Thank You Steve Jobs

This one is way cool but first a thank you to Steve Jobs for either thinking this one up (doubtful) or at least having the foresight to allow the creativity and vision within a corporation this call Apple.

This little App proved its worth of memory space on my iPad tonight. When I am out of town, I always call my wife at 11:00 at night be for we go to bed. Tonight though when I went for my phone, it was not to be found. Hmm... Yes! use the work Blackberry to call my phone and I will hear it in a pocket or on the floor somewhere. No sound anywhere, Nada!

This i the first time I have ever totally misplaced my phone. Prior to panic setting in, I remember the Find iPhone App on the iPad. I tapped the App and once I logged in to the Apple account a location of the hotel came up on the screen. Well that makes sense as it was locked into the iPad. I clicked on the Doug's iPhone and this is what came up.

For a nanosecond I was confused as I had not been any grassy or wooded area all day. But then I realized that the building and the ramp with aircraft was the NetJets ramp in Columbus, OH. The grassy area is where the new building is located. It was there that I spend the day in a cubical working on a project. I had left the phone on the desk for sure.

I grabbed my I.D., wallet, and keys and headed out the door in my work-out shorts and tee shirt. Sure enough it was sitting right there on the desk.

So once again, thank you Steve Jobs!

Cya... Doug

Didn't Get a Single Thing

If you are sharp and have been with me for a while, you will realize the image above is from a different post I did on jpeg shooting. So why am I reusing an image? Did you read the title to the post today. Hello?

Last Friday was an absolutely beautiful day in Washington D.C. We were visiting some of our family and celebrating or grandsons first birthday. With the weather being as nice as it was and the fact that we had hit the mother load on the Cherry Blossoms in Washington, we had to go into the city to get some shots. The two main areas for the Cherry Blossoms are at the around the Tidal Basin at the Jefferson memorial (above) and the reflecting pond and the Lincoln memorial.

It was a great plan with a couple exceptions. First there were six of us and the baby. Little mom did not want to take the baby on the Metro (subway) as he had not been feeling well earlier in the week and I could not blame her for that. Second was the fact that in addition to the seven of us there must have been half the population of the know world or at least most of Japan that migrated to Washington D.C. to see what we wanted to see.

Looking at the map above, the red line which is a little over a mile, took nearly two hours to manage. In addition to that the other car in our group stopped in the middle of traffic just past the "T" in the road. We managed to get up to the round about that was closed and pulled out of traffic to wait for the the rest of our party and come up with a game plan. This is represented by the blue dot on the map.

No this is where it got a little shaky. At the Independence Ave intersections was a couple of the Park Police' finest trying to manage what was really an unmanageable task. That of traffic management at a time where there was too much traffic for the roadway system, but I guess that is a normal occurrence in the metro D.C. area and one of the main reasons we enjoy our life in West Michigan. Anyhow Deputy Dog saw us sitting there and was not happy and pointed for us to get back into traffic. My options were to:

1. Get back into traffic
2. Get out of the car and go talk to the officer; or 
3. Stay in the car and wait for him to come to us.

Well this must have been one of those times that judgement was not to be found in my brain. My decision to stay in the car may have been safe from a non aggressive move such as the second choice. Clearly I should have just got back into traffic an been on my way. The only problem was that two of our occupants had gone back to see about the other car. I was simply going to wait for them.

I don't remember the officers name (which is probably a good thing) but he as a motor policeman so I will just call him Poncherello because he reminded me of Erik Estrada from the 1977 series "CHiPs". So Ponch is strutting up to the car and verbally lays into me. I my feeble attempt to get a word in to explain the situation, I realized he had no interest in hearing my plea. Guess that would be saved for the judge. With my drivers license in hand, Ponch walks back to his motorcycle and retrieves his ticket book. Seeing as how I was going to get a ticket anyhow, I was sitting there thinking of how I could politely rebut his refusal to listen to reason. Here is where keeping my mouth shut probably was the best thing I could do. Ponch went to the back of the vehicle to write down the  tag number and came up to the window and told me that there are places to pull off and this was not one of them. I could have made a real fool out of myself and told him that in fact there were no other places to pull off because they were either taken or closed (by the police). But I remained silent and he gave me my licensee and told me to get moving. Not ticket. My wife figured that while he was at the back of the car he looked up and saw that his absence from the intersection he was supposed to be working was not getting the attention it so deserved and it was a higher priority that writing some idiot a citation. Personally I think when he saw the Florida tag with a Michigan drivers license he realized hi efforts were futile and that he would simply let it go. Either way I was happy

The other car got a jump and we all ended up back at the house after seven hours of driving a total of 85 miles. And how many images did I get on the 5D Mk II. Zilch, Nada, None, Zippo!!! I didn't get a single thing.

Take care all... Doug

Ouch!

So what do these two images have in common. Well... Paint for one thing. I had my trusty EF 24-105 f/4 IS L glass mounted to my 40D on a whale watching tour we took while in Hawaii a couple of weeks ago. The whales were pretty active as they were ending their stay in the Hawaiian waters. They were making their last preparations for their migration up to the Alaskan coast.

The hump back whales come down to the warm central Pacific waters to have their offspring an allow them to exercise and earn their stripes for the northern migration. The young whales will bend, blow, and breach around the waters stretching their muscles. Every action they take is in training for their big move. All under the watchful eye of mom whale.

There are rules in the Hawaiian Islands regarding approaching the migrating whales. Generally a vessel can not come within 100 yards of the whales. This is the rule for the captains, not necessarily for the whales though. I was up on the port side of the catamaran leaning up against the cabin corner which would be on the right side of the image above. I chose this location as it was the most protected from spray when the boat would his a wave. People on the trampoline and on the starboard side were definitely getting wet. We had seen a number of breaches and blows in the distance when a large spray came across the boat. The spray was a bit different than when the boat would his a wave, there was a strange noise associated with it. We were just figuring out the noise we witnessed was a whale blow very close to the boat when it happened. The boat lurched and then lunged in an unusual way, not at all like taking a wave the wrong way. We were flung sidewise while some fell onto the trampoline and others against the lifelines (guess thats why they call them that). Fortunately I was leaning against the cabin and was not only able to keep my footing but I was able to protect the camera from the spray. When the boat lunged I let my camera ride down the R-Strap while I held onto what ever I could grab. The camera banged around a little and the lens hood got that white marring but boy did I have a story.

Yes, that is what it was, a story. Hope it was a good one! What actually happened was while the camera was hanging on the R-Strap and I was maneuvering on the boat, the lens hood banged into a corner of the boat. Hence the white scar of paint on the hood. The rest of the story was all fabrication.

The lesson here regardless of how cool of a story you can come up with is this. My plastic hood took the hit and not the lens or camera. No harm, no foul. Not even to the whales.

Take care... Doug

Merry Christmas

Hopefully you are reading this after Christmas and actually spent time with your family on Christmas and not reading blogs. I certainly have pre-blogged this post. Ok... So if you are reading this on Christmas day, STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER... Go hug your significant other, call you mom, or you kids... Do something that spreads the Christmas cheer.

I know we are enjoying a special Christmas in the Peek household in that all our children are home for the first time in three years. The special part is having and seeing a "first" Christmas with our grandson Levi. He will not remember the event but it is such a blessing to see a family grow and come together to enjoy each others company, reminiscing about funny family events and the flukiness of the family dynamic.

I want to leave you this Christmas season with a couple cute, funny, and maybe a little racy videos.

Enjoy... Doug

Communication

This image comes from a couple of weeks ago at the falls in Gahanna Ohio. I saw this couple just sitting there for the longest time and could only imagine the discussion they had prior to this current joint act of defiance. Something happened to case these two to ignore each other.

I forget the exact lens I had on the EOS 40D but I believe it was the EF 24-105 f/4 L IS lens. This is quickly becoming my favorite lens, I just wish Canon made an f/2.8 version. Can't be sure of the shutter speed but the aperture had to be down to f/4.0 due to the bokeh in the image and from where I was standing I probably had the lens out to 90 or 100 mm.

I am waiting for a descent afternoon to get into a position to get some good light on the downtown buildings here in Columbus, maybe it will happen this afternoon.

Have a good middle of the week all.

Cya... Doug 

Hilarious

After yesterdays post I ran across this video on David Jay's blog. Along with the right now attitude we all have come to embrace this is a great reflection on where we have come from.

I do remember being POed at people that had zeros in their phone numbers.

Enjoy the video... Doug

Good Morning Laugh

Just a quick note and a funny video I found wile surfing last night. It is important to be able to laugh at ourselves once in a while. We take life way to seriously at times. This video is a fun poke at the MacBook series of laptop computers. Enjoy!

I hope to get something else up here today but I am also chasing a crew to do a checkride. So we will see.

Cya... Doug

Starlight Star Bright

Yeh! I know... It's a bird, but hank in here with me.

First I would like to make a disclaimer. I am not a hunter, nor do I object to those that choose to do so. Now I am cool with everyone of have offended all. Get over it! I am just having a little fun here.

Last month when we were over in Chicago at the Brookfield Zoo, we went into the Penguin exhibit. First off the smell was maxing out the stink-o-meter, it was nasty. The penguins were... Not exactly spontaneous in their activities. Must be a union thing. These little buggers (below) on the other hand were just flying all over the place. It was really too close to get a good inflight shot as by the time you got the camera pointed at them they had already arrived at their destination. Once they landed though they were just fine with a nice pose for the camera.

Tonight I was looking over these shots in Lightroom and I just had to have a little fun with the settings that Lightroom offers. You will see what I mean in just a sec. SOOO... one thing lead to another and all of a sudden I am in PS tweaking the image and adding this and that to it. Removing this background and adding this line and that line. So what I came up with is shown below.

No, it is not a black square. It represents the dark of night with no moon what soever. The bird is there but just near impossible to see. That is when the dash 5 Starlight Scope comes in handy.

Below is a rendition of a site picture and not an actual image of a scope sight. What it is though, it demonstrates the weirdness we can get with just Lightroom adjustments. Short of the circle and sight lines, al the adjustment were in Lightroom. Kinda cool Hu?

Remember: NO ACTUAL FOWL WERE INJURED IN THE MAKING OF THIS BLOG POST.

Take care all... Doug

Nikon CoolPix

Hey all, just a quickie update on the whole crash with the XTi thing. This image above was one from the little Nikon point-and-shoot that my wife had. The church was absolutely pristine and was a very old building in Annapolis MD.

It off to the camera shop today to see what I can do about the XTi.

Cya... Doug

You Know It's Bad When...

You may have been able to surmise from todays blog title and the image above that I had a little problem. You would be most correct in you thoughts. I did, and it broke, yuck!

I was finishing a shoot and of course every one was in a hurry (including yours truly) and I was going to put the camera back in the bag sitting on the ground in the parking lot. I had my flash on the camera for some fill light and was taking it off. The 580EX II flash units do not have the traditional clamping wheel to secure them to the camera, it is a little lever. To release the lever one must press a button and the push the lever. I found out (the hard way) that I must either grow another hand, or adjust my grip on said flash unit while removing it from the camera. As the story continues, the flash exited the camera a moment (that is all it takes) prematurely and the juggling act ensued. Now I have seen juggling acts and I am not even going to pretend that I am a novice juggler. The result was that I save the flash unit but was standing over a camera laying lifeless on the asphalt.

This is a point in ones life where you have a choice to make. you either a) jump up and down screaming at the top of your voice spewing expletives that only sailors know; or b) man up, admit to your self that your yourself caused this situation and accept the consequences. I chose option c) denial. 

Once I worked through the emotional trepidation of what just occurred with that unique clunk that a camera makes when it comes in contact with something way to hard. I picked it up and looked through the view finder and saw absolutely nothing... I looked at the outside of  the camera for visible damage and on the circular polarizer I noticed the glass had a chip out of it at one edge, this was not a good sign. Unfortunately I was to shoot a christening immediately after this traumatic episode. The only thing we had left was my wife's Nikon point and shoot which is a really great camera.

Once we got home from the christening I started to troubleshoot the XTi to find the mirror had been dislodged buy the impact. Soooo, being the mechanically inclined person that I am, the fingers went to work. I was able to get the mirror back into position and the shutter was working on command so my hopes were high. I could now see through the lens and when I half press the shutter release I got the ever comforting beep when the AF has done it's thing. It was looking good until I realized that was the last AF beep the camera would make. I quickly changed lenses hoping the EF 16-35 f/2.8 L lens was not messed up. I put on my 24-70 and it too would not beep. I told myself that was a good thing because the lenses were worth three times what the XTi body was. I will get into the reason I have an XTi with that kind of glass in another post.

Time will tell as to the outcome of the little XTi.

Cya Later... Doug

Dem Some Big Wheels!

So my wife had been hymn-hawing about getting some roller skates. So I say sure, no problem. Wife gets online and starts hunting around for a pair and comes across a couple of different sites. She called me into the room to take a look at them and I really had my doubts. They are Scorpion Quadline Skates which are new to me. Must be a West Coast thing.

Well... Why not! Last Monday the Scorpions showed up and my wife was ecstatic. I suggested she back the truck out of the garage and practice in there before she makes her public debut. The really funny thing about this whole thing is the skates came with an instructional video... Who would have thought.

Later that day Evelyn sent me the photo below. After she promised me that she would not bust her #$$ in public she was good to go. In the garage anyhow.

Maybe they need to motorize these little buggers. They could call the Skateways.

Cya... Doug

Let's Get Political... Or NOT!

How many fingers does it take to point to the guilty party for the high fuel prices?

One more!

Browsing the USA Today (Useless Today) this morning I saw an entire page of headlines that was all about who is to blame for the cost of oil/gas. One said OPEC, another blamed the oil companies, yet another it was the futures speculators. Then there are the others that blame the consumer for using too much gas. We are spinning our wheel and wasting time here.

Sorry folks, but to me this is not a political issue, it is becoming a patriotic issue. If we as a country don't get a grip on what is going on with our energy policies and its effect on the economy we are going to have one rough road ahead of us. 

Hey... How about that for an uplifting post for a Friday. Now go enjoy a great weekend.

Cya... Doug

Kelby Classic

Right now before you read any further, CLICK HERE. 

Was that too funny or what. In all seriousness we in this country are getting way too wrapped around the axel about security. Just about all the security the general public sees is just that. For our viewing pleasure and self satisfaction to know... or should I say think we know that we are safe at night from terrorism.

Here are my two thoughts on the subject and I will get off the soap box and enjoy the laughter I am still experiencing from Scott' post.

1. We are safe in this country not because of the security that we can see, but because of the security we can not see.
2. If someone is willing to give up their life to take another, it is going to be really hard to stop them. The best we can home for is to minimize the effect if they can not be taken out before they have a chance.

There it is, short and simple.

Till next time.

Doug

Runny's Rig Bomance

Ok, I really don't know what has gotten into me other than I am being a little connectivitally challenged today. Kind of one of those "I've fallen and I can't get up" things. I am out on the road this week and planned on posting a cool comparison between a direct flash and the Mini Apollo from Westcott but those images are sitting on the CF card back home. Then there are the images sitting on the card in my G9 sitting at this moment right next to my keyboard but the USB cable is sitting on my nightstand at home.

So I was digging into the bowels of my laptops hard drive and came across this light hearted cartoon that just strikes a romantic cord. In goofy kind of a way. I would love to give credit to the author but for the life of me i can not remember who they are.

Runny's Rig Bomance

Runny had a Firlgriend

Her name was Sunny Bue

He called nots od licknames,

Like "Kitchy-Itchy-Koo."

Sometimes he called her "Boney-Hun,"

And sometimes "Dovey Lear,"

But he only called her "Peety-Sie"

When no one else could hear.

Politically Incorrect Wednesday

Ok so we are not supposed to say "retard" but I think in this case it is most appropriate. I will even go so far as to bring it into a photographic analogy. We are told over and over to look at a scene differently, look behind us, get down low or rotate the camera to a portrait position.

Others that my notice our presents must sometimes wonder if we are less advanced in mental or social development for our age. By the way that is the definition of retarded in Apple's dictionary. Sometimes I am wonder what other people are wondering about me. Hmmm... I may not want to think on that too long. 

That pretty much sums up Wednesday except for the side-note that I hope none of you out there are looking like the bird on the right when shooting portrait.

Cya... Doug

Cough...Cough...Fizz...Fizz

Not exactly an Alka-Seltzer moment but it did take some drugs to put me to bed last night. I went to dinner with a bud down here in Columbus and with one single cough I knew it was not a good sign. We went over to the other side of the BBQ place where a little band was playing and left around early to stop and pick up some Vicks laced with 10% alcohol to knock me out.

Fortunately we did not have an aircraft to train on today and I woke up at 7:30 to call in to confirm the day. With a reserve day at the hotel, I was able to roll back over. Woke up at 10:30 missing breakfast but the then hours of sleep probably did me some good.

Around noon I got a call and the guy asked if I was Doug and that he had my computer. For a second that threw me so I asked who he was. He was the FedEx man on our porch at home in MI. No one answered the door when he knocked so he called the number he was given. He was nice enough to wait while I called the house with my work Blackberry. So there I was sitting in my hotel room with a pair of Blackberry's pressed against my head. I am sure the Surgeon General has some kind of warning against that. The home phone was busy so I called the business line and got threw to my wife. I told her to go answer the door. As she was going to the door the door bell rang. She must have thought I was psychic or something. We hung up and I called back later.

A little bit of blabbering but hey, I am a sick man.

Doug

I-Chiwawa

Good Monday evening all. This one is for the dogs, or at least this scrap of a dog pictured here. Here name is Bridget and belongs to my sister-in-law. I had taken my wife into Illinois on Valentines day so she could attend a meeting that evening with one of her sisters. As we had arrived in town a little early, we stopped at one of her other sisters homes. Of course she was not home but had left the door unlocked for us.

Bridget was gated in the kitchen and as soon as I moved the gate she scrambled off to her one home. She was going to guard that little green house of hers to the death. We decided to just sit in the living room and read until Ruth (sister-in-law) got home. After about 20 minutes of non-stop yapping (sorry it just does not sound like a bark) and borderline two headaches, it was time for action.

Bridget had not moved and as I rounded the corner the defiant challenges from this little... I'll just go on. I charged at the cage with arms raised and a deep growl of my own and the little yapper disappeared into the deepest shadows of its cage. It charged... I stopped my foot and yelled at it to shut-up. We never even said while raising our three children. But little miss muttly was a different story. Bridget again disappeared in the cage and there was silence.

After about ten minutes of quiet reading, my wife asked if I would check on Bridget as she though the beast may have had a heart attach. Once the investigation was over it was to our loss that the beast was still alive.

We had just gotten there and were already looking forward to seeing our Golden Retriever and Australian Shepherd when we returned home.

On a side note, my other sister-in-law has this cat that acts like a dog, it is really sweet! 

That is a quickie for today, I am get to see Little Rock tomorrow... The land of the barge they call the Clinton Library.

Cya later... Doug

I got it at Wal*Mart

He is one that we all got a kick out of. This past weekend I was in Columbus doing some flight training with my Chief Pilot and three other pilots new to the airplane. When I climbed into the right seat I saw this sticker on the display control panel and had to chuckle. The irony of this sticker is that someone placed it on a British built, Wichita KS assembled aircraft that no doubt somewhere has a part or two built in China. It was just one of those things that catches you off guard and find really really funny.

That's it for now.

Doug

Near Miss Monday

There has been a long standing image floating around the aviation circles of two pilots turned around looking back at the passengers with a Metroliner (San Antonio Sewer Pipe) coming directly into their flight path. I thought it was time to update that scene.

The image of the two pilots was taken on a flight this past week however the windshield was completely blown out so I knew I was going to have some CS3 work to accomplish. First was to get the windshield out of the picture., Second was to drop a blue sky on another layer and third was the oncoming airplane.

A couple of weeks ago, I was on a trip in West Palm Beach FL and an Antonov AN-124 came bee-bopping in for a stay. There was a clear shot between where we had our plane and big bird so I could not pass up the shot. Not knowing I would use it in this format but that does lead to one firm rule of photography. When you see something that is unique... Shoot it. The next rule (free on this post only) is to always keep your good shots regardless of how little you might need them in the future. Anyhow, after a little magic wanding, lassoing, and quick mask work, I had a very unique airplane for a near mid-air collision.

Until Thurs...

Doug

The Secret Is Out

Everyone thinks the reason the TSA requires the airlines to keep the cockpit door closed is for security. Nope! The real reason is demonstrated by the picture above. The aircraft are so advanced now that there are only two levers that actually work in the cockpit. The rest are all for show for when the passengers walk past the cockpit door getting on and off the airplane.

Ok so that's not the reason. The picture does serve a purpose though. It was scanned from an article in Business & Commercial Aviation (best aviation rag out there) for use in a binder I used to cary around with me. The technical problem with scanning photos from magazines is that you end up with a bajillian dots that somehow the eye blurs together and the scanner separates. An easy fix for that is to build the blur back in. A quick Gaussian Blur set very low, through a mask on top and reveal some of the sharpness on selected edges and you end up with a usable image scanned right from the magazine.

Oh... Did I mention that you might want to get permission from the rag before you press the start button on your scanner.