Iron_Dreamer

Just booked the same Virgin flight as Grahame. See you all in Tampa (assuming our van from Orlando doesn't catch fire)

That is putting it mildly. It made me want to put a serious hurtin' on whomever though up this wretched debacle in the first place. Using the same name, and logo, WTF?!?!?! And on the fucking History channel? Not only that, but the first promo features something that is just a rehash of a film the REAL Top Gear did years ago...

A couple from a chilly afternoon in Yosemite Fall meets Winter El Cap after Sunset

Schweet! It'll be interesting to see how they do for you. I definitely heard some potential there at RMAF, but hard to really tell in those crummy little rooms.

Yep, as a Nikon user, I have looked on the struggles of Canon users with Sigma lenses with near disbelief at the frequency of AF problems. Of the six Sigma lenses I've owned (on Nikon), only one ever had an issue, which was a decentered optical element, fixed under warranty on my 24-60 f/2.8. I considered the Sigma 50 1.4 for its' bokeh, but I prefer the flatter field performance of the Nikkor 50 1.4G for all those non-portrait shots. And the bokeh isn't that shabby either.

Sign me up.

I haven't used one, but the main downside appears to be mustache distortion. If you don't mind that, won't use it for architecture, or have software to correct for it (and of course don't mind MF), it looks like a good performer.

Awesome baby! You got up close enough, given the circumstances going in, Al. I would have loved to be there as well. Definitely a whole different kind of party from the good ol' USC football championship days.

I could be down for this as well. Shoot me any relevant info you can. Thanks.

Sounds like I've got some 'vestigatin' to do, and no, it won't involve driving to Tampa

The crazy Weston booth erection: And the band arrives to play: The Emotive room, one of the most sanely priced of the show: An interesting looking Preamp drives a very temperamental speaker system: The much anticipated sh!tty amplifier: The Cricketburger! The beer garden of our dreams: And JP#'s surveys the options, minutes before passing into a languid state: The party moves outside: Later the next day, we attack the Larkburger (soon to be taken national as a subsidiary of Headamp): And we ended the day with Tyler's excellent culinary suggestion:

I'll be right there to check it out as well! Certainly sounds promising for the price.

I was going to bring what I have, computer Pico setup, with a bunch of both regular music and Smyth-encoded HD movies.

Setting a course for Denver tomorrow, I should be able to get in a few days of camping in nice weather on the way there.

Of course, stiggy-san:p

No kidding, eh?

I don't think so, the bay area is quite a bit further west than my location, and it sounds like you went a bit out of the way. It is in the ballpark though. I was looking mostly at the UT parks, and thinking about going through Aspen and Independence Pass. Might just speed over to CO on the way there, and mozy through UT on the way home.

I scoped it out to be about 16hrs from my locale. I doubt I'd be doing it all in one go, as the trip would also be a good excuse to catch some nice scenes in UT/CO.

Happy 40th!

Here's a snap from the new Nikkor 24-120 f/4 VR. Handheld at 120mm f/4 1/8", to torture-test the VR system.

Thinking of road tripping it out from Cali. What's the attendee list at this point? JP, Mike, Steve, Gene, Sherwood...?

Want a more interesting football experience? Geaux to Baton Rouge for an LSU game. Craziest.fans.ever.

Indeed, I have a nice little "backup" of DVD-A's on the PC

Oh, there most certainly is, and I've used it a fair bit in the past.

Well, taking those sorts of pictures, one has to decide between a shot with static stars (as in that one) or star trails. For the stars to look truly static, you need to use a relatively "quick" shutter speed (for nighttime anyway), or they start to look slightly motion blurred. Whereas to get trails, can take minutes, if not hours of exposure, depending on the focal length. I personally find star trail shots a bit gimmicky, not to say I don't make some, but I do generally find static stars to look a bit more natural or genuine. Amazingly, I used only about 3.2lbs worth of tripod and head combined to get that shot. An Induro C-013 tripod and Photoclam PC40 ballhead, which were plenty stable on that mildly breezy evening. I certainly wouldn't want to shoot big telephotos from that setup, but it works quite well for my gripped D700 with up to about 2.5lb lenses.