delayed gratification

A long time ago I posted about a shotgun, four and a half years ago. I had just started shooting trap. I have been in lust with it ever since. On 1/1/10 I bought it. Here's the original post. Now if only the temp would come up far enough that I could convince anybody to go shooting with me I'd try it out.

Bwahahah! Posting issues resolved. Not that I expect I will be an exciting blogger. I do have some news though.

For International Talk Like A Pirate Day Heidi designed a new cable pattern for a hat. It's based on the carrick bend. It's over at www.knitlikeapirate.com I've finished two of them now. One a test knit, another was so we could photograph certain construction phases.

hrm.. been a long time

It's been a chaotic time here on the frontier of boredom. Work is good. The house is good. The car has a new suspension installed by George and me. Ed got very old very fast, and was in a lot of pain. That lead to the decision to put Ed to sleep. We're thinking about new dogs but haven't made a decision yet. Meanwhile I've worn through the soles of three pairs of boots. Granted some of them were a couple years old, but still. It just seems rediculous that I should have to go buy new boots when the uppers are ok. But apparently we've become the sort of society where unless I want to wear work boots or logger boots or pumps as a woman I can't have resoleable shoes. At least not that I can try on locally, which is an issue given my orthotics.

I guess now you all know why I haven't been blogging much. My life is not full of excitement.

Desktop Seige Engine Contest

Aka Easter Egg Chuck 2009. We had an Easter Egg Chuck in 2007. It was awesome. This time we're doing it again but smaller. I don't have exact dates for the contest but I'm guessing right around Easter!

The Rules

Torsion, Gravity, Elastic powered throwers only.
No pneumatics or chemical launchers.
Must fit in a 5" x 5" x 5" cube. (throwing arms may extend beyond the box)
No throwing arms over 12" long.

Devices cannot require contact outside the 5x5x5 cube when cocked, and must be freestanding in their ready to fire position. Throwing arms may extend outside this cube but must not be in contact with anything outside the cube. (AKA no slingshots or wrist rockets)

Build out of whatever makes you comfortable. Lego, Mechano/Erector sets, wood, carbon fiber, aluminum.

We will be throwing Plain Pastel Easter M&Ms.

There will be separate judging classes for torsion devices, and for gravity devices.

Put questions in the comments and I'll answer them in the post.
If you say live in California but participated last time and want to play again, you should mail in an entry, yes you Steve. Or you know anybody else who wants to mail one in. We will find a designated operator for your device.

Rules Clarifications

• Cavorter asks "Is there a limit on methods of winding torsion engines? For instance, does it have to be hand cranked or can it be motor assisted"

  
  Powered methods of winding/setting a torsion device are fine. If you want to use a mini winch to cock the device, or a drill to tighten your tension bundle go for it. Devices which use the motor to throw the projectile are out however.
  

• Chilly asks "Can I enter more than one device?"

  
  Sure, you can either in the same or different classes. I am planning on building two myself.
  

• Chilly asks " And do we need a rule that the machine, when cocked and set to fire, doesn't need to be held in place artificially? (i.e. - a wrist rocket with the handle cut down to less than 5" would be the automaticat winner in this contest)"

  
  Uh.. yeah we need a rule to fix that, because what fun would that be. Devices cannot require contact outside the 5x5x5 cube when cocked, and must be freestanding in their ready to fire position. Throwing arms may extend outside this cube but must not be in contact with anything outside the cube. (AKA no slingshots or wrist rockets)
  

Why White Balance Matters

In 2007 when I got my Digital SLR I took the free classes offered by National Camera where I got it. I learned many fine things. Maybe not as much as the people who hadn't read their manual before they got there, or the people who hadn't had any structured camera instruction. One of the coolest things I learned was a strictly digital related skill White Balance. First off what is white balance? Wikipedia has a lot to say here But for those who don't want to go read all that, as I understand it digital camera takes a bunch of optical data and collects it on a sensor. If you're not shooting in RAW mode and editing your pictures in Photoshop or some tool like that, you're shooting in JPEG mode and it has to set values for the data. To set those values it makes some assumptions about what the world looks like, that there should be so much dark, so much light. Essentially that the world is a uniform 18% grey color.

Most cameras, even little pocket ones have a few stock settings, AWB or Auto, Florescent, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Flash, and Custom. AWB or Auto is where most default to, and many people never change it. It does a fair job. The others are mostly related to the sorts of light you are under. Florescent fixes the green skin tones that appear in pictures of very fair people in office and the like.

Custom is really the way to go if you have the few seconds to do it. It's easy. You do need something that is that mysterious 18% grey, or well any uniform light or medium grey, will work. I have used the inside liner of my camera bag. I have a lens cloth that happens to be an ok grey card. Serious photographers will tell you that a card is better, but this fits in my pocket and works ok. Cards are allegedly be better because of more uniform flat reflective surface. A sheet of paper will also work but might end up with slightly overexposed pictures.

So how do I use this? Well first I notice that Auto is failing me. See the golden hue of my living room. It's not realy this orangey golden. Also frequently it's tidier than this, but that isn't really relevent to the issue at hand.

Then I get out my grey cloth and I take a picture of it. It should be flat not all wrinkly but it doesn't seem to matter a ton in indoor light. You will notice this doesn't look too grey either, it's sort of a goldeny weird grey caused by the lights in my basement. Now the steps here vary but on my Canon Rebel XT I open up the White Balance settings. I then change to Custom. Then I go back up to the menu and choose the Custom WB option and it then shows me images, starting with the most recent one taken and gives me an option to select an image to white balance against. So I pick that one of my grey cloth.


Then I take the same picture again. Notice the more natural coloration. One last thought be sure and check your white balance as soon as you start taking pictures, especially if you use a custom white balances. Because the white balance you shot in your basement, or in your lightbox, or at the park, may be radically wrong in the other locations, but it will keep trying to use the last one you set.

Maybe tomorrow I'll do some white balance photos, in the great outdoors with all the snow. It's stunning what a difference it makes.