Energy from the sun and other clean energy

As a graduate with a degree in Environmental Science I am always interested in seeing what new technological advances are made that would create clean energy. While browsing though the articles I came across a couple that caught my attention.

Sun + Water = Fuel

This article in the MIT tech review caught my attention as the concept of plants capturing energy from the sun to perform such feats as to grow for hundreds of feet or like varieties of bamboo a foot per day where you can almost watch it grow... How can such a humble organism with its fragile proteins and enzymes do what keeps scientist scratching their heads. Well looks like we have finally caught up. This discovery combined with another recent discovery for black silicone might bring about a new revolution in clean energy. Interesting times.

On another note, Walla Walla is surrounded by hills where wind farms are common. I have on occasion had the opportunity to go close to these giants and watch as the sometimes 50 ft blades swing round with a commanding swish. Another new discovery that may make this form of energy more efficient is right now being tested up in Canada at a wind farm. 

Laser Sensors for Wind turbines

Maybe one day soon all these new devises will go into production and we can gain the benefits. 

Lugging the camera

I have made it a habit this week to carry my camera around with me as I go about my day. While this has allowed me to use those free minuets to capture interesting compositions of fall and the colors around me it also serves to remind me to pay attention to the details. In a previous post I made mention of a dream lens. A 28 - 135 mm f/2.8 with internal focusing. 

Image stabilization would be a nice touch too; however, one can't expect everything. I have been walking around with the Canon 100 mm f/2.8 lens. While this is a very nice lens that is fast as well as sharp I cant but daydream of the possibilities of the perfect lens that would have this and more. Sharpness, large aperture, zoom and most important an affordable price tag. I'll post some images from this week later when I have time to edit the stack down. But for now I think I will continue to carry the equipment I have and continue to look at the world and notice the details.

A blustery day in the Valley

Election day and as the presidential race has been called all the pundits and commentators are on the air gloating about having called the results or defending their statements. In the valley it was a cold windy day and I must give props to anyone who braved it to vote. Way to make you voice heard regardless if your candidate won or not. 

I on the other hand decided to be proactive as well but regarding lugging my camera and using those otherwise wasted moments to and from places to make some images. I think I will be doing that more often. 

Objects

Over the past several weeks I have noticed that I am shooting less primarily due the my busy schedule. Today was no different but for the fact that I happened to have my camera on me and when the opportunity of two spare minuets showed its self I was quite happy to go trigger happy. I cant say that all or even many of the images that I took are worth or deserving a second glance but one did stand out as a favorite.

I guess on the whole it pays to have the camera with me and I think I will be doing it more.

Fun Weekend

I had the opportunity to visit a friend up in Pullman this weekend and had a blast over there. She had invited several of her friends over, and being the night of halloween, came in dress and disguise. 

Pirate, Witch and Jester among others rounded up the more traditional costumes but we also had the unique and the voluptuous and the nitrogen fixing bacteria that came attached to quite a nice legume. The night wore on with conversation, laughter and puppets that terrorized. 

More pictures of the night.

Dunes and dust

A few more images that I was able to work on from the Juniper Dunes shoot. The almost sunset like atmospheric conditions were courtesy of the ATV's that were zooming about.

Juniper Dunes with Matt

I spent the afternoon with a old friend hiking in the Juniper Dunes wilderness. Both Matt and myself had unwittingly decided that this would be a place to explore so when I met up with him and the topic of where we should go came up it didn't take much time to decide. 

The Juniper Dunes area is ringed by privately owned farmland and access is very limited. However I had read online prior to meeting up with Matt that there was an easement agreement that the landowners had agreed to so that the public could access this area. Heading out we followed the directions and came to the area. Parking the car in the area designated for such we decided to hike in. After we had walked in about 200 meters up to the top of the first rise we were overtaken by a gentleman who was taking his brand new ATV for a spin. He offered to give us a ride in and being as we could increase our time in the area this way we accepted.

The ride in brought back memories for both Matt and I, who had spent a year on the island of Pohnpei many years ago. Riding in the back of the ATV with our legs dangling off the back and holding on to the side made for some fun times. Our travel benefactor mentioned an area that few other ATV's traveled so that we would have a more peaceful stay and agreed to give us a ride out to it. As we had turned off the main path the trail got more rugged and this gave us the need to hold on for dear life. The worst/best/you gotta be crazy for doing this, instance came when the ATV was gunned down a 40 degree back to pick up speed and then proceeded to climb up the other side which was even steeper. 

One must remember that we were sitting in the back of an open bed with the tailgate down and being as this was only a ATV our legs from the knees down were sticking straight out of the back. Well when that puppy hit the uphill slope and the driver gunned the engine to get it to the top a couple things happened all at once. The first bump gave both Matt and I some air... our butts were probably a good two or three inches off the bed of the ATV. Having gunned the ATV it picked up speed and decided to go up the hill. Well this would all have been good except for the fact that since our butts were not in contact with the vehicle was in danger of getting left behind. For a fraction of a second both Matt and I went into survival mode scrambling to grab on to each other and also anything else solid we could get a grip on to keep each other attached to the now speeding ATV as it finished its climb out of the gully.

After dropping us off at a spot not far from this spot we bid our new friends goodbye and proceeded to hike about enjoying being both alive and still in one piece. I must say that this is a area that I plan on going back to real soon as I only had about three hours in the area and could see that to fully appreciate the possibilities I would have to spend much more time here.