Author: Matt (Page 12 of 23)

National Geographic Photo Seminar

2/28/2007 / Matt

Snowshoeing! I recently had the opportunity to join National Geographic Traveler photographer Jim Richardson and the magazine’s senior photo editor Dan Westergren for a one-day seminar on how to make successful travel photos. The fundamental idea was to expand your awareness and skills beyond simply producing “pretty pictures,” and discover how to capture the spirit of a place by using a cultural documentary approach to your travel photography.

It was an extraordinary event and I came away from the seminar armed with a greater knowledge of how to engage myself in the photography process and not simply be a participant in a “drive-by shooting.” I gained an greater understanding of how to more effectively utilize the gear I own and identified several “holes” in my inventory. Jim Richardson used a series of photographs to explain the concepts he was presenting. This learning approach was very effective and I gained not only knowledge in the process but was inspired by the photography itself to ‘get out there” and take more pictures than I have in the past.

I can see where I will eventually have to make the plunge to digital but for now I am happy with the gear I have. Well, almost. I learned from the seminar that a wide angle lens can create some very dramatic effects. And since I almost never use my telephoto lens I decided to sell it and get a wide angle lens. I got the lens sold with no trouble at all but the wide angle lens I want is on backorder so am having to wait for it.

Ronda and I made weekend getaway up to Idaho Springs and stayed at a resort that has natural hot springs. On Saturday morning we headed off to give my snowshoes their maiden voyage. The winds had been pretty nasty the previous day and were not much improved in the morning. It took a while to convince myself that I really wanted to do this…but eventually we geared up and headed into the blowing snow. The first half mile or so was pretty miserable but then we got into the forest and it improved considerably. We were not the first ones up the trail so we had a path to follow which helped some. It was really fun stomping over drifts that ranged from two to six foot high.

The trail goes to Chinn’s Lake which is about four miles. At approximately the halfway point it intersects the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) which is where these pictures were taken. We had to turn around there and head back or we would have missed our reservation at the resort for the private geothermal pool. The hot springs made a perfect ending to this little adventure.

This and That – Winter Yuck

2/3/2007 / Matt

Life sure gets full when you take two night classes in addition to a full-time job. One nice side effect of this was my old PC that I use for school couldn’t handle the new Java development environment so I was forced (arm twisted and tied behind my back) to go buy a new one. Dang. What a shame.

It’s truly amazing the computer power you can buy these days for not a whole lot of money. Needless to say I am very pleased with the upgrade. Things that used to give me time to go get a cup of coffee now snap right up on the screen. I also dumped my 19″ CRT in favor of a 19″ LCD display and now I have considerably more deskspace to pile up papers!

I do have one negative thing to report. I bought a textbook last fall in anticipation of the course this spring. I ordered the correct edition but when the book arrived I never really looked at it, just put it on the shelf. Now two weeks into the course I discover that they shipped me the wrong edition. And of course they don’t respond to my emails. GRRRR!.

What is with these textbooks anyway. I can understand why some of my textbooks would be expensive. I am taking graduate courses in a specialized field. But Josh just signed up for a basic Algebra course at the local community college and his text book was $100. For an elementary, fundamentals course? That’s absolutely crazy! What are they thinking?

Winter is definitely getting annoying. Might as well be back in the Midwest the way this winter has been shaping up. Hopefully things will get back to normal pretty soon. I’ve gotten spoiled over the last two years 😉

Snow Everywhere

1/5/2007 / Matt

Three weeks in a row we’ve been hit with a snowstorm. Winter is definitely making it’s presence known this year. I’ve decided to fight back though, I bought myself some snowshoes. Tomorrow Ronda and I will get out and go hiking anyway. I’ll let you know how it goes.

I snapped this shot of the snow blowing off Pikes Peak last Saturday.

Flaming Space Debris

1/5/2007 / Matt

Thursday morning we were treated to an awesome light show in the western sky as the remnants of a Russian Soyuz 2-1b rocket re-entered the atmosphere and broke up high above the mountains. It was an amazing sight to see. Likely a once in a lifetime event. There was also a full moon setting and the debris passed just below it.

The rocket, made in Russia, was launched from Kazakhstan on December 27, carrying the European Space Agency’s COROT space observatory into orbit. Flying high above the Earth’s atmosphere, the Convection Rotation and planetary Transits (COROT) satellite will look for smaller, rocky extrasolar planets beyond our solar system.

Watch the cool video of the rocket re-entry here.

Holman Locomotive and Speeding Truck Company

12/17/2006 / Matt

I have been slowly expanding my collection of banknotes. I renewed this interest earlier this fall and decided I needed a theme for my collection. I decided on trains and ships. One day I was looking around a website that specializes in old stock certificates and ran across an interesting item that not only fit my theme but was the same size as a banknote.

The Holman Locomotive and Speeding Truck Co. was incorporated under the laws of Iowa back in the 1890’s. In Sioux City if I remember correctly. It was a scam where the company made false claims of a locomotive with increased speed by using a special design of its wheels. This startling curiosity of locomotive design was to become known as Holman’s Absurdity.

Practical railroad men immediately assailed the design as a monstrosity: “It is a humbug. When we first heard of the Holman locomotive we supposed that it was the invention of some harmless crank who did not understand the elementary principles of mechanics, but we now believe that it has been, since its inception, an ostentatious machine designed to allure unwary capitalists into an investment which will be of the same real value as throwing gold coin over Niagara Falls.”

Nevertheless, the parties’ exploiting the Holman locomotive advertised their stock in numerous newspapers claiming that the invention was certain to come rapidly into general use and was destined to be the locomotive of the future. The engine was run a few trips on a straight railroad in New Jersey, which was used merely as a stimulant to stock selling. Unfortunately many people with limited savings were allured, into investing their hard earned money in this swindle, and they might as well have given it to a highway robber.

Good Things and Bad Things

12/16/2006 / Matt

The semester is over! That’s a good thing. This course was really challenging but I learned quite a lot and it will help me with my job. So, now I get a month off.

We had planned to celebrate by going snowshoeing and then visiting a hot springs resort out west of Denver but something I ate last night got the best of me and I have been feeling poorly so we had to reschedule. That was a bad thing.

In spite of not feeling so hot we did go up the hill and take a nice walk in the woods. The winds were calm this morning, the sun was shining, and it was nearly 60 degrees. That was good thing and it was refreshing to get some exercise.

Josh and Kristina had to face some realities of life regarding differing lifestyles and decided sharing a townhouse was maybe not the best idea. Kristina found herself a studio apartment and moved out. In the long run this probably a good thing but it had it’s painful moments. Helping someone move rarely qualifies as a good thing but it went smoothly and for that we were all grateful.

Kristina’s lifelong friend Angie just announced her engagement. Not details yet but another good thing!

ITT had their annual Christmas party last weekend. They throw a very nice big bash down at the Sheraton. Dinner, dancing, lots of wonderful desserts, and entertainment. Had to dust off my suit, get all prettied up and take my girl to town! That was good thing too.

Went up to the movie store a little bit ago and rented the newest Pixar film called Cars. Nobody makes animated films quite like Pixar so this will undoubtably be a good thing.

Came back from the library the other day with several new books by some of my favorite authors. In particluar, Alastair Reynolds new book called Pushing Ice is quite good if you like the genre called New Space Opera which tends to be scientifically rigorous while ambitious in scope. It was very nice to be reading for pleasure for a change.

Silver and Gold

10/22/2006 / Matt

Silver Certificate Wow! The prices on silver and gold have sure taken a leap lately. I guess I had known that somehow as one of those little bits of info your brain stores away, but had not really paid all that much attention. Until I decided to revisit my coin collection…

I have always had a passing interest in Numismatics over the years but it has been an occasional and casual interest. It began when I was just a young pup and can be attributed to my Grandad. He worked at the Plaza Bank and would bring home sacks of pennies for me to paw through. In retrospect, it may have been a clever idea on his part for keeping me occupied…do you know how long it takes to sort through a $50 bag of pennies? Nevertheless, it started a lifelong interest. I still have my penny collection but alas, it has not been updated since 1968 or so. I also collected a few British coins while I was in England and still have those too.

Shortly after Grandad died Gram gave me a cookie tin filled with old dimes and quarters along with an envelope filled with one dollar bills. None of the coins were collectable but they were pre-1965 thus 90% silver. That tin has been in a closet or under my dresser ever since. I had thought about cashing them in a time or too but mostly they were momentary considerations. As I was reviewing the old dollar bills I realized that I have a much stronger interest in old currency than I do in coins. I decided that now would be a good time to cash in the old quarters and re-invest it in some more banknotes.

I hauled the cookie tin down to a local coin dealer and received a very nice payment in exchange for the old quarters. The current rate is a bit more than 7 times the face value for old silver coins! So if you have any old silver coins you might want to give it some thought.