Could This Just Be A Coincidence??

While making the rounds on the 'net the other day, I stumbled across a couple of pieces of information that just kind of make you wonder.

Earlier this week, Adobe announced the release of Lightroom 2.0 (Software for editing pictures), so, I was browsing some Lightroom / Photoshop related sites looking for reviews, videos, etc...

One site that I looked at was Photoshop User TV. It's a weekly video program put out by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) and the guys that host it are Scott Kelby (President of NAPP) and Matt Kloskowski. Both of these guys are well known Photoshop / Lightroom guru's, authors, and workshop instructors. Anyway, one of the things mentioned in this week's show is a Worldwide Photo Walk that Scott Kelby is organizing. Basically, a photo walk is simply a group of photographers organizing a meetup and going on a walk to take pictures of the given area. The same kind of thing that the Peoria flickr group does on occasion. For the Worldwide Photo Walk, you can either join in on one in your city, or you can register to be a group leader and organize one in your own city if there isn't one already.

Completely unrelated to anything Adobe or photo walks, I was also browsing the forum at Peoria.com when I ran across a post that mentioned "National Go Topless Day". OK, you've got my interest. :-) :-) There is a website called GoTopless that is organizing major rallies in cities across the US. Their basic premise is that if men can walk around topless, then, women should have the same constitutional right. Yet, women are frequently arrested, fined, humiliated, and criminalized. So much for equal rights, huh??

So, what do these two seemingly unrelated items have in common? The date!!!! Both of these events are happening on 8/23/2008. Coincidence???? I prefer to think of it as genius!!

Bummer of a Concert Lineup

What a bummer! I heard a few days back that Rascal Flatts and Taylor Swift are coming to town. Now, I'm sure it will be a highly attended concert. Rascal Flatts is very popular and Taylor Swift, even though she's relatively new on the scene, is pretty popular herself.

The problem is, I really don't care for Rascal Flatts. I don't know why...just don't care for most of their songs. Sure, they have a song or two that I do like, but for the most part, I could easily pass on them. I like a lot of country music...but, generally the more upbeat stuff. Not the slower / sappy stuff, which seems to be what Rascal Flatts specializes in. But, Taylor Swift I really like. Even her slower songs aren't your typical slow ballad and most of her stuff is more upbeat / fun.

So, an opening act that I really like with a headliner I really don't...for $48.25 / $63.50 that's a tough one to drop the coin on.

Windfarm - Second Attempt

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I was going to try to hit the windfarm north of Peoria under a full moon and see how that worked out.

This past weekend, I went out there (missed the full moon by one day..but close enough). I was watching for the moon and it seemed to be a late rise. I didn't get out there until about 11:30pm. As luck would have it, there was a storm moving in to the North, and within about half an hour, enough cloud cover moved in that the moon was obscured the majority of the time. Of course, when I headed out, it was perfectly clear..figures!!

I did have enough time to get a whole 3 shots! Yes..3!! Ugh!!

With this shot, I was playing with an idea I had the previous outing, but, since there were several of us, I didn't want to mess anyone's up shots. But, this time, I was on my own and free to screw things up as much as I wanted! :-)

I set the tripod up at the end of the access road and tripped the shutter. Then, walked up the road near the windmill and manually triggered my flash on full power trying to light up the blades of the windmill. I did this several times, then headed back and stopped the exposure to see what I had gotten.



If you look closely, you can see ghosts of the blades. So, the idea was right, but, I didn't have enough power to really get the job done the way I wanted. I have another idea on making it work, but, will have to wait to try it out. The real solution is more light, but, I don't have any sort of flash head that will put out more light, and anything that does, probably would need portable power packs or a small generator!!

Oh well, it was fun to experiment. :-)

Camping and (not) Canoeing / Turkey Run

This past weekend was the annual Camping and Canoeing trip for the Peoria Jaycees. There were around 22 or so campers that went on the trip. Of these, exactly 0..that's right ZERO of us got any canoeing in.

We started off Friday afternoon. I saw the front moving in, and was hoping to get on the road before the rain hit. No such luck! I was in Heavy rain until about half way to Bloomington, then it let up a bit, but didn't get clear until past Bloomington. Fast forward an hour and a half or so and we get to the camp site.

It's freakin' steamy!! We weren't the first there, but, the 4th tent to go up..and we left before the big caravan. So, I didn't get my spot this year. Usually, I set up in the same location on the edge of our area. Jeff got his usual spot, and Tucker swiped mine! Bastard!! ;-) Honestly, I don't know if we would have fit this year as we used Connie's old-school tent which is much larger than my "3-man" tent that actually fits 1 comfortably.

So, we get the tent set up, and crack open a beer....next task - Fire! Fire! Fire!! heh heh!! Got the fire going so we could cook dinner, let the wood burn down a bit, throw some burgers on the grill and................. Rain!! Damnit!! Oh well, they still cooked, and weren't bad at all.

The rain let up for a bit, but, we got a nice storm during the night which finally put me to sleep. The next morning, the campsite was a virtual mud-pit! Breakfast was awesome, though!! Mary, Kate, Rick and Beth, Ritter, and David (and anyone else who pitched in) did an outstanding job cooking! Biscuits and gravy, eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes.....it was a feast!!

Calling the canoe livery to check on our reservation and the status of running the canoes turned out to be a bust. The water was too high. Most of the camp decided to go swimming at the pool at Turkey Run State Park. I hear they had a good time, but elected to stay back at camp myself.

That night, you guessed it...more rain! So, most of Saturday night was spent with everyone huddled under a couple of canopies...we made the best of it, but, the weather definitely put a damper on our usual camp-fire stories.

By Sunday morning, the weather had cleared out and it was beautiful blue skies and puffy clouds. The only problem was that's when we were leaving. :-(

Connie and I stayed back and were going to go hiking at Turkey Run State Park. First, after the final clean-up of camp, we went to the lodge at the state park and had breakfast. Barely! When we pulled up to the gate of the park, I asked about breakfast and the girl told us that they served breakfast until 10:00am and started lunch at 11:30. It was 9:51am....we had 9 minutes to park and get to the lodge and hope that we could still get in. Luckily, we made it! Since breakfast was almost over, we both elected to get the buffet. Normally, buffet food isn't my first choice. But, this was probably the best breakfast buffet I've ever had!

With our bellies full, we headed out to walk a few trails. Four of the trails were either completely closed, or had parts that were listed as "impassable" due to the water levels. When we got to the creek, I understood why the canoeing was shut down. What is normally a lazy little creek with nice clear water was moving quite fast very muddy, and about twice as wide as normal.



The stairs below the suspension bridge in the background were even partially under water! They usually stop renting canoes at 3ft (2ft is normal depth). This picture
was at about 4ft, and it had already dropped 1ft since that morning!

The hike was good, we saw several of the named features, but, missed a few due to time, water levels, and just plain being worn out!

Here is a picture of Connie and I in an area called Boulder Canyon.



The bright mid-day light made it difficult to get any good shots of the landscape (where were all those clouds from the past two days), but, I did get a couple of nice close-in shots.

A fern growing on the sandstone:


A mushroom (or toadstool..not sure) on a hillside:


After that, we headed back home and another year of Jaycees camping and (not) canoeing is in the books.

I'm hoping to get back over there for pictures later this year, and maybe even a canoe trip. :-)

Peoria Flickr Group Wind Farm Outing

There had been some recent conversation about going and visiting the wind farm North of Peoria.

For those of you that may not venture North on Rt 40, which would be understandable, there is a wind farm that begins around Tanner's Orchard and continues on almost to Bradford. This is a relatively new development. I drive that route to Sterling once in a while for work, and I recall this past Fall/Winter going up there and seeing all these new windmills that weren't there before!! I believe there are about 100 of these giant turbines churning out 1.5 Megawatts each...enough to power something along the lines of 200,000 homes, I believe.

Anyway, the plan was to meet around 7:00 for some nice warm evening light, turning into a glorious sunset, then, finally, night time shots. Well, Mother Nature had other ideas. The sun was obscured by a blanket of clouds most of the time so no warm light, and a less than spectacular sunset was what we were dealt.

Still, though, there was enough broken cloud cover where we were at to get some interesting shots. This one was while the sun was still up.




Oh, and I liked how this one came out. It didn't receive much attention on flickr, but, I still like it!




Then, as time carried on, it got dark, and the clouds eased up even more where we were at, but, at the same time, a storm was moving in up to the
Northwest. When the half moon wasn't obscured by clouds, it did a nice job lighting the windmills. This is a 10 minute exposure. It's always cool to see what you come up with on long nighttime shots.



There are a few more from this trip on my flickr site if you are interested.

We are planning on another trip up there...this time under a full moon. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate this time!! :-)

Peoria After Dark

A couple weeks ago, Lola Takes Pictures and I walked around downtown one evening after work. Initially, the idea was that she wanted to take some sunset shots of some buildings "in the 'hood", and didn't want to venture to that area by herself. By the time we got started, it was a little late for what she wanted, so we just walked around down town along Water street, then up by the courthouse.

We started by walking through Martini's and took some pics in there. The bartender was a little apprehensive when we asked if it was ok to take pictures, but told us to go ahead. I wasn't all that comfortable, so we took some pictures and moved on fairly quickly. I did get one shot that I thought was ok.



Then as we were walking down Water St. I noticed a photography studio and walked up the covered walkway and peeked inside. As I was walking back, Lily told me to 'Sit'. So, I did, and she got out her flash and started playing. After her battery went dead, we swapped roles and I took a few with the flash off to the side. At least until *my* batteries went dead!! haha!



From there, we moved on and headed up by the courthouse, stopping for a shot here and there along the way. After that, we headed back to our cars and took off. But, I decided to head to this old building a few blocks down on Washington St.



Initially, my idea was to use a flashlight and 'paint with light' on the 'used but nice' sign. The flashlight wasn't powerful enough from the distance I was at to really add much, but it did add a little. But, that didn't stop me! I had a play with lightroom / photoshop and came up with the image you see. A little on the digital art side, but I like it.

Next time, we're going to make sure to have fresh batteries in the flash units and make (bribe) Connie be our model!

Update

It's been nearly a month since I last posted. Where'd the time go?? It's not that I haven't had things to post...I just haven't gotten around to it for one reason or another.

This past week was the last week of photography class. It was a fun class. I like going on field trips better than strictly classroom time. We didn't have any class outings after my last post, but, I've been out a few times with the camera anyway.

Some mushrooms I found a few weeks ago:


Then, I had to go to Springfield for several days for work. It sounds like I have to go again this week for several days, and maybe again next week. Not sure yet... But I did take a couple of pictures one night:


Other than that....let's see. I got the garden in a couple weeks ago. It isn't looking as good as I had hoped, but, it's coming along.

Oh! Ritter got engaged!! It was pretty cool! The Peoria Jaycees held a scavenger hunt, which was a lot of fun, and at the end, up in the heights tower he proposed. Everyone, including their parents / family were 'in the know', J.O. was the only one kept in the dark. Ritter was so focused on the proposal, that he nearly proposed to the wrong person!! The elevator doors opened, and he was expecting it to be J.O., but, it was someone else! Ritter was already in motion before he realized that it was NOT J.O. on the elevator that time (she was on the next run). Then, J.O. was so shocked, she had to confirm that it wasn't a joke, and that Ritter was, in fact, serious! LOL In the end, J.O. accepted and we all headed out to Ritter's parents place for a little celebration. Anyway, it was a great time! Congrats John and J.O.!!!

The pool of death has taken it's first victims in the past week. Little bastards!!

Oh, and I got in another practice round with the smoker!



I threw a 5lb pork butt on the smoker Memorial Day weekend. That is what 12 hours on a smoker looks like! I've been doing some reading, and it seems that even though the rule of thumb is 1 hour to 1.5 hours per pound, it isn't uncommon to go quite a bit longer. I still was surprised by how long it took, but, feel better about the process. This pulled pork had great flavor and was nice and tender. Could have been a bit juicier, but, it wasn't bad. Without bread, it was awesome! But, with bread...it could use a bit more juice. I'm curious how much difference there would be with a 10lb roast since all I've done so far is 4-5lb roasts. I didn't want to chance screwing up a large one while I was trying to learn how to run the smoker.