31-DEC-2009
Day 365 - Spreading Too Much Cheer?
How could I NOT stop for this? I have no idea what it is that Santa is supposed to 'Stop' doing, but apparently it is important enough to alert all South Bound Traffic on Rte 236. While I was out in the [used car] 'lot' with my gear, I saw a few employees eying me as they were moving cars around. On my ride back home from work, I noticed the sign hadn't changed. What a way to end my second full PaD year. Tomorrow I start a new PaD.
30-DEC-2009
Day 364 - Rusty Morning Stuff
This morning on the way into work, I noticed this old car body on a trailer, beside a commercial building. I was in the car (it was like 10F this morning) and drove right past it, processed the image in my mind, then started looking for a place to turn around. In my confusion, I actually drove by it again (there are a series of three of these commercial buildings in a row and they all look alike). I was so happy out there snapping away and completely focused on the different compositions, that I never actually tried to identify the car. I am thinking this is a Karmann Ghia. It certainly looks like it has seen better days. It was just sitting out there on a trailer, no idea how long this has been here, I will be looking for it now in the morning though. I'm wondering if there is a restoration shop in one of the stalls (there are about twenty to thirty garage 'offices' in each building.
26-DEC-2009
Day 361 - Sk8tr Boi
My son had a "Skateboard Xmas" yesterday, he got a Rip Stik from his aunt, a Skateboard (that he picked out earlier) from Santa, and a Tony Hawk Skateboard kit for the Wii. I took him to Red Alert this morning, an indoor skateboard park/shop that ironically enough is located in an old factory that was my family's back in the 60's - early 80's. This was his first time at a skate park, so he took it real easy on the ramps. He had a complete blast. It looks like we will be spending a lot of Saturday mornings there which means I will have to shift our Den Meetings around ;-) Great Photo oppurtunities in this area. The Sekonic reported f/2.8 at ISO 100 & 1/60 in the long half-pipe area under some flourescents ;-)
25-DEC-2009
Day 360 - Sekonic
One of the items on my wish list was the Sekonic L358 Light Meter. I gots it! It was a busy day today and I only got a few minutes to play around with it. I took on this SP this evening before watching Fargo on our new Blu Ray player (I've seen it many times, not in HD though ;-) For this shot, there is virtually no ambient lighting, I believe the flash ratio was 100%. It was pretty helpful as I was able to zero in on the exposure before shooting. I'd originally had the flash power SWAG'd to 1/32 which was too low. Strobist Info: Canon 580EX2 1/4 Power, camera left. Shot into a homebrew reflector. Triggered with Cybersyncs. I can't wait to spend more time with this light meter, it will help to shed a little light on my exposures ;-)
24-DEC-2009
Day 359 - Happy Cheesemas
Today is my day for FGR. It also happens to coincide with Cheesemas, the day we celebrate Cheese (according to the
Flickr Group ;-). We were out riding around today doing some last minute shopping with all the kids and dragged them into the Grocery Store, along with my 40D to take a photo of cheese. You would be surprised at some of the looks I got taking photos of cheese! Not only from my teenager (who tried to make like I didn't exist) to the shoppers and the workers. Someone asked me if I said "Say Cheese" before I took the shot. This particular shot represents enough cheese to stop up even the most regular person for about a year.
23-DEC-2009
Day 358 - Train just left
Another train theme. I'm not sure what the attraction is lately. We were late to my daughter's gymnastic lesson, in fact, we actually got held up by the train (Downeaster) on the other side of town for it to pass, then got held up while it was sitting in the station. The Southbound train parks too close to the train signals and causes the gates to remain in the closed position while passengers come and go. I was thinking of heading in a different direction after dropping her off for my photo, but there was something about this scene. It fits nicely for today's FGR,
Winter 2009-10. We've not really had all that much snow yet, have to wait until January or February for the snowbanks to rise. I like the tones in this shot, I got there just before sunset with the sun getting a little obsured in the clouds. I'm working on another composition as an HDR, but there are 7 images, it takes forever to blend them, and I basically suck at HDR.
22-DEC-2009
Day 357 - Crossing
On my way back from yet another day of "Last minute stuff" I had one of those "Hey, that would make a great photo" moments when I crossed some RR tracks in Somersworth, NH. Instead of doubling back, I waited until I hit the crossing in our town in Maine (different set of tracks). I shot the Downeaster passing by a few weeks ago (possibly even last week, I'm not good with time) at this crossing. If I remember correctly, it was just starting to snow out when I was shooting the train. We've now got snow cover, but not deep enough to warrant the wearing of Snow Boots (I'm still in my LL Bean low tops). Just about every car that crossed the tracks stopped to figure out what the heck I was doing.
21-DEC-2009
Day 356 - Snow Cone
The title pretty much sums it up. I was out driving around doing some last minute shopping (with the camera gear in the back seat of course) when I came across a blustery scene that I felt required capturing. The blustery scene is actually the snow blowing off the building, but I realized after trying to capture said scene, that 1) It was pretty freakin cold out and B) I am not qualified to capture a blustery scene (OK, I am qualified, but it pretty much sucked). Off the ends of the buildings (mini warehouses) are these bollards to keep people from running into the buildings with their vehicles. Anyway, the snow coming off the roof of each building was piling up on top of the bollards and forming a cone shape. This is pretty cool. This, of course, leads me to believe that the ancient Egyptians are the original designers of rockets, at least the nose cones. I'm thinking that sand in the desert would behave much in the same way as the snow does here (I have been in the desert, but not on a horse, with or without a name). You'd have to believe that there were some random columns at the end of Egyptian buildings involved in sand storms...
20-DEC-2009
Day 355 - The Move
Playing chess with Kala this evening. She is very logical and will be a good player in time. Yesterday, I stumbled upon firmware updates for the LX3. Apparently the latest is 2.1, I was on 1.0. There were a lot of changes, one of which is an aspect ratio of 1:1. This is literally SOOC.
