Tag Archives: Sony Alpha 100 digital SLR

2015/09/23 (W) Autumnal Equinox

Leave a reply

We were up at 8 AM, had granola for breakfast, and enjoyed our coffee in the living room by the fireplace.  I like cool mornings.

I spent some time yesterday morning, and again this morning, considering my full-frame DSLR options.  The only 50 MP “35mm” DSLR camera body on the market at this time is the Canon 5Ds/R and there is no indication that Sony plans to introduce a successor to the A99 anytime soon.  The A99 is still available, as is the vertical battery pack/grip and I am at the point where I will probably order one.  It has a 24 MP full-frame CMOS sensor, which is double the resolution of my alpha 100.  More importantly, it will accept all of my old 35mm Minolta A-mount lenses and they will work as designed.

Linda left at 9:40 AM to meet Diane at Kensington Metropark.  I gathered up the laundry, sorted it, and started the first load.  I then settled in at my desk for a while.

I e-mailed Mike (W8XH) to see if he could assist me on Saturday and/or Monday with climbing the tower to do some more antenna work.  I then e-mailed Bill Gerrie to see if he and Karen were in Michigan yet.  I pulled up the initial mockup of the October 2015 issue of Bus Conversion Magazine and proofread my article on replacing the speedometer.  Jorge had done a good job of laying it out.  I e-mailed back four minor corrections, one slightly larger one, and a general comment about the lack of space following periods.  I had an e-mail from Steve Smith (N8AR) with contact information for Yaesu Fusion technical support.

The washing machine beeped so I transferred that load to the dryer and started another one.  I noticed that it was after 11:30 AM so I cleaned the cats’ litter tray, grabbed the garbage from under the kitchen island sink, put it in the trash can, and got it to the street.  Alchin’s normally comes “around noon” but I had a feeling they had already driven by.  They were still in our subdivision, however, and stopped on the way out to empty our can.

I had another cup of coffee and updated this post.  By noon Linda had not called yet let me know she was on her way home so I headed to Lowe’s for a roll of plumber’s sandpaper.  I also picked up the paste we need to hang the new wallpaper.  On the way back to the house I stopped at Teeko’s Coffee and Tea to order some Cafe Europe half-caff blend.  Linda was home when I got back and we had a light lunch.  We have both finally taken off some of the weight we put on this past winter.  Long, hard work days with little or no lunch seem to help.

By the time we got back to work on the bus projects it was 3 PM.  It’s hard to make progress when the workday starts in the afternoon.  Today is the autumnal equinox, so it gets dark much earlier in the evening than it did in late May, June, July and even most of August.  Still, as anxious as I am to get the heat exchangers re-installed we have to deal with the wallpaper in that part of the bus first.  Linda helped me assemble the right desk base, repeating what we did yesterday with the left base.

The left pedestal base with the Aqua-Hot fan-coil heat exchanger mounted inside.

The left pedestal base with the Aqua-Hot fan-coil heat exchanger mounted inside.

We installed the metal grates on the air openings (from the inside) and then used doubled-sided tape to affix the plastic mesh to the metal grate.  We put a 1/2″ plywood spacer in the bottom and marked the locations of the mounting bracket holes and the heat exchanger.  We took the exchanger and spacer out, punched the starter holes, and drilled.  Linda cleaned the heat exchanger and used a pair of tweezers to straighten the bent radiator fins, of which there were quite a few.  We cleaned off the two copper pipe stubs that provide the inlet and outlet for the antifreeze and then attached the self-stick 3/8″ X 1/4″ dense foam weather-stripping around the front of the housing.  We mounted the exchanger to the spacer with approximately 1/8″ of the foam weather-stripping beyond the front edge of the spacer.  We put the spacer/exchanger assembly back in the base and I secured it with screws while Linda pulled it into position, compressing the weather-stripping.

Linda cleans and straightens the fins on one of the fan-coil heat exchangers.

Linda cleans and straightens the fins on one of the fan-coil heat exchangers.

I took a few photographs as we worked and took some more of the finished assemblies.  While we were working we got a call from Philip Jarrell of Precision Paving.  Phil was calling to see if we still wanted the French Drain and driveway work done.  He has been busy all summer and even more so coming into fall when folks decide they need stuff done before winter.  He had given us a quote (estimate) back in the spring but could not do the work then because the soil was way too moist.  The property has dried out nicely over the last seven weeks and he wanted to make sure he did the work yet this year if we were still interested.  I told him “yes” and he said he would call “Miss Dig” right away to get the utilities marked and then get started.

The two desk bases with the fan-coil heat exchangers installed view from above and behind.

The two desk bases with the fan-coil heat exchangers installed view from above and behind.

I think this annoyed Linda as it will be another significant expenditure, but it’s something I think needs to be done and it is not easy to get a slice of Phil’s time.  (Actually, we have done a lot of difficult work together on the bus this summer and I think she was already annoyed from working with me on the right base.)  Not taking advantage of Phil’s availability would likely mean a two-year delay in getting this work done.

This project is actually a combination of two different projects that happened to make more sense to do at the same than at separate times.  The French drain is intended to dry out the far west end of our property which has standing water in the spring and after heavy rains, and stays moist/soft for the first half of the summer.  There are a lot of trees in that area and we have lost some and are losing others.  The driveway work will give us additional parking for people visiting in their RVs and create the main approach to the location for the bus barn that I hope to eventually build.  The topsoil that Phil pulls out from the driveway will be used to fill in low spots on the west end of the property, further improving the drainage in that area.

The right desk base viewed from above/behind showing the fans mounted on the back side of the heat-exchanger.

The right desk base viewed from above/behind showing the fans mounted on the back side of the heat-exchanger.

Linda returned to stripping wallpaper in the bus while I folded the laundry and put it away.  For dinner we had a salad and more of the soup that Linda made yesterday.  After dinner Linda researched wallpaper installation while I worked at my computer and uploaded eight blog posts from the third week of July.  About the time I finished the last one Brendan called so I went upstairs and Linda put the call on speaker.  He is a couple of weeks into his position at Eastern Michigan University teaching Art History and gave us a status report on how it is going, along with news of how Madeline is doing in her new daycare program University of Michigan.

We watched Dr. Michael Greger’s 2015 nutrition research summary on Linda’s iPad.  This is an annual presentation that he does at the vegan Summerfest in Pennsylvania.  His theme this year was the top health concerns of Americans, based on a major survey that was done by one of the national survey organizations, and what nutrition research has to offer with respect to these.  As we already know, many different diseases, one common answer; whole-food, plant-based, nutrition with no animal products.  We really are what we eat, and Americans are now some of the least healthy people on the planet.  We went to sleep reaffirmed in our dietary choices.

 

2015/03/20-21 (F-S) OPCNM

Leave a reply

[Note:  Photos for this post appear at the end in an image gallery.]

Friday, March 20th, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (Day 1)

We finally made it to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (OPCNM) today.  The Sonoran Desert has a beauty all its own and the drive down was scenic.  Although OPCNM is a remote place that borders Mexico, and most of it is designated wilderness that is difficult-to-impossible to access, the volume of traffic on AZ-85 surprised us.

We have learned that anytime we are surprised by something it simply means there are aspects of a place/situation that we did not understand or anticipate in advance.  AZ-85 runs from I-10 west of Phoenix to Gila Bend, jogs to the west, and continues south through Ajo and Why and then through the center of the Monument to the border crossing at Lukeville.  Mexican Highway 2 runs along the border and is a major east-west route that is busy with truck traffic.  Puerto Penasco, on the Sea of Cortez, is only 62 miles farther south from the border.  Often referred to by “northerners” as Rocky Point Puerto Penasco is a haven for U. S. and Canadian snowbirds from the western states and provinces.  We saw at least a dozen businesses in Ajo selling Mexico Travel Insurance and billboards welcoming “Rocky Pointers” to town.  Now we know.

This was all of more than passing interest to us.  Fellow FMCA/SKP freethinkers Larry and Orene Brown will be serving as the wagonmasters for a SKP Chapter 8 (Mexico Connection) caravan of some 60 rigs to Puerto Penasco in February 2016 and we are actually considering going!  They plan to rendezvous at the OPCNM campground and then head into Mexico.  With that in the back of our minds we drove to the Visitor Center, which is much closer to the south end of the Monument than the north end, and is the access point to the campground.  We picked up a guide for the Ajo Mountains Loop Road and decided to drive that.  Linda and Val also bought general purpose field guides.

The Ajo Mountains Loop Road is a 21 mile gravel road that starts on the east side of AZ-85 across from the Visitor Center.  Most of the road is a one-way loop that does not require a 4-wheel drive vehicle but does require good ground clearance.  We were traveling in Lou and Val’s Chevy pickup truck, which is 4-wheel drive with significant ground clearance, so we did not have any trouble with the road.

The Monument Rangers and the printed guide said the road would take two hours to drive, an average of only 10 miles per hour.  There were places we could go faster than that (but why would we) but also places where we had to go much slower.  The two hour time estimate also did not account for the time needed to take photographs or go on even short hikes at some of the trailheads.  It took us 4.5 hours to drive the road but we stopped often and took a lot of photographs.  Lou continued to work with his small Sony camera and concentrate on photos of flowering plants and cacti.  I tried photographing those subjects as well, but I don’t seem to have a natural talent for taking pictures of flowers.  I did, however, get some nice landscape images, including both panoramas and HDRs.  I entered one of my HDR images in the RVillage spring photo contest, which was unusual for me as I do not enter my photos in contests as a rule.

When we got back to the Visitor Center it was still open so we did some more shopping.  Linda bought a T-shirt and some jellied (soft) Prickly Pear Cactus candy that turned out to be excellent.  The only other drive through the Monument is a 41 mile one-way loop on the west side of AZ-85.  It was too late in the day to start that drive and we had been bounced around enough for one day anyway.

We drove down to Lukeville to check it out.  We were told there was a restaurant there where we might want to eat dinner, but changed our minds after getting there.  Lukeville is a Port of Entry with a filling station, a restaurant behind it, and an RV park (of sorts) across the street.  We drove back to Hickiwan Trails RV Park, stopping along the way to take more photos in the warm early evening sunlight.

Long after dinner I tried taking some night sky photos but may Sony alpha-100, which is 8 years old, was not up to the task.  Lou, however, went out around 3 AM and got some excellent photos of the Milky Way in the southeast sky.

Saturday, March 21st, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (Day 2)

We had originally planned to only stay at Hickiwan Trails RV Park for Wednesday and Thursday nights.  With tire repair taking up Thursday we extended our stay by one night on Friday morning.  We were not able to see as much of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (OPCNM) yesterday as we wanted, so we extended our stay at the RV Park for another night.  The lady in the office said she would retroactively switch us from the $19 daily rate to the $85 weekly rate if we decided to stay longer.  The longer we have been at Hickiwan the more we like it.

Linda and Val packed picnic lunches, we loaded up the truck, and headed back to OPCNM.  We stopped at the Visitor Center again to get information about the 41 mile west loop road.  This road is more isolated and less traveled than the Ajo Mountains Loop Road we drove yesterday and a 4-wheel drive, high ground clearance vehicle is required.  The Ranger indicated on the map an area where we would probably find wild poppies in bloom and we knew there was a picnic area with a modern pit toilet about half way through the drive.

The ranger told us to allow at least four hours for this drive.  There were fewer places/reasons to stop but it still took us almost seven hours to get back to the Visitor Center.  And yes, we found and photographed the poppies.  As we were driving along the border with Mexico near the end of the loop we were looking for Senita cacti.  The Senita cactus is similar to the Organ Pipe cactus, but is a different plant.  We saw some at the Sonoran Desert Museum west of Tucson, but the southern part of OPCNM is the only place in the U. S. where they occur naturally.

OPCNM is a biosphere preserve and has a sister preserve on the Mexican side of the border.  The Senita Cactus is indigenous to the Mexican Sonoran Desert but a few plants are found just north of the border.  We had not seen one all day when we noted a spur road on the map that ran up to the Senita Basin.  Surely that must be where they are growing.  We still had plenty of daylight so we headed up.  We had gone about a mile when Val spotted one so we stopped to examine it and take pictures.  Having accomplished our objective, and having grown a bit weary of the long, bouncy ride, we returned to the main road and completed the loop, taking AZ-85 back to the Visitor Center.

As long as we were at the Visitor Center we took the opportunity to drive through the campground and check it out.  The campground is beautifully designed and landscaped.  They claim to have sites for RVs up to 40 feet in length but our assessment was that they had maybe two or three sites that we might be able to get in and out of without scratching our paint or damaging some aspect of the campground.  Unless/until we outfit our rig with a serious solar system we will not be staying here anyway because of the restricted generator hours.

We made the drive back to Hickiwan, passing through the northbound Border Patrol checkpoint at the northern boundary of the Monument.  After dinner I transferred my photos to my computer and started processing them.  Between yesterday’s visit and today’s visit I took a LOT of photographs so I had quite a bit of work in front of me.

.

2015/03/13 (F) Sonoran Desert Museum

Leave a reply

We were up at 6 AM and left the fairgrounds a little before 7 AM to drive to The Sonoran Desert Museum west of Tucson, Arizona.  That meant we missed the hitch-up breakfast, which is the last official activity of the Escapade.  We also missed the SmartWeigh operation, an activity run by the Escapees to determine individual wheel weights for RVs, toads, and toters.  We were not going to have our coach/toad weighed, but it would have been nice to get some photographs of the operation.

We drove separately from Lou and Val Petkus and were running a little ahead of schedule so we stopped at a McDonald’s about seven miles from the museum for coffee.  We met up with Lou and Val and another couple from the SKP Photographers BOF in the parking lot.  We needed 12 people to get the discounted group admission price so we all paid full price and went in.

The museum is spread over 21 acres at a mean elevation of ~2,800 feet.  Most of the museum is outdoors and is a magnificent collection of Sonoran Desert flora and fauna that was worth the price of admission.  We did not mind paying the asking price for this museum, however, as it is undoubtedly an expensive operation to run.

One of the highlights of our museum visit was the raptor demonstrations at 10 AM and 2 PM.  We went to both and took a lot of photos.  We were surprised how many people were there to see both demonstrations, especially children, as it was Friday (work/school day).  Perhaps the area schools were on spring break.  We had lunch in the cafe and it was very good.  Reviews for the restaurant were excellent but it had white linen tablecloths, so we took a pass on that.

We left around 4:30 PM and drove up to Gates Pass where we parked and took photos of the mountains and sunset.  The light was fading as we pulled out but we made it down the mountain road before darkness fell.  It was way past dark by the time we got back to the coach; a long but very productive and satisfying day.

Sunset from Gates Pass west of Tucson, AZ.

Sunset from Gates Pass west of Tucson, AZ.

Following is a gallery of some selected photos from our visit to the Sonoran Desert Museum.  Some of the photos were taken by Linda.  Photos were taken with Sony alpha 100 DSLR and Canon 50D DSLR.  The photos are presented without captions.

 

 

2014/09/26 (F) Hope Is Not A Strategy

Leave a reply

Linda was up at 7:00 AM, I was up at 7:15 AM, and Madeline was up at 7:45 AM.  Marilyn got up later.  Given a choice she’s not a morning/breakfast person.  Linda got up first to prepare the batter for her fabulous vegan blueberry pancakes which she planned to serve with fresh fruit and real maple syrup.

I powered up my iPad2 and discovered that Apple had released iOS 8.0.2.  Apparently I was not the only person having some issues with the release, like sluggish response and a Bluetooth keyboard that quit working properly and then quit working altogether.  I tested the keyboard with my laptop computer last night and it worked fine, so I knew there wasn’t anything wrong with it.  I downloaded the iOS update and everything was back to normal (once I figured out how to re-pair the keyboard).  With any luck perhaps WordPress will also issue a maintenance release today and fix the completely broken drag-n-drop feature of the media gallery.  As Deb Wahlstrom said once in a workshop, “hope is not a strategy,” but when things are completely beyond your control hope is sometimes all you have.

Linda tried to use the griddle that fits over the oblong center burner of the new G. E. kitchen range to cook the pancakes but forgot to turn it down from the preheat setting, which produces a LOT of heat.  It burned the first pancakes firmly to the griddle.  Madeline was already in her high chair waiting for her breakfast, so Linda grabbed a non-stick frying pan and cooked the pancakes in that.  The fact that the griddle and the preheat feature are both new and that there was a certain pressure to get Madeline her breakfast was not an ideal combination for a first attempt at using the griddle.  I doubt that she will make that mistake again, and the frying-pan-cakes were still very good.  The fresh fruit turned out to be bananas, but that was OK; we all like bananas.

After breakfast I played with Madeline while Linda cleaned up from breakfast.  Karen called from Bratcher Electric to let us know that Brandon had called in sick and she needed to reschedule our generator conversion and service for Monday between 1 and 3 PM if that would work for us.  It was not ideal from my perspective as I was thinking about taking the bus to Butch and Fonda’s on Monday, but that could obviously wait until Tuesday or later.  If necessary I could delay taking it until after the GLCC Surplus and Salvage Rally.

I waited until Marilyn got up at 9:15 AM to make the coffee; we all like our morning coffee.  Linda was busy with Madeline by that point so Marilyn cooked her own breakfast.  There was enough batter left for two pancakes.  She’s always very helpful that way when she comes to visit.  We often have to insist that she just sit, relax, be our guest, and let us take care of things.  It’s really not a bother; we like having company and we do not expect them to work while they are here.  Of course, if they insist on helping with the dishes, who are we to deny them the joy of being of service?

Marilyn started packing at 10:45 AM while Linda gathered up Madeline’s things.  When it was time to load the car for the trip to Ann Arbor my job was to hold Madeline’s hand (actually, she held my finger) and get her out the front door, down the new steps/sidewalk, and over to the car.  (Hey, grandpa-ing is serious work.)  Although she understood that she was returning to her house where daddy and mommy would feed and play with her, she wasn’t quite ready to leave.  She and I “marched” up and down the driveway several times before she was ready/willing to let Grandma Linda put her in her car seat.  She is now big enough that the seat gets installed facing forward, which is a very big deal as she can now see where she’s going in life instead of where she has been.  Marilyn rode in the back to keep her entertained on the drive down.

The weather this week has been spectacular; a classic late September in Michigan with lows around 50, highs around 75, clear blue skies and light breezes.  I shut off the various thermostats and opened up the house.  I spent the early afternoon editing blog posts from the last couple of weeks and then off-loaded photos from our Sony alpha 100 SLR, organized them, and backed them up.  I stopped for a bite of lunch and then decided to have another go at the lawnmower.  If I cannot get it started I will have to take it somewhere and have it repaired.  🙁

I had already installed the new spark plug last night and that did not fix the problem.  I dumped the gas tank out into an open tub and put some of the fresh gas I bought last night into the tank.  I took the tub to some of our woods a good distance from our drinking water well and spread it around on some leaves.  Most of it will evaporate rather than soak in.  Not the most environmentally sound thing to do, but a lot safer than an open tub of gasoline.

Before I tried to start the engine I checked the back discharge chute, out of habit, to make sure the mulching insert was in place.  It was but there was a lot of dried grass as well and it had obviously not been cleaned out the last time it was used.  There was also a lot of fuzzy material mixed in with the grass, a sure sign that a mouse had taken up residence there at one time.  I removed the insert and shook it off into the tub and discovered that it still had a mouse in it.  The mouse was quite dead and very stiff but did not have any obvious injuries and did not emit any odor.  It was in surprisingly good conditions, so perhaps being encased in the dried grass and fuzz helped preserve it.  It was not trapped so it is a mystery why it stayed in there and died.  The mower was in our garage all winter, and although it got very cold (-20 F) the mouse would not have been trapped in the garage either; there are gaps around the doors that would easily allow a field mouse to come and go.  (Now that we have the garage furnace, sealing the doors is on my project list.)

With the discharge chute cleaned up the mower started on the first pull !!!  (This is something Honda has bragged about in the advertising in the past.)  I let it run for a while on high throttle to warm it up and make sure it had fresh gas all the way through the fuel system.  I then brought the throttle back to idle to let it cool off and stabilize and then shut it off.  I did not think it was going to start so I was not wearing my safety goggles or gloves.  I usually wear hearing protectors as well, but I could not find them.  (I realized later they were probably in the construction equipment tub we took with us last summer.  I will look there tomorrow.)  I topped off the tank with fresh fuel and it started on the first pull again.  The new spark plug is a more aggressive design that is supposed to spark more easily and that may have helped.  Whatever the reason, I like how easily it now starts.

I spent an hour cutting the grass in the immediate vicinity of the house.  I focused in particular on the areas that Keith does not get with his riding mower and areas that were disturbed (destroyed) and re-seeded as part of the landscaping work and re-seeded again by me (twice).  The new grass is coming in fairly well at this point although there are still a few thin spots.  And even though Keith mowed most of this new grass on his last visit it was getting tall again.  I was surprised how moist much of the grass was, especially in areas that are now mostly shaded throughout the day, as we have not had any rain in the last week.  Keith had mentioned the last time he was here that the grass was very moist; “…more like April/spring grass than September/fall grass.”  I did not get everything mowed.  I still have to do the two slopes by the retaining walls in the back, which are steep and physically demanding even with a self-propelled mower, and most of the west end of the house.  It will take me at least another hour to finish but I had done enough for today and wanted to relax for a little while before Linda got home.  Besides, it will be there tomorrow, and it should be a nice day to work outside.

Linda called around 4:35 PM and left messages letting me know that she had dropped Marilyn at the airport and was starting for home.  That drive would take close to an hour in light traffic, so I figured I would not see her before 6 PM.  She pulled in the driveway at 6:10 PM.

We had three left over salads for dinner: chickpea; Farro with cranberries, and; wild rice with apples and raisins.  Easy and delightful.  Marilyn texted Linda several times to let us know her travel status.  Her flight was delayed almost an hour but eventually took off and got her safely back to St. Louis, Missouri.  We were both tired and turned in early, but I got my second wind after I located a service manual online for a model of Aqua-Hot that is very similar to the one in our bus and started reading about how to diagnose what might be wrong with our unit.  Based on the symptoms my current best guess is a stuck fuel valve or defective fuel valve solenoid.

 

2013_10_15 (T) Image Post-Processing

Leave a reply

(At the end of this blog are the same 10 images I posted yesterday, only this time with image post-processing.  There is also a new image that I created today.)

The photography workshop today was mostly classroom work.  We spent the morning seeing several image post-processing programs demonstrated and discussing their functions.  The featured programs were Faststone Image Viewer and Photoscape, both of which are free downloads.  Each of the five workshop participants contributed a few pictures from yesterday and Lou, the workshop presenter, used them as examples to demonstrate the use of the image editors.  Most of us were new to this sort of image manipulation, so the focus was on understanding the image histogram, adjusting levels, adjusting “lighting” (highlights, shadows, contrast, and saturation), sharpening, cropping, and resizing.

After lunch Sue Wharton, one of the participants, demonstrated and discussed Adobe Photoshop Elements, which can be purchased for a moderate price.  Sue has used versions of Elements, all the way back to the very first one, to organize her photographs.  She emphasized that Elements will do everything we saw demonstrated in Faststone Image Viewer and Photoscape, but demonstrated some additional features that the free programs did not have.

We also discussed Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom.  Photoshop is generally considered the ultimate photographic image editing tool, but it is a considerably more expensive program with a steep learning curve.  We were told that Lightroom, which is also not free, was the number one choice of professional photographers for managing their collections of digital images.  As of this writing I am not completely clear on the just what each of these programs does or how they (should) fit together, but the general consensus was that Lightroom is the ultimate “front end” image organizer, below which you need an image editing program or programs, which is most of what we saw demonstrated today.  Adobe Elements, however, is a very acceptable all-in-one solution to both the organizing and editing tasks.  Another program we discussed, but did have demonstrated, was Topaz Photoshop Plug-ins, along with iView (and irfinview), which are needed for the standalone use of Topaz plug-ins if you don’t have Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

The last thing we discussed was how to create panoramic photographs using a two part process.  Part 1 was setting up the camera properly on a tripod and adjusting it so you could take a sequence of overlapping photographs as you pan across the scene.  Part 2 was using special programs or plug-ins to create a single composite image from the multiple photographs.  Lou demonstrated the use of a special panoramic camera mount that allowed the “nodal point” of the lens to be positioned at the exact center of rotation.  While this is slightly less critical than back in the film camera days, setting the camera up properly for panoramic shots still leads to better compositing in part 2.  One of Lou’s favorite tools for creating composite images is Microsoft Image Composite Editor (ICE) available as a free download from Microsoft.  He demonstrated how it works using some properly taken photographs he already had on hand.

After a mid-afternoon break, we headed to the Visitor Center in Townsend.  Everyone came, including a couple of spouses who are not participating in the actual workshop, so we first spent a little time in the Visitor Center gift shop.  The back parking lot had an unobstructed view of low hills with some middle and foreground elements that provided the opportunity to shoot up to a 180 degree panorama.  It was not a spectacular landscape, and the sky was cloudy to overcast, but it was an excellent spot for learning how to do this technique.  It had the further advantage of being close to both the Tremont Outdoor Resort, where we are all staying, and the restaurant where we planned to have dinner.

We all set up our tripods, leveled them (and our cameras), and went to work.  I first did a test shot in the center of the scene to determine the correct exposure.  Once I had that, I set the camera to Manual and locked that exposure in.  (That may not sound like a big deal, but I had only figured out how to do this within the last 24 hours, even though we have had the Sony Alpha 100 for years.)  I also set the camera to manual focus and adjusted it the way I wanted.  It is critical that both of these functions be set to manual; if the exposure or focus changes from shot to shot, the compositing software may not be able to stitch the images together, either satisfactorily or perhaps at all.  With the anti-shake feature off, and using a remote (cable) release, I shot a full 180 degree panorama with a moderate telephoto lens, taking 16 photographs to do it.

We went to dinner at a local Bar-B-Que restaurant on the river.  Linda had checked the menu in advance and packaged a blend of toppings that we could put on a salad consisting of lettuce and tomatoes.  Our salads ended up having beans, broccoli, onions, dried fruit, and peanuts (and probably a couple of other things).  Being as it was dinner out, I got small orders of French fries and onion rings.  The food was OK for the price.

After dinner Vince and I headed back to the classroom where Lou helped us stitch together our composite panoramas.  I finally got back to our coach around 8 PM.  Linda and I then worked on post-processing the images from yesterday’s blog post using what we had learned today.  And here they…I hope you enjoy them.

 

 

20131014x00116(2)

2013104x00121(2)

20131014x00135(2)

20131014x00144(2)

20131014x00153(2)

20131014x00155(2)

20131014x00165(2)

20131014x00175(2)

 

20131014x00179(2)

Townsend TN Visitor Center - 180 deg panoramic composite of 16 photographs.

Townsend TN Visitor Center – 180 deg panoramic composite of 16 photographs.

2013_10_14 (M) The Cherohala Skyway

Leave a reply

(Photos at the end)

Today was day 1 of 4+ for our SKP Photographers BOF mini-rally and digital photography workshop.  In the morning we got introduced to each other and then spent a couple of hours going over photography basics, with an emphasis on how digital SLRs deal with some of these issues through their available camera settings, and with a preview of the topic of image post-processing software and techniques.  We wrapped up with a discussion of our afternoon/evening field trip and then broke for lunch around 11:15 AM.

We reconvened at 12:15 PM in our cars and headed out caravan style.  We had four vehicles.  Lou and Val Petkus took the “wagonmaster” (lead) position since they knew where we going.  Linda and I took the “tailgunner” position (last in line) as we had a 2m amateur radio installed in the car and Lou had one installed in theirs. The other two cars had Family Radio Service (FRS) radios, but Linda and I did not, and Lou and Val left theirs at home.  It allowed me to communicate to Lou if one of the intermediate vehicles signaled a need to pull over.  I also allowed me to stay in touch with Lou in case we got separated, which in fact we did going through Maryville, TN.  As with Knoxville the other day, the route appeared clear enough and easy enough on the map but we got separated from the group at a stop light and then missed a turn.  We caught up with them shortly thereafter at a Pilot gas station.  I don’t know why, but I have come to the conclusion that we apparently have difficulty reading highway signs in Tennessee.

Our destination was the Cherohala Skyway, which runs through the large tract of national forests immediately south of Smoky Mountain National Park.  SMNP was where Lou originally planned for us to go on photo outings, which is why we are in an RV park 5 minutes from Cades Cove.  Since SMNP remains closed due the idiocy of the United States Congress, Lou had to find alternative locations.

Although the eastern terminus of the Cherohala Skyway at Tellico Plains, Tennessee was 90 minutes from our encampment, it was a great choice for landscapes and worth the drive.  It crosses the Appalachian Mountains into North Carolina, cresting at 5,300 ft. ASL before dropping back down below 2000 ft. ASL and ending at Robbinsville.  The highest points are in North Carolina.  We drove past them, but not all the way to Robbinsville, and then came back to Big Junction at 5,200 ft. ASL with a great view looking southwest across ridge after receding ridge of mountains and valleys.

We got there around 6 PM, got our cameras set up (on tripods with shutter releases, of course) and then had the “sack dinners” we brought along.  We started looking for photo ops around 6:30 PM and were actively shooting from 6:45 until about 7:30 PM.  Sunsets are not an easy subject, and you never know how they are going to progress.  One of the mistakes a lot of people make is to quit shooting before it’s really over.  The best shots often come a little time after you think there isn’t anything else to photograph.

We wrapped up at Big Junction around 8 PM and drove back to Townsend, TN in the dark, arriving at the Tremont Outdoor Resort a little before 10 PM.

Cherohala Skyway.

Cherohala Skyway.

Cherohala Skyway.

Cherohala Skyway.

Big Junction, Cherohala Skyway.

Big Junction, Cherohala Skyway.

Cherohala Skyway.

Cherohala Skyway.

Big Junction, Cherohala Skyway (in NC looking west towards TN).

Big Junction, Cherohala Skyway (in NC looking west towards TN).

Big Junction, Cherohala Skyway.

Big Junction, Cherohala Skyway.

Big Junction, Cherohala Skyway.

Big Junction, Cherohala Skyway.

Setting sun from Big Junction overlook, Cherohala Skyway.

Setting sun from Big Junction overlook, Cherohala Skyway.

The final glow. Big Junction, Cherohala Skyway.

The final glow. Big Junction, Cherohala Skyway.

 

2013_10_07-10 (M – R) Wrap-up and Re-load

Leave a reply

Linda did double duty this week (Monday and Wednesday) in the babysitting department as she will miss her regularly scheduled shift next week while we attend an RV rally / photography workshop.  So our daughter got Wednesday “off” will fill in for her next Monday.  I took the opportunity to work at my desk and finally prepared the various materials that I have to supply to the members of our FMCA Freethinkers associate chapter for our upcoming annual business meeting.  We also took care of errands and finished cleaning up from the open house.

One errand I had not ever been on was taking boxes of paper to a shredding facility (Royal Oak Recycling in White Lake Township).  This place has you drive onto a scale with your car, drive to a dock and unload your stuff, and then drive back on the scale.  I had 10 copier paper boxes of mixed paper and hadn’t really thought about the fact that “20 lb” paper means that a case of 10 reams weights 20 pounds.  I didn’t think I had that much paper, but the difference in the before and after weight of the car was 220 lbs.  ROR charges 15 cents per pound if you want to watch them shred your paper, or they pay you 2.5 cents per pound if you are willing to just drop it off.  Since the papers to be shred were mostly old personal and business financial records, we wanted to verify that they had indeed been shredded, so I paid.  They only take cash, so it was a good thing that I had enough to cover the $33+ amount.

At one time I sent updated rosters to the members of our Freethinkers chapter by attaching the PDF to an e-mail.  More recently, I decided to put the roster and other documents in my personal Dropbox, generate a link, and just e-mail the link to everyone.  That technology works very well, and is capable of even more sophisticated operating modes.  But I have also been thinking about, and working on, a website for this group using WordPress.  I decided that I would put some effort into giving it some structure and preliminary content, and use it to deliver documents and other materials to the members.  The challenge is that some of the materials, like the roster, contain information that is for the members only and cannot be available for public view.

I was able to password protect individual pages, but the protection is less than ideal as web browsers apparently remember these passwords even when you ask them not to.  It’s may be that this is being done using cookies, but however it is being done I could not figure out a way to defeat it.  I also played around with WordPress user roles, but the only thing that WordPress seemed to have built into it was the ability to require users to log in to post a comment/reply.  This is apparently one of the reasons for the “subscriber” user role.  If have been looking at a WordPress plug-in called S2, or S2 Member, or S2 Framework, that appears to have the ability to place all or part of WordPress website behind a user login function, but I have not had a chance to install, configure, and play with it yet.

On Wednesday I drove Linda to her babysitting gig in Ann Arbor and then I drove back to Ann Arbor in the afternoon to visit with Madeline and her mom and dad.  Shawna had an evening appointment so Linda and I had a quiet dinner with our son and then drove home together.

We spent Thursday re-loading the bus for our trip to Tennessee and Virginia.  Phil from Precision Grading came by around 6:30 PM.  We talked about the approximate location of the bus barn/garage and he set up his transit so we could measure the contours of the site, the driveway in from the road, and the surrounding yard.  Based on his measurements, it looks like our planned site should work very well in terms of drainage, which is always a prime consideration.

Linda spent the rest of the evening working at her desk and following the Detroit Tigers in game 5 of the first round of the American League playoffs.  I spent the rest of the evening updating the firmware in our Sony Alpha 100 digital SLR and updating the Sony Image Data Converter and Motion Picture Browser programs.