Regarding the Weather...

...Somedays you're the windshield,
somedays you're the bug.

If we waited for good weather to fly, we wouldn't be flying much at all.
DeHavilland Beaver, on floats.
Leaving King Salmon to fly out to Katmai.

Right of Way

A short while back, I spent a week at Katmai Nat. Park (work related) during the fall. The park closes down for the winter in mid-September. Already overflowing with bears coming down to the Brooks river to feast on the salmon carcasses and the remaining live salmon, it gets even more crowded with bears after the people are gone.

Here we were walking up the trail, past the boarded up Brooks Lodge and adjacent cabins when we came up on this fellow in the photo. As we were on foot and about only 30 yards away, we let him go on at his leisure and stayed where we were until there was more distance between us.

Though they were more interested in packing down as much fish as possible before hibernation and weren't interested in humans, I still can't help the hair from standing up on the back of my neck when I'm this close to a brownie and all I can do in any emergency is throw my camera at him.

World Wide Webs

This is a rework of an unposted oldie, using Photomatix 4.
Taken wih my old point & shoot.

Tough Life at the Top

As these trees will testify.

I've spent the last day and a half setting up the new desk top and getting everything transferred and/or re-installed. I also moved the modem, router, desks, etc. to a more accommodating location.
I usually can keep my computers for five to six years before upgrading. So I also went from XP to Windows 7.

I'm really getting tired of the continual upgrades and forced changes from Micro-soft which seem to me to occur strictly to generate revenue. I'm thinking of trying out Linux on my old box to see how I like it. If anybody has anything worth saying about it, good or bad, I'm listening so please don't hold back.

Generations Apart (02)

Though only approximately sixty years separates these two elegant and beautiful aircraft, it seems like a vast ocean of time culturally.

Here's to the hope that everyone has a safe and enjoyable Independence Day (July 4th). Also let us remember what it took to gain our freedom, what it takes to maintain that same freedom, and what the true cost of freedom is.

Another Infra-red Image

This was also taken Saturday evening using my Rebel Xti.
Focal length: 27mm
Apterture: f/25.0
Exposure: 30sec.
ISO:200

Late Saturday Afternoon

My daughter and I went for a bike ride late yesterday afternoon. It was clear, sunny, and very windy, but a great day to ride. I took this on the 'Bird to Gird' trail while heading towards Girdwood. If you look closely, down near the lower right corner at the very bottom, you can see a bike wheel in the frame.

I have been trying to do infra-red photography, off & on, for the last month or two and the results have been less than encouraging. However I think that yesterday was a step in the right direction.

This was taken with my old Rebel Xti and my Tamron 18-270 lens. I used a Neewer (Chinese knock off) 720nm filter. The filter was less than $20.00 and I figured why not, since I didn't know what I was doing and it's anywhere from $80.00 to $120.00 for an infra-red Hoya filter.

This was shot RAW, in monochrome,
ISO:200
Exp: 30sec
Focal length: 21mm
Av: f/22.00
Minimal post-processing

What seemed to make a difference was holding my thumb over the eyepiece while taking the exposure so as to prevent unwanted light from entering the shot. Go figure...

Well, after two months' leave from work, I return to the job tomorrow. Things at work were slow, so I took advantage of the slow time to take leave and get several long neglected projects done around the house. Also to catch up on my reading and relaxation. I've really enjoyed this time, but that ends tomorrow morning, or should I say gets throttled back. I will try to keep posting more frequently but depending on how busy I am, it may be weekly.

Dark Eyed Junco

Canon EOS 7D
Focal Length: 200mm
Exp: 1/198 sec.
Av: f8/0
ISO: 400

From the Nat. Geographic Site:
Dark-eyed juncos are unique sparrows that nest on or near the ground in forests. In winter, they typically form flocks and often associate with other species, including chipping sparrows, pine and palm warblers (in the southeastern United States.), and bluebirds. When disturbed the entire flock suddenly flies up to a tree, usually perching in the open and calling in aggravation at the intrusion. Polytypic. Length 6.3" (16 cm).

Identification A fairly lean sparrow with a long notched tail and a small pinkish or horn-colored bill (bicolored in dorsalis). Two prominent white outer tail feathers in most subspecies; 3 outer­most in the “white-winged.” Most subspecies have a gray or brown head and breast sharply set off from a white belly. Otherwise highly variable.
Male: typically darker with sharper markings.
Female: typically browner with more indistinct markings.
Juvenile: heavily streaked, often with a trace of  adult pattern

"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings."
-Eric Hoffer

Light At The End Of The Tunnel (Revisited)

These days we not only have the 'light at the end of the tunnel,' but thanks to the wonders of modern technology, also light inside of the tunnel.

Further information regarding the "Fast and Furious" debacle, courtesy Jeff G. at  Protein Wisdom

Shit’s getting real.

In re: executive privilege, below is the full letter sent by Rep Issa to the President.  My favorite part:

During the June 19th meeting, the Attorney General stated he wanted to “buy peace.” He indicated a willingness to produce the “fair compilation” of post-February 4th documents. He told me that he would provide the “fair compilation” of documents on three conditions: (1) that I permanently cancel the contempt vote; (2) that I agree the Department was in full compliance with the Committee’s subpoenas, and; (3) that I accept the “fair compilation,” sight unseen.

As Chairman of the primary investigative Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, I considered the Attorney General’s conditions unacceptable, as would have my predecessors from both sides of the aisle. I simply requested that the Department produce the“fair compilation” in advance of the contempt vote, with the understanding that I would postpone the vote to allow the Committee to review the documents.

The short meeting in the Capitol lasted about twenty minutes. The Attorney General left the meeting and, shortly thereafter, sent an eight-page letter containing more than forty citations requesting that you assert executive privilege. The following morning, the Deputy Attorney General informed me that you had taken the extraordinary step of asserting the privilege that is designed to protect presidential decision making.

In his letter, the Attorney General stated that releasing the documents covered by the subpoena, some of which he offered to the Committee hours earlier, would have “significant, damaging consequences.”  It remains unclear how — in a matter of hours — the Attorney General moved from offering those documents in exchange for canceling the contempt vote and ending the congressional investigation to claiming that they are covered by executive privilege and that releasing them — which the Attorney General was prepared to do hours earlier — would now result in “significant, damaging consequences.”

An Infrared Black & White

Messing around with with an infrared filter yesterday afternoon.

The First Day of School...

is always hardest on kids and parents...

The Country's In The Very Best Of Hands...

                                                     (hat tip to Instapundit for the title)

This is a photo blog and I don't like to digress onto politics and current events here, but I sometimes feel required to do so. Today is one of those days.

Today we digress a wee bit to acknowledge 'Fast and Furious' cover up by the Obama administration of the botched, illegal, and fatal Fast and Furious operation. Attorney General Eric Holder was found in contempt of Congress and as a last minute attempt to avert this, it was announced that the documents sought by the Congressional committee investigating this matter were protected by 'Executive Privilege.' The utter hypocrisy and sheer cynicism displayed by this administration is breath taking and makes Nixon at his worst look good by comparison.



We're talking about the Fast and Furious operation where automatic weapons were deliberately funneled to violent Mexican drug gangs by the A.T.F.. Unlike the tired old Watergate scandal in which the democrats and their MSM bitches have incessantly flogged for the last 40 years, this illegal operation is where agents of a U.S. Federal agency knowingly provided weaponry to criminal gangs across our borders. This resulted in hundreds of Mexican deaths and the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

You would think that this would be major news, in all media venues and if this were a republican administration, it would be, but it's not. ABC news leads with the weather. Brian Williams calls it more of our broken politics.


I am linking to a few posts for anyone who hasn't been paying attention to this unfolding tragedy.

Another View of Whittier Small Boat Harbor

Above is another view of the small boat harbor in Whittier. Though just a short drive from Anchorage, it is on the other side of the Chugach Mountains and borders on Prince William Sound.

A map of Prince William Sound, one of the premier boating, fishing and recreational areas anywhere, period. Prince William Sound was named by George Vancouver in 1778 to honour George III's son William IV of the United Kingdom.

A majority of the land surrounding Prince William Sound is part of the Chugach National Forest, the second largest national forest in the U.S. Prince William Sound is ringed by the steep and glaciated Chugach Mountains. The coastline is convoluted, with many islands and fjords, several of which contain tidewater glaciers. The principal barrier islands forming the sound are Montague Island, Hinchinbrook Island, and Hawkins Island.

Jacob's Ladder

A Jacob's Ladder is a basic spark-gap device. As described in Wikipedia...

"A spark gap consists of an arrangement of two conducting electrodes separated by a gap usually filled with a gas such as air, designed to allow an electric spark to pass between the conductors. When the voltage difference between the conductors exceeds the gap's breakdown voltage, a spark forms, ionizing the gas and drastically reducing its electrical resistance. An electric current then flows until the path of ionized gas is broken or the current reduces below a minimum value called the 'holding current'. This usually happens when the voltage drops, but in some cases occurs when the heated gas rises, stretching out and then breaking the filament of ionized gas. Usually the action of ionizing the gas is violent and disruptive, often leading to sound (ranging from a snap for a spark plug to thunder for a lightning discharge), light and heat.

Spark gaps were used historically in early electrical equipment, such as spark gap radio transmitters, electrostatic machines, and x-ray machines. Their most widespread use today is in spark plugs to ignite the fuel in internal combustion engines, but they are also used in lightning arrestors and other devices to protect electrical equipment from high voltage transients."

You can easily make one for that "Dr. Frankenstein's Lab" look. They're great for trick or treat. To make the one in this photo, I took a boiler transformer, the old magnetic type, not the newer electronic ones. I removed the electrodes and replaced them with #12AWG solid copper wire. The wire was shaped so that at the closest point, they were separated by approximately 1/4". As the wires rose up, the separation became greater. Plug it in and you're off!

A note of caution, I did this in my garage so as to not accidentally catch anything on fire. Also so curious pets or kids don't stick their noses into the arc. (Think taser.)

Portage Lake in Spring

Handmade Portraits: The Bone Carver from Etsy on Vimeo.