Mavericks Christmas...

Christmas Day at Half Moon Bay. After dropping my wife and her mother off at the airport for a trip to Hawaii. I grabbed my camera gear and headed to Mavericks. A swell moved into the area on Christmas eve, and just like Santa Claus it gave a present to Northern California. Swells coming in from the North Notrhwest and giving Mavericks a 20~30 foot swell.

These photographs were taken from a elevated position that I climbed to in order to get high enough to shoot the surfers behind the closest waves. Even with my 300mm fixed lens and a 1.4x extender it was difficult to get good close-ups.

Lets do a little math. 300mm x 1.4 = 420mm now when you add the 1.5 conversion by the DX chip you end up with a 630mm lens. With a 630mm lens equivalent the surfers still look like ants. take a look. Click on the slide show to see larger images.

Happy Merry Chrismakwanzakah...

It's time to be PC, Happy Merry Chrismakwanzakah.

And now for a little Xmas humor.

Effulgence…

Photo by: Kirk Howard Copyright© 2007

I have spent the last few nights working on a project for my wife. She is a school teacher and she has a weekend news report segment that everyone participates in on Mondays.

She and I take pictures of what we are doing on the weekends. She then makes a slide show on her MacBook and then shows her students every Monday. It is always a hit with the kids. I wish I had my wife as my teacher when I was in elementary school, she really makes learning fun.

However this week since it is Christmas… I mean Holiday season, and this will be the last week of school before the winter recess. My wife has requested pictures of holiday displays and lights. I have spent the last few evenings freezing my arse off in what feels like sub-artic cold. The other night I took pictures until my hands nolonger had any feeling.

I managed to capture a few good images. The best time to get the images is just a few minutes after sun set. The sky still has great light. The brightness of the bulbs are offset by the ambient light in the sky. Also there is not such a stark contrast between the bright lights and the black night. Unfortunately, time is short before your surroundings go black and everything gets blown out.

Photos by: Kirk Howard Copyright© 2007

effulgence - a shining forth brilliantly; brightness; splendor (noun) the quality of being bright and sending out rays of light [syn: radiance]

Makeshift...

wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
Definitions of makeshift on the Web:
something contrived to meet an urgent need or emergency
improvised: done or made using whatever is available; "crossed the river on improvised bridges"; "the survivors used jury-rigged fishing gear"; "the rock served as a makeshift hammer"

This would describe the small studio I set up in my attic. This would be located next to all the broken-down moving boxes and the boxes that still haven’t been unpacked.

The attic is actually a cool little space, small but cool. A 6’0” man would not be able to stand straight up without cracking the scalp. It’s “A” framed shape, open beam with hard planked wood flooring. Did I mention I share the space with field mice? Yes, I do. When it rains they come in from the cold and run up the interiors of the walls to the warm attic. At least it’s warmer then outside. I know that they have come for a visit, because I find little rice shaped black scat on the floor.

The attic has no insulation. I have to dress for winter just to go into the studio. A few entries back I took some pictures of my new MacBook Pro. I shot those in the “Studio”. The studio needs a little more refining but it will eventually work out.

Photo by: Kirk Howard Copyright© 2007

view images from the earlier post "It's Here"

Brain Scan...

I was reading my current issue of Popular Photagraphy, yes, yes, don’t laugh I was reading. Well, what was I saying oh yea! I was reading PopPhoto and came across an article on a new company that is providing a scanning service. OK, if time is money what is 24 cents worth to you? You will want to check out ScanCafe'.

In the past I would take my slides to have them professionally scanned an it would cost me a fortune. Now there is a online service that will offer Professionly scanned images for $.24 per image. This company will even do some minor color corrections and touch-ups.

According to the web site :

The ScanCafe Revolution

ScanCafe is a revolutionary company that is turning the negative scanning, photo scanning, slide scanning, and photo restoration business upside down.

First, you only pay for the scans you want to keep (50% minimum of scanned images). Thus, we have eliminated pre-sorting. This means you no longer have to spend hours sifting through vast negative, slide, or photo archives to determine which images are worth scanning. Simply put everything in a box and send to us.

Second, we are unique because our photo scanning, slide scanning, negative scanning, and photo restoration services are a fraction of the cost of historical scanning services. Our free value added photo services include manual color correction, cropping, and scratch removal. Whether you are
digitizing slides, negatives, an photos to pass along to family members, creating slide shows for a big event, or simply protecting your memories against natural disasters, ScanCafe will deliver superior results for you. read the article here

Observation…

Lick Observatory sits on the peak of Mt. Hamilton just East of San Jose, CA. It used to be one of the best spots to view the Heavens with its massive telescopes. However in the past 100 years, San Jose has grown from a sleepy agriculture town to the largest city in the Bay Area. The population explosion has caused some pollution problems. The usual pollution from cars, noise and waste are expected. The pollution that is the biggest concern for the Lick Observatory is Light Pollution. Light pollution makes it very difficult to peer deep into the heavens from Mt. Hamilton.

This wasn’t supposed to be a political lesson, nor do I want it to be. So I will get to the topic I was originally going tot write about. At the Lick Observatory they have two working web cams. On clear mornings these cameras provide spectacular images of the sunrise. The cameras are in a fixed position. Hamcam #2 looks East by Northeast. In the view you can see the six domes that are located on the 4200’summit. West facing Hamcam #1 has a panoramic view of San Jose and the valley it sits in.

On October 24, 2007 at 10:12 AM, I observered a giant monster attacking the City of San Jose. The monster turned out to be a small spider on the protective cover of the camera.

Flight test…

On Saturday while my wife was taking a mid-term, I took advantage of the time and made a trip to Palo Alto and Keebler & Schucat Photoagraphy. It was my lucky day. Not only were they having a huge sale, but reps from all the big name vendors were there to parade their wares.

Once I became aware that is was a rep/demo I scampered to the Nikon counter like a kid that was given a dollar for candy. Yes, that’s right… I did… I got to play with the new but rare Nikon D3. If you ever wanted to know what $5,000.00 looks like it looks like this, minus the lens. I spent 15 minutes playing with a camera I will never own. I am sure my wife and I could find many more useful ways to spend 5,000 clams. If I was pro… I could write it off, but I am not and it would never pay for itself. However, I did enjoy toying with it.

The new Nikon D300 is more my speed and price. I remember when the Nikon D70s was $1,799.00

It’s Here…

It’s here, it’s here… The new phone book's here! The new phone book's here!

Photo by: Kirk Howard Copyright© 2007

Well not the new phone book but my new MacBook Pro. With its slick polished aluminum case and newly updated OS. I was so excited, it felt like Christmas morning. I spent all night, moving my profile from my wife’s MacBook that took an hour and a half. Next was the loading of Leopard. I was a little disappointed in Apple Inc., for not having this already loaded and configured. This process took almost two hours. After that I had to down load all the updates to the various programs, security and Leapord updates this took another hour or so.

Now the fun begins. I uploaded my copies of Photoshop Lightroom and CS. I am now ready to do a little photo editing and posting…

Photo by: Kirk Howard Copyright© 2007