Jasonography Photo Blog

water drops

2011-08-12T20:43:00.000-07:00

Had a chance to shoot more water drops the other day. This time I had a real macro lens and an pcb einstein to work with. I also used a 580ex, but can't remember which ones. For both the power was at near minimum and aimed at a red background.
For the dropper I used a ziploc bag suspended so one corner was hanging down and poked a hole there. The drops were pretty steady and not too fast or slow.
Depth of field is ridiculously shallow that close, even at f/16, so focusing was tough. I think I'd start a drip, then hold something, like the pin I used to stab the water bag, where the drops were hitting, with one hand while focusing with the other.

More Mei Mei and Ry Ry

2011-08-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

some of us have decided that hijacking the jasonography blog to post baby pictures and updates was unsustainable, so we started another one:
http://meertfamily.blogspot.com
go get ur cuteness fix ;)
j

Seafair 2011

2011-08-09T21:18:00.000-07:00

Took Ry to Seafair this year and managed to get a few photos too.
I decided to try some "slow" shutter speeds to get some panning blur.
Used a 70-200 2.8 IS + EF2xii = 400mm.
I found that when shooting planes: 1/100 mostly junk, 1/200 not enough blur, 1/160 just about right. I think that's because the planes aren't often going exactly perpendicular to me, and are usually pretty far away.
When shooting boats: 1/200 was great. They were often much closer and moving mostly perpendicular.

Chimping instead of shooting, or watching the ominous crane above.

I'm always surprised how low and close together they get. I can only imagine the conversation is constantly "dude, get off me."

Went with fast shutter speeds for the wakeboarding.

It gets really loud over those houses.

This is the event I'm always trying to catch and it keeps me coming back. I think the slow shutter speed helps show it better.

I-90 makes a nice background.

Didn't often get two lined up in the right place at the right time and in focus.

I didn't see this until I was processing later: the tail has departed the 'plane. The best part is the leftover vertical part naturally folds... right into the blazing hot exhaust... which melts it down. I wonder if they recovered the gopro?

Nice to see the tail isn't necessary for a sweet rooster tail or even finishing the race, though he did come in last.

2011-07-31T20:42:00.000-07:00

by c :)

While we were thankful for Maylee's excellent care at Vanderbilt, it's so wonderful to not have to see doctors every day and not be making daily hospital trips! God is good. Maylee is as precious as can be and spends most of her time sleeping and eating, with some awake periods in the evening the last couple days. We love gazing at her sweet face and every little smile in her sleep, and seeing her big curious eyes taking in everything around her when she's awake. I saw a little dimple briefly in her cheek the other day, so she may have her daddy's dimples! She's slowly making progress with breastfeeding and seems to be taking more milk when she does nurse, but she still isn't interested in nursing more than 10-15 minutes at a time, so she's still taking bottles after nursing. It's challenging having to bottle feed and also pump at each feeding, but I've heard I just need to have a lot of patience... as one of my favorite nurses for Maylee would say, "she's not even supposed to be here yet." It's wild to think she's still 2 weeks from her due date. Ry is doing great with her (I'm sure it helps that my mom is here and he's still getting lots of attention... it's been a huge blessing to have her here with us) and does sweet stuff like wanting to give her a hug goodnight every night. Maylee's next doctor's appointment is on Thursday, so we'll see how much she's grown then!

Maylee Meert

2011-07-31T20:37:00.000-07:00

When I first saw her I thought something about her looked like my dad. And my dad's mom's name was May.
Her nickname has always been Mei Mei (which is Chinese for "little sister" and pronounced "May May"). Mei Li is Chinese for beautiful. So we decided Maylee would be a great name.

Mei Mei was born early, at almost 30 weeks, while we were on vacation in Tennessee. We woke up around midnight Friday 6/3 and found that C's water had broken. We went to the local hospital in Crossville, TN. They didn't have facilities to take on an early baby, so we were transferred to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

At 5 am C needed IV magnesium, which is used to try to stop labor. (And for the first time in two pregnancies she complained of being too hot!). The contractions were regular for a while, then tapered off in the middle of the day and we were encouraged.

By mid afternoon the contractions picked up again, and were painful enough that C needed breathing exercises to get through them.
At about 8:30 pm they found C was 4 cm dilated, and determined that she was likely laboring and the baby was probably going to make her appearance sooner than later. The contractions were getting progressively more painful at this point, but still didn't seem as bad as with Rylan.
Around 9:30 pm C was shocked to already feel the baby's head descending. We immediately called the nurse and soon a flood of people rushed into the room to prepare to help baby as soon as she was born. C had to hold on through one contraction and urge to push. For the next, enough was ready that they gave her the okay to push. And after 2 big pushes, just minutes later, she was born!

She weighed 3 lbs 9 oz and was 16.5 in long.

diy lighting kits ring flash test

2011-05-17T02:19:00.000-07:00

If you already know what this thing is, and haven't already, stop reading and add to cart. :)

Easy to assemble. Used my own black tape instead of the included white tape.

Extra bracket does a reasonable job of connecting the camera to flash/ring light. Everything flexed and twisted enough that I wouldn't call it a totally solid connection though.

I plan to add some tape to the edges of the bracket where the flash will rub and scratch it.

My 430EXi fit perfectly in the opening. My 580EXi will require some cutting to get in there. But even that is explained in the instructions.

An interesting "feature" is the rabbit ears or horns of light it produces. I haven't figured out yet if this is my fault or just what it does naturally.

It's less than a foot from the wall here. A lot of light is going straight up and a little forward on either side of the middle hole section.

I still can't think of a reason why this thing isn't worth it.

SBX arrives in Elliot Bay Seattle, WA

2011-05-11T06:42:00.000-07:00

Either the "visitors" have arrived, or this is the giant x band radar dome on an oil rig that's in Seattle for a make over.

Tulips

2011-04-25T22:10:00.001-07:00

by c :)

We went up to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival a few weeks ago and had fun seeing the gorgeous flowers!

Ry in the daffodils.

Ry espeically liked splashing in the puddles :).

Lake Sammish State Park, chocolate chip cookies, Dada's new camera...

2011-04-20T06:42:00.000-07:00

by c :)

We got a sunny afternoon in early April and headed to Lake Sammamish State Park nearby to enjoy it.

The steering wheels at playgrounds are always a favorite.

Mmmm, a special treat... Mama's warm chocolate chip cookies and milk at snack time!

I think this camera may be a little too big for me?

Ry has a good time trying to fit in small spaces... I had just emptied this basket for recycling paper and he jumped right in.

Laughing at Dada!

Ry and Alejandro, KidsQuest Children's Museum, bath time...

2011-03-27T22:39:00.000-07:00

by c :)

Our handsome little guy.

Ry and Alejandro playing on one of their favorite chairs.

Sofa pillow fort!

One relaxed kitteh.

Ry working on his Spanish during Spanish story time with Mama.

Exploring inside the semi truck cab at KidsQuest Children's Museum! This exhibit is a hit with all the kids and is always crowded. Ry also loves getting in the driver's seat of Mama's car any chance he gets.

Rylan is laughing at Dada in this one... he loves bath time and still likes his little tub.

Priceless expression

2011-03-11T20:19:00.000-08:00

By c :)

The zoo, reading, vacuuming...

2011-03-11T19:50:00.000-08:00

By c :)

Feeding alpacas at the Cougar Mountain Zoo in Issaquah.

Ry loves looking through his books and reading with us. He'll pick out his favorites and bring them to us to read with him. This is one of Mama and Auntie Lainie's books from when they were little.

Ry is fascinated by the vacuum and loves to help with his little vacuum. Alejandro, however, doesn't care for the vacuum one bit!

Adventures in coloring.

Mmmmm... spaghetti! Or noonoos as Ry would say.

Good times at home

2011-02-26T21:23:00.000-08:00

By c :)

Some fun pics of Ry from the last several months...

The 5 o'clock tickle fest with Dada!

Our little rock star.

Helping Mama in the kitchen and trying the hot mitt on for size.

Ry loves helping with the laundry!

Crazy Alejandro

2011-02-26T21:13:00.000-08:00

By c :)

We love our kitty. He continues to make us laugh...

Both Alejandro and Ry are entertained by the laser pointer!

It's really all fur.

Ry in the snow

2011-02-26T20:31:00.000-08:00

By c :)

Welcome to my first blog appearance :). It snowed a few inches at our house this week! Ry was curious about the snow and had fun tromping around in it.

walking

2011-02-11T16:54:00.000-08:00

Recently, Ry and I have been walking down the road to explore all the nearby playgrounds. It takes a long time to get anywhere without a stroller, but I think it's much more fun. Charlie says the cuteness is going to cause traffic accidents.

Ry, the Little Climber

2011-01-28T09:26:00.000-08:00

Ry is now able to climb the stairs at the little playground. He makes some really cute faces with all that effort too...

December 21 2010 Lunar Eclipse Naples FL

2010-12-21T19:03:00.000-08:00

The weather in Naples, FL on December 21, 2010 was clear enough to allow me to get some lunar eclipse photos. I found the NYIP eclipse page very helpful for timing and exposure guidance.
I used a Canon 50D, EF 70-200 f/2.8 L IS and an EF 2x ii.
Exposing for 2 seconds or more was enough to for the moon's movement to blur the photo. With the EF-2x on, apertures wider than F/8 didn't seem sharp enough. ISOs above 800 seemed to lose too much detail to noise. I only used IS while focusing in live view. And a cable release and mirror lock up seemed to help.

more maui

2010-11-02T21:01:00.000-07:00

maui

2010-10-24T10:19:00.000-07:00

Ry loves Maui... and so do we.

Ry tries to step into a pond at the Garden of Eden Arboretum on the road to Hana.

Ry reaches to pull down another flower.

More things to grab.

Checking out the view from our porch in Hana.

Playing on the black sand beach near Hana.

Pool time for Ry.

Resting on the green at #8.

Climbing the chair by the pool.

Relaxing at the end of the day at Hana.

Rylan's 1st birthday party

2010-08-31T13:37:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Rylan's first birthday a little early. He loves ballons. Alejandro does not. Rylan also loves cake, handfuls at a time!

More Ry on White

2010-07-17T18:29:00.000-07:00

It's time for more Ry on white (the original Ry on white is here).

1st Father's Day

2010-06-20T22:34:00.000-07:00

We celebrated a couple days early by taking a few photos.

Knitted Ry

2010-06-17T23:03:00.000-07:00

A friend of ours knitted some adorable clothes for baby Ry.

Digging the Park

2010-06-08T21:05:00.000-07:00

Baby Ry had fun pulling up grass and little flowers at the park the other day.

Baby Ry at 9

2010-06-02T20:20:00.000-07:00

Rylan is 9 months old today. And that's 17+ pounds of cuteness too.

Lion Kitty

2010-05-28T17:48:00.000-07:00

Alejandro needed a haircut. So I spent about a month hacking away at his fur until he looked a bit like the fierce and feisty lion that he really is.

Baby Ry Swings

2010-05-13T19:24:00.000-07:00

Another lovely day to get outside and take a few pictures. C even took a few.

Mother's Day Ry

2010-05-12T11:55:00.000-07:00

Here's a few photos from Mother's Day weekend. The last one was taken at Fort Flagler.

Seattle Space Needle and Full Moon April 2010

2010-04-29T03:19:00.000-07:00

Thanks to TPE and google maps for an approximate location, EXIF data on Flickr for an exposure estimate, and DOFMaster for hyperfocal distance calculations for aperture, I was able to work out all the details for this two weeks before it happened. The weather forecast was so bad that night that I almost gave up. When I looked at the sky a few hours before this shot, I figured it might happen so I drove out there.
Yes this is one real photo (tweaked pretty hard in Lightroom though).

Rylan on a Walk

2010-04-18T21:11:00.000-07:00

Went for a walk today because the weather was lovely... and brought the camera.

Baby Faces

2010-04-16T04:10:00.001-07:00

He's making some funny faces now.

Baby Noms

2010-03-14T15:18:00.001-07:00

Finally started him on rice cereal and oatmeal cereal a few days later.
Here's a video I hacked together...

And some photos...

Rylan Hits 6 Months

2010-03-03T15:36:00.000-08:00

He's now 6 months old and doing something new everyday. Sitting and tipping over, standing (with help) and wobbling, trying to eat everything...

Ry on White

2010-02-13T02:12:00.000-08:00

Trying a white background now...

5 Months of Ry

2010-02-02T23:59:00.000-08:00

Baby Ry is 5 months old today. So we took some photos :)

Baby Ry goes to FL

2010-01-10T20:32:00.000-08:00

We are shocked how well he did on airplanes. He got two thumbs in his mouth at once. And he laughed for the first time thanks to grandma's peekaboo talent.

December in Naples, FL

2010-01-10T20:25:00.000-08:00

Sweating it out for two weeks a year isn't so bad.

787 First Flight

2009-12-15T15:11:00.000-08:00

Finally got to see it fly today.

Baby Smiles

2009-11-28T08:09:00.000-08:00

I had the camera ready while Baby Ry was in a good mood and C was making him smile.

Sleepy Ry

2009-11-17T20:26:00.000-08:00

After a fussy evening he finally fell asleep on C.

Nine Pounders

2009-11-10T22:09:00.000-08:00

I took Alejandro to the vet the other day and learned that he weighs nine pounds. About the same time we took Rylan to the doctor and learned that he weighed nine pounds too. Interesting how they ended up on the couch together for a photo.

Fall Colors 2009

2009-10-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

The leaves have been lovely and I finally got to take a few photos...

Baby Portraits in Black and White

2009-10-17T22:50:00.000-07:00

C asked me to shoot some black and white photos of us holding baby Ry. So I finally did and I love how they turned out. Since he cries a lot I thought I should include plenty of those too.

The Diaper Tax

2009-10-02T21:02:00.000-07:00

The diaper tax is what I call it when I kiss baby Ry's cheeks after I change his diaper. He's usually a bit fussy from the procedure and I think his little cries of protest are irresistibly cute and I just have to kiss his cheeks. I think he knows his complaints aren't working when I do this and the angry little faces he makes are even cuter. I'm pretty sure he doesn't like facial hair either. :)

Alejandro too

2009-10-02T20:56:00.000-07:00

The cat is getting bigger too. While setting up for a shot with the baby (the real one, Rylan) I tested the trigger and lights by dangling the catnip-stuffed sewer rat over the 'orange devil' (Alejandro's new nickname because he bites so hard and so often).

Last photo before...

2009-09-30T22:30:00.000-07:00

While going through my vast library of photos I realized this is the last 'real' photo I took of C, 3 days before Rylan was born, and thought it'd make an interesting blog post.

Day trip with Rylan and the fam

2009-09-30T01:08:00.000-07:00

We decided to be adventurous and take baby Ry to Bainbridge Island so C's mom and sister could enjoy the ferry ride. It was a gorgeous day and everything was beautiful. He slept most of the time.

Funny Baby Photos

2009-09-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

Here's a few funny baby photos.

the happy alien

pushing something out

he haz a cuteness

moar cutes

celebrities wave off the paparazzi with disgust

he dreams of bottles

he haz a distress in his pants

Rylan Edward Meert

2009-09-11T14:57:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday to me, our baby officially has a name: Rylan Edward Meert!!!

When he was born I immediately noticed something about him looked like, or reminded me, of Charlie's dad. I think it was his eyes. Edward was his middle name, and I like it.

Rylan is much more complicated. The two names at or near the top of our lists were Ryan and Dylan. When we asked a very dear friend for advice he suggested Rylan. After a few more days of intense negotiations we finally decided he'd be Rylan and made the phone call to make it official on my birthday, yay!

All-Nighter Name-Storming

2009-09-08T15:57:00.000-07:00

He's almost a week old and we still haven't found him a name... We'll be up all night.

Baby

2009-09-06T16:38:00.000-07:00

A few shots of the new guy from the hospital and then at home, less than 4 days old.

BABY TIME!!!

2009-09-02T18:10:00.000-07:00

Sorry, we have not picked a name yet, but obviously will soon. We were going to do that sometime this week, but he decided a week and a half early would be a nice surprise.

Our little boy arrived at 11am this morning after about 8 hours of labor. He weighed 6lbs 10 oz. and was 19 inches long.

He's sitting in my lap as I write this too. :)

Bonus fact: he was born on our 8th anniversary!

8 Months of Progress

2009-08-09T22:52:00.000-07:00

March 8, April 18, May 16, June 26, and August 8...

Alejandro

2009-08-08T23:40:00.000-07:00

Had some time to shoot the cat today...

Progress and Lamaze

2009-08-05T09:12:00.000-07:00

We decided to take our Lamaze classes over a weekend at a bed and breakfast. It was brilliant.

More Alejandro

2009-07-28T18:31:00.001-07:00

He likes my shoes... a little too much.

Alejandro

2009-07-26T23:10:00.000-07:00

My search for the perfect kitten finally ended yesterday afternoon when we picked up this little guy...

The ride home was nuts. 5 minutes down the road the meowing stopped for a few seconds, then got louder... then we smelled it. So I got to pull over and clean it up. I couldn't believe how much he'd eaten that day!

5 minutes further down the road we smelled something a little different. This time he'd barfed. And again, I couldn't believe how much he'd eaten that day.

After we got home and cleaned everything up I got to hear him purrrrrr... :)

More Progress

2009-06-29T21:45:00.000-07:00

Here's a few pictures from our weekend at Ocean Shores to show C is still making progress and looking fabulous!

Progress

2009-05-16T17:21:00.000-07:00

I'm not slow taking the pictures, but I am in posting them. Here's a post to show I'm still here, still shooting, and that C is making (visible) progress too. :)

The first shot is from April 6, and the second is from this afternoon, May 16 2009.

It's A Boy!

2009-04-29T02:44:00.000-07:00

We just had our ultrasound appointment and I'm proud to report it's a boy! I took a picture of the pictures. The upper left is a fascinating shot of his spine. The upper right shows a little foot. The lower left is a sort of profile of his head. And the lower right he's looking right at you.

High speed sync flash - water drops

2009-02-15T04:15:00.000-08:00

Not hard to set up, but difficult to get right. High speed sync is just a button on a flash, but it lets me shoot at 1/8000th of a second. Setting the flash inches from the glass of water allows me to shoot at f/8 too... and it gets the flash wet.
I had the flash connected to the camera with two off camera hot shoe cords. I liked the light coming from behind and aimed up a little. Shutter speed and aperture were 1/8000 & f/8 mostly. ISO between 100-400. The camera was on a tripod and the lens was as close as it could focus. Live view helps a lot. I had one glass filled with water and poured water into it with one hand while I held down the button the cable release with the other. Flash was in manual mode at 1/128 or 1/64. Paper towels were everywhere.

Photography while driving at night

2009-01-28T16:06:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about doing this for years.
These shots are from my drive from Everett to Issaquah at 4am last Thursday. At first I had the tripod in the backseat so I could get the dashboard lights in the frame. I pulled over at the first exit to check the lcd and decided to move it to the front seat to get the lights to fill more of the frame.
It's hard to set up a tripod in the backseat. The front two legs were half extended to the floor and the third leg was horizontal and short to hit the back of the seat. Next time I'll use a small tripod.
In the front seat it was similar but the legs didn't have room to spread out very wide so it would lean and fall over when I took corners too fast.
Before I left the parking lot I determined what exposure I wanted with some test shots. When it was in the back seat I couldn't see the lcd and wasn't tempted to think about it. I just hit the button on the cable release whenever I saw something interesting. When I moved it to the front I checked the exposure a lot at first and changed the settings (yes, while driving, no, it wasn't very smart). It's good to know the equipment well enough to do that without really looking.
I did plenty of cropping, instead of zooming. And changed the colors by changing the white balance.

Tips on shooting from the car at night:
Use a short tripod.
Clean the windows, and fix the cracks.
Cover the dashboard in black to avoid reflections in the windshield or shoot out a side window.
Overhead signs are the best.
Tunnels are great.
Have someone else drive while you shoot.
Use small apertures and wide angles.

See the rest of the photos HERE

Issaquah Flooding - January 7 2009

2009-01-07T16:37:00.000-08:00

It's been raining a lot here now that the snow is gone. The Issaquah Creek that runs by our place is pretty high today. So I took a walk to see how bad it was farther upriver.

Shooting with Gene

2008-12-23T14:22:00.000-08:00

A couple Friday's ago, photo-bud-Gene and I went shooting. We started at the Edmonds ferry terminal and waterfront. It was raining the whole time so we eventually gave up and went to Pike's Place Market.

Snowflake Lane

2008-12-23T12:12:00.000-08:00

At the Bellevue Square Mall on Bellevue Way in Bellevue, WA, there's an interesting 'show' that happens on the sidewalk most nights in December. It's called Snowflake Lane. They blast holiday music and dress up a bunch of 'young people' that either give you candy canes (whether you want them or not) walk around on stilts, or bang on drums along with the music. Kids seem to love it.
Anyway, I found out I know one of the drummers so I shot him. Twice. On a Monday and a Tuesday.

Winter in Issaquah- 2008

2008-12-23T08:27:00.000-08:00

I spent a couple hours walking around at night (between midnight and 5am) in the rare Issaquah snow trying to stay awake. More comments under each photo...

I got 'lucky' and had a car trip the lights during a 10 sec exposure, but not show up in the photo.

The neighbors appear to have moved away and left a light on.

Someone trying to get out of the parking lot.

My version of a self-portrait.

A treacherous looking path.

The view down Dogwood St. from Newport Way.

I swear I've lived here for years and never seen that sign.

Someone put a collar on that streelight to keep it from shining in their windows. I thought it made a nice spot light on the street for another self-portrait. And then I thought it looked better in mostly red.

In the middle of the night an 8 sec exposure shows quite a bit. But white stuff on the ground and in the sky helps too.

Lights on the roof melting snow.

This tree is huge. I have no idea how they got all those lights up there. I was tempted to sit on the bench for this photo.

Metal sculpture horse across from the theater.

The old train station under an almost dramatic sky.

Sidewalk lights at the hatchery are interesting.

A 15 second exposure just before dawn at the fish hatchery.

Mukilteo Shipwreck

2008-12-03T13:27:00.000-08:00

I was browsing google maps a few months ago and saw something interesting along the Washington coast. from the satellite photo, it looked just like a shipwreck, but I couldn't believe it was real, so I checked it out.

First I googled "Mukilteo shipwreck" and found two helpful things. The first is that the property was/is an old salvage yard for ships. And looking at the satellite photos again I saw what look like a few more boat carcases underwater near the shore. The second is that Microsoft's live maps' birds eye view of the area is an excellent resource and the best looking picture of it.

I found a public park a mile south of the shipwreck called Picnic Point. From there I could see that there really was something there. So I drove the tiny road out to the property but stopped when I saw thousands of no tresspassing signs at the driveway entrance. From there the trees are too thick to see anything so I went home. After more google mapping I found a road and some houses about a half mile north of the wreck that looked like they may have a good view. I parked at the large office building outside of the development and walked the trail along the perimeter to the edge of the cliff. There may also be a trail that goes through the dense valley of trees to the beach? At the lookout point a hundred or so feet above the beach I could only see trees. But as I inched closer to the cliff I saw a rope tied around a tree and a steep path down the cliff. Eventually the steep path turned into stairs carved into the cliff. It's not as treacherous as it sounds. From the beach the view was very clear and the wreck looked less interesting than the aerial view. There were enough no tresspassing signs stuck to the ship to make it less photogenic than I'd hoped. getting any closer would require walking along or beside the train tracks. No trains came through while I was there but those tracks are used heavily. If a train comes from the north there would be very little warning. From the south there would be just enough time to get out of the way. There's water on one side and a cliff on the other so it would not be a pleasant experience.
If I felt like getting any closer, which I don't because it's not as interesting or photogenic as I'd hoped, I'd take a boat and stay offshore.
It does look interesting in infrared with some stormy clouds. But most things would.

Part 4: Canon 50D sRAW Noise and High ISO test

2008-11-05T22:15:00.000-08:00

This sRAW thing is fascinating.

I can't reproduce sRAW results from full RAW files. Not even close. I wish I could though.

On the left is a 50D RAW file at ISO 1600, 200mm f/2.8.
On the right is a 50D sRAW2 file at ISO 3200, 400mm f/5.6 (200mm @ f/2.8 + EF-2x)
Both were cropped to the middle 600 pixels with no resizing necessary.

I thought the higher ISO and EF-2x should have ruined the one on the right, but sRAW overcame that. I'll have to try that test again with smaller apertures to be sure.

It seems to me that sRAW should be valuable to bird photographers who can't get very close to small birds in low light and wonder if they should crop a raw file or use an extender and trade the stop or two of light for higher ISOs. And indoor or night sports photographers where high ISOs and fast shutter speeds are necessary and will either crop use the extenders and don't need huge prints anyway.

sRAW is NOT for saving space on a memory card. The files are extremely bloated for their small resolution. And they don't relieve the buffer much at all. Probably because sRAW is generated from the RAW file, but that would slow the camera down (and it doesn't)?

I now tend to use sRAW1 when at ISO 6400 and sRAW2 when at ISO 12800.

Here's an example of an indoor low light sports photo. sRAW2, ISO 12800, 1/1000, f/2.5, 85mm, cropped not resized. Exposed to the right, corrected and heavily processed in Lightroom.

Part 3: Canon 50D sRAW Noise and High ISO Test

2008-10-27T22:45:00.000-07:00

I shot three sets of black frames for these comparisons. I went from ISO 1600 to 12800 for RAW, sRAW1, and sRAW2. I cropped all photos to 200x200 pixels then resized 200%.

1st set: exposure +4 (max) in Lightroom.
2nd set: exposure 0 + Lightroom noise reduction at 100 (max).
3rd set: exposure at -1.5 with noise reduction at 100 again.

The first set is totally exaggerated and not very useful.
In the second, it looks like ISO 3200 on the 50D is fine and 6400 might be useful.
The 3rd is a good example of how I try to use high ISOs; overexpose by a stop or two and darken in Lightroom. In this 3rd example I'd say 6400 is fine and 12800 might be useful.

sRAW modes seem to improve the sharpness and decrease the noise (more testing to do). I was expecting to see more of a difference between sRAW1 and sRAW2.

Part 2: Canon sRAW Noise and High ISO Test ( 40D reference for the 50D )

2008-08-29T17:48:00.000-07:00

The previous test was quick and had a lot of variables I didn't bother to think about. This time I did, so I eliminated what I could.

I'm trying to figure out if the sRAW mode on Canon's recently announced 50D will be useful to me. So I'm testing the sRAW mode on the 40D and here are my next round comparison shots...

I decided to eliminate the resizing variable by changing my focal length so the same number of pixels are covering the same parts of the scene (I just cropped the RAW file to the sRAW dimensions and get the same view). The first pair is underexposed and shows the noise differences well, the middle pair is a normal exposure and shows sharpness differences well, and the 3rd pair doesn't change the focal length so the RAW file had to be re-sized to match the same view.

The previous test proved to me that noise was lower using sRAW. This one agrees. The previous test also made me wonder if sRAW was sharper too. This one seems to agree, but makes me realize that the question is more complicated than that. Yes, 4 sRAW pixels are sharper than 1 RAW pixel. The middle pair shows this very well. But that's not how I'd use the camera. I'd use it like the 3rd pair, and after resizing, they are similar.

This does lead me to a valuable conclusion: I expect that canon's 50D in sRAW mode at 7mp will be sharper, and have significantly less noise than an 8mp 30D. I already expected that, but now I'm convinced the difference will be drastic and worthwhile to me.

That means it's time to upgrade! YESSSS!

Other interesting conclusions: The sRAW file size is typically half the full RAW file size, which is unfortunate because the resolution is 1/4. Also, burst mode did last a little longer. I got about 17 RAW files out at 6.5fps, but could get over 20 sRAW files at 6.5fps and the buffer cleared faster. So sRAW mode isn't so much for when you want smaller files, but for fast action bursts at high ISOs.

Details: 24-70 2.8L at 35mm and 70mm and f/8, 70-200 2.8 L IS at 200mm and f/8, 40D, manual focus with live view, on tripod, using mirror lock up and cable release. RAW and sRAW files processed in Lightroom with everything zeroed. Jpegs at highest quality while cropping and bi-cubic resizing. 40D's high ISO noise reduction was OFF this time.

Canon sRAW Noise and High ISO Test ( 40D reference for the 50D )

2008-08-28T22:31:00.000-07:00

When Canon announced the 50D, the specs that caught my attention were the sRAW modes. I liked the idea of sRAW mode on the 40D but couldn't manufacture a reason to shoot a 10mp sensor at 2.5mp. It looks like the 50D will shoot it's 15mp sensor at 7mp. For some of the things I shoot that sounds worthwhile. Then I wondered if those sRAW files would be less noisy at high ISO and just had to test it...

At first I shot a variety of exposures of the same scene and cropped the full size files to match the sRAW size. A noise difference didn't jump out at me at all. What did was how much sharper the sRAW files were. It looks like I either had image stabilization on in one shot and off in the other (which I didn't), or I used a much smaller aperture to get more depth of field (which I didn't). I'll have to try this again with a tripod and manual focusing.

Then I shot black frames (lens cap on at normally fast shutter speed) at ISO 1600 and 3200 in RAW and sRAW. That's where I see a huge difference in noise. Here's the ISO 3200 comparison. I see blatant noise reduction in sRAW. The noise in sRAw seems to be all luminance and no chroma too (someone please explain that to me). I also see more noise in the 40D at 3200 than the 30D at 3200 which is not what I expected (or was advertised). And I should mention that I had to beat the heck out of these black frames to get them to look this bad/obvious.

I did this test in 5 minutes. Please leave comments if you have suggestions for improving the method.
Details:
AWB, Manual Mode, ISO 3200 and 1600, 24-70 f/2.8 @ 70mm & f/4.5 on the 40D, 70-200 f/2.8 IS @ 70mm & f/4.5 on the 30D, handheld, autofocus on middle point at closest flower, raw files 'barely processed' in Lightroom, no manipulation (everything zeroed) on the flower shots, for the black frames only exposure slider set to +4, output was full jpg at max quality.
jpgs from sRAW files cropped to 800x800 near middle of frame. 300x300 corner for black frames.
jpgs from RAW files bicubic downsized to match sRAW dimensions (1944x1296) then cropped to 800x800 near middle of frame.
for exaggerating black frame noise: cropped 300x300 bottom right corner (because noise appeared strongest there in the 40D) then up rezed 200%, brightness +50 and contrast +25 to exaggerate for visibility.

I have high hopes for the 50D and its sRAW modes now.

Cannon Beach, OR

2008-08-25T18:29:00.000-07:00

Cannon Beach is on the north west coast of Oregon. And it's really cool. C and I went there for a weekend to relax. The main attraction at Cannon Beach is a massive sea stack called Haystack Rock. The view from Ecola park is by far the best because, at least when we were there, there were way fewer people. I was surprised how many people try to surf there?
I got to use my newest lens (70-200 2.8 L IS) for the first time and absolutely love it. The garden at our B&B ( St. Bernard's Arch Cape House) was where I shot all the flowers (and the snake). The crazy red and white photos are my infrared shots that I thought looked better without converting to black and white.

Click here to see the rest of the pictures

Backpacking Noble Knob and Lost Lake

2008-08-19T15:38:00.000-07:00

I think Lost Lake was meant to stay lost. (It will always be lost among all the other thousands of lakes by the same name) Maybe it's not so bad from an easier direction? We stayed there after a rough 8 mile hike that took us past Noble Knob with a detour to George Lake when we ran out of water. The trail goes up and down along a ridge and the lakes are all at the bottom of the valleys. So we had a lot of elevation gain along the way.
We drove to the Corral Pass campsite on Friday afternoon and car camped for the night. In the morning we drove a few yards to the trail head parking lot and took off with our packs. The views of Mt. Rainier were great along the trail. Panoramic views from the Knob are fabulous (Beljica was better though). We saw three lakes from up there. The closest one had people all over and in it. We decided we didn't want to go there for the night. The next closest lake looked more brown than blue but we didn't see any people on it so we aimed for that one. Between the directions we had and the trail signs, or lack thereof, we ended up on the wrong trail which took us where we didn't want to go. Halfway there we could tell we were headed to the overcrowded lake but we couldn't stop because we were out of water. After discussing our options, we dropped the packs halfway to George Lake so we couldn't change our minds and stay there because we were too tired to keep going. We only took our water bottles, platypus and the filter. There were more people at the lake than we saw from the knob so we pumped water, drank it, pumped some more and left.
By then I was cranky and not looking forward to the 3 miles back up to the ridge and down the other side to the lake we hoped would have fewer people. Along the way C was nice enough to completely distract me from my complaining by asking questions about camera gear. She's so smart.
We found a nice large campsite at the north end of Lost Lake, dropped the packs and went swimming! It had been in the 80's or 90's all day so it really didn't matter how cold the water was. We've never gone swimming in an alpine lake before. But this one wasn't fed by glaciers (this time of year anyway) so it was reasonable.
While setting up the kitchen at our campsite that evening a fearless chipmunk appeared and was very interested in our chocolate. I thought it'd make some interesting photos so I put the whole bar on the ground and backed up to shoot him trying to open the wrapper. It was pretty dark by then so only a few worked.
It was still so hot when we went to bed that we had to pull the rain fly off the tent.
We got up and out really early because we were afraid of hiking up to the ridge in 80 degree heat. It was cloudy enough that we weren't too hot, but I was still sweating fat. And I managed to pull a back muscle lifting C's pack that morning.
The wild blueberries along the trail were delicious. And a cloudy Rainier is pretty photogenic.
It was a tough, but really good trip.

CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THE NOBLE KNOB PHOTOS

Mountain Meadows Farm Company Picnic

2008-08-12T02:53:00.000-07:00

This was my first time to Mountain Meadows Farm for a company picnic. I hope they do it there every year. I loved it. I was impressed with the food, games, and entertainment. Mt. Si in the background was fabulous too.
The thing I wanted to do the most was to get some fly fishing instructions since I heard there would be some. They had a few rods laying around and a pair of instructors to help whoever wanted to try. The instructors were great but I was really bad. Even C tried helping me after she figured it out. I told her I needed to try it in Alaska. Ha! I got the string tangled on the pole twice. That's pretty bad.
On our way out we stopped by the giant basketball court. That was totally cool. I don't think I ever made a basket but it was too fun to worry about things like that.

Seattle Mariners Baseball Game

2008-08-12T02:45:00.000-07:00

C and I went to our annual (we only go about once a year) M's game with D and Z this year. It was tons 'o fun. I handed my 30D to D and turned it on high speed mode and she seemed to have a great time. I had a great time shooting the game in infrared.
The best part of the game is when we wander around the stadium. The views of, and from, Safeco field are amazing. They lost, but we had a great time.
And I shot this dude with crazy looking radio headphones.

Seafair 2008

2008-08-08T14:04:00.000-07:00

I was only at Seafair this year long enough on Friday and Sunday to see the Blue Angels fly. On Friday I shot from the south end of the Seafair park. It was a pretty good spot, but trees got in the way when they came in from the south. So on Sunday I got on the Seattle side of the I-90 bridge. I'd say it's the best spot from what I've seen so far. It's also the worst place to park and the steep hike is rough. Lots of planes turn around right over that part of the bridge and it's easy to zoom in on the pilots. Just after one close pass an osprey flew over like he was a Blue Angel, so I shot him too.

click here to see the rest of the pictures

Lake Dorothy - Backpacking

2008-07-21T12:50:00.000-07:00

C and I got away for the weekend to Lake Dorothy. The weather was perfect, the hike was relatively easy, and the food was delicious. We drove down what has to be the best maintained 9 miles of gravel road I've ever seen to the trail head. 15 minutes into the hike we crossed a photogenic bridge where a few rivers seem to meet. Then we climbed stairs for an hour to get to the lake. We went to the far side of the lake, about 2 miles, to set up our tent. Then I walked around in the freezing water while C read a book on the shore. I think we both fell asleep on the rocks and C claims I snored once, but I don't believe it. After we wore ourselves out relaxing we ate dinner and went to bed.
I was shocked how many people bring inflatable rafts and paddle around on the lake. I was only a little jealous because there are many small islands in the middle of the lake that look like fun.
On the way out we stopped at the bridge near the trail head and C read some more while I took hordes of pictures and went swimming. The rocks are mostly flat and slippery but I couldn't seem to slide very well. I definitely want to go back and shoot those low falls with a tripod sometime.

CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE PICTURES FROM OUR LAKE DOROTHY TRIP

Talking Yoda Portraits

2008-03-17T01:52:00.000-07:00

I got a dashboard Yoda for a friends' birthday. But before I wrapped it I got to shoot it with a 60mm Macro lens in one hand and a flash in the other. I tried lighting him from different angles and am impressed with how good he looks for being so small. The phrases he repeats are awesome.

Aerial Photography

2008-03-17T01:43:00.000-07:00

I had the fabulous opportunity to ride in the back of a Citabria for a half hour one afternoon. We circled Seattle and I even pretended to fly a bit. Unfortunately I was busy doing that during the most impressive rainbow fest I've ever seen. But I did get a few interesting photos.

Mukilteo Waterfront

2008-03-17T01:39:00.000-07:00

On a rare, beautiful day in the Pacific Northwest, I got to hang out on the Mukilteo waterfront to watch the sun set. I only had my infrared camera at the time though.

Kirkland Waterfront

2008-02-17T22:56:00.000-08:00

I had some time to kill in Kirkland one afternoon, so I wandered around and shot up the waterfront.

Snowshoeing at Longmire, Mt. Rainier

2008-02-17T22:42:00.000-08:00

The road to paradise was closed when we arrived so we had to snowshoe around Longmire instead. That was just fine because we were all still a little worried about avalanches in paradise. We followed the trail along the river and ate lunch a couple miles up where the view was excellent. It was seriously cold. By the time we got back, they’d opened the road. So we drove to paradise to see the view for 5 minutes before heading back home.

Click here to see the rest of the snowshoeing photos

Christmas Dinner 2007

2007-12-26T16:28:00.000-08:00

C and I went to Marc & Heidi's on Christmas Day. They have two really cute kids and two fabulously friendly cats. Purvis is grey, and Cooper is orange. C says her arm is sore from carrying Isadora around. It snowed an inch or two while we were there so we were all excited. I spent a lot of time shooting the cats.

See the rest of the pictures here.

The Paramount

2007-12-16T11:25:00.000-08:00

C and I went to see Collective Soul, David Gray, and KT Tunstall at the Paramount last night. They were all really great. The keyboard guy for KT banged on a trash can lid for the last song, and Collective's lead singer looks like Sammy Hagar now. Between sets I had to pull out the digicam and shoot the amazing ceiling.

Jingle Bell Run 2007

2007-12-16T11:12:00.000-08:00

C and I ran in the jingle bell run again this year. It was cold enough that it snowed a little bit when the race started. Yeah I wore shorts. I ran a lot faster than I thought I would. All because it was an intense sport of weaving through a crowd of slow pokes. The costumes are always great. Thanks to my ability to run with a digicam, everyone can see what running snowflakes look like (trust me, you don't want to see the videos, they'll just make you dizzy). But everyone seemed to love the gingerbread man the most. He turned out to be one of C's bosses!

Seattle Waterfront

2007-11-25T12:29:00.000-08:00

I took a walk around the Seattle waterfront on Black Friday with Rich. It was a good day for infrared. It was also a good day to watch this random guy play his guitar near the Pike's Place Market. He had a guitar in his hands, a harmonica around his neck, and some percussion bells around his ankle. And he managed to work a hula hoop the whole time. It got better (but I didn't get a picture), he turned his guitar upside down and balanced it on his chin (still working the hoop). Then he played it like that!! (while still working the hula hoop). Dang.

Tiger Mountain View

2007-11-05T22:37:00.001-08:00

Remember the paragliding story from September? Nevermind. These pictures are from the launching zone where I took off.
C and I hiked up here one Sunday morning when we needed some exercise and the weather was cooperating. Lovely views of Mt. Rainier (the active volcano, and next in line to explode) looking closer than it really is.

Gas Works Park, Seattle

2007-11-05T22:16:00.000-08:00

Only some of these pictures are from Gas Works Park in Seattle. The others are from the Japanese Garden around the corner. I discovered that water absorbs so much infrared light that it is usually completely black to an IR camera. But at the right angle it makes an excellent mirror. When I turn a reflection-on-the-water picture upside down it has a wild effect.

Gas Works is colorful even in the rain. And it's fun to watch the float planes take off from Lake Union.

The Wind

2007-11-05T22:04:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago the wind picked up around here. It made for some dramatic weather shots. I drove across the I-90 bridge after work and then took a picture of what I'd just driven through. I had driven as close as I could to the side where the waves were and got hit twice by water washing over the side. It was sweet. While I stood there the sun broke through and I had about 5 minutes to shoot those beams of light over Beacon Hill. Exposing correctly was a challenge. And it took some heavy processing to get them to look like what I saw.

Salmon in Issaquah

2007-10-16T23:19:00.000-07:00

I went to the fish hatchery this afternoon and fired off a few rounds. The fish are supposed to head to the right of this man-made waterfall thing to find the hatchery. But a lot of them can't resist flopping against this wall that they'll never get over.

It was really hard to shoot this because you never know where the fish will jump. I found some compositions I liked and held steady until something happened in that small frame. Most of the time I just watched them jump everywhere else with my other eye open. Eventually I caught a few.

I put more of my salmon pictures here

Salmon & Salmon Days

2007-10-11T22:15:00.000-07:00

Living in Issaquah is funny. Every year they close down the streets for the Salmon Days festival. It's really just another street fair, but since it's just around the corner we feel obligated to check it out. The weather was pretty bad this year. But I found a few minutes of near dryness to walk the camera.

Here's picture of a salmon a few days before the festivities when the sun was cooperating. The river running through this festival reeks of dead fish. Yay!

Here's a section of the street with some cool person wearing a coat 10x too big. I love the weather here.

Some dressed up dog that amused me. Not so much for his costume, but because he's perched on this guy.

Here's a band with 3 guitars (not including the bass)! They also had a lead singer and someone working a harmonica. Here's what I think is a little odd besides all that...

This guy was the lead, but he's playing the wrong end of the fret board for that in my opinion.

This guy was the rhythm, but also playing the wrong end of the fret board for that.

Best of all, this guy has capoed the first fret. I hope he's got the volume way down.

Then I walked by some bird presentation. I liked the special bird helmet and the T-shirts in the background.

Birthday Paragliding

2007-09-24T22:46:00.000-07:00

Long story.

It goes all the way back to early September when C and I had a big fat party at our condo to celebrate us turning "old" (30). We'd actually decided way back in March to do some paragliding when we got home to Issaquah because we didn't have enough time to do it in Queenstown, NZ. So, we decided we'd go for our birthdays, but specifically, on her birthday. So I made the arrangements.

The instructions were to show up at the landing zone a few minutes before the shuttle left for the top of the hill. So we did. We each had a pilot and they were nice guys. The ride up the hill was shocking. We rode in a nice enough van to a house a few miles up the road. Then everyone got out and hiked a few hundred yards through the woods. Then we piled into a bigger truck with an open bed that where we were to stand, and were surrounded by a frame of well-padded bars. The rest of the road was not maintained at all. It took a few impacts with the frame before I realized why they padded it. We quickly learned to surf with the truck like the pros. As we finally made it to the top of the hill the rain started. Everyone ran under the trees and a few minutes later it let up for a few minutes. The next thing I knew I was flying through the air! It was almost that fast actually. As fast as I could keep up, my instructor strapped me in and shared the bare minimum of information that I would need to get us off the ground. I swear he said we were going to practice before we actually jumped, but my only practice round turned into the real thing. He said "run" and I did. The ride was super sweet. He took me on one really tight turn that had me plastered to my seat. We sank like a fat rock and before I knew it we were landing. The landing was smooth, we came in fast along the ground and all I did was keep up with it. Then I looked up and waited for C to fly through the air behind me. But a half hour later I over heard that her pilot didn't like the conditions and was giving up for the day. The birthday girl wasn't happy. After another false start 5 days later, she finally ran off the mountain on a bright sunny day and had a great flight with a spectacular landing. The final flare didn't quite work and they came down more than across the field. C tried to run but the instructor didn't.

I sat on the landing zone and shot pictures of the whole thing.

A few minutes before she came down some beginner overshot the huge field and landed in blackberry bushes. Sorry I didn't get pictures of that. I did get some other interesting shots. One of a crazy dude practically collapsing his wing high above the ground and still recovering. The wing is all out of shape and the lines are mostly slack. I think he's even higher than the wing when I shot him. There was also some guy on the ground trying to throw a big bag of trash at his buddy as he was trying to land. Total weirdos.

Victoria, BC

2007-09-03T22:26:00.001-07:00

C and I have lived around Seattle for about 7 years and have been wanting to visit Victoria, BC the whole time. We finally made it there over Labor Day weekend, 2007. We took the Victoria Clipper in the morning, experienced the Butchart Gardens and the fireworks. The Gatsby mansion is a really convenient and confusing place to stay. The Titanic exhibit and movie at the museum were pretty good. Getting home on the clipper that broke down was a disaster that we kept saying could have been worse.

Victoria is a tourist town, we saw and did all we needed to in 2 days and 1 night. It was nice, but we have no urge to go back anytime soon. We think we spent half our time waiting in lines. But we did pick the busiest weekend of the year.

The Gatsby Mansion is across the street from the ferry terminal. And we managed to check in as early as our boat arrived, which was great. It took us awhile to find where to check in though. There are at least 4 buildings that make up the mansion and they all look like the wrong one, because two of them have restaurants in the way. Several times a day we'd walk past the inside tables, then the bar, and then the outside tables to get to the street. I know a king sized bed is equivalent to two doubles side by side, but it's kind of lame when your king bed is literally just that. I also thought it was funny that our room had a full kitchen but no dishes or equipment to make it even slightly useful.

The Gatsby recommends a fish 'n chips place around the corner so we went there because we were in the mood and starving. The propaganda also mentioned a friendly harbor seal, but I didn't think we'd be that lucky. After sitting in a line to order for a half hour, and then another half hour line to pick it up, we did get to see the chubby seal with a blue eye.

Butchart is brilliant and absolutely disappointing at the same time. The flowers are so unusual and lovely I could shoot them for years. The gardens as a whole are awesome too. But there are always so many people around it's impossible to get a decent picture of any larger area without hordes of people in it. And everything but the solid pathways are roped off. So only the close up shots of flowers look good. The fireworks were strange. They had a wide area along the ground to work with so they used it all. Things were lighting up, and launching from, all over the place. That was the cool part. The very not-cool part was the whole thing choreographed to some Disney movie soundtrack, Aladdin I think. Had I not been occupied with shooting the fireworks, I would have left and been annoyed.

The brunch at the Gatsby was ok. The brunch sign that was draped across the main building looked really ghetto and made me laugh.

Next we were off to the museum to see the Titanic exhibit. I love how the IMAX film used a fisheye lens on the Russian scientist most of the time. For a film about a real tragedy, it was quite funny. The movie was good and so was the exhibit, but by the end I was falling apart like I'd been shopping for a whole hour! My back was killing me, my neck was tired, and my feet hurt. I didn't even have a camera bag!

Then we strolled through Beacon Hill park. It started out trashy, then turned into a lovely Butchart-like garden, but with a petting zoo. I didn't go in, but I admit I wanted to. We got some great pictures of each other amongst the flowers there.

We then walked around the city to find the shopping mall areas. We rode the escalator to the top of a nice one and talked ourselves out of buying anything because the exchange rate is about 1:1 right now, which is not very encouraging. So we strolled along the water front and found some greek food and gave up waiting on a mini donut machine that had broken down while the owner chatted away with some friends.

We checked into the clipper an hour and a half early because we got relatively bad seats on the way up because we were only an hour early. We found out later our boarding group for the trip back had already been determined back in Seattle when we checked in the first time. At about the time everyone on the boat realizes we're late leaving the dock, they announced that one of the engines won't start. And it never did. They sent another boat up from Seattle to get us. We eventually got home around 3:30AM the next day. But they did give us free sodas, so I had quite a few dr. peppers to comfort me in my misery. :)

Click here to see a ton of pictures from our trip!

Lunar Eclipse from Issaquah, WA

2007-08-28T03:30:00.000-07:00

I can't believe the weather cooperated!
Just before I went to bed I put all my gear on the porch to cool off so my lenses didn't fog when I was ready to get started, and left a pile of warm clothes near the door. 3 hours later I was out of bed.
I crawled on the roof with two cameras on tripods and a bag of lenses and other equipment. In the dark! I'm sure it looked like a huge disaster waiting to happen.
I started by shooting intervals on the 30D & 24-70 as the moon faded away (I'll have to photoshop them all into one picture eventually). And I used the 10D IR with the 70-300 and a 1.5x TC. Having to manually focus that thing just wasn't working for me. And the moon looks the same in IR anyway.
As I sat there and enjoyed the show I realized the moon was getting so dark that I could probably pull of some star trails with the moon in the frame. So once it was fully eclipsed I started the lens changing madness. I never did do any serious star trails because I remembered that my camera will take a noise reducing exposure of equal length immediately following the shot. I didn't want to take a 10 minute star trail and lose the camera for 20 minutes total. So I got some nice shots of the orange moon and stars. And now I'm going to bed...

Click here to see the rest of my lunar eclipse photos.

Sailing Lessons

2007-08-14T23:27:00.000-07:00

I needed a break during my bike ride home from work because I thought I was going to die... just like I did on the way in. So I pulled over where the Seafair pits were a few weeks earlier and watched some kids work on their sailing skills. I had no idea sailing lessons could be so much fun. I'm not sure if they were doing this on purpose or not. But it sure made me want to take lessons. Eventually some dogs showed up and chased the birds around.

Click here to see the rest of my pictures from this event.

Wallace Falls

2007-08-12T21:14:00.001-07:00

Wallace Falls is sweet! There are 3 levels to it. The first one is a mile down the trail. It's ok, kinda small, but not bad. There are sort of sub-falls below the one labeled "lower" that are probably more interesting. The middle fall is by far the coolest. It's the tallest of the three and has two fabulous sets of sub-falls below it. There's a really steep and treacherous path going from the lookout, with the sign that says you'll die if you leave the trail (my paraphrase), to the bottom. It's hard on the knees but totally worth it. Had I been only slightly more prepared I would have gone swimming. There's a deep section to the pool with some tall rocks on the edge that would make a great diving platform. I must go back and take advantage of that sometime soon. The upper falls are quite disappointing because the mile to get there is all switchback. And after all that effort it's not as exciting as the middle falls.

Anyway, it was a little too bright to get good blurry water shots this time. It seems that during the morning the falls are shadowed, but all afternoon they are at least partly lit by the sun. So the best time to shoot them would either be early morning or late evening.

Interesting facts: The trailhead starts at Wallace Falls State Park which is underneath massive buzzing powerlines, there are benches all along the trail, there is pretty good cell phone reception on the trail.

Click here to see the rest of my pictures from this hike.

Olympic Sculpture Park

2007-08-12T09:46:00.000-07:00

The Seattle Art Museum recently opened the Olympic Sculpture Park near the Seattle waterfront. It's free, outside, and very interesting. Perfect for a photosafari! Especially a digital infrared one. All the black and white pictures are from my IR 10D. Inside the main building for the OSP are two hanging basket chairs. They look totally cool, but are terribly uncomfortable. I'm sure they did that on purpose to keep people from hogging them all day. The park goes over a street and railroad tracks and ends up at a park along the water in downtown Seattle. Not only does the park have interesting art, it also has fantastic wildflowers and trees.

Click here to see the rest of the pictures from my visit to the OSP.

Seafair 2007

2007-08-07T20:30:00.000-07:00

I went to Seafair 2007 on Friday and Sunday. Each year I get more interesting pictures of the Blue Angels performing. This time the supersonic pass made some great cloud cones and shock waves. I still can't believe how low they fly. Next year I need to be on one of those boats!

Click here to see more pictures of the Blue Angels, the hydroplanes, and more of Seafair 2007!

Sol Duc Park Backpacking

2007-07-31T22:03:00.000-07:00

The rangers at the Port Angeles station said we should go to Sol Duc Park since our first choice was already full. It turned out pretty well. Except for the mosquitos that ate me anytime we were near our tent. I guess they like the taste of deet?

It took us 4 hours to hike the 7+ miles to get there. I barely made it. We were the last stragglers to arrive so we got stuck with the campsite next to the ranger "station". Maybe that's where the mosquitos came from?

The trail follows the Sol Duc River and crosses a lot of creeks and waterfalls along the way. Some of them were really photogenic.

We spent the next day on the High Divide ridge. When we got to the ridge we turned left and sat in a meadow for an hour or two and waited for the clouds to uncover Mt. Olympus. But they never did. We did see it's Blue Glacier for a minute or two though. We went back down to Heart Lake to refill the water bottles. Then back up to the ridge again and took a right and sat in a meadow for another hour or two. Dramatic views were everywhere. But the clouds kept it from being totally perfect. Oh well.

Click here to see all the pictures from the trip!

This is the first time I've managed to fill a 4G card on a backpacking trip. I think it was the combination of ferry rides, flowers, and mountains. The 30D battery lasts forever or I would have been toast.