January 2008

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January 1, Tuesday

After five hours of sleep, Jeff was up at 6:00am working on the Pinewood Derby software and electronic timing gate for Cub Scouts.  They wouldn't talk to each other.  The timing gate uses a serial port from the 1990s, which is ancient in computer years.  They went out of style with the dialup modems.  The 4 year old notebook computer didn't have a serial port, the USB to serial port adapter from last year didn't work, our oldest computer with a serial port refused to bootup, and the kids' computer required some upgrades to run the software.  After 10 hours of work, I finally had a working desktop computer.  I built our last two PCs out of 20 parts, so I wasn't a noob.  This wasn't fun for me anymore.  It was the nail in the coffin for continuing as timing judge next year because of the antiquated hardware and for selling our PCs and replacing them with Macs.  I don't have that kind of spare time.  The 20 inch iMac desktop will be here in a week.  I'll replace the other PCs throughout the year as our budget permits.

January 5, Saturday

Ryan and I finished cutting, sanding and painting the first color of his Pinewood Derby car.  The rest should be done tomorrow.

January 6, Sunday

Ryan was playing with his friends, while Betsi and Ainsley were sick with a stomach virus.  So much for taking pictures of the family on a nice, warm day (around 60 degrees Fahrenheit, 16 Celsius).  I was bored, so I walked around the neighborhood with the camera in hand.  As always, I can find a confused tree or bush this time of year that is starting to bud early.  This means we'll have snow in two or three weeks.  The middle photo had day glow green moss on a foot bridge crossing a stream.  I didn't use Photoshop to enhance the green.  The right photo has two, heavily leaning trees, but that really doesn't come across in the photo.

This tree branch looks like an animal - perhaps a rhino.  Do you see the eye on the left?  What's weird is the tree was dripping water that came from INSIDE the tree.

This used to be the "The Impenetrable Forest," but in winter, that's not the case.

Sometimes I just pick something mundane and try to make the best photo I can.  It took a minute or two of looking for the best angle before taking this photo.  I never noticed the stripes in the white part of the street signs before.

Ryan and I finished his Pinewood Derby car.  Ryan designed it, used power tools, applied spray paint, and attached stickers during much of the process.  I provided guidance and assistance. This is the first year we tried two colors and it worked pretty well.  Legos provided the inspiration for the design.

The photo on the left shows a car's headlights shining on the island in the middle of the duck pond.  The photo on the right shows the thin layer of ice on the pond.  I changed the white balance in Photoshop Lightroom to enhance the blue.  I could have done the same thing by changing the color balance on the camera to Tungsten (light bulb icon) and changed the white balance compensation.  The streak of light is from cars passing on the road.

January 10, Thursday

First Impressions of Our First Mac

The goal of switching from PCs to Macs is less repair and maintenance of all of the computers in the house.  I have the knowledge, but I no longer have the time to fix the computer when it doesn't work.  I also don't like updates to Windows, anti-virus and firewall hijacking the computer when I want to use it.

The 20 inch iMac arrived in the mail.  I had the computer out of its box, booted up, and the packaging thrown away in less than 15 minutes.  It would have been 10 minutes, but I installed the batteries before I booted up the computer instead of after.  If this was a PC, I would need an additional 10 minutes to install the wireless keyboard and mouse drivers.

It took another 20 minutes to get the iMac manually configured to work with our wireless home network.  Otherwise, it would have been done automatically in a matter of seconds.  Keep in mind that I have only touched a Mac for less than 2 hours over a 4 year period.  I was impressed how quick and easy it was to setup.  The search feature in OS X helped my when I got stuck.  For example, I didn't know where to enter the IP address.  The search feature came up with a few options and I clicked on the top result.  I was surprised when an icon on the Dashboard bounced up and down, a window opened, and a bright circle appeared on the "network" icon.  I now know where to go in the future.  The computer is for the kids, but they might have to fight me for it. :-)

The small size didn't impress me until I replaced the old computer with the new one.  The kids now have room on their desk for homework.

I spent a little extra and bought the wireless keyboard and mouse.  I really like only having ONE power cable for a single computer.  I don't have a rat's nest of cables hidden behind the desk.  Even the printer is wireless.  The printer is attached to the network so that every computer in the house can use it.  The wireless network connection means I don't have a wire going from the iMac to the printer.  It's refreshingly uncluttered.

January 11, Friday

Betsi surprised Jeff on his 40th birthday.  I'll make a short story long.  I knew that I needed to be home by 6:00pm to go out with some friends that live in the neighborhood.  I left the office and walked to my car in the parking garage.  The car was gone, but a dozen balloons with a note stood in its place.  The note said to go back to the office and wait for Betsi's call.  I'm browsing the web for an hour when the phone rings.  Betsi said go to the front of the building, but no one was there.  Up pulls a stretch limo and out comes Betsi and Ainsley.  I later found out my parents, her parents, my brother and sister, and Ryan were inside.  There were at home 2.5 to 3 hours away earlier in the day when they called to wish me happy birthday.  My phone at work has caller ID and the area codes were not local.

We arrived at the same inexpensive Mexican restaurant, The Tortilla Factory, as we had planned.  There was a bit of a contrast between the restaurant and the limo.  Anyway, 10 other friends met us inside.  After a good dinner, everyone was invited back to the house for birthday cake.  We took the limo back home.  The windows were so dark and the sun had already set that it was almost impossible to see outside.  I didn't notice the dozens of cars lining the street.

We got out of the limo and the kids were arguing who was going to let Shadow out of her crate.  There was such a race who could be first that they didn't turn on any lights.  So here I am getting irritated that people are pouring in and nobody is turning on any lights.  I'm blind without lights, so I start turning them on when there is a huge SURPRISE! coming from the family room.  Even the kids were surprised because they weren't told about it either.  I was shocked.  Near the front were three friends from High School in Germany.  Brian lives locally while Dan and Eric live in Columbia, MD.  Current and former co-workers were there.  Brian flew in from Detroit.  Sal and Gail drove two hours.  A number of other local friends and family were there too.  I was touched.  See more photos.

January 12, Saturday

After six hours of sleep, it was off to the annual Cub Scout Pinewood Derby.  Jeff was the timing judge and wasn't able to take photos during the race.  Ryan came in fourth out of seven in the den, but took second place for car design (shown above).  He also received the third place trophy for his car design out of all of the dens in the Jr. Webelos dens.  Way to go Ryan!

January 17, Thursday

As predicted from January 6, I said it would snow in two or three weeks after a warm day with buds on the trees.  This storm dumped three inches starting mid-morning and were surprised when the school remained open for a full day. Schools in this area usually close when we get an inch or more.

January 15, Tuesday

Moon on a crisp, winter night. 400mm, 1/500s, f/8, ISO 500 manual camera settings, handheld Canon 5D, 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS Even at 400mm, the moon is relatively small.

100% crop from above.  I've never gotten a picture this sharp before.

Here is a 100% crop from my 3 year old, 6 megapixel Nikon D70s with 70-300mm f/4-5.6 D at 300mm.  None of the moon photos were color corrected.  Granted, this is not a fair comparison.  The Nikon D70s is two generations old and the Canon equipment costs 4 times as much, but it shows what I used to have to what I have now.  This is one example of why I wanted to switch to professional grade gear.

January 20, Sunday

We advertised our old cameras, TV, stereo equipment, and bookcase on Craigslist.  This was our first experience selling anything online.  All in all, it's been a time consuming and educational experience.  It took forever to take quality photos, write a catchy description, and research a good price before posting the individual ads online.  I'm glad we didn't use eBay because now we'd have to pack and ship the items rather than someone coming to the house to take it away.  The nice part is the house is less cluttered with old stuff and we have a few extra dollars.  It's opened my eyes to used photographic equipment.  There is more of it out there than I thought.

I've noticed there are two kinds of buyers.  The browser asks lots of questions, but never buys.  Then there is a person who has the cash, is already in the truck, but just needs the address.  We held an item for the first person that contacted us and the person either didn't show or canceled several days later.  This happened a couple of times for a couple of items.  We have changed it to the first person at the door with the cash gets it.  We also learned that everyone wants to negotiate the price no matter how low the price is.  Next time, we'll state the price is firm and state reasons why the price is a good price.  It would have saved several emails and phone calls on people trying to low ball the price.  We also later learned that if we want big photos, we need to post the photos on our website and link the ad to those photos.  Craigslist resized all of our photos to a smaller size while still keeping the advertisement free.  It's been a time consuming and educational experience that I don't want to repeat anytime soon.

January 24, Thursday

I like my 35mm f/2 lens because it's tiny and allows me to handhold the camera for nighttime shots.  I don't need the tripod.

Dinner out at Red Robin for some good burgers, which is next to Famous Dave's BBQ.  These were shot handheld with the tiny 35mm f/2 lens at 1/25s, f/2, ISO 800.

The kids like the placemats with the games, puzzles and characters to color.

I had to chimp this shot a few times before I got one that I liked.  I couldn't get a good exposure. Either the neon sign was washed out (left photo) or the photo hanging on the wall in the lower right corner was black.  I ended up pointing the camera to the brighter, neon sign to the left, pressing and holding the exposure lock button on the camera, and recomposing the shot.  The result is the photo on the right.  The settings were 1/160s, f/4, ISO 1600.  I could have played with it some more by reducing the ISO and stopping down the aperture to f/8, but I was with my family at dinner.

We were tired, hungry, and punchy.  Betsi adds a french fry smile.

This is the same twilight shot with two different shutter speeds.  The sky was light blue, but using the "moon rule," I took the left photo a 1/500s, ISO 500, f/11. I changed the camera from manual to "P" to let the camera pick the shutter speed and aperture.  It chose 1/250 at f/5.6.  I've seen other daytime photos where the sky was black and wondered how they took that picture.  I guess if the sky isn't white, the subject is bright, and the shutter speed is fast enough, then the sky turns black.

I'm sorry about all of the moon shots recently.  I really like the zoom range of the Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM. The photos are sharp and the image stabilization (IS) is amazing, especially at 400mm.  I go to work in the dark and I come home in the dark.  When it's time to play with the lens, it's dark.  The moon is the only thing I can shoot handheld without getting a blurry photo.

January 25, Friday

Ryan took this picture.  He woke up and saw the reflection of the moon in the second pane of glass in his window.  We used the tiny 35mm f/2 lens, set the camera on "P," selected ISO 1600, and the camera chose 1/50s, f/2.5.  I was surprised to see the star pattern on such a wide aperture (f/2.5). Usually you see that around f/16 or f/22.  The star pattern is caused by the diaphragm blades in the lens.

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