I spent the late afternoon at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve near Half Moon Bay, CA. The tidepools are locally famous, and there was a very low tide at 5:30pm today – right about sunset. I thought I could get some nice tidepool creature shots and a Pacific Ocean sunset all in one trip. The sunset was a bust – low clouds kept any red from reaching us, so it just gradually got darker. But low light is a great time to be shooting in tidepools with a flash – when the sun is shining the glare from the water is a big problem, particularly on cloudy days. But with just a flash you can control the angle and get some dramatic light angles and colors.
Shot using my flash hand held off to the side, and the camera mounted on a tripod. The anemone was just below the water line.
This year’s NAMM show was pretty quiet – no doubt an impact of last year’s economy – with an exhibit floor that was missing major players (Apple and ProTools), a dearth of Rock ‘n’ Roll booth babes, and no line at the complementary hearing test trailer in the basement. That was all fine though, we didn’t have to yell to be heard on the exhibit floor. Jason gave me an interactive demonstration on the nuances of fine cymbals, and then after seeing the results of my hearing test realized I didn’t really have any appreciation for what he was talking about.
I did have a great appreciation for live music in the Taylor Guitar suite however. Doyle Dukes stunned us with his pickin’ chops, Night Ranger did an acoustic set followed by a Damn Yankees reunion. They dropped into a successful acoustic version of ‘Cat Scratch Fever’ – something that shouldn’t even be tried. Finally, Jason Mraz took the stage in a 3,600 sq. ft. room with inadequate air conditioning for the 600+ people who were crammed in there.
Now that we’re only a year away from being empty nesters we’re thinking about bringing all our old photos into the digital age. The kid in this shot is now 17.
I’m testing out scanning negatives on the Nikon Coolscan V ED that I have been using for scanning slides. The image quality is coming out beautiful, but it’s taking way too long (over 3 minutes per negative after it’s done all its processing).
Next two options: shooting with my camera on a backlit macro set up and processing in Photoshop, or just paying a service to do it all for us.
A timelapse video of my approach to solving crossword puzzles. I start with the first word I can enter and expand from there, rather than doing all the across or down clues first.
One frame per letter shot on my Canon 40D and processed in Lightroom and Premiere.
See it in HD on Flickr or Vimeo. Or even better, click the ‘HD’ option in the frame above and then play it in full screen mode.
