Blotner L-85 IFC

I’ve added a bunch of UrbEx photos to flickr for the Blotner IFC, FJETC, Runway POL Garage, and the Dow WSA.

As always you can also view my photos by following the Photography link at the top of my blog. Thanks for viewing!

The exposure time on these photos range anywhere from a few seconds to over a minute, I basically put it on manual (“bulb”), held down the shutter release button, and waited for a strike. When I saw one I let go and repeated. These aren’t as close up as some of the others I’ve taken, but I’m really happy about how many I managed to capture! You can also check them out in my photo section or as a slideshow. If you’re interested, you can see my previous lightning photos here.

Whatcha think?

Barring minor tweaks, My new layout is now done! Most all of it is a 3rd party theme, a first for me! But I chose to use it because I both learned a lot from modifying it, and because programmers always say don’t reinvent the wheel! I chose instead to modify a lot of the spacing and positioning, and add some little touches here and there.

I like how much information it shows, hopefully it doesn’t look too cluttered. As Tufte says, information is the whole point so your design should focus on it and provide a high density without making it unusable. This isn’t exactly ultra dense, but does give you a quick glance at what I’m up to online, as well as focus mainly on the posts–the whole reason for this blog.

I still want to add a couple of navigation links because right now it’s hard to go from post to post (done!), but other than that I’m really happy with how it looks and behaves. Please let me know what you think of it, and offer any suggestions/constructive criticisms. This site is for my readers so I want it to be as easy for you to use as possible!

I’ve also been uploading my backlog of UrbEx photos. I’ve recently added the rest of the POL Tanks, Coal Elevator, Building 943, and the Civil Defense Bunker.

Lately I’ve just been working and finishing up classes. The mall on campus (long stretch of grass, not shopping mall) is once again the constant home of one of the many slacklines owned by those of us that love the discipline. I love having a break between classes and going out there to find that there is always a line set up. Sometimes one of us will put one up, go to class, and come back later, knowing that our friends will make sure nobody steals it while we’re gone. I’ve made some really cool friends through slacklining over the last few years. Amme hasn’t had a chance to do it since the beginning of the summer, but she’s gotten really good.

I’ve also started climbing again at the rock gym here on campus. Its free for students which is awesome, and I still fit my shoes so that’s a bonus. I can’t climb at the level I used to, but I still know how to move and not overexert myself. I’m making progress slowly.

The leaves were all messed up this fall. We had a couple of bouts of cold weather that caused some of the trees to change and others not to, so we didn’t get the nice vistas of dense autumnal hues. Instead there were a few beautiful trees surrounded by clumps of green or dead brown. This made for some nice contrast, but I didn’t get any good landscape photos. I’ll have the photos up on Flickr within a week. I also have some shots from UrbExing around the former Loring Air Force Base on there, so be sure to check those out.

They include our trip to the old Nuclear Weapons Storage Area, the first of its kind in the US! There are no weapons there now, of course, but you can really see how hard they were hiding the stuff from satellite surveillance and how thick the walls and vault doors were. Its pretty nuts thinking back on it. There are also photos of some of the Oakfield Station in Maine, for you railfans.

Classes are good, I’m finishing up my second degree and can’t wait for it to be done. I want to WORK not have all of my time monopolized while I pay for it. I’d love to start my own company but I need to learn more about the process. I also need the free time for it. I’ve let friends down in the past by trying to take on projects that I didn’t have time for and I hate myself for doing that even though I’m putting schooling first.

Amme and I went to NY for her cousin Subee’s wedding. We had a great time; it’s been so long since we saw a lot of the family down there. I have the photos up here and here. BTW: the facebook photo resizing algorithm makes my photos look all artifact-y. If you want a high quality photo from that album email me and I’ll send you one.

I have two wisdom teeth coming in. One of them is already exposed and is currently stopping me from opening my mouth all the way. It makes eating difficult. It just started doing that out of the blue, else I would have had it extracted by now. I went to the dentist at the healthcare center here that has a sliding pay scale since I don’t have insurance and it’s very affordable. They did a panoramic digital x-ray of my jaw, which was very cool. Our vet uses a digital x-ray as well. They can open the image in a viewer and change the contrast, levels, and zoom in and out to get infinitely better images than the film and developer x-rays. That visit was fast and cheap, but to get my tooth extracted the next opening they have is in the end of January! I won’t be able to open my mouth at all by then, so I have to look elsewhere for an oral surgeon. I’m homing someone has an opening within a week. I’m tired of eating
soup and cutting things into toddler-sized
pieces.

Amme has been taking good care of me though. I hope I take just as good care of her. I’m anxious to get on with life and make a name for myself, but as long as we have each other I can never be discontented. I could move out to the woods, build us a house, and just provide for us both and be happy forever.

This work is impressive, imaginative, beautiful, and hauntingly organic. I could look at this gallery all day and continue to gush about it for as long. What makes me even happier is that they use medium format (120) E-6 film like my Seagull uses!

Really, though. Go view that gallery. now.

We also had a little malfunction with Doody’s camera due to an overzealous shutter release cable, so I’ll be posting instructions on how we fixed it.

I’ve also uploaded a ton of new photos to my flickr account. Please do check them out and let me know what you think! You can also view them by clicking the photography link at the top of this page.

Finally! Thursday night at ~7:30pm I received my Seagull TLR from UPS. Its as cool as I knew it would be. After reading all about medium format and TLR cameras for weeks I’m so glad to finally have it in my hands. The only problem has been that was too dark on Thursday to take any photos and I worked all day Friday! I have managed to sneak out when it wasn’t raining on my break and take a few photos, but I really want to finish this first roll of 120 film to see how it comes out.

In lieu of taking photos with it, I’ve been examining it, drooling over it, and taking photos of it. Today I’m working all day again, but I will get out a 5pm and still have time to go shoot photos for a couple hours. Doody will probably be up here by then as well (he was in Portland) so we can go TLR shooting together!

If you really hunt around online you can get some decent info on Seagulls. Most people either love ‘em or hate ‘em. They aren’t exactly bulletproof, so you have to baby them if you want to get 90+ rolls of film through them without repair. The reason for this is they are a cheap camera. As such, while the glass in them is wonderful, the internal mechanisms can jam if you don’t 1. Keep it lubed and 2. Adjust the f/stop and shutter speed BEFORE cocking the shutter. This is a must, but once you’re in the habit in no way inhibits shooting. They take wonderful photos and are dirt cheap, so if you love your Seagull, it will love you back.

Despite the info I gleaned from forums and reviews of the Seagull 105, I couldn’t fine any nice big photos of it. I’ve decided to alleviate this.

I really wanted to find a freeware 360 degree QTVR creator, but after much fruitless searching I had nothing. Then, finally, I came across a 360 degree presenter that uses only javascript! Its called 3DNP and I sincerely thank Thorsten Schlueter. I’ve since posted some views of it on my flickr page, but for a real treat check out the 360 degree view of it here.

Expect another update as soon as I get this first roll processed! Yay!

The wonderful folks at foliagenetwork.com say the leaves are not yet at their peak in my area, although they are very close. I agree with them that the trees are confused by these conflicting periods of very cold/warm weather we have been having. Some places the leaves are vibrant or falling off while 10 feet away they are still green as your neighbor’s lawn.

I am hoping the peak of color holds off until next weekend, although when they go, it is like lighting a string of Black Cats, they will not stop for you, you must stop for them. Besides the weather, I want the leaves to hold off because I have a lovely, delicious Seagull GC-105 medium format TLR camera coming my way via UPS!

I have always been fascinated by TLR (Twin Lens Reflex) cameras ever since I first saw one at one of my Uncles’ weddings when I was just a wee lad. When I started really getting into photography I went straight to digital because I am a geek like that, and that was the camera I had at my disposal. Of course I had used 35mm when I was younger, and even developed my own black and white film in Graphic Arts class in high school, but I had never shot 35mm film with an artistic eye. Because of all this, I never really thought about using any film camera, much less a medium format camera.

That all changed fairly recently. One day while perusing the local Goodwill out of sheer boredom I came across a cool looking old 35mm camera. I bought it for $7, took it home and looked up the instructions for it online. I came across Ken Rockwell’s website and found out what I had was a Nikon L35AF with an amazing 5-element lens! After shooting 1 roll with it at Mount Katahdin my interest in film was renewed. Now Doody and I love to go hunting for cheap vintage cameras at thrift stores and (if we ever find any) flea markets.

Despite my rekindled fondness of film, I had assumed it was prohibitively expensive to get into medium format photography, and hence never bothered to check. Do you see why ignorance is bad, children?

Thanks to Doody purchasing a Seagull TLR (Seagull is THE oldest camera company in China, so they know a thing or two) down in Portland, my interest in both TLR cameras and medium format photography was renewed. A little research online showed me 120 size film is not nearly as expensive as I thought it would be, and as you will see below, great cameras can be had on the cheap as well.

The camera that revolutionized the TLR market in the early 1900s and is the model all others have since copied was the Rolleiflex by Rollei. Rollei still makes cameras today and you can pick up a Rolleicord TLR for about $3500 (OUCH!), OR you can get a vintage Rolleicord, Rolleiflex (the amateur line of Rollei TLRs), or Yashica Mat off ebay for about $100 (+/- $50) depending on condition. A 50-70 year old Rollei or Yashica will take better photos than any modern 35mm camera if the lenses are in good shape. These cameras cost the same to repair as they do to just buy a working one, so only but a used camera if the seller guarantees the shutter works and the shutter speeds are correct, and that the camera as a whole is in good working order (never by “as is” or “seems to work”). Another major point: make sure the lenses have no scratches, are not fogged, and have no lens fungus.

Sorry, I suppose all that is for another post, but what I am getting at is that I went camera hunting! Now I should mention that there are many other types of medium format cameras besides the TLR type, but they hold a special place in my heart with their two lenses and top-down viewfinder, so that is what I wanted. After watching a couple dozen auctions (you have to be diligent to get one for $75-100 instead of $150-200) I found a Seagull TLR, supposedly used only a couple of times, in absolute perfect condition! I ended up picking it up for $96, and it is en route as I write this. I will definitely post later with high resolution photos and updates on my adventures in medium format negative and slide film.

So, beside the fact that I am a sucker for old cameras, why would I shoot medium format film? For one, medium format cameras just look cool. They have that vintage look and feel about them, are very interesting with their top-down viewfinder and, in the case of TLRs, two lenses. The biggest point, however, is that any decent-condition medium format camera can run circles around any digital SLR in terms of image quality. The reason for this is the size of the film. Only cameras approaching 10 megapixels or more can rival 35mm quality, so imagine how much quality you gain when using film 4 the size of 35mm!

Another great thing is that if I want a new digital SLR it will set me back $700+ (the Canon Digital Rebel XTi I want is about $700 with lens at a good priced store) while my Seagull is 1/7th that price! On the other hand, buying and developing large quantities of film is quite expensive if you are not being paid to do it, so I do still need that Rebel at some point in the future. There is nothing wrong with digital, but TLRs are just another fascinating facet of photography to explore.

Ok, time to head home and relax. I am still not 100%. Expect updates very soon!

PS: This post was purposefully contraction-free for no particular reason.

The new photos are all contained in the new first 7 sets which are: Windmills, Trains!, 1st Red Sox Game, Loring AFB, Projector, Amme’s Graduation, and Baby Parker, but there are also new photos in some of the other sets, so you can just scroll through my main flickr page (called the photo stream) to see all the new photos without going to each set individually.

Lastly, one of my favorite ways to see all the new photos is to just use this interactive slideshow!

Enjoy, and I do love feeback via the comment system within flickr or on euicho.com.

WARNING: VERY big file!!

Hopefully some day soon I’ll be able to create a ‘little planet’

You can expect about a dozen meteors an hour, so if you scan the entire sky, you’ll hopefully see one every 5-15 minutes (+|-). For a real treat, set your camera up on a tripod and take some nice long exposures (minutes a piece if yours allows). Your photos should come out with streams of white arcs from the stars as the earth rotates, and if you catch a meteor, it will be a straight line cutting through some of the arcs. They make for really neat photos.

Earth & Sky has a better article than I could write on the subject, so go check it out for some more pointers and info.

If you want to know when you can catch the more impressive showers, read Watch Meteors Like a Pro in 2007, also by Earth & Sky.

Took this in total darkness to get my iris so big : )

Knowing my penchant for procrastination and my inability to post regularly, I’ve decided to work on it and have fun at the same time with a little project. Anyone who knows me knows I love photography; I’m always looking for ways to be a better photographer. So I was pretty excited when I happened upon photojojo’s Project 365: How to Take a Photo a Day and See Your Life in a Whole New Way.

The idea is pretty self-explanitory: Take a unique photo every day for a year. This is a really fun idea because, as Photojojo says:

PHO-TO-JO-JO!

• Imagine being able to look back at any day of your year and recall what you did, who you met, what you learned… (Often we find it hard to remember what we did just yesterday or even last night, let alone a whole year ago!)
• Your year-long photo album will be an amazing way to document your travels and accomplishments, your haircuts and relationships. Time moves surprisingly fast.
• Taking a photo a day will make you a better photographer. Using your camera every day will help you learn its limits. You will get better at composing your shots, you’ll start to care about lighting, and you’ll become more creative with your photography when you’re forced to come up with something new every single day.

Sounds pretty convincing to me!

As I said, I’m doing this to both improve my photography and teach myself a little discipline (which will hopefully also translate into more frequent posts here at euicho.com), but I also am going to use it as sort of a quick daily journal. I’m displaying this little project on Flickr (of course), and in each photo’s description I’m going to put a little mini journal entry about what I did that day and anything interesting that happened. Since I try to keep euicho.com more professional and less like a journal (with the exception of my photos, and posts like this), this new pseudo-photo-blog will be the perfect place for friends and family to go read up on what I’ve been up to lately. I’ve just started a week ago, so check back often to see how its going. You can see my A Pic A Day project as a slideshow or not. And please read the full Project 365 article at PhotoJojo.com. They are a great photography newsletter.

I’ve added about 40% more photos to my Flickr page. A few are transfers from my old album page, but most are brand new. If you have a mo’ then please stop by and check them out, and comment on any you think are cool. I’d greatly appreciate it!

Some new and updated sets are: Portland Headlight Trip, Portfolio, Fall 2006, 35 mm, and Pets (including new Bruski photos!)

Tip: hit the “View as slideshow” link on a set’s page to see a pretty flash slideshow of the set.

I’ve always been a truly firm believer that everyone has an evil (or nice) twin, or maybe just a doppleganger. Whatever their disposition, this photography project by francois brunelle definately confirms my suspicions. The cool thing is that these are only some US/UK look-alikes. Imagine how many there are in the whole world!

Go to his website (http://www.francoisbrunelle.com) to see these freaky black and white photos. You can also read up on some of the details behind these coincidences… if you can call them that *cough*boysfrombrazil*cough*.

Hey guys, thought I’d post a quick “howd’yadoo” to let you know I’ve upgraded to WordPress 2.0.4 (which doesn’t really make a lick of difference to you, but I’m very happy with the admin section changes), and also that I’ve posted a bunch of new photos! Wow, some guy just asked me if I liked the ROFLCOPTER or WOOTWAGON better… random.

I don’t recall how I came across Moo — It must have been either Nyrath or del.icio.us/popular — but in any case, come across it I did.

Do you like business cards? Meh, boring right? Do you love Flickr and your photos? Sure, we all do. Why doesn’t someone combine the two? Moo did. They’re a wonderful little printing company that currently offers a product called MiniCards.

MiniCards aren’t strictly business cards, they’re much smaller and more creative. They’re more like little calling cards or “hey want a cool little fun snippet of one of my favorite photos?” cards. I plan on using them to promote my photo sales or just to give away to friends that ask for my email/hompage address.

Moo uses Flickr to get your photos. You click a link and it brings you to the Flickr security page that asks whether you trust Moo. Its ok, you can trust Moo. Once thats done you’ll jump back to the MiniCards page where it asks you which photos you want to turn into cards. I got in on the 10 free cards to Flickr Pro members promotion (sorry, they ended the promotion after 10,000 packs) but you normally buy a 100 pack for $20. Once you’ve selected your photos you just crop them a little and tell them what to put on the backs (colors, fonts, name, contact details, whatever you want).

These little cards are as beautiful as they are functional. I can’t wait to show them off! Check out my 10 pack and the little holder they came in on my flickr (also check the Moo pool), and go check out Moo’s MiniCards too. If you don’t have a flickr account, you really should get one anyway, but thats for another post.

Carl Zeiss (who also produced the lens in my own digicam), have announced a custom lens they built for a private party thats the biggest non-military lens ever produced!

This beautiful beast weighs in at 564 lbs and has 15 optical elements arranged in 13 groups. It has a focal length of 1700mm and Carl Zeiss had to come up with an all new focusing and aiming system using servos to move the heavy glass elements. It’s made to mate specifically with a Hasselblad 203FE 6x6cm medium format camera as per the customer’s request. I can’t imagine the photos this takes.

PS: keep in mind that more Mpx will get you closer to an analog quality, but it is nowhere near close at present.

I knew it was only a matter of time before this happened. My Sony DSC-F717 finally fell prey to the inevitable: ccd failure. It was all at once too, one night i’m taking a picture of my cat passed out in a laundry hamper, and the next day I go to turn it on and get an abstracted smear of purple vertical lines.

This is a problem for many older sony cameras and clies manufactured between 2002 and 2004. Many other manufacturers also use the same defective ccd, a complete list if affected cameras can be found at the link above (imaging resource).

There are a few theories as to why this happens. Either the use of epoxy chip packages instead of ceramic is causing moisture in, or a bad iodine-bearing bonding compound on the wiring, or just faulty ZIF connectors.

Regardless, Sony has shown an amazing care for its customers by repairing all affected Sony cameras for free regardless of warranty status, including S&H!

via IR

“From October 3, 2005 through October 2, 2007, Sony will repair, free of charge, affected products exhibiting the above-mentioned problem where it is caused by the image sensor device. Sony will also cover the cost of shipping and handling to service to correct this issue.”

I’ll post photos of the sensor later tonight, as well as update you on the process of sending it in for repair.

So, although I’m super-bummed about my camera being broken, a new CCD is at least cool, since mine is a few years old. And, if you own an older camera from any manufacturer, check the above linked website to see if your camera is at risk.

The damn storm came so fast I barely had time to get outside. Trying to make as little noise as possible (Amme had to wake up at 3am to work) I grabbed a parka and a plastic shopping bag, and ran outside with my tripod in hand. It wasn’t quite raining when I got outside, so panting and trying not to drop my camera, I tore a hole in the bag just smaller than my lens and slid it over my camera (I really need to get a waterproof case). It still had a tiny hint of body showing, but it decided was worth the risk. I carried it out under my parka into the breezy night air.

I found a spot with an unobstructed view of the sky a few hundred feet away from my building, so I sat down and set up my tripod. Just then the skies opened up and began to pour. With the camera under my parka (except the lens), I began snapping away. I experimented with a number of shutter speeds ranging from 2 seconds to 30. My camera unfortunately has a 1:1 shutter/processing time ratio, so when I shoot 30 seconds, it processes 30 seconds, forcing me to miss a lot of shots.

The storm clouds were racing overhead and I was doing my best to keep my camera as dry as I could. The storm was almost overhead! Aiming about 60 degrees up, I decided to shoot a 4 second speed, only to shoot nothing, wait 4 as the lightning struck, shoot another 4 seconds with no strikes, then wait 4 as it struck again. This was so frustrating. It was like the lightning was trying to keep off-beat with me. I waited 4 seconds then shot, so that I could sync up to it, but as the lightning got closer, its frequency changed! I could only get tiny hints of a bolt. Frustration started to wear away at my hopefulness and time was running out.

The rain was beating down hard enough to hurt my ears, and the thunder was deafening, but I had to have my shot. Pointing straight up in the sky now, I decided if I wanted to catch a good strike I had to be patient and use the agonizingly slow 30 second shutter speed, the highest my poor camera can go, even though I only had minutes before the storm passed behind me. About three shots later, I finally got my wish…

A blinding supernova exploded directly overhead! I stared in awe at the now blackened sky, a shit-eating grin spread across my face, and waited for the comming hammer blow. “CRACK!” The sky bellowed a roar at me that echoed across the landscape like a thousand gunshots. Then, seemingly as fast as it had come, the storm raced off.

I’d be the first to admit it’s a lame photo compared to some of the astounding lightning shots out there on the web. However this one is *mine*. The wetness, the cold, the danger to my camera… In the end they were all worth it for my first strike.

Why the change from the old gallery? Mainly because I didn’t like the photo importing of the old Gallery (which still contains my old photos until I put them up on the new one), I didn’t like that it wasn’t exactly themed to this site layout, and there was no persistant navigation from it to my main site. The conjugation of this trinity of irritation lead me seek other means to display my work.

The first thing I pondered was how much I was under-utalizing my flickr account. Flickr has a powerful API, and I love how easy it is to add and manage photos, yet I’ve left it pretty much stagnant for several months.

At first I tried to use litebox, but I would have to upload the photos myself, or at least form the links myself for each photo, and with several hundred photos uploaded at a time, I wasn’t about to take on that job. So Flickr it was.

Once I decided I wanted to make use of Flickr, I went in search of a flicker gallery or viewer that I could implement into WordPress’ pages system, or at least into my site’s layout.

I’ll spare you most of the details, partly because I don’t even remember all of the ones I tried, but I do remember SlideShowPro wasn’t free, and I’m poor. I also tried FAlbum, which has great features, and I ended up using it on the sidebar (with some custom code to link to flickr instead of the falbum default page), but I could not for the life of me get it to agree with my theme… Until today!

In the meantime, I had set up a more slideshow-style viewer called Flapi (FLicker API). Its flash based, which some people hate, I know I hate flash intros for websites, but it looked cool and didn’t require the latest version of flash so I decided to implement it.
Update: Since I’ve gotten FAlbum working, I won’t be using Flapi, though you can still view it here.

If you like how Flapi Looks, its based on flickr’s slideshow feature, available from any album page (except the recent photos one) by clicking the “View as a slide show” link at the top of the album.

So please try out my new gallery and tell me what you like and don’t like about it! It’s available from the Photos link at the top of all my website pages. Enjoy the new photos!