Lois Lane - 7/365

Lois Lane loves sitting in the human chairs on the front porch.

Sound Triggered Photography

Jason has been messing around with electronic design and micro-processor coding lately and decided to try his hand at creating me a sound trigger to set off my flash for photography.  Tonight we got to play with a test run of his first pass by popping balloons.  The equipment used was a Nikon D-80 on a tripod; one Nikor SB-600 flash mounted to a separate stand, camera right, which was attached to the built device - an Arduino based ATMega 328 micro-controller on a custom breadboard.    We only had a handful of balloons to test with (I will be buying more tomorrow) so we documented the results below.  Once he gets this one sorted out he will being working on a visual sensor for me for my bird photography, which I will also document.  Once I get some more test material, I will also be updating with more photos and test runs, hopefully with some better focusing!  ;)

Feel free to ask questions in the comments section for any setup or Arduino related questions - one of us will answer depending on the subject of the question.

This is the Arduino breadboard build - SB600 to the left - AC adapter to the right:

Balloon Pop #1 (you can see the controller board sitting on his lap) :

Balloon Pop #2 (yes, it caught me off-guard - it was dark and I wasn't sure when it was going to pop - ha!) :

Balloon Pop #3 Closeup - splits right down the middle! :

Condensated Sunset from the Craft Loft

Looks like I'm going to be seeing a lot of these views from now on!  I set up a photo "studio" for indoor macros and such in the craft loft. On top of that, Jason hooked me up with a 32" TV and Mac Mini running Ubuntu Linux for instant photo production via Gimp, streaming music or watching Myth TV while I craft, photograph and create.  It's going to be a very crafty and productive winter!

New Duck Hut, P90X and Photo Project Fails

Back in December I had posted how our 5 Muscovy Ducks were one by one flying the coop and not returning very often.  As of Christmas, we haven't seen any of the original five ducks back at the pond, though we have seen some suspiciously familiar looking ducks flying about the surrounding areas of our house. So they either disappeared or found them a winter time-share somewhere.  It will be interesting to see if they return this spring.

In the meantime, a friend that works at Metro Animal Services in Louisville asked if we were interested in taking in 6 ducks that they had confiscated.  Two of them are Muscovy ducks and we're not yet sure what the other four are.  We decided we'd go ahead and take them and kept them in a small, make-shift dog pen in the garage for a few weeks. Last weekend we built them a larger temporary shelter on the side of the shed within the fenced area of the yard where they will stay until the spring thaw and until we can get them a more permanent duck house built out by the pond.  Once moved to their permanent house they will be let out to wonder free during the day and put up in the pen at night to eat and keep them safe from predators (mainly foxes, coyotes and raccoons out in this area).  This is their temporary home for now:



The dogs have adjusted well since Hardy's passing and Poe the Betta fish also left us after a three year life-span, which is surprising for a fish. So we're left right now with just 3 dogs and the 6 ducks.

Last month I began my P90X exercise program and I'm loving it!  I'm on day 28 and have already dropped at least one pants size.  I'm doing it right and took photos and measurements the first day, to be repeated every 30 days, so Sunday is the first measurement day since I started.   I'm excited to see what the measurement results are this quickly and look forward to the next 60 days.  Hopefully by the time I'm ready for round 2 Jason will be able to join me (he's currently still in physical therapy and healing from an ankle break and tendon surgery).  If I'm brave enough I'll post the increment photos and measurements at the end of my first 90 days.  We'll see.  ;)

And with Jason's injury taking up a lot of my time of doing extra things around the house (though it's much better now!) and my hour and a half work-outs 6 days a week, I've once again flunked my photography project of 52 Weeks of Animals.  I made it to week 23 before two weeks went by and I realized I didn't get any animal photos in those two weeks.  Ooops!  But just for fun, you can see the 23 Weeks of Animals I managed to tackle.  Better luck next time, I guess!

Birding in January - 23/52

Juvenile White Crowned Sparrow

Northern Cardinal

Adult White Crowned Sparrow

Birdies - 19/52

Now that snow is covering the ground the bird feeders in the yard have become very popular.  At one point we had about 30 mourning doves on the ground picking up the seeds that the cardinals, blue jays, chickadees and titmouse scattered off of the feeder.

Dove Buffet:

Pretty boy:

Project 365 Flunky

So I was doing good, moving right along with my photo a day for a year project, when all of a sudden
Day 104 hit.  I don't really know what happened.  My habit of getting that photo just totally slipped my mind.  I did this once before and just carried on with 2 photos the next day and intended to do the same thing again.  Then Day 105 arrived.  And I did the exact. same. thing. I forgot again. So at two days in a row I deemed myself a flunky and removed myself from the project.  And, in fact, I haven't even touched my camera since Day 103.  But a San Francisco trip is coming up so I'll be flooding this place with travel photos.

It's probably all good and well anyway.  We're in the process of trying to get our house in selling order and I could really use any spare time at all to start decluttering, painting and helping Jason with minor repairs around the house.  We were getting discouraged with all the crap land that we were viewing and on a whim we did some looking around the county area we currently live in, which we expected to be way too expensive to get any amount of land with a nice house to our liking on it.  As it turns out we can afford a nice 5 acre piece of property here with a nice house already built on it. Who knew?  So we've changed our focus to house and land hunting rather than land hunting with the intention of building a few years down the road.  The sooner the better.  I want peace and quiet in my backyard and living in a court in a neighborhood jam packed full of kids, that's just never going to happen.  Too bad when Portia was growing up there wasn't a single kid to be found near us.  Go figure.

Anyway, no photos for this post, but there will be some coming soon!  And a house up for sale!

April Sunrise - 103/365

Project 365: 103/365

Have I ever mentioned how much I love a spring, Kentucky sunrise?  As much as I'm not a morning person, I'm glad that I get to capture these beautiful skies on my way to work each morning.  It puts me in a great mood for the day!

Long Weekend and Kenko Extension Tubes

Ahh today beings a nice looong four and a half day weekend for me!  I have high hopes for the weekend and a list of things I want to do.  There is plenty of work to catch up on, but it can't be all work and no play!  So my goal for the weekend is to  pick up my camera and start playing with something new.  That new something will be macro photography using Kenko extension tubes that Jason bought last year.  They have been collecting dust pretty much since they were bought, so it's high time to learn how to use them before all the good insects are gone for the winter.

What the heck is an extension tube, you ask?  The extension tubes are hollow tubes that connect between the camera body and the lens.  This setup enables the lens to focus closer than its normal set minimum focusing distance.  The tubes come in a set of three ( 12, 20 and 36mm ) that can be used individually or stacked for varied magnification results.  At a price 1/4 that of a good macro lens, they are well worth the small expense!

However, there is a small learning curve, lots of light needed ( natural or external flash ) and some practice involved.  Here is an Extension Tube Flickr group dedicated solely to extension tube macro photography for your viewing pleasure.  Hopefully this weekend I'll have some to add and post!

And to leave you with a recent dawg photo:

Horse Play

Taken at the Haupt Farm today during Jason's company's annual Halloween bash. Gotta love velvety smooth horse snoots!

Shot Me an 8-Point Buck!

Shot with my Nikon, that is. ;) You all know I could never kill an animal! This guy was a beauty. We were hanging with some friends and he walked through with four of his lady friends. He was kind enough to stop and pose for a few minutes before resuming his evening stroll.

(Please ignore the graininess of this photo - it was getting dark and this was the best I could do!)

I <3 Hummingbirds

Today I was finally able to capture hummingbird photos without them being on the feeder - something I've been trying to accomplish for quite some time. When Ike came through Kentucky last weekend our screen got torn off the side of the deck where the feeder usually hangs. Without the screen there the hummingbirds kept getting caught inside the porch. For fear of them not finding their way out, being hit by a ceiling fan or eaten by a dog we decided it would be best to move the feeder to the evergreen tree in the backyard until we get the screen fixed. Had I known that was all it would take I'd have tried this a year ago! Now when the hummingbirds decide to take a rest from eating or want to check things out before they approach the feeder they perch in the branches of the evergreen - perfect photo op!

(Click for a larger view)

Camping Trip Delayed

Well we were supposed to be headed to Indiana about now with the camper in tow to get the campsite set up. Unfortunately instead I am sitting at the computer, still in my pajamas and drinking coffee. Yesterday Jason screwed up his back pretty bad - something that happens once every year at some point, it seems. (This is the second time it's happened on vacation - last time we were in Orlando and he was stuck in the condo all day for most of the week.) So depending on how quickly it heals will determine whether we make it out this weekend at all. We may just reschedule to go next weekend instead since we have to take the camper out there, back it, level it and assemble a picnic table and dog pen, and all that is near impossible to do with a screwed up back. Not to mention, who wants to go camping in that condition? I sure wouldn't!

The rest of the vacation week has been awesome. We haven't really done much, which is just how we wanted it to be. We made a trip to the zoo and got lots of good pictures. I've done a lot of reading and porch sitting. And best of all, we've both managed to not work at all during the entire week! We've been online playing chess and scrabble and, of course, playing on Flickr - it's too addicting. So all in all, a fantastic vacation!

Speaking of photos, the Courier Journal has launched a "Capture Kentuckiana" contest that will result in an awesome coffee table book of the Kentuckiana area. I have submitted some photos and will be submitting some more. If you will, please go check it out and vote! You can get to my profile here...but be sure to check out all the others also. There are some awesome photos that will make a fantastic book in the end result!

Pure Luck - Hummingbird Moth

Yesterday as Jason was casually looking out the front door he started all of a sudden flipping out yelling, "Camera! Quick! Hummingbird Moth! Hummingbird Moth!". After realizing what he was saying I snatched up my camera and ran to the front porch where we have a small barrel of flowers in full bloom. Sure enough, hovering over the flowers was a hummingbird moth! I've seen photos of these before but have never seen on in person and it was so cool! It was much smaller than I expected it to be. In the haste to get a good photo I switched the camera to auto mode, and glad I did because I only got four shots before it flew away. This is the only shot that turned out worth a darn. Jason has some more on his Flickr page.

Clearwing Hummingbird Moth

July Flickr Mixer

Yesterday we had a local Flickr Mixer outing and headed down to Waterfront Park to take portrait photos. It was very humid, but we all had a great time. My photos from the shoot are here. After the shoot some of us headed back to the house to hang out on the porch and chit chat more about photography and new places to shoot. Jason and I will be going on a Safari workshop in September and I can't wait! John and Jenn may be coming with us as well. Hopefully we can get a whole group to join us!

Nikon D80 - First shots

Over the weekend I sold my Nikon D50 and upgraded to a Nikon D80. Here are a couple of my favorite shots from my first outing with the new camera body. These were taken at the pond on the grounds of Louisville Memorial Gardens East.

Momma duck and her almost grown brood:

Dragonfly at rest:

Busy Weekend

Whoo boy...I'm almost glad to go back to work to get a break! Almost...not quite. ;) It's been a heck of a weekend that started Thursday night at the casino boat. Mom and I went out for what seems to be becoming an annual event for her birthday. We went to Caesar's (being renamed to Horseshoe as of July 11) and had a nice dinner to prepare us for our gambling. Then off to the slots we went. We found the new ones they had just installed the month before and much to our surprise we both did well on the first machines of the night! Usually when I go to the boat I'm out of my allotted money within 45 minutes...but we were doing so well we played for 3 hours! It was awesome! I still didn't come home with any winnings, but it was well worth the fun.

Friday morning was spent at work, as usual, and then off to the eye doctor at 2:00 due to some issues I've been having with headaches and focusing on the computer screen after about six hours. Seeing as I'm on the computer roughly 13 hours a day on average those six hours just weren't going to cut it. So of course the good ol' eye doc prescribed me some reading glasses...blah. They should be in sometime this week. At least they are cute...turquoise in color and with a little bit of a funky shape to them. With my dilated eyes I couldn't do much for the next several hours so I spent my time helping Jason assemble Portia's new desk. Portia's boyfriend joined us for dinner and that was all of the excitement for Friday night.

Saturday was spent hanging with a local Flickr group - one of our first meet ups as a group. We had lunch at Red Robin and then headed over to one of the member's house for some Photoshop tips and tricks. I learned a lot and have already started using some new techniques. After that John, Jenn, Eric, Tina & Chuck stopped out and we did the usual porch-sitting and chatting. Eric and Tina had a newly adopted seven week old chihuahua named Logan who everyone cooed over all night. Isn't he adorable?!

And of course today, Sunday, I had to catch up on all the work I had been putting off since Thursday. Now that's done and I'm loading up the iPod for a new work week and pondering on playing with some new flash techniques John taught me (camera flash, that is). He did this cool shot with Jenn when he was showing me some setting tips. Pretty cool, eh?

And as for my book progress for Tuesday's book club meeting...well, I'm on page 50 of 198. I might have a teensie problem in finishing that by Tuesday night...especially if I keep writing novels of blogs. :P So off I go to read my heart out!

Cicada City!

Apparently it is the time of year for cicadas to hatch, or whatever it is they do.  We have 3 trees in the back yard filled with moulted cicada shells.   It really is quite an eerie site when standing under the trees and looking up (see photo below).  All of the lower branches look like this from the underside of the leaves.  And the ground around the trees is littered with shells as well.  We are now starting to hear them sing when sitting outside...summer is here!

Though not all of the cicadas are singing their song.  It turns out that dogs seem to have a craving for cicadas...and what we have is a free-for-all cicada buffet.  Blue doesn't care for them too much, but I'd be willing to bet that Lois Lane and Hardy have eaten three days worth of meals in cicadas alone.  It's a miracle there are any left to sing between them and the squirrels munching away.  *gag*    So if the cicadas go extinct this year, I'm pretty sure I know why.  

One of the survivors:

View from under the tree:

The ground around the trees:

Squirrel Logic

If I get the angle just right....

What to blog about...

I've decided that I work too much to blog about anything interesting.  Thank goodness camping season starts this month!  We're hoping to go camping at the end of April with a gang of friends at Green River...should be a good time!  I haven't been to Green River since I lived there oh so long ago.  We've actually got our camper up for sale in hopes of getting one that will better meet our needs.  We'd like one with a slide-out and more storage space.

In other news, my blogger friend Jen just had a precious baby girl, so welcome to Lily!  I've been following her blog just waiting for the day to see pictures!  

It's supposed to be really nice this weekend so hopefully I'll get some more photography shooting in.  If it's dry enough I plan on taking a hike through the woods behind our house to see what I can see.  We have a pair of red-tailed hawks that live there and a HUGE woodpecker that I'd love to get shots of.  I chased the woodpecker around a couple of times last summer with no luck.  We shall see what happens...