35mm replacement complete

It was only a matter of time, and actually a short time at that, when 35mm film could be completely replaced. As an avid 35mm photographer, I have watched this process closely.

I have a very complete 35mm SLR system, by Canon. It is old, well worn from tens of thousands of photos under difficult conditions. I am on my second consumer digital camera and find I take the 35mm system out less often. But there are many times I long for the creative control in that system. My solution, a DSLR system, the new Canon 40D, that has all the capabilities of 35mm in a digital format. The DSLR market has matured very well and there are no barriers left.

Basic Requirements

The step from consumer digital to DSLR adds the following features,

• full control of camera and flash exposure
  
• resolution of 10 MP (or more) for large enlargements and editing
  
• large image buffer to reduce shutter delay
• quick auto or manual focusing
• separate flash of guide number 150 (or more) with adjustable head for bouncing to produce softer shadows
• interchangeable lenses of high quality
  
• multiple selectable focusing modes
• RAW mode
• Solid construction and weather proofing
  

Live View

One feature that can be lost on the DSLR is live view, the ability to look at the LCD and compose the photo. Canon and Olympus newest DSLRs contain Live View, others do not. One reason for not using live view is that holding the camera away from your eye is a less steady way to hold the camera than the traditional SLR method. Another reason is the mechanics of an SLR. The film plane (SLR) or digital sensor (DSLR) are behind the mirror that allows you to see through the eye piece. When you look into a DSLR, the mirror is down showing you the view through the lens, with zoom, filters, depth of field and the focus sensors are also expecting the mirror to be down, but then the image sensor is blocked and can not see the image, until the shutter is depressed. To engage Live View you need to focus, flip the mirror up and then you can see the image, but the autofocus is no longer tracking the image. This feature is excellent for macro or architectural photography.

Sensor Size

35mm film produces an image of 24mm x 36mm, all but the best DSLRs have smaller image sensors. The average DSLR uses an image sensor that is 1.6x smaller, called APS-C. Many other cameras use smaller image sensors. Larger image sensors found in DSLRs help improve image quality.

This multiple size makes a difference in lens choice. With a full frame sensor, a 28mm lens is wide angle, with an APS-C sensor, wide angle requires a 17mm lens. There are lenses optimized for the APS-C sensor size, however these won't work on a full frame camera, so any use of full frame cameras is a consideration in lens selection.

Digital Processing

Two interesting digital effects allow the flexibility of film in the digital age. The most popular is RAW format, which creates very large unaltered uncompressed files. These RAW files are analogous to the film negative which is post processed to produce a print. Another feature called Picture Profile mimics the type of film. Just as you may use different types of film (not just ISO) to suit different subject matter, a film that produces vibrant colors, or faithful colors, or softer focus, or even black and white.

An interesting problem that digital processing brings on is how can anyone tell if the photo is doctored. Well high end digital cameras can security lock the image so that it can be proven in court to be an original unaltered image.

DSLRs need very capable processors in order to do the large amount of processing in a responsive manner. In the best camera's more than one processor may be used.

Digital Convenience

Seeing the results and the ability to magnify the image in camera to verify the desired results helps to capture the intended shot. Having the image in a digital format allows speedy transmission of the image to anyone who needs or wants it. Advanced DSLRs also have video out and wireless output that can transmit the images to a computer for immediate display and editing.

Sensor Cleaning

One potential disadvantage of DSLRs is that interchangeable lenses allow dust to enter the camera and possibly get on the sensor. Unlike a film camera, where the film is moving after each shot, the sensor remains in the fixed position where dust can accumulate and interfere with image quality. For this reason it is more important that changing lenses be done in the cleanest environment possible with DSLRs.

The newest DSLRs will clean the sensor each time the camera is turned on or off. Advanced DSLRs can do post process dust removal by taking a photo of a white subject to obtain a dust baseline which will be appended to the image file and removed by software. If dust isn't adequately removed by these two methods then a specialized cleaning product must be carefully used to physically clean the sensor (after locking the mirror up).

Accessories

Digital Media is an obvious requirement, it should be fast (266x) and from a high quality manufacturer (SanDisk or Lexar). Depending on your shooting preferences the media should be from 1 to 4 GB.

Get an extra set of batteries for the camera and flash. Having a high quality DSLR with dead batteries makes an expensive paperweight.

The lenses, especially Image Stabilized Lenses can easily cost over $500 each. It only makes sense to invest in a quality filter (Hoya, B+W, Sneider) to protect the front lens element.

A good, high powered, shoe mounted, bounce flash is a good supplement to the built in flash.


Status: First Draft

Photobucket tips

I implemented a new feature of blogger on the sidebar called slideshow. Like most features from Blogger it isn't quite finished, but i figured out how to get it to work, despite that there are no help files or blogger employees answering questions on the support forum.

This will be a convenient way for me to display new photos before I put them into their final album or use them in a post. If you hover over the slide show a back/pause/forward buttons will display. You can also double click on the photo to enlarge it, but it will not show the extra photobucket things like EXIF, Tags, or the other albums. To see that, go directly to the photobucket account using the link in the sidebar. The sidebar slideshow is in the "SS JQsLife" subalbum.

Blogger SlideShow Layout Element

Some photo hosting sites have widget features that generate a bunch of HTML/embed/javascript code, which can easily be botched up. For those using the layout feature of the new blogger, then can simply add the slideshow element to the sidebar. it appears that if you use Picasa from Google it may work, but if you use another photo server their is no place to enter your album information.

I use photobucket and the trick is to use the media rss feature with the Other provider. In photobucket go to the subalbum of your choice and look in the lower left for the rss feed, which is similar to your photobucket URL, but prefixed with "feed" and suffixed with "feed.rss". Copy this link. Select Other in the drop down box, paste this into the feed.

That's it, no fooling with javascript, no redoing your slide show and repasting, its done on blogger. Now simply add or delete photos in the subalbum and your photo slideshow will dynamically be updated via the rss feed.

Photobucket Tags

Usually when we think of tagging we think of tagging the whole entity (photo or post). In photobucket tagging refers to a portion of the image. When you tag a photo, a small square appears in the center of the photo and it can be resized and repositioned to tag a portion of the photo. Multiple tags can define multiple areas in a photo.

You can find the tagged photos by clicking on the tag list on the album page. When you are on a tagged photo you can use it in one of two ways. You can hover over a tag in the tag list under the photo and the rectangle will highlight over the area of the photo. You can also hover over an area of the photo and a bubble will open with the name of the tag.

One very popular use could be to identify people in group photos. Clicking on their tag will highlight them in the photo. Hovering over them will open a bubble with their name.

There is new embed code that will appear for a photo that has been tagged which is supposed to allow it to be shown in a blog. I have not worked with this yet.

Photobucket Descriptions

Now you can add multi-line descriptions to your photos. The best way to take advantage of these new description or tag features is to check the desired photos in the album page and then click TAG SELECTED at the bottom. This will show multiple medium size photos that can be tagged, described, or re-titled. You may want to shorten your title and include the detail in the description.

Posting Photos

Blogger allows using hosted photos by putting in the URL (photobucket Direct Link) of the photo. But when you click on the photo it will show you just the enlarged photo only.

With a little editing of the HTML, you can show the photobucket page which will show you other interesting things like the album, EXIF, Tags, Title and new multi-line description. Photobucket has another form of URL called Email & IM, this points to the Photo page, but if you use it in blogger it won't show the photo unless you edit the HTML.

There are two links in the HTML, one is HREF= that points to where you will be taken if you click on the photo and SRC= that points to where the photo is. So if you use the Email and IM link then you can jump to the page with the photobucket info with the HREF=. But the SRC= has "?action=view&current=" that needs to deleted for the photo to show up properly in the Blogger Post.

Another item you may want to adjust in the HTML is the <img style="width: nnn px;" where nnn is the width of the photo.

Sharing Photobucket Albums

This feature displays the most current photo and then has a link to the photobucket album. This is done by selecting the Share button. The code generated tends to be too wide, so the table width needs to reduced and an additional parm needs to be added to the SRC= for the photo "width=narrower" to allow for margin of the photo. This photobucket feature does not seem worth the trouble.

The same thing could be accomplished by using the Blogger Post Photo feature with the Photobucket Direct Link (rather than the Email & IM Link mentioned above) and then changing the HTML for the HREF= by deleting "xxxxx.jpg" where xxxxx is the name of the photo. Clicking on the photo will then take you to the album page.

Sharing Photobucket SlideShows

A photobucket slideshow can be viewed at the photobucket site or using the Share feature it can be added to a post on Blogger. The first step is to select the Create Slide Show button to the left and then drag photos into it. This is different from the Blogger Layout Feature in that it is statically defined. Changing the slide show means going to Photobucket, generating a new slideshow and its code and making a new post. This slideshow can have custom frames, watch for this option to the left of the slide show window.

Sometimes this slideshow can be too wide for your blogger post. There also should be a way to find the slideshow URL so you can send the reader to Photobucket to see a specific slideshow, where they will also have the option to see your other slide shows.

Photobucket Summary

Photobucket is one of several possible photo hosting sites, others include Picasa, Flickr, and Webshots. Photobucket allows an unlimited number of photos to be stored in public or private albums. The free service limits the size to 1024 x 768 pixels. Ifranview is a great tool to view your photos, crop, or resize them. Picasa incorporates local viewing of photos with an integrated connection to the hosting site. Flickr allows you to post your copyright preference and have other users comment on them but has a limited number of photos on its free service.


Status: Third Draft - Last Updated 12/17/07 3 am
See draft of next set of Photobucket Tips here on my new Popular Technology Blog.

Weather

How was your day?
Autumn leaves a fallin,
Lightening flashes at night,
Hail stones hitting the skylight,
Snow on the car,
All in a day on the Northcoast!

Just a little ditty on today.
There's a group of people who write 55 word stories on Friday's.
Here's half a 55 on Wednesday. hehehe

Sorry I haven't written in so long...
Been sick for a while, slows me down with fatigue and then there's also the blog war drama that steals too much time.

As exciting as our weather can be on the Northcoast at least we're not in Tornado Alley.
There is a TV show called StormChasers where they drive around looking for Tornadoes with a DOW (Doppler Radar on Wheels) and then try to predict the path of a tornado and send the TIV (Tornado Intercept Vehicle) into its path. The Dow has an 8 foot radar dish on the back and several computers inside monitored by a specialist. The TIV is a souped up truck rebuilt like a tank with 8000 pounds of additional metal plate and bullet proof windows, with a driver and an IMAX film photographer who sits in a turret that can rotate to any angle. As the builder of the TIV describes it, it is a mobile tripod that can take a direct hit from a Tornado so he can get the 20 seconds of footage no one has ever got from inside an active tornado.

We do get occasional tornadoes, since I've lived here (15 years now) I've seen the damage from two that passed within a half mile from my house. The tell tale signs are easy to spot, when you see a neighbor's tree top that is twisted off like a corkscrew and tossed several houses down or drive by a development that has finished homes missing one side and half a roof, you know a tornado has been by.

And then there's just not working at all

So here's an update to the previous post from two weeks ago...

First Unaddressed Problem

Not only is the LCD panel still missing after 2 weeks, but the PC is there as a constant reminder of it... I wish I would have had the chance to do the cable swap, because if it was the cable, we're talking $20 at the closest computer store to keep another seat in the lab open. I'm surprised to see an LCD panel less than a year old fail completely, but if it did, it seems it would be a warranty replacement. And even so, since this is a lab for the whole school to use, you'd think they could find an LCD panel somewhere to put in its place...

I've been in both the public and large scale private sector. In my last private sector job, where downtime meant lost money, spares were kept in inventory. If you need a computer to do something, then it should always be available. It's not like a toaster where you eat your bread untoasted for a while. A well run business (and the public sector can be viewed as a very big business) understands this and takes the needed actions to accomplish it. The public sector sometimes forgets that is has business needs and that is why it can be heavily criticized at times.

Second Unaddressed Problem

In the last class, all the third grade teachers had a common problem. They had a file on the teacher's LAN they wanted to make available to the students. Ideally they wanted to make it available on the Internet through the school's site. They were having trouble understanding how they could do this. They have a mechanism to request help from the guru, which I'm guessing they don't find to helpful. So when I arrived I was asked if I could help. She signed me onto her teacher's ID, showed me where the file was. In just a few minutes I was done.

Since I stayed to fix these other problems I saw another of the teachers and let her know it was fixed. She was thrilled and asked who are you. One of the other teacher's aids and a student in her class answered in unison, oh he's [---] Dad, he's a computer expert. At least they didn't refer to me by the offensive title of guru... lol

Third Unaddressed Problem

In one of the recent classes the students where printing some graphics and it all came out black and white. Now this being the fourth year in that school system, I know they have excellent high volume color printers and the students have always had access to color output. We've long passed dot matrix and plain black and white output. The students knew it too and were complaining and asking us why it wasn't in color.

I ran some tests on the printer, it had ink, its color quality was poor but possible. Hmm, check the PC configuration... Yep, deep down in the settings was an over ride forcing all output from the student lab to be black and white. I conferred with the teacher and said I could override it, she conferred with someone who said the "guru" must have set this up because they were low on ink. Great, explain that to the 20 kids who never ran into this "problem" in their last 3 years in school.

So I do a little more checking... This printer uses a multi-color dry ink system that insures good quality color for the full run of the ink. You can see the ink levels and keep at least one block ahead of empty and you should not have color shifts that are typical of single ink cartridges. So why are there color shifts and poor quality. Time to run diagnostics. Oh boy, this puppy has not been maintained for some time. The test sheet looks like shit. So I run more advanced diagnostics to look at color strips and the ink nozzle performance. Blocked nozzles, drifting color strips. I run through the first of several cleaning cycles, I get the brown to turn yellow again, I get the black nozzles unclogged, but I would need a bunch more time to clean each of the other colored clogged nozzles. Plus it burns through ink in the process, so I'd need someone to get me some ink blocks to use for cleaning. I read the diagnostic manual further, yep, there is a whole recommended cleaning process with disassembly and a maintenance kit.

Now mind you I am not a PC jockey or guru, and don't you call me that either, its offensive, so that's how I handle the situation, and I'm an unpaid volunteer. How does a guru handle it? Turn off the color option in a windows driver and lie to people that its low on ink. Even the 3rd graders knew this didn't sound right, why would grown adults accept that bullshit? What did I do next? I put a status message on the board that ink levels were fine, yellow quality had been restored, and a full maintenance cleaning was required. Yeah call me a rabble rouser, I've been called worse.

Fourth Unaddressed Problem

Between breaks a teacher was telling me of lost LAN data that took over a week to restore. I know how that can happen, I also know why and how it can be prevented. I just shook my head as I thought back to when I first saw the PC/Enterprise generation gap. Well over a decade ago when LANs were new, everyone was going gaga over them and their superiority over the "dying dinasour" Mainframe, I saw the the perfect example of this short sighted thinking which is still applicable a decade later.

Mainframes are the heart of a fail safe infrastructure. Oh I know people have tried it on other platforms and I have seen the various levels of partial success they have achieved. But mainframe systems just come that way, industrial strength, ready for the challenge.

So over a decade ago, we have temporary disk error threshold being exceeded... Yes the disks actually detected, corrected and reported when they were having problems and we had predictive failure and replacement processes. Why? Cuz people don't like to hear the computer is down. So they got bad quick and we had to take a database offline, close its journals, and run sector diagnostics to locate the bad portions of disk and relocate them to spare sectors. This would be 15-30 minute emergency operation over lunch time. Done it a hundred times, it will work, we'll bring all data back online, roll the journals forward, not missing a beat (transaction).

So the IT director is standing there breathing down our necks. I rolled back from the master console and bumped into the clown. I looked up at him and said you know this would go quicker if you gave me a little room, ya think I could call you when I'm done. See I was a smart ass back then... LOL. Meanwhile the LAN everyone was going gaga over lost a disk without any warning and after several weeks of fooling around they declared the data gone forever. Where was the director then, why wasn't he breathing down their necks? Oh it was "new" technology, it was OK to have failures. Why?

And here we are a decade later, oh the PC disks are cheaper and a little better. But ya know what, so are the mainframe disks. The stuff I did back then, taking the databases down for 30 minutes, happens on the fly, hot recovery, no downtime, and the disk controller calls the vendor to tell them which component failed. The dispatcher calls the data center after obtaining the part from the closest parts depot and schedules a technician to install the replacement.

Lessons (jqisms)

• Given the choice between time engaged and time in chair, always go with engaged, you'll be much further along.
• There are two kinds of knowledge, real and imagined. Real knowledge possessed by a person who cares will solve problems. Any other combination doesn't matter.
• There is no particular correlation between having the job, being promoted, and actual useful output, for that to occur life would have to be fair and Peter's Principal would have to be false (and of course neither statement is true).
• if the answer sounds like bullshit, it probably is, keep looking.
  

Time Engaged vs Time in Chair

I was at my son's computer class and sure enough a PC was still out of service for two weeks. So after his class, I thought I'd take a closer look... Now my specialty is the gigantic systems, but even though I'm not a PC jockey as we Enterprise Support folk call them, I can hold my own quite well.

Maybe it's starting and spending a good part of my career at a University, but I've always been somewhat of a go getter. I walk fast, talk fast, do stuff fast. I'm always reading (big boring tech stuff), learning and doing new things. Lucky thing, the equipment I started on is in a museum and has less computing ability than a PDA.

So first thing is to isolate the problem, nothing on the monitor, adjust brightness and contrast (even though I couldn't see anything), check connections, reboot PC, looks like the monitor, swap out for the monitor next to it, works fine, OK, its the monitor or the cable. Just ready to swap cables when the next teacher comes in.

First Pet Peeve

OMG you can't do that, our main tech guy is here, oh he'd be mad. The "I'd rather suffer for the process" problem, the artificial barrier of in the box thinking. This is the same teacher that was bitchin she didn't have enough PCs for the class last week. But oh lets not try to do something to fix it, we have a process. Fill out a form and wait...

Now to be fair she probably doesn't realize that I've worked with computers for 30 years and usually have at least one PC being torn apart or rebuilt at any point in time... But technically my resume may not be good enough to get me a job as a PC jockey. It almost didn't get me a job selling them after I was fresh out of selling IBM''s small business computers (in the startup consulting company) that go for $50-500 thousand dollars. That's another post... Well OK, I almost have it, I'll send my son's teacher an email. So I hang out a little longer to check out the new configuration the school installed this year.

Second Pet Peeve

Here comes the PC Guru. Oh boy. What is the etiquette for greeting the exalted one? Any one who calls themselves a guru or a czar and isn't at the top of a mountain or in a Russian grave is full of shit or full of themselves or both. (jqism)

Third Pet Peeve

He moved in slow motion. Have you ever seen that? This guys a little younger than me and moves like an 95 year old man. Ya just want to go over there and get him moving. He looks at his one sheet database list for at least 10 minutes, then he's gonna leave. The frustrated teacher stops him, points to me and says "Ask him". Should a guru have to ask? Would it be so hard to walk around the room to the only PC that wasn't in use and assume that's the one that could be broken?

I don't know how someone with so little logic can leave the house in the morning let alone get a job with computers. So, I can see this is the lowest form of PC Jockey, so I make it easy. "The processor is fine, it's the LCD panel or the cable". He fidgets for the longest time and I see that all he is doing is disconnecting the LCD panel. Thank God I saved him the trouble of shooting the problem, that probably would have been weeks. Then in classic single tasking fashion, he's gonna come back to straighten up the little mess he made on the desk, being unable to watch this snail in action anymore, I told him, "Don't worry, I'll take care of it". He grunted and left with the LCD and cable. I would have done a cable swap right there and have figured it out for sure if that teacher was just a few minutes later. I can hardly wait to see how long it takes the "guru" to fix it.

In Summary

Engaged	In Chair
Watches results	Watches clock
Enjoys solving problems	Enjoys being praised
Works quickly to get to next problem	Works slowly to avoid next problem
Thinks out of the box	Should be put in a box
Life Long Learning	Life Long Lazing
Obsolesce Avoidance	Work Avoidance
Legend among peers	Legend in their own mind
Enterprise Strength	PC Wimp

Feel free to give me suggestions for more Engaged/In chair comparisons in the comment section.

Benefits of being engaged

• Reduces boredom
• Enhances self worth
• Prevents Alzheimer's Disease
  
• Reduces risk of being mistook for dead when you stand still
• Should enhance your employment opportunities, but that's only if management is engaged and that could be rare indeed (another post)
  

On the lighter side

There were some funny moments during my son's computer class.

• My son's friend called me over to show me his bandaged finger and he explained how it was slammed in a door, how it was all black and blue, how his fingernail was kind of slimy and then with excitement on his face he said, "Ya want to see it?", "Oh gosh no, I'll take your word for it, it will heal better if you don't fuss with it". Then several more times he asked, "Are ya sure?".
  


• Apparently his teacher talks with her hands too (and neither of us is Italian), I was standing next to her while she was giving instructions and she unexpectedly pointed at the computer projector output and I (with quick reflexes) leaned backwards to avoid being poked in the face. She said, "Oh gosh [my Son's name] I almost hit your Father".


• The children occasionally raised there hands for permission to go to the bathroom. So while we're walking swiftly around the room to answer questions, the teacher leans towards me and asks politely, just like the students, "Can I go to the restroom?" And I replied as usual "Sure, I'll tell the teacher", with a giggle.

Status: First Draft
Almost done if Blogger would respect my Table HTML... OK, one Blogger Bug Fixed, Back to writing...

Another step on the digital photography path

I take a lot of photos, I always have. But with digital photos I take even more. With 35mm, you naturally printed each photo. Even when I planned on maker made prints, I'd still have the lab print as a basis to get a feel for which photos I was going to print. But with digial photos, I rarely make prints from my computer or from a photo lab. Instead I usually look at them on my PC or using the PhotoShop Elements Organizer which allows me to tag, rate, and describe my photos.

Now in my home I usually have at least one of my computers active at any given time. But still do I want to go through the trouble of running a slide show on my PC, especially if I'm using it. So there you see a Digital Photo Frame on my desk. And since my son finds my things irresistible, you see one of his cars near the frame and a pumpkin on my stapler. He leaves his mark everywhere in the house, but since I don't see him as much as I'd like it's a nice reminder.

So now I can see a slide show anytime, regardless if I'm using my PC. Digital Frames can still be pricy, but so is printing several hundred photos that easily fit on a modest flash card. So after shooting a bunch of photos, I can take my flash card out and show photos from it or I can load them to my PC, edit, select, and copy hundreds of photos to a flash card and plug that flash card in the frame. Very simple. One of my next experiments will be to imolement the PC to TIVO connection and then display photos on my TV through my TIVO and AV system.

But for those who don't have a PC on all the time, my parents and my son, this will be very handy. I am giving each of them a Digital Frame and 2 SD cards. They can watch the photo albums and then every now and then exchange an SD card for a new one that I give them with a new slide show. I could burn photo DVDs as my brother does, but then you put in the DVD turn on the TV and watch it. The photo frame allows the ultimate simplicity. When you power it on it does a slide show.

It seems to me with the dropping flash prices and the digital photo frame, that a non-computer person could use a digital camera and occasionally have a computer friend backup their images. The days of 35mm film seem numbered for sure.

As far as purchasing advice, compare resolutions, sharpness/contrast, PC connectivity (if you want it), size, and of course price.

9/11

I live in a big city, we have a 9/11 memorial with items (ground and building) from each of the 9/11 sites (NYC, DC, PA). In the foreground you can see an eternal flame and behind that iron work from the twin towers. Below is a close up of damaged iron work from the twin towers in NYC.

Of the suspected hijacked planes that day, one (Flight 93 that later crashed in PA) entered our air space and one was forced to land at our International Airport.

NYC is one of the cities I have visited often, I consider it one of my 2nd home cities that I have spent so much time at over the years that I feel at home there.

I heard what was happening after the first tower was hit, but saw both towers collapse live on TV and I was just numb in disbelief. It was such a senseless loss.

I have been to those towers so many times, photographed from the roof top, circled them in a helicopter and the Circle Line cruise, photographed them from the Brooklyn Promenade and the Empire State rooftop. It’s still hard to believe that they are really gone.

Mentioned in Dispatches

I am so honored, am I close enough to the microphone, can you hear me in the back. I humbly accept this great honor of being officially 'Mentioned in Dispatches' ... I'd like to thank...

Well it was only a matter of time before someone took notice of my blog posts and decided to give me an award. I was attempting to comment on LittleWing's blog and while I was doing it she was updating it and things went awry so I commented about the trouble she caused me just to see some questionably funny comics. Nearly all the readers enjoyed LittleWing's comics but only one man took pity on my plight and thought that my experience was funnier than LittleWing's comics.

Not only did dickiebo take the unpopular minority position of sticking up for me, he also declared it publicly in a separate post by bestowing the honor of 'Mentioned in Dispatches' upon me.

Click here to see the LittleWing's entire post, click on the comics to enlarge:

My initial comment to the comics was:

Ugh, shaking head, but smiling...
and you didn't think my dam joke was funny... lol

So then I went on to relate my story...

ahem... AHEM...My dearest littlewing are ya trying to drive me nuts... You are makin me work way too hard for this joke...

I have started to use Atom feeds to monitor Blogs I read regularly, so I don't have to check on them manually, and beep, it told me you updated yours so one click and it launches me directly to the newest post, I looked at it, wrote a comment, as I was posting the comment, you deleted the post to rearrange the comics and give the post a different name. Meanwhile I'm trying to force the comment to post by issuing a refresh and repost command impatiently while cussing my computer and crash boom bang my browser and all the windows and tabs (like to keep a dozen or so open) go clattering to the ground, my diagnostic recovery kicked in dumping the system memory, advising me of my privacy, asking me all kinds of questions about what I was doing then connecting to the vendor's (Firefox, the alternative browser for those who hate Micro$oft, Go Mozilla) quality control database...

So after restarting my browser and signing into Blogger, what did I do, take a short cut by using the link in the Atom feed to go directly to the post that was now completely gone, and almost started the process over again... Then I said - Wait is that girl playin with me... Would she do that, sure she would...

Of course I'm just teasin ya, LOL

Oh and for those into technical details I was reorganizing my bookmarks, and doing about three other things at the same time, so maybe Blogger wasn't to blame, but I still think its all LW's fault... So people what's funnier her comics or what she did to me???

LittleWing defended her comics with:

John, you are just being evil, lol!!!!!!!!!

dickiebo is a retired police officer who calls them as he sees them. And after all those comments agreeing with LittleWing, he had the courage to say:

Well. I think they're awful! BUT...boy, what you did to that chap's computer. Brill. Laughed me socks off.

To which I responded:

Figures it would take someone across the pond to appreciate my wit. Thanks dickiebo...
Yeah, LW is in rare form today. Was that GOOD or should it be "GOOD"...

What tickled dickiebo the most was how this all looked

Poor sod! Can you just picture all that hassle, frustration, curses, and what-have-you, and all ‘cos of Little Wing’s awful cartoons!

Thanks for the recognition dickiebo...
So what do you think, which is funnier, my comment or the her comics...
Now LW don't take any offense its all in good fun...

Up, up and away

I've always found travel exciting. It mixes well with my photo hobby. This shot was taken in the old days when the pilot would leave the door open. I leaned into the isle with my fastest lens and snapped this off.

Thankfully flying has never bothered me. On my first flight I remember looking at the wonderful aerial view so I didn't think about being several miles in the sky above the clouds. I've also been on a seaplane in San Francisco, a few air balloons, and helicopters in lots of places, including my own home town on a life flight, but the view sucked on a body board.

My early college summer trips to Virgina Beach were road trips with my brother and a few close friends. Then came my business trips by air. Working for a University, I had 4 weeks vacation. So I took the 50/50 business trip, 1 week business, 1 week vacation. As my tradition I worked hard and played hard. During the business trip, I might collect info for fun after the week, but when I was on the business trip it was all business. I crisscrossed the nation and got to know the major cities very well. Almost like second homes. It's kind of funny returning to some of them, that I have spent so much time at that I know my way around instinctively.

I've had trips that were pure pleasure too. Not as many as the 50/50, but some none the less. A group trip with my ex where I was the party tour guide to Chicago (a second home city). My proposal to my ex on a Grand Canyon, Lake Powell, Bryce and Zion vacation. Honeymoon in Cancun. A few trips to Niagara Falls. The trip to the USVI, to witness my brother's wedding. Our tense trip to Orlando, the last "family" vacation where I was constantly taunted about the divorce. My ex can be a cruel bitch.

And of course my two month long trips to Europe, the first was a bus tour with my brother. The second was free form with my ex to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. I wish I had taken the opportunity while in college to go, its hard as a working adult to get the time off to take a leisurely trip. There is so much to see. We can forget that in the US where a century home is a big deal compared to a normal occurrence in Europe where its possible to see things a thousand years old. I do find the 8-9 hour flight a bit disconcerting, you become paralyzed from the waist down and have severe cabin fever.

But this bird's wings are clipped. My ex has got me listed on the state dept watch list and my grievance hearing is not even scheduled. My latest review of child support shows I am one month ahead plus a partial overpayment, just as I have been for over 2 years. I think its going to be time to escalate to the state agency again to get the enforcement actions revoked that never had any other merit besides false accusations being made and the assumption of guilt against the divorce looser (me).

So I look forward to the day when I can fly free again. My birthday is coming up, six months after the final decree. With a lot of effort (surprisingly so) that will be my goal, to have resolved all the divorce bullshit in the 91 page orders, and all the enforcement actions and penalties taken against me. I've been grounded far too long, it's time to fly free again. I can hardly wait. What a wonderful birthday gift that would be, just to be free, I would be so thankful.

...Down the Hill

At age 7, we moved from the city at the lakefront and to a suburb, with a little more land and a better school system. Our house was on a street on the top of a hill. We don't really have mountains in this state, but we have some big hills and changes in elevation.

From the second floor bathroom window you had a nice view of the city toward the lakefront. In the winter when the trees were bare you could see all the lights stretched out ahead. I never compared it side by side, but the view was similar to one I had photographed over looking LA from the Griffin Observatory. No tour of our house was complete without taking the surprised guests into the bathroom, closing the door to see out the window and shutting off the lights. LOL

But the feature that no kids could resist was the hill. After a modest sized backyard of grass was a retaining wall and then the hill covered in trees slopping moderately down to the street. This hill was part of our own private property. Ours was the widest and least overgrown on the street. Everyone on our side of the street lived on top of this hill and had at least 300 feet behind their yards as private property until the end of the street where the metropolitan (public) park started. But some were quite overgrown, hard to get through with fallen trees, eroded banks, and poison ivy.

Well thanks to my Dad, the poison ivy was eradicated on our part of the hill, fallen trees were cut and removed, ground cover planted (Pines, Orange Lilies, Ferns) to prevent erosion. That meant that we had our own private park, our own woods. No making noise in the house or yard. If you were looking for us, we'd be "down the hill". Exploring, making forts, blazing trails. If you wanted to play hide and seek or war, this was the place, lots of places to go. Of course my brother and I could get through the trails the quickest, we lived there, we made the trails. Our friends couldn't run over this terrain as well as us.

Even our neighbors who had their own hills preferred ours, especially as we got older and improved it even more. It got so good it needed to be defended, but I'm getting ahead of myself. And then the neighbors who didn't have their own hills, of course they came to play at ours. Pretty much if you were looking for anybody they were down our hill. Occasionally we'd have multi hill battles, that's where advance scouting and map writing came into play so you could get to the enemy quickly. Can't run down a path and trip over roots or come to a dead end or to where the pond drained out to make you a muddy mess.

No need for video games (there weren't any, I'm from the pinball era) we had real games. And then we started building... Improving the trails, patio, picnic table, and the beginning of the best fort ever. It started as "the platform", 4x4s buried deep by my Dad, on the side of the hill and a wooden floor up off the ground. In the middle of the woods, with a perfect view everywhere. The front was about 3 feet off the ground, the back was over 6 feet off the ground.

Then the improvements - a tarp A-frame roof, a (drawbridge) plank entry, then a wooden roof, then walls, front door, a back screen window. Then electricity, a long line strung through the trees from the garage. Now we could have a radio, fan, lights. So it wasn't just a day time play area, sleep outs, sometimes large ones, involving little sleep.

My parents stretched their budget a bit to afford that house, but they had some foresight on what a fun place it would be for growing up. They liked the woods and the double level patio area we built. A little wildlife so it didn't feel like crowded city living.

Must be why I bought the house on a wooded lot. My house is barely visible from satellite images. It's not as big as my parents, but it's in the best school system in the state, just as theirs was back then. My son has seen where my fort stood, it didn't survive all these years. We walk around my back yard talking of where I might build something for him.

Maker Made Photography...

...Old School

My earliest memories of photography was as a young child, seeing my Uncle's darkroom, dim safelights, odd looking equipment, black and white 8 x 10s drying.

Years later in college I took photography classes and worked in the darkroom. First in BW, then later in Color. Displayed here is a photo I took of the college darkroom, enlargers on two walls and a large sink in the middle.

Back then you sent your film out for developing and printing. If you did it yourself, you entered contests in a special category - maker made. And believe me, maker made meant something. It was craftsmanship, hand made. BW contrast or Color Correction were done with test strips and colored gel filters.

The college darkroom was set up for BW, doing color was difficult, the BW safelights are not safe for color. So I had to ask the others to go to total darkness when I was exposing color materials. How can you do anything without any light whatsoever? Just like a person without sight, by memorizing locations and sense of touch. Don't put things in the wrong place! After a while as I liked doing color prints I setup a darkroom at home. I have an enlarger with continuous gel filters built in and a light sensitivity meter connected to the exposure timer to help speed up the process. I have foot pedals that control the programmed timer unit. A paper safe is light tight and ejects one sheet of paper each time you pull the handle down.

My Uncle did not live to see his influence grow to be a serious hobby of mine. And I've often wondered how things would have been if we could have shared the experience, the growth in photographic technology over the years. In the twenty years since my youth, color chemistry and processes became so much more accessible than they were when BW 8x10s were the standard in my Uncle's time.

What would my Uncle think of my first maker made color contest winner entitled "Curious Squirrel"? As a Photojournalist and Professional Photographer he would be looking at so many things beyond the cuteness of the photo. What was the technique that made the squirrel stand up, how did he happen into the narrow focus plane?

I set up a tripod mounted camera with a 50' electric shutter release. The camera was aimed at an active spot for visiting squirrels and seed and nuts were left as an enticement. Sitting back well out of sight and smell I waited patiently, the squirrel came within camera range, I started pressing the shutter release, click, click, click the motor drive made a foreign sound and it had no scent, the squirrel became curious, looking, standing, staring, at the odd sound, click, click, click. In focus, standing, staring directly at the motor drive that is slightly under the camera lens.

I have hundreds of maker made prints in the 20 years following college and been through a lot of equipment during that time, much of it Canon, first the AE-1, then the top of the line A-1, then the T-90. I have so much Canon FD compatible equipment I bought a second T-90 as they were going out of production phasing in the auto focus EOS line.

But it is a new era, digital photography is firmly entrenched, but I will discuss that in another post...

I still have the maker made equipment, it is harder to find the materials (chemicals and paper) as they've been replaced with digital processes. But I hope to at least be able to demonstrate the lost art of maker made photographic chemistry to my son. Just so he can see how lucky he is to be born in the digital age. My Uncle would truly marvel at it, just as I do at times, realizing the history of how it was done.

Marshlands

Here's a boardwalk that cuts through a 1000 acre marshland on the way to protected sand dunes bordering the Northcoast. The Marsh grass is easily over 10 feet high and there is an abundance of wildlife in the area.





You can see the creek leading into pond, breaking through the tall grass, in the upper middle. Surrounding the pond is a bog that that has some firmness but mushes in like foam if you step on it. You can push a stick several feet into the bog because it remains damp throughout. Here is a tree stump in the bog, which contains very black soil.




Its been dry, so this creek feeding the marsh has dried out. It normally runs about a foot deep between the boardwalk (not visible) and the tall grass. Here a bird made his nest in a tree on the edge of the marsh.

Surf's up on the North Coast

Oh we've all heard about the East and West Coasts, but we have a North Coast too. And this weekend the surf was up. So the surfers flocked to the Great Lakes largest beach to ply their trade. All wearing partial wetsuits for the cold water. It's one of our nicest beaches, fine sand, going out for some distance to help bringing your equipment ashore.



Wind surfing is popular to get some more speed going and because the waves on this gentle sloping beach are not very high. Great place to learn though. Now a board is one thing to drag in, but with a sail on it, its even more work.






Here's a fully decked out wind surfer dude taking a stroll in the water. Maybe he's trying to test the water temp to see if he's going back out. The windsufers wearing extra gear, backbraces, gloves, water shoes, etc.







Now for the purist's with board only, they have to wait a little to catch a good wave. But then surfer dude's always draw a crowd of girls when they come in.

Travels

Traveling and photography are two things I enjoy. The two go together. I haven't done as much traveling recently; post 9/11 certainly put a damper on things. Here are some of the places I've been.

My two biggest trips were to Europe for one month each time. The first trip was with my brother on a bus tour that included Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands. The second trip was with my wife on our fifth wedding anniversary that included Ireland, England, France, Italy. For the second trip it was on our own, rented cars in England and Ireland, Eurrail pass France and Italy. We stayed in B&Bs a lot of the time.

My brother and I went to the Bahamas several times, including for my bachelor party (he was my best man). It was tame by some standards, no strippers, instead we spent time at the casinos, beaches.

My brother is such a fan of the Caribbean that he got married in the US Virgin Islands (USVI). I went down for the wedding with my wife to act as his best man, although I joked that he was taking a vacation with his girlfriend and going to come back pretending to be married. Some joke, his marriage is solid, mine's over. He honeymooned on St. John and my wife and I were on St. Thomas. We went out to dinner and had a few activities together. I came back and put a nice wedding album together and met him at the airport with it.

My wife and I honeymooned in Cancun, Mexico. The resort is beautiful, but the surrounding area is so very poverty stricken.

Travel in the US was often times by myself, sometimes with my brother or sometimes with my wife to the following cities Boston, NYC, Baltimore, Washington DC, Atlanta, Orlando, Miami, Chicago, Niagara Falls, New Orleans, Virgina Beach, Phoenix, LA, San Francisco. I've been to these cities multiple times, sometimes for more than 2 weeks at a time.

This post is just a summary of places I've been, I'll be posting more details with photos in the future.

Life Story

I have a younger brother and enjoy photography and travel.

I have grown up in the Midwest area but done extensive traveling, my career is in large scale computer center support. After high school, I obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Information Science with a strong concentration on Mathematics, strong enough to almost qualify me for a second 4 year degree, but I entered the work force in the University's IT department. It was an interesting a challenging time.

For 14 years or so I worked very hard, multiple jobs, fast track promotions, and built a nice financial safety net. During this time I also developed and taught computer classes.

In my mid 30s I married my wife. After nearly 20 years at the University it went through a "transformation", read chaos, and an opportunity presented itself. I joined a startup firm who's objective was to obtain certification to sell and service IBM mainframes.

This was great exposure for four years. Seeing every facet of the company from birth, to heavy traveling, to marketing, to strength, to death. Something no business school could teach in a classroom.

Then the tech bubble burst... and so did the startup. After a period of time I got a new job but it started on third shift with a 100 mile/day commute. I wrecked two cars and was diagnosed with Obstructive Sleep Apnea so lived away from home, near work for 2 months.

Well after I pulled myself back up, physical recovery and then financial recovery, my wife announced she had made an irrevocable decision to end the marriage. I suggested mediation but that didn't satisfy her so she took our son and started a very messy divorce case.

So now 15 years later, after 2 years of a bitter divorce case, at age 50, my premarital financial safety net is gone, the final decree issued and I'm starting over. Struggling to stay in my 7 (almost 8) year olds life.

A blogger buddy I've traded stories with observed that there is a fun-loving guy inside trying to get out. I like that. A lot. And I'm gonna let him out.

Welcome....

... to my new personal Blog.

Well finally, here it is, my Blog, a place where I can talk about a variety of topics other than my first Blog about the dysfunctional divorce system. That Blog will continue to discuss issues related to divorce.

Welcome! Let me know what you'd like to see.

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