A new experiment

I have Dana's old Nikon D70 - a great camera when she was at Ryerson in a previous century.  Still a great camera for me.  And I have a few decent lenses and a couple of flash units.  I also have several aquariums, all freshwater.  See where this is going?

This is a simple setup to take pictures of an individual fish.  It is a 3 gallon tank with a black background and blue gravel.  The gravel is a long story - but it will be changed to a fine-grained black gravel for the next round of pictures.  The old Black & Decker Workmate provides a stand and support for the lighting frame ( 3 boards).   The upper flash is connected to the camera flash shoe by a wire (not shown).  The flash on the lower left board has a slave unit attachment that makes it flash as soon as it senses the other flash going off.  There is no wire between the flash units; the slave has a photo-sensor attachment.

This is a dwarf neon rainbow fish.  Under normal conditions, it moves so fast and frequently that I can not get a decent shot.  With less room to move (but still plenty), no plants and rocks and divers and such, I can play with the lighting and get this sort of result.  This is my first real attempt; I expect to get better.  Still, not too shabby for an old guy.

One new interest

Been a while.  This is a new post about new interest: flying radio controlled model airplanes.  Not a new interest, but something I have wanted to do since I was about 12 (sometime in a previous century).

So I bought this ARF (almost ready to fly) kit in January, took my good sweet time putting it together, had a couple of setbacks, joined a model airplane club and started learning in August.  Progress to date has been a completely destroyed fuselage (body), bent-out-of-shape propeller, several cracked (repaired or replaced) motor mounts, and some successful flights with an instructor.

The plane is an eFlight Apprentice 15e - molded foam with an electric motor, 5 channel radio transmitter / receiver combo and 4 sets of servos and linkages to control the rudder/nose wheel, elevator, ailerons and motor speed.  A real plane would also have flaps, but those are not needed for this model.  There is also a lithium polymer (LiPo) battery to power the airplane and 4 AA batteries in the transmitter.  Everything needed was in the box.

So, here are the components:

First, the transmitter and LiPo battery.   The battery is NOT in a heavy protective case because that would add weight.  So, great care must be taken around the battery - especially if there is any kind of mishap.
Second, the transmitter.  The two levers in the circles are the important parts.  The left one controls motor speed (faster up, slower down) and rudder / steering (left, right).  The right one controls the elevator (nose up, nose down) and the ailerons (wing flaps to roll left and right).  Both functions on each level may be used at the same time through diagonal stick movements.

 Here are all the components.  The flat wing, the fuselage with the stuff inside (see next photo, and a yardstick for some idea of size.  This is not a tiny model; the wing is about 58 inches from tip to tip.

 The fuselage holds the receiver and linkages to the little motors (servos) that are linked to the control surfaces by long rods.  The battery goes in a compartment uder this part of the fuselage, and the wing goes over this part.  The wing is removable, held on with 8 large elastic bands.

This is what the beast looks like assembled.

The really cool part of all this is that I get to fly with an instructor who has a transmitter linked to my transmitter by a coax wire.  As long as he holds down a switch on his transmitter, I control the airplane.  When I get into a mess and everyone around screams "We're all going to die!", the instructor can take over in a split-second, save me from my mistake, get the plane stable again, then give me control again.

This has happened a few times, but less and less now.  The last couple of times out I have been taking off and landing myself.  However, the skills are not yet sufficient to allow me to "earn my wings" - to be allowed to fly on my own whenever I feel like it.  To do that, I have to convince the instructor I am no longer a threat to everyone around me.  We are not quite there yet.

Stay tuned.

Golf - January10, 2012

Yep, you read that correctly.
Played at Banty's Roost (north of Brampton) with Mike.


We stopped keeping score on the second hole.

Learned something: the quickest way to really clean a clubhead is to take a couple of swings through a snowdrift.  Works wonderfully.

Love the fact they had plowed the cart paths a few days ago.

Happy Birthday Andrew

Of optimism, pessimism and opportunity

So, where are we?

The picture was taken because the late morning sun was playing so nicely with our still-new magnolia tree.  These are the flower and leaf buds that will remain within their shells through Winter, only appearing once the days re-lengthen and warm in Spring.  The furry shell covering the flower bud changes colour as Spring arrives.  Then the swelling flower bursts the shell and the flower bud grows and opens.

Many facets of the garden are like that; as the dark and cold of Winter quickly approach, optimism abounds in the setting of buds, planting of bulbs, clearing of debris - all in preparation for the renewal of Spring.  The familiar cold and dread of Winter is ignored, for a while at least, to focus on the new growth and beauty assumed to follow.  The nature of optimism is to look beyond the immediate pain or problem to what may be beyond.

Hmmm.  Shades of political will and financial crisis there; however, that is neither the intent nor the topic.  As I grabbed the camera to try to capture a bit of the magical sunshine in early November, I realized that I had taken an opportunity to do something positive, to take an action, to capture a moment.  In fact, I had seen the opportunity the day before and missed it as the sun moved on its westerly arc and the moment passed.  The next morning I was better prepared, ready under the naive assumption that the sun would re-appear and conditions would again present the opportunity.  Optimism, naivety.

Of course, the other option was always available: ignore, or refuse to see, the opportunity; allow the moment to pass either unobserved or as an omen of the approaching darkness; stay in the current track without looking around.  That is, perhaps the pessimism of momentum - that which is remains so.  But no, that is not the case.

Time to get off the butt.

Markham Saturday market

We go  to the market each week.  This week, I went with a friend to take pictures as an exercise.  I used my nifty 50 throughout (f1.8), a lens I seldom use.Most shots were at ISO 800 or 200.  The experiment was with aperture and the effect on colour (as well as depth of field.  Pretty happy with the results.

It is small, but there are enough friendly vendors.

There's lots of stuff to eat.










Penny was there, and the friend.

There is fresh, local produce.

And some samples.







There are people just hanging out.

Old Car/ New Car

Farewell to the Penny mobile after 15 years of excellent service.  It has retired to a new home.

Welcome the new Ford Fiesta!  Thanks Granny Gwen. Will have to come up with a name.