Breaking news..

My first Breaking News submission has been process at PhotoShelter and the following pictures were accepted from the 2008 Oregon Trail Rally.

Here a car is worked on at the service park held in Vernonia, OR.


A fan-favorite Jamie "SubieGal" Thomas navigates a water splash at a spectator stage.


The winner of the Oregon Trail Rally '08, Travis Pastrana, talks to the press on Saturday morning at the Parc Expose.


Later, Travis Pastrana can be seen blasting through a water splash to the delight of spectators.


The team Rockstar cars wait following service to continue the competition.


A vintage Saab navigates a corner and heads to the water splash.


The youngest driver at the event, Kyle Sarasin, is only 18.

Three more pictures accepted

Just a few pictures of some P.O. Boxes from the Issaquah post office. As usual, click on the pictures to see them at PhotoShelter.

The one that got away...

Normally its about fishing. This time its about photography. I was out at the Oregon Trail Rally this weekend (I'll post some pictures once I get some stuff over to PhotoShelter) and I saw a shot I desperately wanted.

I was in Vernonia, OR to take a look at the service. There's a Kwik-E-Mart in town that probably does more business on the Oregon Trail weekend than in any other month of the year, spectators and competitors stop in for cold drinks and fried food that has probably been sitting under a heat lamp for far too long. I ordered a bean and cheese burrito and ended up with a BBQ meat burrito (who thought that was a good idea). I sat down to eat it while my dad used the restroom.

As a budding photographer, I'm always looking around evaluating everything to see if it would make a good shot. Honestly, I'm probably missing the good ones and taking the cookie cutter shots. I digress. A large man, most likely a local sits down at a table across from me. He's heavyset, tall, and has a bushy salt and pepper beard. That's just the start, he's wearing overalls and aviator glasses, and a breathe right strip (I thought those were for sleeping, but for him, a fashion accessory). He also proudly wore a headband, brand name Everlast, and the logo was upside down. He then proceded to eat a corndog with great enthusiasm. It was beautiful.

I couldn't think of a way to pull out my camera and take the picture without drawing his attention to me. I was right in front of him. I also thought that basically, I found his appearence amusing, not really a good thing to say when directly asking him for permission either. I couldn't find a way to respectfully get the shot so, unfortunately, I had to let that one go.

Back that thing up!!!

I was thinking this morning about my backup solution and I figured it'd be a good thing to write about here. Using a second/external hard drive or DVDs is all well and good, but it doesn't really offer as much protection as one needs. In case of a fire, likely everything is gone. Thats where using an Internet backup solution is a big win. Its already located "off-site" so you don't have to worry about any problems you have locally

I use http://www.idrive.com. For $4.95/month they offer "unlimited" personal backup space. Fine print says 150GB = unlimited. Which is interesting because when I checked my account, I'm up to 190GB. Yes, it takes a while to upload that much, even over broadband but the piece of mind is worth it. Not to mention they offer a few things that most local backups don't.

1. They actually back up your data. Lets face it, most of us are lazy about backups. With this service, install the software, configure it and let it go.
2. Multiple versions. They perform differential and incremental backups. What does this mean to you? Say you're working on a letter or a book. Something you're working on for several days. You make a bunch of changes, save it and then realize, no, this is crap, I want to go to last week's version. Connect to the software and download last week's version. If I remember correctly they either keep 30 days or 30 versions, I forget which.
3. Off-site, which I already touched on.

There are many players in the online backup game, do some research, find the one you like and go with it. In the long run it is not that expensive and the cost is well worth the time you will save if you ever have to use the restore option.

Hidden bonuses of cheap flashes

So a quick update on the flashes I got. I couldn't salvage the 540EZ so I sold it on ebay. I got about $13. That put me at under $40 for my 430EZ. Not a bad deal.

The other night I wanted to take a couple quick shots with my camera and my house is lit like a cave so I grabbed my 430. I've got a Sunpak P40Z but that thing doesn't fire consistently. I need to send it in for warranty.

Back to the 430. Everyone says oh no, its not ETTL, won't work on digital, yada yada. This is partially true. For those not in the know, ETTL is an automated mode of flash to make sure you get the "right" exposure. Exactly what is "right" is up to the camera so results may vary and may not be what you want. Since my P40Z has been so unreliable I never use it in ETTL mode any more, based on that I went with the 430 since it fires every time (so far).

Well, I turned it on and my camera. Then I framed my shot (probably my son). I heard something, sure enough, the zoom motor in the flash was synched with my lens... cool! I pressed the autofocus and I noticed red dots on my son. The focus assist lights work too! So the only thing I'm missing is ETTL which I don't always want in the first place. All of the other advanced features on the flash worked fine. This wasn't something I'd heard much of when people used these old flashes on new cameras and of course I was using a Canon flash on a Canon body. YMMV with other brand bodies and flashes.