my grandpa used regularly were his firearms. He was a life-long NRA member and out on the ranch, his reliance on them was often necessary. They were poor and my mom often remembers that the things he could hunt were what they ate - they were isolated in rural idaho and it was along way from the individually wrapped sections of an unidentified animal found in today’s supermarkets.
They were tools to him, and he used them. I like to separate him and the rhetoric I hear today when the subject of guns is brought up.
Have a great day.
Summer in Idaho
I setup shop in Grandma’s garage and proceeded to work thru a large collection of terribly interesting objects - most of which I remember directly being used on the ranch when I was a kid. I worked all day Saturday (with a break for lunch and a quick dinner visit to my Uncle Mike’s house close by). By mid-day it was 90 degrees in that garage and the lights sure didn’t seem to help.
On finishing for the day, we then went over to “Cruise Night” which was an annual vintage car festival in Emmett. We saw lots of what you’d expect - hot rods, Harley’s and lots of people. I also managed to take a few bike rides on a sweet cruiser and visit a few interesting places in this slightly out-of-the-way community on the edge of the sprawling Boise metropolis.
I’m just starting to go thru the results of the marathon Saturday shoot, but here are some fun pictures from the trip itself.
More to come on the tools
series later this week.
And what of my hypermiling experiment. I drove
my 1998 Nissan Frontier pickup down and back for a
total of just under 1000 miles 99% of it on the
freeway. First, consider the Federal EPA rating
for this car (and these are the revised EPA
estimates that better reflect current driving
habits):
Thanks to my Scanguage II, I was able to
monitor fuel consumption, efficiency and cost in
real time. I averaged 33 MPG the entire trip,
spending a total of $130 for the trip in gas. I
beat the EPA estimate by 66% and save almost $50
in gas. Of course, it took me an extra hour at
least each way, but it certainly was less
stressful, quieter and the knowledge that I was
being 66% more efficient was a big plus - its a
stewardship/moral thing and I consider it to be a
total success. Hypermiling works.
Taking it to the petro-sociopaths, one gallon at a
time...
To Emmett!
My Grandpa and I were pretty close growing up - I spent every summer on their farm from the time I was 7 years old and tagged along behind him everywhere he went. I was mesmerized by his knowledge, capabilities and just loved every minute I had in Idaho. There is a great story of me introducing my Grandpa to someone as “my best friend” and it was an honest reflection of how I felt then. I sure miss him.
Anyhow, so when we were there recently I grabbed some old tools from his garage (we spent alot of time fixing things in his garage on the farm outside Mackay, ID) and began a photo project documenting him through his tools. I brought them back home and the first two series are here:
Grandpa’s Tools - Series 1
Grandpa’s Tools - Series 2
I figured it would be a good idea to just go down and setup a studio in the garage and document as much as I could over the weekend. This would allow me to make further progress and visit Grandma at the same time. Kristin liked the idea and suggested I bring Chloe along with me - she loves to spend time in Emmett because Grandma is the queen of craft. I swear, that woman made a hat out of Pepsi cans once, and to a tinkering 9 year old, that is very cool.
So, off we go, with a truck full of lighting gear, my cameras and my daughter. Even with the price of gas, I love road trips. I purchased a ScanGuage II this week that monitors your real time gas milage (Holden Caulfield’s comments notwithstanding) and with my new bag of Hypermiling tricks, I should be able to squeeze 30 mpg out of the truck (rated at 23). I’m such a nerd.
Anywho, have a good weekend. I’ll be blazing away with my tethered 5D into Lightroom 2.
