Small rock with a tiny crystal vein

Orion Constellation

I took this with my Panasonic Lumix Point and Shoot camera. I used the night scene setting, which gives roughly 8-seconds of exposure time. I held the camera in place on a sign that is mounted in the ground. Exposure of 2. I will be doing more of these now that I know this trick works. I had to just let the camera take whatever was in front of it since I was not using a tripod. I may bring my tripod in to see how well that works when we have another clear night.

This is only 375×500. The photo is best viewed large.

Exploring Space: A sketch in a couple of paragraphs

Let’s assume that we’ve already developed a self-gravitating ship. By that I mean a ship that is able to bend space in such a way as to propel itself from one spot to another in the galaxy. How we do that is the subject of numerous blog posts. So we’ve all climbed aboard our ship and we’re strapped in. We peed before we left the hangar because this is a 1950s science fiction film we’re in and there is no bathroom on the ship. We’ve got five months travel time so we’re going to be sound asleep most of that time.

Being that this is our maiden voyage there are no usable stellar maps. We’re going to be taking images to create those. Our mission is to fly out to within a lightyear of the Orion nebula, drop off buoys on the way (gotta leave the breadcrumb trail) and then come back to Earth. These buoys will be recording a 360° image of space. On the way back we’ll be using those images to create a map, in 3 dimensions, of our trip. The other job the buoys will perform will be to transmit a signal to help us maintain our course. This is especially good during the down periods when we’ll all be sleeping.

Of course we could send out more unmanned probes. I’m sure that would save money that could go to feed the “huddled and starving.” I don’t know about you but I’m a little tired of watching the robots get all the action. Europe sent people to the new world. They didn’t send out models of ships. Some didn’t come back. They were called explorers. They go out and worry about the getting back part later.

Looking into camcorders

I am looking at camcorders. I am planning on doing some night sky recording later this year. I am applying the same thought process towards that as I do towards buying cameras. The emphasis will be on optical zoom first then pixels. I saw a couple of models at Target on Saturday. I am going to do some web searching before I decide on a model. I may end up spending this tax rebate thing on that. I don’t know yet. My Panasonic camera will do video but I cannot cancel the audio portion. It might be necessary to buy a video converter. The key to eliminating the audio may be in the fact that the converter I am using is freeware. I wish I could set up a night sky webcam to run constantly but that would require building a special shed for the back yard and running an internet line out to it. It would be better if I had some property away from the city’s illumination. The purpose of this is to enhance my blog with what will be a recorded feed rather than live. I’ll see what I can come up with.  When I am able to create a live feed I might have to take out extra insurance to cover the hardware, etc. since I won’t be able to be present all the time.

Photo: ‘Coon in fountain

The raccoon came back tonight. We found him rooting around in one of the garbage cans. I followed him over to the dried out water fountain that has some rain water in it. He’s looking a bit annoyed with me here. I took about 20 shots and then left him alone. My friend here at work called me the racoon papparazzi.

ITPlanet: Security Cameras

Maybe it’s time for an upgrade. Do you have an entrance that isn’t covered by your current security cameras? Have you or are you considering expanding your facility? As a business owner you’ve got to protect your assets. People with dishonest intentions are watching to see where the cameras are looking. And they’re not all outside your building. Can they figure out a blind spot? So many of the new surface mount cameras have a black internal enclosure which makes it hard to see the lens. Whether this is your first or 27th camera, ITPlanet can help you improve the security of your business. They offer cameras for five different types of connections. Is your current network sufficient? Do you need to add a wireless unit in a couple of spots? Maybe having a couple of extra cameras to test certain spots in a warehouse or loading dock or hallway would make it easier for you to assess things. ITPlanet has one of the best shipping arrangements I’ve ever seen. If you place your order by 7pm Central Time, it ships that day. They guarantee the lowest price and are willing to match a lower price you find from another online retailer. Have a look at their website at itplanet dot com. You can speak with customer service 7am-7pm. Let them help you figure out the best solution to your security hardware needs.

Parking Lot ‘Coon

A coworker chased a coon up one of the oak trees and it is working its way back down. Sorry for not getting the head in the picture. It was dark and hard to see the little fellow. It was also one of those situations where there is really no time to set up a shot. You’re kinda stuck with whatever your camera was set on last time.

Digital Cameras

I’m one of those annoying people who carries a camera everywhere. My motto is, don’t be caught dead without it. The people I work with and others who know me expect that I may pull out the camera at any moment. I do some studio shots where I work off an idea and try to create what I have in my head on the SD card. Initially I started with a point and shoot film camera and realized that there were things out in the world just begging to be photographed. I still have that camera. But now I use digital cameras for the same purpose. I use a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ7 which is a 7MP/6X Optical Zoom point and shoot camera. That one gets the most use. I carry it with me every day. I also use a Lumix DMC-FZ20, which is a 5MP/12X Optical Zoom camera. I use it when I really need more control over my image. It has a manual mode so I can set aperture and shutter speed. When I bought the FZ20 my plan was to use it as a production camera and to use the point and shoot as a sort of sketch book. That may still work. The problem is that I don’t take it with me every day. So the LZ7 has ended up being both sketchbook and production camera. One of the things I have enjoyed is my ability to capture photos of the moon and mostly handheld. The next pair of cameras I want to own are the Canon D30 and A720 iS. I have friends who have both and I like the ability of the A720 iS to allow you to control aperture and shutterspeed, while still being a point and shoot and I am seeing the limitations of the equipment I have now and would like to be able to do more. I don’t know that I will ever work as a pro but I would like to do some outdoor portrait work.

And the 2007 Kooky Award goes to

The chick on Flickr who has posted in her profile that “faving” any of her photos constituted hitting on her. (Well it was something like that.)

Huh?

Tell me again why you are even on Flickr? And you actually expect people to write down the title of a picture so they can use it as a search term if they want to come look at it again. Yep, that silhouetted sailboat in the harbor really makes me want to buy a plane ticket and fly out and jump your bones. Get over yourself, sister. Normal people appreciate when someone likes their work. You’re weird.

America’s Funniest Uploaded Videos

The problem with that show was the fact that people were sending in videos and then the people waited to see what was chosen from probably thousands of videos. Those were the days of the camcorder and “home” movies. The videos were and are funny but in 1990 most people didn’t have camcorders and the first digital camera on the market was a 1.3MP DSLR by Kodak with a price of $13,000. Now digital point and shoot cameras and camera phones will record video. This gives us more of an on-the-spot reporting of whatever catches the user’s eye. We’ve seen this rise in popularity with sites like Flickr for still images and YouTube & Veoh for videos. What we have not seen is a site with user uploaded content that was created in response to specific challenges and/or assigned subjects. Do you dabble in video? Is that something that would interest you? How about if you had a chance every week to get a video on TV? For 30min. a week YawpBox will be giving their users that chance. YawpBoxTV will be filmed from Dallas, TX. The two hosts Lex and Terry will do tongue-in-cheek reviews of popular user videos. Users upload videos and vote on others’ content and the videos with the most votes make the cut. In 1990 I bought a point and shoot film camera and carried it with me to capture things that were begging to be photographed. I do the same thing with my digital point and shoot and there are times when I catch things that are pretty funny. Now after having seen personal videos online I have started to notice situations that would be really entertaining to record. I have a video project I am working on right now involving a skull from my Halloween decorations and the Yorick lines from Hamlet but having a friend play the part of Horatio Caine from CSI: Miami. I think it will be a rather humorous video to add to the growing collection on YawpBox. Using the system of topics on YawpBox, anyone with a video-capable camera will be able to create themed videos which will eventually make it on the show. The goal will be to get as many thumbs-up as possible and improve your shooting, directing and so forth. In addition to the videos users are uploading, there is a weekly challenge given out on the TV and Radio shows. Some are just simple staged stills and videos and others have kind of a Truth or Dare feel to them. The challenge adds to the fun while getting users to exercise their creativity in ways they might not normally. Check them out at YawpBox dot com.