Posted in PhotoBlog
Jet Boat makes its way up the race course on the Salmon River
One of my favorite events each year is the Salmon River Jet Boat Race on the lower Salmon River at Riggings, Idaho. I shoot a lot at this event, but this is one of the events that I do communications for, so photography is on a secondary basis. Two days on a rescue boat, isn’t a bad way to spend a weekend, but it’s also a bit like work.
Posted in Ham Radio, PhotoBlog
A car crosses the stage 15 finish line at the 2010 Idaho Rally
Very few people know that Idaho has a rally race, it’s somewhat new, but gaining in popularity. This was the first year that my schedule allowed me to work this event, but I hope I can make it again. For me this was another dual purpose event as the safety communications were provided by area ham radio operators (i.e. me). So much like my yearly trek to the Jet Boat races, I’m there primarily to handle communications. That dictates where I’m at and what I’m doing, safety and communications always comes first. But, it’s hard to talk on the radio when a loud car (or jet boat) goes by so usually communications and photography coexist nicely. For this event I was at the finish line for stage 15, the last of the mountain stages, only one stage remained at the fair grounds.
As for the radio communications side of things, this one was tough, the finish line was a dead area, the nearest spot I could get a radio signal out was a mile away. So I had to turn my truck radio into a repeater, park and walk the mile back up the creek to the finish. (So much for having my truck at the finish with the AC running waiting after we closed the road). I used my handheld through my truck repeater, through the main repeater and back down to the start line on the other side of the mountain — a bit of a pain, but it worked. One of the cars (a non competing rally car) was nice enough to give me a ride back to my truck afterwards.
Posted in Ham Radio
This weekend also happens to be a ham radio contest, the 7th area call district QSO Party (7QP). I only worked the contest for a couple of hours total, but had some good contacts. It was also a great chance to think about and plan for Field Day.
I had planned to work until I got a contact in every 7-land state; Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana. I thought I was done after making a contact into Wyoming which was a tough find, I even shut off the radio and power to get ready for bed. But I wanted to count states and contacts before so my wife and I read through the list, both realizing that I hadn’t made a contact with another Idaho station. It wasn’t going to be very easy either, most of the folks I had talked to told me I was the first Idaho station they heard. But I turned everything back on and searched 80 meters for a local. Eventually I heard KE7ADU from up in Boundary County (350 miles north). He was replying to stations calling CQ and working his way up the band, I went a few khz up the and started calling him, thankfully he found me and I got my own state. With Idaho on the log, it really was time for bed. As it is now. Keep reading for station/log info >>
Posted in Personal, PhotoBlog, Photography
Elk Cow and Calf in the Idaho Wilderness
The year is almost over. It’s not though. I love Christmas and usually do a fair amount of shooting in december, but around thanksgiving I start thinking about next year…. Becasue this year is almost over. Though it’s not over yet. Almost. Not quite. Will be shortly.
I’ve been looking at random photos in my “2009″ folder, as I look back through the year I’m happy to say I was able to do a lot of things I wanted to do, go places, shoot things. I’m happy to say that overall, my photos have gotten better. But it seems my todo list left for next year is longer rather than shorter. Next year, I believe, if I take off the months of February, April, May, July, August, September and October… I may be able to shoot everything on my list, but something tells me that isn’t going to happen. Prioritization is in order. There are things, projects, that I want to try, new places I want to go, techniques that need tried and honed. It’s rather exciting really…
We’ve got a trip to Salmon at Christmas to see the family. Salmon is one of the most beautiful places in the world, so the camera is always handy, it’ll be a great no pressure photo trip and with that, 2009 will be over, done.
I’ve yet to plan anything major for 2010. Aside from a workshop myself and two friends, Johnny and David are organizing on January 16th, but beyond that it’s a blank page.
Speaking of blank pages, I am going to re-examine my website… I’m asking it to do so much, that I end up not doing enough with it. I hope to roll out some structure changes around the first of the year that will make it easier for me to share my work as well as my tech and personal content without doing three separate websites. I’m constantly getting email and face to face comments (or even by proxy) about the photos I choose to post here and I realize I need to post more. So many of my photos I want to post just sit on my hard drive waiting for a blog post I can associate with them. I cant guarantee anything, but I’m gonna try my best to post the photos and let them speak for themselves without thinking I’ve got to comment everything. Though, google sure prefers I write about them 
Posted in PhotoBlog
Redfish Lake Moonscape (click image to see large)
I’ve said it more than once, I miss the darkroom. I’ve been wanting to pick up a new medium format camera and work black & white film again. I’d like to convert part of my studio into a darkroom and process the film myself, but considering my studio is really a bedroom and it’s already pulling double duty as my server/network room… It’s not gonna happen, though that didn’t stop me from looking around online at how much it cost me to get a medium format enlarger, or maybe a good medium format negative scanner. But putting a darkroom in my studio isn’t feasible. Hmm, the bathroom is pretty dark already… Though I doubt that’d receive a building permit from the wife.
I took this photo a couple weeks ago at Redfish lake, it was a test shot for a long exposure star trail photo. If you look REAL close, there is one star trail in this photo, but it was only a two or three minute test to get the mountains right and set a baseline for my exposure. Many of you have already seen my snow photos from this same trip, that storm popped over the mountains about 5 minutes after this was taken. Gotta love Idaho! The sun was over an hour past set, but twilight was back lighting the mountains, behind me a full moon was rising. I knew my window between dark enough for stars and the moon coming up to ruin the shot was going to be very short. I was hoping for a twenty minute star trail shot between the two, but the clouds gathering on the other side of the mountain wouldn’t cooperate. By the time I got back to camp the snow had started. This photo was much of the inspiration for the now infamous tweet I posted about ‘being done with color.’ I realize this photo won’t impress everyone, you might not even like it. But for me, this photo came alive in post and I instantly fell in love with it, can’t wait to get a metallic print of it. Do leave a comment here or on flickr to let me know what you think.