Purchase a Print or
Download Wallpaper: 1920×1200 or 1600×1200

Nags Head is turning into my de facto lightning photography grounds.  My grandparents have a beach house with a covered porch and hot summer afternoons often turn into evening thunderstorms.  But conditions aren’t always right.  Even when it’s not raining, often the wind blows so hard the camera vibrates on the tripod.

Anyone that’s tried to get a good lightning photo knows that it can take a lot of patience.  Good thunderstorms may display nice strikes every few seconds, but that doesn’t mean you’ll always have your camera pointed in the right direction.  Even if you do, the lightning strikes themselves won’t necessarily be photogenic.  It once took me 57 tries to get a lightning bolt to cooperate with the rule of thirds.

A couple weeks ago, another summer thunderstorm was passing us by at the cottage.  My cousin had a new camera and was out on the front porch trying to get a lightning photo of her own, but I decided to stay inside because it looked like it might rain at any minute.  Eventually she packed up, but the rain never arrived.  Later in the evening, when the lightning flashes picked up in frequency, I stepped out to take a look for myself.

The storm was passing south of us, heading out to sea, and as the warm, inland air advanced out over the sea, bolts of lightning were dancing every which way.  For a storm lover like me, it was a great show.  Even better, from where we sat it, was warm, dry, and there was not a breath of wind.  I decided to run in and grab my new camera.

Our neighbor’s cottage was empty, boarded up for the season. I didn’t figure they’d mind if I commandeered their gazebo overlooking the ocean.  Our porch is set back behind a dune, so it was a treat to be able to look out toward the Nags Head Pier with the storm behind it.  I didn’t even need a tripod; there was an 8-foot supporting column with a nice, flat surface on top.

How good was the show?  It took me exactly four exposures to get this shot.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Date: 9:04pm, 22 August 2010
Focal Length: 24mm
Shutter: 15 seconds
Aperture: F/4
ISO: 100
Photoshop: Minor rotation to level horizon, cropped to 17×6 panoramic, slight saturation increase

Have you been following Oksana and me on Twitter or Facebook?  That’s where the bulk of our travel updates have been posted so far.  I thought I’d have tons and tons of time to work on the blog while we drove across the country — we even paid for the unlimited data plan on our iPad! — but it turns out you can’t type very well while driving.  While sitting in the passenger seat while driv–You know what I mean!

Seriously, though, I expected there would be plenty of time left in the day for blogging, but I didn’t count on how tired we’d both be after putting in a few hours behind the wheel.  I was discussing this with someone on the trip (I forget who it was) and they brought up a very good point: It may not be physically taxing, sitting on your butt all day, but driving can be quite mentally taxing.  If you put in 6 or 8 hours behind the wheel, that’s 6 or 8 hours of unwavering attention you have to devote to the task.  It’s no wonder I don’t have the mental fortitude to sit down and string some words together on a laptop after that.

I’m in a hammock now.

A little bit of catch up, to explain how we got to where we are right now:
Read the rest of this entry »

About three weeks ago, Oksana and I took her brother and sister-in-law, Andrey and Natasha, down to Key West. They were visiting from Russia and we took it upon ourselves to show them a good time. Andrey received his PADI open water certification course in Katmchatka this spring — in the COLD! — just so he could dive with us here in the States.

On our last trip through Key West, Oksana and I stumbled upon a little dive shop called Dive Key West. We had a wonderful experience with them, so we knew right where to take Andrey. What we didn’t realize, however, was that we would be there for the opening day of lobster season…

Technical notes: I had a little problem with… ahem, I mean I was fortune enough to have a learning experience with the audio on this podcast. I don’t know why our Zoom H2 picked up interference from our iPhones — they were both clear across the room and it’s never happened before — but our “clean” audio track was riddled with cell phone noise. The (slightly) lesser of two evils was to use the crappy audio record by the Canon 5D’s on-board mic. I have no idea where the clicking sounds throughout that track came from (because we were careful to turn off the AC and check for other noises in our hotel room.)  At any rate, I did the best I could with a little noise reduction and music.  Anyway, next time: phones powered all the way off.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a long-ish podcast episode about the NASA Tweetup I attended back in May.  Oksana wasn’t able to go with me, so this video ending up being a one-man show.  There’s some good stuff in there, I think, but I ran into some problems during the production (not the least of which was overexposing my “narrator” shot… grrr!)  My intent was to convey my own experiences at, and thoughts about, the NASA Tweetup.  I hope I managed to at least do that.

Originally I thought I’d post it in June, but packing for our backpacking-around-the-world trip got too crazy for that.  Then, I thought I’d post it on the first week of the trip, but the trip itself got too crazy for that!

Oksana and I are finding ourselves facing down the Traveler Blogger’s Dilemma: How do we budget time for webpage work when there’s a whole exciting world out there to see?  Turns out that’s especially hard when you’re visiting friends and family!

Read the rest of this entry »

Purchase a Print or
Download Wallpaper: 1920×1200 or 1600×1200

While driving down the Alaska Highway in British Columbia, you can’t help but spot some wildlife.  We expected to see some deer (and we did, two), hoped to see a bear (four of them; three black, one grizzly), and sort of doubted we’d see any moose (but we saw two, anyway).  It never even occurred to us that we might run into some buffalo.

The first two we spotted were slowly lumbering along the side of the road, munching on the grasses that grew on the huge shoulder between pavement and forest.  We stopped the car on the other side of the two lanes of traffic and tried to get some good photos despite the rain.  Unfortunately, those two bison were not exactly interested in us and didn’t even look up from their meals.

As we drove from Watson Lake to Dawson Creek, we kept a running total of buffalo going.  Nine, ten, eleven, twelve… and still no better opportunity for a great photo. That is, until we rounded a curve and gave up completely on our count.  Spread across both sides of the road, a herd of at least 40 bison were slowly walking the shoulders.  We saw bulls moving among the cows and newborn calves; a whole social dynamic was on display for us.

We took a lot of photos out both windows.

When one lumbering bull approached my side of the car, I focused in close on his head and snapped a few like this one.  Look into his eye.  I think he’s wondering what sort of a dent he could put into our Jeep…

Canon 5D Mark II
Date: 1:40pm, 3 July 2010
Focal Length: 200mm
Shutter: 1/160 second
Aperture: F/2.8
ISO: 250
Photoshop: Auto Contrast

Purchase a Print or
Download Wallpaper: 1920×1200 or 1600×1200

The Kennedy Space Center is a sprawling complex located on Merrit Island in Florida.  While much of it, like the Visitor’s Complex, is open to the public, there are checkpoints barring access along most roads in.  Security is tight near launch dates and while you may be able to book a bus tour to certain destinations inside, you can’t just drive onto NASA territory without a badge.

I flashed my Tweetup badge, the security guard said, “Thanks, boss!” and I drove right through.  Felt like a VIP.

On the morning of the 13th, I was cruising along in my rental car, heading for the press site.  Just after the Vehicle Assembly Building came into view, I passed a sign with the Space Shuttle on it proclaiming “1 Days to Launch!”

In fact, I passed a couple such signs, and they got me thinking about what an undertaking a Shuttle launch must be.  That close to launch there must be hundreds, if not thousands, of NASA employees and contractors working very hard to insure that everything goes off without a hitch.  I didn’t see them along the roadway, of course; they were all tucked away in the administrative buildings, the labs, at the launch pad, in mission control.

I loved the idea of those signs along the road, someone dutifully changing their little numbers every evening.  It spoke of morale.  Of teamwork on an epic scale.  I resolved to get a photo before I left.

That evening, after a day full of events and tours, I found myself driving back along the same route.  Traffic was light, and it was easy to spot the sign on the other side of the road.  As if it was meant to be, a gravel strip across the median appeared right beside it.  I pulled a U-turn, parked the rental on the grass and grabbed my camera.

Surprisingly, someone had already switched the “1” to a “0.”  Another reminder that, in just 20 hours, Atlantis would be leaving the Earth.  I took a few pictures, trying to find the best framing with the VAB behind, but I was in a hurry.  Badge or no badge, I felt self-conscious taking pictures of a government installation from the side of the road.

Two minutes later, I was back on the road to Orlando.  Tomorrow was Launch Day.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Date: 7:08pm, 13 May 2010
Focal Length: 200mm
Shutter: 1/400 sec
Aperture: F/4.5
ISO: 100
Photoshop: Auto Color

Purchase a Print or
Download Wallpaper: 1920×1200 or 1600×1200

The day before the STS-132 shuttle launch, the NASA folks had arranged a day full of activities for those of us invited to the Tweetup.  We spent the morning in an air-conditioned tent, listening to guest speakers, but after lunch we were taken on a tour all around the Kennedy Space Center.

One of the places we had the most time was at the Saturn V Center.  It’s a huge museum commemorating all the missions that used the Saturn V rocket.  As you enter, there’s a fantastic historical video, then you’re escorted into the actual control room they used back in the day.  They’ve converted the huge room into a presentation that gives you a good feel for what the excitement level must have been like when they launched those massive rockets.

After our group watched the movie, we had about an hour or so to explore the rest of the museum.  I wandered alone, reading the plaques, examining the models, and taking pictures of some of the exhibits.

Off in a dark room devoted to the lunar missions, this capsule sat in a roped-off corner.

Taking pictures in a museum is usually pretty dull.  The lighting is tricky, especially for anything behind glass.  I’m sure that someone who’s proficient at studio photography would enjoy artfully capturing these types of exhibits, but not me.  Even assuming I’d have the luxury to compose the shots as I’d like, I’d probably just end up with the same photo thousands of other museum-goers took.

It was with that mindset that I snapped a few photos of the Apollo 14 Command Module.  I wasn’t trying for a great picture, just wanted to bring home photos that showed what the Saturn V Center looked like.  Like everything else I shot in there, the camera was on the green (automatic) mode.

I didn’t see the photos until I got back to the hotel, but I was immediately struck by this one.  I love the lighting with the module illuminated and the rest of the corner swimming in darkness.  The camera did a good job exposing, of course; all I did was push a button, but whoever designed the exhibit for the “Kitty Hawk” deserves credit, too.

Also, as a side note, I have to say: Even at ISO 1250, the Canon 5D can take some remarkably noise-free photos!

Canon 5D Mark II
Date: 3:28pm, 13 May 2010
Focal Length: 24 mm
Shutter: 1/20 sec
Aperture: F/4
ISO: 1250
Photoshop: Cloned out tiny light flare near ceiling