Well dear viewers, it will be a little while before I get more images up. You see I recently moved up to the Seattle area from Central Oregon. The move went well, but it took 3 days for us to get moved up and (mostly) settled in. During the trip, we spent our first night at my parents house near Portland. That night I brought in my camera equipment into their house because I didn't want to leave it in the moving van overnight. Well, in the rush to get going the next morning I left my equipment at their house. No big deal right? I'll just get it in the next few weeks if I happen to go down there, or they come up to visit. Well, a guy I work with up here had to go back to Portland to pick up some equipment and I asked him if he would pick up my camera bag. Being the nice guy that he is he agreed to it and went ahead and picked up my stuff. Well, while he was in Portland he stopped to eat at Gustav's restaurant. Apparently somebody broke into his truck and stole not only all of his things but all of my camera equipment as well. So here I am now, trying to make a list of all the stuff I had in the bag so I can turn that list into insurance. I feel like I just got punched in the gut and although I'm sure that insurance will take care of this, I feel absolutely awful. Here's the rundown of what the thief (or thieves) got.
1 Canon Eos 20D camera with 18-55mm lens (complete kit): $1500.00
1 Canon EF 28-70mm f2.8 L lens: $850.00
1 Quantary 70-300mm Zoom: $169.95
1 Quantary 28-200mm Zoom: $250.00
1 Sekonic L-358 Exposure Meter: $260.00
1 Canon Speedlite 420 EX Flash: $229.95
1 Canon 550 EX II Flash: $160.00
1 Canon TC-80n3 Programmable Remote Controller: $140.00
1 Sto-Fen Omni Bounce Diffuser: $10.00
1 Tamrac 5248 Adventure 8 Photo Back Pack: $70.00
1 Scandisk Ultra II 2.0 GB Compact Flash card: $20.00
1 Scandisk Ultra II 1.0 GB Compact Flash card: I paid $105.00 for this in '05. Probably worth $10 now.
1 Best Buy 4 year warranty on camera (still in effect): $150.00
1 BP-CN511 Battery (an extra one in additon to the one that came with the kit): $35.99
1 62mm UV filter: $15.99
1 70mm Hoya 77mm filter: $52.00
1 55mm uv filter: $15.00
1 70mm Hoya Circular Polarizer: $70.00
1 55mm Circular Polarizer: $50.00
1 Lexar 512mb 16x CompactFlash Card: $25.00
Grand Total? $4178.43. I'm actually surprised at that number, but I have been adding a little bit every year to my camera bag, gradually trying to increase my kit. Now its all gone. Hopefully insurance will cover my loss completely, but we'll see. I'll keep you posted. More news to come.
To the person or persons that stole my equipment: What goes around comes around. A day will come when you lose something that means a lot to you. Karma is going to bite you in the ass.
Dee Wright Observatory at night
The top image is a one minute exposure. The bottom image is a combination of 38 exposures. You can read more about Dee Wright Observatory HERE.
Black and White Experimentation - Weathered
More experimentation with extreme contrasts. Not sure if I like it or not, but the results are interesting!
Tower Theatre - Nighttime Downtown Bend
Tower Theatre
I took this image last night, and after I got home to process it, I noticed the blurriness around the main sign. I had just cleaned my camera sensor earlier in the day, so I was in a bit of a panic, thinking I had damaged it. So I grabbed my camera and started taking it apart and noticed a great big thumb print right on the front of my lens. Argh! Thats what I get for not cleaning my lenses before heading out.
I took this image last night, and after I got home to process it, I noticed the blurriness around the main sign. I had just cleaned my camera sensor earlier in the day, so I was in a bit of a panic, thinking I had damaged it. So I grabbed my camera and started taking it apart and noticed a great big thumb print right on the front of my lens. Argh! Thats what I get for not cleaning my lenses before heading out.
Damselfly
Heres a close up macro shot of a damselfly at Diamond Lake. I didn't actually set out to take macro images on this trip, but I had my cousin along with me and I wanted to demonstrate how to use a reversed lens as a cheap alternative to a more expensive macro lens. The shot was taken at dusk and the damselflys had settled down for the evening in the reeds surrounding the lake. I managed to find one and I set up my camera on its tripod. Preset my aperture, removed the lens from the camera, reversed it and remounted it using a reversing ring. Took a guess at my exposure time, and took the shot. I took several shots, and this is one of the better ones. I would have tried more shots, but we were getting chewed up by mosquitoes, and I was really trying to get a landscape shot of Mt. Thielsen anyways. The only thing I don't like about the image is that the eye is out of focus. I guess I should have tried for a tighter aperture. Stats: Canon 20D with reversed 18-55mm lens. ISO 400, 1/60th second shutter speed, flash used, tripod used. I think the aperture was at about f8 or f11, I can't remember.
Waterfalls along the Umqua River
Whitehorse waterfalls at the top and Watson waterfalls at the bottom.
Assembly Line
My son has this little lucite cube that has two different liquid mixtures in it. One liquid is heavier than the other and is colored as well. The colored liquid falls down these little ramps inside the cube and also spins a wheel encased within it as well. I finally realized that a close up macro shot would be pretty cool with this toy and here is the result! Enjoy.Midnight Lightning Near Bachelor and Broken Top
This image was taken late last night at the highway 20 viewpoint between Tumalo and Sisters.
Taken with a tripod mounted Canon 20D using a Canon 28-70mm F2.8L lens. ISO 400, 1 minute exposure @ F2.8. In all honesty I should have taken this photo at ISO 200 or even 100, but I wasn't getting any good bolt lightning, so I bumped the ISO to 400. Of course THATS when the bolt lightning starts up! The original image was totally flooded with too much light and would have been unusable. Fortunately I was shooting using RAW and I was able to tweak the highlights and brightness in Photoshop to bring the image back together. Also, I wish I had used a tighter aperture, but I didn't because I needed to get as much light as I could and also, I wasn't sure if it was necessary for this kind of shot. I just focused on infinity and opened up the shutter and hoped for the best! As it is, the ridgeline seems a little blurry to me, but its still an enjoyable shot overall.
Hey! Its my birthday! Trip down memory lane.
Wow, 37 today. Feels.....not all that different than 30. Holy cow, 3 more years closer to geezer like status. Seriously though, I was asked if I felt old. What exactly am I supposed to say to that? I do remember when I was in my 20's thinking that 37 was downright ancient. Hell, I'm at my prime! Nah, I don't feel old. And we won't talk about the little bit o' grey that was cropping up in my beard until I shaved it off.
Lets think back to the things I remember as a kid. Rotary phones, black and white television, typewriters, 12 television channels, the internet didn't exist, I saw the first Star Wars film in a movie theatre when I was 6. H.R. Puff n stuff (The Flute in that show was creepy.) Land of the Lost (Sleestacks!) My first home video console was "Pong" and it had like 2 or 3 settings to it. What else? I remember seeing the Pontiac Firebird at a carshow back in the '70's, the same style Burt Reynolds drove in "Smoky and the Bandit". Jimmy Carter. I remember thinking how awesome 8 track tapes were. I remember that the poster from 'Jaws' scared me as a kid, although I wouldn't see it until much, much later in life. Happy Days, the Muppet Show, Thats Incredible!, The Gong Show, Greatest American Hero, Mork and Mindy, Stretch Armstrong, Mattel Electronics Football, Dungeons and Dragons 1st edition, Star Wars toys, Wham-O magic window, Atari 2600 (Combat and Space Invaders blew my mind) The TI-994a, commodore 64, tape drives on computers, 5 1/4" floppy disks, The Six Million Dollar Man Action Figure. (AWESOME!), Big Wheels! (mine was crushed by a drunken neighbor parking his truck, I barely escaped, Damn you Mr. Glass!), Shag Carpet, polyester suits, ABBA, Blondie, (I had a crush on Deborah Harry!), Dynamite magazine, My Empire Strikes Back lunch box, The Brady Bunch (The Hawaiian Vacation episode was the best), Shazam (couldn't a superhero find a better ride than an old Winnebago? Seriously).
Good grief, I could go on and on, and I've barely even touched on anything during the 80's. I you've got a comment or a happy birthday wish, please leave one and I'll post it up!
Lets think back to the things I remember as a kid. Rotary phones, black and white television, typewriters, 12 television channels, the internet didn't exist, I saw the first Star Wars film in a movie theatre when I was 6. H.R. Puff n stuff (The Flute in that show was creepy.) Land of the Lost (Sleestacks!) My first home video console was "Pong" and it had like 2 or 3 settings to it. What else? I remember seeing the Pontiac Firebird at a carshow back in the '70's, the same style Burt Reynolds drove in "Smoky and the Bandit". Jimmy Carter. I remember thinking how awesome 8 track tapes were. I remember that the poster from 'Jaws' scared me as a kid, although I wouldn't see it until much, much later in life. Happy Days, the Muppet Show, Thats Incredible!, The Gong Show, Greatest American Hero, Mork and Mindy, Stretch Armstrong, Mattel Electronics Football, Dungeons and Dragons 1st edition, Star Wars toys, Wham-O magic window, Atari 2600 (Combat and Space Invaders blew my mind) The TI-994a, commodore 64, tape drives on computers, 5 1/4" floppy disks, The Six Million Dollar Man Action Figure. (AWESOME!), Big Wheels! (mine was crushed by a drunken neighbor parking his truck, I barely escaped, Damn you Mr. Glass!), Shag Carpet, polyester suits, ABBA, Blondie, (I had a crush on Deborah Harry!), Dynamite magazine, My Empire Strikes Back lunch box, The Brady Bunch (The Hawaiian Vacation episode was the best), Shazam (couldn't a superhero find a better ride than an old Winnebago? Seriously).
Good grief, I could go on and on, and I've barely even touched on anything during the 80's. I you've got a comment or a happy birthday wish, please leave one and I'll post it up!
Balloons Over Bend Night Glow
Another shot from tonights event. This was a particularly difficult shot to get, as I needed a long exposure and the damn balloon kept moving around in the wind. Finally I got a semi-decent shot. Out of about 20 shots, this was one of the better ones.
Fire Dancers at Balloons Over Bend Night Glow
I wish I had caught the name of the group doing the fire dance performance at the Les Schwab Amphitheater, but they were almost done with their performance by the time I arrived. Pretty cool stuff though! I wanted to capture the fluidity of their performance, so I left the shutter open for about 4 seconds for each exposure. Had I more time, I would have tried to use shorter exposure times, but I wasn't in a good position as it was to photograph them and they're performance ended right after I took these images. (NOTE: Just got an email from an anonymous viewer, the groups name is "FireFlyte" and they were excellent).
I for one, welcome our new robotic monkey overlords.
I just read this article (link). Talk about a surreal moment. Using electrodes planted in their brains, monkeys have been able to control a robotic arm with their thoughts to feed themselves. Obviously this technology has fantastic potential for people who have artificial limbs, but perhaps also there are applications for future telepresence applications. And if you need to, you can reference the inspiration for the title post here.
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