Santa brings me an ipod!

ipod
Originally uploaded by bmwrider.

Here is the happy moment when I get to open my long awaited ipod!

Mac on the way?

This has been a strange year indeed. After 25 years of using Nikon camera's and lenses I switched to Canon. Last year for Christmas Becky bought me a Canon 10D to play with. That lead to buying a Canon 24-70 f/2.8L lens, which last month I bought a Canon 1Ds. So now I am a Canon shooter in the studio, while my lovely wife still uses her Fuji S2 (Nikon mount) and it looks like tomorrow she will be playing with her Fuji S3. To complicate things even more I am buying a Mac! Change is good sometimes, so we will see!

I sold both my recumbent bikes to go back to the traditional touring bike for my bike commute to work. Oh, I got an ipod also to make things better, well at least Santa brought that to me! I have been enjoying my Nikon Coolpix 3200 point and shoot digital, so I guess I am not 100% Canon. I love that little camera. I carry it with me all the time. You never know what kinda pic you will find day to day.

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Merry Christmas!

Well, I must have been a good boy last year because sant brought me a 20 gig ipod! yeah Santa! You rock! Ok, now I just need to load it up with 5000 tunes and I will be set! Hope you have a happy holiday and a great new year!
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ice-creamcones

ice-creamcones
Originally uploaded by bmwrider.

Could not resist posting this to the blog. happy Holidays and hold the ice cream cones for me!
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Christmas tree is up....

Becky and Talia did a wonderful job of putting up the Christmas tree and all the decorations. We have so many dog, cat, and animal ornaments and it looks very good. We have collected lots of ornaments over the years and all the dogs and cats have their own ornament. I know, we are crazy. That's part of life with animals.

The new tile is down and it looks great. I spent about an hour today getting the TV and all it's components back together. The amazing thing is they are all worked! The labeling paid off after all. Got a few more Christmas gifts to get and I will be done. Some of my family is hard to buy for, so I think they will get gift cards or something like that. These are my last few days of night shift and I will be a day worker. I have worked shift work most of my life and look forward to getting back to a "normal" life. I look forward to being able to bike to work and getting some exercise time back into my schedule. Of course I have never been normal so why start now!
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New Bike on the way!

I sold both my recumbent bicycles today, so I ordered a new bike today. I am going back to a traditional touring bike. Since I ride a lot a night, I just feel a little bit more control with the traditional bike. I rode my motorcycle a bit too much last year and have gained a few extra pounds. Let's see if I can take some of that off with the new year.

I sold off all my film camera's on eBay, you might say I gave them away! Well, I am not using them and they don't work with my new camera, so I am pleased to get what I can out of them. I think I am going to use the money to get a MAC! Oh, yes! How strange to go back to an Apple, but I think I would like to try one out. I am going to get a used dual G4 with at least a 1 GHZ processor and a gig of ram. I hope to find a good monitor to go with it. I think I will keep it at the house to play with before I take it to the studio and shock everyone. These things take time and nobody likes change.
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My back hurts!

After laying tile for several days now I am really tired. That's hard work! My sweetie wanted new tile for Christmas and I had a few days off to do that. It was a little more work than i wanted to do. I have laid tile in the studio, and my daughter's bedroom, so I figured it would be a two or three day job. Wrong! It was about a 5 day job and I still have a little bit left to do. It sure looks nice. I'll post a pic tomorrow.

Santa, I hope you bring me an ipod for Christmas!
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New camera in use!

Well after palying with my new Canon 1Ds, I have to say it is quite a camera. The sharpness and resolution is very good. I was going to shoot raw in the studio with this camera, but just could not justify the time involved in doing this. I tried to get it right in CS and was happy with the results, but the jpegs right out of the camera were fine too. So my thought is why switch? The jpeg work flow works for me so , I will continue to shoot this way till I have the need to shoot RAW. Oh course, I will shoot RAW when I do my nature stuff.

Christmas is around the corner and I hope Santa brings me an ipod! This is number one on my gadget list. Okay Becky, I hope you are reading this!

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New camera!

Well it's not brand new, but it is to me. I got a great deal on a Canon 1DS the other day. It is real nice to have full frame 35mm and 11.1 mega-pixels! I have only did a few shots with it yesterday and am still playing with the settings to get the image that I like. Of course, I'll shoot raw, but for now I want to get the jpegs looking fine. My work flow is such that I prefer to work with the jpegs. We will see how it goes.

I really need to purchace Capture One to convert my raw files, but at $450 it's a little steep. Like every thing in digital it's the best stuff that get's you the best quality. It took me a while to figure out that I needed that 24-70mm f/2.8L lens and after buying it, it made a huge difference in my images on the Canon 10D. So I guess I'll break down and get the software. First, I'll try the new Canon software.
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New snapshot digital...

The previous pics from the pumpkin carving are from my new digital snapshot camera, the Nikon coolpix 3200. It is a 3.2 megapixel camera bought just for snapshots and web posts. I can carry it in my pocket and it is such a cool little camera. I hope to get some fun out of this camera.

I looked at some 5 mega pixel camera's and decided this was all I needed. I do have all my professional cameras for real portraits, but sometimes I don't take along a camera for family snapshots due to the size of the professional camera's I use. This should do the trick.

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Our wacky Halloween Portrait!

pumpkin6
Originally uploaded by bmwrider.

I thought this would be a cool Halloween portrait for us to do. It was a lot of fun and wacky at the same time. A very good day!
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The fruits of our labor!

pumpkin5
Originally uploaded by bmwrider.

Jack-o-lanterns at night. They look so cool at night!

Becky draws her design.

pumpkin3
Originally uploaded by bmwrider.

Every pumpkin has to start at the drawing board. Becky is hard at work finishing the last touches before her pumpkin goes under the knife!

Talia digs in!

pumpkin2
Originally uploaded by bmwrider.

Talia is busy getting the "guts" out of her pumpkin. It's a slimmy job, but everyone has to do it. I love doing projects like this, it's great family time!
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Carving pumpkins today!

pumpkin1
Originally uploaded by bmwrider.

We had about 10 pumpkins left-over from our pumpkin patch special and decided to carve some pumpkins. It was sooo much fun! We have not done this in a few years. We picked three just right pumpkins for our wacky family portrait, which I will post later.
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Back from Utah

I made it back from Utah in one peice. I was begining to wonder if I would make it out of DFW due to some thunder storms causing some dealys. I've been home a week and i have not even had a chance to look at my pics. I hope to do that next week. I will upload my complete journal in a few days I hope. It will take some time to retype it from my paper journal.
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From Salt Lake City

After three days in Canyonlands we are back to a hotel here in Salt Lake City. We had two days of rain and bad weather for photographing. Canyonlands is a hard place to photograph due to the accessibility of everything. We had a big lightning storm last night and was forced to retreat to the car. When you are the highest point on the mountain, the tent is not the place to be!

After the storm let up, it was back to the tent and get some more sleep. There was a partly-cloudy sky and we had hoped to photograph from the green river overlook. As the sun came up the haze in the scene got worse. I finally just put the camera up and said "That's it for Utah!" and went back to camp and pack things up.

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Last post from Moab

Well kids, this will be the last post from Moab. Today is the last day here at Arches National Park. We will be going to Canyonlands National Park for the next three days. Canyonlands is such a large park and most intresting landmarks are only accessible by 4x4 and hiking. Most of these landmarks take about 7 hours out of your day. I don't have that much time, so I'll hit the highlights of the park and hope for some grand views of the park.

There will be no cyber cafe's near Canyonlands, so this will be the last post till I get back home. There may be a remote chance I will get back here tonight and post a few pics. I will upload a complete journal of the trip when I get back. I did the journal old skool this year and actually used a paper one. I usually use my Handspring PDA with Targus keyboard to do this, but chose not to be too geeky this trip.

Great weather and the mountain bikes are every where. I'll have to bring Brownie out here next year and hit the trails. This is Brownie's kind of town, beer and bikes! I miss home and my family and can't wait to see them at the end of the week.

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fins

fins
Originally uploaded by bmwrider.

Sunset as seen near the Devil's Garden just after sunset. Very cool place!

North window

North window
Originally uploaded by bmwrider.

Turret Arch as seen through the North Window at Sunrise at Arches National Park.

Delicate arch

Delicate arch
Originally uploaded by bmwrider.

A late afternoon shot from Delicate Arch in Arches National Park.

Greetings from Moab!

Chillin at the Slick Rock cyber cafe here im Moab, Utah. Have been to Arches NP and been getting lots of great pics. I'll Post some next time I am back in town. We are in town today and will be going back out and camping for several days in the park. The wind has been really blowing hard here for the past three days. We are talking 30-40 mph range.

The rain has been pouring off and on and when it stops, it's time to photograph. Today we had no rain and it was a great day for photographing. Have a lot more locations to go photograph in the next few days. We basically chase light all around the park! It pays off most of the time.

This is a really cool cafe with a great atmosphere. The food is OK, but nothing to write home about. Better go get some rest for tomorrow's early sunrise shots. Check back Friday or Saturday for some posts of some pics!

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balance rock

balance rock
Originally uploaded by bmwrider.

Another photo from today. Clouds were very dark, but made balanced rock show up nice.
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three gossips

three gossips
Originally uploaded by bmwrider.

Woke to rain today and was afraid we would not get to take any photos. Cleared up and was able to get a few shots. Here is a pic of the Three Gosips.
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Off to Utah tomorrow.

My long awaited trip is about to begin. I am all packed and it looks like the temp is going to drop down in the 30's for highs next week. It figures! But I am ready to get out and do some serious landscapes. I'll be posting here as I get a chance to find a Wi-Fi hot spot in Moab. I have found about 5 places that offer wireless internet, so I should be able to post using my laptop.

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Moose near Wonder Lake

moose
Originally uploaded by bmwrider.

Here is a photo of a bull moose in one of the ponds near Wonder Lake in Denali National Park, Alaska. This photo was taken last year.
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Time to finish packing!

Today I will attempt to start packing some of my camping gear. This trip will be a little different than my Alaska trips which we usually camp for a week or two at a time. We will be camping for a few days and then spending a few days back at the motel. Shooting digital, I will need to recharge and upload photos to the laptop every few days or so. I usually get about 1000 exposures on a charge at home, but out in the field may be a little different. I'll keep ya posted on that.

Since I am 100% digital capture, there are things I have to think about and do a little differently as compared to when I shot film. Batteries and flash cards have to be replenished every few days. When in Alaska last year I could upload my images to my laptop and burn a few CD's while on the battery for the laptop. My HP laptop will go about two hours on a charge, so I will be in good shape. I only use the laptop in the field to upload images. I will keep my journal "old skool" in a paper journal and transfer it to the laptop when I get to the hotel. For the past few years I have used my Palm Pilot and a key board to do my journal. I then upload it to the computer and into MS Word. It work good, but I think I will try the "old skool" way for this trip.

I will also use Audio Blogger to do some posts from the road. If I find some Wi-Fi hot spots in Moab, I will upload some pics as well as some journal entries as time permits. I found 4 places in Moab that have Wi-Fi and hope to use them! I'll keep ya posted.

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Utah is just a week away!

Next Saturday I'll be flying to Utah to do some landscape photography. I sure hope the weather will be nice. Lucas will not be joing Kevin and I on this trip as planned. Instead he will be going to Hawaii to do some photography there. Lucky guy! Have fun there Lucas!

Got my camera gear all packed and this weekend I'll pack up the camping gear as well as my clothes. I am ready for the trip and can't wait for the adventures that lie ahead in Utah. Hope the weather holds up for a good trip. I hate rain on a photo trip.
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Wonder Lake Sunset

wonderlake2
Originally uploaded by bmwrider.

Here is a pic from Wonder Lake, Denali NP, Alaska. Posted by flickr, which is a really cool picture poster for Bloggers.
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Ride to SEFOR

This is a post from a ride a few weeks ago.

Woke up to a cloudy day and it looked like rain. I quickly checked the radar on the web and no sign of rain anywhere. Good thing! I am ready for a ride. We have been trying to get a ride together for some time now and it looks like we will make it today. I am going to meet Blake and his wife Lynn, and Rob at the London store at 7:30 for our leaving point for the trip. We plan on going down 64 through Ozark and taking our first rest stop at Alma at McDonalds before going North on Hwy 71. At Hwy. 170 we will follow to Hwy 265 to the town of Strikler. At Strikler, we hope to get a view of SEFOR (Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor). From there to Fayetteville for lunch and the group will decide the roads back.

Meet up with everyone at 7:30 and we all gased up and talked a bit before taking off. I shure hope I can find SEFOR, because I have never been there and hope to get a view of this old reactor. We left a little before 8:00 and when we got to Clarksville it started raining. We stopped and put on our rain gear for the wet ride. "I thought it was going to be clear!" Lynn said. I did too! Oh well, we will truck on down the road. About a mile down the road it stopped raining! It figures! The temp was 69 degrees, so the rain gear felt OK in the cool air.

At Ozark we ran into some "chip -n- seal" gravel on the road and that sucked big time. This stuff is dangerous for motorcycle riders! It was on the best part of Hwy. 64 and we had to go slow. After about 10 miles of the stuff it was back to regular pavement. WooHoo! I was glad of that! We arrived at our first rest stop at Alma. Time for some breakfast at McDonalds, "I'm Loving It!" as they say there. After a little breakfast it was time for the ride up Hwy. 71 to find SECOR. Hwy. 71 used to be the only way up to Fayetteville. Now with I-540 open, most of the traffic goes up the interstate. Now the good news is that there is not much traffic on 71 and it is great for motorcycles.

We found Hwy 170 and took off there through the rual countryside. Some nice views and the road was old, but in good shape. No sholders, so you have to be a little carefull on the rode. After several miles down the road we pulled over and I wanted to see if Blake's GPS knew where we were. Nope, not on the map. But we decide to keep going till we found 265. We found 265 and a mile or so down the road was what we was looking for, SEFOR.


Sign at the gate to SEFOR.

SEFOR stands for Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor and it was built in the 60's to do some testing. It was built by the DOE and funded by several countries as well as the US. It was built to run a test to see if the reactor would shut it's self down, or melt the core into the ground. In theory it was suposed to shut it's self down, but it had never been tried and the DOE as well as others had an intrest in the outcome of this reactor. The reactor did what it was suposed to and there was no China Syndrome!


SEFOR in the background.


The bikes at the gate to SEFOR.


A view of SEFOR from the old information center.

After taking a few snap shots of the place, it was off to Fayetteville. Scooter girl was in the lead and wanted to go to the Honda shop to do a little looking around. Hwy 265 was a great ride and the curves are great. You should ride this road it it nice. We arrived at the Honda shop and Rob decided it was time for a new front tire. They had time to do it and he saved some money! What a deal! Rob rode Lynn's scooter and Blake and Lynn rode 2 up and we went to Applebee's for lunch. A great lunch and I was really full. They have great food there. Back to the Honda Shop to pick up the bike and off back on our journey.

Lynn picked out a route that would take us down through some great roads and end up at Fallsville, where we would take Hwy. 21 back to Clarksville. It was a great ride with lots of curves and hills. I was having some trouble with my front tire not wanting to grip, so I fell a little behind the rest of the group. They slowed down for me and I thought that was great. I hate going on group rides and everyone leaves ya. Not all riders ride at the same level. I am a little cautious and take the curves a little slow. Hey, that's OK! I am OK with it. I am out for the ride.


Group at rest stop. Me, Rob, Blake, Lynn "scooter girl".

it was a fun trip and hope to do the ride again. I hope to contact the UofA and see if we can get a little closer for a pic.
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Broke my bike

While biking into work tonight, I noticed my bike was not shifting right (my bicycle). As luck would have it, half-way there the cable to my derailer broke and I was stuck! Got out the cell phone to call Becky to save me, but her and Talia were in the pool. Called my step-dad and he came to the rescue. That's another thing to add to my list to fix!
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Hurricane Frances go away!

Monday we had taken Becky to the airport to fly to Orlando to Photoshop World convention. She had a great flight was really excited about the trip. Then we started watching the weather and realized she would be right in the middle of Hurricane Frances. Becky called the airlines and was able to switch her flight out from Sunday to Saturday. I was relieved at the time.

Tuesday it was looking like Becky may not make it out in time. I was worried that the storm would get there before she was able to fly out. On Wedsnday, the convention was going to close down due to Frances. Some flights had been canceled and people were starting to evacuate from all over Florida. I was glued to the TV watching the Weather Channel and things were starting to scare me a bit. I knew if Becky did not get out of there, she would be down there for a while after the storm.

Thursday when Becky called, it was evident that they need to get out if they could. Some friends from Little Rock were down there at the convention also and had a rental car. By Thursday night the word was out that the airport was closing down and all flights were canceled. Becky and the others started driving out of Orlando at 10:30 PM. They said traffic was bad and the gas lines were long. At 6:00 AM Becky had called and they were in Pensacola. It took them that long just to get there. The plan was to drive to Memphis, TN and drop off the rental car. Gary's wife would pick them up at Memphis and I would meet them at Little Rock. Picked up Becky at about 7:00 PM Friday night. I was very relieved to see her. Now the storm is approaching the coast of Florida and I hope every one is in a safe place to wait out the storm.
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Snowball update

I found out that there are several great mountain biking trails near the town of Snowball. I'll have to go check them out and post back the info. There is a 14 mile trail that starts at the old gas station and goes up the mountain to an overlook. I'll have to check it out.
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Recent ride to Snowball

The folowing pics are posted from my ride to Snowball, Arkansas the other day. I had been needing to get away for a short ride and Becky had said " get out of here", so Idid. This first leg of my trip would be about 78 miles to the town of Snowball. I would take Highway 64 to Russellville and take Highway 7 to Pelsor. Once at Pelsor, I would take Highway 16 to the town of Snowball.

There are many scenic spots along the way if you have some time. There is Pedastal Rocks - which has a hiking trail and some very cool rock formations, Falling Water Church - there are many revivals go on down there, and the Richland Creek Wilderness Area - lots of waterfalls such as twin falls, and other great places to explore.

Check the post below for some pics from that trip. I don't know anything about Snowball, other than it was named after a fellow by the name of B.F. Snow. After taking a few more snaphots I was off to Harrison fore some lunch. It was about 48 miles or so to Harrison. After a quick lunch at Taco Bell and a stop at Texaco for some gas I was back on the road back home. Rode Highway 7 back to Russellville and Highway 64 back to Knoxville. Highway 7 is a great ride with lots of curves and some great scenic views along the way.
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Here is a corner stone on the masonic lodge near the store. I don't have any other information on this town, but if you do just leave me a comment. 

Across from the old general stors is a gas station. I did not see any dates on the building, but it's really old. No longer in use, but it is neat seeing these old buildings. 

A pic from my recent ride to Snowball, AR. This is the old general store that is no longer in use except for a Pepsi machine that still has drinks in it. Look into the windows and it's like looking into the past.