Now that it’s cold outside and has dropped below freezing a couple of times and even been a few flurries in the wee hours of the moring up here, I feel that it’s time to “winterize” the site. Notice the nice, snowy banner… That was near our old house. I can’t wait for real snow!
Well, it’s now the weekend and I’m happy work is done with for a while. Next week will be very short and then we’ll fly out to Mexico!
Having finally found the “correct” camera calibration, I’ve now reimported my entire library back into Lightroom and have begun processing again. I’ve now posted some of the remaining pictures from Curaçao which have been waiting since last year. Maybe, by the time it’s time to leave for this year’s dive trip, I’ll have last year’s pictures posted. I have one more directory to finish, and I’m goinig to try to do it in the next hour or so. Those will be the pictures of the town of Willemstad, which is quite colorful.
Now that I feel I’m not fighting Lightroom, maybe I can process the remaining 3000 pictures sitting in my “working” documents.
2012-01-08 23:30:18
Last week, I received my Ikelite case for the Canon G9. This case is brand new. So new, in fact, that I am probably one of the first people to get one. I bet that even the underwater photography product reviewers got theirs no faster than I. It was released on October 17th and in my hands in the afternoon of the 19th. That’s what I call fast.
This came well ahead of time, since for a while, we were worried that the case wouldn’t come. The Canon case, which is much smaller and has less features, will not be released until Nov. 15th… and we leave on our trip on Nov. 14th. That wouldn’t work. So, for a while, I was nervous since I had no idea when I would actually get the case. But, I have it now, so all is good and I’m completely psyched up for our dive trip now.
I have to say that this will be unlike any underwater photography experience I’ve had to date. Previously, I carried only a pocket camera and a relatively similar sized case. Now, however, this case and external strobe is… well, HUGE. It is not, of course, that large in comparison to other Ikelite cases [especially since those are geared for D-SLR cameras], but it’s not a pocket camera case even though the G9 is a pocket camera. I’ll have to post a picture of me holding it since it’s rather larger than anything I’ve used so far. The stobe is nice and powerful [I got the DS-51, which is the bottom of the line, but it still works great – better than I expected] but having it mounted so far up will take some getting used to.
Now that we’re back from our all-too-brief vacation, I’m back at work. Luckilly, I’m not working the crazy schedule anymore. Things have slowed down considerably. For that I’m grateful.
Of course, that means that I need to spend some time on the things that slide when I’m working too much: like organizing my office, posting some pictures, paying some bills, filing paperwork, etc. Lots of stuff. Oh – and continuing to learn more and more about photographic techniques and business practices.
Today, Laura and I head out to Massanutten, VA. We’ve never been out there, but it should be fun. It will certainly be COOL since a massive cold front has blown in taking us down from the low 90s to the 50s or 60s. It is actually begining to be a little like fall.
We’re going to spend the weekend out there in a cabin and won’t be back until Sunday.
It’s certainly a needed break.
It’s official now. No Dive Turkey this year. So, Laura and I will be going on our own little jaunt to Los Cabos in Mexico. This is our first venture to the Pacific coast of Mexico and the Baja. It’s certainly possible that we could see some large sealife – even up to the Whale Shark. Now THAT would be exciting!
Now I have to find a camera to use underwater…
It looks as if we might be able to do the sort-of-annual Dive Turkey trip if we place the travel days beginning with Thanksgiving instead of ending with it. More rooms are available. Now, we just need to see if others are okay with the dates we’d like and then book it. It will certainly save us big money if we can do the trip by driving and using points.
Instead of permanently fixing my motorcycle at the shop, they only had to replace the battery to get it up and running again. It’s likely that the battery has gone bad due to the poorly connected ground wire in the front harness [see recall post below]. They told me what the recall notice says: “Don’t ride your bike!” Right. How was I supposed to get it home? Or was I supposed to leave it in the shop for who knows how long waiting for a part? I don’t think so.
So, I had Laura follow me while I rode it home. It’s in the garage now.
Now what was I going to do with it? Leave it in the garage idle? That doesn’t sound right. I researched some things on the Internet and found out the specific wire that causes the problems I’ve been having. I even found an article outlining a fix that will keep me on two wheels until the new wiring harnesses become available. Here is even quite a lengthy discussion about the recall.
So I fixed it. I took a nice little wire and patched that there ground wire. Let’s all hope that it is now fixed… at least until they put the new wiring harness in for the recall.
There’s a recall on my motorcycle. I have a letter from Honda describing exactly the problem I’m having and they say: “Don’t ride until you get it fixed! This could result in your death!” Great. Thanks. Too bad they didn’t mention this BEFORE my bike broke… or before I put over 22,000 miles on it…
Well, it’s at the shop anyway, so I’m hoping that that it will be fixed soon – and permanently, too.
After so many long hours at work, I get to take a breather of sorts. I say “of sorts” because the in-laws are in town and we won’t actually be relaxing, but we will probably be out doing stuff. The most important thing is that family is here and I won’t be working.
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