summer daze

some stuff

summer nights

onion flower the old garden

One day the white writing was there. The next day the blue writing was added. Well done.

Double Exposures

Summer Project 1

OLD

"NEW"

total cost: roughly $50

old bike: $15

freewheel cog: $20

spraypaint: $5

single chainring bolts: $7

new bottom bracket bearings: $2

Found in the shop/garage/or a gift: crankset, rear wheel, old chain, and seat

live the dream

I almost made this the head tube badge for the new bike but didn't feel like figuring out a way to attach it.

FAIL

Right when I had accepted (and was actually fairly pleased with) the fact that the green paint now had some white texture involved, the clear coat started pulling up the tan layer. Maybe I didn't let the tan layer dry enough but I swear 8 hours should have been sufficient. It was 100% dry to the touch. Naturally, I got pissed and picked the frame up in anger and it now has little paint smudges all over it. Whatever.

garden strawberries

the ONLY thing that grew in our garden:

Fail.

ghetto painting

Well the rattle can job didn't turn out quite like expected. The day-glo green seemed to have some strange reaction with the white primer and created some weird pink flakes and and uneven surface. Hopefully a major clear-coat will help.

Thursday Night

Not quite done sanding.

minor hiccups

The good ole project panasonic bike is presenting itself a bit difficult. The quill stem/wedge are seized to the fork steerer. Also, the drive side bottom bracket cup is stuck. This is my attempt with some pb blaster to unstick the stem in my newly converted garage/workshop.

yes, you can see through the wall

summer projects

mmmmmm finals week

approaching dead week

~ NO SLEEP TILL SUMMER ~

pizza party

I happened to check this blog's stats today and the view counter was at exactly 1000. That said, this blog has been up for three years or something like that... and about a quarter of my hits are from my old post about bugs. Apparently they get searched a lot. Its cool to see that people are actually looking at this thing though. Thanks.

There may be many more fake polaroids in the near future. I'm really enjoying them. I'm able to carry around my little shitty camera everywhere I go and I don't have to think about anything other than compose and click. Usually I worry about sharpness and DOF and general content for "beauty" I suppose. but with the polaroids I feel like its more about the general idea and feeling of the photo. More of a memory. Ands its nice to not carry around a big loud camera.

faux tilt shift (slightly better)

simple fun

Its really fun to watch things go from digital to physical form. Having something to actually hold in your hand is pretty neat. When I got the photo folder back from Fred Meyer, it was almost like I was going back into time and opening a pack of sports cards. There is a special excitement to see "what you get". Sometimes, if you're lucky, you get one thats really rare and special.

gifts

new project

springtime

The sun is attempting to come out and the birds are chirping. Its getting warmer and the skirts are slowly arriving. Sunglasses are being worn and bikes are being ridden.

What do we do? Go back to the snow! IN A BUS.

peace!

faux tilt shift

So today halfway through thermo, we were talking about the idea of un-attaching the lens, moving it a bit, and snapping a photo. I promptly went home and tried it. The APS-C lenses I have didnt work out too well but the 50mm from the 80's worked alright. I couldn't focus on infinity at all but for anything in between, I was able to shift the focal plane a bit. Here are some quick and dirty experimental shots:

I'm gonna keep my eyes peeled for a super cheap medium format lens on craigslist. Then things might get a little more interesting.

Warner Mt. Lookout

Last weekend three of us left friday to cross country ski 8 miles and stay in this fire lookout. We left at about 3:30PM and finally reached the tower at approximately 10:00PM. When we left it was almost 60 degrees and sunny. When we reached the top, exhausted, it was roughly 32 degrees, windy, and snowy. This was one of my most favorite adventures yet.

first night

saturday morning trek to the outhouse.

It was a blizzard all day saturday. We were supposed to be joined by 5 other guys who had bought a snowmobile off craigslist for $300. The weather was too bad for them to make it up.

There was a Popular Photography mag in the desk. Tell me this isn't the most rediculous accessory ever.

wings

drying clothes

drawer contents. the UNO box was empty...

sunday morning was perfectly clear with about a foot of new snow.

Packed to leave. I never used my boots once. We made it home in 3.5 hours because we got to board/ski down most of the way.

Comments:

1) I think my autofocus is dying. Even with "all AF points" selected, it simply fails to focus and hardly even attempts. Its getting to the point where it is really annoying. I don't trust the camera anymore to focus.

2) I find it really difficult to white balance for snow.

3) To add to that, my new monitor has a hint of pink tint to it. After editing all these photos, I put them on the macbook screen and they were all green. These photos may be off in color... I was too lazy to correct it.

4) I forgot to dump some trampolening photos before I left. For the first time ever, I filled up two 2GB cards in one trip. I had to delete many of the tramp photos to make room.

5) This trip was a real treat because I got to shoot at really low ISO's all the time. I havent been able to do that in a long time.

6) I'm very impressed with the battery life in DSLR's. I don't think I even went through one and it was pretty cold the whole time.

Dope trip, though we lucked out in many many ways. Had we not found food or had the weather cooporate, things could have been very uncomfortable.

Thanks!