Ronsprojects Photoblog

Old Rag at Dusk

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 16:56 -0400

Headed up Old Rag for a mid-week hike with Canniere after work. It was a fun trip up Old Rag, and we only encountered 7 other people the entire hike. Typical weekends you can easily get stuck in a long line through parts of scrambles, so that few people as a definite change for the better. The full album can be found here

View from Rattlesnake Mountain, NH

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 21:39 -0400

This is the result of a photostitched panorama from the top of Rattlesnake Mountain in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It really doesn't do the view justice. Unfortunately, no I didn't get to go back up to New Hampshire, it just took me this long to find time to push the pictures through post and to stitch them. A larger size of this photo can be found here.

Faneuil Hall

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 12:12 -0400

I've spent the last 8 days in New England with Mark and Shannon. We spent the majority of our time in New Hampshire climbing at Rumney. The first day we flew into Boston and did some sight seeing around there including stopping by Faneuil Hall where this shot was taken.

For the trip I packed several lenses the 50 mm, 105 mm, and 14 mm primes as well as the all around 17-55 zoom. I only used the 17-55. Took just under 1400 images while there and my computer is churning through them as I type. Lots more pics to come

New Draws

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 23:48 -0400

I finally broke down and bought some quickdraws for climbing. We've (we being my friends that I climb with regularly) have been climbing outdoor sport climbs for about a year now and so far I've been mooching draws. I finally got my own so I'm not such a mooch. I ordered them through my climbing gym for a nice discount but unfortunately it took two weeks for them to get here. Normally that wouldn't be that big of a deal but I'm heading up to New Hampshire for seven days of outdoorsyness, including lots of climbing. Without these draws we would have been short a few (a few being like 6) for a few climbs. The last pieces of the draws came in today, just in the nick of time.

I should be packing but alas here I am goofing around. These were shot with a single SB-600 through a shoot through umbrella about 5 feet above the draws on the floor. The draws were sitting on a white poster board and I had another white poster board acting as a reflector. Simple. Quick.

AAAARGH!

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 23:12 -0400

This is "The Awakening" sculpture created by J. Seward Johnson, Jr. located in National Harbor. It used to be located on Hains point but they moved it to National Harbor when National Harbor was built. I just recently learned today that it was installed for a sculpture exhibition in 1980 and essentially left at Hains point for 27 years, despite it's permits expiring. I rode down there with Matt last Friday and brought along the F5 loaded with Kodak Professional BW400CN film. It's black and white film which is suits the sculpture very well. However, what the black and white film was not able to capture was the absolutely gorgeous sunset behind the sculpture. Should have brought some color film too, that or the D7000. Oh well. Also unfortunately the camera got wet and the auto focus motor hasn't been working anymore on the F5. Those things are supposed to be built like tanks! It's survived 10+ years but can't handle 2 months with me...

Long Poles

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 00:34 -0400

This was taken I think in April. It's one of the first shots I took with the Nikon F5. It's shot on Kodak Professional BW400CN film. It's black and white film that's processed under C-41 processing so it can be developed anywhere. Shooting film is different, you take a lot more time to set up the shot. However, this isn't a pure film shot, I did do some post processing in photoshop to bring out the shadows a little bit. Unfortunately the AF motor on the F5 has apparently decided to stop working so my film adventures may stop for a little while.

Unfortunately there's a decent amount of ghosting due to the UV / clear filter on the front of the 50 mm. Ghosting is only really a problem in these types of scenarios, it's dark and there's a bright light source. I should remember to take off the protection filters in situations like this

Getting Mail

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 18:31 -0400

A Model Satellite

Fri, 13 May 2011 22:33 -0400

So this week my former program manager at work gave me a 1/16th scale model of the satellite I spent the last ~5 years working on. Unfortunately, the satellite ended up going into the ocean due to a launch vehicle failure so it was all for naught. The satellite represented a lot to me. It was my first job out of college, it was my first satellite I worked on and I personally put in over 10,000 man hours to get the satellite off the ground. For better or worse, it was a major defining characteristic of my life for my last few years. To get a scale model of it was pretty freaking awesome and meant a whole lot more than the pin I'll be getting for hitting my 5 year anniversary. I was elated to receive it. Thank you so much Mark.

Once I got the satellite built, which was much easier than the real deal, I decided I wanted to take a picture of it. Of course, in my recent photo kick I decided to go all out and get the off camera flashes out as well and try to use some of the things I had read about on Strobist. In the end, it wasn't a particularly difficult light setup but it was a learning experience. See My Blog for details on the light setup.

Stinkbugs. Even uglier up close.

Sun, 24 Apr 2011 18:11 -0400

Saw this guy on the outside of my screen window and took a few pictures before he flew away. These buggers are everywhere in the area, but fortunately this guy was on the other side of the screen. I'm always amazed at how alien like insects are up close. But they give me the heebie-jeebies.

Chimney Rock Panorama

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 00:54 -0400

Photo from the top of Chimney Rock near Asheville, NC. Chimney Rock creates a type of conflict in me. On one hand Chimney Rock is kind of neat in that there's an elevator cut into rock allowing people access to the top of Chimney Rock. Anyone can get there and enjoy the sight. But at the same time it's kind of disgusting how much was done to create such an overlook to make it accessible. I guess I'm used to hiking or climbing to get to the top of an overlook of that type. Where you really have to work to get there, not pay $14 and take an elevator ride. So I think I'm a bit of an outdoor snob. Either way, it's there, it's easy to get to, and it's beautiful and it was definitely a great day when we went.