One of my hobbies

So it's been quite awhile since I blogged and dammit Doodi and Dsmooth changed the blog interface so now I am trying to figure out how to "correctly" (non url) include images and links. Please bear with me if my blog avatar erroneously populates the blog banner more than the acceptable one time. Yes, I am directly addressing all you thumbs down blog fairies.


The topic of this blog is actually photography. A few folks have recently been blogging about their photos and gear so I thought I'd contribute some to the discussion. I basically grew up with two shutter bugs who documented much of my life via film, up until age 18. At the time it would occasionally annoy me, but as I've gotten older I have actually grown to appreciate the quasi photojournalism my parents did. I'm certain I will appreciate it even more after they are gone. Having constantly been in front of the camera as a child it was only natural that I would eventually get behind one myself and subject others to it. Fortunately my parents are the nurturing type and taught me most of the very basic stuff as a kid and even allowed me to play with their equipment some. Although I don't recall or offhand have any "great" photos from my early days I think I did alright for a kid.

Fast forward to my mid 20's and I'm in graduate school with a little bit more free time than in undergrad. I didn't have internet or a game console then so I actually used to go outside and do stuff!!! One thing I have always enjoyed was being outdoors. Whether it was hunting, fishing, skiing, biking, hiking, golfing, ect didn't matter to me as long as I was outside in the sunshine. Doing all of these activities provided me ample opportunities to behold and enjoy the majestic beauty of Mother Nature. So many times I would be looking at a scene so amazing that I would be nearly dumbstruck and hoping that I could permanently etch the scene into my mind so that I could enjoy it again and again forever. Alas, memories fade and rarely are as vivid as true life. So I eventually decide to invest in some good camera equipment and see what I could capture. Back in '99-'00 digital SLR's were VERY expensive and far beyond the modest stipend of a Chemistry Grad student so I went the route of the trusty 35mm SLR. So the big question Nikon or Cannon?

For those that do photography at least semi seriously most either fall into the Cannon or the Nikon camp. I'm a Cannon person basically because my Dad had an old AE-1 when I was very young so I learned on it. As I got older he switched out to the simpler auto pocket sized cameras for convenience. My Mom on the other hand went super complex and far beyond her needs with the Cannon EOS system. The beauty of the EOS system is that it is the standard lens for all of Cannon's SLR cameras both film and digital! So I basically have a plethora of lenses I can "borrow" for my present Cannon Rebel XT digital, but I am getting ahead of myself a little. Rewind back to '99 and my Dad is generous enough to give me his old Cannon AE-1 that has been collecting dust for 5+ years. I quickly devour the manual and attempt to capture some of those majestic scenes. I learned a lot from those first few rolls of film. The first is that the cost of good film and good developing are not cheap! The second lesson was that capturing on film what your eye sees is a lot harder than the manual says it is. Lastly, Ansel Adams I was not.

I decided to do some research and maybe even invest in a book about photography. Now, granted my Mom had numerous books specializing is a multitude of things, but none of them REALLY covered the fundamentals and basics well. Enter my favorite reference book still to this day: Alpha Teach Yourself Black and White Photography in 24 Hours. Yep, it is one cheesy long ass title, but it is an EXCELLENT book for explaining all the basics of film photography. The book really has everything in it you need to know for just about every type of photography including lighting techniques for studio work. Anyway armed with my new found knowledge, my trusty Manfrotto tripod with Super-Pro head, a cable release, some filters, and different ISO films I set forth again, this time with much more success. As my skill set improved I eventually moved up to a Mamiya 645 medium format film camera. For those not familiar with medium format it is basically what most professional film photographers use because it's negative size is much larger than 35mm, thus it can yield larger higher detailed enlargements. Unfortunately, all of my good ones from those days are on film and only a few have been scanned into a digital image. The only ones that I could quickly locate was:

Serene

Ohio Pyle in Jan (not a great scan)

Here is a photo of my gear from a few years ago. It doesn't include the myriad of red, orange, yellow, 81A-E, and neutral density filters I have for all the lenses or my Rebel XT digital (what I took the picture with). Below I'll include some of my personal favorites. I mostly do landscapes and have a high affinity for B&W. Sadly I have lived in NC now for 5 years and have yet to make it over to western mountains in the fall. Truth be told, that area reminded me so much of home (western Pa) when I first visited years ago it was one of the reasons I moved to NC. Comments and questions are welcome.

 

 

 

 

Posted by bunsen27 @ 10:04 pm EDT | Permalink | 6 Comments

Next generation Gaming Rig

This spring in anticipation of aquiring an XBox 360 I began researching and assembling the pieces of my next generation gaming rig. I previously played on a nice Sony Triniton 27" SDTV. The first addition to the rig was the aquisition of a 5.1 Surround sound system in January. Not having a home theater reciever I was looking for a stand alone unit and came across some excellent reviews for the XBox branded Spherex 5.1 System. Once finalizing my decision on this system I began researching vendors for it and the lowest price I found was Amazon @$380 + $50 shipping. Being a bit more than what I was willing to pay I turned to eBay and was able to purchase an "open return" item from a retailer's clearing house for a little more than $100. I basically stole this item since the "open return" was in fact never opened and still factory sealed! The second one I picked up for about the same price wasn't either! Now having a killer sound system I began focusing my attention to a display. I did a lot of homework on this and had settled on a 30" widescreen Sony HDTV which was retailing for $875 in March. I was waiting for after CES for the new models to come out and pick one of these up on the cheap. Unfortunatly, Sony decided to cancel this line of TV's and my local Best Buy's did not have many in stock and were not planning on parting with them for less than $800. About this time I contacted the resident Old Man Mafia Home Theater Guru Extroidenair...WallyBR for some additional advice. He directed me towards a LCD HD projector system for a bit more than the TV's I was considering, but the $$/ inch of screen was much cheaper. After handholding me through the tough decision and answering every question I had (their were A LOT trust me), I made my purchase of the projector from an online vendor Wally reccomended, sight unseen. That's the one thing about projectors, most physical vendors do no have a lot of display models due to the high inventory cost/ low turnover rate. I got the full system set up by mid March with some addtional cables from MonoPrice . For the technical specs: the viewing distance is 12.5 ft with a projection distance of 13 ft, maximum screen is 105" along the diagonal. I project onto a fairly smooth wall that is painted a light beige.  Since I still live in an apartment hanging a screen wasn't currently an option.

I typically play GRAW, PGR3 and COD on the full screen, but have to play Halo on the smallest possible screen (60") or else I get really bad motion sickness. I can definately achieve full imersion into a game due to the perspective being very close to life size, sitting in a darkened room and with the 5.1 surround sound kicking. This is extremly cool for COD, PRG3, and GRAW. COD2 on Veteran was phenominal with my setup! Conversely, Condemed scared the living Be-Jesus out of me! For those of you that have played Condemned you know what I'm talking about. That 5.1 soundtrack is uber accurate and scary, and much of the game you are wondering around with a flashlight and people tend to attack you from nowhere. Anyway, below are some links and pictures of my stuff. I now hope everybody gets an idea of what a 100" screen looks like. Also, for the record I would like to state that I am not compensating for anything with my big screen!

Panasonic AE900U
Spherex 5.1


100" of gaming goodness (NOTE: the TV in the left corner of the picture is a 27" and the wall the screen is projecting on is 8ft wide)

my "little" 60 inch screen for Halo2

100" screen and me for reference (I'm 5'9")

my "typical" gaming perspective (dependent on your monitor size get your face about 8-10 inches away from the screen to achieve my normal view)



Posted by bunsen27 @ 11:21 pm EDT | Permalink | 14 Comments

Death and Ressurection of an XBox

So last night I was in the mood to play some Halo2 on Old Man Mafia clan night. I know as radical and unbelieving as it sounds I actually WANTED to play Halo2 and not COD2 last night (several members of my clans jaws have just hit their keyboards ) ;; ;; So I switch over my network and 5.1 cables from my 360 to my newly skinned Xbox hit the power button walk away for a minute to get a frosty adult beverage and come back to the XBox main menu....strange because I swore my Halo2 disc was in there. ;; No problem pop open the tray...oh it is in there?! ;; Close tray wait for Halo2 to load...nothing still at main menu. ;; Repeat about 10 times..doesnt sound like the disc is spinning up. ;; WTF...I baby this thing its sat on a shelf 99% of its life! ;; A ;; mild panic sets in....I purchased my Xbox in Feb 2004, any implied or stated warranty is long gone. ;; This is the same situation many of us are in with original XBoxs: warranty long gone and a nice little game collection amassed that either isnt backwards compatible or if it is has major issues (Halo2). ;; So its at this point where you start considering options: 1. replace with new or used Xbox 2. send for repairs to MS 3. be adventerous and try to repair it yourself ;;! ;; In case you havent noticed lately (like me) you can no longer purchase a new Xbox at any of the major chain stores online or instore unless its left over stock. ;; ;; ;; Refurbished/used system are about $100 at Eb/Gamestop, not really an appealing option for a console I play a few times monthly. ;; I called MS support and they informed me that its $80 for repairs, and the repaired system only comes with a 90day warranty. ;; Not a good option either, although replacing from EB/Gamestop is looking more appealing because I know I can get an instore or extended warranty. ;; Not satisfied with either option 1 or 2 I start googling "xbox DVD drive issues". ;; I found a really good sight that has some nice step by step tutorials on trouble shooting XBox issues and sell replacement parts, ;; llammas (yes- they also do sell mod chips and do modding , but they are one of the few vendors that sell replacement parts). ;; ;; The first thing I noticed was that a replacement drive is $60 and that they are very easy to install. ;; I knew the issue was the DVD drive because I could hear it try to spin the disk, but it wouldnt. ;; So this is the point where there is no turning back...go and buy a new system or remove the stickers, crack that case open and void my system from resale or MS repair....Being a bit computer savvy I decided to take the road less traveled...I opened the case!  Now one warning here this really does eliminate your console from resale on eBay, to EB/Gamestop and kicks in the really high priced service plan from MS.

Once open it looks just like any old computer and I quickly had the DVD drive out and disassembled. ;; No obvious defects ie; dust loose parts. ;; So I reassemble the DVD drive with the top cover off, plug in the system and start tinkering. ;; Everything appears to be working except for that initial spin to get it going up to speed. ;; Start tinkering with the drive wheel while its trying to spin up. ;; After about 5 min its starting to do half spins, I just keep slowly rotating the wheel in the proper direction while popping a disc in and out to see if it spins. ;; A few moments later it sputters then starts whipping that baby around at full speed...ITS ALIVE!!! ;; Anxiously watch TV screen to see if its actually reading and VIOLA!! I am greated by that all to familar guitar wail that signals Halo2 is loading. ;; I have a warm fuzzy feeling and briefly shed a tear of joy as my XBox ressurects itself from the dead. ;; Everything works perfectly, I honestly have no idea what the issue was. ;; Im not sure if the spin motor just got stuck or the last time I took it to a LAN it got bumped and knocked something off kilter. ;; either way as long as it works and I can continue to play some of XBox games when I get nostalgia I dont care. ;; Id forgotten how cool Crimson Skies is!

Posted by bunsen27 @ 3:02 pm EDT | Permalink | 4 Comments

How to be the coolest kid at the next LAN

If you are an XBox 360 owner the one thing you notice very quickly about the system is that its plain white (or beige for you more artistic folks), and can easily be mistaken for some non-descript techno gadget. ;; Not the awesome gaming/media center that it is. ;; Ms and third party venders offer additional faceplates for $20 to help you customize your 360, but the top and bottom are still white (or beige). ;; Now you can get a replacement case, but for 99% of us this isnt a road we are willing to travel since it voids that lovely MS warranty we all love, cherish, and hope we never have to use but probably will. ;; The only other viable option is to use a vinyl skin to customize your 360. ;; Codemonkey recently detailed his experience with a vendor MyTego (article). ;; I also happened to very recently do the same thing, but with a different vendor, DecalGirl . ;; I did not do a custom faceplate at this time, but opted for an existing design. ;; The install process was very simple and took me about 10 min for the faceplate and 3 min for the top skin. ;; Below are the pictures of the finished product. ;; Overall I would rate the quality very high and am extremely pleased with my purchase. I would reccomend that if you plan on doing a darker colored skin that you opt for the black faceplate, because no matter how good you are at applying the skin some edges of the faceplate will show through around the memory slots and USB door. I also decide to jazz up my originnal XBox with some chrome trim and a jewel decal.

The order: one 360 full skin ($25), XBox 4 piece kit ($10), jewel cover ($4), black XBox 360 faceplate (FREE; $13 value)

Having a BLACK Xbox 360 (as it should be!) : Priceless

Clicky

Faceplate

Top Skin

Finished 360

Plain Old Xbox

Finished Xbox

Posted by bunsen27 @ 10:31 pm EDT | Permalink | 5 Comments

This rant sponsered by the IRS and Turbo Tax

Oh yes it is that lovely time of the year again where we must all subject ourselves to one of the two life guarentees.  Im actually quite fortunate in that I probably have the simplest possible tax scenerio around; single, no dependents, one source of income.  An H&R Block agents wet dream!  20-30 minutes work for whatever the hell they are charging these days.  Which is precisely why I prepare my own taxes.  For 3 years I have used Turbo Tax with no difficulties.  Last year I encountered an automatic updating issue that I was able to resolve in ~30 min through their online tech support.  So this year when I encountered a similar issue I wasnt too  concerned.  Went to the online support found the exact error message I was getting performed the prescribed fix and....it didnt bloddy work?!  Uninstalled reinstalled program, reperformed patch...nada.  Booted in safe mode..nada.  Basically, 6 hours later after performing every trick I know the program still refused to install the updates because it was getting hungup and timing out due to some programing glitch.

Thank God the IRS has online PDFs that you can fill in and print, so thats what I did.  That and I owe this year so I definately feel like mailing it in at the last possible minute.  Whats pathetic is that Turbo Tax did precisely what it was supposed to do and calculated everything correctly, but due to some poor programming or unforseen software conflict would not perform the install to update the finalized forms and therefore would not e-file my taxes.  Actually, I really couldnt even print it out and mail the form in either because it had overlaid in BOLD letters "FORM NOT FINAL: DO NOT MAIL".  Oh well I do hate prepairing taxes, and refuse to pay someone else to do mine since I have such a simple case.  I just wished the whole damn system was a lot more streamlined.  Uhgh, just wasted a beautiful saturday afternoon.

Posted by bunsen27 @ 8:55 pm EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments