07-DEC-2009
Day 341 - New Maine Tag
The other side of the Key Sign was covered in snow. I was able to get in about four hours of riding today. It was pretty cold, but my gear worked wonders. This was actually my new Maine Tag today, I've been out of the game for quite a few months. It was pretty wild riding around the lakes and ponds without any ice, yet the ground is covered in snow. I have my new rear Conti Trail Attack on today for this ride, it wasn't the best way to break in a tire, there wasn't a lot of twisties that I really leaned into, but the tire is scrubbed in now.
04-DEC-2009
Day 338 - Rolling
OK, so this is a Self Portrait. I forgot to bring my timer/interval remote with me, so I had to rely on the "Focus on something close to where I will be" & 10 second timer approach.
Today's FGR Challenge is
Butt Up, this was my original idea all along, to do something on the bike. It was a vacation day for me, but I had to run into work for a meeting. I loaded up my camera & tripod and had this spot in mind for my ride home. I am actually at the park at Dover Point, the boat launch is right behind the camera. The bike is up on the centerstand, I'm not moving at all. I did a kind of bang up job applying motion and radial blur to the scene and the wheels after the fact in CS4. I'm not all that impressed with the motion blur, I want the blur to be directional from left to right, when it actually is applied in a horizontal fashion back and forth so there is blur in front of the bike and behind it. If you look closely enough, you'd think I was oscillating on the thing instead of riding.
03-DEC-2009
Day 337 - Looking Up, Looking Down
I'd wanted to get a shot of the moon this evening for today's FGR Challenge but the clouds weren't cooperating with me when I got home. I took a nice long ride this evening to make good use of the temps. It got into the 70's today (though I didn't get to go outside during the actual daylight hours ;) I left work at around 6:30 and decided to take my long route. When I got to the exit for Route 125, I decided to keep going a bit further and take Route 43. When I got to Route 43, I decided to go to I-93 then shoot back East when I hit Concord. When I got to Concord, I decided to keep going North until it "felt right" to start heading back. After a while I saw a sign for Laconia (Think "Bike Week") in 20 miles. I figured that would be a good place to turn. I was hungry, so I stopped at the Tilton Diner and had a BLT. I happened to look up and noticed the mirrored ceiling and whipped out the iPhone. My riding gear is just out of the bottom of the frame. The air vent is in the way. Had I thought about it, I would have moved all the gear to get it in the shot. I am still wearing my liner in this shot, though it never got plugged in on the ride, it was too warm. The BLT was great, just enough to satisfy my hunger. The service was quick, I was back on the road in about 10 to 15 minutes.
01-DEC-2009
Day 335 - So Blue
My first thought after looking at today's FGR Challenge, was "well, I guess I have to find something else to shoot". I was in our family room propping up some pillows when I noticed an abundance of balloons left over from the kid's birthday parties over the weekend (two of our children had birthday sleep overs). I found a blue balloon and got this absolutely zany idea of putting it in front of my flash to see what would happen. There is what appears to be some posterization in the photo, on the balloon and on my forehead, but it isn't behaving like posterization, I certainly didn't overprocess anything here.
29-NOV-2009
Day 333 - Salmon Falls
My first shot of my shoot today behind the mills in downtown Somersworth, NH. This is a stretch of the Salmon Falls river just below the dam near the bridge into Maine. I stumbled upon the access to this stretch last winter when I was riding about looking for something to shoot. I think this might be the first time I went here without any snow on the ground. It is easier to shoot these rapids in the late fall in the afternoon as the sun is much lower on the horizon and the mill to my back completely blocks any direct sunlight on the water. Even in the shade, though I have to use an ND 1.8 filter to get the long shutter speed and creamy water.
28-NOV-2009
Day 332 - Abandoned Factory
I'm not so sure about the construction, I didn't find any indications of construction going on in the first building. It was much cooler than I'd thought though, the building was burned out, with all kinds of charcoal wood pieces and rusted metal husks all over the place. I don't know the history of these factories, the land belongs to the GE Factory which is way behind these buildings. The GE Factory produces Meters, the kind that mount to the front of your house and report how much electricity you need to be charged for. I want to say that these buildings were a part of an old textile or possibly shoe factory that was built in the 19th century. It's just across the border in New Hampshire, out of frame is the Salmon Falls River just to the right of this photo. The other side of the river is Maine (Berwick, ME to be exact).
27-NOV-2009
Day 331 - Tiny Fighter
Today is my son's birthday. His big gift is the 25lb hanging punching bag that came with the boxing gloves he is wearing. Installing the ceiling mount for the bag was a PIA, trying to locate a joist is a problem as there is strapping strung up perpendicular to the joists for the sheet-rock. I wound up having to drill a whole bunch of small "Test holes" to locate a stud. I installed the bag while he was downstairs pinging off the walls. My wife wrapped the boxing gloves and we let him open them last along with all his other presents. When he put them on, I told him to go try them out by hitting his sisters (which he did). Then my wife sent him to his room for 5 minutes for hitting his sisters. He wasn't happy, but soon figured out why we sent him to his room.
