All posts by David

Enviromentalism, photography, travel

A few Photos around Bremerton.

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I took the 50D out for a little photography at lunch today. Geared up with my 70-200 f/2.8L glass (arguably one of the best Canon ever made), and a Hoya 77mm polarizer, I took a drive across the two bridges, picking up a sandwich along the way.

Olympic mountains can be seen all around town.

Olympic Mountains, seen from the Manette neighborhood of Bremerton, WA

The ‘iconic’ Manette Bridge. Soon to be replaced with a rather boring cement version, has served the community of Bremerton, connecting East (Manette) and West (downtown) for over 80 years.

The Manette Bridge, built in 1930, connects East and West Bremerton.

The Boat Shed – one my favorite lunch spots on a sunny day. During the warm moths, the deck is packed, and getting a spot on the dock has more to do with luck than anything else. Sometimes during the spring grey whales can be seen in passage.

The Boat Shed - one my favorite lunch spots on a sunny day.

Olympic Mountains from the Warren Ave. / Hwy 303 Bridge. Looking West over Port Washington Narrows and the Bremerton Yacht Club (left). Silverdale is far right and the Hood Canal just over the first set of green hills.

Olympic Mountains from the Warren Ave. Bridge

One of the massive rain forest valleys that head into the Olympic National Park.

Olympic National Park

Aviation, Health, photography

AirLift Northwest photos – Canon 20D + 400mmL IS lens

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The last couple of days have been pretty nice. I had my older 20D camera body loaded with the 100-400L Zoom and next to my desk. More than a few times a week, the AirLift Northwest helicopters bring people into the trauma center at Harrisons. So, I decided to snap a few pics.

They have a number of helicopters, and at least two different models currently in use. This one, photographed on two separate days. I believe this to be an Agusta a109.

Climbout from Harrisons Hospital, Bremerton WA.
Agusta AW109 lifting off from Harrison's Hospital, Bremerton WA.
Agusta AW109 departs Harrison's Hospital, Bremerton WA.
Agusta AW109 departs Harrison's Hospital, Bremerton WA.

Note about these photos. These are re-sized by the blog software, and they loose a little bit of their quality. The originals are tack-sharp. I’ll have to look into adjusting the blog software to not mangle my photos. Not sure if it’s possible but worth a try.

automotive, photography

Neat DIY ‘remote’ photo rig for auto photography

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A friend of mine of a private autosports mailing list, sent this over last night.

Auto Portraits in Motion:

Very neat idea and I like the concept. It’s also good that the poster describes some of the challenges working with this technique. I might try to construct something this this myself, but for a motorcycle (insane, perhaps). But it’s inspirational none the less, I like the idea (so want to funnel a little more traffic his way) and I also want to keep track of it here, so I can find it again!

You’ll just have to go an check it out, unless the blog owner allows me to remove link a photo or two from his blog.

Motorcycles, photography

Recent studio work – obtaining some good results with better equipment.

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The studio is really coming together. With that implementation of 700Watts of color-corrected lighting, Profoto reflectors, custom backdrops and my new backdrop hanging system.. I’m getting some pretty good results.

Studio Test shot.
Studio Test shot.

I have a part list of what it took to get to this point!

2 3-head aluminum floor lamps
2 1500 watt hot oil space heaters
1 1500 watt force air space heater
8 100 watt 6500k CFL lamps
6 1/4″ eye bolts
2 1/4″ wall hook
9.5 feet of 3/32″ plastic coated galvanized cable
13.5 feet of 3/32″ coated galvanized cable
16.5 feet of 1/8″ coated galvanized cable
6 1/8″ cable loop ends
6 1/8″ cable clamps
3 1/8″ x 6″ turnbuckles.
2 packs of bathtub curtain hanging hooks
2 packs of x-large fabric grommets and installation kit
3 108″ x 15′ muslin backdrops (this was the $$$ killer)
2 90″ x 12′ rayon colored bolts (also pretty pricey)
2 ProFoto reflector umbrellas (also very pricey!)
1 carbon fiber Bogen tripod with Manfroto Q/L ball head (let’s $700 for that bad boy but it’s top-notch!)
1 ‘classic’ steel heavy duty studio tripod (I’ll say it was a lot less than the Bogen)
Several gallons of paint
Many hours of labor to clean, sand, paint and rig.

Also have 5 other ‘consumer grade‘ (i.e. crap) tripods that now just take up space. They are good for travel though, because if they are crushed or lost, I don’t care. I purchased two of them at different times overseas, while on vacation expecting them to not last the 10-14 days there. I considered leaving them but the penny-pincher in me made me pack them home.

None of this is possible without the two Canon 20D bodies, and untold thousands of $$ in lenses. :/

Then there is of course the $$$$$$$ in motorcycles, but they have uses beyond the studio. 🙂

One of these days I’ll fully account for the costs of this hobby! LOL

Note, subsequent content / photos moved.

I’ll be bringing up my official photography website in the next month. Until then, you can find my latest photos on my ModelMayhem site ( http://www.modelmayhem.com/1306387 )

automotive

Tracking fuel and mileage costs on the CLK430

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Off and on I have been tracking the fuel consumption and milage on the CLK430. Almost all of thise is commute driving.

1999 Mercedes-Benz CLK430

1999 CLK430
1999 CLK430
Date Gallons Odometer Start Total Miles Mileage
8-Dec-2009 13.9 118132 333 23.9 MPG
12-Dec-2009 14.9 118494 362 24.3 MPG (best to date)
2-Feb-2010 15.0 119469 347 23.1 MPG
18-Feb-2010 12.8 119850 291 22.7 MPG (worst to date)
22-Feb-2010 13.6 120180 319 23.45 MPG

I plan to keep track of this, as often as I remember to note it, that is. It looks like my mileage has dropped a measurable amount in the last few months. Some of it could be fuel mixes for winter, but I suspect the car needs a tuneup, since It’s been well over a year since I even checked plugs. I believe they are the originals!

There are 16 multi-tip Platinum plugs in the motor (2 per cylinder) and they cost about $10 each. I’m not really clamoring to spend $160 on plugs plus the labor (I can’t get to 12 of them easily) to have them done. But.. it seems like I should do it now before I start to have mechanical problems.

photography

A few old photos from the past…

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I’m finally getting around to scanning in some of my old photos, before the original prints are damaged beyond use or get lost.

A couple that brought a smile to my face.

Kawi 650 JetSkis
Kawi 650 JetSkis

These were both a ton of fun out on The Delta, jumping wakes and riding to Lost Isle Resort (only accessible via water). Had some great time with those Skis. I eventually traded them for a boat after we had our first child. I still miss those. Now that the kids are old enough, I think I’ll get some again. It’s good fun and good exercise!

My 2nd motorcycle - Honda CBR600F2
My 2nd motorcycle - Honda CBR600F2

This was my second motorcycle. It had custom paint, exhaust and was a fun ride. This is also the first bike (OK, other than dirt bikes) that I had a crash on. It’s also the one that taught me about ATGATT (All The Gear, All The Time!). And that crashing sucks, PERIOD. This photo was taken out on Hwy 49 (a favorite of mine while living in Sacramento, CA), deep in the California Gold Country. I never thought about how much I’d learn to value a sunny day.

Flying to Vegas - trip sponsored by Silicon Graphics
Flying to Vegas - trip sponsored by Silicon Graphics

Ken, Myself and Kris on an SouthWorst Airlines flight from SJC to Las Vegas! We’d had a great year in the Customer Service / IRIX Support department and the company rewarded us by sending the entire team (about 20 of us) for a weekend in Vegas. Many great memories of that trip! It was fantastic! Almost got myself and my boss tossed off the plane in San Jose for sneaking booze onboard and getting plastered on the flight down. It only went sideways from there!

Motorcycles, photography

Color studies for new backdrops

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Having a photo shoot coming up next week, I want to create a couple of new backdrops. The shoot will once again focus on the yellow Ducati. Today I’m working with some rough masks in Photoshop to get an idea of what backdrop colors I should work on creating next.

This will take a few hours to work though. First I’m working on some basic background tinting. Once I get an idea of what my eye likes, I’ll break out my color books (a favorite of mine is the Jim Krause’s Color Index 2) and find tune the pallets looking for the best complimentary colors. Creating the backdrops is not an exact science (at least for me), so having a perfect color target is meaningless. It serves as a goal for dye an base fabric color selection.

These are a couple of the images I’ve created so far to get an idea of what direction to go in.

color_study_original

⇐ Original

color_study_purple color_study_midnightsea
color_study_maroon color_study_darkgreen
color_study_redbright color_study_purpleelectric
Uncategorized

$518 later, a new pair of tires for the CLK

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OUCH. Pricy tires! But like most things in life, the true cost of owning a vehicle can be a lot more than just the ‘purchase price’. $1100 for a set of tires, $1300 for a set of decent (not great) wheels, $400 for sport shocks… $200 for spark plugs (takes 16 multi-tip Platinum).

In the end, a tire I was not really comfortable driving on with kids in my car, has been replaced and I can move on with life.

Still.. $518 unplanned dollars…. (+ tax) was a bit hard to swallow!

Motorcycles

A little more blingery for the 1098.

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Saturday, I got great deal on some AVVI rearsets for the Superbike. Adjustable billet Rear Sets have been on my desire list forever. I never did get a set for my 998, and 2 years into owning the 1098, I finally got it done!

The Happy Hour sale at Ducati Seattle yesterday was IMPOSSIBLE to pass up. 60% off! That cut the price of the parts from $400 to $160! That’s hardly more than the cost of replacing the bits with stock parts, perish the though, if it’s crashed. So.. picked them up, had a cheese burger, talked to Marty for over an hour about tuning the bike…. and headed home to mount the parts.

10 minutes later:

New AVVI Rear Sets
New AVVI Rear Sets

How, I need to get them anodized to match the rest of my billet parts, such as the clutch cover, pressure plate and my levers:

Billet levers.
Billet levers.

I also talked to Marty about the advantages of putting in a custom stroker crank. We looked at some dyno graphs for other stroker motors recently built. It really flattens the torque curve. A 916 stroker was cranking well into 80 ft/lb. from 4400 with at table flat profile all the way to 8500! That would be a massive kick in street drivability, and also corner exit acceleration on the track. If I can file $5000 to burn between now and Summer, I can get the crank done, the heads blueprinted and the entire thing custom dyno tuned. Tempting… very tempting.

It’s great to have a world-class dyno facility less than 1 hour away, with a technician that has decades of experience and the professional network that offers the latest in tuning knowledge to be made available to the average consumer, such as myself.

Dave Rosevelt and Ducati Seattle are a world-class operation!