Just fooling around with Adobe software.

This is several shots taken at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, OH on Aug. 8th. Some were taken during the rain in practice and others were taken during the race when it dried out. I believe there are 6 pictures here. I have downloaded the Adobe Illustrator 7.0 trial version to see if I like it. So far, for the money, it isn't all that bad. I have another program that I really like but it doesn't work with Vista 64 yet. Anyway, I was just playing around and did this. I like it. Don't ask me to point out the individual pics.

I Love Digital and Old Posts Missed

I found this in my drafts. I had forgotten that I had started it and hadn't paid attention to the blog that it didn't show up. Of course this was started before my most recent posting about my lens addition.

I also found a draft on my project that I just appologized about as well as another one I had started. All gone now.

This is what happens when you retire, too many projects get started and yet this isn't like me.


I have started playing around with the digital power of my Canon Rebel XTi. It started a little over a month ago when my son-in-law helped me with some photos I had taken. Since then I have improved my clarity and hopefully my compisition. I just decided to take some shots of my car in the garage in the dark. Well, mostly dark. I had a small flourescent desk lamp on behind me. I originally took 120 shots. I used a tripod sense a lot of the times would be impossible for me to hold still long enough. The car is a 2002 Miata MX 5 SE. It is titanium in color with a saddle interior. I have pretty much the standard headlamps of the time and the instrument lighting is red. There is a silver metal flake in the paint.



This is my desktop for now.

I see black light effect.

No, I don't have racing lights but the effect I did is neat.

Get in Trouble and Get Away With It

I just have to write something about the girls crossing a countries sovereign borders on a personal mission (sponsored by a former VP of the US) and then the news media covering their release like they are somebody. They were in the wrong and the media is in the wrong for making a big issue of their return. Cameras over the Clinton private jet sitting at the gate. Luggage being unloaded. Many people going in and out, carrying lots of bags. Then the family going in to see the ladies.

Did I watch this, no, I got a little help from the wife or I could hear it and I did see a little while passing from the coffee pot to the computer. If this warrants coverage and a lot of money for it then why is there hunger in the world. How many people could be fed if these dollars were spent more wisely.

If they, the media, want to cover this then do an in depth on how they got there and why. Remember, Lisa Lings sister is one of them and she admitted to Lisa that they didn't cross unknowingly of where the border was. More importantly, why were they there and who sent them? Who is paying for their release? Did Clinton pay the cost of the flight to North Korea? How about all the staff that went along. Yea, I would get Clinton on board like Gore did, especially if I had anything to do with them being there.

Why are these two individuals anymore important than the hikers that were caught in Iran? Who in the hell takes a hiking trip over there anyways. Vacation my ass. How about those that are in Mexican jails for whatever reason. Guilty or not, looks like it doesn't matter since these girls have admitted guilt. Is it really who you know that gets you help when you need it?

I guess we could get Bill to start traveling the world getting people out of trouble. Give him a mission in life.

The GM/Delphi Saga will never end.

Just watched a story about a man that was asked to leave and sever all ties with GM as a buyout offer. In doing so he was to get a severance payment of $140,000 before taxes. He was to collect NO unemployment, sub pay or anything else. Since then, 10 MONTHS ago he has received nothing and GM filed for bankruptcy. Because he was in the IUE-CWA union vs. the UAW he is now part of the "Bad GM". He has absolutely nothing. Watch this. http://www.wdtn.com/dpp/news/local/GM_employees_falling_through_the_cracks

This is because GM did their usual and did not own up to their responsibility. This is because a judge did not look beyond the three piece suits in front of his court. This is because OUR banking system, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Bros. et al decided profit was more important than honesty. This is because OUR government looked the other way.

So sad.

Changing colors with digital effect power

These are basically the same photos. There are some differences but the main difference is in the color that was picked up by the camera. In the first picture the data is as follows; f-5.6, exposure time is 1/15, ISO is 100 and the focal length is 80mm. The biggest change will be the white balance, here it is set for the shade mode. I used this to try to emulate the fact that the sun was going down and everything was in almost at dusk point in time. It was 8:14 PM and the sun actually set about 9 now. With the clouds the timing is closer to the 9 o'clock look with a clear sky.

The second picture has the f-stop at 3.5, exposure time at 1/125, ISO is 100 again and the focal length is 28mm. Here, the white balance is set at tungsten mode. It is suppose to be sensing the presence of artificial lighting from a regular light bulb. I used this setting because the sky looked more like it was being artificially lite. The result was the more blue effect than the redness in the first picture.

Can I explain all this, heck no, I'm just learning but I am trying different things just like Tony did when he started with his pocket camera.

More photos with some time exposure effects

The lense used for these pictures is a Canon 28-80mm EF zoom lense that was on my Rebel 35mm camera. It has a 1:3.5 -5.6 f-stop. It has a UV Promaster filter attached also.

Starting at the top, I have three pictures taken within three minutes of each other. The first one is 8:16 PM and the other two are at 8:19 PM. The significance here is that you can change the appearance of the time of day with your camera.

Data for the first picture is f/3.5 with the exposure time of 1/125, an ISO of 100 and the focal length of 28mm. You can see the dots of the headlights of a car coming down the street when you make the image larger. For the second picture the data has changed a bit. F-stop is now 29 and the exposure time is 4 seconds with the ISO staying the same but the focal length went to 53mm. Time was 3 minutes after the first photo but you can see there is more lighting in the picture. You can easily see the concrete trough for rain run-off from the curb to the pond that is out back. The cars headlights are now showing the motion of the vehicle. Obviously, this is another vehicle because of the time lapse. Notice too that they sky has lost its distinction, the clouds are washing out due to the fact that there is too much light in this area.

In the last picture there are some changes in the camera settings on two fronts. The f-stop is now 32 while the exposure time has jumped to 20 seconds. All else is the same as the last picture. The first thing to notice is that there appears to be no sky, just light above the trees. The headlights are from the same vehicle as the last image since the time is the same, quick rotation of the dial to change the exposure time. Also, you can now see the area leading into the pond. You can see the deck on the back of the house in the distance as well as a street sign and fire hydrant.

Learning about digital photography

I have had a digital camera for about eight years, however, I have only had one that my old Canon film camera could do for about two years. Now, I am trying to really discover all the ins and outs of the digital world.

I have a niece whose husband played around with a really small digital camera until he got to where he felt comfortable enough to start entering photo contests. Tony took soooooo many pictures of their cats and closeups of flowers that it got almost boring. You could see though that he was learning and improving. I would email him and ask questions and the bottom line, even though he never said it was, practice. There's no cost because there is no film. Take, delete and take again. Tony did this and he won some contests. The big one is that it got him a job on their local newspaper. He was retired from the Air Force and wanted to do something that he liked. This was right up his alley. I go to their website every now and then and look at his work.

Well, now I am going to start practicing. On this adventure I am just going to point out how you can capture time and movement with still imaging. These two pictures were take two minutes apart with different shutter 8 sec and 2 sec times and f-stops f-16 and f-7.1 respectively. Focal lengths are the same, 80mm and the ISO setting is the same, 100. You can see the rain in the distance is moving to the right, in this case it would be to the east. The rain is to the left of the tall tree.