Mar 14 - Decaying

Mar 14 - Decaying, originally uploaded by DamnBeavers.

Even though it is weekend, I still found myself on the Tradeport for my PaD. My oldest & I were in the area and noticed a very beautiful sunset as we were getting into the car to leave. I realized that the sunset would be gone by the time I got to a spot where I could actually capture it. I tried anyway, had to get onto the Tradeport, when I realized it wasn't going to happen, I decided to catch some of the yellow/orange tones from what was left of the sunset. I find it fitting that I converted the image to Black & White & then added some split toning (so it's a Quad tone now) effectively removing the natural coloring. This is part of a wall on a building right beside the flightline. It has not been in use since the base closed, there are bushes growing out of it and birds living in it (according to my daughter who saw birds flying into a hole in one side of the wall of this building).

Mar 13 - More than Fore

Mar 13 - More than Four, originally uploaded by DamnBeavers.

From a distance, I thought these were golf carts, though I should have known better. I was driving into work and hadn't found anything to shoot. I saw what I imagined to be golf carts off in the distance on the Pease Golf Course (so there is a good reason for me to think they were golf carts). As I got closer, I realized what they were (and was reminded that the golf carts are secured in a fenced in area). The picnic tables were still interesting enough to make the PaD though.

Mar 12 - Upstanding

Mar 12 - Upstanding, originally uploaded by DamnBeavers.

Had to take a different way into work today to find something interesting to shoot. I left my snow boots at home thinking I wouldn't be doing any trekking around. I got lucky here as the ground was still frozen and there was no snow to traipse through to reach these lines from the road. I imagine there were a lot of morning commuters trying to figure out what the heck I was doing near these poles. Big honkin iron things shot with a very Wide Angle lens. I had no filters on the lens, the inconsistent blue sky is natural (due mostly to the inconsistent exposure across such a large field of view.

Mar 11 - Down the road

Mar 11 - Down the road, originally uploaded by DamnBeavers.

For some reason, this morning I just wasn't feeling it. I worked pretty late last night, I wasn't feeling so hot this morning, and it was raining out. I told myself a little lie that I would skip out at lunch and find something to shoot. At 3ish, I was able to nuke a quick lunch and return to my desk before heading into a long meeting. I skipped out with some sunlight still left but no idea what to shoot. It all worked out though, while riding out to the flightline, I spied this stretch of road (the flightline is off to camera left) and was able to pull over, setup the tripod, and grab a number of shots from this angle and from right on the double yellow lines. A car finally showed up as I was packing up. As I was driving away, the available light dropped to render this scene only a memory (but captured on Digital).

Mar 10 - Blocked

Mar 10 - Blocked, originally uploaded by DamnBeavers.

And to think, I was actually pulling into this used car dealer's lot to turn around and head back to shoot some snow covered pine trees. While pulling through the lot, I did a double-take when I saw this old camaflauged vehicle. The best part was the fact that this truck was beside and slightly behind the dealer's building so I was able to pull over, grab my camera and have unfettered shooting access without getting bothered ("Can I help you?"). Technically, he could have helped me if he had a reflector to get a tad bit more light on this side panel. ;-)

Mar 09 - Tell me this is a dream

Mar 09 - Tell me this is a dream, originally uploaded by DamnBeavers.

Yesterday I was riding around on my motorcycle, welcoming in the new riding season. I'd expected to ride in this morning to work. I don't follow the news or weather. I don't usually have time to watch TV. While the snow we received this morning was beautiful, I'd have enjoyed a ride in a lot more. At this point in the season, however, this snow will simply not last long. (At least, that is the hope).

Mar 08 - Bike season

Mar 08 - Bike season, originally uploaded by DamnBeavers.

I was able to chisel away a large enough pathway through the ice on the driveway to official open biking season. I took the Harley out for a spin, mostly to start working through the Sta-bil in the tank. The VStrom started right up, no real need to prep it, though I will go lube the chain after posting this. I took about 100 photos from about 5 different angles to arrive at this shot. I didn't realize it would be so time-consuming. . .

Mar 07 - Ice Fishing

Mar 07 - Ice Fishing, originally uploaded by DamnBeavers.

The ice is still about 18" thick, but with temps reaching 60 degrees (F) today, we had to slosh through about 3 inches of water and slush. Spring is almost here. From this photo, it doesn't look safe or wise to be out on the ice today. It was very safe, not sure about the 'wise' part though ;-) The Cub Scouts had a blast baiting the hooks then rushing off to go sledding (that whole patience part won't kick in for another few years). My son only popped out onto the ice in the final 15 minutes that we were there, he managed to become entirely soaked sledding down the slush and mud hill.

Mar 06 - Me

Mar 06 - Me, originally uploaded by DamnBeavers.

Better known as "this is what happens when you use your camera at work for work stuff and leave the CF card in your laptop which is still at work with all your intended PaD potential images from this morning on it". It gave me a great chance to set up my studio (black duck cloth background, my special flash reflector, flash stand, tripod, camera, and other stuff that gets in the way). I also got a chance to drop into PS CS4 to adjust the black levels of the background since some of the wrinkles from the fabric made their way into the image.

Mar 05 - Wide angle crane

Mar 05 - Wide angle crane, originally uploaded by DamnBeavers.

Something for an UWA lens. I was amazed at how close I had to get to this crane for this shot. The Tokina is nice and wide. I have the B+W CPL on the front of the Tokina, I didn't see the exposure difference in the sky until just now, during Post-processing. I had read comments about a CPL on an Ultra Wide Lens but never really thought about it. This sky shot is after applying an aggressive gradient filter in Lightroom.

Speaking of Lightroom, I applied the 2.3 patch the other day. Today was the first time I'd tried Localized Edits in 2.3. There is a very noticeable improvement. I can now say that Localized Edits are very usable in Lightroom.

Mar 04 - Urban Scene

Mar 04 - Urban Scene, originally uploaded by DamnBeavers.

I have seen this fire escape a number of times when driving through Portsmouth. Today it marked my "Point of no return" for the morning PaD. I mentally dialed this shot in as my final choice. It was a bland morning, more for me than anything else, technically I could have stopped and captured any number of things along the way, but nothing really worked for me this morning. Photography is like golf, a lot of it is mental (and I am arguably mental ;-)

Mar 03 - Sign of the times

Mar 03 - Sign of the times, originally uploaded by DamnBeavers.

I've been to this stand a few times in the past 6 months or so. This sign is on top of the roof of the stand, I am hand holding the camera for this shot and NOT extending the camera above my head. There is a snow bank that I am standing on (out of frame) that puts my eyes about level with the "Farm Stand" lettering. I used the Tokina up close for this one, I should have gotten a little closer as I had to crop out a chunk of the left side (there was as car in a snow bank that didn't contribute to this at all). I'm not too pysched about the grey skies, but there isn't much I can do about the weather (except wait).

Mar 02 - Clearing the driveway

Mar 02 - Clearing the driveway, originally uploaded by DamnBeavers.

My old faithful Wheel Horse C-120 garden tractor with snowblower attachment. I have the 42" mower deck and the straight blade attachment (for use a a plow) for this tractor. I believe this tractor is circa 1974. It gets a lot of attention when I mention it at the local small engine repair (I go in for parts once a year or so). It just came back from service a couple of weeks ago, it got a carb rebuild & the snow chute was repaired (now I can control direction without getting off the tractor). The snowblower is a single stage, with the throttle on full, power to wheels set to Lo (directing most of the power to the PTO) this thing will throw some snow. You can barely make out the spruce tree to the right (it is about 15 feet from the tractor). Had I thought about it, I would have used a wider angle lens to get the full snow stream.

As this IS a Self-Portrait, I have to provide some details.

I set the camera on my Tripod (Bogen 055MF3, Culman Head, RRS QR Plates). Portrait orientation (RRS makes this easy). I have this Chinese Knockoff Timer Remote Cable called "Aputure". It allows me to set a Delay (The amount of time before firing starts), a shutter release value (which is meaningless on the camera if I have anything but "B" for Bulb set), an interval timer (the time between shots), and a counter (the number of shots).

For this shot, I set the delay to 20 seconds, that was enough time for me to get onto the tractor and moving forward into proper frame. I left the shutter release value set to 0, an interval of 4 seconds (between shots), and a counter of 20. One pretty cool feature on this timer (and the camera in general) is that with Autofocus on, the AF will lock on for each shutter press. This kept my back in focus when I was in front of the center AF point (You can set any AF point in the camera the center provided the most coverage for this shot).

The camera and lens was well-protected in my garage, I put the lens hood on to minimize any errant snow-flakes (or salt) from inflicting optical harm.

I've always wanted to get a shot of me on the tractor, I'm glad I did this!

Mar 01 - A Good Book

Mar 01 - A Good Book, originally uploaded by DamnBeavers.

My daughter enthralled in a book this snowy afternoon.

Today has been declared a "lazy day". No swim lessons, no running around for various groceries & household goods & no shoveling the driveway (at least until later this evening).

It was also a "No driving around looking for my PaD photo day". This just meant that I had to seek opportunities here at home.

It has been snowing on and off all afternoon, so far there has been very little accumulation. I guess we will have to wait until April to determine if March came in like a Lamb or a Lion.