Eric L- My 365

Fail Phone

2009-09-20T23:54:00.001-07:00

My phone is kinda pathetic. It shuts off randomly, because the battery terminals do not connect well. I fixed that with the most amazing stuff on earth. But that looked wierd, so I made a case out of it, haha. Looks great, covers everything but the LCD, the dial pad, and the charger.

Yes, I like duct tape

And I played with the new tamron with macro (it’s the closest focusing 70-200) it’s pretty good I suppose for the big bugs, but I think for the most part, it’s gonna be a plant thing. Or dragon flies, it’d be good at those

Wouldn't you know

2009-09-15T22:28:00.001-07:00

Still dogsitting, and...

Left my memory card at home when I went there the other day! Doh! Hard to see in this picture, but here is my empty memory card slot, taken with a Super Fantastic Amazing Awesome High Quality built in webcam on my netbook (note sarcasm, lol)

Dog Sitting (we’ll call it Day 323)

2009-09-13T22:25:00.001-07:00

My Aunt and Step uncle are HUUUGE San Francisco Giants fans. So they spent the weekend up there at the baseball games. One problem, their chocolate lab had a puppy less than a week ago. SO I ended up over there all weekend dog sitting (actually, it was nice to be out of the house) and I’ll be continuing tomorrow and Tuesday.

Also, for those that remember, I had bought a Tamron 70-200 2.8 for my birthday or graduation (I forgot which, they happened about a week apart, lol) Well, that came in the mail, on the 8th week of it’s 4-6 week repair, oops! So I played with it at their house, and LOVE IT!!!!

Here’s two shots. The first one is Takani (sp?) it’s the Eskimo name for wolf, for the most happy playful dog in the world. I got a few of her running (not easy, she’s fast! It was hit and miss, I need to practice) but I formatted the card, no!! But here’s what I got. the best one at least. She’s a yellow lab. 200mm f/2.8, and man, it’s sharp!

Here’s the puppy, this guys about the length of my hand, and is at least 70% stomach. haha, but not that great a shot

The momma to this guy didn’t let me shoot her. If I came out, that was her que to get as close as she can to me till I pet her for as long as she wants (hint, she never wants me to stop!)

Why yes, it is that awesome

2009-09-08T21:16:00.001-07:00

Ok, first post in a long time! Not much of a pic to start me off, but here it is.

I got an excellent deal on a used widescreen monitor, by offering to trade my old letterbox along with a few bucks. The widescreen was going on a computer he was building, and I offered to let him use mine, and I’d buy the other. To make sure that I really wanted the monitor, I had the opportunity to use it for a while. The best part, I used it dual screen, AWESOME! Unfortunately, the monitor isn’t what I’m looking for, so it’s going back. The Third screen, one on the far right, is my netbook. That thing is amazing, for schoolwork, movies on the go, and lightweight amazingness.

The rest of whats been keeping me busy? Well, besides 48 hours of school, plus another bunch of homework a week, I’ve joined the new robotics team at the college (yes, can’t keep me away ;) and it’s Battlebots!! Also, been applying for jobs left and right. The latest looks promising. Cobbs Ranch (think farming made into amusement park, yes, we’re aggies around here) so fingers crossed. Plus, you know, trying to read a book (Almost finished 1632 Tess!), gaming with friends, free bowling, and the occasional bit of sleep.

Anyway, enough of that update, missed you all!

PS, what day am I on?

update

2009-08-26T23:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm gonna be starting back up. But I'll probably still be a little spotty on posting. I have school from 9am till between 7 and 9pm 3 days a week, another day 1-9pm, and another 9am-12:45pm. So that's a loooot of school, but I'll do my best. Missed posting here! But decided to take the rest of summer off. Now that thats gone, I'm back :)

It’s been long, I know!

2009-08-08T23:35:00.001-07:00

Have to get back in the habit of daily posting. And, I suppose, daily shooting, something I’ve not been doing to well on lately. Here is, however, a processed HDR from Alaska. I *definitely* need to work more on this. Not what I wanted, but ok I suppose. Tripod would have helped, but I chose not to take it. Oh well, here it is, 3 photos combined to one. And I’ll even throw in the three originals too.

And the result

Quickie big post

2009-08-04T03:27:00.001-07:00

After a panic at not being able to move my photos over from lightroom on my old HDD, to lightroom on the new one, and 2 days of video encoding, which renders my computer near useless as it works on it, and being finally back from my Alaska trip (which was awesome, probably THE most beautiful place I’ve ever seen) I can finally do a quickie post. All of these are unprocessed, except the bridge, which is only mostly unprocessed.

Some of these are snapshots. Just Oh WOW, that view! Some hopefully I can grab some keepers from. I can guarantee you, there is a shot from every day here. More details on the trip later, it’s too late (early?) to get into much, lol. We did see amazing views, wild eagles, have a wild mother black bear charge within 8 feet of us (fortunately not at us, but some lucky salmon that escaped) while her teddy bear sized cubs climbed a tree 20 feet away (You can sort of see them in the picture right after the mamma bear, but I didn’t start taking pics till they were hidden, doh!) 3 wild moose, a mother and two calves. Hawks, river fulls of salmon, a pod of at least 30 orca’s just cruisin’ along next to our tiny riverboat (next too as in as close as the river boats can legally get) glaciers, free food at 3am, otters, gulls, and darth vader on the violin all make an awesome trip!

First picture post in a long time

2009-07-21T00:14:00.001-07:00

Still not quite the post I wanted, but, well, I formatted my card. Prepping for the big alaska trip, and I erase my memory card. Well, I have some pictures :)

All computer issues are solved. Windows 7RC (Release Candidate) on my desktop, and my netbook (sadly with XP of 7RC). If you have any windows operating system thats not Windows 7RC, you can’t believe how awesome it is. When the full version comes out, well, it will be more awesome. Some of the things it does, wow.

Anyway, here’s the post. First is a really old picture I managed to put on my old HDD pre-issues. All my old HDD data was recovered, along with this. My AP scores. 100% pass rate over two years, 7 classes. I was thrilled.

Second was today's. My Tokina 12-24. Really fun lens!

Back!

2009-07-17T22:54:00.000-07:00

Most of the way, at least. Computer parts necassary for the repair are here. My computer got so bad, it wouldn't even turn on. Posting from my netbook now! Woot!

Ugh

2009-07-14T16:44:00.000-07:00

Ok, new update. Still not sure the issue, but it's worse now. BSOD on startup half the time, freezes, lot's of problems. New HDD is in the mail, should be up and running saturday-ish

See you all then!

No posts for now

2009-07-09T23:56:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I'm having either HDD or Virus issues, not sure which. My computer is restarting constantly, and averything adobe (and who knows what else) isn't working right. Hopefully will get this solved soon!

Almost wish the sun would disappear

2009-07-08T00:18:00.001-07:00

Lost my diffusion panel (diy one of course :) )

SO now I’m stuck with harsh harsh sun. So sad

Back to the tamron 90mm. Still an awesome lens, no matter what else I get!

Super catch up

2009-07-06T23:45:00.001-07:00

I think I got them all here. Lot to catch up on between internet failure and trip. So here it goes…

Is it on? FLASH, yep, it’s on. Not one of my more inspired posts, but one of my more blinding ones.

Governments BD card, Officially in the draft. You know, just in case (roll eyes)

Probably the best book I’ve read in a LONG time, Old Man’s War. Started reading, and didn’t stop till I was done, even if that was at 3am, LOL, but I think that’s the only book that size I’ve ever finished in one sitting.

Thought this was an awesome view. Oops, didn’t get the one that had a good horizon, lol, oh well, to late.

13mm lens inches from face, very funny, very unflattering :P

Forgot tripod in car, so expirimented with fireworks, not very good, but better than what I was getting before when I was trying to get straight fireworks with no tripod!

Little camera spinning action

shacking

Panning

And today’s image. Played with flashes. Very fun stuff.

12mm, with one flash in strip box right over poker chips, other flash to the rear and high, with a snoot, gelled green for fun.

For the observant, I did not have a lens with 12 or 13mm before. With graduation and birthday over, I accumulated a decent stack of money, that, by rules of house (gift money isn’t saved, it’s meant to be used for gifts, and relatively soon after getting it) I purchased a few things. One of them is the 12-24 f/4 Tokina. Real fun lens to use! Also bought the Tamron 70-200 lens (used, KEH is an amazing store!) but that is headed to tamron at the moment :( Focus is off by just enough to be a real issue. So now I’m missing the middle range (sold my other lenses [except 90mm] with my camera, so I have nothing between 24mm and 70mm) but I never use it, so not missing it at all. So that’s my story, glad to be back, and hopefully posting some more!

Quick post

2009-07-03T17:24:00.000-07:00

Sorry everybody, first internet issues, now I'm out of town, so that's why I haven't been posting. I will be posting again soon

Disappointing outing

2009-06-30T00:43:00.001-07:00

Went out today, but man, it’s so HOT!! I didn’t last long, and what I got, nothing much good.

This is usually one of those shot’s that I take, just in case, while I’m trying to acclimate this guy to my presence. Today, he just flew away instead.

Catch-up

2009-06-29T00:14:00.001-07:00

Thanks for all the reminders people! I got this one.

First up, my D40x is up for sale, was a great camera, but, well, can’t see using it much anymore, and that money can definitely be used for other things (got a few expenses to prepare for) Pics taken on different days. One to go on craigslist and ebay what-have-you, they other is just because.

Jobs, jobs, jobs, so many jobs out there, and NOBODY is hiring. Freezes, over-applied for positions, nobody quitting, I think I’ve only found maybe one place that was hiring, a few places taking app’s “just in case” and alot just saying no more. Hope I can find something soon! Flash with snoot but that didn’t contol the light, so I put a sock on it, worked interestingly well :P

Snapshot. Couldn’t find any post-it note software for your computer that I likes, so I went old school, real, paper post-it’s, HA

Plea for help

2009-06-28T00:52:00.000-07:00

Can never seem to remember to post this till it's faaaaar to late. Usually after midnight. If anyone wants to, you know, maybe remind me, would be much apreciated! I've fallen bad outta habit towards the end of school, and getting back in is turning out to be rather difficult.

Would be much apreciated. FB, email, IM, Whiteboard, PM, ya'll know how to reach me. Thanks!

Birthday

2009-06-23T22:55:00.001-07:00

And for some reason, according to my NASA calandar (yes, I use a NASA calander :P ) NASA doesn’t YET recognize my Bday, but they will, someday…

And that pic from the other day I had left on my card. Here it is. My great grandfather, who passed away when I was about 8, was appearantly a photographer, and we keep finding old camera’s of his, that I tend to get :)

Another late post, but here it is

2009-06-22T23:54:00.001-07:00

Sorry for yet another late post. Seems I always remember at unfortunatly late times, lol.

But here it is

First, the old standby, an eye portrait. Was hoping to prove that it was easier, now that my macro lens will AF with my D200. How wrong I was. Stupid thing would focus on everthing BUT my eye, was easier to mf and guess, lol

My next picture is unfortunately on my card, and I’m pushing the lateness timing as it is, so I’ll post it later.

And today’s picture(s)

Went shooting in my backyard. Was nice on some shots to be able to AF, other times, it was easier to MF, like when dof was so shallow wide open (which is how a lens focus’) that if it locks on to slightly the wrong thing, it’s oof.

I did not have the oportunity to PP the first one, so it’s got some funky green cast I think (still deciding on that)

Have I mentioned I LOVE my D200 and Tamron 90mm? Probably haven’t said it enough!

Hidden feature

2009-06-19T22:40:00.001-07:00

Another reason to like the new camera. It’s little pop up flash can be set to super low power. Nice, because it can set off my two flashes, which can both be set to optical slaves, without actually having the flash itself show up in the picture. Nice little feature. Not a great pic, or even an almost decent maybe ok pic, more my test to see if it would work, I think it did.

Amazing

2009-06-18T23:32:00.001-07:00

It’s amazing some of the things you find when you clean out things that haven’t been cleaned out in years. For example, this little mcdonalds happy meal guy from probably around 9 years ago… So wierd to see it, lol

Played with D200

2009-06-16T18:23:00.001-07:00

First time I’ve actually gotten to really play with the D200. Really fun! But I have a sinking feeling it’s gonna be a tough time to use it this summer :(

My new project

2009-06-15T21:20:00.001-07:00

Time for me to clean out everything. I need projects for this summer, or I will be bored stiff, seeing as how jobs don’t seem to be available. So first project is to go through everything in my room, and organize. Gonna be a big project. Cleaned out all my drawers and bookshelves today. Some of those drawers hadn’t been opened in YEARS! Gonna be nice to have that space again. Shot is of my mostly clean bookshelf, one that was nowhere near that this morning. But I know, it’s gonna be a looong project.

I’m BAAAAACK

2009-06-14T23:37:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the long absence. Between graduation, graduation parties, college registration, and helping out after my moms surgery, I haven’t been around much on the computer. Hopefully I can fix that.

With so many pictures to post, and 90% of them snapshots, I’m only gonna post today’s and graduation.

First, graduation

There’s me, my two best friends, our physics teacher (who we were pretty close too, when he wasn’t torturing us) my grandparents, and brother and sister. I haven’t yet found one with my parents, but seeing as how there’s about a million shots to go through, I’m sure I’ll find one

Now today's. I got myself a new toy. Well, partly from grad money, my parents paid the rest for the grad present. One of the best buy D200’s! For 600$ free shipping, considering they sold for 1600 when they were released, not a bad deal! I love it! It FEELS great, works great. It’s everything I was hoping for. And a big shock they would be willing to get it at all for me, so fun stuff :)

Setup:

Flash in stripbox above, and reflector (8.5x11 paper) to side lighting lens.

Softbox below and another reflector to the other side lighting that part of the lens and strap

Camera with my favorite lens, Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro. It Autofocus's on this camera, whooooohoooooo, it didn’t on my D40x, but I still had it on 95% of the time, so I learned a lot about manual focus, but AF is so much nicer.

Updateq

2009-06-08T00:25:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I haven't been posting lately. I'm barely touching the camera lately. I'm just barely around it. Most of the time, I'm out of the house, away from it, and, I admit, just relaxing with friends, so kinda a lame excuse. Hopefully, when graduation dies down, I'll be fully back. But for now, I'm not, sorry.