Iron_Dreamer

Here is one of ASR's pics after a little tune-up run through CS3 that he asked me to post:

Gotta have somewhere to vent!

The whole thing just makes me sick. And that many, myself included, saw this coming for many years, is just the capper. It all comes down to greed. Greedy families living beyond their means, raising greedy little brats who grow up to be greedy asshole investment bankers, who grease the hands of greedy asshole politicians on both sides of the imaginary aisle. And no matter the rules or regulations, it will happen again. It always does. It is simply human nature.

Steve, clouds can be hard to capture because they are often much brighter than the land you might try to include in a picture with them. Your D80 also has a tendency towards overexposure when used in matrix metering mode. For one you could try dialing in negative exposure compensation of 0.3 to 0.7 stops. Also check the histogram, and if the clouds are blown out, either try more negative exposure compensation, or lower your shutter speed while maintaining the same aperture and ISO in manual mode. Another issue could be that the scene you are trying to capture exceeds the available dynamic range (i.e. bright clouds and shadows). Your shot "Maroon Bells" is a good example of this. The clouds came out nicely, but detail in the left side of the mountains is very dark. You could overcome this either redistributing dynamic range via the curves tool in photoshop or another image editing program, or by bracketing multiple shots (one to expose the highlights properly, another for the shadows, or perhaps three or more if lighting is very extreme), then combine them in software into a so-called HDR (high dynamic range) shot. The third from the last shot in my previous post is an HDR, as the mountain and sky were so bright, that exposed properly in a single ordinary shot, the water would have been very dark. edit: also, for landscape shots like those, a smaller aperture number (like f8 or f11) tends to be better, as you will have a greater depth of field. I generally only use smaller than f8 in such situations when the light is not sufficient. This will also help with your clouds, as if the lens is not focused to infinity (say you focused on a tree ten feet away), you will have better odds that the depth of field will extend to infinity. Be careful about going over f11, as diffraction starts to set in on a 10MP camera, and make the pictures less sharp. I still use up to F16 if I absolutely need to for depth of field, but never over that. Also remember that depth of field is a function of focal length. I almost never use over F8 at 10mm, but I often use f11, even f13-16, when shooting 60mm and up. Using a circular polarizing filter will also help the clouds 'pop' better from the sky.

Got up early to watch the Gran Prix of Singapore. Totally worth it! Gawd I love F1! Sorted through the rest of the RAW files from my recent trip. Part 2 of my series is now up here.

Morning on the Mount Whitney Trail

The first section of them can be seen here. More to come!

From Yosemite to Whitney Morning in Tuloumne Meadows: Coming down Tioga Road: Vacation cottage at June Lake: Convict Lake and Laurel Mountain: Aspen signal the end of summer: Lone Pine Peak towers: And Mount Whitney beams: Waterfalls at Whitney Portal, despite the drought: Nightfall approaches this Sierra outpost:

Something boring but necessary, despite several opportunities for more fun On the upshot, I just got back from Whitney, and it was a ball. Didn't go all the way to the summit, because I was too taken aback by the unexpected beauty of the area to go zipping forward as quickly as would have been necessary. Between the insane terrain, fall colors, and great early morning light, I was astounded by my surroundings.

Just that they happened for you is amazing in and of itself. Now that's what I call a life experience!

No doubt!

Went and got a few supplies for my trip to Mt. Whitney this week. Needed a headlamp for sure, and got some new gloves to replace a set that's been kicking around for longer than I can remember.

I guess the next thing we need to do is ban talking to one's passengers

Now we're talkin'!

Hmmm...I have a system running a KT266A chipset, and it is going into year 7 of service here in a month or two, completely problem free. Though I did go through a few not-so-hot VIA based boards as well.

That is a rather ironic twist, since your car at least looks to still be drivable.

For my own purposes, the D700 would be awesome. Twelve MP is plenty for the print sizes I find appealing to keep displayed in a normal home. However, I could see the appeal of the 20+MP sensors, if I was to be selling a lot of very large prints. Considering how things are going, I'm sure it won't be long before Nikon puts one out.

You're not the only one! I just haven't been able to get along with the EEE-size keyboard. A 13.3" laptop has been small enough for me.

Benchmade 615

Here's a shot I took on the drive home the other day. Made me really wish I had a tripod with me at that moment.

Not necessarily better, more likely just different. The Pico is a bargain for the quality of the DAC, assuming you don't need more I/O options than it has.

It's been entirely too long since my last death tank session at your place, Ed! Looks like it should only be better for the next time, now!

Heavily seconded, from someone who's been through more than enough ~$1k DAC's!

Should be there, sounds like a good idea, with over a 6 month wait before canjam.

Tyll dishes on all things amplification: Dan Wright of Modwright gives the rundown of his latest creations: Ultimate Ears' lead engineer answers questions: The masses congregate and listen: Raffle prizes waiting to be plundered: Too bad this Modwright Transporter wasn't one of them: Luxman's gleaming lineup: But Frank Cooter stole the show, again, with another completely crazy custom creation: And the blue glow is back! Frank designed this amp specifically to drive his JVC-Victor DX1000: The DX1000 drew some interesting reactions: Edwood's K1000 was the subject of analysis and discussion as well: Ultimate Ears' table was among the busiest of the room: Tyll and his legendary energy kept 'em busy: While his big box o' headphones and amps kept 'em listening: ASR and I blew through quite a bit of the meet rambling on about camera gear: