9 Edge Down

John Wayne The Penguin

2009-01-24T20:25:00.002-06:00

A story for one of my photos:

At Grytviken, we were waiting for the zodiac taxi to get back to the ship. We spotted a single King penguin swaggering down the single road through the harbor.

It looked like the new sheriff was coming into town. The photographers froze in their tracks taking photos (myself included) and the seals just ignored it.

The bird just continued to strutt down the road, checking for outlaws. Stretching its neck, looking around, and then continuing to walk down the main (and only) road.

Web Page Updates

2009-01-24T20:21:00.002-06:00

Pretty well populated the site for the Antarctica Trip. (penguin.piqueroinc.com) I’ve gotten my notes and Photo Journal pages constructed. I’ve uploaded some of Joanne’s photos but am waiting for her to write her account of the great adventure. Then I populate her account with appropriate photographs.

I’ve got about 155 photos in my Flickr Photostream. And I geo-tagged a number of them. Hard to say where we were when we spent 2 days at sea.

Getting Back To Normal

2008-12-24T20:09:00.004-06:00

Got back from Antarctica on Dec 7th. After a good deal of sleeping, started the process of recovering from a long trip. Stopped mail to be opened and handled, unpack and restock the pantry. And, of course, sort through the 1000 photos you took.

This trip had the disadvantage of being near Christmas. The Christmas card has to be selected and printed. And the Christmas letter has to be composed. Then mail out the cards. The first batch went out Monday (12/22).

One of the items I mentioned in the latter was that the photos would be posted on the web. Not the whole 1000 but my selects for the 100 most interesting. Of course, that means the web site had to be ready when the cards and letters went out.

I spent most of last week uploading 110 photos to Flickr. Then using that information to populate the Photo Journal and accent my written trip notes.

The mostly functional web site can be found at penguin.piqueroinc.com

On The Road, Finally

2008-11-14T22:37:00.001-06:00

In a little under 15 hours the great adventure begins. Flight out of Austin departs at 12:10pm. Thus beginning a 28.5 hour journey to Ushuaia. 11 hours of that journey is on the ground waiting for the next leg. A full 7.5 spent in Buenos Aires. Originally we were just 4 hours but the flights got rearranged.

Don’t know how much sight-seeing we will do in Buenos Aires. Mostly I have to transfer between airports, about a 1 hour bus trip. It will be Sunday morning but I’ve seen ugly traffic in Seole, who knows.

We get to Ushuaia about 8:30 pm on a Sunday night. They eat late in Argentina, so I suspect the hotel restaurant or something local will be open.

Coming back isn’t as bad, 25 hours but only 8 on the ground. Fly into EZE so I don’t have the bus transfer in Buenos Aires. We have about 4 hours in each major airport. Plenty of time to clear customs. The US is typically a little harder, but a welcome sight after one of these trips.

Blogging will be light to non-existent. Once on ship we don’t have internet access. So, the stories and pictures will have to wait until I get back

It does appear that Ushuaia boast two local breweries. So, the opportunities for local Argentinian Beer is very good.

Badgers Win!!!

2008-10-31T20:43:00.003-05:00

Back from Wisconsin. Cool weather and a nice reminder to get ready for Antarctica.

Surprisingly enough, the Badgers won. They were 0-4 for conference play going in. I hadn't really expected them to win. Nice to see old friends though.

Not too many picture opportunities. We only took a few walks, because of the weather. I got a couple of nice leaves turning color photos. Posted them as Weekly Photos

Less Than A Month To Go

2008-10-20T19:42:00.002-05:00

Haven’t been blogging much. Still taking digital photos and have continued to post to the Weekly Photo. But my focus has been on other things.

I’m leaving for a week in Wisconsin on Thursday. Wisconsin Homeconing Game in Madison this coming week-end. The Badgers are having a terrible year so I expect the results won’t be happy.

I’m teaching two classes the week after I get back. That will be a drive to Houston, Nov 2nd and 4th. And then the big trip starts the 15th. A lot of preparation to do. I’ve been gathering bits and pieces since January, it’s down to to 3 or 4 things left. Probably go shopping in Wisconsin.

The DPS assignments have also continued. I’m still learning a lot about the Alpha. This latest week is supposed to be a portrait shot. I used a statue. What was more important, however, was the day was overcast (much as I expect Antarctic will be). I adjust the exposure and got some reasonable photos that didn’t require much adjustment in the computer.

Polarizing Filter

2008-09-17T20:39:00.002-05:00

Spent last week getting ready for a class in Houston. We’d set the date 8 weeks ago. Then spent a nervous Fri and Sat waiting to see the results of Ike. I didn’t get confirmation that the classes were postponed until Sunday morning.

With that off the front burner I could go looking for a filter in earnest. I didn’t think finding one would be that tough. Had to go to downtown Austin to find one that fit my lens (49mm).

I’d done a little reading on the web. I needed a Circular Polarizer because of the digital camera. They have two plates. The first cuts reflected light, that’s the polarizer. The second plate sort of makes it scattered (circular) again so the polarizing sensors inside the camera don’t reject the light. That’s sort of the layman’s version.

Meanwhile, I had to relearn to watch the viewfinder when rotating the filter. My first attempt didn’t show much change. I shot from one position and took another shot with the filter rotated 90 degress. It wasn’t until 20 shots later that I came to realize the best position was 45 degrees.

The second day’s photo shoot I adjusted for best reduction first. Then tested 90 degrees off of that. The results weren’t spectacular, but the behavior was much better and in line with what I expected.

Windmill

2008-08-31T20:31:00.003-05:00

I guess the "third time's the charm." I visited Old Settlers Park on three separate days to get a photo of the windmill. I had been out at the park earlier to test depth of field and focus. Some experimental shots of the windmill showed blurring on the blades, because it was moderately windy.

Last Friday it was low winds, so I went out to try for some serious shots. I got lucky and actually had it stop a few times. Problem was they were all darker than I wanted. I should have upped the EV since the back ground was blue sky and clouds.

I got my Weekly Assignment shot for next week, so the trip wasn’t a total waste. A number of the shots didn’t have a blur giving me hope.

Went back Saturday because I had the day free. Joanne was at a quilt show. I boosted the EV two notches. The wind was puffy and didn’t cooperate. I liked the shots, until I got home and looked at actual pixels. Vanes were sharp but the spokes were blurred. The speed of rotation was definitely the culprit, everything else was sharp.

Sunday morning I usually go out for the Sunday paper. Took my camera and drove the extra 3 miles to the park. Light wind but some of the flags were drooping. If they’d been ripping off the poles I would have turned around.

Plus 0.7 EV, large format for extra cropping latitude, and a little patience for the wind to hold up occasionally (at least slow down). For an extra benefit, the wind was aiming the tail into the sun, so the sun lit up the Texas flag on the tail. Out of 14 taken, seven are pretty good. The others had very small distortions around the spokes.

Fill Flash

2008-08-23T20:15:00.003-05:00

Went out to shoot some Round Rock Historical Markers. Inspired I suppose by the video from the 150 year celebration for Williamson County (1998). Thought we would go looking for Sam Bass markers.

It was about 1 in the afternoon, and there was plent of sunshine. That also means plenty of shadows. I though the flash always turns on if you flip it up. But I was wrong!

The flash will fire if it is up and the metering thinks it is needed. That’s the usual situation taking photos in the house. When I popped it up outside for a "fill flash" on the marker the flash didn’t go off.

I felt a small tinge of panic. I’d swapped out my usual battery for the one I’d bought over the internet a few weeks ago. It looks like a SONY battery, but maybe the charge is not enough or its providing lower than normal voltage.

When I got home I took a few pictures of my desk. Yep, the flash fired. Now I’ve got a mystery.

But not for long. Grabbed the User’s Guide and looked up flash. It’s a setting under the function knob. Setting the flash to "Fill Flash" will always fire with the flash up.

So, camera isn’t broken and the spare battery still seems OK. Chalk it up to operator error (or misconception). I’ll continue to shoot with this battery and see if I get my usual 250+ photos. Then I’ll know it will hold a normal charge.

Creative Commons

2008-08-15T20:31:00.002-05:00

Got to reading about Creative Commons licensing over the week-end. Decided I would open my flickr photostream up rather than just use all rights reserved. Looked like the Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative configuration made the most sense.

I can still strike a deal with someone if they want it for commercial use, such as micro-stock.

Spare Battery

2008-08-10T13:30:00.002-05:00

Spent the week looking for batteries and compact flash cards. I was surprised at how understocked the camera store was. I’m familiar with lean and just in time, but empty shelves means loss of sales.

Went to a store in downtown Austin and got a couple of memory cards. 2GB for me and a 1GB for Joanne. We don’t know if her camera takes a 1GB chip. I figure we can try it, and if it doesn’t work, I can use it in mine.

Neither store had a spare battery for the Alpha 100. They had some "replacements" but not a Sony model. Not sure that matters but I always prefer the original manufacturer. One store suggested a battery store, which would be on the way home.

The battery store had a lot of Sony batteries but not the model I wanted. The clerk said the FM50 or equivalent would work. Mine is an FM55H which should last longer. The whole issue is cold weather and the need for extra batteries. Why would I want one that has less capacity?

Checking the cameras User Guide, it specifically says the FM50 and FM30 will not work. So, I'm glad I didn't take the clerk's advice.

I checked the Internet. A lot of people selling batteries that are "claimed" to be to the original specs. I found a couple of sites that seem, from the descriptions, to be original Sony batteries. I ordered one, so will see if it works.

Back From Vacation

2008-07-26T13:54:00.003-05:00

Got back Thursday afternoon from our trip to Stevens Point. It was the 40th High School Reunion for P.J. Jacobs HS. We don’t have relatives in the area, so a reunion is the only reason I get back to Point. Most of the trips to Wisconsin involve Madison and Milwaukee.

A downtown project has been painting murals around the Market Square area. Went down to take some photos. One mural commemorated opening day for the New (improved) Point Bakery on the Market Square, in 1947. That’s why I chose it as my Weekly Photo.

I recognized the two women, they usually ran the counter. And I can almost taste the doughnuts. We bought a lot of "Fat-Pills" in there as I was growing up.

Busy Week

2008-07-12T20:58:00.003-05:00

Between the holiday weekend and teaching a class Tuesday afternoon not a whole lot of photography got done. Did get the DPS weekly assignments in. And the weekly photo has been posted.

I created an archive page for the first half of the year. The weekly photos should load faster, since there are fewer of them.

Photos for this week

2008-06-27T20:24:00.001-05:00

I used the sewing machine feet for my DPS assignment. So that gives me the second choice photo for my Weekly Photo. I should call it weekly photo"S", since I probably took 20 or more of these guys, bracketing the exposures.

I’m going to adjust the weekly photo page to archive the first half on the year. The page will look the same except for some navigation links for the archive.

Studio Work

2008-06-22T16:45:00.001-05:00

Used the light tent for this week’s assignment. It really required setting up the camera to get the photo I wanted. Took me three sessions. Take a couple dozen shots and pull them up on the computer to see how they really turned out.

I’d already figured out you need to adjust the white balance for the lighting. But the exposure was still darker than I wanted. I turned off the D-R-O and boosted the exposure to +1.3EV. I even bracketed the shots +/- 0.7EV.

Surprised to find that +2.0EV seemed to give the most reliable picture quality.

I doubt if I’ll have to mess around quite so much for penguin pictures. I won’t be shooting indoors, or using artificial light. I’ll probably use a flash for on board the ship.

Back from the Midwest

2008-06-18T20:39:00.002-05:00

Overall, the trip was a success. We found the gum boots in Wisconsin, and Turkey run had enough rain that we could try them out. Nice and snug with heavy socks and the walking wasn't too bad. I think they'll do the job.

The weekly assignment is Natural Framing. I had that in mind when we were trying out the boots. The trail followed a stream bed, plenty of mud, but deep cut channels into the rock. Got a photo to use for the Weekly Assignment

On the way back to Texas, we stopped in Paducah for an afternoon. They have a Quilt Museum. While Joanne looked at quilts, I went down to the flood wall. It is all covered with murals. I wanted to take a couple "framing" shots. Didn't use them for DPS, but one was interesting. It is the Ohio river through a door-way. Almost looks like a mural itself. That's the one I'm using for the Weekly Photo.

Weekly Photo Early This Week

2008-06-10T20:53:00.003-05:00

I don't anticipate an internet connection when we get to Turkey Run State Park on Thursday. So, I've posted my pick for the week.

When I grew up in Stevens Point we had Point Beer (lager) and in the Spring, Point Boch. That's 40 years ago. Now we have a lot of alternate brewing styles, readily accepted by the market.

In some cases the label and the name sell the product, more than the taste. I haven't tried this batch yet, I want to take it along to Turkey Run. Since my buddies complain about my taste for regular Point, we will see if they are impressed with this style.

Got To Wisconsin

2008-06-08T11:31:00.003-05:00

Don't know if I should consider it an opportunity to practice or a disadvantage. The weather between Austin and Milwaukee has been terrible. Heavy rain and high winds. Even had a chance to hear the Tornado Warning Sirens.

I could, I suppose, practice foul weather photography. I have opted for keeping the DSLR safe and dry. Plus I was more concerned about keeping the car on the road.

Arrived on Saturday, just in front of the storm that nailed the Milwaukee Zoo. The "planned" visit may be postponed on this trip.

Biggest problem is the quantity of rain. The storm sewers will catch up, eventually. But, you get some temporary flooding. I know where the low water crossings and low streets are in Round Rock. I'm not so sure here in Milwaukee.

On the plus side, we're going to go looking for rubber boots this afternoon. Mid-calf to knee high, all rubber, with a good tread. I'm betting that the farm stores here have more comfortable work boots for dairy farming, and at a better price, that more expensive hunting boots. I used to have some fishing boots with a steel shank, you could wear those for 12 hours comfortably no matter how much you hiked.

A Longer Road Trip

2008-06-03T20:24:00.001-05:00

Getting the things together for a road trip. Driving up to Milwaukee from Round Rock. We’ll visit with Joanne’s friend for a few days and then drop down to Turkey Run State Park in Indiana. Then home. About two weeks total.

I’m taking the Alpha with me. Loaded the Sony software on my laptop. I should be able to unload photos. Should also have some candidates for the Weekly photo next week.

It looks like they’re going to have scattered thunderstorms. But we might work in a trip to the Milwaukess Zoo. Then I could try out some wildlife photos.

More Flowers

2008-05-30T20:06:00.001-05:00

Had a good week. The weather is hot but very little rain. I’ve been walking late evenings rather than mid-afternoon, just to avoid the mid-day sun.

The Weekly Assignment was shooting from the hip, no viewfinder. I tried to take some photos of some oleanders peaking over a fence, but couldn’t get the shot I wanted (usually too much fence).

I used the view finder to take this week’s photo.

The DPS photo for the week was taken within the rules and can be found here.

I did learn a little from this assignment. I was pretty sure the auto-focus would work. It did, very few blurry photos. But, it didn’t always focus where I thought it should.

Odds & Ends

2008-05-22T20:22:00.003-05:00

The weekly photo is up. It is one of the batch I took last Sunday. I liked the color contrasts. Particularly the drive belt.

I also posted the cat photo for the DPS contest.

Have been doing my daily walk early evening when it is a little cooler. I took the camera along to try a long shadow shot. But the sun was playing hide and seek, so I didn't get the shot I wanted. I've still got a week or so to get it.

And, I got a clean bill of health from my doctor. The growth they removed two weeks ago is nothing special. And my eyelid is healing well.

Road Trip, of sorts

2008-05-18T19:19:00.003-05:00

Went to lunch with our friends today. When we got back to their house, I asked if he had an old Edison phonograph. Yup, sure do!

The photos are a little dark but PSP cleans them up. Got one with a cat that may be my assignment picture for next week. Haven't uploaded the shots to Flickr yet, that's next.

After Dark

2008-05-13T17:34:00.002-05:00

Sometimes the second time is better. I went to UT on Sunday, slightly after sunset, and got a few pictures I liked. So, Monday night I went to downtown Round Rock after it had gotten dark (around 9:15 pm). Surprised how deserted the streets get.

They have white lights around the trees and some of the buildings. The assignment is night photography, so I suppose the lights made it easier.

Took my tripod. Used the night portrait mode (no flash) on the camera. Used the timer function and turn DR-O off.

It appears the night portrait mode uses ISO 800 as the setting. When I look at the 100% pixels I can see a little graininess, but I suspect it would show in a normal print.

Took about 30 shots. I got four or five shots that I like. Makes it hard to choose. I'll update this post with my choice Wednesday.

Update: My DPS choice is now up. I have also updated the weekly photo page.

Night Photography

2008-05-11T23:24:00.002-05:00

Went down to UT tonight to take some photos at the LBJ library and the UT Tower.

We went at 8pm but it didn't really get dark until 9pm. Haven't analyzed all the pictures yet. Some look ok, others are out of focus or blurred. Most likely because I didn't always use the autotimer.

One lesson learned is that pebble surfaced sidewalk are sharp on your knee. I need to bring a pad or something so I can kneel behind the tripod.

I've got a photo I can use for the assignment, but want to do better. I've got another 9 days to go out and shoot at night to get something I really like. Thinking of going to downtown Round Rock tomorrow night.

Late This Week

2008-05-10T17:58:00.003-05:00

I'm a little late posting the weekly photo this week. But I have an excuse.

I had a minor growth in one eye-lid and had it removed on Friday. The problem is that they patched the eye for a day. My right eye is the one that actually works well. So, with that patched, couldn't even type or read.

Got to wondering if I could take any pictures using the Auto Focus (since I couldn't see through the view finder). It works, I took a self portrait of sorts. That's this week's photo.

Better Photos

2008-05-02T16:44:00.002-05:00

I've posted the photo for the week. I've decided that rather than reduce the image size to 27% of the original, I'll upload the original to Flickr. Then post a medium link on the Weekly Photo page.

That should save me some bandwidth, not that it's an issue. Then if someone wants to see a larger version they can jump over to Flickr. That's the convention over at DPS.

I was taking pictures for the Converging Lines assignment. Next to the Mays Street bridge was a small patch of Indian Blankets. Not much wind so got a good isolated flower.

Sorting The Week-end's Photos

2008-04-23T21:12:00.001-05:00

Decided to go with the down spout for the weekly assignment. Didn’t like the quilt blocks as much.

I did get some wildflower photos, however, while we were there. One of the Texas Yellow Stars had a bee visiting a number of flowers. I caught a good shot of it. That’s been posted as my photo of the week.

I started a thread for cold weather photography. Got some answers. It looks like the main issues are battery life and condensation. Both are solveable.

Wildflower Center II

2008-04-20T21:31:00.001-05:00

Killed a couple birds with one trip today. I’d promise to take my wife to the Wildflower Center today. The sky was cloudy but it was a nice day. I figure the Antarctic is likely to have overcast days, so it would be a good test for exposure. I also took the monopod along to see if I could capture a panorama.

On the exposure front, I adjusted the WB and set the camera for ISO 200. The photos came out a reasonable color. I bracketed a few and set the camera for +0.3 EV on some. Those adjustments are getting more automatic, at least in terms of knowing what to push.

I may have to practice setting the controls for manual shutter and apeture. The panorama photos didn’t all take at the same speed. One is noticeably darker. When they get stiched together they’ll look funny.

I also, by accident, found a curved tile downspout. With the supporting limestone works, it is a good possible entry for the Angles assignment. I’d already taken some quilt block photos. So, I’ve got multiple possibilities.

Zigzag Iris

2008-04-19T18:01:00.002-05:00

The weekly photo is up.

It was taken at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. I specifically slowed down the shutter speed to get a little blur in the water. It does give it some motion.

I posted the assignment to DPS as well. While at the center I found a flower pot recycling bin. Lots of colorful circles.

Haven’t had a lot of time to play with the camera. Taught an all day MindManager class on Friday, so most of the week was tied up in class prep.

Update: I may have read the wrong sign. The weekly photo is probably an Iris, as it is purple. A Spider Lily is white.

Spring(clip)

2008-04-10T20:38:00.002-05:00

I posted the weekly picture. It is the Spring(clip)-o-piller. I used it as the model for the Weekly Assignment over on DPS.

Disk Space

2008-04-08T21:26:00.002-05:00

I can see it isn’t going to take long to fill my hard drive. 30 photos at 2 Mb each, and all of a sudden an experiment can be 60+ Mb of photos.

A lot of the experiment shots aren’t woth keeping. So, I’ve culled more than 50% of them. Hard to break a habit of saving everything. But I didn’t usually order duplicates of everything I shot on film. And I've got a lot of marginal prints.

Road Trip Report

2008-04-05T22:38:00.002-05:00

Great weather for a drive to Marble Falls. Used the trip to explore a couple of new roads. There appears to be a North South road called Ronald Reagan Blvd that connects 29 to 1431. Mostly an entension of Parmer Lane.

Only found a few places with enough Bluebonnets to warrant stopping. A lot of the road had steep shoulders, and wouldn’t have been a good place to get out.

Coming home on 29, there were more Bluebonnets than on 1431 but nothing dense.

Got the pictures I wanted. Both with the Bluebonnets on the way out, and at the Middle School after we’d gotten home. Driving back into town I noticed a large number of small blue flowers. (I believe they’re called Dotted Blue-eyed Grass.) I’ll post two photos over at DPS next Wednesday.

My photo of the week for next week will be "The famous (but rare) Texas Spring(clip)-o-piller." Constructed from a ruler, spring-clips, and a Jack In The Box Christmas antenna ball. It even had ear-muffs.

Road Trip

2008-04-04T21:08:00.002-05:00

Looks like it is going to clear up tomorrow. It has been off and on gloomy with heavy cloud cover. Drizzle the last few days to top it off.

I signed up to take Joanne to Marble Falls. It’s a smaller town about 40 miles from here, and along the lake.

The wildflowers are everywhere now. I should get a field or two. Next week’s assignment at DPS is "Spring."

Wildflowers are an obvious choice for the assignment, so I need a twist. I’m thinking of using a wine bottle holder I got for Christmas. It is coiled metal wire, so essentially it is a "Spring." If I put it in amongst a clutch of wildflowers, it’s a 2-fer!

Microstock

2008-04-01T21:45:00.002-05:00

My wife brought home an interesting book from the library. Selling Photography by Roger Antrobus. It had been listed in the Edward R. Hamilton’s Bargain Books catalogue. I’d marked 4 or 5 titles and she checked to see if our library already had it.

In the book, Roger is making the case for "stock" photography as a way to sell and resell your photographs.

As I investigated the larger companies I realized that they usually want fairly large files (50MB). That would be shooting in RAW. And that would quickly use up my memory space while I’m in the Antarctic.

I posted a question on the Digital Photography School forum and was informaed there are also "microstock" web sites. These are smaller photo sizes, so worth investigating further.

I’m not sure my photos reach the quality needed, at least not yet. But, good penguin pictures might be better than actic landscapes. And, if I focus on the penguin, the depth of field won’t be that critical.

Spring in Texas

2008-03-26T20:20:00.003-05:00

I was hoping to get some wild flowers by March 17th. We did but they were just the common yellow daisy like flowers. With the drought-like Jan & Feb, I was concerned that we might not get any Bluebonnets this year.

Finally spotted some on Easter Sunday. My wife and I drove down to the IBM campus, in Austin. She pointed out to me that they water their lawns. (She worked in those buildings more than 10 years.)

Sure enought, fields of them. Immature, but definitely sprouting. That where I took the picture for the week.

For me, Bluebonnets are the official start of Spring in Texas.

Day Before Easter

2008-03-22T18:00:00.001-05:00

Went to a different park to shoot a few photos. Crowded, people having Easter Picnics, I guess. Tomorrow is a 40% chance of rain. Today is clear sky and 77.

Found some kids riding around and around on their bicycles. Took some more panning pictures. A couple turned out. Better batting average than the other two outings.

Their mom came up, wondered what I was doing. So I told her and she was OK with it. I went over and thanked her when I was done.

There were some kids on the swing set. Tempting target for panning, but I didn’t want to introduce myself to yet another parent.

Wouldn’t want to post any kid’s picture without the parent’s permission. The bicycle pictures were just to see if I could do it.

Weekly Photo Is Up

2008-03-20T20:32:00.001-05:00

Posted my picture for the week. Not overly attractive. Just a photo of the Light Tent that I created last week.

The set-up will work but I need to add an additional light source. The objects are recognizable but dark.

Weather cooperated on Wednesday, but wanted to try the “panning” trick. I did it again today but used a higher shutter speed. Actually got one to work out of 30+ shot.

I’ll be posting it as the weekly assignment over at DPS.

Panning

2008-03-19T20:18:00.002-05:00

The week’s assignment, over at Digital Photography School, is "panning." A technique that blurs the background while keeping the topic of interest focused. It takes practice.

Took my camera on the afternoon’s walk and shot cars over on McNeil. I seem to have the blurred background down. Unfortunately, so is much of the subject. This is going to take some effort.

I also have a new lesson learned. Since you want to slow the shutter down, you set the mode control for "S." That worked OK but the photo’s came out noticeably blue.

It seems the manual controls also bring up the White Balance options, if set. So it was using my 3000K from the night before. I’ll have to keep in mind what I’ve changed. Just powering down doesn’t make some things go away. (Which is good overall.)

Poking around further; the Wikipedia entry on panning suggests that I may have slowed the shutter down too much. A fast vehicle, F1 racer, can be caught at 1/125th. A runner might be closer to 1/60th. I was taking the cars at 1/20 to 1/30. So, I might have more success with a faster shutter.

White Balance

2008-03-14T21:54:00.001-05:00

Finished the cardboard box light tent. Joanne suggested we just wrap the muslin on all three sides with a single strip of cloth. That worked better than three separate squares.

Set it up and adjusted the clip on lamp. Then shot off some pictures of my small test subjects. They looked ok in the LCD.

They didn’t look ok when I moved them to the computer. They were red/brown like my earlier ones, using a high intensity desk lamp. Seems like the Reveal bulbs may not be as full spectrum as I thought. Back to the internet.

I knew I would, sooner or later, have to address color temperature. There wasn’t total agreement on the web concerning the reveal bulbs. Other than it is close to an incandescent and it filters out the yellow.

Took out the manual and figured out how to create a custom setting. This would be the technique for using a white or gray card. The light tent has White Bristol Board for a floor and walls. I pointed into the empty box as the white reference. Camera thinks it is 3000K. That’s pretty close to the internet findings. I went with that.

The second test shots cured the red/brown problem. But the figures seem darker.

It looks like I need more of the same light. And I may have to mess with the exposures.

Round Rock, TX

2008-03-13T20:37:00.001-05:00

The week has zoomed by. I have been working on web related stuff rather than walk around and snap pictures.

The photo, for this week, is of the famous "Round Rock."

I am also experimenting with Flickr. The same subject but different sized photo is up at my Flickr account.

Light Tent

2008-03-11T21:21:00.002-05:00

Weather has been off and on. Rainy yesterday, beautiful today, but more on the way Thursday. So, I’m confining my picture taking to indoors.

Set about on a related project. Making a light tent. Found a good description on the internet (of course). It uses a cardboard box for the structural elements.

I spent time after lunch gathering up the components. The Hobby Lobby was a good source for Bristol Board. And the Home Depot had the light fixture I wanted, a clip on work lamp.

I was spared having to go to the fabric store. My wife is a quilter, and there is a LOT of fabric around the house. She has a good supply of white muslin. So, that won’t be hard to get.

I had taken a few photos of small objects last night. The light I was using gave the backgrounds a decided yellow tint. I want to see if I can solve it with a light tent, and a full spectrum light source. It still may not be enough to get good photos of coins, but it is an experiment. And reasonably inexpensive.

Round Rock

2008-03-08T21:54:00.002-06:00

Sunny weather today. So I went over to the park and shot some photos of the Round Rock. It was a landmark during the stagecoach and cattle drive days. And it is, literaly, a round flat (horizontal) rock sticking out of the stream. People knew they were getting close to Austin.

Shot off 50 pictures. Doesn’t take long when it’s three photos at a time with the bracket settings.

This time I was more interested in manual exposure correction. It requires pressing a button on the back, and the clicking of a dial in front. You can do it single handed, same hand you use for pressing the shutter.

Most of the better photos used a correction of +0.7 EV.

The parking lot has some bronze statues. One is a longhorn under a tree. A lot of shadows. Moving the exposure control up help to bring out more detail. You can see the dirt and leaves in front are a bit washed out, which I would expect from over exposure.

This Week's Photo

2008-03-07T12:52:00.005-06:00

I've posted my photo for the week. I also modified the photo page to show the most recent photo first. It will still depend on the browser you are using.

Looking forward to a sunny week-end so I can wander off to someplace new. Maybe just up the road, and take a picture of the world famous "Round Rock."

Trees Are Blooming

2008-03-04T20:56:00.001-06:00

Enjoying some nice weather between cold fronts. The upcoming weekend is supposed to be crummy. Starting to see signs of Spring. Many of the trees are starting to bloom. We’ve had dandilions for the last week or two, but no wild flowers yet.

I took the camera with me when I took my walk. There is a reddish/purple tree along the was. It is probably a Redbud tree. They bloom in the Spring, and really stand out against the other mostly bare trees.

I took some pictures but they weren’t as bright as my eyes could see. The +0.3 EV was better. I should have tried +0.7 just to see what I get. Maybe tomorrow, when I take a walk in the late afternoon, the lighting will be a little more favorable.

Weekly Photo

2008-02-29T16:15:00.001-06:00

As additional motivation to play with the camera, I’ve set myself the task of taking at least one interesting photo a week. Then I will post that photo on a Piquero web-page. This week’s photo is here.

The originals are JPG files but very large (1 to 2 Meg). So I’ve resized the photos to about 25% of the original. I also cropped the image to take out excess border data. That brings the files down to 54K.

I’m also going to add a link to the page over on the left hand side of the blog.

Another Field Trip

2008-02-28T18:53:00.001-06:00

Nice day but windy today. Decided to take another field trip, since I was on my own for lunch anyway. Drove down to Lady Bird Lake, in Austin, to check out the ducks at Lou Neff Point.

Had a couple of features I wanted to try. (1) Some of the scene settings. And (2) Exposure bracketing.

I like the knarly trees that haven’t begun to bud yet. Just a tangle of bare branches. The park has a number of them. Took the monopod along and snapped a few trees. Tried the “Landscape” scene selection. The results did seem a bit richer in color.

The information stored with the image (back at home on the computer) indicates what settings were used. I only took minor notes, and then verified the actual settings back home.

The water and the ducks presented a different problem. Had a lot of reflection off the water, from the overhead sun. I tried different shots with the Exposure Bracket setting. The +0.3 EV (slightly over exposed) produced a better photo. This is probably the result of the reflection making the scene look brighter to the photometery system.

I can also bracket +/-0.7 EV. But the higher bracket gave a more washed out image.

Looking over the lake to downtown Austin let me try out “Landscape” mode. The pictures are darker than I want. I tried out White Balance (WB) bracketing. It didn’t seem to make much of a difference. I tried WB on a tree full of berries. This produced some noticeable differences.

One final experiment. Most of the trees are still bare branches. There is one, however, that is covered with orange/red berries. Very colorful. I took some photos with the “Macro” scene setting. Gave me a very nice blurred back ground, i.e. short depth of field, so a single cluster of berries could be isolated.

Back to the drawing board

2008-02-26T12:50:00.002-06:00

Record high temperatures in Texas yesterday. Clear sky and sunny, so a good day to play in the back yard with the camera. I set up the experiment to test depth of field.

The results weren’t as straight forward as I’d hoped. I can detect the blurring but spacing the coffee cups along the tape measure didn’t give me the contrast I wanted. Plus, at greater distances I couldn’t be sure if it was blur or lack of resolution. I’d set the camera to Small quality, and had to look at 100% pixels on the computer.

I did, however, find a site DOFMaster that has a calculator. The numbers roughly correspond to my observations.

Particularly for the 80mm setting. It was clear that the near field was short, less than a foot in front of the coffee cup. The 35mm setting was harder, because you get about 1.5 to 2 feet in front and back. That was about the height of the total frame, so I couldn’t detect a lot of bluring.

The Wikipedia entry for Depth of Field has a lot of formulas. But it has a few example photos. It looks like F-stop is the critical parameter, along with subject distance.

I need to construct a better subject setting.

View Finder

2008-02-25T12:30:00.002-06:00

I know that conventional lenses on a digital camera take a hit, about a 1.5 crop factor. In practical terms that means my viewing area is less wide. Reviewing the pictures I took at EPCOT, last week, it was obvious.

I decided to run a practical experiment this afternoon (Sunday). I wanted to see two things. (1) How wide is my vision? and (2) How much more than the viewfinder focus box is included in the picture?

My home faces West, so the setting sun hits my front door in the late afternoon. The sun would be at my back and provide great lighting. The house has a low wall, a bit over 5 foot high, in front of the house.

I took some oversized yardsticks (4 foot) and laid them on the wall. Then I took index cards, drew a line down the center of the card, and then folded the card (line inside). I positioned a card every 1 foot, using the yard stick to hold down the card, i.e. slipping the bent half under the yardstick.

I got my 50 foot tape out and fixed one end at the wall. Then I stretched the tape out toward the sidewalk, essentially at a right angle to the wall.

I got some quad ruled paper and recreated the viewfinder focus box.

With the camera mounted on the monopod, I’d take the camera out to a 5 foot mark and look through the lens zooming between 35mm and 80mm. At the two extremes I would note the index cards visible relative to some of the focus marks, and then snap a picture. (Here's a cropped example )

I’d record on my grid paper how wide I could see in the focus box, not the total viewfinder.

Then I would repeat the process at the next 5 foot interval, i.e. 5, 10, 15, 20, and 30 foot from the wall. The monopod was always at the same height. So, even though my lawn slopes down a bit toward the curb, all the pictures were roughly of the same scene and the same relative center. The index cards (i.e. the horizontal) were always visible.

Took the pictures with medium resolution. Then I took a few with small resolution, and a couple in large format. “Size” is really a designation for pixels not image dimensions.

After cleaning up my props, I downloaded the test pictures to my computer. Definitely cheaper than 1-hour photo processing. Then it is mostly a question of trigonometry.

The calculator function in Windows is a bit limited. It will do square roots but not sine or cosine. Not to worry, I have my CRC Math tables and a slide-rule for backup. (The slide-rule doesn’t have a sine scale but does have a T (tangent) scale.)

It looks like the 35mm opens up about 36.52 degrees. That works out to 6.6 ft from 10 feet out, between the focus box brackets. The resulting image adds about 1.5 feet outside the focus box, on both sides. (Distance from target x .33 = one half of the focus box view.)

The 80mm setting is a little less than half that. At 20 feet, 6.32 feet are in the focus brackets, about 18 degrees of view. The image adds about a foot to the edges, on both sides.. (Distance from target x .158 = one half the focus box view.)

The images are identical for S, M, L images. So the number of pixels (resolution) changes but not the image width.

I think my next excursion into physics will be to lay out the tape and place my markers every foot straight out, stretching in front of me like a path. Then if I focus on one marker, I should see the depth of field impact to other markers.

Field Trip

2008-02-24T21:16:00.002-06:00

The field trip was a success. I learned a lot about the camera and the monopod. In no particular order of priority:

The quick release worked about the way I’d hoped. I need to occasionally tighten the mounting plate on the camera, but it was easy to snap in and snap off.
Tilt head can be a mystery for the TSA. The guy in Austin couldn’t recognize it, but he may have been new. Tampa didn’t have a problem with it.
Had some improvement in the “shake” indicator. Found it was best when I was sitting on a bench. But I did take a few low light shots, standing up, that came out well.
Overall weights weren’t a problem. I carried the monopod, head, camera, and extra lens in a backpack. They weren’t a burden. Didn’t always fit in the provided self/storage on a ride, but that’s a function of monopod length.
Monopod just fits into the backpack on the diagonal. Most of the time I let it poke out between the two zippers. But, I could, in a pinch, wrap a plastic bag over the whole works and close it in the knapsack.
I might want to get a longer hand-strap on the monopod. It was just as easy, however, to carry it in the middle, like an umbrella. I usually took the camera off the mount when I was moving to another location. This afternoon (Sunday) I was running another experiment and left the camera mounted as I moved back and forth to the clipboard, carrying the monopod.
A pratical observation. Start extending the legs from the bottom, if you’re planning the full length. You might not be able to reach the lower leg if you have you hand in the wrist strap.

Bought The Monopod

2008-02-14T21:02:00.001-06:00

Ran some errands today, kind of all over the Round Rock and Austin area. In the process, I picked up the monopod. I had planned on getting it Wednesday, on my way back from SCORE. But the camera store doesn’t stock them.

Instead I got out the yellow pages and checked with other camera stores. Found one that had them in stock.

What I picked up was a Bogen (Manfrotto) 676B Light Monopod.. About 19 inches collapsed. Looks like it’s going to do the job. It will certainly pack in the duffle-bag. That was one requirement.

I also picked up a Bogen 3229 swivle head with quick release. It has a mount and a release mechanism. The release part has an extra pin for locking.

I wasn’t paying attention to where the lens was pointing relative to mount mechanism. When I unscrewed the lock for tilting, the camera move forward and pointed down. Fixed the orientation and now can swing from horizontal to vertical.

And the main feature, being able to move from monopod to hand-held was accomplished. Perhaps not as fluid as I want for November. But that will come with practice.

A Third Leg

2008-02-12T20:21:00.000-06:00

Between primaries and planning a trip to Florida, haven’t been very active with this blog. Last big step was solving the air travel.

I’m back to focusing on the digital camera and gear. I’ve starting looking at monopods rather than tripods for the Antarctic trip. Weight and bulkiness seems to me the key factors. The use of a monopod is usually good for sporting and nature events where the photographers move frequently. That sums up my impression of Antarctica.

Assuming the land visits will be like the Galapagos. A fair amount of hiking, even along the beaches to see the wildlife. I think a tripod would be too bulky. A monopod will give me some stability.

Obviously, as the weight of the monopod goes up, so too the weight it can support. The smaller compact units, while reasonably priced, only support a 10-11 pound payload. If I had a huge telephoto lens, this would be a limitation.

I decided to weigh the Alpha unit with the 30-80 mm lens, the most likely configuration. Came out 1 lb 14+ oz. My film unit, with an 80-200 mm lens was 1 lb 15oz. The lenses themselves are spec’d at 6 3/16 oz and 10 9/16 oz. So I’m only looking at 2.5 lbs on the payload.

Bogen makes a light monopod. They also have a quick release swivel “head” that looks interesting. It isn’t a ball-mount. Just the ability to tip from horizontal to vertical. But it provides a mount for the camera that can be snapped in or snapped off the monopod. That is intriguing. That would save time if you can go from mounted to handheld without a lot of extra “screwing around.”

The tilt head adds 0.6 lbs. The tilt head has a max capaity of 5.5 lbs. Still more than enough for the 2.5 lbs of payload.

If I pick the equipment up this week, I can take it to Florida for a field test. We are going to visit Epcot. So, that would be my first real use of the camera and monopod.

AUS-ATL-EZE-AEP-USH

2008-01-22T20:24:00.000-06:00

Finally nailed down the flights to Ushuaia, Argentina. I knew there had to be a rational schedule.

My web based efforts kept giving me mid-morning into Buenos Aires, but always a 5:40 am flight to Ushuaia.

Part of the logistics problem is coming in to one airport (EZE) and having to get to another domestic airport. (AEP). That early morning flight would have meant getting a hotel room in Buenos Aires, and checking out at 2:30 or 3 in the morning.

Instead my travel provider, Mountain Travel Sobek, suggested I contact Airtreks. The agent found me a much more liveable schedule. Going by way of Atlanta, but no overnight needed in Buenos Aires. Long day of travel, however, but I might get some sleep on the ATL-EZE leg.

Got some long delays between connections. But, that’s OK. Gives me room for flight delays, customs, etc. When I traveled for business I always opted for the next flight, not the tightest connection.

Zooming Along

2008-01-17T19:18:00.000-06:00

Loaded up the software that came with the camera. I already have Paint Shop Pro on my machine, but I wanted to see if their application had any interesting features. I’ve only started to explore the options.

The main reason was to try to transfer photos from the camera. I don’t know if the software is required but it doesn’t take up a lot of disk space.

The camera behaves a lot like a jump drive. My operating system, XP Professional, treated the camera like a removeable drive. You "stop" the USB device the same way you would a removeable drive.

After I got the directory structure set up to my likeing, I zoomed in on the photos. You can’t really tell on the preview LCD, even though it is large 2 x 1.5 inches, how well the focus came out. The auto focus works well. Most of the photos are sharp. Some were taken in ambient light and the shutter speed couldn’t compensate for my movement.

My subjects are stuffed animals and bookcase shelves. You can really tell the depth of field differences. I suspect my default settings have something to do with that. So, that may be my next line of inquiry.

Three Legged Stool

2008-01-15T20:34:00.000-06:00

I need to add a tripod to my equipment list, a small one perhaps but sturdy. My current tripod had telescoping legs but the tightening mechanisms cracked and have been replaced by non-telescoping duct tape!

I need to experiment a bit with minimum distance to focus. Taking pictures of my (messy) bookcase doesn’t seem to focus as well. That might be a function of film lens having a narrower field of view on a digital camera. Might also be a function of my eyesight.

Thermal Underware

2008-01-11T19:40:00.000-06:00

Had SCORE on Wednesday, and went shopping on Thursday, not much done with the digital camera. The objective Thursday was the base layer for arctic clothes. We went down to a large sporting supply store and found some pants and tops. Essentially long underwear, but made with synthetic materials not cotton. The alternative was silk.

I decided to find some of the stuff now, during our "Winter." I'm not sure all the items will be in the stores during the Summer.

I’m not expecting severe cold during our trip. But a wet or overcast windy day can seem a lot colder than the outside temperature. Used to have reasonably crummy weather in Minnesota. But after 28 years in Texas, even 40 degrees feels cold.

A lot of searching on the web for temperature tables. Nov/Dec is late Spring. Summer is usually described as Jan/Feb. I would guess we will see temperatures of -10 C to 10C (which is 14 F to 41 F).

Picked It Up

2008-01-08T20:01:00.000-06:00

The toy came in today. Picked it up as part of the running errands and lunch circuit. Picked up a 1GB CompactFlash card as well.

Haven’t used it yet. The first step is to charge the battery. The light just went out on the charger, so it has the normal charge. The pamphlet recommends letting it charge for another hour to get a full charge. The difference appears to be about 60 minutes of battery life, 30% more than just the normal charge.

One great piece of new news. The charger works 100-240V, 50/60 Hz. That solves my shipboard problem. I was afraid I would have to get a different charger for the 220V system on the ship. So, I don’t need a transformer. I can check that box now as solved.

CompactFlash cards

2008-01-04T19:00:00.000-06:00

Not sure how large a CompactFlash memory can go into the A-100. I’ll clearly have to take a couple of units with me. There doesn’t seem to be a big difference in price between 4GB and 8GB (about $30).

I’ll probably start with a 1 GB module. That will let me play with the camera. Then I’ll watch the prices between the 4 & 8 modules.

I’m assuming Antarctica will be a lot like the Galapagos in terms of wildlife photo opportunities. We went to Japan-China-Germany on a 6 week trip, shot almost 35 rolls of film. Galapagos was only 11 days, but we shot 28 rolls. We used a mixture of 24/36 exposures. So say it averaged 30 per roll. Galapagos yielded 840 shots.

We will be on this trip for 21 days, not counting travel out and back. So, potentially, 1680 pictures. If I use the Medium quality setting (about 5.6 Megapixels) the file sizes would be 2.3 MB. This would require 3.86 GB of memory (actually there is a 10% overhead which works out to a 4 GB module).

Now, what I don’t know is the ratio of good to crummy pictures. I took a number of photos of iguanas and blue footed boobies. Not all of them were worth scanning or keeping. One advantage of a digital camera is the review and delete functions.

I know I’ll be using a higher quality for some shots, in particular any good sunsets. I’m looking forward to getting an evening shot with icebergs and a setting sun. Some of these I will want as an enlargement, not the standard 4x6 prints

The Digital Chase

2008-01-03T20:53:00.000-06:00

Stopped by the local camera store on the way back from lunch this afternoon. They had an Alpha 100 (Sony) demonstration model. We had stopped by last week, but they had sold out their models, including the demo model.

I have a Minolta SLR, with two lenses. I wanted to physically see if my lens would work on the Sony. All the reviews indicated they would. But I wanted to see. The lens I brought along worked fine.

The A-100 is an earlier model. The current top of the line is the A-700. I read the reviews for both.

I concluded that the A-700 had too many features. If I was a serious amateur, I’d probably want all the bells and whistles. I want something I can operate in cold weather, so the buttons and fewer choices on the A-100 seems the better choice.

So, I ordered the A-100 Body. Should have it next Monday.

100 Things

2008-01-01T20:17:00.000-06:00

This seems to be the season for life lists or Bucket Lists as the current movie title calls it. Simply put, what would you like to do during your life? What experiences would you like to have?

I've had a list since the early 80's. I've added to it from time to time. It now contains 100 destinations, events, or experiences. I'm developing a hypelinked version of the list. It isn't ready for prime time yet.

Item #15 in the list is to Visit All Seven Continents. I only have Africa and Antarctica left. We have gone for multi-week vacations in the other five. So, the trip in Nov 2008 is another step in fulfilling that item.

New Year, New Plans

2008-01-01T19:55:00.000-06:00

Boy, I let my travel planning go off the deep-end. The last post here was in November of 2006. Ireland and Italy came and went. No excuse, I just pursued other projects.

Toward year end Sep-Dec 2007, I got real busy with training for Mind Manager, and was posting on my business blog.

New project or I should say destination. After 20 years of "thinking" about it, Joanne and I have reservations to go to the Antarctica in Nov 2008.

This gives me two new blog topics to record my ideas and thoughts about.

Travel Planning for Antarctica
Obtaining and learning how to use a digital SLR

(1) is a logistics problem but only because I've got some questions about the flights. The first look appears to be 45 hours because of the Buenos Aires overnight connection. There is probably an easier way.

(2) isn't as hard as it sounds. I already have an SLR film camera that I've taken on numerous trips. The results have been satisfactory for my needs. But I need to learn the digital tricks and capabilities. Then play with the camera enough that some become second nature.

2008 is a chance to learn about a lot of things!

Should I Pack Long Underwear

2006-11-30T19:05:00.000-06:00

Maybe I'm just getting behind on the technology. You would think that finding the normal tempature ranges would be easy. I'm obviously not using the right terms.

We are having our first real winter weather here in Texas. Expecting a hard freeze tonight, the vegetation is in danger. So, I'm hunkered down in the back room. No good reason to go out.

What will the temperatures by in Ireland & Italy?

I did find the National Tourist Offices for Ireland and Italy. Actually, the links were on the VisitEurope page.

Better results searching on "Average Temperatures." Travel site Gate1 has monthly averages by city, and in Fahrenheit.

Dublin in April 40-54(F), and May 45-58(F). Down the coast to Cork, about the same. [Note to self: hotel needs a hot tub.]

Not as detailed for Italy. Just that Spring and Fall are 55-75(F). This one has a better break down, but essentially the same answer.

Road Markers

2006-11-28T19:42:00.000-06:00

Digging further into my genealogical records yields a couple of possible towns to find or visit. One is my relative, slightly off the direct tree. The other two are place names for one of my wife's ancestors.

Dwyer is part of my wife's mother's line. The distant relative is Thomas Dwyer in Davidstown, County Kilkenny (roughly southwest of Dublin). His wife, Margret Dowling hailed from Portnahully, County Waterford (continuing southwest).

My relative is also from my grandmother's line, a couple of lines over. Forrest marries a Higgins, but Higgins had a brother. It is the Higgins line that leads back from my grandmother. My correspondence shows where W. Forrest comes from, Youghal-Balinatree, County Cork.

The second part of the name (Balinatree) doesn't show up when you search Google. This makes me think I've got a (a) Suburb or region and (b) the spelling is phonetic. Youghal is right on the border between County Cork & County Waterford (continuing southwest toward Cork).

So, Dublin to Cork is a probable leg on the journey. A few stops along the way might be interesting.

I need to get a much more detailed map. I can't find enough detail on the atlases in my meager collection.

Where Else To Visit

2006-11-27T21:18:00.000-06:00

Beyond using Dublin as the point of entry and getting the "clock" adjusted to a 6 hour difference, I haven't really considered what else to do in Ireland.

I've got about 2 weeks. So, one thing I've thought about is a rail pass. Pick up 4 or 5 travel segments in the pass.

I don't know enough about the Rowen side to know where they came from, other than Ireland.

Both the National Library of Ireland and the National Archives of Ireland are located in Dublin.

One resource seems to be Griffith's Valuation , probably a tax roll of some kind. More important, there is an Index of Surnames at the National Library. The efforts were carried out between 1848-1864. So, the surname index is your portal into the county records.

They have a number of parish records, but they are all on microfilm.

I probably should put Cork and Cobh on the planning list. About 50% of the immigrants left via Cobh (or Queenstown depending on the century). Cobh was a major port. It might be a source of immigration records.

Not as sure about Galway. That requires further study.

Brewers In Dublin

2006-11-26T20:00:00.000-06:00

Now for a little equal time for Ireland. The list at RateBeer wasn't as extensive, but I did find the following in Dublin.

Dublin
- Dublin Brewing Company (Commercial)
- Messrs. Maguire (brew pub)
- Porterhouse (brew pub)
- St. James Gate (Guiness - Commercial)

Day 7

Technorati Tags:Microbrewery, Travel, Ireland

Almost Daily Post

2006-11-25T19:35:00.000-06:00

Promised myself I would try to get at least one posting in a day. Failed after Thanksgiving.

No good excuse, other than spending the afternoon swapping out software on the machines to accommodate the new ISP. My former provider has discontinued the dial-up access.

I'm a bit of a dinosaur on technology. Still quite happy with dial up, not interested in cable or DSL. May have to get high-speed eventually if all the sites keep going to video and flash animation. Not by choice, just be necessity to get the page to load at all.

To early to tell if I'm going to like the now provider. A lot to learn and new settings to adjust

Thanksgiving

2006-11-23T21:54:00.000-06:00

Went to a friends for Thanksgiving Dinner. Not much time to research breweries. Plenty to be thankful for, however. Good friends, good food, and good weather here in Texas.

Italian Brewpubs and others

2006-11-22T20:52:00.000-06:00

Time for further study of the directory at RateBeer.com.

An exhaustive search turned up a few in Rome. The others may be suburb names that I'm not familiar with.

Internet to the rescue. Found yet another large beer listing site, MaxBeer.

The Italian trip will include at least 3 major cities: Rome, Naples, and Florence. The goal would be to find at least three "Birreria Artigianale." So that means we need to look at each listing for the address.

Florence

Birreria Artigianale Il Bovaro

Naples

Duel Beer
Babette (Pub but large selection of beers)

Rome

Day 6 of adventures in planning

Technorati Tags:Microbrewery, Travel

Birreria Artigianale

2006-11-21T19:44:00.000-06:00

Small change of continents today. Looking for microbreweries in Italy, specifically Florence. And the author has tagged & mapped his cafes.

This site of restaurant/cafe observations includes a microbrewery. It's full name is "Birreria Artigianale Il Bovaro." Which makes me wonder if Birreria is Italian for Brewery (A useful thing to know!)

Babel Fish translates it as "Handicraft Birreria The Bovaro."

And, searching on "Birreria Artigianale" yields a jackpot. A site for rating beers, with an extensive index by country. There are quite a few in Italy. (Surprising, the Ireland list is shorter than Italy's.)

Now I need to cull the selections and figure out what cities they are in.

Day 5 of the project.

Technorati Tags:Microbrewery, Travel

Pub Crawl Generator

2006-11-20T20:04:00.000-06:00

This has nothing to do with Ireland, but ran across this site. In among the reviews and pictures is a "pub crawl" generator. The theory being that if you pick a word, it will try to spell out the word with the first letter from each pub's name.

This has to result in some odd destinations.

The site is UK oriented. Was hoping it would also have Ireland.

Searching using pubcrawl & Ireland turned up plenty of travel sites. Did find one called Irelandseye that has a listing of attractions. Part of that listing was a list of pubs, probably large, well known, such as the The Brazen Head pub.

This is planning day 4

Microbrews

2006-11-19T20:12:00.000-06:00

A little surfing brought out the European Beer Guide, with pages for Ireland.

It looks like Ireland had the same experience that England did. Most of the local operations were eventually bought out by the major houses. This was at the roots of the CAMRA movement.

The two main "micro" houses are Porterhouse and Messr. Mcguire. Looks like Porterhouse has a number of outlets. At least 3 in the Dublin area. The photos on the Porterhouse site make it look like a pretty large restaurant operation. Not exactly your corner pub.

So, yet another project. Develop a simple checklist of what is good/poor in a "pub." Then use it as a scorecard when we visit.

Day 3

Best Pubs

2006-11-18T20:43:00.000-06:00

I've started my planning with what's the most important part, BEER. I'm looking for a directory on Irish Pubs.

When we went to England, about 10 years ago, Joanne used the museum guides and I used the CAMRA guide to Real Ale.

I've found one listing, a self proclaimed International Guide to Irish Pubs. This is a directory but includes reader ratings.

So, one possible project would be to visit these pubs and add to the reader ratings. All in the interest of research, of course.

It isn't just the pubs but the local brews. Need to add to my list, like we did in Austrailia and New Zeland.

Day 2.

Semi-Clean Page

2006-11-17T20:26:00.000-06:00

The travel plans are pretty open. Now that we have specific flights, we can plan around the various dates.

My priority for Ireland is to find some guidance for the pubs and brews. We had a lot of fun in England checking out the local "Real Ales." It is hard to know if a similar organization exists in Ireland.

The only must see in Italy is the whole reason for the trip. Joanne wants to see Pompeii. So that is on the agenda but not nailed down yet. Other than that the plans are wide open.

A New Direction

2006-11-17T20:13:00.000-06:00

It has been more than 6 months since I posted on this blog. I've been slightly, very slightly, more active on the PiqueroBlog. But that blog is more business oriented. I'd let this one languish and thought about deleting it.

But I still like the 9EdgeDown graphics in the background!

So, I'm going to redirect the discussion with myself.

My wife and I are planning a trip to Europe next Spring. I finally stopped procrastinating and reserved the flights, using mileage from both our accounts.

I'd planned to do AUS->ROM->DUB->AUS. The direct from ORD to ROM is fully booked (business class) even though the trip isn't until April. So we are going to reverse the sequence.

The plan is to do Austin to Dublin. Spend a few weeks in Ireland. Go over to Rome. Spend a few weeks in Italy. And then return to Austin.

We haven't been to either country before, though we spent a month in England.

I'm going to use this blog to record the planning and discoveries. Right now it is figuring out what we want to do and see.

My goal is to make some progress each day.

This is day 1.

Colossal Cave

2006-03-02T21:50:00.000-06:00

I was feeling nostalgic the other day. "I wonder if the is anything about the Adventure game on the internet?"

Adventure and/or game is not a particularly useful Google search. Forgetting the magic word (at least using XXZ..) isn't productive either. But, XYZZY works like a champ in Google..

The site designed by Rick Adams has some interesting history and a bunch of links. I may just have to download some of those old executables. I'm sure my old PC-1 is in the garage somewhere.

Adventure was a text based game in the late 70's early 80's. You explored a cave. The magic word solved one of the puzzles.

Still Around & Remembered

2006-02-18T17:42:00.000-06:00

I've been busy in February so this blog has been a little neglected. But I ran across a few things that I needed to add to the record.

I was searching the term [ "Big Iron" +computer ] for possible ideas. Found the Gallery of Old Iron that contained a number of IBM 360/370 control panel photos.

Among the finds on this site are some photos of the IBM 1800 control panel, and someone that had taken a 360 control panel and mounted it in an old TV console. The latter mutation was done so the grandkids could play with the buttons and knobs.

Get An Account

2006-01-27T01:54:00.000-06:00

This is interesting, dare I say WOW!

I'm not a big PDP fan, old habits, and 30 years at IBM. But, this is a neat innovation.

Picked this notice up from eWeek. Paul Allen has put some of his computer collection "On Line."

You can create an account and run programs on a PDP-10 or an XKL Toad-1.

And I'll be the first to admit, I've never heard of a Toad 1.

I need to find an Adventure Game

IBM System 38

2006-01-20T01:24:00.000-06:00

I am a little disappointed with the Internet. After easily finding sites with obscure computers, even ads from BYTE magazine, a simple search for details on the S/38 has been elusive.

There is a personal, very personal, interest. I was the manufacturing engineering box manager during the middle of the "birthing process."

This is perhaps too drastic. Let me put it in context.

The development had taken place 3 or 4 years before (depends on your dating of FS, Future System). Most of the manufacturing engineering had taken place. We were ready to go!

I was given the management job for the department after all the major work took place. Then, we were faced with a crisis that the manufacturing folks couldn't solve. The "Software" was late.

Building and shipping a hardware plarform is fine. But if the support software for the clients isn't there, even in the late 1970's, you aren't going to sell many.

So I managed through the delays. Reworking the schedules to match the current plan/strategy for recovery.

In retrospect, I did ok, but, was a very inexperienced manager. One of those, "wish I could replay those two years" type of deals.

I changed assignments and transferred to Texas before the "first customer ship" of the box took place. That's a long story as well, but not for this posting.

So, while I'm talking about old computers, I'm surprised that I haven't found much about the System 38. It was a successful system, and an ancestor of the very successful AS/400.

Now I've got a new mission. Or at least a new project. Find some links that have a good background and some specs for the S/38.

A Ping Of Sorts

2006-01-13T00:58:00.000-06:00

We used to call it a "heartbeat" for some of our real-time programming. Just something to make sure the application was still working. I suppose a "ping" is too modern for a punch card type, but I'm not living totally in the past.

I got diverted. I've been playing with a new site from a professional society (SME) that I have been involved with for almost 2 decades. They've created a discussion blog for LEAN, and I've been adding stuff to it.

While no one is commenting here, I want to check in with a post. I'll get back, I haven't abandoned the blog.

Alpha Powered

2006-01-09T20:21:00.000-06:00

I've been hunting for some archives for Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), with limited success. The merger with Compaq and then with HP have muddied the web references a bit.

As a starter, however, I've found a history, or narrative, about the Alpha Architecture. The Alpha machines were the successor to the VAX. It was in response to the RISC developments during the 1980's.

Old British Computers

2006-01-02T20:04:00.000-06:00

Some interesting newsletters stored here for the Computer Conservation Society. The newsletter is British. Old iron I’d never heard of.

From the descriptions, these aren’t desktop computers.

The First Computer?

2005-12-29T20:20:00.000-06:00

Ran across an article about "Who Made The First Computer?" Written from an English perspective. Chris Malcom makes a good point, that it depends on what you define as a true computer.

He argues that the important criteria is "stored programs" and not just a configurable calculator.

Great Zuse

2005-12-26T18:45:00.000-06:00

I went looking for references to early computers in Europe. During a graduate class I recall hearing that a German inventor had built one in the thirties. I searched on the term “Zeus.” I was close but had the spelling wrong.

The inventor was Konrad Zuse. Everyday Practical Electronic (EPE) Online had an article written by his son (Horst Zuse). The article, “The Life and Work of Konrad Zuse,” is pretty interesting since it contains a lot of photographs.

If you read through it, the real interesting chapter is Part 3. Look at the block diagram (Figure 10) of the architecture.

Core Dump

2005-12-23T20:25:00.000-06:00

So why were the lights and switches useful?

Most computers had (or have) a single step mode. One fetch and execute cycle, each time you pressed "run." A little messy with high speed and pre-fetch techniques. But at the time, most slower computers could be described within a single machine "cycle."

Because of different storage speeds, data was stored in various places. For example, I would have multiple registers that would keep frequently used data, relative addresses, and intermediate results. The register was faster than main memory. (Particularly in test equipment control applications.) Hence, a register to register operation was much faster than reading two words from memory and storing the results.

Debugging an application was faster if you could sit at the console. Instead of poring over a core dump when your program choked, you would stop the program while everything was "still alive." Then start to single step through the instructions. Not only checking the accumulator or instruction register display, but checking some of the various registers where you were keeping frequently used constants. You would often find that "mask" you were using had gotten changed.

Most people today don't program to this level of detail. In fact, it is probably better that they don't, the compiler generated code is more portable and hardware independent.

I still miss the blinking lights however.

More Museums

2005-12-18T19:02:00.000-06:00

I went hunting for information on the PDP-8 (DEC). This was another machine that was popular with univesity engineering departments.

It turns out Douglas W. Jones's site is more extensive than I realized. There is much more than the punched card collection. He also has links and emails from early developers of the PDP-8.

And he points to another interesting resource; The Virtual Museum of Computing (VMoC). The links at VMoC are extensive. But many links seem to be broken (more a function of companies disappearing). The names and titles for the links are fascinating, and could lead to hours of enjoyable hunting.

Old Personal Computers

2005-12-17T20:30:00.000-06:00

I hesitate to use the name personal computer, since many of the systems on this site are portable business computers. But most are hobby computers.

An interesting collection, including a lot of the old ads from Byte Magazine, and others. I don't know which is funnier, the old hardware or the hair styles of the models.

The site is OldComputers.net and, at least the author claims, is mostly the site owners personal collection. [A little like collecting amateur radio morse code keys, but that's another story.]

Hat Tip to jonfromboston.

Historical Reconstructions

2005-12-17T11:15:00.000-06:00

Well, this may take a trip to the library.

I am a member of IEEE (some 33+ years I think). They have a journal called the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. I don't subscribe to this one.

I found a reference to the reconstruction of an IBM 1620. A September 23, 2005 post by John Dupuis came up in one of my search queries. The July-September issue table of contents is here.

Most of the articles are behind a subscription firewall. I'll just have to stop by the library next time I'm down on campus.

Building Notes and A Diary

2005-12-14T21:21:00.000-06:00

I've started a second blog, PiqueroBlog, as a place for taking notes as I learn more about Blogger.

Part of my strategy is to figure out the customization on this blog and be able to experiment with trackbacks, pings, and other blog standard operations between the two blogs. That will let me clean up (i.e. delete) the real screw-ups, without cause problems to some other person's blog.

After a few months, this blog should have mostly computer history items and over at PiqueroBlog a more detailed trail on how the blog gets built.

Virtual Punch Card Museum

2005-12-13T20:42:00.000-06:00

Proving the adage that you can find almost anything on the internet.

Douglas W. Jones is in the The University of Iowa's Department of Computer Science. His web site contains some historical information about punched cards. But even more interesting, he includes scanned images of various card designs.

Dinosaurs Welcome

2005-12-12T21:43:00.000-06:00

The Engineering Computing Lab at the University of Wisconsin had an IBM 1620. You would sign up for 10 minutes at a time, and run the console. Punched cards in and punched cards out. This was the first computer I could touch and run programs on.

The language was FORTRAN (I think Fortran IV).

Programming classes used the central campus resource. This was a Univac 1108. You submitted your deck at a window and then killed time waiting for the output. They wouldn't let you near the computer.

I'll consider this a mostly open topic. If you'd like to comment, tell me/us about the first machine you ran programs on.

Comment Editor's Pronouncement

2005-12-12T17:19:00.000-06:00

I’ve never been a big fan of rules and regulations. For a comment policy I want it simple and easy to understand.

(1) If it would be inappropriate language in a customer’s office, it is inappropraite on this blog.

(2) I reserve the right to delete comments that are robot posts, personal attacks, blatant commercial shilling, or link infested off topic postings.

(3) If you have to think twice before posting it, it probably ranks as type 1 or 2. [This doesn’t mean not thinking twice to get your research or facts right.]

(4) Computers are binary (On/Off) so is my editing. I will leave it alone (On) or delete it (Off). Ain’t no fuzzy logic involved.

Finally; I may not be able to monitor the blog everyday. So, I’m not going to moderate the comments. If it becomes an ongoing problem, I will turn that feature on, which will slow down comments to the topic.

Hard Hat Area

2005-12-12T12:07:00.000-06:00

The comments seem to be working the way I want. I will create a policy later. I suppose the way to do it is post it and then reference the archive.

In the mean time, the next project is to alter the template with some of my own background graphics.

If you found us, sorry about the construction. The blog may look goofy for a few days. But thanks for dropping by.

This post uses paragraph tags. The first post was formatter in word and the cut & paste.

Sensor Based and Gathering Dust

2005-12-12T10:57:00.000-06:00

Sitting here and looking up old computers on the web. Amazing how much stuff is floating around out here.

I didn't realize that IBM had archive pages of old systems, like the 1620, complete with product and services descriptions. The navigation is through the “exhibits” section.

And, I found a copy of a paper I had read back in the original issue (1981) of IBM Journal of Research and Development. The paper traced the history of process control computers from the late 1950’s to the (then) present day.

From my own perspective, the timeframe is significant. Microprocessors had been available in the 1970’s. The Personal Computer hadn’t really taken off yet and were only beginning to reach the manufacturing floor. The IBM PC was released in August of 1981.

UPDATE: The links had double quotes in the html. Now fixed.