Should I stay, or should I go?

As I am sitting here watching the first half of the Notre Dame-Stanford game wind down, I thought I’d offer up an opinion piece.  An Edgitorial if you like.  A lot is being said of the Notre Dame situation in the second half of this season, and I thought maybe it’s time I let my tongue (fingers) wag a little.

Before we began our season at OTP, we took time to analyze the upcoming season, and against all advice from fans and non-fans alike, I predicted at most a three-loss Notre Dame team this year.  In no certain terms, I was labeled crazy and a “hater”.  I’m sure if I had the FBS crystal ball in my hand at the beginning of the year and found out the Irish would lose five (possibly six after tonight), even I would have thought that was crazy.

As I’ve stated, I’m a fan of Notre Dame.  The Irish have an incredible history and a program rich in tradition.  I admire that, much more than a flash-in-the-pan team that might have a good four or five years. But even empires have to fall at some point (2000-2008 Yankees?).  I really think Notre Dame is in that era right now, and it’s a painful thing to watch.  But one thing is for certain: win or lose tonight, Weis has to go.

Therein lies another argument.  Notre Dame would have to buy out a pretty fat contract with Weis, some reporting upwards of $18 million.  Does the whole city of South Bend even operate on that kind of a budget?  That’s where it gets tricky: pay Weis and essentially suffer in mediocrity for a few years, or get out now?  My solution: get out.

I know financially this probably wouldn’t make sense to most programs, but at this point, Notre Dame needs the defibrillator.  With a program like Notre Dame, there is no excuse to sit back and wait and see what will happen next season.  Thankfully, the Irish alum have deep pockets, and I really don’t foresee money being that big of an issue.  Maybe at Ball State, but not at Notre Dame.

One of the most recent reasons I think Weis should go is directly related to the Clausen “cold-cocking” incident at a bar early Sunday morning last weekend.  First of all, let’s assume he was sucker punched and in absolutely no way instigated the altercation.  It’s a long shot, but just try to believe that.  I know Jimmy is of-age, but at what point does a head coach have to say, “Look, we’re in season.  No unnecessary risks, no poor decisions, and from now until the season ends, I’m your parent.”  Seriously, has Charlie never seen The Program and the downfall of Joe Kane?

I understand the players have rights and all that, but there is no excuse a public figure, a leader of your team, is out at a bar at two in the morning after a game.  Yeah, it sucks if you’re a player, and maybe it’s a little extreme to institute a four or five month curfew, but it really should be the nature of the beast.  Weis should have some semblance of control of this team, and incidents like Clausen got himself into Sunday morning just prove that he might not have much control over that team.

Another reason he has to go is both his record (worse than Davie and Willingham) and questionable play-calling.  I can’t get into all the instances of this year and keep this under 700 words, but there’s no way you “Weis can do no wrong” fans can argue with this.  Just as easily as Notre Dame could be 9-2 at this point, they could also be well below .500.

 Hopefully I’ve opened the can of worms just enough to let some of you comment on what you think would be best for Notre Dame in 2010.  You know my opinion, so what’s yours?  Does Charlie stay or does Charlie go?

Ok, so I haven’t written for quite a while now in my blog. My husband had an accident at work. He fell when he caught his heel on a grate and damaged his left elbow and the wrists of both hands as he tried to brace his fall. The left hand and up to the elbow grew hugely with swelling. Ice, therapy and time have slowly dissipated the excess water but pain from nerve damage is still a big factor and will be a longstanding recovery. At first, between swelling and pain he was unable to do things for himself. Simple things, like tying his shoes or buttoning his shirts was impossible. With the wrappings used to force down the swelling, he could not even wash himself in the shower (a chore he “loathed” to have me do for him, chuckle, chuckle) so I was very busy indeed. During that time I more or less got away from writing the blog. And, so, here I am still encouraging my husband toward recovery while he progresses slowly.

There has been and still is a lot of talk going around about health care issues, and this recent accident has brought such care and costs to the fore. We need insurance to cover us when we become ill or incur an injury. But how do we cover everyone while being fair? I wonder! What is fair? Is it being honorable? Is it being considerate or caring? Is it definitive only of cost, value or responsibility? Some of us earn more money than others; these people can better afford coverage for health issues. But health issues don’t come only to those who can afford it. What happens then? How much should one expect to pay before receiving help from a larger group, organization or society? What kinds of ailments should we pay for vs. the group coverage plan? I wonder!

If we pay according to value who decides what that is? If it is valuable for each and everyone to get a thorough check up every year, should the group, organization or society pay the charge to encourage participation? Preventive care is the cheapest and healthiest care of all. Does a subsequent diagnosis of ailment change the responsibility for payment? What if it is catastrophic, long range or both? I Wonder!

How does the service given play into the requirement for payment? What makes the service valuable? How is its value proved? Does a diagnostic treatment that stops further deterioration but does not return full health qualify as good care? Will legal fees continue to add to the cost of medical care? If the medicine given for one ailment causes another ailment, should the company making the product causing the second ailment have to help cover the costs of the latter treatment? I wonder!

When does the responsibility of the person with the ailment factor the cost of the service into who pays? Should a person with, say a causative problem like alcohol abuse or a heart problem, who does not change poor, unhealthy behaviors and continues to require costly treatments, become responsible for the additional treatments? If so, when and how much? Should payment be required perhaps on a gradual scale? I wonder!

What happens when we live a healthy lifestyle and don’t require regular medical treatments, when our annual physicals show a healthy body with no further treatments needed? Do these people get paid to remain healthy? Can these people be paid to see an ND, Accupuncturist or other alternative health practitioner and have an insurance company not say that it won’t cover that decision? I wonder!

If we look at each other as all of us being members of one society (one human family or one country family) and in this trauma together, can we begin to see ways to help each other and solve this problem together with consideration for each other’s needs? I wonder! Are we capable of such caring for one another with no politics. Can we spend time asking what we can do for one another without thinking of the “what do I get”’s? I wonder!

I’d really like us to try. I’d like our politicians to ask questions with a positive attitude and no anger. What will I support? How can the wording on this document be changed to help more people?

test zoundry

Alright, I hear you guys, we had it in the polls and you guys wanted gear, so here we go!

I’m not very good at always having the newest gear, as I’m pretty much into buying only what has an actual effect on what I do. This not being Video, we’ll not see much of the 7D talk here. So let’s talk about a piece of gear that really affects stills. One I just recently got: The Cokin 8 stop solid ND filter.

I’d been reading about the Cokin system every once in a while and always lusted about getting me one of those someday. The huge problem with the things though is the availability. At least here in Switzerland, there’s no easy way to get them. At least so I thought. The other day I went to see the new 100 Macro at my photo retailer’s and saw a Cokin catalog lying around. Two surprises there, well three actually (the third being the Macros new IS)… The first was the fact that my retailer could get the Cokin stuff at all and the second was the affordability. These things are not cheap, but compared to the B&Ws and the HOYAs they’re pretty okay. Plus, once you have the holder they’re only about 30 bucks a piece. Considering that and to distract myself from wanting a 100L Macro, I got an 8 stop solid ND to start with, as its effect is the hardest to digitally replicate in post. What it does, is basically keep the equivalent of 8 F-stops of light from getting into your camera. This allows for way slower shutter speeds. Where you’d normally have a 1/100 of a second, you get 4 seconds if my math is correct (it never really is, but you get the idea ).

Today I finally found the time to test it in the field. We went out, fought the elements and got to a little pond a few miles from the house. The weather was terrible as it has been all weekend. With intense fog and hefty rain. Once on location, the first piece of gear that turned out to be very useful was the ultraflat Velbon I brought. In nature photography to be able to stretch the legs of a tripod out sidewards is a superb feature. This way we could set it up over the water and have the camera in the perfect angle. Next up was the filter. It consists of three parts. The first one is a solid metal adaptor Ring. It’s well crafted and screws into the filter Ring and broadens the front of the lens to make it fit into the the holder. It also has the weird side effect of having your lens say “FRANCE” where it should say “JAPAN”… French lenses, seriously?

With the adaptor thingy on, the holder slides right over it and clicks in with a little pin. The holder is made out of quite flexible plastic, it doesn’t feel mega solid, but then again it doesn’t have to. It has room for three filters which on the one side is good, as you can stack filters. On the other side, it protrudes pretty far out because of that. Doing that, it shows up in the frame at angles wider than 21mm. This is the first of the two only downsides of the P series. If you’re doing very wide angle photography, you should go with the larger holders of the Z series. The other downside is that one can’t use the lenscap over the adaptor ring, so you need to purchase the special Cokin lenscap or, as I do, take the whole thing off after using it.

Aside from that, the whole thing is quite cool. As mentioned, one can slide up to three filters into the holder. So far, I only have one filter so I can’t really tell how stacking will affect image quality. What I can tell though is that using one doesn’t really reflect negatively on iq. I had the fear that, given the distance between the filter and the front element, reflections could be an issue. But even with a strong light coming from behind the camera, I found no decernable flaws on that front.

Beyond that, the filter does exactly what it is designed for, it keeps a lot of light out of your camera. This makes composing and focussing your image quite difficult. Here’s where the two part solution regarding the adaptor ring and the holder really shines. You can do whatever you have to do to take your picture and then just slide on the holder with whatever filter you have stacked on there. Quite an awesome feature compared to a screw-on filter.

So… this is pretty much as far as I can go with this review so far. I still have to test it a bit more and I’ll update as I do. Yet, the first impression is very positive.

All images © Frederic Mancosu

OKay, FSU was able to get a comeback win against Maryland and get Bobby Bowden to a bowl game in what, hopefully, will be his last season…the medicority in Tallahassee has worn thin over the past few years. Congrats to Joe Pa and his Lions for a solid 10-2 season and a possible BCS bowl berth. Just compare the last five seasons for these two Hall of Fame Coaches: PSU has gone 50-13 while Free Shoes University had 37 wins and 26 losses. It is clearly time for B. Bowden to enjoy retirement while 82 year-old Joe Pa keeps his team going strong.

I am not usually in favor of firing football coaches before the end of the season but the only sensible thing for Notre Dame to do is to ask Charlie Weis to clean out his office on Sunday. It matters not who is named as interim coach for the last game; the team hasn’t had a legitimate head coach in 5 years. Let’s not feel sorry for Chuckie – he will be in line for a severance that is reportedly in the $18 Million range – we should be so lucky.

The Mark Mangino situation in Kansas is sad – if Manginodid what his former players claim, then he should be severely disciplined – and, yes, even fired. Just 2 years ago, Mangino was the toast of college football with a 11-1 record. 

Ohio State wins Big Ten title outright and is headed to the Rose Bowl with today’s win against Michigan. For those of you with a little grey hair on your resume, The OSU vs. UM game used to be one of the highlights of the college football season – the winner normally became the Big Ten Champions, the games were close and no team held an edge from one year to the next… that’s not true today as the Buckeyes have won 8 of the past 9 games.

Exciting late games and big wins for Cal over Stanford, Oregon over Arizona and Ole Miss over LSU.

Reports late Saturday say that Maryland is considering a buyout of Ralph Friedgen’s contract – I go back to my post from 11/17. The university is cash strapped and who is a better candidate to coach Maryland next year? The Maryland coaching situation is far different from Notre Dame’s – ND as an Independent football power, and its boosters have far deeper pockets than Maryland and its boosters; ND has a national TV deal with NBC that is worth a fortune to the school and if the football program becomes irrelevant, you can bet the TV deal will ride off into the Indiana sunset. Maryland is a basketball school in a basketball conference and is a state university in a state that is suffering a terrible budget crisis – so for financial reason alone, ND must make a coaching change while Maryland should wait for Ralph’s contract to run its course.

Hi, my name is Dr. May.  I practice in Fairbanks, Alaska, at the Alaska Center for Natural Medicine.  I am a naturopathic doctor who practices family medicine and specializes in physical medicine, pain management, weight loss, men’s health, and chronic disease.  Many of my patients have been passed from doctor to doctor, their health concerns poorly managed, and have slipped through the cracks of our healthcare system.  I am invested in each patient that comes through my door.  I am dedicated to using every resource at my disposal to help bring them back to health and a life they are excited about living.  That’s what it’s all about…living this life to its fullest! 

Here’s a favorite quote of mine by Henry David Thoreau:

“I did not want to live what was not life. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. To put to rout all that was not life and not when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived.”

As a naturopathic doctor, I try to always consider six principles:

1.  The healing power of nature: I believe our maker designed our bodies to be ordered and intelligent, giving it the ability to heal itself.  Many times, there are obstacles that need to be removed in order to allow the body to do so. That’s the first thing I try to identify and eliminate.

2.  Identify and treat the cause: Too many times, we (doctors) treat our patients’ symptoms and not the source.  This palliative care makes the patient feel better, however, they are not able to achieve wellness because there still remains an underlying dysfunction. This is one of the reasons chronic disease, especially in America, is rising at an alarming rate.

3.  First do no harm: This includes prescribing medicines that are effective with minimal side effects. Did you know the #3 cause of preventable deaths in America is PROPERLY prescribed pharmaceuticals?!  Also included in “do no harm” is not suppressing symptoms.  What comes to mind here is fevers, especially in children.  We’re inundated with commercials sympathetically displaying sick children with fevers and if you want to be a parent that doesn’t want their child to suffer, you must give them an antipyretic (Tylenol). This is SUPPRESSION! There’s a reason for the fever.  By suppressing the fever, the immune system is disabled in its ability to work effectively.

4. Doctor as teacher: This is one of the principles I love most and I think patients appreciate the most. I love being able to help my patients and provide medicine or therapies that allow them to heal. However, I take the greatest pleasure in educating patients about their disease or illness so they are able to be successful, longterm, in treating the disease or preventing the illness.

5. Treat the whole person: Rarely is there ever an illness, disease, or disorder that is one-dimensional. Most have physical, emotional, spiritual, and environmental aspects that must be addressed. 

6. Prevention: I always emphasize disease prevention, assess for risk factors and hereditary susceptibility to disease, and then make the appropriate intervention to prevent illness. This is the most difficult aspect of modern medicine. We’re all inundated everyday with unhealthy lifestyle choices that look more appealing and are more convenient. This is hard to compete with, as a doctor trying to steer someone back onto the right path.  Add this to the nomadic nature of our society, it becomes almost impossible to track, monitor, and encourage patients to do the things necessary for them to prevent disease and illness. Of course that’s not going to stop me from trying .

This blog is intended to be a resource for my patients and general public. I aim to educate readers on difficult issues and to keep them updated on new developments in research and news that may affect their health. Enjoy

In the pursuit of health,

Dr. Ashley D. May, ND

The following are my credentials:

Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine- Bastyr University, Seattle, WA

10+ years in the health and fitness profession (working as a personal trainer, athletic trainer, program director, fitness director, instructor). Certifications as a Master Fitness Trainer, Health Promotion Director, Basic Pilates, and Indoor Cycling. 

Internship at the world-renowned Cooper Institute for Aerobic Research & Cooper Fitness Center founded by the “father of aerobics” Kenneth Cooper- Dallas, TX

Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology, with minors in Athletic Training and Biology- East Texas Baptist University, Marshall, TX

Nestow Location

An unusually mild November gave me itchy feet last week, so I did a road trip up to the Tawatinaw Valley north of Edmonton. I connected with the gravel road at Nestow just off Highway 2A after an hour long drive in the dark. I had no goal in mind, so I slowly cruised up the road in the pre-dawn light, admiring the glow of the birch and aspen groves as they reflected back the car’s headlights. I was keeping watch on the eastern sky as I drove, looking for a spot where I could find a birch grove backlit by the rosy morning light. I was imagining this photograph: the pale trunks of a birch or aspen grove painted with light from a hand-held flashlight and the red glow of dawn behind. But the valley slope and the morning light did not coincide with my imaginings, and I drove on.

The Tawatinaw Valley is a glacial remnant. While today the river flows north to the Athabasca river, geological evidence indicates that it originally flowed south, a tunnel valley that had formed beneath the retreating Laurentide Ice Sheet 12 000 years ago¹. Today the valley road provides a pleasant drive through farmland and ranches interspersed with natural forest. I stopped at a Watchable Wildlife (a now apparently defunct attempt by the Alberta Government’s Sustainable Resource Dept. to hi-lite areas of natural interest) location and walked down to a viewing platform overlooking some of the small lakes that are dotted here and there up and down the valley. I took some photographs using a split field neutral density filter to help equalize the light between the shadowed foreground and the sunlit shore behind.

View from the platform overlooking a lake.

We have had an extraordinarily mild November this year. The autumn color is long gone and the bright orange-yellow fall color of the distant tamarack trees are now a rusty-brown. There are a few Natural Areas² in this region to explore, one near the town of Opal is said to be good tiger beetle country, so I will be exploring this area more frequently in the spring.

Equipment:

Nikon D80, Nikon 18-200mm VR Zoom Lens, Singh-Ray Galen Rowell Filter ND-2G-HS

References:

¹Geomorphology of the Tawatinaw Region

²Alberta’s Parks & Protected Areas Site Classifications

Amanhã as faixas da SC-401 que estiveram interditadas para obras de contenção de barreira serão totalmente aberta para o tráfego. Foram seis meses de interdição com trabalho contínuo para garantir a liberação das pistas antes do início da temporada de verão. Em novembro do ano passado, houve uma queda de barreira depois de três meses de chuva intensa no Estado. Hoje será feira pintura e remarcação das pistas. (Transcrição do texto da manchete abaixo, minha segunda foto de capa do jornal desde que comecei o trabalho em 29 de outubro)

Well, it looks like we are all set up for Florida or Alabama to slug it out in the SEC Championship game for the right to face Texas for the BCS title - how boring; we need to put a jolt of excitement into the college post season – we need a playoff and not an untold number of bad bowl games featuring mediocre teams played in second-rate locations sponsored by second-rate companies.

The way the pollsters seem love Pete Caroll and USC, I expected to wake up Monday morning and see that the Trojans had moved into AP Top 5 – afterall, they should be rewarded for allowing Stanford to thrash them on Saturday.

You think that Rich Rod may be having second thoughts about heading to Ann Arbour? Bet WVU would have beaten Cinci on Friday if Rich were still patrolling the sidelines with the Mountaineers – let’s not forget that OSU QB Terrelle Pryor was reportedly headed to WVU before Rich Rod flew the Coal State.

I think our friends in Maryland should put away all the sharp objects that they have aimed at Ralph Friedgen’s back – it would cost the cash strapped university $4 Million to buy out Ralph’s contract and who are they going to find better to lead the Terps - Charlie Weis?  Speaking of ND, did you see the latest name associated with the their head coaching job? Bob Stoops! Oh please. I’m sure good ‘ole “Blowout in a Bowl Game Bob” can recruit with the academic standards that The Irish require. Here’s some unpaid advice for the powers to be at ND, the ONLY coach you should go after is Paul Johnson of Georgia Tech – he CAN recruit with high academic standards (GT and Navy on hs resume) and can win when his talent is less than the competition – he recruited kids with brains and big hearts when he was at Navy and returned that program to glory days. Now here is some unpaid advice for PJ: don’t EVEN consider an offer – those people in South Bend are nuts.

Oh! In the rush of post presentation butterflies, I forgot to mention that this weekend I went to Narmadiya Samaj Gujrat’s meeting which was held in circuit house Vadodara and was surprised to see so many ND fellows there.

Also as this was the first weekend and I had to attend many meetings here in office, i did not get a chance to visit Indore.

Now counting days for Friday to come!

I think I have found the house where I’ll be moving next month or may be 15th this month. It is a beautiful tenement and I am sure my family is going to love it.

Rest later!

A brief tutorial on using strong neutral density filters…

As a true long-exposure enthusiast, I often found myself waiting until the sun went down so that I could take advantage of the lack of light and capture motion in a single frame – whether it be clouds moving across the sky, headlights and tail-lights of moving vehicles in a cityscape, or my favorite: extremely long exposures of star trails while the earth rotates on it’s axis.

But there are too many opportunities to pass up in daytime photography where the scene can benefit from a long exposure.  When the winds are high and the clouds are low, a 30-second exposure at 5pm can be rather dramatic.  The same is true with a landscape scene that includes a fixed subject such as a barn surrounded by a field of tall grass blowing rapidly in the wind.     This is why I obtained a 10-stop Neutral Density filter a while back.  It has since become one of my most used accessories and my old 4-stop ND filter usually never even makes it into my bag when I pack for a photo trip.   Solid Neutral Density filters (not to be confused with graduated neutral density filters or GNDs) simply allow less light to enter your camera’s sensor in a uniform way and are designed to affect color and contrast as little as possible.   (This is the theory, anyway.  But as I’ll touch on briefly, colour casts can be a side-effect to using strong ND filters)…  My enthusiasm towards using this filter for creative photography really adds to my disappointment that the Canon TS-E 17mm does not take front or rear filters of any kind. (Not at the time of this writing, at least).    If it weren’t for that, the 17mm TSE would be a near-perfect lens for my style of shooting.

Anytime I see fast-moving clouds, water, animals, vehicles or vegetation in the wind, I consider using an ND.  The possibilities of creativity are wide open.

30 second exposure - f/16 - ISO 100 - 17-40 L @ 17mm

My solid ND filter of choice for these type of shots is the B+W brand 110 Neutral Density filter, which reduces the light entering the lens by 10 stops.   This will take an exposure originally metered for 1/125 sec (@f/16, iso 100) and turn it into a 30-second long exposure.  It goes without saying that you’ll need a sturdy tripod for shots like these.  B+W is made by Schneider Optics and makes some of the highest quality filters out there.  Some other excellent glass makers are Singh-Ray, Lee and Heliopan.   Though these are expensive, I don’t recommend using the cheap brands, simply because when you are dealing with exposures this long during the day, the chances of glare and flare are high enough, even with high-end glass, so you don’t want to put sub-par optics in front of your lens because you’ll be increasing the chances of flare, even if you’re not shooting directly into the sun’s rays.

Metering and exposing

There are many ways to achieve accurate metering for heavily-filtered shots like this.  Usually using in-camera TTL with the filter on is fairly inaccurate for ND filters this dense.  I prefer to compose the shot and meter at whatever aperture I decide to shoot at (usually something small from f/11 or 22, depending on how long I want my exposure to be in the end) before I put the filter on.  Then (working in manual mode) I will simply re-adjust the shutter speed ten stops overexposed.  I have my exposure dial set to 1/3 of a stop per click, so for me using a ten-stop ND filter, it’s 30 clicks.  Depending on your camera’s exposure settings, you might be set at 1/2 or a full stop per click, so adjust accordingly.

I usually always shoot at a lower ISO like 100 or even occasionally 50.  This is because in most cases you’ll want to open for as long as possible. But even if you don’t, it’s best to stay at ISO 100 and work the exposure around your aperture setting instead of your ISO.  Keep in mind that ISO 50 in most camera bodies isn’t a real ISO setting and will actually cause you to lose a little bit of dynamic range because the camera essentially ends up taking an ISO 100 shot and turning the exposure down afterward.

If the amount of stops reduced by your filter causes you to go beyond 30 seconds for your exposure, you will have to shoot in ‘bulb’ mode.  In this case, every stop is a double of your exposure setting.  For example: if you are using a 10-stop ND filter and you hit your 30-second-limit in manual mode after opening only 8 stops of shutter speed, then you still need to open up two stops longer by going into bulb mode. – One stop more is 60 seconds and another stop on top of that will leave you with an exposure of 120 seconds, etc…   If you want to keep it simple and stay at 30 seconds or less, then adjust your aperture accordingly.

30 seconds @ f/9 - ISO 100 - 17-40L @ 17mm

Here, I opened up to 30 seconds @ f/18 and being only 8 stops above my normal metered test, I still had two stops to go.  Instead of going all the way to 120 seconds, I decided to open the aperture to f/9 and leave the exposure at 30 seconds.  This let me capture some movement in the clouds without completely blurring them into a smeared look, which is what a 2-minute exposure would have done.

You’ll want to use a cable release or remote, in addition to your tripod to help avoid soft images.  Enabling mirror-lockup will be to your benefit as well.

Not completely neutral?

Even though these filters are designed to not alter your colors in any way, once you get beyond the 6-stop range, you may have strange colour casts, usually in the purple or magenta range.  This is because of the higher red transmission (up to and sometimes above 700nm).  Some people may like this warmer look, but overall, it becomes unrealistic.  You have two options to try here…  1) You can adjust the tint of the RAW file (please shoot in RAW) to take away the magenta colour cast.  This usually involves pulling the slider in your raw-converter to the left (green side) quite a bit until normal white balance is obtained.   or 2) Simply convert to black and white.   I find the second option is often the best, as surreal images like ones created by a ND filters can frequently benefit from a black and white or split-tone conversion.

the magenta cast here caused by the filter has a slightly unnatural look, even when the white balance is adjusted properly.

Vignetting is also a problem with these filters, especially the screw-on variety.  And if you’re using a very wide angle lens, this issue is compounded.   I find myself using my raw converter to reduce the vignetting to a more normal look.  Lightroom 2 is my raw converter of choice.

The vignetting pretty much ruined this shot and it was too strong to repair in photoshop. The only alternative would be to crop it to exclude the top and bottom edges.

The tint in this shot of Schwabacher Landing in Grand Teton National Park had to be heavily adjusted to bring the blue sky back to it's normal tone... 80-second exposure - f/11 - ISO 100 - 17-40L @ 19mm - Canon 5D

This particular shot is an example of a scene that benefited from the warmer tones the ND filter produced and did not need to be adjusted. It was shot just after the sun set.

Creativity

There’s a lot of things you can do with the option of opening up the shutter for long periods, you just have to be willing to experiment and use your imagination.  Waterfalls and streaking clouds are not the only possibilities.

The first of the above two images is the normal exposure.  The second is the same shot taken with a 10-stop ND filter, letting the shutter open for 20 seconds.  This rendered even the slower moving cars almost invisible.

The above image is a blend of two shots…
Both were taken with a tripod within a few moments of each other. … The first was a normal shot @ F16, 1/200th of a second… The second was a long exposure of the same scene for ten seconds. I used a 10-stop ND filter to slow the shutter speed down…
I blended the two together in Photmatix and then processed the stacked shot in Lightroom.

The clouds were moving very fast this day. I really like how the long exposure blended with the normal shot… I wouldn’t have been able to keep the blue sky with just the long exposure, and I wouldn’t have the stretched clouds with the normal shot…

30 sec - ISO 50 -Color-corrected color version

30 sec - ISO 50 -Black and White conversion

Thanks for reading

-Mac

We are back from our quick trip to Fargo.  We did eat at Taco John’s and it was all that we had hoped.  We did swim in the deep end of the pool (or I did) and paddling without your feet hitting the bottom was exactly what the doctor ordered.  The big highlight of our weekend was honestly seeing the people of Fargo Moorhead come out and support roller derby in a way I haven’t really seen before.

Last night marked the inaugural bout of the FM Derby Girls.  They played skaters from Winnipeg Roller Derby League.  The match up started out with a fairly close score but after the half things changed.  Don’t quote me but I think that the final totals were 101 FMDG and 58 WRD.  These leagues were both skating in their first real bout and it was absolutely amazing.  Let me tell you why.

I’ve seen beginner derby up close and very personal.  Fresh skaters can often be as awkward as young colts walking for the first time.  The reason for this is that you haven’t strapped on roller skates in a decade or two and now you are decidedly taller, making the fall to the ground that much more frightening.  I’m not trying to poke fun because my skating remains just as bad today as it did when I began my derby dealings five years ago.  What I’d like to point out is that these skaters didn’t look all that much like beginners.  Their fans were even more advanced.

The fans understood that there was a jammer who scored points and they figured out that lead jammer was a great thing to be.  They cheered on their team with such enthusiasm that it was really exciting to be a part of it all.  Of course, I was stoked just to be on the same stage that Gordon Lightfoot occupied about a month ago.  Announcing such an amazing bout was really a royal bonus.

Now I will say that the skaters weren’t as fast as the leagues I saw competing in North Central Regionals – aka The Brawl of America – in September.  That’s too be expected.  As time goes on and these skaters meet other teams the speed will come.  I’m just glad to see the skills that are already built in.

And holy moly, did that crowd every love roller derby.  These Great Plain-sers were new to the sport but they had pompoms and signs to wave.  They hollered and clapped.  When there was a grand slam you could hardly hear us announce it due to the noise in the stands.  My only suggestion to the FM Derby Girls in regards to their fans is get them another bout NOW.  I kid you not.  These people have a fever for more derby and currently the next bout is scheduled for January 30th… in Winnipeg.  That long a wait might dim the memory of this night in people’s minds.  Yes, they had a sold out house and had to turn people away (!) but come spring they might forget what all the fuss is all about.

These ladies also knew how to throw an after party.  They were gracious hosts and the defeated Winnipeg skaters made me wish (once again) that I was Canadian.  The Mister and my long lost friend got to see drunken derby girls up close and personal.  We loved it.

Best of luck FM Derby Girls.  Thanks for allowing me to help you roll out your new league.  And to my co-announcers Julia Childless and John Maddening, it was a pleasure.  I’m pretty sure I told you that eight or nine times last night in between karaoke and the electric slide.  Just thought I’d reiterate.

And now to recuperate from an afternoon on I-94.  Happy Sunday everyone!

Using ND Filter to create special effects

In this article, I will discuss on an important topic in photography. Although this can be treated as an intermediate to advanced technique, but I will try to keep it as simple as possible making it seem like a piece of cake to all my readers.

ND Filter Tip: Creating Special Effects – Digital Camera Reviews & Photography Tips

Seven enormous metal sculptures (standing four to five stories high) decorate the 32-mile stretch between the towns of Gladstone and Regent, North Dakota.  This is the Enchanted Highway.  The awesome sculptures and the vision and resolve of artist Gary Greff, have been heralded from Nickelodeon to People Magazine.  Most recently, the Enchanted Highway was featured in American Road magazine.  The largest sculpture, Geese in Flight, is noted in the Guinness World Records as the largest metal sculpture in the world.  It weighs 78.8 tons and measures 110 feet in height and 154 feet in width.  The Enchanted Highway is a fun, free addition to your North Dakota road trip.

Photographed by Chris Gin

I’m back from my South Island trip. It was a good week, despite the weather trying its best to ruin it for us. Our host, Bevan Tulett (whose photo tours I highly recommend) made the best of each day by literally chasing the light from place to place (e.g on an overcast day he would see a gap in the clouds 20km away and drive there so we could get better light!).

I was hoping to come back with lots of amazing sunrises/sunsets but that wasn’t to be. We only had one good sunrise, the rest were pretty ordinary. I did get a few nice early morning and late afternoon shots though, such as this one.

This is the Blue Lake in St Bathans (named for its distinctive blue colour caused by the minerals in the water). It was man-made by miners digging away at a 120m hill until all that was left was a 68m deep pit. When the mining stopped, the hole filled with water forming the lake.

We got here before sunrise and checked out various compositions. It was a cold, frosty morning and it seemed to take an eternity for the sun to rise over the hills to our right. Once the sun finally got up, it lit up the cliffs and mountains in the background and we clicked away. Although there was a slight breeze, the lake was calm enough to produce some gorgeous reflections.

This is a single exposure, taken using a 2-stop graduated ND filter. Very little post-processing here, this was exactly how it appeared that morning.

View Large On Black

No group invites or glittery graphics, thanks

– License

Showing my social networking class how to set up a blog today!

Kostas Karamanlis - current Greek Prime Minister by the user neadhmokratia on Flickr

It’s time for the Greek elections (again – they seem to happen more and more often) and I am watching with more interest than it can possibly be good for me.

As always my interest revolves around political communications (public affairs will do that to you) and I have been watching digital communications attempts by the Greek political parties especially closely. Not to mention that I can’t vote (you can’t vote for Greek national election from abroad).

I will leave PASOK (Greek Socialist Party, currently the opposition) aside for now, I’ve mentioned before that in terms of online engagement and digital communications they have a well thought out strategy and seem to be innovating every day.

The current government party, ND (Nea Dimokratia/ New Democracy) has been lagging behind for quite some time in terms of online communications and engagement for quite some time with the possible exception of some of their most prominent members like the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dora Bakoyanni.

It seems that the upcoming election has nudged ND out of its traditional comms position and onto some engagement projects. The most talked about in the Greek blogsphere these days is what the party calls LIVE with the President, which quickly became known as #askND, due to the Twitter hashtag they have asked people to use when they are submitting questions to their Party Leader (usually called President in Greece) and current Prime Minister, Kostas Karamanlis (pictured).

The process is quite clear. Users can submit any number of questions they like via Twitter using the relevant hashtag. These questions will then go on to the ND blog and a voting process will begin. Kostas Karamanlis will answer the 10 most popular ones via “LIVE streaming video” (capitalisation theirs – as if answering live to a set of pre-set questions is some sort of an achievement which – duh – it’s not!).

As you can imagine all hell broke loose. Sure there were a lot of questions but let’s look into some worrying trends for a bit.

• Some questions were serious and legitimate
• More questions were a bit on the humorous side (well, quite a lot)
• Some questions (and here is the fun part) came from Twitter users with 0 friends and 0 followers

And here lies the problem. By seeing quite a large number of questions submitted by newbies on Twitter the Greek Twitter community started asking uncomfortable questions. Who are these people? Are the questions planted? How can we trust the process? How can we know for sure that the voting will be honest? (nikan visualised some of these – blog post in Greek)

New users posing questions is obviously quite legitimate. They might have seen the project on ND’s website and decided to start a Twitter account in order to participate – nothing wrong with that.

Leaving the Greek love of conspiracy theories aside, the problem is with how ND is actually running the process.

There is nobody to answer concerns
See, if PASOK had done the same and the same questions were raised they have a team of quite recognisable people (let’s call them Community Engagement Managers even though it’s an inaccurate term for what they do) who would step in and answer any concerns. The PASOK people would have been largely believed because they have been present for years and they have built up their credibility. There is nobody from ND doing the same and even if they did they are an unknown quantity – why should the community believe them?

Last minute engagement counts for very little
It’s a bit worrying that ND jumped onto the online engagement bandwagon so late in the day. It looks as if an election simply forced them to talk to people. Not cool with hardcore Twitter users and bloggers (and in Greece the majority is hardcore)

Discuss the process – be there
It’s a lovely idea and hats off to them for organising it but they are underselling it massively by not actually being there to fight for it. It’s too late for them to build credibility now but something could have been done if they nominated one of their comms people to handle this campaign and defend it to the online world.

If you’re doing it for traditional media exposure you’ve won
It all depends of course. This kind of project can be marvellous for getting you some exposure into traditional Greek media who might not understand the subtleties of online engagement. A tv news report into the wonderful project by ND will actually communicate an air of ‘we are here for the voter – we are listening to your problems’ instantly. So from that perspective I would count this as a short – term win.

The point of course is there is nobody to ask about all this.

Such a shame.

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Following a database meltdown (long live the server move processes) this post and the comments were uploaded again manually.