here's another panorama i did, it was for the photography club i belong to . the theme for january was trains and tracks, and this was the image i showed.

this is actually two images, stitched together. there was about 20 percent overlap in the middle. i used two remote flashes, triggered by pocket wizards, about ten feet from either end of the wheels. i underexposed the ambient by about two stops to make the background almost black.the final print i took to the club meeting was six feet long by about 18 inches, printed on the epson printer.

i got a panoramic head for the camera. this lets you align the entrance pupil at the center of rotation. and what that does is make your stitching of multiple images from a scene, into a nice panorama with very little or no parallax error. and then you take the panorama and open it in another program and create a 3D panoramic movie, like this. it's just my basement, but i was practicing with the software to put all together, and this was the first effort. there's several details to still work out, but, practice makes perfect.

it was too cold to go to school today. the wusses. i remember walking to school, five miles, uphill each way, barefoot in two feet of snow. nowadays, these young kids got it made. granted, it was a little cold this morning when I went out to start the car,

but still, to close school just cause it's a little cold. (yes, that is a minus in front of the 12). even more amazing, when i went to work it was -12 degrees, and on the way home that afternoon it was 20 degrees. the temperature went up 30 DEGREES, and it was still too damn cold. we gotta move somewhere warmer.

well, winter has finally reared it’s ugly, white head. we had about 8 inches of snow the other night when a snow storm blew through. and because of the two days of news hype that preceded the storm, the cities we’re pretty well prepared. the snow started about 4:00 pm on thursday and went all night, i was up about 4:30 friday morning to hit the bathroom and it was still going. i got up at 6:00 to get ready for work, turned on the news, and sure enough all the schools were closed for the day. actually, most of them had closed the night before based on all of the news stations’ constant promise of eminent doom. plus, the schools plan on a certain number of snow days a year, and like to use all of them if possible. the teachers look forward to these as much as the students do, i’m sure.

I actually like winter when it first gets here. everything is all white and clean, and if we get a nice clear day, all the better.

this was from last year. the sun was out, a nice blue sky. this was looking out our back door, from the inside. too cold to go outside, it was like 20 degrees. but it looks pretty.

this was friday, during the “storm of the century”.

cameron’s trying to figure out how many days of snowboarding he can wrangle out of us for shoveling the driveway. jonathan already did the bottom half and he doesn’t want to be shown up by his younger brother. this can sometimes be used to the advantage of the parents, but if you make it too obvious it backfires, and you end up shoveling the whole driveway your self. we haven’t had this much snow, this early, for quite a few years. we’re looking forward to a white christmas.

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only three catalogs the last couple of weeks. mail’s been really light. here’s the count.

• norm thompson; christmas gifts
• the company store; end of season sale
• the popcorn factory; holiday 2008

that brings up the dci to only 14. looks like i’ll have to think up some some other goofy topic to write about next year.

about a month ago, i shot a two day automotive conference at the general motors building in detroit. the original equipment suppliers association wanted photos of all of the speakers at different stages of their talks, plus some images of people milling about at the various displays. i setup two flashes on stands about 30 degrees from stage left and stage right, triggered with wireless remotes. i used my homemade battery packs for the flashes, didn't have to change batteries for over 600 photos. this was typical of the type of shots i go.

 not sure who this was, had the ipod plugged in most of the time .  in between speakers i wandered around the building a bit. this being the general motors building, thay had a nice display of cars on the first floor. looking down from the fourth floor, where all the conference rooms are, i got this image of one part of the display.

 it almost looks like a set with matchbox cars, till you notice that guy to the left there. i really like the long sweeping curve that goes from top to bottom.

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the catalogs are really thin this year. i kinda noticed this last year too and it seems that more of the stores are opting out of sending catalogs at all. anyways, here's a list from the last two weeks.

ecost.com,discount consumer electronics
eddie bauer holiday book
and two virginia traditions catalogs, mail order meats.

so that puts our dci at 11, with less than a month to go till christmas.

well……. kind of. you've seen some of the shots i've taken for the marathons, triathlons and trail races. i'm working for a guy named greg sadler, at sadler shots, who shoots all the races for a michigan company called running fit. they deal with running gear and such…. anyways, greg submitted some photos of his and mine to a small magazine/flyer called michigan sport & fitness. his made the september cover. and mine, below, made the october cover.

 the credit inside only says "sadler shots" but that's ok, i know it's mine.

running fit puts on these 4 trail races a year called "dances with dirt. there's actually 5 races going on at the same time. a 5k, 10k, full marathon (26.something miles), a 50 mile relay (5 member teams) and finally a 50 mile ultra in which the runner does the whole 50 miles. the picture above is on the 50 mile relay/50 mile ultra course. the runners actually had to run into the lake and then along the shore line, in the water the whole time, for about 300 yards. i stood out in the lake about 30 feet and shot the runners as they went by. the lake was shallow for quite a ways out. i love doing these kind of shoots, i'm outdoors all day, hiking in the woods and taking pictures. can't get any better.

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and now it's time for the second annual "daily catalog intake" count. last year i got started with the idea kinda late, so i didn't get a full count. this time i started with the first catalog that had a christmas theme. so, without further ado…

wednesday,12th of nov.    
     talbots
     walmart

thursday, 13th of nov.
     macys'
     crown house of gifts

friday, 14th of nov.
     the popcorn factory

saturday, 15th of nov.
     eddie bauer

and today, monday the 17th we got……. american girl. which is a catalog of high end dolls. like, $90 high end dolls. i'm pretty sure neither one of the boys have ever ordered, or even wanted, one of these.

so, that puts the dci count at seven so far. stay tuned for updates.

calvin and emma (yes, that's their official names) are getting bigger everyday it seems. we give them a bit of canned food each day, and man, they sure scarf it down. calvin probably gets the better share of it, but emma's right in there fightin' for hers.

we did a "photo shoot" about two weeks ago, i set up some lights and a back drop, and cheryl and cameron were the kitty wranglers. i think i had the easier job. i took about 75 photos, out of which we got probably 30 good ones and maybe ten really good ones. here's one of the best ones.

                                                  calvin                                                 emma

when we picked them up from the breeder, she gave us a little bag that had food samples, kitty litter samples and some cat toys. and like most kids who get the killer toys for christmas, what do they play with…..

they will bat at each other for hours inside these boxes. or a wadded up piece of paper will get chased around the house for ever. they're doing really good, pretty much have the run of the house and get lots of attention, especially from the boys. i've got a bunch more pictures of them i'll post later.

cameron and i went to a chili cookoff/bike show the other weekend. there was some chili there, but there were thousands and thousands of bike of all kinds there too. kinda overshadowed that chili thing going on. we spent a couple of hours wandering around looking at all of 'em, but after that they all started looking the same. lots of cool paint jobs though. as we were leaving, we came across this vacant lot where a building use to stand. but all that was left was this wall, supported by a bunch of beams. there were some condos across the street that kinda had the same look to them, like they were trying to make all the building in the same style as the old one. i learned later that they were intending to use the original wall in part of another building, but it never got finished.

here's a small detail of the some of the bricks at the ragged end of the wall.

we have a couple of new arrivals in our house. cheryl's been looking for a cat for a while now, probably 7-8 months. the breeders we were watching had some kittens come and go, but we weren't ready just yet. about the beginning of august, one of the breeders that we had emailed a couple of times got back to us and said that she had some kittens that would be ready in a few more weeks, and wanted to know if we were still interested. we were, and so put down a deposit on two that were left out of a litter of five. they're shorthair persians, and we got a male and female,(and after a week, they're still un-named).  the male will probably be named calvin, which was what i wanted for cameron when he was born. the female we're still trying to decide on. we're trying to let it be up to cheryl, but us guys don't want anything too prissy. it's like they say about naming your kids. imagine yourself ten years from now, standing on the front porch yelling out your kids name. if it's too embarrassing for you to yell it down the block, think how your poor kid feels. not that we'll be letting these cats outside. oh no, these are INDOOR kitties.

they've adjusted pretty well to their new home. they run around like crazy, exploring every little corner of the house. at the breeders house, there were always people coming and going, so all of her kittens were used to people. cameron and jonathan are pretty excited about them.  it was a suprise for them, right up till we walked in the house and she asked if we wanted to see the kittens. cameron caught on right away. if you're intrested, here's a link to her site.

Here's a couple of pictures.

here we're checking to see if they'll both fit in the roaster at the same time

here's a closeup.

calvin's the black and white one, and "she who is un-named" on the left.

 on another note, chuck walz is doing good. he's going through physical therapy now, but he'll still be laid up for a couple of months. we email back and forth a couple of times, and bill and i went to see him last week in the hospital. felt kinda bad for the other guy in the room with chuck. chuck seemed to have a pretty steady stream of visitors while he was there, the other guy probably not getting much rest during the day. he looks good and should be back to his old self soon.

the ballooning community is a tight knit group to begin with, even among pilots in general. every flight is an adventure, you really don't know where you'll end up. it's hard for fixed wing pilots to understand how we can take off for a flight, and not know exactly where we'll land. and i think it's this sense of adventure that makes us that much of a tighter group. so when a fellow balloonist gets hurt, we all feel it. and this is especially true of chuck waltz. he was in accident this past weekend, flying in the nationals down in south carolina. as of this writing, he's back in michigan at the u of m hospital. he's in stable condition and doing well, all things considered.

you can click on the picture below to go to chuck's page and check on his status. it probably won't be updated daily, but it will be often. there will also be a permanent link over on the right that won't move. go to the status page and let chuck, cindy and family know that we're thinking about them every day. leave your thoughts in the comments at the bottom of the page.

this isn't chuck's balloon, but one from a flight a couple of weekends ago. i'll try to get one of chucks posted.