Skybox

Ceiling skylights in the Hynes Convention Center, Boston.

Back Bay

This is the hotel I stayed at last week in Boston, the Hilton Back Bay. It was a nice place, and triangular, too. I would definitely stay in a triangular hotel again if given the chance.

Bubbly Bath Babies

Our younger kids would have a bath every night if they could. They play in there like crazy, but it still winds them down and leads them into the familiar path of bath, jammies, books, brushing, and bed. Joanie's going out of town for a week starting Wednesday, and we may do a bath every night.

Grandmaster Flash

Here's me on the streets of Boston fulfilling my destiny as a Voice-Activated Light Stand for an off-camera lighting class given by David Ziser. I'm flattered by his indirect mention of me as lighting grip in his blog, where you can see the final image:

"My assistant, a class member, got the light just right on the subject."

Actually, the training was great, I got a lot of good information that I'll be able to pass along. Who knew standing there holding a stick could be so fulfilling?

Temptation Wears Black

This week I'm in Boston at Photoshop World, learning about the latest software and techniques from Adobe. It's only half over but my brain's already full. I present training in this software for work nationally, so this week here is perfect for me on many levels.

When I first came to Photoshop World, I was surprised that every other person walking through had a nice digital SLR camera hanging off their shoulder. But then it made sense — Photoshop starts with a photo. So there are a few classes and vendors here that cater to the photography crowd. Which is dangerous for me. In between classes on the Expo floor I looked through just about every Nikon lens they currently sell, including a 500mm bazooka that goes for $8,000. This is the closest I'll ever get to one of these beasts, so I had the foresight to preserve the fleeting moment. Do I look good in black or what?

Twilight

The Boston Temple at dusk.

No Name

Two weeks of travel in a row, this week it's Boston. No Name is a hole-in-the-wall fish house introduced to me by a Boston native. It's located amongst warehouses and wholesalers on Fish Pier, so it's not charming, but you know it's fresh. My usual is a mess of three kinds of fish, scallops, shrimp, fries and slaw. Maybe global warming will move the ocean closer to Albany so I can eat like this more often.

Boulder City Sunset

Boulder City was the home built for the thousands of workers who built Boulder Dam (later named Hoover Dam).

Streaking on the Strip

An appropriate title for a Las Vegas post; I got used to averting my eyes walking around there last week. It's nice to be able to see where I'm going again. This is the Strip last week at dusk.

Yes

My favorite (favourite?) Pet Shop Boys came out with a new album today in Britain, but it's been on constant rotation here since I excitedly found it St. Pat's day online. It's a real cracker, I've heard it maybe 15-20 times through now (iTunes counts for you). The lesson here: graybeards with canes and walkers can still make great electro-disco. My import arrives from Hong Kong soon. Depeche Mode have new material coming next month. It's a great time to be [old yet still] alive.

Hoover Dam

While in Las Vegas I took a tour of Hoover Dam, built from 1930-1935. Being there in person is the only way to comprehend the scale of it. For instance: Lake Mead contains enough to keep Pennsylvania (a state that takes forever to drive across) under a foot of water. We took the underground Power Plant tour and walked through rocky tunnels, previously used to divert the river during construction, to see the massive turbines used to generate electricity. At one point you're standing in a vibrating room — vibrating because you're standing above a 30 foot pipe used to deliver 90,000 gallons per second to the generators. Everything here has a wonderful Art Deco feel; they don't craft government projects like they used to.


That's one fine dam photo.


Murals in the Visitor's Center.


This archway in progress across the Colorado River will support the new bypass roadway for trucks. It's incredible to wind around the corner of the switchback roads and suddenly see these giant concrete arches suspended in the air as crews work to connect the two ends.


The vibrating room atop one of the 30 foot penstock pipes. Looks sort of like that beam-focusing room in the Death Star when they're destroying Alderaan.


Intakes on the Lake Mead side. The calcium ring around the mountains is from a high water mark in the 1980s where the lake would have washed over the dam if it weren't for the spillways on either side.

What Happens In Vegas Stays In Vegas, Which Is Fine

It's bright, it's tacky, it's smoky, it's legalized, it's 50 percent torn down and under construction on any given day. There's no place like it. I'm here to put on a big training conference this week.

It's the desert. A colleague and I had an outside table at dinner tonight and you immediately knew the sun went down. It went from hot to chilly in 60 seconds. A lot of places I flew over today still had snow on the ground, so I'm not complaining.

Train Has Left the Station

While in San Diego we took the rail system to get from our hotel to the waterfront for some dinner and a look around. Immediately after getting off the train I dropped onto a bench, steadied my camera by digging my elbows into my knees, and started shooting while the train pulled out. This exposure lasted 1/4 second, which doesn't seem like a long time, but is long enough to give some short streaks of anything in motion. I love the layers from near to far in this photo.

Spiny 2

Here's a different macro look at the full dead flower stem using a different lens with extension tubes from farther out. The bulb is about an inch in diameter, so even the small photo on Blogger is larger than life size. I love being able to pull in for a tighter view like this.

Spiny

More playing around with my new extension tubes. It's the most fun you can have with a dead flower.

Upstairs

Overlooking San Diego from the 40th floor of the Hyatt.

Courtside

More shots of Malcolm in action at the basketball tournament this weekend.

I tried something different with the photographs this time — I brought my dinky 50mm lens that lets in more light than my other lenses. It was perfect in the dim lighting. I couldn't zoom in and out, but I could freeze action like never before. I shot at ISO 1600 with aperture priority at f/2.8 and most shots came out around 1/500 sec. I'm now hooked on fast glass ... the problem is it costs a whole lot more. So will the battery grip I may want to get to shoot all these verticals without killing my hands holding the camera sideways for hours. I don't watch or shoot a lot of sports so I learned a lot about positioning myself and anticipating where the next play will be. It was a great day with Malcolm.

Boys Basketball

Malcolm played in his first church Young Men's basketball tournament today. We have enough young men in our ward to form two teams, so he was part of the younger 12-14 year old team. Since it was round robin, his team played every other team there, just about all of which contained older (up to age 18), taller, and burlier kids than him.

The good news is they only lost seven of their games today; they played eight — meaning they weren't the worst! These guys were brave and got some great experience on the court that will prepare them for future years when they have height on their side.

As the day went on Malcolm got more confident and really got into the game, he even did some dribbling towards the end. He scored a few baskets and played some good defense. He's well on his way to becoming better at basketball than me. Not this is that hard, but he really did great.

Press Play

Shuffle close up.

Come A Little Closer

I've been debating my next lens. I've been reading a book about close-up photography and as a result was leaning towards a $900 Nikon macro lens — kind of pricey.

Earlier this week I visited the medical photographer at the hospital where I work and it turns out she's got an older version of this lens and she let me try it out. Of course it was great. But then she pulled out some extension tubes — hollow cylinders you stack between your camera and lens to increase magnifying power and reduce the minimum focusing distance.

The $100 tubes worked so well that I ordered some and they came today. I tried them out tonight and they're perfect! I have already forgotten my lust for new glass. It pays to be cheap.

Joanie's parents are coming down from Canada tomorrow for a visit, hence the choice of my first macro subject. Did you know the Canadian penny is not round, but 12-sided? Take a closer look.

When the weather gets nicer I'll be outside looking for some bugs to "blow up."