Author: Matt (Page 23 of 23)

Job? What job? Who needs a stinking job anyway?

8/21/2004 / Matt

Patience!. Patience!.. The good Lord seems to be testing me in this area as I continue to wait for a start date on my job. Yes, I really do have a job! I just don’t know when it will start.

I have accepted a written offer from Booz Allen Hamilton to join their organization. I am really excited about this opportunity because the firm is an exceptional company to work for and I think the cultural fit will be perfect.

The team I will be joining works with the US Air Force Space Warfare Center and the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command to develop geo-location tracking systems that provide situational awareness of the battlefield. These handheld devices use the Iridium satellite network and have been prototyped and tested to varying degrees. The immediate need is to transition these capabilities to real-world use in a truly operational environment.

What is holding up the show is lack of funding. As happens every year in the government, there are pots of money that do not get expended and these funds are redistributed as ‘year-end dollars’ to worthy projects. We are hoping that our project will get some of these funds and my position can be added to the existing contract. If not I will probably have to wait until next years funding (Oct 1st).

So, in the meantime I am getting many things done around the house and getting a taste of what retirement might be like.

Remembering All That Is Forgotten

8/5/2004 / Matt

Wow! I could not believe how much I had forgotten about running a real camera. It’s almost like starting over from scratch. I picked up a nice book published by Kodak at the local used bookstore for a few dollars and began re-educating myself. Mmmm.. let’s see, depth-of-field is greatest when the aperture is smallest.

Ok, I can see this will take some time. The first few rolls have come back and they are a mix of ‘not bad’ and ‘yuck’. I have opted to use Walgreens film and developing services for this learning phase. The film is remarkably inexpensive and the processing has been surprisingly good.

I made a trip up to the Arts & Crafts Shop at the Air Force Academy the other day with Kristina to have a look at the facilities and see what they had to offer. I was pleased to find the manager (John Elford) was an accomplished wildlife photographer, not to mention a very nice guy. I returned a few days later with my equipment and pictures and gleaned some pointers from him.

I have decided to sell my prime lens and go with a pair of high quality zooms. I am also going to pick up a polarizing filter, and a graduated neutral-density filter.

Gold Camp Road Trail

7/28/2004 / Matt

Gold Camp Road was built in the 1890’s for a narrow gauge railroad to connect Colorado Springs to the Cripple Creek mining district, about 20 air miles to the west. Eventually, the railroad was scrapped and the road bed was converted to vehicle use.

There are several narrow tunnels along the road, and in 1988 a fortuitous partial collapse of tunnel #3 precluded further vehicle use over a road section about 8 miles long. A new trail goes around and over the collapsed tunnel. This 8 plus mile segment of the road is now used mostly for hiking and biking.

On Wed, July 28th, Ronda and I took Abby and drove down to the Cheyenne Mountain area to pick up the Gold Camp Road Trailhead. The weather was overcast and the temps were in the 60’s but the prospects for the clouds clearing off were good as it looked pretty sunny off to the north. We left the trailhead and proceeded up the gentle switchback that makes a big detour around the canyon. Continue reading

Rampart Range Reservoir

7/1/2004 / Matt

Josh gives his Mountain Bike a workout The whole crew made a little excursion up to Rampart Reservoir today. Josh and Kristina took their bikes in the back of the Comanche while Ronda and I took Abby in her Jeep. The reservoir is located in the Rampart Range and is accessible by either driving up Rampart Range Rd which is rather long and twisty, or , by going up to Woodland Park and coming in the back way.

We opted to go via Rampart Range Rd. and return through Woodland Park. Rampart Range Rd. starts in the Garden of the Gods park and immediately begins climbing the foothills. It’s a gravel surface and was quite passable when we went. Many nice views are available along the way. The road eventually reaches the top of the Rampart Range at approx 9,000ft elevation and then begins to follow the ridgeline for the most part.

Upon arriving at the reservoir we started looking for some trails that could be biked. We crossed the dam and stopped at a trailhead that led down to a smaller reservoir (Nichols Reservoir). The sign indicated 1.8 miles as I recall. Kristina decided to hike with us but Josh rode his new Mountain Bike (MB). The trail descended fairly rapidly at first but leveled out and followed a small stream down to the little reservoir. There was no other public access to the reservoir so it is very quiet and peaceful there. We poked around a bit and let Josh ride his MB down some big boulders.

We headed back to grab some lunch and look for the easy trails I had seen on the map but not yet found on the ground. We drove back a little ways and finally found the spot. Both Josh and Kristina took off with their bikes down the trail that circles the reservoir while Ronda and I took Abby and followed. We did not plan on going to far so we found a nice boulder to relax on and enjoyed a beautiful afternoon.

Josh and Kristina ended up having a little more stressful time. The trail turned out to be a somewhat longer than they had anticipated and neither had really left prepared for an extended ride. Three hours later we spotted a fishing boat coming across the lake with a couple of bikes in it. Fortunately for them they found some local fishermen who were willing to give them a ride back else they would have been at least another hour or two.

As we headed towards Woodland Park along Rampart Range Rd. we drove out of the forested area and into some wide open mountain meadowland with spectacular views of Pikes Peak and the surrounding mountain ranges.

Getting started

6/10/2004 / Matt

Photography has always intrigued me. The art of capturing a moment in time and preserving it for future generations to marvel at is what it’s all about. At least for me. Anyone can pick up a camera, point it and push the button but that doesn’t make it art. The art part is the tricky stuff. Learning to compose the picture and take into consideration lighting, shadows, etc. is what sets apart a photograph from a snapshot.

I have rejoined a journey begun long ago to master this thing called photography. To begin I needed some equipment. More than the battered Polaroid point-and-shoot had to offer. I deliberated over the digital vs. film issue for all of two or three minutes. Film is the medium to record high quality images. Yes, I know digital has a lot to offer but for the amount of money I wanted to spend on gear I decided on an older manual focus 35mm SLR. Besides, I don’t want a computerized camera that tries to correct everything for me.

I did most of my research on photo.net where I was able to view the opinions of many who have earned the right to be called photographers. I decided on an Olympus OM-2n body. It seemed to have the right mix of features that I was looking for. It took me several weeks of waiting but I located a good one on Ebay. I bought it from Pacific Rim Camera, a company based out of Oregon whom I would heartily recommend. I snagged a 50mm lens, a 135 mm lens, and a camera bag from a fellow up in Alaska, and a Yashica T4 SuperD Point-and-Shoot from someone in Ohio that same day (EBay is a marvelous thing!).

All in all I had invested about $450 which was almost exactly what I had gotten from selling my camcorder which I never used. Not a bad days work.