Tag: photography

April 2011

Photo of the Day

April 2011

Running

I had a minor setback involving a few weeks off from running after a foolish 14-miler with a lot of pain in the last two miles. Now I’m back at it and running pain free again.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 13.54 Mile 3 4.51333 Mile
February 33.47 Mile 7 4.78143 Mile
March 71.64 Mile 10 7.164 Mile
April 31.12 Mile 6 5.18667 Mile
Total 149.77 Mile 26 5.76038 Mile

Running 2011 4

Cycling

After nearly two months off the bike I can now ride again without knee pain. I ride Will to daycare a few times per week and we sometimes ride the tandem (Big Red) to the playground on the weekends.

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 11.4 Mile 3 3.8 Mile
Big Red 10.6 Mile 2 5.3 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 9.75 Mile 1 9.75 Mile
Total 31.75 Mile 6 5.29167 Mile

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 35.32 Mile 4 8.83 Mile
February 0 0 0
March 3 Mile 1 3. Mile
April 31.75 Mile 6 5.29167 Mile
Total 70.07 Mile 11 6.37 Mile

Cycling 2011 4

Walking

We still walk either to or from daycare almost everyday.

Strut

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 56.9 Mile 16 3.55625 Mile
February 47.6 Mile 14 3.4 Mile
March 83.4 Mile 24 3.475 Mile
April 84.3 Mile 26 3.24231 Mile
Total 272.2 Mile 80 3.4025 Mile

Walking 2011 4

August Stats

Okay, so this is a little late, but I have a good excuse. We have moved and we’re getting settled in to our new house in St. Louis.

In addition to everything else that was going on, I was foolish enough to migrate all my training log data for the past 10 years into a completely new software system. Right before we left Champaign-Urbana I wrote some scripts to convert all my old data into the new format. Unfortunately, I didn’t get around to updating the scripts I use to generate these monthly reports so I was unable to do this August report at the end of August. Now, a month and a half later, I finally updated that code and, well, here we are.

Photo of the Day

August 2010 Photo of the Day

It was a real struggle to keep this going during the two weeks we were staying in the hotel, but I somehow pulled it off… mostly by taking crappy photos.

Running

First lap

The running actually picked up a little in August. I tried to hit as many group (Second Wind & Buffalo) runs as I could, thinking each one could be my last. I also had a fun time racing at the Danville High School alumni cross country meet the day we left for St. Louis.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 109.05 Mile 10 10.905 Mile
February 76.18 Mile 8 9.5225 Mile
March 84.86 Mile 10 8.486 Mile
April 83.15 Mile 9 9.23889 Mile
May 57.95 Mile 7 8.27857 Mile
June 17.98 Mile 3 5.99333 Mile
July 54.62 Mile 8 6.8275 Mile
August 65.78 Mile 9 7.30889 Mile
Total 656.97 Mile 77 8.53208 Mile

Cycling

Three strollers and a bike

I had a few groups rides early in the month when I somehow wasn’t packing (don’t tell Melissa). Later in the month I mostly rode around St. Louis with Will in the Burley.

August 2010 by bike

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 15.2 Mile 4 3.8 Mile
Pocket Rocket 80.05 Mile 8 10.0063 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 127.75 Mile 3 42.5833 Mile
Total 223. Mile 15 14.8667 Mile

January – August 2010

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 166.25 Mile 20 8.3125 Mile
February 140.67 Mile 12 11.7225 Mile
March 508.83 Mile 18 28.2683 Mile
April 318.98 Mile 13 24.5369 Mile
May 365.89 Mile 20 18.2945 Mile
June 447.97 Mile 22 20.3623 Mile
July 390.59 Mile 19 20.5574 Mile
August 223. Mile 15 14.8667 Mile
Total 2708.68 Mile 156 17.3633 Mile

Walking

Guys hiking

Will & I walked a lot of miles in St. Louis.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 28.66 Mile 9 3.18444 Mile
February 51.45 Mile 16 3.21563 Mile
March 34.7 Mile 10 3.47 Mile
April 44.35 Mile 11 4.03182 Mile
May 48.75 Mile 14 3.48214 Mile
June 64.2 Mile 16 4.0125 Mile
July 56.3 Mile 15 3.75333 Mile
August 56.75 Mile 16 3.54688 Mile
Total 414. Mile 114 3.63158 Mile

June 2010 Stats

Photo of the Day

June 2010

Running

Transportation

Hmm. I must have done something wrong here. First it was a week in California with no running. Then I sort of injured my foot slightly and it took about two more weeks before I could run again. The good news is I’m running again. The less good news is that this is the worst time of year to be running. I’ll probably stick to running once or twice per week to maintain my fitness until it cools down in the fall. It’s cycling season anyway.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 109.05 Mile 10 10.905 Mile
February 76.18 Mile 8 9.5225 Mile
March 84.86 Mile 10 8.486 Mile
April 83.15 Mile 9 9.23889 Mile
May 57.95 Mile 7 8.27857 Mile
June 17.98 Mile 3 5.99333 Mile
Total 429.17 Mile 47 9.13128 Mile

Cycling

Marin

I did a fair amount of cycling in California, which was great. I also did the Illinois State championship road race (O’Fallon) and criterium (Peoria). I had not results worth mentioning, but I was happy with my performance in both races.

June 2010 Cycling by bike

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 31.6 Mile 7 4.51429 Mile
Big Red 12. Mile 3 4. Mile
Lynskey 15.95 Mile 1 15.95 Mile
Pocket Rocket 113.62 Mile 5 22.724 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 274.8 Mile 6 45.8 Mile
Total 447.97 Mile 22 20.3623 Mile

January-June 2010 Cycling by bike

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 260.6 Mile 38 6.85789 Mile
Big Red 49.4 Mile 8 6.175 Mile
El Fuego 40.9 Mile 11 3.71818 Mile
Lynskey 31.8 Mile 2 15.9 Mile
Pocket Rocket 214.74 Mile 9 23.86 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 1439.97 Mile 42 34.285 Mile
Total 2037.41 Mile 110 18.5219 Mile

2010 Cycling by month

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 166.25 Mile 20 8.3125 Mile
February 140.67 Mile 12 11.7225 Mile
March 508.83 Mile 18 28.2683 Mile
April 318.98 Mile 13 24.5369 Mile
May 365.89 Mile 20 18.2945 Mile
June 447.97 Mile 22 20.3623 Mile
Total 1948.59 Mile 105 18.558 Mile

Walking

We did a lot of walking in San Francisco, which helped bring my Moon Walk total up to 500 “miles” (also includes miles converted from running & cycling). Hey, the Buffalo finished first again this year, and I didn’t have the lowest total on the team :)

Two sweaty guys hiking the Coastal Trail

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 28.66 Mile 9 3.18444 Mile
February 51.45 Mile 16 3.21563 Mile
March 34.7 Mile 10 3.47 Mile
April 44.35 Mile 11 4.03182 Mile
May 48.75 Mile 14 3.48214 Mile
June 64.2 Mile 16 4.0125 Mile
Total 272.11 Mile 76 3.58039 Mile

ABQ

William already shared his insights on our trip to Albuquerque last weekend. I’ll add a few other random tidbits.

Albuquerque botanical gardens

I photographed the entire weekend with my (reasonably) new 30mm prime lens. Since it has a fixed focal length, zooming with this lens is extremely manual (i.e. the photographer must physically move). I was a bit concerned this might be too much of a burden, so I actually packed a zoom lens but I ended up not using it. Also, since it has a large maximum aperture of f/1.4 I was able to shoot a lot of indoor photos without a flash (which I didn’t even bother to bring).

Lying

The Albuquerque airport shares runways with an air force base. Fighter jets are super loud when they’re flying… and they’re even louder when they take off. It was kind of amusing to watch them take turns with the commercial jets. They were very loud even all the way across town.

Running at 6000 ft of elevation was definitely noticeable in the first few miles, though it didn’t seem to bother me much after that.

Albuquerque sunrise

New Mexico apparently has a lot of dinosaur fossils.

Snack

Albuquerque has Bicycle Boulevards with lane markings clearly indicating cyclists are entitled to the full width of the lane. Of course, this is true on nearly all public roadways… but most motorists don’t understand this.

Bicycle Boulevard

Bicycle Boulevard

Mexican food is quite popular.

The hand that feeds you

The Rio Grande has way more water in it in Albuquerque than it does downstream in El Paso/Juarez. I guess it’s all channeled away for irrigation.

Rio Grande

It’s really hard (impossible?) to get the white balance right when photographing an aquarium indoors with low light. Either we ended up too red or the water ended up to green.

Albuquerque aquarium

Shortlist

So there’s a “Photographic Print Competition” next month at Lincoln Square Mall. Both my wife and my father have suggested to me that I enter the competition, and they’re both pretty smart so I better do what they say.

I noticed the competition is sponsored by the Champaign County Camera Club, a club I had never heard of before, but sounded somewhat appealing to me. I checked out their website last Monday, just in time to notice one of their bi-monthly meetings was happening that evening on campus. I decided to go check it out. It was indeed interesting.

One of the odd things I learned at the meeting was the club members are not allowed to enter this competition for some reason. I’m still not exactly clear why this is the case. I mean, Second Wind Running Club puts on races in which club members are encouraged to participate. The same thing happens with events put on by Wild Card Cycling or Prairie Cycle Club.

Anyway, I didn’t join the club yet… and now I’m going to hold off doing so until after the competition. Speaking of which, I put together a shortlist of photos from 2009 I’m thinking about entering. Participants are allowed a maximum of three entries. There are multiple categories into which these photos might fit, most of which are fairly strictly defined:

  1. Architecture
  2. Animals
  3. People
  4. Nature (absolutely nothing human-made)
  5. General
  6. Manipulated (does not interest me)
  7. Youth division (ineligible)

Here are the photos currently at the top of my list:

Dragonflies

Nature, Animals, General

Bzzzzzzzz

Nature, Animals, General

Urbana High School

Architecture, General

Sock monkey

People, General

I’d really appreciate any feedback on which photos people think are the best. I’m sure with this audience any picture of Will will probably get an automatic vote, but try to keep in mind that photo contest judges may not be as interested in Will as many of you.

Little guy

This little guy decided to join us inside at some point (in the last few days?). Well it was pretty weak and barely moving by today. We trapped it under a glass long enough for me to take a few photos then I let it go outside. With the 0˚F temperature, I’m not sure whether this was better or worse for the Yellowjacket wasp than just letting it die inside. We’ll never know.

Yellowjacket

Yellowjacket

For what it’s worth, here’s how I took the photos. The little guy was crawling around on a piece of paper with an upside-down glass covering him. I had my trusty Canon 50D on a tripod just barely above that level with the lens about 8″ away. I used my 60 mm EF-S macro lens at f/18 for a relatively large depth of field. I had a studio strobe with a soft box at 3/4 power just off my right shoulder, providing ample light for the fast shutter speed (1/125 second), small aperture (f/18), and low ISO speed (100).

The little guy was crawling around, so I waited until he was in a good position. I then focused on it, briefly tiled the glass back (for an unobstructed shot), quickly pressed the shutter, then set the glass back down (so the thing would fly away). The final images here are cropped to roughly half the width and height of the original 15 megapixel images.

Lights and such

I decided to take the plunge and invest a pair of inexpensive studio lights. The whole kit cost less than my portable Canon 580 EX II hot shoe flash (I italicized portable because that flash by itself is twice the size of most point-and-shoot cameras).

The studio lights arrived today. They run on AC power and put out more light than a typical flash, so I’ll be able to work with faster shutter speeds and smaller apertures indoors.

I’m no expert at lighting, so it’s going to take some practice.

Hoodie 1

2010 Rob

Or maybe not.

Fuss

The Autumn at Allerton Park

Allerton Park entrance in autumn

Entering Allerton Park

The changing leaves means the Allerton Trail Run is coming up. This is one of my favorite races for a variety of reasons. I love the trail. The race is a good distance for me. The weather is cooling down, and my running thrives in cool weather. The race falls right before, after, or (like last year) on my birthday. You may recall I ran 30 miles at Allerton last year in celebration of my 30th birthday.

I like to get in a few loops on the trail in the weeks leading up to the race to re-familiarize myself with it, so the last two Sundays I’ve run at Allerton. Last week the Sangamon river was so high that parts of the trail were waist deep under water. I walked around three of these places and splashed through one other. I was expecting it to be ankle deep, but it was knee deep. That was a wet surprise in 39˚ weather.

Allerton north trail

Fortunately, this week the river was four or five feet lower and no parts of the trail were under water. Hopefully, it won’t rain to much this week and the course will remain fast for the race next week.

After my run today I took a little time to snap some photos. For most of them I used bracketed exposures. For each photo I actually took three photos: one with normal exposure, one underexposed, and one overexposed. The underexposed photo picks up details in the bright areas of the photo (e.g. the sky) and the overexposed image picks up details in the dark areas (e.g. shadows).

Once back home I combined each set of three images into a single high dynamic range photo and adjusted the levels so both the lights and the darks are visible in same image. If combined well HDR images look spectacularly vibrant and detailed. If combined poorly HDR images look very unnatural and washed out. I’m still pretty new to HDR so I may not of done a great job, but most of them look pretty decent I think.

Fu Dog Garden

Fu Dog garden

Fu Dog Garden

Fu Dogs

House of the Golden Buddhas

House of the Golden Buddhas

Near Allerton Park

Leaving Allerton Park