This last Saturday we scheduled some time with the MINI club (DC Metro MINI’s) to get a bunch of us out for a photo shoot. Turns out a lot of the MINI folks are really into photography as well! One of the folks found a really nice parking garage and we line up about 15 MINI’s to start taking pictures. After we spent about 3 hours shooting in the garage we headed out to Wolf Trap in Northern VA for some outside shots. Unfortunately it started to rain so I ended up putting my D5100 away (no weather sealing). Thankfully some of the others had the right equipment and we got some great shots.
You can see all of the shots at these flickr links, below is just a few of the shots:
Inspired by an interesting Reddit post I thought I would try out a new technique. In the post, they talking about forgetting your lens cap and just using a cut off water bottle to hold you over till you can get a new one. Some of the posters thought it would make for an interesting shot if you forgot to take it off before shooting.
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!
Well, Kind of. Actually, using the bottom of the bottle turns out a really crappy shot…..
But, the TOP of the bottle, on the other hand. I thought, well if I can see out the center of the bottle, now THAT might make an interesting shot. Sure enough, it did!
This is what the setup was like:
And these are the resulting shots (click to embiggen):
In my quest to take more pictures I have decided to go with a theme. Random Objects. Just some things you may pass every day and not take notice of. For the past few weeks I have made it a point to climb to the top of our 6 floor stairwell just to get some stairs into my daily routine. In doing so I pass by these pipes every day. This one caught a very nice shadow and looked interesting:
I have been a very long time reader of a web comic called Real Life Comics. I found the series back in probably around 2002, went back and read all past strips and then have been reading ever since. Needless to say, I have been a big fan. Unfortunately, I never really got into posting on some of the forums and fan groups because I just didn’t need yet another social site to try and keep up with. None the less, I love the strip and the work that Greg does. Every now and then he would throw up a strip that nearly mirrors conversations that Sarah and I have had! (Some of them almost verbatim).
Well yesterday Greg posted about a charity auction that he was helping out with by donating his hand made 4th Doctor Who scarf! Now, Sarah already owns a 4th Doctor scarf and loves it. I have always been jealous of her massive warmth in who-dom. So I got pretty excited about the potential to have my own that 1: Was hand made by someone who I am a big fan of, 2: helps out a great charity!
So Last night I sat and watched the timer tick down on the auction waiting for the price to skyrocket out of my range and was pleasantly surprised when it didn’t! For just over $200 I am now the proud owner of Greg Dean’s Hand Made Doctor Who Scarf!
Big thanks go out to Greg for making laugh on a (nearly) daily basis!
A long time ago (blah blah galaxy) I tried my hand at some Machinima video capture. For those who don’t know, Machinima is using video game footage, re-edited together to make a video. A lot of folks use the medium to make music videos, some people have ran with it and made full series of funny videos (like Red Vs. Blue). Well, a few years back some friends and I tried to make a series called Stupid Hobbitsess. It was made using the Lord Of The Rings Online game. Unfortunately, the videos were pulled from YouTube because of Digital rights for some of the music used. (less than 30 seconds worth). So now, they only exist on my Hard Drive. I may see if I can get them up here somewhere.
Anyways, I used a capture software called FRAPS. It’s one of the popular choices for Video Game capture. Problem is, back in the day, when I ran the capture on my old system, it would lag the game…..a lot. On a while I decided to try and run FRAPS behind The Old Republic and see what the hit would be. I was amazed to find that there was no lag at all. Now, it is an updated system and FRAPS has been updated quite a few times since then so it may be more streamlined. Below is a sample capture of some in game footage. This kind of stirs the creative juices a bit, well see if anything comes from it.
Ninja Edit: Looks like the old Myspace page for Stupid Hobbitsess is still up with the videos. If you dare venture into Myspace land, you can see them here
Using the same technique I was talking about in my last post, I decided to take a good subject out to a good location and try again. This time I went to one of the local Battlefield areas and found a great hill that provided an amazing view. L st night the weather was nice and clear so there were some good stars out as well.
I opted for two styles of picture, the straight long exposure that I turned in a good B/W shot, and a colorful light painting shot. For the subject, I used my ½ scale TARDIS that my son and I built. The light painting was actually done with Sonic Screwdrivers as my son and his friend ran wildly around the TARDIS.
Overall I am happy with the results. They aren’t HDR, this is just a single shot taken between 2-3 min long. I fired the strobe once or twice on the outside of the TARDIS to give detail and then twice inside to give the light. (Click for Flickr Link)
Last night I decided to try out a neat technique using long exposure and strobe highlights. in a good environment, this can be used to highlight areas and paint light into dark spots. Unfortunately, if you don’t have the right subject, it just doesn’t come out right.
The plan was to set up the camera on a tripod, up on the deck of my back yard, overlooking the trees in the yard. I set up a shot for F-16, ISO200, and decided on around 2-3min exposure. Then I took my SB-600 out into the yard and flashed various parts of the yard and the trees to highlight them.
(Important side note, wear shoes you don’t care about if you own a dog that typically uses the back yard as his restroom)
The end result was not what I was expecting at all, and not in a good way. The final picture looked like a picture of my back yard with spotlights on the trees:
The sky was very overcast, the angle was wrong, the subject of the trees just wasn’t that interesting. The only thing this shot had going for it was the concept. I understand the concept better now, it’s just a matter of finding the right subject. I’ll certainly revisit this idea again in the future after a scouting trip to find a good shot.
Interestingly enough, one of the shots you can just make out a ghostly figure of myself in the distance.
Decided I really need to step back up my picture taking so my goal is to try and get a good shot in at least once a week. This doesn’t include the shots I take for Sarah’s food/craft blog.
Next in my line of talking about Star Wars The Old Republic, Crew skills!! Crew skills are TOR’s form of crafting. In other MMO’s they incorporate crafting in the form of “Hunting and Gathering” where your character would come across materials out in the world(s) and use that material to build armor/weapons/stuff back in some special location. In WoW you could find an Anvil somewhere or cooking fire, etc. You would have to stand next to that location and toil away your time watching your character move his arms up and down.
TOR sought to make that a little more enjoyable. For starters, in general game play they give you a companion to aid you in your quests. The companion ties in to your story line and can change the way the story plays out depending on which companion you use (through out the game, you gain more Crew Members). For crafting, the added the ability to send your companion out on a Crew Skill. This is a mission that your crew ventures out on for a set amount of time, and then comes back with materials used for crafting. While your crew is out, you are free to continue questing un-hindered. They still include the random nodes in the world(s) that you can harvest for materials, but this allows you to pull in specific materials for your crafting by sending your companion out to get them.
The actual crafting part works much the same way. You can send your companion out to make up to 5 items at a time and then go about your business. When he/she is done the items will be in your inventory. The best part is that all the materials can sit in your vault. This is a huge step beyond any of the other MMO’s that force you to carry everything you need and tie you to a work area to build things.
Now, the down side. Unfortunately, not all crew skills are created equal. All of the discovery crew skills (the ones that gather materials) cost credits to send your companion out. Essentially you are paying for them to gather instead of you doing it. This is a double edged sword since you get your materials, and your skill increases, but too much and you end up broke. Except for one skill, Slicing.
Slicing used to be overpowered to the point where it was insane to not have it because it was a steady flow of large sums of money. Sadly, they “fixed” that and brought it down to a slow trickle of money. If you have the ability to run slicing missions non stop, it can still turn you a profit, but it takes some time and you have to face the consequences of a loss from time to time. In the long run you will make money.
The below chart is a great display of which crew skills tie together for crafting (Credit goes to http://www.swtorcrewskills.com):
So tonight was out usual weekly craft night so there was a lot of running around, picking up the house, general cleaning and such. Not to mention all the walking around the house while folks are over, visiting, helping out etc. I wasn’t sure exactly how much of this I was doing until after all was said and done I sat down and looked at the FitBit data that had been collected through the day.
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here:
Cookie Policy
