Thoughts on the first day of class.

Well so far the quarter seems to be going well. I must say that the one class I have had so far is going well... We received very important information such as the syllabus and discovered some of the pet peeves, likes and dislikes of the instructor. 

His presentation while not lacking in information also had an underlying pull of humor which tends to help one stay awake. You don't want to be the one kid that is suddenly brought back to the realm of consciousness by the low rumblings of laughter and be the last one to laugh because you were sleeping through the punch line. People might mistake that for you just being slow and "not getting" the said punch line and then you have to ask someone to repeat the joke and its never the same when you have to tell it a second time and then nobody is laughing anyway so its kinda awkward if you laugh and then they figure that you "must" be the slow one at which point the joke is on you.... 

So its a good thing to have humor in the agenda so you don't slip off to take twenty blinks.

Back in Class...

In about 40 minuets I will be sitting in a class back in the grind. The start of another quarter. And with it, homework, projects, papers and all such that students love, hate and try not to think of too much.

Catching up on the pictures...

Finally made my self sit down, edit and color-correct my images from the last couple days... weeks... but its done. I am really enjoying the effects I am getting from the IR converted camera.

The weekend is here

After a interesting week filled with meeting new people and getting ready for the grind which will be classes there is the reprieve of the weekend to give one last breath of freedom. I am also looking forward to the weekend as I hope to get out and do some shooting with my modified camera and being as it is forecasted to be a sunny day I am expecting to get some good shots.

I just realized that the brand new 1 gig memory chip that I bought and installed not 3 weeks ago is dead!! What's up with that. Not Cool!!!! sometimes technology can be frustrating.

William Tell Overture & Honda

About 5 or 6 summers ago during a road trip to Alaska I made a note to others in the van that the wash-board effect on the road could be harnessed to make music. Driving over the very tightly paced bumps normally produce a very monotone note, yet a note it is none the less. This morning I heard that Honda took idea to heart... all on their own... and have produced a stretch of road that "play's" the william tell overture.

Cool... too bad its short. Now for my next idea that it would be cool if it can be done. Multiple musical patterns. If by overlaying the patterns so that at specific speeds it "speaks" out a message... like "Hey fool, slow your butt down" at speeds over 80 mph and some cool song at a normal speed... anyone, anyone... big company trying to get their brand become popular via a jingle?

Wi Fi

Well I am sitting in another airport, this time in Cincinnati OH. I guess as a person living in the United States we often take things for granted just because of the consumeristic society we live in. Sitting here in the airport I am able to get online by purchasing a 24 hour pass via a localized service provider. Yet my first thought was why was this service not offered free of charge.

The saying goes there is no free lunch, a true statement as at the end of the day someone paid for it in some form or fashion. So why have we got so used to expecting the free lunch? What is it that prompts us to create this artificial sense of endowment? 

As Mark Twain put it... "Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."

Gunpowder River

I took the afternoon today to drive up to the Gunpowder river in northern Maryland. This river is one of the states prime fly fishing destinations and even with the overcast and cool temperatures today still had a small hatch that came up and gave rise to some fun fishing. 

I was able to bring to hand several fish, the majority of them being in the 9 to 11 inch range with one that was a good 14 or so inches. The brown trout is a beautiful fish both in the fact that they put up a spirited fight and also by virtu of their appearance. I also had the pleasure of meeting a gentleman by the name of Chad who was also there to wet a line. 

Just before arriving at the river I made a pit stop at a local fly shop - Backwater Angler. The gentleman there was very helpful both with the directions to the river and where to go once I got there and also helped me pick out a fly pattern which I found to be quite effective on the water. Just looking around the shop he seemed well stocked on the essentials with a few goodies as well.

One bit of advice that was passed to me and that I also noticed at the river is, don't fish near the bridge. During the 4 odd hours I was at the river I met several people who were fishing that section and coming up empty. I am sure the fish there can be caught... in fact they were jumping around looking quite inviting. But for that same reason they are probably targeted quite often and having seen a fly or two are very selective. 

When you go to the river there are two options. Go up river or down. Regardless of which way your feet take you the trail is located on the side that keeps the river on your right although going up river and having waded across I located a trail on the opposite bank that is there as well although I don't know where the head to it is as it gets close to the parking lot. 

All in all a fine location and one that I will definitely be going back to the next time I am back on the east coast. And ow to get back to packing and probably catch a few Z's before my flight back to the west coast and Good Ol' Wally World.

Vacation

Well after almost two weeks of vacation I finally took a day to myself and went fishing. I drove up to the Patuxent River just south of Damascus MD. Since this was the first time I had fished this stretch of water I was not sure what to expect. I had done some looking up online for details of what to expect but being as this is a catch and release area and also a fly fishing only area the number of reports were on the slim side... or maybe I just didn't find the right place to get the info. In anycase armed with my trusty 3wt I went off to figure it out.

The first place I parked was the parking spot where the river flows under Rt. 97 - Georgia Ave. There is ample parking, how ever after about 100 yards of river the one has to cross over to the other side to keep from going into some privet land. And I do envy the people that get to live there because it is a nice piece of property and right next to the river... well who could ask for more.

I walked, waded and battle the rose bushes that grew in abundance along the side of the river for about 2 miles. This stretch of water did not yield much action though I was about to hook and bring to hand a number of small sunfish and also several whitefish or overgrown minnow-esk looking fish. 

Having spent about three hours in this spot and not wanting to head back I drove up and around to the next spot that the river was crossed by a road, which was about a 10 minuet drive to the upstream location. Having just battled rose vines for the last couple hours I was quite content when, arriving at this spot I noticed that the bridge was over a somewhat decent hole and I was also quite content to play around here.

I started casting to some of the smaller sunfish that where in this section and was bringing them to hand with not too much of a fuss. As I was taking a break and just watching the water trying to read it I noticed a long lean shadow cast by a trout. I cast out to it and after a couple tries were able to get the drift just right that the fly came right up to its nose and it was happy to oblige by chomping down on it.

I brought to hand a nice heathy looking brown trout that was about 11 inches long. Having got my trout for the day I set him back in the water knowing that he was going to be there the next time I wanted to get me a trout.

All in all a good day... Next time I might have to explore another section of the river up that way and maybe say hello to the rest of the trout clan.

The camera's are back

Over the last couple weeks I had been deprived of and separated from both my camera bodies. Today the second of the two came back and I am looking forward to playing with them again. Of the two camera's the 5D has been my primary tool the last couple years with the 10D somewhat relegated to the shelf. But no more. Having undergone a serious change of heart or guts in this case... not me the camera... the 10D is back on the front line. 

While the 5D went in for a routine checkup... well not exactly routine... I might have got is a bit too wet trying to shoot the lightning storm in the rain and it just may have had some problems turning on... but none the less it went in the people at Canon did their thing and its back turning back on and good to go. The 10D on the other-hand went to a entirely different location where they took it apart and replaced the filter that is in front of the sensor with a very special piece of glass. The company is called LifePixel and the camera not exclusively shoots infrared. Cool!

In the past when I have played with this medium is was with film that needed to be loaded in the dark, then you had to have a tripod and lock focus and screw on a filter and long story short... wait there was no short story it was a long story every-time and for the most part other than the couple rolls I shot as part of the extended photography curriculum that was the last of it.

Today I went out and shot hand held as if it was just another camera switching the iso as needed, looking through the viewfinder and not having an opaque piece of glass blocking the view and getting instant gratification knowing that I got the shot. Well not that I did any shooting worth keeping... it was mostly the grass to figure out how to set the correct white balance and shots of plants in the garden to see what they look like.

But now armed with both these camera bodies I am back in the game and looking forward to more creative shooting... 

On time delivery...

I received an automated call this afternoon from UPS who incidentally will be delivering a package to me tomorrow. Other than the fact that I knew this information already and the call was automated the one fact that bugged me the most was the call stated that the package will be delivered between 8:00 am and 7:00 pm and at this time a more specific time could not be stated. 

OK, first off... are you serious about the time frame? Why don't they just say "hey, we will be coming over tomorrow and will call you when we do know a more definite time". As it happens I will be at the house to pick it up and will not have to contend with additional information that will be left by the delivery person who no doubt will have some hole-in-the-wall location on the other side of town that I will have to drive to during very specific hours to pick it up. 

In a society that claims to value time and convenience it is interesting when one takes a closer look to notice how much of a facade this is. We claim to love convenience yet will go out of our way to make things inconvenient. 

Talk about living in a crazy world....

Sitting in the Airport

Its very quiet yet at the same time there is a mired of noises. From the TV in the news stand blaring political commentary, the security guards piping up occasionally with a comment, a short burst of laughter that petters out, the hum of the ventilation system or the tinkle of glass as a vendor rearranges the shot-glasses that have the label of the city proudly printed on the side. 

It is very easy to tune these noises out and think of this place as quiet but when one takes the time to listen and identify each one there are so many that it is virtually a symphony of sound.

And there in top of it all the unmistakable voice that reminds passengers that their luggage may be viewed as suspicious if for any reason they are not physically hovering over it as if they were a flock of chicks guarded by the mother hen. Not leaving them out of eyesight lest a security hawk pounce on it and open it up to inspect its guts.

Packing

Well I am off on another adventure... Going to be taking the bus to Portland and a flight back east so its going to be a couple long days on the road. Trying to decide what to pack... do I plan on having more time and the means to make taking the fly rod worth it? I am planing on taking the camera gear in the hopes that my bodies will meet me there after their visit to the factory. How much stuff do I want to lug.

I suppose I could go ultra light and see how that goes... but then I am sure to encounter the situation of regretting not having some piece of equipment that I could have used... or I can take the stuff and lug it through the various transitions... I am not a fan of current modes of transportation because its so limiting... but on the other hand not traveling is so limiting!

Well enough time procrastinating... back to packing.