Actual Helpdesk ticket received this week. Not as good as the bat incident or the wasps in cubicle but worth archiving…
Keep it down! If word gets out, EVERYONE will want a vibrating cubicle!
Venus Moon Rising
Taken @ 6:15 AM April 22nd 2009
View On Black
On the way to work Cynthia and I spotted the moonrise with accompanying Venus. It was sooooo pretty and I really wanted to get a picture. Sadly, I was not carrying the gear needed to get the shot. Cynthia was kind enough to support me in my decision to turn around and quickly go home so I could whip out the tripod and the SAL 70-300G lens and snap this picture.
I confess to a little Photoshop lens flare on the Venus part, but that’s all original for Mr. Moon.
Mini H-Town
It’s easy to dismiss tilt-shift miniature faking as nothing more than a Photoshop gimmick. But in my opinion, when done right the results are still quite compelling. There’s a method to the madness of the post-processing and even if you put aside the digital chicanery, there’s still the matter of getting the right subject matter shot from the proper angle which is instrumental in achieving the desired effect.
And besides, if the photographer is having fun and people smile and enjoy the end product isn’t that all that matters?
As Neil Young once sang – “There’s more to the picture, than meets the eye…”
Click the images below to see the full sized versions
Leave Me Bee!
A few days ago I noticed a huge pile of bees under our front window.
We called the exterminator and they took care of them.
Turns out they had not successfully established a hive and were relatively easy to get rid of which saved us a few hundred buck as a hive removal is costly.
This is our third encounter with the bees. Is there such a thing as “Bee-Be-Gone”?
Minolta AF 500/8 Reflex
I was asked by my co-worker/friend David if I would accompany him to the crack house Camera Exchange. He had decided to purchase a digital camera and wanted my “expertise” as he entered this new and exciting realm of photography. Not being one to turn down a chance to go look at the pretty pretty camera equipment I agreed to tag along.
I introduced him to my favorite dealer sales guy and proceeded to have a look in the used equipment case. Usually they don’t have much for the Sony/Minolta platform but on this day as David and Charlie discussed the Nikon D90 and some lenses, there was a sparkling gem of used Minolta goodness.
A Minolta AF 500/8 Reflex lens and available for a very reasonable price.
I’d read a bit about this lens and it’s a remarkable piece of glass for what it is and for the price. Whereas the average 500mm reflex lens tends to be a manual focus, the Minolta/Sony 500mm Reflex lens is the only production mirror lens designed to auto focus with an SLR camera.
Very light and very compact it’s easy to carry around. Since it shoots at a constant F/8 aperture it is not a low-light performer, but @ 500mm it will literally reach out and touch someone. The re-tooled Sony version runs twice as much as what you can pic up this older Minolta version for on the secondary market and this one was priced well below even that so it was a good bargain.
In good light this lens produces good results and gives me more reach in my birding and wildlife photography. The first few test shots are quite encouraging. All of these images are un-cropped and only resized to be more reasonable for web viewing. Click any image to see a larger version.
It is not super super sharp, but the color and contrast is good. I think it will serve me well.
FFS @ Discovery Green – Earth Day 2009
The Flying Fish Sailors played at the 2009 Earth Day Festival @ Discovery Green. I’ve seen and photographed a number of bands on that stage, but this was the first time I’ve had the opportunity to perform on it. It was a great deal of fun. Thanks to the lovely and talented Cynthia we have photographic evidence of the event.
Additional photos from the event in the Flying Fish Sailors Gallery
Fun Shots From The Trip
While in Valencia I shot a few things with the idea I would process for creativity when I got home.
These first two are HDR’s created from 3 separate exposures shot handheld as we were walking about the city:
And a fake miniature from the Teplar Castle in Peñíscola:
Wings Over Houston
This past weekend I was treated to a light plane flight over Houston with my friend Daniel Baker. We took to the skies in a Grumman Tiger and flew over downtown and out to the ship channel before cruising out to Galveston and then back to the Sugar Land Airport.
It was harder than I anticipated. The skies were clear, but it was a windy day and at 2000 ft it was a bit bumpy. Keeping the camera steady was a challenge.
I’ll have to do this again, but on a less windy day and maybe at or near sunset to see what I can come up with.