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Showing posts from April, 2011

Running... Again?

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  If you know me you know there was a time about 10 years ago or so where I was running. A lot. At least 5 days a week and at least 5 miles a run. I wasn’t training, I wasn’t preparing for a race or a marathon. I just found myself enjoying the time spent running. I wasn’t obsessed with numbers, but I kept track of them all and liked seeing improvements in time and distances. It was good physical health and mental health. Then I tweaked my knee. Not bad enough that I couldn’t walk on it, just a tweak that told me I needed to back off of running for a little bit. So I decided on 2 weeks. At the end of 2 weeks I aborted a run very early as the pain was still there. 2 weeks became 3, became a month, became 5 years. 
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Camera Shy (Photocentric)

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Ran into this guy while biking. Almost literally ran into him. Banana slugs (which this is), are, besides the mascot of U.C. Santa Cruz, one of the largest "terrestrial slugs" known with the longest ones clocking in at just about a foot long. They're also fairly speedy at 6.5 inches per minute. All facts, by the way, taken from Wikipedia , and not know off the top of my head. Except for the U.C. Santa Cruz bit of info.
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Sharks on to Round 2!

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The title pretty much says it all. The Sharks needed some overtime to do it, but they beat the LA Kings 4-3 and none other than Joe Thornton scored the game winner. It was a great game from the beginning, and was really a summary of the whole series in 1 game. Sharks turnovers lead to Kings goals; good puck control by the Sharks led to Sharks goals. So now we wait to see if we get the Chicago Blackhawks, pushing the Canucks to a game 7 tonight, or the well rested Detroit Redwings for round 2.
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Hockey Playoff Update

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The Stanley Cup playoffs are a funny thing. You take all the stats and records from the regular season, go over them with a fine tooth comb, then throw them all out. They don't mean a thing in the post season. Teams take it to another level, and coaches are able to really concentrate on how to play against 1 team. Some teams thrive in the playoffs, others seem to have a weight on their shoulders that drag them down. So, how have my predictions fared?
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End of the Line (Photocentric)

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This is the last shot from my fort posts. Apparently there is a train, or some kind of machine that runs on tracks there. It wasn't out when I was there. I follow a number of photographers and one of them had been focusing on train tracks, so I thought I'd give it a try. After taking a number of forgettable shots from where I was standing I thought I'd try a different perspective. Putting the camera directly on the track made it more dramatic and really brought out the detail in the track and wood. I like the fresh piece of grass growing directly in front and to the right. I hadn't remembered it being there at first, and thought it would ruin the shot, but I like it. I was originally going to straighten the shot out in Aperture when I was working on it, but I like the skewed point of view. Click the photo to see a larger version of it.
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What A Game!

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Last night's game has to be one of the greatest in the 20 years of San Jose Sharks history! My voice is still hoarse from the yelling. In case you missed it, San Jose found themselves down 3-0 at the end of the first period, and down 4-0 not 5 minutes into the second. It looked bad. They looked bad. Looked like they didn't know what to do and didn't have a plan. Long time fans are all too familiar with this team, the team that on paper look like Stanley Cup competitors, who had a great regular season run only to fall flat on their faces once the games really matter.
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Sharks vs. Kings, Game 3

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Game 1 was a playoff game. High intensity, the hits came flying and both teams were playing some great hockey. It wasn't a great game for the Sharks, since we needed overtime to get the win, but it was still a win and I can still see that great Joe Pavelski game winning shot. The bad hit by Jarret Stoll on Ian White was the only downer of the game. It knocked White out of the rest of the game and out of game #2. And you'd be excused if you missed the first goal scored by Heatley 28 seconds after the puck drop. Everything felt like playoff hockey. So how do you top game #1? Well, we're still not sure because game #2 was a stinker.
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Cool Clouds (Photocentric)

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Today's shot again comes from my most recent photo shoot. Though it could have come from anywhere as the subject is the sky, not the place. I'm sure this cloud formation had been there for a while, but I just didn't lift my head up to notice it. When I saw it all I could think of was a fluffy road of marshmallows. It's another HDR shot to better bring out the cloud (and grass) detail. I think, though I don't know for sure, that the building is the hospital building I mentioned in my last post. Click the photo to see a larger version of it.
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When's a Fort not a Fort? (Photocentric)

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Fort Humboldt Historical State Park was a bit of a let down, to be honest. I think the problem I had with it is in the word "fort". Immediately I think of some heavily reinforced buildings with lots of guns. This "fort" was more of a town-hall meeting room, if you ask me. As it turns out most of the original buildings had been torn down, leaving the hospital building. Apparently Ulysses S. Grant was stationed here. After 6 months he resigned his commission so he could leave Humboldt. It also has an outdoor museum for logging, a main industry for Humboldt for a century. The machinery leant itself for HDR photography perfectly, as I think you can see.
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The Real Season Begins Today

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Tonight the NHL playoffs begin. I'm not going to argue about how the road to the Stanley Cup is more difficult than in the other big sports leagues (but trust me, it is). Like any other good hockey fan I've made my own picks as to who will be advancing and who will be hitting the links earlier than they would like. Of note for you non-hockey fans: 16 teams make it and play best of 7 game series'. The league is split into 2 conferences roughly geographically in East and West, and within that there are divisions. The regular season is 82 games, and the winning team could play up to 28 more games for a total of 110 games. The top team of the East and the top team of the West play each other in June (roughly) for the Stanley Cup.
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Miscellaneous Ramblings

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As you should know by now, if you know me or read this blog with any regularity, I love my Nook and e-books. What I don't love are the publishers. A friend of mine was interested in reading Amy Tan's latest book The Bonesetter's Daughter  so we looked up the pricing while using my Nook. I was surprised that they had it listed for $18.99 so we jumped online to see if that was really the price. Turns out that was the price, but what I didn't expect was to see this (click on the image to see it larger):
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Wanna Get Away?

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Thursday is my usual post day, any post on any other day is a bonus (depending on how you like the post). But today I wasn't sure what, if anything, I was going to post. So I began looking at my photo library. Nothing there that was going to make for an easy/quick post. So just as I thought I wouldn't post, I looked around and took this shot. If only the esc key worked on more than just my computer applications... Is it Friday yet? Click the photo to see a larger version of it.
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Better in Black & White?

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Digital photography is cool. There is little argument about that, and those that argue it are probably the same who argue that LP sound quality surpasses CD. But for the everyday shooter to the amateur photographer, digital photography has far too many benefits going for it than any perceived negative ones and has opened photography up as a hobby that nearly anyone can try out.
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Popular posts from this blog

Running... Again?

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  If you know me you know there was a time about 10 years ago or so where I was running. A lot. At least 5 days a week and at least 5 miles a run. I wasn’t training, I wasn’t preparing for a race or a marathon. I just found myself enjoying the time spent running. I wasn’t obsessed with numbers, but I kept track of them all and liked seeing improvements in time and distances. It was good physical health and mental health. Then I tweaked my knee. Not bad enough that I couldn’t walk on it, just a tweak that told me I needed to back off of running for a little bit. So I decided on 2 weeks. At the end of 2 weeks I aborted a run very early as the pain was still there. 2 weeks became 3, became a month, became 5 years. 
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The Pros and (Mostly) Cons of Upgrading to a 4K Monitor

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I'm in the process of getting back into photography which will mean a new camera, more on that in a later post. But the first step for me was a new computer, one with the horsepower to handle a modern day camera and its RAW files. Along with the computer comes a new 4K monitor. 4K is great for media consumption, right? Your characters on your favorite show or movie really look detailed and realistic. Scenery looks wonderful. Everything looks great, right? Wrong. You know what doesn't look great? That photo I took in 2012 that I thought was sharp but is very much not. I transferred over my past catalogs of photos over to Lightroom Classic and eagerly began opening up some of my favorite photos. At first I was happy with how the colors looked and how the scene was composed. Then I noticed it was a little soft. Well I had just gotten a new contacts prescription so that must be it. Changed to my glasses and the photos were even blurrier! I went through photo after photo and most ca...
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