Unboxing of my first POV camera... the GoPro HD HERO.

Still getting used to this whole video thing. I didn't have enough lights for our light tent. So had to clean up the background in post... which affects everything else since I'm not going to go through the hassle of creating a mask. I went through three rendering because of color issues. Even this one seems really off on my uncalibrated laptop monitor. But I finally calibrated it for the first time last night (2/17). Now it looks acceptable. So I marked it was Public again. Yes it's severely overexposed. But that is kind of my style. You can definitely see it in my photography.

Topsoil that's not so top quality.

Pacific Topsoils advertise that they process 3-Way through 1/2" screens. Wrong! This is only part of what I found in (3)5 gallon buckets worth. I don't like paying for soil, containing large rocks and dangerous nails, for use in lawn areas where people will play and walk barefoot. Just sad! I need to find another supplier that provides a higher quality product.

Another use for a multi-purpose extension pole

FastCap 3rd Hand's are a good alternative to autopoles. Excellent for transporting because minimum height is shorter, while maximum is about the same. You can purchase two of these for less than the price of one autopole. They also have articulating heads. Great for those angled ceilings. Then utilize them, as they were intended, for DIY projects around the house for added benefit. Negative points are that they are not as strong (rigid), not recommended for horizontal use (hanging heavy items), hollow section of tube could be crushed if Super Clamp is overtightened and it takes a little bit longer to setup. Still a great way to go if you are on a budget. Amazon sells the pair for around $60 and a contractor pack containing four plus goodies in the $170's.

Green blades aplenty.

I do not know how long it has been, but it appears that I have neglected my lawn as you can see. I decided to get a photo of a random blade and pulled it so I can measure it more accurately. Came out to be 12.5”. I wonder what that calculates out to in days/weeks. I am sure it has been over a month :p Cutting through that stuff wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. But then I realized I had the height set on the third notch. I usually have it on the first one. I decided to give it a try anyway. Totally failed. There was no way my electric mower could have handles that much grass at once. Plus it is a mulcher. So I had to go back to the mega-high setting of the third notch. Now the problem was that it is getting dark. So I had to pick up the pace which produced globs of mulched up grass everywhere. It was not pretty. After 1.5 hours I only managed to get ¾ of my lawn partially cut. Total time normally would be 45 minutes. Let us see if I finish it off next week.

Tacoma PUG BBQ in Seattle

It's been awhile. The last time I was at a PUG meeting was back in 2007. I believe it was the first Martini Garden party and it was held at Me Ra's. Here are the photos I processed.

Now fast forward to July 29, 2009. This one was a BBQ hosted by Gerald and Airika Pope. No martini's, but there were some tasty mojito's being made by our gracious host Alex Rubin. Definitely something nice to drink during another hot day. The best part though was being able to share the experience with Paula since this was her first PUG event.

The photo above is a small example of what I go through every night. I decide on one preset and then right before I move on to the next photo, I try another one and find out it is just as or more interesting to me. It is not enough to clearly consider it as the keeper though. This is such a problem. It has alway slowed down my processing time considerably.

For a better recap of the event, take a look at Paula's post.

What now?

What am I doing? A blog? Me? Well everyone seems to have one, so I guess I am going with the flow. Since I am not big into Facebook, this is probably the best way to stay in touch with what is going on in my life. But I have a feeling I might use this more as a dumping ground for archiving links pertaining to a current or upcoming project. Here is the end of the first post. Expect the future ones to be around this long. Kind of Twitter-like. Get to the point!