August 16, 2012 -- Shimano 105 rear cogs on a Gunnar Sport

Playing Macro a bit. Canon 5dII + 40mm lens and a Macro Extender tube. I hand held a 430exII speedlite with a Rogue FlashBender setup as a snoot. Flash was fired via a Canon ST-E2.

The bike was my birthday present to myself. Cyn had gotten a new commuter bike earlier in the year, and my older bike, a GT Karakoram mountain bike was around 17 years old - it was frankly painful to ride for any distance. I test rode a couple bikes, without having found one that felt right. We were about ready to head out, and the sales guy we were working with at Spokes Etc pointed out the Gunnar up front. I took it for a spin and was hooked. Expect to see more bike and biking photos in the future!

January 22, 2012 - Elecraft XV222

January 22, 2012 - Elecraft XV222

This is the weekend of the ARRL annual January VHF Sweepstakes. It is one of the many radio contests - this one is specific to VHF and higher frequencies. The idea here is to work as many other stations in as many different Maidenhead Grid Squares as possible over the contest weekend, which runs from 1900UTC on Saturday to 0300UTC on Monday. I made a total of 36 contacts - no, not anywhere near winning. Was just nice to get on the air.

Biggest things from this weekend - found I could tune my old G5RV on 6m, after having changed out the old Balun for a newer one, and, got the XV222 transverter, pictured here with the FT-817nd "IF rig" working. This was pretty much the first chance I'd had to put it on the air and make some contacts. Was a fun build. I built the kit last fall. Am overall very pleased with the quality of the product and the experience I had building the kit. Had one mis-queue with the inductors (had 2 sets of them swapped in the position they needed to be on the board) but, with a bit of email support from an Elecraft Engineer, was able to get that sorted out and get things working. It is, based on today's experience, about 3kHz off - to work on 222.110mhz or 28.110MHz on the IF rig, I need to tune to about 222.112.90 or 28.112.90 on the IF. Could be worse.

Photo was taken with the 5dII and the 28mm Zeiss lens. Flash, somewhat obviously, off to the left just a bit lower than the shelf on which the radio was sitting. ISO 100, 1/60th, f/4.0 - E-TTL full auto. Flash was gelled with 1/4CTO. Shot this with the ambient lights turned off - though there were a couple of computer monitors running.

January 21, 2012 - QSL Cards from the Bureau

January 21, 2012 - QSL Cards from the Bureau

Letting my geek show here a bit. Got a few QSL cards from the bureau today. Yes, I'm an amateur radio operator, and yes I still send QSL cards back and forth to confirm my QSO's, even with all of the electronic logging and online logs like the ARRL's Logbook for the World. My dad is a ham, and I grew up seeing him get cards from all over the world, and eagerly waiting for envelopes from the bureau.

This was a small bunch - only 5. I suppose perhaps they got sent as postage rates are about to change. I never know quite when they'll arrive. These are all Europeans, not really any that I needed to confirm. The oldest is from 2006, the newest, late in 2011.

The photo was shot with the 5dII and 28mm lens - pretty much the same setup as yesterday with the beer, only I added the white shoot through umbrella for this. Flash is off to the left. ISO 100, 1/60th, f/4.0.

January 20, 2012 - Victory Headwaters Pale Ale

January 20, 2012 - Victory Headwaters Pale Ale.
Victory Brewing Company of Downingtown Pennsylvania is, in my opinion, one of the best breweries in the country. Their beers are always well crafted, flavorful and very fresh. The subject of today's picture is a bottle of Victory's Headwaters Pale Ale. This is a fairly recent addition to their lineup - hoppy and refreshing. At 5.1% ABV it falls into what I'd consider a sessionable beer - you can have more than one without needing to consider dialysis. So many beers these days have adopted the "imperial" moniker and thrown in more of everything. This isn't one of those beers, rather, just a well made drinkable pale ale. Would that more breweries could concentrate on making quality styles, versus trying to outdo the other guy. Cheers to Victory!

Photo details: Canon 5dII, Zeiss 28mm f/2.0 ZE lens, hand-held. ISO 100, 1/60th second at f/7.1. Used a canon 430exII flash off to camera right, gelled with 1/4 CTO, triggered with an ST-E2. Retouched slightly in Lightroom.