America's Next Top Fashion Photographer?

VH1 is launching a new series called "The Shot", premiering Sunday November 4th.

See this link: http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/NYM13729102007-1.htm

While most of the aspens in town have shed their leaves already, a few still maintained their vibrant yellow.

Took this today around the house. Warmified with Picasa2.

Horseshoe Bend.

These photos were taken last week at Horseshoe Bend, 3 miles south of Page, AZ. The view was incredible, this is a must stop if you are in the area. 3/4 mile hike from the road, does have some climbs, and sandy path made it slightly difficult.

From top, it is 1,200 ft above the river. Since I am afraid of height, I couldn't get too close to the edge, but close enough to get some decent pictures. There were some people that were really close to the edge. If they only see what we were seeing from another side (maybe they were thinking of the same thing about us).

The next day, we took the Colorado River Discovery Tour (highly recommended - go with Kelli if possible!). We came around the Horseshoe Bend from the river, a totally different perspective. The last picture shows small dots of people standing on the edge. If they only knew sandstone is very brittle..........

back from my trip

Had a business trip last week to Akron. First day there (10/8), it was 88 degrees! Most of the trees were still green, so the color change was very late for them. It did get cooler during the week, which actually felt good.

On Sunday, we went to Petrified Forest National Park. It is located 120 miles east of Flagstaff. I didn't expect too much, but we're all pleasantly surprised with the landscape. The entire park is about 26 miles of paved road. 2 entrances to the park, one is near I-40, the north entrance, or the south entrance, which you can get to from Holbrook, AZ.

From the south entrance, you started off about a mile away from petrified wood scattered all over the park. Seeing it in this huge quantity is mind boggling. Some are intact, and there are also smaller pieces that have broke apart through time. Heck, they are over 200 million years old!

I highly recommend to take the entire park road to the north entrance; there are several stops along the way: blue mesa, tepee, news paper rock (Petroglyphs), agate bridge, Indian Ruins, and all the way to the north, part of the Painted Desert.

I am sure it is tempting to pick up a few pieces of "souvenir", but please don't. There are souvenir shops that sells pieces of petrified woods, they are from private land, so it is legal.

I have uploaded some pictures to my photo gallery. Please enjoy.

http://davew1099.multiply.com/photos/album/14/Petrified_Forst_-_Painted_Desert

Visit to the Peaks

Friday and Saturday have been cold and windy. Finally, Sunday turned out to be a very nice day. With in-laws in town, we visited the peaks to see if we can catch the changing of colors of the aspens. Surprising, most of them are still fairly green, with few areas that are yellow and some are brown.


Reaching for the sky.

Since it wasn't very windy, we decided to take the sky ride up to the peaks. From 9,500 ft to 11,500 ft!


It was actually a very long ride up, we were 30-40 ft up in the air. Since I'm afraid of height, it wasn't a very pleasant ride, :(, but I managed. The worst part is when it stops, then it start to wobble in mid-air..... This is a picture from the top. I did it!

Yup, had to use this facility.

Some very tall aspens by the lift.

Recall: Canon A650

Please check the following link: http://www.product-reviews.net/2007/10/03/official-recall-of-canon-powershot-a650-is-in-china-us-yet-to-issue-a-statement/. Looks like this camera has light seal issue that causes light leakage in a bright sunny day.

Not announced in US yet.

Cheap Macro, but not cheap results

I have always wanted a dedicated macro lens, but I know if I am ready to buy one, I want a really nice one. Either the Tamron 90mm, or the Tokina 100mm, which are the top 2 contenders at this time for me. Either of these lenses will set me back about $400, so I have to save some money first, :~(

In the mean time, I dug up my Quantaray Macro attachment (+1, +2, +4 = +7), you can find it here: http://www.ritzcamera.com/product/241663863msk.htm

The price depends on the lens thread, since this attachment screws onto your lens like a filter. I have the 52mm version, so it screws on to my Pentax kit lens (18-55) without any problem. I also use it on my Nikon 50mm f1.8, it works really well. This is another big plus, since I can use it on 2 different cameras.

The result, take a look, I like it, take a look at the image. With all 3 filters mounted on the lens, I can focus at about 2 inches away from the subject, this is setting my kit lens to 55mm.

The attachment comes with a small case, but the material they used to lined the inside of this case leaves lint on these filters, :(. Remember to clean it up before use...

Additional Samples.

Cast iron fence

Old fence, outside of Josephine's restaurant.

One of the many nice places to eat in Flagstaff.

Fall is here!

Leaves are changing color here. The silver maple trees are the first to turn rusty, now red. I can see some aspen has started to turn yellow. I can't wait to go up to the peaks to take pictures of the aspens. I moved here a little too late last year, so I missed the main color change.

10/02/2007

Decline of the Bulletin Board (System)

Bulletin Board - Downtown Flagstaff.

Whatever happened to Bulletin Board Systems? Back in the 80's, I used to run an Electronic Bulletin Board System. No fee system, just all for fun. Started off on an Apple 2e, then upgraded to the PC based system to get involved with Fidonet. 300 baud, 2400 baud, 9600 (can it get any faster than this!?), and finally topped out at 14,400 before I got bored. How about those fancy ANSI colors you can display on your terminal emulator, :).

I was running Maximus, RemoteAccess, couple of door games, a front-end to handle Fido-messages or users, and mail reader system, it wsa actually pretty cool to communicate to any where that handles the Fidonet traffic. Same as today, some of the moderators that monitors the Fido (topic? I can't remember what they are called) messages really take their jobs a little too seriously. Remember the WordPerfect group? heh heh.... Chill dude.

One of the biggest thing back then is to run a multi-lined system, because of the cost, voice line, then at least 2 for data, it was just not cost effective for a free to public system. I'd think with advant of Internet, another form of BBS should work out great. I know there are software still available to run a BBS, but the new BBS just doesn't work out too well for some reason, it feels awkward.

Art of Graffiti

"Lack of subway station led to underground artist using a water tank to vent their frustration"

I really can't stand this stuff. I have seen wannabee gang graffiti for longer than I'd like to remember. They are usually on a public building, such as this one, or most commonly, business buildings, convenient stores, etc. Based on the content, some of them requires immediate removal...

From the height of this one, I guess the artist(s) were no more than 5 feet tall.