Category: Photography

Speaking of the Going To The Sun Rally, this is for Mark C…

St. Mary's Lake, Glacier Park, Montana

THIS is that viewpoint I was telling you about when we were driving down the east side of Logan Pass, but somehow missed the turn for. I said to you, “as a photographer, you’ll recognize this vista” and then managed to go right past it (was I driving or you?)

Anyway, this is that view I promised you and failed to deliver. Note this was from the 2006 Rally when all of the northwest was blanketed by smoke from forest fires that were burning everywhere that year.

Speaking of photography, I’ll hopefully be picking up that new camera soon, Stay tuned.

Peripatetic

Apparently a photograph of me & my father, driving in the 65E appears in the March 2009 issue of “Classic Motorsports“… I guess as part of the article titled “Jaguar E-type Buyer’s Guide.” I have yet to confirm this however.

Today at lunch I went to a local Barnes & Noble bookstore to see, and unfortunately could only find the January 2009 issue. I did note a British car magazine with a D-type on the cover so I flipped through it. As I was about to slide it back on the rack I noted a familiar image on the backside.

Sure enough, the famous “Miss January” shot of the 65E, which has graced the very first XKEdata.com calendar, as well as won the first annual SNG Barratt photo contest. I guess SNG are getting good milage from the image.

I didn’t buy the magazine, as it was $10.50(!) so I just snapped a photo with my cell phone. 😉

Car Photo of the Day: Prestigious Porker Pilot

This 911 is being driven by a famous person, made famous partially for his prowess in piloting Porsches. Do you know who he is?

I didn’t take the photo because of it… I just like this particular style of photo, as many of you know. I call it “the hero shot” as it makes any car look heroic. It is easier to look at than it is to take however, as it involves some derring-do out the side of a fast-moving car, risking life, limb, and camera gear in the process. In this case I tripped the shutter just a tad too late, but it’s still a good shot.

Shaun Redmond is ineligible as he was with me on this event.

The Big Snow of 2008-9, start to finish.

I finally had a chance last night to edit together all my time-lapse footage from the big snowfall over the holidays. Our snowfall events here in the Pacific Northwest generally are short-lived. I set up my time lapse gear to capture the rapid snowmelt that USUALLY happens, but instead it ended up continuing to fall and then staying around for over 3 weeks! So I varied the shots and continued to capture until the very end. I’ve compiled it all into a ~7 minute video. See the snow accumulate and then melt, icicles grow and shrink. Trees shake off their mantles of snow. At this latitude (>48°N) at this time of year days are short and nights long, hence the darkness. Enjoy!

My favorite Car photo of 2008.

While not as dramatic as some of my past work, this image is my favorite one from the past year. Once again, as in 2007 the chance to make it was afforded to me by Dr. Philippe Reyns. This photo was snapped from the passenger seat of his pre-war SS100 Jaguar as we ambled toward Libby, Montana on the 2008 Going To The Sun Rally.

Merci Philippe!

As I’m considering my plans for 2009 I think I’ll have to skip the GTTSR this year. All of my potential co-drivers have not been able to commit. Perhaps this year instead I’ll grab one (or both) of my boys and just go for a father/son road trip… follow our noses somewhere. I’ve done this before and I think it is time to do it again.

December Sunrise at digital.forest

The past two days have been a bit surreal. Seattle got socked with a big snow, not long after our big snow up in the foothills. The boys arrived safely in Colorado for their holiday visit to their Grandparents… but I got stuck at the office Thursday night as snow piled up all around us. The roads were insane, which I could plainly see outside my office window. A small sub-set of the staff made it to the office and it was a light-hearted fun day and night. I awoke before dawn this morning and seeing that it was clearing, ran outside and setup my time-lapse gear to grab the above footage. I decided after the sun rose to add a twist to the movie by “sliding” down the hill, making a two-layer set of movement in the video. My camera mount did not allow for smooth movement so it is not as good as it should be but I’ll get that sorted out.

Later I had to post on our support blog about our staffing situation and figured I’d throw the video on there for good measure.

Update: (more) Thoughts on a new Camera

I really appreciate all the feedback I have received over the past week or so since I first started thinking out loud on this subject. After digging a bit, I’ve narrowed my specifications. I could not find anything that covered all of my wants, and that forced me to concentrate on what I need. The first thing to go was AA batteries – it seems that virtually no DSLR works from AA’s. The next thing to go was video. Very few SLRs do video, and it appears none of them do it well.

I came back to the features that I need, which are small size and light weight. I took the suggestions of people I trust and fed them through that filter and came up with the cameras you see arrayed above. You can see the whole comparison table here. I think now, that unless something about the other two really strikes me, my final choice is between the two in the middle: The Olympus E-420 and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1. These two are the smallest, lightest DSLRs available, at 15.5 and 12.7 oz. respectively.

The more I look at the specs, the more I’m favoring the Panasonic, with it’s Leica lenses and apparently amazing tilt/swivel/swing viewfinder.

The Sony’s appeal is the price/performance, the viewfinder, and some impressive technical stats. It is HUGE compared to the Olympus & Panasonic. The Canon’s appeal to me lay primarily in its ability to be driven by a laptop for time-lapse. After thinking very hard about that I realized that the sort of time-lapse work I do, I’m better suited finding a compact consumer-grade digicam that is supported by my time-lapse software.

So my next step is to go and get my hands on these and see how they feel. Stay tuned!