Self-Portrait of a Student Blogger

Having had an active website for almost 4 years (actually, two websites), I have posted hundreds of photos, primarily to document travels my wife and I have experienced. Naturally, my image is included in some of those photos. However, as far as I can recall, seeing myself on our instructor’s class blog is the first time that my image --- and a close-up at that --- has been posted by someone else. Famous folks experience this all the time and celebrities generally thrive on such free publicity. Being a private sort of person, though, this is a new experience for me and one which brings a twinge of discomfort. That’s because I am used to controlling the content and layout of my website after first deciding which photos will be posted and which will not. After due deliberation, I have concluded that my comfort zone lies behind the camera as well as behind the editor’s desk. Consequently, I have made a firm decision NOT to become a celebrity.

Travel planning is an activity I relish. Currently in the hopper is another wintertime escape, just a few weeks off, heading for someplace south. Biking is a favorite pastime we enjoy too infrequently during winter, so that is high on our agenda. Complementing it is research into dance possibilities, ideally in the same warm locale where we can find many paved, quiet, car-free bike paths. As often happens, where we actually go will be dictated by the weather.

The world would be a far better place if every home had a dance hall. Since my wife and I met on a dance floor, it may be understandable why having a place to dance at home is important to us. In fact, we have owned a dance floor throughout our 12 years of marriage. In anticipation of living overseas, the floor we chose was portable --- a good thing as it has already been installed in the five different homes we have occupied!

Our current abode provided us enough space to build a proper dance hall by partitioning off a section of its large, vacant basement. Over a two year span, that space underwent an amazing transformation, the result of a collaborative labor of love. Together, my wife and I selected and then installed the paper mural on the far wall, a testy process for two perfectionists. We found and purchased appropriate furnishings and decided together on many important details.

My solo efforts were more basic but essential: I framed the new wall that sectioned off the room; researched appropriate lights, purchased them, made the mechanical installations and tested them with power before electricians permanently wired the fixtures. The fake shutters and flower boxes were created in my workshop. Installing ducts for heating, A/C and ventilation was also my responsibility. One of the last improvements to appear was the suspended ceiling. Everyone should install just one suspended ceiling in their lifetime! I’ve done mine and I can attest it is not difficult. It is, however, exceptionally tedious and time-comsuming to get exactly right.

We had help with the room, too. Oh my, did we! After framing, a friend with experience helped install drywall. Carpet One did a masterful job with the flooring. However, what really makes the room the delight that it is are the superb wall murals painted by local artist Bob Baumbach. We were really fortunate to meet Bob and interest him in the project. His remarkable skills are on public display every time we have a dance party with friends. These monthly gatherings have become our preferred method of entertaining, offering more fun and far better exercise than having dinner together or watching a film in a home theater.


This photo’s message is simple: photo editing is another passion of mine. I especially take pleasure in creating humorous greeting cards --- usually for birthdays. Sometimes they are delivered by U.S. Mail and sometimes they appear on my website, complete with sound and animation --- and no advertisements! For the electronic version, I simply let the intended recipient know where to look.

Being very aware of ways that photos can be edited, it is a mystery to me why anyone would trust a photo to depict reality. I believe that altering a photo for purposes of deceiving someone in a significant way is morally questionable. However, to alter a photo by cropping or by the myriads of adjustments possible in a photo-editing program is so acceptable it is commonplace. More enjoyable to me, though, is altering a photo to provide a funny experience for the viewer, when he or she looks at a photo that has been obviously altered.

My greatest challenge at present is creating electronic greeting cards that work with all browsers. Unfortunately, Internet Explorer is the “500 pound gorilla”. This Microsoft product does things its own way and balks at code that other browsers consider legitimate. Until I have IE on my own computer to study its peculiar reactions, my basic solution is to urge viewers to use anything but THAT browser. Touche, Microsoft!

A Sweltering Day!

As hoped, it did reach over 50 degrees this mid-winter day but it will, apparently, take many more like it to melt our snow pack. The only thing unusual about today’s video is that it spans both the beginning and end of the daylight hours. The Gawker software makes the setup for that feat easy to accomplish the night before. Here's the Saturday video starting at 6 am:

In the future, as a possible improvement to the iSight camera, I intend to investigate the Canon Hack Development Kit (CHDK) for my A710 IS camera. The website, http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK, describes the CHDK firmware enhancement available by free download for a number of Canon cameras, including my own. In fact, it is easy to spot testimonials from photo enthusiasts who have used CHDK to add an intervalometer capability to the A710 IS. That would allow a great improvement in video quality --- of course, at the expense of file size. However, to retain that quality in an Internet environment may require the video be uploaded to my own website where file size can be controlled. Now, all we need is some free time for all that! : )

Day #3 at the Movie Studio

The time-lapse video for Friday appears very similar to Thursday’s. On the plus side, it does provide partial fulfillment of the course requirements. : )

For this Friday video, I used the same settings as on Thursday:

Hoping for a Saturday heat wave, there is one last video to post. Long-term, I am beginning to consider ways to use my Canon A710IS camera to produce time-lapse shots. I find the low quality of my current videos on Blogger disappointing.

Another Day of Labor under the Hot Studio Lights

For today’s time-lapse documentary, I chose Medium Quality on the Gawker software and 640 x 480 pixels. Those choices, along with a 45 second interval for picture-taking (vs. 30 seconds yesterday), resulted in a QuickTime file of only 24 MB, much smaller than yesterday’s 80 MB. The same start and end times were used.

The date and time stamp was also removed as it was unreadable following Blogger’s processing. That makes me wonder what the reduced size of the video file might be after the processing. Another wonderment is whether I could edit a QuickTime file on my computer without purchasing new software.....hmmmmm....That could be handy if I inadvertently exceeded Blogger's 100 MB maximum. Someday, I should at least invest in a Firewire extension cable so I have more flexibility in positioning the camera.

Today, Thursday, was mostly sunny but quite cold --- certainly not the best weather for melting snow. Below is the unedited output of almost 11 hours of intense filming. If you can spot any melting snow, go to the head of the class.

Hopefully, one of these days, the temperature will actually get above freezing!

As Fur as She’ll go!

This class assignment has pushed me over the edge! I have been interested in tinkering with time-lapse video for some time but kept putting it off. Now, there was no excuse. My only hope for meeting this course’s tough requirements lay in an untested method and the hope of producing four time-lapse videos over four consecutive days.

Fortunately, the equipment needed is minimal and I already had it in hand: a Mac with OS X 10.4, an iSight camera and shareware software called, “Gawker”. My intent was to position the camera looking outdoors from a window. With a fresh dusting of snow and warmer weather ahead, any winter-weary viewer, anxiously awaiting Spring, might watch spell-bound while the snow melts in minutes --- or, so I imagined.

Not willing to relocate my iMac or commandeer my wife’s laptop, I had little choice in camera placement. As anyone can plainly see, I had reached the end of my "rope":

This south side of the house was not ideal either as the camera would look in the sun’s direction at times during the day. Nevertheless, for a first attempt, it would have to do. And, after a day’s shooting, here’s the result:

No, not exactly a blockbuster but the method has possibilities. The bothersome flicker is apparently due to fluctuating sunlight caused by passing clouds.

For anyone contemplating a similar experiment, the Gawker software can be downloaded from the website,

http://gawker.sourceforge.net/Gawker.html

Gawker is free although donations will be graciously accepted. Actually, after seeing how easy this application is to use and how well it works, I feel a donation coming on.

The software setup is simplicity itself: the user sets the start and end times for shooting and the time increment between shots. The quality (high, medium or low) and the choice of 640 x 480 or 320 x 240 pixels can also be made. At the end of shooting, the software automatically converts all the photos into a QuickTime file. The video above was shot at 30 second increments over almost 11 hours. With my choices (high quality and 640 x 480), the resultant file size was 80MB. Happily, that meets Blogger.com’s 100 MB limit but a smaller file would load faster.

As an added note, it may be wise to prevent your computer from sleeping while shooting is in progress.

Tomorrow, another exciting episode in the saga of the disappearing snow cover.

Hold the presses!

By special request, the post below will deviate from the stated goal of this blog. Instead, a Super Bowl Sunday report on the process of waking up.

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Out of touch with the world before awakening, all that’s on my mind is described in vivid detail by this photo ...

Rolling over, an inadvertent look in the direction of the bedside clock reinforces my hope that it is way too early to get up:

Nevertheless, despite our best attempts to keep it out, sunlight persists in creeping into the room:

Ah, the ceiling fan is still there. Good! One less thing to fix.

Another glance at the clock --- well, that’s more like it!

What’s that delicious smell coming from the kitchen? Perhaps, it really IS time to get moving!

What the heck is that?

While biking the Ironton Rail Trail in Coplay, north of Allentown PA, I was dumb- founded by these towering brick structures beside the trail. Their use and history was not hard to learn.

As the explanatory sign read, “Coplay made cement: Cement made Coplay.” These cement-making kilns were once enclosed by a huge building with only their tops showing. By 1900 the Lehigh Valley was producing 3/4 of all Portland Cement used in the country because of the local abundance of suitable limestone and coal. Standing at this spot in 1900 when these kilns were six years old, a viewer would have been in the midst of a smelly, dirty, noisy inferno. Round the clock, smoke and dust belched from these kilns where the inside temperature reached 2000 deg F. Trains roared in loaded with coal and limestone; workers covered with cement dust scurried everywhere.

Despite the Coplay Cement Company’s apparent success at cornering the market, just four years later the fires of these kilns went out forever. The reason was the introduction elsewhere of the rotary kiln, an invention that saved both money and labor. The reader is left to imagine the hardships endured by the displaced workers and their families when their jobs disappeared so quickly. Hopefully, at least some of them gained employment across the river where America’s first rotary kiln was built.

Leonardo would be proud!

In Grand Rapids’ Frederik Meijer Gardens stands this colossal 24 foot tall bronze horse, created by the artist Nina Akamu. It is based on da Vinci’s model for a monument of that height in Milan, Italy. That model was destroyed in 1499 before da Vinci had any chance to cast it in bronze. To appreciate the statue’s dimensions, note the normal-sized man and children at its base.

The twin of this American Horse is in Milan. To prevent either city from touting that “we were first”, some castings from the first pour went into the Milan statue and other parts went into Grand Rapids’. The same was done with the second casting. The molds were then purposely destroyed to preclude any more statues from ever being made.

The Heavens Open

Inexplicably, this photo taken in Big Sur State Park in California produced a striking but totally unexpected result. No doubt, a camera expert could explain why a photo taken slightly into the sun might generate these rainbow streamers. However, I've heard some folks compare a walk in the woods to being in church --- maybe they are onto something.