Since I met my "riding mileage goal" today, I was able to come straight home. This means that I didn't stop for any photos on the way. We are leaving for our Labor Day camping bash tomorrow right after work, I was able to get a bunch of stuff packed so that we aren't screwing around here tomorrow afternoon trying to race out of here. Well, we will still leave much later than we want, but at least a lot of the packing is now done. So anyway, I needed to find things to shoot in the house. I was taking photos of all kinds of thing, one of the kids left a microphone out and I took a few shots of it. I like the pattern through the macro lens. I have a set of Cybersyncs coming in tomorrow, just in time for our camping weekend. I intend to put them to use over the weekend. I can get back into the Strobist thing with a set of working triggers now. I might even bring my Cactus triggers and throw them in the fire!

This is actually an outtake that I didn't actually delete. I was trying to capture my bik and all of this school for the new Northern New England Tag-O-Rama ( http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=495536). I set the camera down on my bean bag on the grass with the Tokina UWA loaded up. Since it is on the ground, I have no way of looking through the viewfinder. The lowest AF point was selected, thus the blades of grass in the foreground are in focus (kind of). The rest is a blur. When I got back and reviewed my shots, this once stood out because it made the whole scene look "Toylike". I get the feeling of looking in a diorama. I had a different shot that I used for the Tag and kept this one for my PaD for today.

While the bulk of the rain seemed to miss us, the effects didn't. We were without power for about 4 hours, not a very long time in the grand scheme of things, but enough to ask WTF? It's only August. After 3 hours of no power, I went to The Home Depot to return some stuff I'd been meaning to return for quite some time. I checked out generators while I was there. My neighbors have generators, the power wasn't out for 15 minutes and I heard a couple fire up. I could live without the computer and TV, its the sump pump that we can't live without. We only lose power when it is raining and when we lose power, there is nothing to check the flow of water into our basement. So anyway, here is a shot of my wife's car outdoors since she left when we had power and came back after it had gone out. The garage door opener requires power. While there is a manual override, I was too lazy to open the door. I shot this off my tripod (Duh, right, .6 second shutter speed?) while standing in the garage.

I took a different route home this evening, leaving late enough to do the "Dual Bridge Tour", something I would not attempt to do at rush hour. While riding across the bridge, I saw the silhouetted light posts against this beautiful sunset and decided to stop. Unfortunately, the parking as at the end of the bridge, right where the road curves in this photo. I had to walk back across the bridge, in my bike gear, to get to a suitable location for shooting. I'd already walked back about 100 yards to shoot this seagull, I realized that he added another element to the photo. I originally cropped out the road and the cars, but on a whim brought them back in and I kind of like it. I am on a roll now, I haven't had the bike in my last few day's worth of shots.

This photo is serving double duty today. It is my PaD photo AND it's the new Maine Tag. I am putting the beanbag to good use. I am kneeling down in the parking lot, over my camera, for this shot. I was worried that someone might pull in while I was shooting this. No one came out of the diner during this shot. I imagine they thought I was crazy, parking out front and walking around in my gear, including my helmet. In the preview screen on the DSLR, this looked really good. It wasn't until I was about 5 miles away, running the shot through my head, that I realized I was shooting in ISO 1600. The noise level is high, but for a web shot, it is acceptable. For a Maine Tag-o-Rama shot, it is better than acceptable. I am starving now, I should have gone in and ordered some pie. The sign in the front, that looks like it is sticking out of my front tire says "Bike Pads". Basically a boat load of small plywood squares that you put down on the ground and rest your kick stand on. Otherwise, you might come back to find you bike sinking into the pavement on hot days. I didn't need a bike stand for this shot. . .

We were riding through the islands on Champlain and stopped at the little house on the other side of this shot (blocked by the bridge) to take some photos. We were there for a little bit, hoping to catch the bridge opening. We gave up and pulled out and heard the signal as we crossed. At the end of the bridge, I swung around and came back to watch. The bridge hadn't opened by the time we pulled up. I could tell this bridge would be open for a bit, so I immediately turned off the bike and we got off (this is the point where I forgot to click the "Stay On" button on the GPS - Fatal error here) to take some photos. The people behind us had the same idea, everyone had turned off their vehicles and gotten out of them to watch. My daughter was so excited that we turned around to watch the bridge open. While I did get a shot of her facing the camera, this is the shot I liked the best. This was a little past our 1/2 way point of the 3 day trip, were something like 450 miles into the trip at this point. right after taking the photos, I was all set to wait for the bridge to come back down and traffic resume so I could turn around on the other side. My daughter (the thinker) said "Dad, why don't you just turn around right now while there are no cars coming?". Smart kid!