Weed, Fence, and Paper boxes

N/T.

Taylor Fire near Sedona

I took these shots on Monday the 17th. The Fire started on the 16th. The location is about 20 miles Southwest of Flagstaff, near Sedona at a canyon called Sycamore Canyon. Due to wind direction, we were tons of smoke, and even ashes raining down.


Shot of Mt. Eldon shrouded in smoke.

Near Enterprise Rd and Rt 66. We can clearly see the smoke.

As of Tuesday, the estimate was 3000 acres and still burning. On Wednesday and Thursday, we didn't see as much smoke. Luckily, no injuries and property damage.

We haven't had much of moisture with our Monsoon season so far, fire danger is really high at this time. It really ticks me off when people are still throwing their cigarette butts out of their car window....

Ready for a Melt Down

Didn't realize the car was that dusty. But that's not what I want to show you, of course.

Can't believe it reached 117 in Phoenix. How do people live here??

We had to hang around for a shot at 5 PM, so we went to a movie to escape the heat. Man, it's rough. Good thing it's only dry heat :) . . . . Yeah right...

Kick A$$ SUV

Saw this car at a window tinting place in Scottsdale. It's gotta be some body's fancy new toy. I guess hummers are too common, so they have to go with some other exotic military vehicle. :) Does anyone recognize this car? looks like a grown up version of the "thing".

I wonder where they're going to mount the machine gun?

Ultra Clamp

I found this little gadget at a REI store in Scottsdale. It's made by Pedco, who also makes the Ultrapod II, which is a handy little tripod.

The Ultraclamp is priced at $24 at REI. Ultrapod II is priced around $15.

Unlike the Ultrapod II, which flexes a little due to it's legs are made from fiberglass enforced nylon, the clamp seems much sturdier with the metal base. The head portion is not metal, but once tightened, is very strong, it does not move or flex.

It can be used on doors, car windows (it has rubber coating), with your pocket camera. Besides the camera, I can also use it with my off camera flash setup.

Classic Ride

Location, Downtown Flagstaff, AZ
Camera - Pentax DL with 40mm Pancake.

New Look

Well, it's not a new year, but I thought I'd go for a new look, :)

The above photo is from May 2008, Babbit Ranch cattle round up. Shot with Nikon D70 with 80-200mm lens at 200mm focal length.

Monsoon Season

Monsoon season this year is right on schedule. The rain has helped to keep the lawn in top shape, and especially nice since we had just laid down new sod in our back yard.
We haven't had a good down pour in a couple of days, but strangely, the run-off that feed out neighborhood pond is going strong. Without tripod and in low light condition, I just propped my camera against the railing of the foot bridge and took this picture. Shot with the Canon SD400, its auto exposure capability continues to amaze me.

Anime Girl Spotted!

Real Life Anime Girl found at Grand Canyon, :). I guess matching platform shoes would be too hard to find.......

Greed

One of my favorite NPR program is This American Life. This past week's program was very interesting. It is about the housing crisis here in the states.

You can hear this episode from the following link:

http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1242

Support your local NPR stations. KNAU for Flagstaff.

Random Thoughts

I found some nice photoblogs today. Went through several of them, and their archives. Nice. I'll post some of them when I figure out which ones I like the most. Photos below are inspired by some of the sites.

Merry Christmas from Flagstaff!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All!


Rare oppurtunity in front of a camera for me, :)

Sarah - her hands are frozen by now...

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.

WORK IN PROGRESS - Battery and charger test

I have been working the past few days testing my new battery charger and my NiMH batteries.


The results are very surprising so far. I'll post the results soon when I have collected enough data, but I think it will change the way I charge these batteries so they will last longer (take better care of them).

What this is not: a review of batteries and chargers, I simply don't have the resources to test different chargers and batteries. After reading the battery charger manual, researching on-line, and reading the results I have gathered so far, I'd change the way I charge these rechargeable batteries for longer service period for my own use.

What I am using:

Charger - LaCrosse BC-900

Batteries -

• Duracell 2650 mAH x 16 - Recently ordered off of ebay.
• Panasonic 2300 mAH x 12 - Purchased from CostCo, maybe 12-16 months old. 2 of which have been hiding in a remote control, glad I caught them!
• Energizer 2100 mAH x 4 - Purchased from HomeDepot, about 18 months old.
• LaCrosse 2400 mAH x 4 - Came with my battery charger.
• Sanyo 1850 x 2 - older - I have these guys since 2003, came with my Minolta 7Hi.
• RayoVac 1800 x 2 older - Oldest of the bunch, maybe 2002-2003.

Sanyos and the RayoVacs are relegated to maglite duties now due to their age. When I put the Energizer cells in my Pentax DL, it will not power on. But Energizers can power my flashes without any issue.

The charger comes with 4 modes:

1. Charge
2. Discharge
3. Refresh
4. Test

Here's a link to the instruction: http://www.lacrossetechnology.com/900/manual.pdf

I purchased mine from Thomas Distributing for about $60 including shipping. It came with 4 AA and 4 AAA batteries, converter to C cells, carrying case. Since I am not affiliated with anyone, I don't think I need to provide a link to Thomas Distributing, but I am sure you can do a search and easily find them on line, and I have to say the experience was painless, and very quick shipping. But shop around, I am sure you may be able to find a good deal.

Test is not completed yet, so I'll post that when I get a chance to refresh my Energizer, Sanyo, and the RayoVac batteries, that's the result I am waiting for.

I'll also post some reference sites, Steve's Digicam and Imaging-Resource all have very good reivews, and they definitely tested more chargers and different brand of batteries.

Photo Club Field Trip

We had a field trip for our photography club tonight. We went to Hance Partners, a professional darkroom located in Flagstaff. We met the owner Richard Jackson, and his assistant Peter. It was a very informative, educational, and eye opening visit, and Richard and Peter were really great hosts, gave a great tour of the facility, and answered a lot of questions.

Hance Partners specializes in using IlfoChrome paper (formerly known as CibaChrome) for museum/gallery quality output. The equipment they use was simply amazing: we were shown the scanners, photo workstations, the lightjet printer, and then the large developer. The amount of time spent on one image is just amazing (from scan to print). It is possible to go through several proof sheets, before the final copy is made with photographer's approval. Now I understand the cost, I'd say its worth every penny!

Many photographers' work were displayed on the wall: Steve McCurry, Joe McNally, Thomas Mangelsen, Howard Schatz, etc. The works was simply amazing. I have only seen some of the work on web sites, seeing it in prints is a totaly different experience.

Check out their web site at http://www.hancepartners.com/.

Their about page says:
"Welcome to Hance Partners: master fine art printers, utter perfectionists, and specialists in the art and science of attaining the "what if".

After seeing their work, I agree.

Photo Lessons from Adoroma

Check out this link for Adoroma's 100 photography tips in 100 days.

http://www.adorama.com/Catalog.tpl?op=academy_new&article=091007

Just started, so it still has plenty of new ones to come.