Tall Chairs at the Abromson Center

Last week I had my first class of Introduction to the SLR Camera at the University of Maine’s Center for Continuing Education. Since my buddy Dave “Sully” Sullivan couldn’t make it to class, he asked me to take notes for him.

This brought back to my jr. high school days when I would do the cool kids homework, surrender my lunch money to the football team and spent a lot of time contemplating my life from the inside of my locker.

But I digress…Dave, this is for you.

There are three variables for taking pictures, no matter your camera:

• F-stop: how wide your camera aperture opens. F-stop is often confused w/aperture; the difference is that aperture is the physical opening while F-stop is the designation of the scale.
• Shutter speed: how fast your aperture opens and closes.
• ISO: the film speed, which current digital camera mimic by increasing the voltage in the camera…which, oddly enough, increases the heat in the camera, causing more noise, which is the same effect of using very fast speed films.

With photography there’s always a trade off. By changing one of these variables, you often have to change another.

Common F-stops include: 2.8, 4.0, 5.6, 8.0, 11.0, 16.0, 22.0 and 32.0. The lower the number the more light the camera lets in. Confusing, I know. Also, the smaller the f-stop the larger the depth of field (meaning more of your picture–near and far–will be in focus.) The F in F-stop most commonly stands for fraction, not full.

Shutter speed is all about how much time the film/sensor is exposed; new cameras often go to 1/2000 of a second. Common full stops include 2000, 1000, 500, 250, 125, and 60. The shutter speed is often related to how much blur the photo has; faster shutter speeds mean less blur, but that may be an artistic decision.

ISO (International Standards Organisation) is all about film speed, even though digital cameras have no film. Common speeds include 100, 200, 400, 800 & 1,600. The higher the speed, the grainer the picture. The less light you have, the faster the film speed you need. Our substitute–you weren’t the only one missing–said that he prefers grainy over blurry any time, because you can fix grainy in the lab. Another way of taking pictures in low light is…add more light! (Lights, flash, etc.)

Your DSLR will have an automatic setting. Automatic = average. In an average setting, automatic is often fine. However, great photos often fall outside of an average situation. To get more out of your camera you’ll need to start exploring the other settings on the camera.

• Auto: All control is given to the camera. (All your base are belong to us.)
• P - Program: Same as auto but with some options and no auto-flash.
• S - Shutter (sometimes listed as Tv): You choose the shutter speed and the camera does the rest.
• A - Aperture value (sometimes listed as Av): You choose the aperture and the camera does the rest.
• M - Manual: You’re on your own.

Focus is controlled separately through the lens; you can have auto-focus on a manual setting or manual focus on an other automatic setting.

White Balance: In the old days you had to use the right filter for specific types of light (indoor vs. outdoor vs. cloudy, etc.) Now you just need to choose the right icon. You can access the WB menu from the screen on the back of your camera.

One of the big benefits is that you don’t need a filter, so you’re not trading f-stop or shutter speed when using digital.

If you have your camera saving photos on the RAW setting you can actually apply the white balance after you take the shot, during development. Crazy.

One of the WB settings is PRE; this will allow you to set the balance on something specific in the photo as white. The other colors should line up.

The camera can save photos in many different formats.

• RAW: Best file, but huge and needs special software to develop.
• JPG: Common Web-friendly format. Comes in compression levels of Fine, Normal, Basic and Strawberry.
• Images can also be saved as large, medium or small.

Best thing you can do when you get a new camera is RTFM!

HOMEWORK:

• Aperture: Find a scene that shows off depth. Play around w/f-stop and take several pictures w/different settings.
• Shutter: Find a scene that shows off movement and do the same.
• ISO: Find a scene in low light, esp. if there’s highlights and dark shadows and do the same.

See you in class, Sully!

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This was the great article that I was talking about the other day about how close we are to electric cars. Not physically close, but technologically close.

Driven: Shai Agassi’s Audacious Plan to Put Electric Cars on the Road

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Google Street View caught this Aussie passed out drunk in front of his house.

A man who fell asleep in a drunken stupor on the grass outside his home was horrified to find his embarrassment posted on the internet.

He had been drowning his sorrows over the death of a friend and collapsed after climbing out of a taxi.

As he slept off his excesses, a car-mounted video camera passed by to record pictures of the street for Google’s StreetView website.

Ouch. For more on the story…

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In the Op/Ed section of the Maine Sunday Telegram (aka the Sunday edition of the Portland Press Herald) read the headline:

The newspaper industry’s demise has been exaggerated, but current conditions do mean we must offfer less.

Ouch. I guess one place in which they are cutting back is in their spellcheck. Perhaps they could save money by only using two “f’s” in offer.

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I’ve settled back into work after a week camp hopping around the state of Maine. I visited 3 camps of different friends and we had a great time, but there is one lake that is closer to my heart since I spent a couple weeks there every summer growing up. It was with much pleasure then that I learned some friends of mine had a camp on the same lake (albeit the other end of the lake)

This camp is so cool I just had to share some of the photos.

Now, let it be said, if you are reading this post from anywhere other than in Maine, you’re probably thinking to yourself “Why did she go to a kids summer camp”….

So let’s define “Camp”.

If you grew up in Maine, camp is what most of you would call a cottage - probably but not always on a lake. There are some that are quite sophisticated, but to me a camp often means a much older building, with or without lake frontage but preferably with (no lake frontage probably means it’s a “hunting” camp.)

In this case the camp has it all (except a decent inside bathroom…oh, and “all” includes a resident chipmunk, the occasional mouse, and on one visit/occasion a bat - though thankfully nothing spotted on this visit). It was originally a hunting camp as evidenced by the deer and moose heads both inside and out. (Andy, my apologies to the vegetarian in the crew).

It also has great lake frontage with the sand beach going up under the porch and about 15 feet of beach between the camp and the lake. I also include a photo of the sink….an odd thing to take a picture of you say? Take a closer look….that sink and counter top is all carved out of one great big tree/log. Hope you enjoy these pictures of a good old fashioned Maine camp!

Many Thanks for the camp hospitality go out to Eirwen and Lane (Lake Cobbosseecontee near Augusta); to Doug and Linda - with a shoutout to Martha and Kevin (Beach Hill Pond near Ellsworth - the pictures are from here); and to Mary and Andrew (Cold Stream Pond near Lincoln).

Note the Bird’s nest in the antlers……circle of life?

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I’ve noticed some distortion in the iPhone camera in low light or if there’s some movement.

The girls wanted me to take their photo as they did jumping jacks outside of Panera the other day. Maya seems to be doing her best “Stretch Armstrong.”

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Sometimes the best vacation days are the unplanned ones that you take on a whim (something I do a little too often!) This week on Tuesday I decided to take Wednesday off and managed to wrangle a couple friends into going up to Windjammer days in Boothbay Harbor. It was one of those ideal days where we laughed ourselves silly all day long, had ice cream for lunch (It was about 80 degrees, sunny with a nice breeze off the water).

We overheard some people talking that there were far fewer people for the festival this year….perhaps a reaction to the high gas prices? Somewhat ironic to have high gas prices keep people away from something that celebrated the old days of moving people and cargo by the the power of wind…..

We had great fun touring the ship Friendship of Salem which was docked at the Boothbay Harbor Shipyard. Originally built in 1797, it was a merchant ship, and I think my favorite pic of the day is the one looking up from the cargo hold through the deck to the mast - the glass in the door just caught the reflection of the flag flying high above in the wind.

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At least, that’s what Cybele would have you believe. There’s some people who believe this to be true, there’s some who don’t.

To save my life, Cybele bought me this new funky metal water bottle. Have to say that the design is very cool.

I’m not crazy about how you have to suck the top like a teat to get any water out, and the metal frame keeps you from squeezing the water into your mouth. (I was always taught it was tacky to put your mouth on a water bottle.) Also, the metal frame seems to work as an anti-vacuum, sucking the cold out of the water in record time.

(The idea that room-temperature water is somehow better than cold water is a completely crock of shit, IMHO, and no wacked-out, Google Adsense-supported blog is going to convince me otherwise.)

However, I’m a strong believer that husbands who listen to their wives live a longer, happier life.

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Our family recently joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) right here in Scarborough at Broadturn Farm. We pay a seasonal fee and are entitled to a weekly share of the farm’s yummy fruits and veggies ( not to mention fresh eggs, and poultry/pork shares too if we want).   So last week we got our first share and as it is still quite early in the growing season it was on the smallish side (pak choi, lettuce, arugula, rhubarb and chive flowers)…but as my friend tells me by the end of the summer, we’ll need 2-3 bags to bring home our share.

So we made lots of salads this week, with varying toppings, like mango, avocado, nectarines and it’s been yummy served on the side of this giant striped bass that Rich hauled in from off of P-Town last week.

And, Maya and I went strawberry picking this past weekend.  Not too many left after early morning visitors, but we came away with about a quart and a half (for $4)…can’t beat that.  And so since I’m not a pie-maker of any sort, I was struggling with what to do with all this rhubarb and strawberries…until, low and behold in EveryDay Food, I found a great recipe for strawberry rhubarb sundaes…so easy and delicious–
and speedy.  Combine a pound of strawberries, hulled and halved, two stalks of rhubarb chopped into 1/2 inch pieces, 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of water in a saucepan.  Simmer over high heat for 6-8 minutes.  Cool and refrigerate for about an hour and serve over vanilla ice cream…the girls loved it and so did I.

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Why is it so hard to find a good car these days?  Not that I’m actually looking yet…my Subaru Outback ‘99 only has 75k miles on it and should easily last another 5 years (nice not to have a car payment…) but eventually, vanity will triumph over finances and I’ll begin to crave that new car smell–or at least the spray they use for the slightly used cars.

But when I do finally cave in to replace my car there are a few things that are definitely on my list of “must haves”…namely,

1) it has to be all wheel drive or offer 4-wheel drive for those snowy Maine winters…I’ve always had 4-wheel drive and could never go back at this point.

2) it needs to have the capability of seating more than just 4-5 people…yes that’s right, I’m talking about that 3rd row seating capability all the new cars are toting.

3) and finally, it would be super nice if I could get 1&2 along with a hybrid option with the way gas prices are going these days.

So why is it so hard to find what I want?  currently there is only one, ONE car out there that meets my requirements– The Toyota Highlander.  I can find cool hybrids with all wheel drive, like the Saturn Vue (Green Line) and I can find plenty of cool cars with all wheel drive and a third row, like the Hyundai VeraCruz…but none that meet all three.

I wouldn’t be caught dead in a mini-van, and even there, only one option offers all wheel drive, the Toyota Sienna…but they are really bigger than I need, (only occaisionally will I need to actually transport more than 4-5 people) and their fuel efficiency is a joke (18 miles/gallon) with gas prices pushing $4-5 /gallon soon enough.

I’m totally in love with the Mazda CX-9, sleek, sexy, and 3rd row with all wheel drive.  All they need is a hybrid option and I’ll stand in line.

So why is this so hard?  Increasing fuel costs, increasing desire to transport more people/car pool and be cost conscious with a hybrid car and so few options.  We need more family friendly cars, that are safe in the snow, and fuel efficient.  Is that asking too much???

I can only hope that by the time my trusty Outback kicks it, there will be plenty of options available.  For now I can only dream about my perfect next car.

-Family chauffeur, green mom

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