The Little Engine That Could....

This weekend, I'm heading to the northeast for some R&R.  The last time I went in the northeast direction, I took the bus in order to see what the 21st century bus experience entails.  I ended up somewhat disappointed.  This time around, I've decided to take the Amtrak.

I've been on board for 2 hours and I already have very positive first impressions.  I have twice the amount of leg space than on the bus and the cost for coach on a train isn't that much more than a standard bus fare.  There is a constant internet connection, although the speeds will vary since they use the data connection from various cell phone towers.  Streaming and downloading isn't allowed in order to conserve bandwidth but if you are l33t hax0r, then you can figure out a way around that.

 

Pros:  Plenty of space, constant internet connection, cafe car, wall outlets, no rush hour traffic to worry about and gorgeous scenery.

Cons:  A bit more expensive than a standard bus fare.

The wheels on the bus go round and round......

I'm going to keep this short and sweet.  I took the bus from D.C. to NYC and back during Memorial Day weekend.

Pros:

Super cheap.  Memorial Day weekend prices were $30 each way.  I have been told that during non peak days, you can get tickets at around $20 or so each way.

It is nice to let someone else do the driving.

Cons:  (mostly #firstworldproblems)

WiFi is advertised as free, but in reality, it is non-existent (super slow @ 56k speeds and connections drop all the time).

Seats are super cramped for a 4 hour bus ride (would be better for shorter rides).

Although it is nice not driving, you still need to deal with traffic jams that will delay your arrival time by more than an hour.

Conclusion:

The bus from D.C. to NYC is good for short trips during off hours when traffic is light.  It is also great for when you have a lot of time to kill.  My bus arrived to pick me up an hour late each way due to really stupid reasons.

After talking to seasoned travelers who frequent NYC from D.C., they recommend the train.  With the train, you pay a little extra but you don't have to deal with traffic jams, have plenty of space (even in coach), and apparently their WiFi connection is not bad.

Photographing with stuff in your face!

So there I was, on top of this clock tower with a great view of Washington D.C. The only problem was that the city put these metal bars all over the window to prevent people from falling out I guess.  Unless you had a point and shoot, your lens would not fit in the space between the bars.  What do you do?

I thought about it for a moment and came up with an idea.  You would take a photo with the bars in the shot.  Next you will side step to the left or right slightly and take the exact same shot.  This is best done with a tripod but since I didn't have mine on me, I tried my best to keep the elevation the same.  Remember to side step and not pan.  Due to the distances of the objects you're shooting, when you side step, there is very little shift in the angles.  However, if you pan, you throw everything off, changing the angles dramatically.  You need to keep the elevation of the two shots the same because next you will have to overlay them in Photoshop.

Ensure your camera is in Manual or use the Exposure Lock feature to keep the camera's computer from changing the exposure between the two shots.

When you get home, open up Photoshop or your favorite open source photo editing software such as Gimp.  Load the first photo on the first layer.  Load the second photo on the second layer.  Start erasing the bars on the top layer and presto, you're all done!  (Note: if you dork up the alignment, Photoshop and Gimp should have a feature that automatically does source alignment between 2 layers.)

Awesome!

I went on a fun 4 hour walking tour today. The tour guide was great and we covered all the monuments along the National Mall and Tidal Basin area. If you're in the mood to learn about the history behind it all, look up "DC by Foot". They do free, tip-based walking tours of various areas in Washington D.C.

El Monte Guys Podcast Blogspot Page

Check out http://elmonteguyspodcast.blogspot.com/ for all of the El Monte Guys Podcasts!

The El Monte Guys Podcast

We did our first podcast!

For those of you who are wondering what Google+ is all about, one of the bloggers on there posted this great description of what it is and what it isn't.

Google+ (This is not Facebook)

:)

These past few weeks, we have all gathered on an internet chat room to discuss the various issues encountered in light of current events. There has been more than a million lines of chat dialog exchanged between all of us (about a group of 12 or so people) and Caleb has summarized it very well for all of you out there. :D

Tom: Mac good!
Danny: Google good!
Caleb: EVERYONE sucks
Kirk: BSOD again dammit
Pablo: lolwut

Update:  Oh yeah, we also made use of Google+ Hangouts!  G+ Hangouts for the win!

Photographing Fireworks

I spent the evening watching fireworks and saw a lot of people attempting to take a decent snapshot with their point and shoot / DSLR.  Many just couldn't get the shot they wanted to.  So here are some simple steps.


1.) Attach your camera on a tripod.
2.) Set your camera to full manual.
3.) Set your ISO to 100 for minimal grain.  Set your aperture to f/11.
4.) For point and shoots, set your shutter speed to 4 seconds.  Take a snapshot and see how it looks.  Raise or lower shutter speed to your liking.
5.) For DSLRs, go into "Bulb" mode (where the shutter stays open as long as you hold down the shutter release button).  I used a shutter release cable (i.e. Canon RS60) to prevent potential camera shakes when I physically touch the shutter button on the camera.  When the rocket bursts, hold the shutter open.  When the light trails start to fade, release the shutter.


Easy as pie!  =) 

Hostel Life

Living in a hostel during your travels is quite a neat experience. I have never seen the horror movies but in real life, it's quite a friendly environment.

Balmer's Herberge in Interlaken, Switzerland

You essentially pay $20-$25 dollars on average for a one night stay and you live in a dormitory style arrangement. Compared to expensive hotels that can range from $100 and above, living in hostels isn't too bad if you're traveling by yourself or with friends. If you're traveling with kids or a wife that wants complete privacy, then hostel life may not be for you.

The community room at Wombat's Hostel, Munich

Most hotels have a room with multiple beds in them and you share the space with all the other travelers. The bathrooms and showers are communal just like in a dorm. You have the option to go co-ed or with same gender when it comes to the dorm arrangements. The hostel provides sheets and blankets but you have to pick them up and make the bed yourself. Once you're ready to check out, you will have to pull the sheets and blankets and dump them in the laundry.

Foresteria Valdese Hostel in Venice

One of the things I loved about living in the hostels was the opportunity to meet other travelers. Since you're in a dorm style arrangement, people are more inclined to talk to each other and make friends. Most hostels also have a community room and some even have their own bar downstairs for people to socialize in.

Europe - The Prologue

I recently took some time to backpack through various parts of Europe. I took over 4000 snapshots over a span of 2 weeks traveling through 3 countries, all in an attempt to tell a story with them. So here goes:

Whenever you go overseas (as it was the first time for me), it is good to note that not everyone uses 110V, 60Hz power with traditional power outlets that resemble the ones we have here in the states. So one of the handy things to have is a power adapter. Note that there is a difference between a power adapter and a power converter. A power converter converts the 220v 50Hz electricity in Europe down to the 110V, 60Hz power that our electronics use. Most of our modern day electronics have a converter built in to the AC adapter. Usually, old hair dryers or kitchen appliances are the ones that don't have these built in converters and you'll have to bring one for them to plug in to.

I checked the AC adapter on my MacBook and my camera battery charger and they have built in power converters so I was good to go. I purchased a power adapter made by Swiss Gear that is essentially the swiss army knife of power adapters. Depending on what country you are in, you just flip the switch and the appropriate plug pops out. It was pretty awesome. The field test was quite successful.

Next up: Hostel Life

Star Trails

Quick Lessons Learned from my first Star Trail type shoot:

1.) Use a larger aperture to make the stars more apparent. They give off so little light in the first place such that a larger aperture will help bring the stars out from the dark sky. Using the largest aperture on your lens may introduce unwanted vignetting or other artifacts, however.

2.) If you use a wide angle lens, expect to sit out there longer. The stars will take longer to move across the sky. If you use a nice zoom lens, the opposite occurs.

3.) Point towards the east or west for the most star movement. Stars closer to the north/south poles move much less.

4.) Have some patience and bring a friend to chat with. Bringing some beers will also help pass the time.

5.) If you have something in the foreground, you'll have to separate your shots into segments instead of one continuous exposure.

28 Minute Exposure cut into 30 second frames (56 frames total), f/4.0, ISO 100

Happy Holidays

Behind the Scenes

Caution, Yield To Aircraft

DSLR and Video!

So time and time and time again, I like to tell people that you don't really need a fancy DSLR to take really amazing photographs. For many years I have been taking some amazing photographs with my Canon SD1000 point and shoot. I just got tired of not being able to blow up my digital pictures into anything bigger than 8x10 without them getting pixelated. I started saving up money and finally made the plunge to purchase a DSLR. I still stand by my opinion that you can still take amazing photos with a point and shoot.

However, what I would like to tell you all out there on the internet is that this weekend, I discovered how awesome it was to use a DSLR for video shooting. All this time I have been using cheap portable hand held cameras (i.e. Flip or Kodak Zi8) for shooting video. After shooting video with a DSLR this weekend at my local air show, I was impressed by the quality and versatility that the DSLR can provide.

I rendered this video at 720p 60fps. When I watch it on my desktop, the quality is astounding! Youtube doesn't really do it justice because I think it downsizes it to 30fps and the compression artifacts show up a bit more. When I watch the fully rendered high definition version on my desktop monitor, it was a bit breathtaking. I think the only downside was that the 5 minute long clip was close to 800MB.

The small things in life....

Ever since I moved to the Midwest, there has been a lack of boba. There's no surprise here because the Midwest is known for BBQ, corn, steaks and a bunch of other good American food.

So you can imagine my surprise when I spotted a Lollicup shack while I was sightseeing in Kansas City. It was $3.75 for a cup of boba milk tea.

It tasted like Lollicup boba milk tea alright. They used the powdered stuff and the boba was mediocre. Ever since I was introduced to Half and Half during my last visit to Southern California, all the boba milk tea from the other tea shops started to taste average and boring.

I was still happy I had a cup of boba milk tea though. It was better than nothing. This is one of those times where you appreciate the small things in life....

Lessons Learned From Shooting with a Big @ss Lens

I had the opportunity to rent a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L Series USM Lens with Image Stabilization. This lens retails for $1700 and I rented it for $90 a week.

This lens has image stabilization which is great for daytime shooting on or off a tripod using reasonable shutter speeds.

However, evening shots are a different story. I tried to take a photo of the space shuttle on the launch pad at night using a tripod and a remote switch and couldn't figure out why photos were still coming out blurry.

It turns out that the $50 tripod I have was the culprit.


If you look at the base of where the lens mounts to the tripod, it's sort of a ball joint that is held tight by the screw handle. Even when I have the screw as tight as I possibly could without breaking it, the ball joint still moves with the enormous weight of the lens sitting on top of it.

When does it move you ask? This is the stunning part. The camera is completely still....until the shutter inside the camera flaps open. Once the shutter flaps up, that tiny movement internal to the camera is enough to rattle the entire camera body due to the offset of the weight of the lens sitting on a ball joint that cannot itself hold the weight.

When you have a distant object zoomed in, a slight shift in the camera body is enough to move what the lens sees by ten fold. I'm sure you all know (because we've all looked through telescopes before) it's the same effect as looking through a telescope. Lets say, you have the telescope focused on the moon but then you give it a nudge smaller than a centimeter. It may knock it completely out of your field of view.

In addition to the ball joint moving ever so slightly, the legs of the tripod was just about ready to collapse if I gently pushed down on the camera. This tripod is one of those where the leg is cut into three segments and each segment is held in place by a flap type rotating thingy.

I didn't realize it yesterday when I was shooting but I looked at the specs of the tripod this morning and it can support up to 13lbs. I must have been borderline otherwise, the thing would have collapsed on itself.

Food for thought. :D

Wacky Movie Ideas (Part II)

So Kirk provided the rest of the movie plot synopsis to "The Custodian". If you missed part 1, scroll down to the previous post below.

Title: The Custodian

Tagline: A custodian with a mysterious past goes above and beyond his job description....

Plot Synopsis: (Part 2)

It turns out that custodian Jack is really Jack Bauer. Jack has been recently unemployed and was looking to change things up a bit. He wanted a job with very little stress but good pay. He saw a job ad for a custodian and he thought he would be a good fit.

Needless to say, he took down all the bad guys and took home the world record for the highest body count in a period of five minutes.

-Directed by M. Night Shyamalan

Wacky Movie Ideas

So if you can ever get a glimpse into my mind, there's always a bunch of crazy ideas brewing in there. It never suffers from inactivity which is sort of a bad thing because it's always thinking of multiple things at once. It's not very good if I'm driving because my mind can start processing on some crazy ideas and my focus will shift away from my driving and go towards fueling my imagination.

Anyways, I was eating breakfast in the hotel lobby today and thought of an interesting movie idea.

Title: The Custodian

Tagline: A custodian with a mysterious past goes above and beyond his job description....

Plot Synopsis: (Part 1)

Jack is just your average custodian. He has been working at the local town hospital for a few months now. The entire hospital staff loves this guy. He's friendly, personable, always mops the floors squeaky clean and does a fantastic job efficiently cleaning the rest of the facility. The hospital is about 8 stories tall and he manages to clean the entire facility by lunch time. He loves to start his duties in the early hours of the morning in order to allow time to take care of any surprises such as a sudden leaky faucet or a clogged cafeteria sink. In the afternoon when he is done with all of his primary duties, he chats with the nurses, secretaries, and doctors, building a good relationship with his co-workers. He is after all considered part of the hospital staff.

One day, a rather important person comes into the hospital ER. I don't really care why this person is important at this point. Anyways, this person was badly injured in a car accident and this was the closest hospital from the scene of the accident. The hospital staff proceeds to move this person up to the 8th floor after he/she is in a stable condition. This very important person's security detail decides to keep this person there since moving him/her could possibly make the medical condition worse. Also, no one knows this important person is at this hospital currently, let alone involved in an accident. If he/she gets moved, the person's enemies may see the massive caravan of vehicles moving from one hospital to another. The leader of the security detail decides to lay low for a few days.

Of course, with any standard Hollywood movie, there is a mole in the security detail. This mole notifies a terrorist organization that wants to take this person out since he/she knows something very secretive. I don't really care why the terrorists want to take this person out either, but they just do.

The terrorists end up being a team of mercenaries that consist of former special forces people from various countries like Mexico, Peru, and other sketchy exotic locations. They are all greedy people eager to make some money. The mole in the security detail paid these guys a ton of money to eliminate this person off the face of the planet.

The following morning, a pair of mercenaries begin their assault. They enter through the front entrance because they think they are awesome. They immediately take out two guys from the security detail, who were relaxing next to the water-cooler located near the entrance of the hospital on the first floor. *pop* *pop* *pop* *pop* The two security guys drop to the floor.

Jack was mopping down the hall and when he heard the popping noise. He turned around and saw the mercenaries take aim at him. "Oh shh!@#$!", he says......

Look for Part 2 later. I'm tired of typing.

Would you like to contribute to what happens next? Write in what you would like to see happen next as Jack confronts these mercenaries. Remember, he can't die quiet yet so you can't have him get shot next....