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Showing posts from May, 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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Kinetic Kraziness Day 1

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This past Memorial Day weekend I got to checkout the annual Kinetic Grand Championship held in Humboldt. It's a pretty crazy fun event where teams make moveable art that is to go over road, sand dunes, and water. There are a list of rules to be followed, but the contraptions have to be people powered is the main one. The race takes place over 3 days and starts in Arcata, CA and ends (hopefully) in Ferndale, CA. Click the photos for a larger view.
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A Favorite (Photocentric)

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I couldn't believe I hadn't posted this shot before, as this has to be one of my favorites. This is also one of my first "planned" HDR shots. Most of my HDR shots before this were more experimental, but this was planned, from the location to the camera settings. The scene has a lot of highs and lows, and the original shot looked pretty bland. The sky wasn't as dynamic, the ocean a boring grey, and washed out whites in the clouds and waves. To shoot HDR I use the auto exposure feature which takes 3 shots of different exposure values (from -2 to +2, and 1/3 steps in between). Typically I shoot +/-2 for a total of 3 shots, but for this one I took 5 shots, -2, -1, 0 +1, +2 which I think brought out more of the forested area in the background, and made the sky and ocean far more interesting.
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Nook 2.0

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I'd been waiting for today for a couple weeks, at least, since I heard Barnes & Noble was rumored to be releasing a new nook e-reader. By the way, before I go on, I wish I knew the proper capitalization for the product. On their own site I've seen "Nook", "nook", and "NOOK". I wonder if they own the copyright to all versions. Anyway, the gadget. The gadget blogs seemed pretty split between it being another Nook Color, this time with the updated Android Honeycomb 3, or a new e-ink based design with a touch screen. I was hoping for the e-ink version, and my hopes have been fulfilled.
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Southbound (Photocentric)

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So I lied. More accurately I didn't remember correctly. Today's follow up picture is not a carousel in the strictest sense of the word. I suppose it's more of a swing. But the tops sure look similar, huh? The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk was the definition of summer while growing up. It had everything I could want in a day trip; hot dogs, ice cream, rides, sand, and the ocean all in one place. Growing up it still played a role as the gateway to summer. I remember plenty of trips in high school with friends to the boardwalk (especially as seniors) to enjoy the beginning of summer instead of the end of school. Good times. This picture carries forward a little change in my processing of photos. I find that I favor a darker more gritty feel to my photos, but I didn't think that served for these pictures, as they were supposed to be fun. I increased the saturation and went for an overall brighter/lighter feel. I like it for these photos, and served as a reminder to not get...
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Pier 39 (Photocentric)

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Another favorite place of mine for photo taking in San Francisco is the ever popular (with tourists, at least) Fisherman's Wharf/Pier 39. The place screams tourist, from the Alcatraz Triathlon shirts (Dig, Run, Swim) to the chintzy gift shops. But, I still enjoy going, and remember it as being one of my favorite places to visit as a kid, though my parents hated getting there. Between the traffic and the crazy parking prices it was a pretty stressful and expensive day. The weather at Pier 39 is hit or miss, and changes hourly. The key? dress in layers if you're planning to go. Today's picture is of the carousel just about in the middle of the pier. I was unaware that it is handcrafted in Italy, and is the only carousel the the U.S. to have renditions of local scenes . I remember liking the stark contrast between the foggy grey day and the bright colors of the ride. It's also not my only carousel photo, which kind of surprised me. I'll be posting the other one later...
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Photography What Not (Photocentric)

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One of problems I have is seeing my own photos. Sure, I can open up Aperture and flick through them, but I want to see them without having to fire up Aperture, or some other light weight photo viewer. I could print up photos, but that gets expensive and wasteful after awhile. I wish LCD photo frames were of high quality, as I think that would work. 1 think I've been doing is changing the backgrounds of my displays. It's nice in OS X to select an Aperture Project and have it change randomly. Another nice thing for those of us who spend all day in Gmail is the ability to customize a theme. This is also available in the Labs section of Google Calendar. It's nice to open GMail and see something of mine, or anything else you want to see. Have a look at my current GMail space with a current favorite HDR shot of mine:
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Game 5 Disappointment

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Not much to say about last night's San Jose Sharks/Detroit Red Wings game. For 2 periods San Jose was by far the better team, making Detroit look like a team of zombies which, considering their age and injuries, might not be too far off the mark. For two periods the Sharks look unstoppable. Problem is there are 3 periods in hockey, and the team that came out in the third period wasn't the same as the one from the first 2. It was as if the teams had changed sweaters, that's how different the 3rd period was.
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Tea Time (Photocentric)

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One of my favorite spots in San Francisco is Golden Gate Park. And on of my favorite places in this large recreation space is the Japanese Tea Gardens . Do yourself a favor and be sure to visit next time you're in San Francisco. Grab a cup of tea, your favorite (e)book and relax in this oasis in middle of the city. View Larger Map Today's picture is of a temple, I think. My knowledge of Japanese architecture is non-existent, but I like the dramatic point of view from below it.
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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. 
Read more

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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