Posted 11:59 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Phresh

Phreshest Foto Friday ever. I took this today:

Paraglider at sunset, Maui, Dec 30 2011

(Click to enlarge.)

This was the last of five paragliders at sunset tonight. We've had two at a time, but never five. If you had been there, you would have heard me saying, "No! No! Get away from the antenna!" "Not the tree you fool!" "Too low, dammit!" "YOU'RE RUINING MY PICTURE!!" They paid no attention, mostly because they couldn't hear.

This is a pretty good picture, considering it was a hand-held shot (I did have some barbed wire to rest my hand on) of a moving target.

Labels: Dec 2011, Foto Friday, Hawaii

Posted 11:40 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Through a Cloud Dumbly

I am totally cheating with this FF, because the photo was actually taken early Saturday. But I don't care.

Lunar Eclipse of December 10, 2011

I think it's not too bad, considering it was a hand-held shot, taken with the camera propped up vertically against a pillar. I love my camera, but it does have one huge nuisancey feature: there's a delay of a couple seconds between pressing the button and opening the shutter. This makes shooting in low light conditions...challenging.

Did I mention it was raining? The clouds would part, and I'd whip into position and zoom in. "All right, now! Now! Uh, where'd the moon go?" Back behind a cloud. (And it was really annoying that just a few degrees away, the cloud ended and Orion shone down as clear as crystal.)

I noticed the red star above the moon when I took the pictures, and thought it was pretty odd that the star was so red. Then when I looked at all the images, I saw that it was moving with respect to the moon. ZOMG! Aliens!

Either that or the red flashy light that allows the camera to focus bounced off a rain drop[*]. I tried to take a picture of Orion, and the red "star" was there, too. (And Orion was not. Too dark.) I like the aliens theory better.

Here's a gallery of pictures from people who didn't have to prop their cameras up against a post and shoot through the rain. Well, la-di-da.

[*] It bounces off the eyes of ginormous cane spiders, too. Creeeeepy

Labels: Foto Friday, Hawaii, Science

Posted 8:42 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Lanai Layers

Lovely layers lie over Lanai.

Sunset over Lanai, June 2011

Enjoy the neighbor's protea bushes and aerial, there at the bottom. Shoulda jumped in the car and drove down to the highway. Too lazy.

There have been several delicious juicy blog controversies lately which I longed to comment on, but I have some vital TV-watching and video-game playing and OS-upgrading to do while Niles is here. This kind of thing always happens.

Labels: Foto Friday, Hawaii, June 2011

Posted 3:07 PM by Angie Schultz

Niles Is Disappoint

On a recent gift-giving occasion, Niles bought what he hoped would be a very timely gift. I collect foreign currency (I only do it for the pictures), and I've been assembling a collection of Former Dictators. I have Saddam and Niyazov so far. As far as I can tell, neither Castro or Chavez has been egomaniac enough to put his kisser on the currency -- nor has even the Dear Leader, but his dad does appear on some notes.

So anyway, Niles was sure he'd be a winner with this:

Sadly, no.

Even for Khaddaffy, that's a silly pose. Looks like he got drunk one day, put his laundry on his head and decided to do a Jack Benny impersonation. "That one! That's the portrait that goes on the money! Ha ha! I was flying that night. Make it so."

Labels: Coins and Currency, Fools of Our Planet

Posted 9:42 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Sailors, Take Warning!

Glorious sunrise on June 16th. I got up, looked out the window, and...WHOA! Grabbed the camera and wandered around the yard in my jammies, snapping away and blundering into the odd spider web. I hoped the neighbors didn't think I was trying to photograph them in their jammies. Then I brushed off the webs and climbed back into bed.

Sunrise at home, June 2011

Labels: Foto Friday, Hawaii, June 2011

Posted 8:54 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: The North Side of Sunset

I will post a Foto Friday if it kills me!!

Sunset over Kahului, Maui, May 2011

There, not much. Sunset over the north end of the island, rather than the (usual) south end.

Labels: Foto Friday, Hawaii, June 2011

Posted 4:31 PM by Angie Schultz

Meanwhile, in Hawaii...

Snow!

Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea
June 5, 2011

It snowed yesterday on Mauna Kea. Looks like they got an inch or two. This is from a CFHT webcam. Yesterday the summit road there was closed to the public due to hail, the message said, and there was reportedly hail on Haleakala on Friday. Mauna Kea gets snow pretty often (though it's rare in June), but hail??

Labels: Hawaii

Posted 8:17 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Maalaea Morning

Here's a rare morning shot. I took another picture a few minutes later, and about half the clouds had evaporated.

Morning over Maalaea Bay, May 2011

I'm usually in a hurry to get to bed in the morning, but if it looks as if a nice sunrise is in the offing, I'll keep checking the sky to see if anything interesting happens while I'm still up. Unfortunately I don't have a good eastern view from home.

Labels: Foto Friday, Hawaii, May 2011

Posted 10:04 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Oh, Chute!

On days I'm not working, I write in my diary on the deck at sunset. I keep my camera with me just in case anything interesting should happen. Yesterday I heard shouting, which is unusual in my neighborhood. Bleating, whinnying, mooing, barking, and cockadoodling -- those are not unusual. But shouting is. So I looked up to see this:

Ouch! Do not land in the spiky trees.

Wheeeee! Looks like fun! You go first.

Look, you can see the strings!

There were two yesterday, and two again today. They are aiming for the park below. Sometimes they end up in the neighbor's yard. Sometimes they end up on the highway.

(By the way, the image names say "parasail". Afterwards I realize they are really paragliders. Parasailing is what you do on the water. Oh, well.)

Labels: Foto Friday, Hawaii, May 2011

Posted 5:49 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Try Modeling These in Mashed Potatoes

Sunset over the West Maui Mts
May 2011

DOO doo doo doo doooo! The mothership from Close Encounters is about to land.

Again, sometimes a promising sunset just goes bust. This was such a one, except at the last minute the sun peeped through and gave a brooding look to the mountains. I especially like the different colors of dark in the clouds.

Clicky for the larger image; Blogger reduces them, and in this case has degraded the resolution too much.

Labels: Foto Friday, Hawaii, May 2011

Posted 5:16 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Tilting at the Windmills of Your Mind

I realize that this sunset looks a lot like the last one:

Sunset from Home, May 2011

But I noticed something interesting while taking it:

Windmills on Puu Kukui, May 2011

I hope that's visible. You might have to click to get the full picture, and even then it's not really obvious. (And you can't see it in the first image, because of the loss of resolution when I scaled the image down.)

I'm referring to the shadows cast by the windmills. I saw this even with my elderly eyes, but unfortunately they don't stand out in the photos. I had to fiddle with the contrast quite a bit (getting the colors all out of whack) to get them this clear.

I think that's pretty cool. You have to have the sun in just the right place, and a lot of haze in the atmosphere, to get these. Note that these aren't the windmills' shadows on the mountain, but on the atmosphere itself. I tried taking maximum-zoom images of just these, but strangely that didn't turn out as well. I'll have to see if I can do better with the tripod (once all this damned weather clears).

That second image has a sort of Calvary look to it. You shall not press down upon the brow of prosperity this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of sustainable energy! Hmm, needs work.

Labels: Foto Friday, Hawaii, May 2011

Posted 10:07 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Gold in Them Thar Hills

I've struck gold!

Sunset from Home, April 2011

I rarely take pictures from this angle, because it compels me to like, put on my shoes and go into the yard. But it's nice.

Right now, from the deck the sun is inconveniently setting behind the large tree on the left, thus forcing an unwonted field trip.

Labels: April 2011, Foto Friday, Hawaii

Posted 10:18 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Guessing Game II

Here's another guessing game. Do you know what this is?

Haleakala silverswords like these are found exclusively on -- prepare yourself -- Haleakala. These particular specimens were found in the parking lot of the viewing area at the summit of Haleakala. They are endangered, and the rangers take a dim view of disturbing them. Try not to breathe on them. These pictures are probably illegal, so don't look at them too hard.

As those of us (like me) who have researched this topic for many seconds know, silverswords are part of the "silversword alliance", a linked group of plants which show adaptation to various conditions in Hawaii. They (apparently) are related to continental plants poetically known as "tarweeds".

Here's a website (freshly updated in '03) with more pics, including one of men pondering "the sticky exudates of Dubautia sherffiana." We are all about the sticky exudates here.

Frankly, I don't see how you can not see that the silverswords are actually aliens. Look at them in the last photo. They are plotting something. They probably move at night, and giggle when no one notices.

Labels: Feb 2011, Foto Friday, Hawaii

Posted 3:54 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Mesozoic

This is one time where I said, "I'm going to be energetic and go to the highway where there's not all these pesky trees." Got down there: only mushy gray clouds. So I waited, and waited, and almost gave up, and then...

Sunset from Upcountry Maui, Mar 2011

It looks like Lanai is erupting. Cool! Sometimes, looking at these pictures, I half expect a brontosaurus to poke its head in. (See also the first picture here.) I could arrange that! I have a plastic bronto somewhere.

Labels: Foto Friday, Hawaii, Mar 2011

Posted 11:58 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Supermoon!

Supermoon! from Maui
Mar 19, 2011

OMG! The full moon of March 19 was larger than any full moon since the last time this happened, in 1993. Sharp observers will note that the world failed to end THEN, too. I hate to refer you to Wikipedia, except that it does have a nice comparison between the Supermoon and an ordinary full moon, plus this exciting information

The term supermoon is not widely accepted or used within the astronomy or scientific community, who prefer the term perigee-syzygy.

"Perigee-syzygy" is hard to spell, hard to pronounce, and makes you sound as if you're speaking in tongues, so, heck yeah! Kind of like "magnetohydrodynamic" or "rovibrational". (Although I'm pretty sure Perigee-Syzygy is one of Lovecraft's Outer Gods.)

Anyhow, I confess to fiddling with the contrast in this photo. I was impressed at how well the camera captured the moonlit clouds, and even the landscape. This was using the B&W mode on the camera, taken in my front yard.

For those of you not sophisticated enough to appreciate the subtle beauty of black on black, here's an ethereal ray. sniff Peasants.

Sunset from home, Mar 2011

Labels: Foto Friday, Hawaii, Mar 2011

Posted 6:57 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Holy Mackerel!

In order to see the sunrise on Haleakala, you have to get up at oh-dark-thirty, gather your warm clothes (even though it's still 75 degrees outside), and drive for about an hour and a half (from Kihei, longer from the west side) up a twisting, turning road, dodging the occasional cow. And you have to pay ten bucks for the privilege. Most days, in my opinion, it isn't really worth it.

On this particular morning, it was:

Sunrise from Pukalani, Mar 21 2011

And this was just from Pukalani, still an hour down. It must have been awesome at the summit. The best times to go for sunrises (as for sunsets), is when the sky is cloudy. Unfortunately you have to get up and try to ascertain whether the sky is cloudy at the summit before you leave. And even then you can be bitterly disappointed, as I have been for countless sunsets: there's cirrus everywhere, the sun is setting in a golden puddle, and finally -- naw, forget it. Just a gray mush. So I've never gone to the summit specifically for a sunrise.

These are "mackerel" clouds, by the way.

Labels: Foto Friday, Hawaii, Mar 2011

Posted 8:18 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Rems and Roentgens and Rads, Oh My!

Cane Fire, Mar 2011

When I started reading about Japan's nuclear problems, all the numbers were in sieverts. What the hell is a sievert? (My spell checker doesn't know either.) When I was learning this stuff, we had curies, roentgens, rems, and rads, and that was good enough for us. None of your fancy-schmancy European "sieverts".

Anyhow, if you are old and confused like I am, this will explain it to you, though you may still remain confused, not to mention old. (I graciously link to this even though the author stole(*) my title for one of his subheads. Though since mine is better I'm using it anyway.)

The article also has this useful bit of information:

We usually confuse the amount of heat in something, and the temperature. In ordinary life, the difference doesn’t matter — materials are enough alike we don’t care. But not always, even so — a cake in a metal pan at 350 will brown more where it’s in contact with the metal than it will in a glass pan.

I was just telling someone the other day that I kind of wish I had taken home ec in high school; then I would know this stuff. (We were talking about why you used certain ingredients in cooking -- why milk rather than water, or oil rather than butter, and what eggs are for.) Instead I took physics and calculus.

Martin's talk of X-rays reminds me of an upper-level undergraduate lab I took, in which we were supposed to design our own experiments. They wouldn't let us play with the campus reactor (no, really), so instead we did something involving X-raying turkey slices. I forget what exactly the point was, but it involved putting slices of Buddig dried turkey into a table-top X-ray machine the size of a medium pizza. I don't remember wearing any protective gear. We used to pipette acids and mercury by mouth in high school, too. Those were the days when men were men, and so were the women, if they wanted to do science.

Oh, the photo? That's a cane fire, and totally not a nuclear bomb going off in central Maui. They stopped burning the cane while it was so dry, and have recently started again. These look cool at night. Then it really does look like a bomb.

* Pre-emptively, I mean, taking it out of my head before this was published. Because FF doesn't always go up on Friday.

Labels: Foto Friday, Hawaii, Mar 2011

Posted 10:01 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: It Made the Sky Look Red Like a Nuclear Ray

Sunset from home, Mar 17 2011

Sunset, in the general direction of Japan. Coincidence?

I was going to write something about the nuclear hysteria gripping the news media, but this pretty much covers it. (Short version: When I was born we'd been nuking the hell out of the desert for more than a decade, and the radiation only made me taller and stronger. And the extra digits come in handy.)

I tire of taking pictures from the same vantage point. So when it looked like we were going to have a nice sunset on the 17th, I prepared to go down to the highway, where there are no pesky trees, and I can get a good view. But the sun just sank into a mass of gray clouds, so I figured to hell with it. And then we got this.

After the light was gone it occurred to me that I didn't even think to get out my film camera, and that made me sad. What I need is some extra limbs, so I can shoot with both cameras at the same time. But you never get a break like that when you need it.

I was pretty sure that I'd used this title before, but I couldn't find it.

Labels: Foto Friday, Hawaii, Mar 2011

Posted 9:43 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Tsunami Edition

I was very popular the night of the tsunami. Everybody I work with either called or turned up. I stopped work for about half an hour around the estimated tsunami time, and made everything safe, just in case we lost power. But when nothing happened I just went back to work.

This tsunami wasn't as big a nothing as our last one. Apparently there was water up to a quarter mile inland in Kahului. Someone found a big sea turtle washed up on the road.

Anyhow, here is a lovely non-tsunami photo. This was taken on Tuesday morning (I think) after days of rain. There's a bit of a rainbow on the right. Sometimes I wake up early in the morning, after a few hours' sleep and look outside. If there's a good picture I snap it, and go back to bed. I think I broke out the AE-1 for this one. Can't get good rainbow pictures without a polarizer.

Morning Rainbow, March 2011

I was really getting tired of looking at the close-up of the strawberry every time I brought up the blog. Especially after Niles said it looked like a diseased tongue.

Labels: Foto Friday, Hawaii, Mar 2011

Posted 9:09 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Guessing Game

Can you guess what this is?

Click to experience the full horror

Is it one of Cthulhu's tentacles?

The Beast with a Million Eyes?

A section of diseased liver?







Nope!


Breakfast!

And, for those who don't like strawberries, we have...



The Sun doing its impersonation of the Horsehead Nebula.

Labels: Foto Friday, Hawaii, Mar 2011, Too Much Time on My Hands

Posted 11:28 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: I Join the 21st Century

O hai!

I've been away for a while, due to various things. But I am back to show you the fruits of my new toy, a DIGITAL CAMERA! Yes! Always on the bleeding edge of technology, I now have one o' them newfangled digital cameras that all the kids are talking about. Mine is the Canon SX130, which came into my hot little hands yesterday afternoon:

11:50am wake up
12:10pm drive to Post Office
1:30pm email kewl new photos to Niles

So here are some samples of my new hotness. This is the best one -- yesterday's sunset:

Sunset over Maalaea Bay from Pukalani
Feb 2011

(Click to enlarge any photo.) And here we have one of the first images off the camera, taken yesterday afternoon:

Maalaea Bay from home
Feb 2011

Of course, it's kind of cheating when you have views like this lying around. Who couldn't take a good picture? (Though I did have to fiddle with the contrast a bit in that last one.)

And finally, a picture taken just minutes ago!

Fire in the wood stove, Feb 2011

All of these were taken with the "auto" setting, because I haven't had time to sit down with the manual and figure out the more exotic settings.

Here's a quick mini review:

I chose this because it a) had manual settings, b) was not so incredibly tiny that it would be hard to handle, and c) had a 35mm-equivalent focal length range of 28mm to (just under) 400mm. Oh, and d) it was under $200. I really wanted an optical viewfinder, but you have to pay about twice as much to get one.

Irritations: It doesn't come with a printed manual. You have to download it off the accompanying CD, or the web, and print it out yourself. There is a "getting started" booklet included.

The LCD display is hard to see in bright light, which is been true of every digital camera I've handled. That's why I wanted the viewfinder. It's damned difficult to compose shots. I expect to be doing a lot of cropping.

There's no neck strap. There's a wrist strap, which means it bounces everywhere. I went for a bit of a walk today, and took the camera with me in case of good scenery (nope, too cloudy). The camera dangling off my wrist was very annoying. I bought a case for it -- the Canon case made for it -- and that doesn't have a neck strap either, only a belt loop (useless, for me, since I don't wear a belt). It also doesn't have a place for spare batteries or cords or cards even. So I'm going to have to get a little pouch to keep the case in. Grr.

The little door covering up the USB port feels veeeery flimsy.

The camera came with two Panasonic batteries. According to the booklet, this is supposed to last for 130 shots. I've taken 38, and the low battery indicator has come on.

But those are just minor nuisances, in the scheme of things. When I start working with the manual settings, I'm sure I'll find the major ones. But so far I like it very much, not least for the fact that the FF turn around time is in minutes!

It also does movies, though I haven't even tried that yet.

Labels: Feb 2011, Foto Friday, Hawaii