Timelapse photography

This is what happens when Jason figures out how to use the interval shooting mode with the Canon Remote shooting utility. Lots of JPEGs, sure, but lots of fun, too!

This the second try. The first time around I didn't get the angle I wanted, I was trying to focus on two blooms at the same time, and of course the one I wanted to go first went second. To make my job harder, the bloom was turning as it unfurled, and I made the mistake of moving the camera during the series of shots. That made the final product jumpier than an Olympic gymnastics practice. There is a jump in the middle of this one - that was caused by one set of 200 pics ending, a four minute gap, and the second set of 200 pics. Shot interval was 10 seconds, so this short clip took about an hour.

Sadness.

We have two cats, a two-year old calico named Skeezix and a tiny white kitten my wife found hiding under the AC a couple months ago.

Motormouth and Skeezix shred the kitty castle.

The pitiful, scrawny little critter wouldn't stop crying when we brought him inside, so his name is Motormouth. Skeezix was not too keen on the idea of Motormouth invading 'her' space, but after a couple weeks of dirty looks and the occasional hiss, they've become buddies. I have to think that Skeezix is going through a bit of a second kitten-hood, because all the roughhousing and chasing (and being chased by!) Motormouth has made her act like a kitten again. I've even seen her chase her tail!

Motormouth the day he adopted us

Motormouth is now a 4-pound ball of energy who has firmly adopted my wife as 'his human'. He's a cute one indeed, and we've grown very attached to the little bugger. That made this morning's visit to the vet all that much harder to take.

We found out today that little Motormouth is positive for the Feline Leukemia Virus. The vet's best guess is that mama cat passed the virus on to little Motor. There's no telling if his immune system will clear the virus (there's a chance) or how soon the virus will take hold. If he can't clear it, we're looking at losing him within the next 2-3 years. More than likely the virus will weaken his immune system (poor white cell production) and an opportunistic pathogen will do him in. Our primary concern is keeping Skeezix healthy, so separate feeding dishes have been instituted. Skeezix has already had the primary vaccination and a booster, so there's not that much concern, but we brought her in today for a booster just in case. She's is mostly an outside cat, and we'll keep Motor inside from now on to prevent him from spreading the virus to any stray cats in the neighborhood.

I hate to think that by adopting Motormouth we might have put Skeezix at risk. Of course, rationally I know that with Skeezix being outside more than half the time, she's exposed to all kinds of threats, and I don't feel guilty about that, so why should I worry about her exposure to FeLV? There's no reason for it, but I feel I should try to do something to keep Skeezix healthy. There's no telling how much time we have with Motormouth, but we'll treasure it all the more. It's really painful to look at the little guy, with all his energy and exuberance, and think that his doom is already sealed. I love my kitties, and this is pretty hard to take.

So you can probably expect a lot of pictures of Motormouth here in the future.

World Record!

We did it!

Blue River Band - Jason, Beth and Richard

1,859 guitar players showed up in Luckenbach on Sunday to break the world record for the Largest Guitar Ensemble. The goal was 2,000 people, and about 1,600 were pre-registered through the Voices of a Grateful Nation website. A couple hundred of them failed to show, but enough people signed in at the gate to put us over the top. The vibe was overwhelmingly positive - ain't nobody feeling no pain in Luckenbach! We were treated to some amazing singing and playing - and not all of it was on stage. There were impromptu jam sessions popping up left and right, and some of the folks were playing absolutely gorgeous guitars. I particularly like this "Martin on a Martin" paint job. My wife took most of the pictures as I had my hands full of guitar. You can see all of the shots here. The record attempt was scheduled for 2:00 P.M. but they pushed it back to let as many folks sign in as possible. Good thing, or we might not have made it. Anyway, I was standing next to Richard on the hill opposite the stage, and we started griping:

"Boy it's getting hot."

"Yep, and my feet are starting to hurt from standing on the side of this gully facing downhill."

"Can't those ding-dongs on the stage quit fooling around and just play the song already?"

Suddenly, I had a blinding flash of perspective:

"Hey, Richard, you know what? Let's complain about it for a little while. I mean let's really bitch about standing in the shade, playing guitar, drinking beer and setting a world record! Damn, nobody's shot a rocket at me all day long!! THIS SUCKS!!!!!"

Richard chuckled, and even the woman standing in front of us turned around to laugh and agree.

I was interviewed as soon as I walked in the gate, so I'm keeping my eye out for the documentary. In the meantime, you can watch this video. Again, thanks to my wife for being there. It's my fault for not erasing every last image off the memory card on the Canon SD750, as the video cuts off at the end.

I lost count of how many choruses we played, but you get the idea. Can't you just feel the joy and excitement?

Deckman's World...Record?

I'll be in Luckenbach, Texas this weekend, trying to set a world record and get my name in the Guiness Book. Well, me and about 2000 other folks - I don't think they'll list everyone by name. So, maybe I won't really have my name in the book, but still...

What the heck am I talking about? Pickin' for the Record is the name of the event arranged by Voices of a Grateful Nation. We're going to try and break the world record for the biggest guitar ensemble. Since we'll be in Luckenbach, it's only fitting that we'll be playing "The Luckenbach Song (The Basics of Love)" by Waylon Jennings. Come join us!

Geeking out

There are many aspects to the craft of photography. One that I try to concentrate on is sharpness. I bracket focus, I watch my depth of field, I take dozens of pictures to get that one that's juuuust right.
Why don't I just review them on the LCD? Sorry, my Rebel XT has a tiny, grainy little screen that is okay for showing the general composition, colors, or histogram, but it just can't show me if I've got a truly sharp photo. So what I do is take lots of pictures, copy them to my computer and review them on a large screen. This works after a fashion, but it has its drawbacks. If I have to wait until I get home from a hiking trip to review my photos, and I find I juuuuust missed the shot I wanted, I'm kind of out of luck.

Okay, so it gives me a good excuse to go hiking again, but still...

I recently found a pretty useful piece of software. It's called DSLR RemotePro and it allows your computer to control your Canon SLR. It allows you to review your shots, even saving them to the computer without having to later transfer them from the card. It supports more features for newer cameras; I can't set AF points in my Rebel XT.
I noticed one other bug: If your aperture is stopped down when you boot the program, it 'reads' that as the minimum aperture setting. Changing the aperture in the camera and rebooting seems to fix it. It's only a minor inconvenience - not a deal-breaker.
My plan is to try to take my laptop the next time I go hiking and use that to review my focus live in the field. I'm also thinking this is where a netbook might come in handy, at least for the weight savings.
Stay tuned to see how this idea works out.

Some thoughts on camera bags:

Those backpacks with the dividers are pretty cool looking, aren't they? Lay one down, open it up, and there's all your gear. Yummy organized goodness, chock full of shiny lenses and flash units and assorted plastic gadgets.
"Ooh, look at the professional photographer," say your friends and relatives.
Pretty handy. Only one problem:

Ya gotta remember to zip the darn zipper!

Let me tell you how I learned that lesson.


My wife and I went rappelling at Lake Mineral Wells State Park a couple weeks ago. (I took some great shots, too.) On the second day, I found my way to a ledge that was about one-third of the way down the cliff. I set my backpack down and started snapping away. It was my wife's first time rappelling, and I was having as much fun watching her as I was taking pictures.



I was having so much fun that I was in a bit of a hurry to rejoin everyone at the bottom when we decided to call it a day and go find some lunch. I slung the camera over my neck and arm, and grabbed the top handle of the backpack. Pay particular attention to that sentence. You'll notice that I didn't say anything about the zipper. That's how I came to watch my box of screw-on filters and a Canon 60mm macro lens go bouncing 40 feet down a series of rock ledges, trees and bushes. I cursed and yelled, enough that my friend thought I was the one falling and bouncing off of boulders. Lens and filters smashed, I was not a happy camper. I packed the rest of the equipment in the truck and announced that I was done taking pictures for the day, and that I would be tossing that backpack in the dumpster as soon as we got home. True to my word, as soon as we were done unpacking our camping gear, I pulled all my photo gear out, piled it on the dining room table, and tossed the backpack out onto the carport.

Grumbling and surly, I sat down with my laptop and started googling.
"Need a new lens...$800! Holy crap!...need a new bag...ugly...$200? Are they nuts?!?"

I was building a good head of steam being a grouch when my wife stopped me in my tracks. She turned to me and said, "I'm just thankful it was the lens that went down the hill and not you. I'm glad you're okay."

"Oh, sure, look on the bright side, why don't you?"

There went my snit. Have you ever inflated a balloon, and instead of tying it off, you just let go and it went thbhfbhfbbflfbltlbt across the room? That's how I felt.
Anyway, the silver lining is that I found a Canon 50mm macro lens on sale in Austin the next week. It has a slightly wider angle of view than the 60mm, which makes for easier composition while staying close enough to catch a lot of detail.

But I'm still shopping for a shoulder bag or a top-loading backpack. I may have to learn the hard way, but I do learn.