Reminds me of when I lived in Illinois and Wisconsin. We used to pile up the leaves next to the house, then climb on the roof and jump into the piles.
Ahhhh youth... it's a wonder we survived..
Random photos: Got anything interesting, unique, strange?
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Reminds me of when I lived in Illinois and Wisconsin. We used to pile up the leaves next to the house, then climb on the roof and jump into the piles.
Ahhhh youth... it's a wonder we survived..
still 30-40% more still on the trees and the acorns are pinging everything.
We have a contract with an interest group to monitor the Colorado River. My coworker is wading across. We set up cross-sections for the riffle, a pool and a glide section at 6 separate locations in a couple different counties. Survey across with a Trimble RTX unit (centimeter accuracy) and will compare to data taken 5 years ago, our data collected here, and again in 5 years (2028) to see how much the river is moving. Ultimately, this section of River (55 miles) will be designated Wild and Scenic for the State of Colorado.
Looks cool, but holy cow it was physically demanding. Wading across a 100' river in a pool section that can be 4-5' deep with survey gear. Lugging 80 lbs of concrete across to set rebar survey pins when you can't even see the bottom of the river. Performing sediment counts at each cross-section which means you gotta put your bare hand in the water and count the size of the material you pull up (keep in mind its mid November in the high Rockies
). This one is a poor example, but the 5 other cross-sections as soon as you step out of the water, its a thicket of willows you have to bust through and incredibly steep embankments to climb to get to an upland point to set your pins. Sometimes though, I have to remind myself that my job is pretty rad.
Looks cool, but holy cow it was physically demanding. Wading across a 100' river in a pool section that can be 4-5' deep with survey gear. Lugging 80 lbs of concrete across to set rebar survey pins when you can't even see the bottom of the river. Performing sediment counts at each cross-section which means you gotta put your bare hand in the water and count the size of the material you pull up (keep in mind its mid November in the high Rockies
). This one is a poor example, but the 5 other cross-sections as soon as you step out of the water, its a thicket of willows you have to bust through and incredibly steep embankments to climb to get to an upland point to set your pins. Sometimes though, I have to remind myself that my job is pretty rad.
Most of my camera gear, picture taken because of a new addition.
L to R
Sony Alpha A200, bought used on eBay several years ago for about $60. It also has the battery grip which is almost IMPOSSIBLE to find - I think I paid $150 and it was shipped to me from Japan.
Sony Alpha A100 with external Minolta flash. Purchased new quite a few years ago for somewhere around $600. Still works fine.
A second A200 is the new addition, paid $25/shipped from eBay last week. The good news is that it looks practically brand new, and only has about 1550 shutter clicks on it. The bad news is that it was dropped - no external damage but the flash doesn't work (neither built-in nor hot shoe attached) nor does the image stabilization. But for $25, I ain't complaining as it otherwise works fine. I'll just use it for tele work where neither of the missing features really matter anyway.
Far right front is a Sony ZV-1 "Vlogging" cam. It does both stills and videos, although I bought it for the video capabilities. With that said, it has something like two times the resolution of the DSLRs, and takes stunning videos. I chose it because it was one of the very few video cameras of any kind under $1,000 that had a fairly wide lens rather than a tele. It focuses close - its really made for youtube videos which is largely what I use it for, and it excels at videoing Belly Dance performances as well. Got it earlier this year with credit card points, but I think it costs about $650. I have an external mic for it too.
Behind it is an "Action Cam" with Polaroid's name on it. It shoots darn good 1080p video, I used it to create the below rather silly video:
Missing is another flash unit (Sony), an Olympus point and shoot, and the camera I used to take the picture, an ancient "Kodak" 2MP point and shoot. I have a butt ton of Minolta and 3rd party glass for the Sonys as well. The new A200 on the right has the famed Minolta "Beercan" 70-210 constant F4 "ProSumer" lens from 1985 - probably my favorite as its tack sharp. The A100 in the middle has an equally old F1.7 50mm - I use it to take closeups mostly, its not quite a macro lens, but at a 12 inch focusing distance, its usually plenty close enough. If I have time, I can use some closeup filters to dial things in, but they're fiddly and time consuming to use.
Just discovered this thread. Taken from my kitchen window three years ago to the day (almost)...
Taken at Lost Dutchman State Park near Apache Junction Az.
Sunrise yesterday, taking a break from MSHA training. Can't believe it's been 11 years...
Lunch time, not just for the bipeds...
Lunch time, not just for the bipeds...
Something made me think about this this morning and I figured I would share some of these. A train derailed two years ago and I was nearby so I went over to check it out. The cars that went over were only hauling grain or were empty. It's crazy to think about the force that it takes to cause some of the damage!
Edit: I should add, there were no injuries or damages to property beyond the railway.
Edit: I should add, there were no injuries or damages to property beyond the railway.
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Got stopped for this recovery at Canyon Lake the other day. It wasn't dripping water so must not have gone in the lake.
I've helped with one or two of those. This one was a rental car, a new 2023 Honda. The girl called the police and wanted to be arrested for a warrant. They didn't get there fast enough for her liking so she sent the car into the lake. It was about 40 feet off shore standing on it's nose. The trunk was about 6' under the surface.