[olavf]

We’ve got one car that needs to be registered and get a tune-up and the other one needs to get the A/C fixed and new front axles. We’re not driving anywhere far for a while =/

I’ve got plenty of stuff I took for this contest already, and some archive shots (thanks for the 9th Ward reminder Curious). I was just hoping to get a few more new ones. We’ll see what happens.

[olavf]

Rav, I figured the repurposed stuff was out – I just threw that in as an example of what’s around here. We may still try and make it down to Locke, just because there simply has to more buildings than people there these days. Otherwise we’re mostly stuck with recently shuttered stuff that’s not so interesting, generally. They’ve discovered ‘history’ around here the last ten or so years, so stuff gets gobbled up so fast your head will spin.

I’ve got three already, I think, especially including the non-building stuff. I just need to get out and shoot more. I’ve been in a slump lately, and I hate it.

(as far as the powerhouse goes, we’ll probably save that for another thing. I could make it look abandoned, but I don’t like fudging)

Pope there is a place we want to try and get into. I’d love to get into the railyards, but that shiat is monitored so heavily I’m pretty sure I’d get arrested as soon as the pics hit the net. Big signs, multiple fences… was a Superfund site for a while because they had 140 years of continuous operations fixing trains there. But there’s an old PG&E substation nearby that has been rediscovered. Fences are all holey and the door is busted. Just need an evening without the kids….

[olavf]

So, I’ve a few shots for this one already, but I haven’t been doing enough camera work lately, and want to get out and shoot more…and I think Kat’s looking for a few ideas too.

What’s the threshold for abandoned? We’re going to try and find some shuttered factories down in the Alkali Flats area, but for the most part things around here are being reclaimed and/or repurposed. The neat old mill silos have been turned into condos, for example, so they’re out. The old SP railyards have been mostly abandoned, but not quite…the remaining structures are going to be incorporated into the railroad museum as an area to showcase refurbishment of old locomotives and rolling stock – but not yet. It’s mostly sitting there and…waiting. Behind a number of tall fences and a couple of 24-hour security guards to be exact. ‘Going there’ would be fool-hardy. Another example is the town of Locke, CA. Once a thriving Chinese Delta community, it’s population has dwindled to about 70-80 people, only 10 of whom are of Chinese descent. But it hasn’t been abandoned.

But my main question, is what’s left. Aside from shuttered factories and stores, everything around here that hasn’t been torn down has been preserved as a park of some point. The main one we’d both like to go back and shoot again is the Folsom Powerhouse – it was shuttered in the 40’s or so, but was handed over to the State and is a forgotten, but significant park/location in US history (It was the first place in the US that power was generated and sent somewhere else to be used). So it’s more or less been abandoned, but it’s preserved as a relic of times gone by. Does that fit, or is it pushing it? Similarly, most of the ‘ghost towns’ of the gold rush are preserved in a similar way up in the hills. Bodie would be an exception, but we’re not going to be able to make it down there in time for this contest.

edit- tl;dr: What about stuff that’s been abandoned, but preserved as parks?

[olavf]

Your local AAA team would be a good one, too. I’m going to try and get down to ours sometime soon, personally.

Also, check and see if there’s hockey at the local ice rink. I go down now and then to watch a couple of the local TF-type people play, but the shots I’m going to use from those were from a ‘pond game’ at the rink they set up downtown in the winter.

Now I’ve got a *great* idea. I just need to look into it 😛

[olavf]

Conga-rats Rav!

[olavf]

I figured out on Saturday that my old scanner is older than they thought – they stopped supporting it at WinXP. Oops.

I had plans, too. Ah well.

[olavf]

Off….line?

*shudders*

Good luck Els!

In other news, it seems that Visioneer stopped support for my ancient and venerable flatbed somewhere around Windows XP. So I suspect my main idea is out for the moment. Going to have to figure out what to do with it attached to the desktop. *sigh*

[olavf]

Any place you have a line coming from the utility pole is a good place to have a lightning protector of some point , if possible. Many surge protectors have a built-in one for phone lines (though I don’t know how well they work with DSL), but there are wall-mount units for that, and coaxial as well. Put them in-line before the first junction and run a wire to earth (the green wire) or a separate earth stake if possible. (I’m a fan of stopping the problem at the point of entry, and a must-do if you have an older house like mine)

Sorry to hear, though, CD. =/ Glad they were able to get you back up and running so quickly.

rav I haven’t had a chance to sit down and figure all that out yet, but it’s on my list. I’ve just been kinda overwhelmed lately.

[olavf]

Contest linky: http://www.fark.com/comments/6257103

Also, there are a couple other changes with the redesign I think you guys will like. Can you find them? 😉

I never was a fan of Arial 😉

[olavf]

There was a post yesterday with a preview link, which I fortunately saw; otherwise, my stats scraper would be crashing big-time tonight. Which leads me to wonder how FSM is going to handle the change…

It survived pretty well the last time, IIRC. We’ll see.

[olavf]

geom_00, I don’t really have a strong opinion either way about home-made graffiti. The only litmus test I can think about is where it’s intended for display, I guess.

mopsy they re-designed the page layout and it went live today. Apparently, we’ll get over it.

On entries: I’ve got two questions: what about things like ‘display art’ (store windows)?

[olavf]

Here’s some notes on diopter adjustments and dioptric lenses on Canons for those of us who are optically challenged.

http://creativekarma.com/ee.php/weblog/comments/dioptric_adjustment_lenses_for_canon_eos_digital_slrs/
http://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/education/technical/dioptric_adjustment_lenses.do

Long and short, the Canon DSLRs have a -3/+1 adjustment with the wheel. The dioptric lens will move that range if you’re falling out of it (like I am without my glasses on).

[olavf]

I’ll have to look up the specs (or someone els cans I’m not ome again) but I seem to remember the in-camera maxing out at +/-1.0 (or maybe even 0.75). Anyway, last time I tried to dial it in I hit th stop and it still wasn’t there.

[olavf]

This is one of the ones for the Canon EOS cameras http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/12402-REG/Canon_2840A001_1_5_Diopter_E.html

But as a companion piece, these are some neat-o frames.
http://hoodmanusa.com/prodinfo.asp?number=HPF1

I think I’ll be getting those as soon as I’m up for lenses later this year.. (hell, they’re cheaper than most of the frames at my optometrist)

I don’t think I’m ready to perform surgery on my camera body. The nice thing about the adapters is that they can be slid off and someone else can use the camera.

[olavf]

My bad. Look up ‘dioptric adjustment lens’. It’s basically a replacement for your viewfinder with a correction lens in it. For example, in my case m glasses are something like +1.25 so if I could find that, the diopter adjustment would be zeroed. I’m planning on getting a +1.5 and then dialing back the in-camera adjustment a bit.

My optometrist thought it was a good idea and gave me the correction factor to look for.

I’m on the road right now, but i’ll dig up a link s and theglasses which I want to look into later this evening.

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