19-OCT-2010
Day 292 - Construction
(1023/365)
I got home late tonight due to a company meeting and then making up the time lost after the meeting. Looked outside and noticed the ladders had invaded our view (not that I care). Figured this might make for an interesting long exposure. It really didn't, but I'm posting it anyway.
Actually, this was resting on a 2 x 4 that is blocking the sliding door (there is no more porch, we don't want to fall out), set the 2 second timer and it appears to be a pretty stable mount.
I have to go to The Home Depot tomorrow early AM to pick up our Patio French Doors for the back porch. We should have a couple of new doors tomorrow (and possibly some new skylights too).
18-OCT-2010
Day 291 - Takeoff
(1022/365)
I found myself at the club house this evening on base for a work-related thing. As I was coming out to jump on the bike and go home, I noticed a KC-135 at the end of the taxiway, waiting. There was another 135 coming in on a very long approach from the North, so I waited (I got a decent shot of it on Final).
I didn't have a tripod, I set the LX5 on a fence post, opened the shutter for 8 seconds and set the 2 second timer to eliminate shake. There is still some blur from the LR3 noise processing as well as the thunderous bass from the engines spooling up and rattling things around.
I wanted to get a longer shot with the lights curving up, but this is a KC-135 and this is Pease, the second longest runway on the East coast (2 miles), they use quite a bit of it to get the most of the taxpayer's dollars.
This would have been pretty cool had it been a pair of F-16's taking off with Full AB.
17-OCT-2010
Day 290 - Busy Weekend
(1021/365)
It was supposed to be a crappy weather weekend, I had plans of doing a whole lotta nuthin. Instead, the weather was quite pleasant. So much so, that I tackled the rest of the garage. I have been insulating and sheet rocking this thing since last winter. I am making use of the Tax Credit (all around, not just here).
My son was a huge help, we had shelving, brackets, and all kinds of crap on the walls that all had to come down. Everything at some point had to come out of the garage and then back in (twice as we worked Saturday and Sunday). He took on the "lower tasks" like sweeping, vacuuming the dust and cobwebs out of the exposed studs, and a myriad of other things.
I'm not 100% complete on the rocking though, I used 8' panels for an 8' 5" ceiling. There was no way I was going to pay or lug the 12' sheets to save a seam, this is a garage. It looks like I will have to pick up a single 4' panel to finish the gap at the top. I also have to plug the insulation up there too, the bats were in 93" sections. I also have to finish cutting out our window in the background, I chose to cover it and cut it out later versus screwing around with cuts.
16-OCT-2010
Day 289 - Sparks
(1020/365)
We cleared the rest of the garage wall to finish insulating and sheetrocking this weekend (I hope). There was a nail embedded in the concrete that I needed to cut out, so I grabbed the Dremel. Since my son has been helping as much as possible, I figured he'd like to cut the nail (what 9-year-old wouldn't want to make cool sparks?). When he started cutting it, I realized this needed to to be captured. I grabbed the LX5 (possibly cleaning my hands first) and went to town. This is using the actual onboard flash, no off camera flash setup for this one. I had to switch over to Shutter priority to drop the speed a bit to get the sparks to be more pronounced, 1/30 was about as low as I dared to go.
15-OCT-2010
Day 288 - Nor'Easter
(1019/365)
A just plain miserable evening. We had another Nor'Easter today. The morning started out warm at about 60 degrees and raining, but the time I got to work, it was around 50 or a little lower.
This is at half time for the Home Coming game tonight, the Seniors were recognized in the Marching Band. There were what appeared to be two times as many visitor fans at the game than home fams (and it was home coming).
The band left right after this (they were soaked). They have a competition tomorrow and need to save their instruments. Marshwood was only down 21 points at the half, not sure how the rest of the game went as we left too.
14-OCT-2010
Day 287 - Me
(1018/365)
I am on a roll with the LX5 here, haven't picked up the 40D in about a week plus. I should have sent the 40D & lenses back to Canon for cleaning and servicing (hindsight).
On another note, Aerostich service absolutely rocks. My AD1 pants have some serous wear on the insides, the Goretex has warn off in places, I have a broken zipper (as of this morning), and I have a few holes that my boots have caused. I was thinking I would have to replace the pants after just shy of two years (granted these are my commuter pants so I wear them every day). I got a human (as always) this evening who passed me to Andrew in the service department. I have to send them back in December (when I stop riding due to a surgery) and they will repaired and turned around in about a week. It might cost me $30 for everything including shipping. I will easily get two more years out of them which is what I was hoping for. I knew this about Aerostich, I had a bananna suit a few years back when I had my Beemer. It looks like my next jacket will most likely be a Darien (possibly a Roadcrafter). Since I ride every day, I need gear that lasts, wears, and doesn't leak.
Strobist Info:
Canon 580EX-2 Camera right 1/128th power triggered with Cybersyncs.
13-OCT-2010
Day 286 - Flute
(1017/365)
A little
strobist shooting with the LX5 tonight. My daughter was practicing on her flute (she does this most evenings), I didn't realize how, err, "not clean" the flute would appear in the photo. It gives it that "well used look".
Strobist info: Canon 580EX2 1/16 Power, camera right, fired by Cybersyncs (love the LX5 hotshoe).
12-OCT-2010
Day 285 - Jupiter
(1016/365)
I saw Jupiter last night after the kids went to bed and tonight I took them out to view it with my Oberwerks (11x70) mounted on my Manfrotto tripod (via RRS hardware).
I decided to try the LX5 at astrophotography. This was a quick shot behind the Oberwerks. There's not enough reach here, but it is making me wonder what Jupiter would look like through my 70-200 at the 200 end on the 40D.
My other set of binocs is a pair of Canon 8 x 35 IS, great for quick night viewing, but doesn't really capture what the Oberwerks can, though I can hand-hold the Canon with the IS and there is no way anyone can hand hold the Oberwerks AND still see anything.
11-OCT-2010
Day 284 -Down by the docks
(1015/365)
Went to pick up my daughter from her gymnastics class in Dover. This is about as far inland as you can come with a sea-fairing boat. I had to go right by the marina to pick her up, so I swung by and took a few shots. This isn't exactly what I was hoping for, but it will work. I'm still getting used to the LX5, it is basically the LX3 with some minor differences, but its those minor differences that I am working on. I'm also still trying to work out a small tripod, I have a crappy old no-name aluminum job that I am testing out. I've had the tripod for years, I think it might have been my first tripod I bought after I got my first SLR (OM-10) in the early 80's. The tripod was a piece of crap then and it has survived well through the years to remain a piece of crap now.
10-OCT-2010
Day 283 - Swing
(1014/365)
Saw this as I dropped off my youngest daughter to a birthday party sleepover (8 girls for a night!)
I thought the sun was a bit higher, it would have been more of what I was intending to shoot with it peeking through the leaves of the tree. I'm not usually into shooting straight into the sun.
I actually got out a few times with the LX5, I am getting ready to upload the others in a bit.
09-OCT-2010
Day 282 - KC LX5 LR3
(1013/365)
KC napping this afternoon through the LX5, tweaked in LR3. I finally bit the bullet and am in trial mode for LR3.2. I know I will go ahead and purchase it, trial mode was the quickest. I really did it to get the ability to play with the LX5 RAW files, I uploaded one that I tweaked earlier.
I just changed my settings to import the RAW and Jpg as separate images in order to get ahold of the in camera jpg. My previous workflow was to manually copy the RAW & Jpg files to a temp folder, then move all the RW2 files into an archive & import the Jpgs into LR. I think I will go back to that as I really want to keep the Jpgs and only go back to the RAW files as necessary.
08-OCT-2010
Day 281 - Lillyput
(1012/365)
Revisiting the Shrooms. Still not what I was looking for. The blown out sky is really detracting from the overall image here. I should have turned the flash on. Actually, I thought I did, but by the time I popped up the flash, I'd been squatting for a few minutes and didn't feel like screwing around with the camera any more.
Edit: I upgraded to LR3 and tweaked the RAW (RW2) for this: