Just before I left for the weekend I snagged a TC-80N3 remote timer from Glazer’s for the single purpose of shooting fireworks. It was a joy to sit back and watch the show with the timer and camera doing all the work for me. Three second exposures every five seconds for an hour? No problem at all. About half the show I had the timer churn out photos, for the other half I took over. Naturally the results were quite a bit better when I was at the shutter, buy hey, when your timer is churning out the shots there is a fabulous air of “free work” floating about. Or was that just the black powder I was smelling?

While the remote is versatile and effective, (details well defined in this Luminous Landscape article) my gripes are as follows:

• No OFF Switch?
  When is the last time you bought a $100 electronic device you couldn’t turn off? (Well, besides a watch?) Sure, the thing hardly draws any juice, but a complete lack of power control makes me think the one time I really need the thing is when the battery is dead and I can’t find a spare. “I dub thee Achems Timer.”
• It’s Not Small
  The TC-80N3 is about the size of a big squashed cigar…hardly an easily stowable item in a compact camera bag. It also feels extremely hollow, making me assume that it could easily be reduced in size by a few inches.
• Short Cord, Expensive Extension
  The cord built in is only about 2.5′ feet long, which is fine for most applications, but I’m sure I’ll end up rigging up a homemade extension for it. Canon wants $80 for 33′ of simple cabling? I don’t think so.
• Expensive!
  I’m not such a blind devotee to the palace of Canon to see that an item like this is absolutely unnecessary. Intervalometry should be built into every digital camera they throw out the factory door, it’s as simple as that.

So a few complaints but the device delivers exactly what is claimed. I can’t wait to shoot a meteor shower or try a bit of time lapse.

And what a Fourth! Many thanks to all who worked hard to make it happen. More photos to come.

If you’ve seen my two most recent posts you may have guessed that I’ve been watching a few movies lately. In fact, over the past week and a half (not including today at work of course) I’ve spent easily twice as much time in the movie theater as I’ve spent on the computer. It’s probably been years since I’ve done that, and it was very much needed. (Apologies to all whom I neglected to e-mail in the interim.)

I’ve finally learned that good unplugging is invaluable.
(Nate and Kirby, doing a bit of their own unplugging below.)

It was a fantastic wedding, thanks so much.

Yesterday Horizon Air flight 2425 was delayed nearly 9 hours. Far too many of these hours my sister and I laid trapped in the Medford airport pinned between the incessant southern Oregon heat and an unshakable Seattle fog. (This, shockingly, is not a nice place to be after a fun extended weekend cavorting with friends and family at your cousin’s wedding.)

Previously my life’s experiences have taught me two facts about my own personal hell. The first being that it is lined nearly exclusively with Astroturf, and not the cool new Nike stuff made with recycled tires and long dexterous fibers, but the nasty stuff that shreds exposed skin like cheese in a rusted grater. The second fact is that cantaloupe flourishes on this Astroturf.

Finally now I can definitively add the first built structure to my personal hell’s plain of turf and muskmelon: the Rogue Valley International Medford Airport.

With the weather not cooperating and Horizon flights fully booked and delayed system-wide, Kelly and I opted to fly to Portland and rent a car to Seattle, beating our would-be flight by a good margin and saving us a few precious hours of Medford-time. No refund on the ticket or the rental car, but considering the circumstances I think we made a very good choice.

Last weekend I was helping my folks in the Tri-Cities clean up the house and paint the deck in 102 degree weather as jets entertaining the Columbia Cup crowd roared overhead. While we were too busy to make it down to the races we watched the Tri-Cities Fever win the Indoor Bowl in their inaugural season, which was pretty darn exciting. The highlight for me was when the TV commentator, realizing a final interception had sealed the game, furiously yelled,

There’s a lot of people in here taking off their shirts who shouldn’t be, things are gettin crazy!

Yes that’s a genuine quote. Since then the week has been a blur as I’ve been slammed at work—and now I’m off to Ashland, OR for Brandon’s wedding. They’ve promised me a full barrel of wine from the local winery will be at the wedding. So it turns out they’ll get their wedding present after all.

As the snapshot Highway 101 tells, the weekend was a bit of a blur. After WebVisions (very fun, more on that later), Dennis scuttled me off to Tacoma where I met up with Laura for a trip to Lake Crescent. Some hours of hiking, swimming, and sunning later I’ve found myself pretty tired, but well in shape for the coming week.

Tomorrow I’m heading down south after work with Dennis, arm-twisting John into putting us up for the night so that on Friday we can attend WebVisions in Portland. Spending a night in a house with a kegerator I decided was immensely preferable to getting up at 5am and driving down Friday morning. (I know, I’m nuts.) I’m sure it’ll be a very fun event and a good learning experience, as there is a great line-up of speakers and I’ve yet to go to one of these web convention deals. Thanks much to the headmasters at work for putting up the fare.

Happy Fourth of July. We had an excellent time on the ranch and I had a more than a few chances to snap off some shots: Above is big blast taken in a 10 second exposure at 17mm, and below is a 4 (perilous) second exposure of Gipp and Brandon (Or is that Kirby, little help anyone? I can’t quite tell.) lighting a couple of penultimate fountain fireworks, captured at f 14.1 / 50mm with my wee EF 1.8 prime.

I know everyone is looking forward to seeing shots of the whole pig roasting magnificence, but I’ve decided they’ll require a succulent post unto themselves. Also potentially worthy of further recognition were my renting of a $3500 lens for the weekend for $30, (yes I think this will prove habit-forming) and a new hot-wing preparation (keyword: SMOKER) that was something barely short of life-altering. I hope you too had a good holiday.

This was a fantastic weekend, definitely a great precursor to my birthday tomorrow. Today Dan, Rich, Matt and I met up to watch the Mariners shellac the bejeezus out of the Mets and Tom Glavine. It was a beautiful day at the field and I believe the best possible way I could spend my day recovering from Brandon’s Saturday night bachelor party.

BRed’s shindig began at El Gaucho Seattle (Spanish for, “The Gaucho”), where the prices are not for the faint of heart (entrees $40-$50), but neither is the food. My filet mignot was utterly stunning. I don’t say this lightly but it may have been the best steak I’ve ever had. We began the meal with lobster tails cut tableside, gravlax, short ribs, seared ahi, and oysters on the half. Brandon supplied some truly stunning wine- as a group we spared no expense and not a soul regretted it. Thanks everyone.

Yes I’m back in Seattle and I had a great trip back East, it was far too short a vacation however. Many thanks to both Nick and Anna’s families who were such wonderful hosts. Here’s a nice shot of the happy bride and groom:

Smile Nick! There’s bubbles dammit…bubbles!

I also had a fun time the short while I was in New York, swinging quickly through the Met and the Guggenheim. A big reason I felt compelled to hit the Met was the Diane Arbus “Revelations” exhibit. It was fantastic.

Tomorrow right after work I’m hopping on a plane to New York, where I’ll spend a day meandering on my way down to New Jersey for NIC’s wedding. With luck I’ll meet up with Mary and hit a museum, maybe snap some pictures, it should be a great time. Who’s Nick you ask? (I only refer to him as N.I.C. for Network Interface Card) Well he’s one of the few people I know who’d give out directions like these.

Oh and Mom, I’m REALLY sorry I’ll be missing your Day. How many martinis does it take to make up for a missed Mother’s Day?

John was nice enough to put me up for the weekend down in Battle Ground, many thanks Biek, I had a great time. Indeed I was privileged (and I must admit this was a significant motivator for this weekend’s foray) to indulge in John’s quad-kegerator setup…oddly as one approaches this little piece of heaven…the angels start to sing… (Sorry, the pics haven’t been d/l’ed from the camera yet.)

We took a trip into Portland for a little shopping, sushi, and a stop at Powell’s, which might just be the best bookstore on the planet.

UPDATE

Here I produce a pic of John’s mighty quad-keg beastie. Complete with freezer door that doubles as a handy dry-erase board for beer description. Now listen up Battle Ground, is THIS the kind of teacher you want for your impressionable, untainted youth? Yeah, I thought so.

The BetterDonkey.org launch party was a huge success. We rented a space in Belltown, bought multiple kegs of beer and cases of wine, had hundreds of guests and raised the group’s profile 10-fold…and we MADE money. What’s wrong with this picture? Absolutely nothing I suppose.