Snapped this one of Levi tonight. I'm pretty proud of how it turned out considering it was just a short "Hey Levi, Turn around and look at me for a sec" shot. Not posed or anything, just bounced the flash off a nearby wall and snapped it. I had to do some photoshop work blacking out the background, but the lighting on Levi is just great.
January 23, 2010
January 16, 2010
Grandpa Wrinkles tells a story
This is wrinkles and he is about 24 years old, probably the oldest toy we have in the house. I think i got him when I was 7 and his clothes were still in style. Josh loves to run up and hug him. It's so cute.
Wrinkles is also my second experience in off camera lighting. I think in this case I bounced it off the ceiling a bit to wrinkles's left.
Wrinkles is also my second experience in off camera lighting. I think in this case I bounced it off the ceiling a bit to wrinkles's left.
My Twin
My first experience with off-camera lighting. It was bounced off a wall to the right. Unfortunately, I played with the settings so much that i don't know what the power was - sorry!
This superhero is made from that dense foam rubber stuff they make stress balls out of. A coworker gave him to me because she said he looked like me. I guess the hair style is similar.
This superhero is made from that dense foam rubber stuff they make stress balls out of. A coworker gave him to me because she said he looked like me. I guess the hair style is similar.
January 15, 2010
January 10, 2010
Rub a Dub Dub, Five kids in a kennel.
We visited Grandma and Grandpa Nielson today and Stacie, Isaac, and Scott were there with their dogs today. Boy was the dog kennel fun!
Grandma said to either eat in the cage or on the hard floor. Dad laughed, but The cookie was yummy and the cage was fun, so I stayed in there.
January 07, 2010
Is the world out to get me, or is it just me?
have you ever had one of those days where you're not sure if the world's out to get you or if the sum total of all of your troubles is just because you've made one mistake after another?
January 04, 2010
When you get the choice to sit it out or dance...DANCE!
I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat
But always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed
I hope you still feel small
When you stand by the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me you'll give faith a fighting chance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance.
-I hope you dance, Lee Ann Womack
You get your fill to eat
But always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed
I hope you still feel small
When you stand by the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me you'll give faith a fighting chance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance.
-I hope you dance, Lee Ann Womack
In my daughter's Eyes.
In my daughter's eyes I am a hero
I am strong and wise and I know no fear
But the truth is plain to see
She was sent to rescue me
I see who I wanna be
In my daughter's eyes
In my daughter's eyes everyone is equal.
Darkness turns to light and the
world is at peace
This miracle God gave to me gives me
strength when I am weak
I find reason to believe
In my daughter's eyes
-Martina McBride
I am strong and wise and I know no fear
But the truth is plain to see
She was sent to rescue me
I see who I wanna be
In my daughter's eyes
In my daughter's eyes everyone is equal.
Darkness turns to light and the
world is at peace
This miracle God gave to me gives me
strength when I am weak
I find reason to believe
In my daughter's eyes
-Martina McBride
January 01, 2010
nothing I do
I feel like I need to explain the caption a bit. When I posted this to www.flickr.com, I posted it with the description "To some people it's a religion. To others, It's an excuse. To me, it's a frustration."
The religion comment refers to the philosophy that I see in a lot of religions that says "as long as you X (usually 'proclaim Christ as your savior' or 'Do penance afterward'), you can do whatever you want and you're saved." The Excuse Comment refers to people that have simply given up on whatever it is that was important enough to them that they even tried in the first place. I refuse to give up, but the occasional intense feeling of futility really gets me down sometimes, as I'm sure it does to us all.
The feeling comes and goes. It's a familiar feeling for most parents. We can say "Be nice." "Cleanup when you're done." "Wipe your nose." "Please Stop" and a dozen other things until we're blue in the face but they never seem to sink in.
The futility seems rampant in other parts of life as well (permanent weight loss, for example). Sometimes you can deal with the feeling and it doesn't seem so bad. Other times, it's almost overwhelming.
The religion comment refers to the philosophy that I see in a lot of religions that says "as long as you X (usually 'proclaim Christ as your savior' or 'Do penance afterward'), you can do whatever you want and you're saved." The Excuse Comment refers to people that have simply given up on whatever it is that was important enough to them that they even tried in the first place. I refuse to give up, but the occasional intense feeling of futility really gets me down sometimes, as I'm sure it does to us all.
The feeling comes and goes. It's a familiar feeling for most parents. We can say "Be nice." "Cleanup when you're done." "Wipe your nose." "Please Stop" and a dozen other things until we're blue in the face but they never seem to sink in.
The futility seems rampant in other parts of life as well (permanent weight loss, for example). Sometimes you can deal with the feeling and it doesn't seem so bad. Other times, it's almost overwhelming.
December 26, 2009
psychedelic
I Really like the sunflower look here. This is the iris and pupil of Erin's eye, super-saturated and put on a contrast cloud background.
December 12, 2009
BaldwinAuldLangSyne
created with the help of my wife and mom. The couple pictured are my Great Grandparents, the Jackmans. The Cemetary is the Fort Douglas Cemetery at the University of Utah.
December 06, 2009
Portfolio
Another assignment for the DigiPhotog class is what he calls baselines - we take several categories of pictures (indoor and outdoor portraits, an action shot, and a landscape) at the beginning of the semester and then take more of the same styles (but not necessarily the same subject) at the end of the semester. Here's what I've got so far, with the beginning of the semester on top and the end of the semester on bottom:
Action Shots:
Indoor Portraits:
Landscapes:
Outdoor Portrait: With this one, the top two were from the beginning of the semester. The rest were taken today and I'm having a hard time deciding which to use. Opinions?
Action Shots:
Indoor Portraits:
Landscapes:
Outdoor Portrait: With this one, the top two were from the beginning of the semester. The rest were taken today and I'm having a hard time deciding which to use. Opinions?
The 5-Panel Story
My Digital Photography teacher gave us the assignment to creat a 3-to-5 panel photo story. IT was to include some sort of text as well. Ideas evaded me for avery long time and Finally I came up with the idea of the christmas light story below.
The story's all in the pictures with the history-oriented text there to meet the text requirement. I got a 17 out of 20 on the assignment. He liked the idea generally but said panels 2 and 3 duplicated each other and panel 5 didn't "fit" the story and didn't carry the idea of the frustration with the lights that the other panels had. I like the resolution, personally. The idea of simplifying and leaving the commercialism of Christmas behind is appealing to me.
The story's all in the pictures with the history-oriented text there to meet the text requirement. I got a 17 out of 20 on the assignment. He liked the idea generally but said panels 2 and 3 duplicated each other and panel 5 didn't "fit" the story and didn't carry the idea of the frustration with the lights that the other panels had. I like the resolution, personally. The idea of simplifying and leaving the commercialism of Christmas behind is appealing to me.
November 25, 2009
landscape shoot
I went up to Wasatch Blvd tonight to do some shooting for my portfolio for my DigiPhotog class project. I took twenty-something pictures and came up with...nothing worth posting. But after some digital cleanup (YAY for photoshop!), these two came out pretty well:
November 07, 2009
Levi-ism from this morning
Emma and I were talking about how the broom we have is too big for her to use and I suggested we ask for one for Christmas. Levi came in from the other room and said "We can ask Santa for one and he will say mum ummm ummum mum-um inda back, so he means 'They're in the sleigh in the back.'"
Levi' sure funny this year. He has definite ideas about Santa's organization and job. He's also just positive that Santa's going to bring him a talking Thomas the Tank Engine. I'm not sure Santa knows how to make or find one of those, so we can only hope he comes through somehow.
Levi' sure funny this year. He has definite ideas about Santa's organization and job. He's also just positive that Santa's going to bring him a talking Thomas the Tank Engine. I'm not sure Santa knows how to make or find one of those, so we can only hope he comes through somehow.
October 27, 2009
More leaks, but it's workable
Well, asking Erin to handle the caulking on this version seemed to have worked for 3 days. We hooked it up on Friday night and it worked!
The Drains are draining and looking great!
Here are the pipes, leakless and working beautifully. Erin Caulked the tops of these in the 2x4 one day, then screwed in the tops the next day and caulked around the bottoms of those in the grow bed. Then she told me I wasn't allowed to touch or test them until Friday (3-4 days away) so they had time to completely dry. It worked for a bit because we had 3 days after filling, without tragedy or leaks.
Here's the grow bed filled with some rocks and water, looking all ready for planting. After 3 days, our peas had sprouted, which made the eventual leak all the more difficult.
Here's a wide shot of the full growbed and tank before I put the rocks in. The water is clear (though the bottom of the tank is carpeted in algae - that's a fight we're still fighting. Hopefully as the plants in the grow bed start to root and grow, they will suck up all the nutrients in the water and the alge will go away.) and beautiful.
Here's a pictyure of a leak - you can kind of see it against the white PVC. Two of the pipes leaked on the setup that Erin caulked - just out of the blue on Monday it started to leak and went onto the brick wall behind the tank and down the back of the tank. This was pretty worrisome because we were losing water and the water was going to places where we had electrical connections.
We sort of solved the issue by pulling off the supports from the side of the tank and removing the 2x4 shelves that the grow bed sat on. then we turned the grow bed 180 degrees so the pipes and holes were in the front and set the grow bed directly on the top of the light box. This looks better and gives more room for tall plants and a more even distribution of light. The problem is that the leak is still there. I need to switch out the pvc parts in the grow bed so that there's a more flush connection which should be more airtight. Someone on one of my fish forum websites also suggested that I use waterproofing thread tape instead of rubber o-rings, so I'll have to try that to see if I get a tighter connection.
For now, though, the leak is just putting the water in the front right corner of the tank and a little bit splashes out onto the recliner and floor next to the tank where we have a towel to catch it.
The other things that I learned in this process are:
1) Garlic does not grow aquaponically
2) garlic rots in water and gravel when the fish water can't cycle through the tank (we were trying to grow it in an old growbed version while we got the current version worked out)
3) rotton garlic will not come off of rocks easily - I've tried laundry soap and axe body wash, alternating soaking and rinsing. The rocks that were in the old grow bed still stink. I may have to try bleach, then a whole bunch of dechlorinator. I just really don't want to do that.
The Drains are draining and looking great!
Here are the pipes, leakless and working beautifully. Erin Caulked the tops of these in the 2x4 one day, then screwed in the tops the next day and caulked around the bottoms of those in the grow bed. Then she told me I wasn't allowed to touch or test them until Friday (3-4 days away) so they had time to completely dry. It worked for a bit because we had 3 days after filling, without tragedy or leaks.
Here's the grow bed filled with some rocks and water, looking all ready for planting. After 3 days, our peas had sprouted, which made the eventual leak all the more difficult.
Here's a wide shot of the full growbed and tank before I put the rocks in. The water is clear (though the bottom of the tank is carpeted in algae - that's a fight we're still fighting. Hopefully as the plants in the grow bed start to root and grow, they will suck up all the nutrients in the water and the alge will go away.) and beautiful.
Here's a pictyure of a leak - you can kind of see it against the white PVC. Two of the pipes leaked on the setup that Erin caulked - just out of the blue on Monday it started to leak and went onto the brick wall behind the tank and down the back of the tank. This was pretty worrisome because we were losing water and the water was going to places where we had electrical connections.
We sort of solved the issue by pulling off the supports from the side of the tank and removing the 2x4 shelves that the grow bed sat on. then we turned the grow bed 180 degrees so the pipes and holes were in the front and set the grow bed directly on the top of the light box. This looks better and gives more room for tall plants and a more even distribution of light. The problem is that the leak is still there. I need to switch out the pvc parts in the grow bed so that there's a more flush connection which should be more airtight. Someone on one of my fish forum websites also suggested that I use waterproofing thread tape instead of rubber o-rings, so I'll have to try that to see if I get a tighter connection.
For now, though, the leak is just putting the water in the front right corner of the tank and a little bit splashes out onto the recliner and floor next to the tank where we have a towel to catch it.
The other things that I learned in this process are:
1) Garlic does not grow aquaponically
2) garlic rots in water and gravel when the fish water can't cycle through the tank (we were trying to grow it in an old growbed version while we got the current version worked out)
3) rotton garlic will not come off of rocks easily - I've tried laundry soap and axe body wash, alternating soaking and rinsing. The rocks that were in the old grow bed still stink. I may have to try bleach, then a whole bunch of dechlorinator. I just really don't want to do that.
October 18, 2009
Well, the wooden Grow box failed 2 leak tests so That idea was scrapped. In order to make that work I'd probably have to coat the box (inside and out) in half an inch of silicone. I went back to trying to make a sterilite bin work. This time I drilled the 3 holes in the bottom, but the middle hole splintered so I upped that plumbing to 1 1/4 inch and caulked like crazy to try to fill the holes. then I tried to caulk again this morning. We'll take a look tonight and see if it's ready for a water test. I sure hope this works.
On the good side, though, The tank water is clearing. we can see the plants at the back wall more easily now, though the water is still a bit green and cloudy. Hopefully it will be clear soon. And, as a bonus, we don't seem to have lost any fish through this process!
On the good side, though, The tank water is clearing. we can see the plants at the back wall more easily now, though the water is still a bit green and cloudy. Hopefully it will be clear soon. And, as a bonus, we don't seem to have lost any fish through this process!
October 15, 2009
Things are looking up.
Yesterday was a pretty good day as far as the Awuaponic project goes. I found a new T5 strip that holds 2 bulbs at Home Depot for under $40 so that's helping the lack of light in the tank, I believe. Hopefully I'll eventually be able to get some lights for it that are the right spectrum. I think right now they have Soft White or Bright White and I want daylight or 6700K for them.
When I went to check on the drying drains, I foudn that I didn't have 1" female bushings, I had 1 to 3/4 inch reducing bushings. So I switched them out for another type of fitting whose name I can't remember right now, but this is probably a better thing because these fittings are taller so keep more water in the grow bed and they allow for the full 1" connection ( though it did take some additional drilling and caluking - the 3/4 in ch connection was tight so I had to make the hole bigger for the 1" connection).
You can't really see the down pipes inside the tank. I tried to cut them so they hide behind the black plastic rim at the top of the tank. The only place you can really see them is aove the light box:
(Sorry about the weird angle on this last shot. It was hard to get the shot at all because there's so little room between the tank/stand and the wall. )
From the back, you can see that only one pipe goes very far into the water. I think the other two just barely touch it.
In other news I managed to figure out why that cheap knock-off canister filter I originally bought wasn't working. The O-ring that seals the motor to thsomehow migrated off of the motor and was found my Levi and Josh. So I've got that back on now and it only leaks if you tip the canister. Also, it pumps much better now that I've got the stand tall enough to put the canister underneath the tank and removed all the filter media from the canister. I'm mainly just using it now to try to kill the algae with the UV bulb in the canister.
I may have to put some filter media back in because right now the flow rate's too high to expose the algae to the light for very long.
I have the XP turned off while the caulk in the grow bed dries. Hopefully the bacteria I have growing in there will survive while I wait. I had to turn it off because I've left the hose to the spray bar much longer than the hose from the intake so that it will reach the growbed. That was causing some cavitation and I didn't really want to lose/break the impeller and motor after spending so much money to buy the XP.
I also bought some fish the other day for the tank - I now have a gold Severum, 3or 4 Boesmani Rainbow fish and some other kind whose name I can't remember - they're a pretty blue-green.
So all in all a great day. I jsut hope that silicone hurries up so I can get the grow bed wet and make sure it holds water.
When I went to check on the drying drains, I foudn that I didn't have 1" female bushings, I had 1 to 3/4 inch reducing bushings. So I switched them out for another type of fitting whose name I can't remember right now, but this is probably a better thing because these fittings are taller so keep more water in the grow bed and they allow for the full 1" connection ( though it did take some additional drilling and caluking - the 3/4 in ch connection was tight so I had to make the hole bigger for the 1" connection).
You can't really see the down pipes inside the tank. I tried to cut them so they hide behind the black plastic rim at the top of the tank. The only place you can really see them is aove the light box:
(Sorry about the weird angle on this last shot. It was hard to get the shot at all because there's so little room between the tank/stand and the wall. )
From the back, you can see that only one pipe goes very far into the water. I think the other two just barely touch it.
In other news I managed to figure out why that cheap knock-off canister filter I originally bought wasn't working. The O-ring that seals the motor to thsomehow migrated off of the motor and was found my Levi and Josh. So I've got that back on now and it only leaks if you tip the canister. Also, it pumps much better now that I've got the stand tall enough to put the canister underneath the tank and removed all the filter media from the canister. I'm mainly just using it now to try to kill the algae with the UV bulb in the canister.
I may have to put some filter media back in because right now the flow rate's too high to expose the algae to the light for very long.
I have the XP turned off while the caulk in the grow bed dries. Hopefully the bacteria I have growing in there will survive while I wait. I had to turn it off because I've left the hose to the spray bar much longer than the hose from the intake so that it will reach the growbed. That was causing some cavitation and I didn't really want to lose/break the impeller and motor after spending so much money to buy the XP.
I also bought some fish the other day for the tank - I now have a gold Severum, 3or 4 Boesmani Rainbow fish and some other kind whose name I can't remember - they're a pretty blue-green.
So all in all a great day. I jsut hope that silicone hurries up so I can get the grow bed wet and make sure it holds water.
October 13, 2009
The Build continues
If you ever need proof that lights have different colors and that those colors affect plants, here you go. I have 5 lights over my tank in the DIY light box and those lights are 3 different colors. In the direct middle of the tank is a 100 watt light (I want to say it's a 5500k, but I'm not positive.) on either side of that light, you can see small circles of blue. Those are 90watt equivalent 6500K grow lights. That's close to the right color temperature but (amazingly) not bright enough for what I need. On the outside ends of the light box are 120 Watt Par38 Outdoor Flood lights. You can see at the ends of the tank that this is the only light that gets to the bottom of the tank as brightly as I'd like. Unfortunately, the color is wrong so it's still not helping the plants as much.
so what does that do to the water and plants? Well, Look at the next picture. Green Water and algae covered plants. No Fun! I'll have to look into other options for light which is really frustrating for me since I worked so hard to build that light box and thought I had a nice mix of color to keep the plants happy while letting it be bright enough for people to enjoy as well. Grrr....
In this shot, you can see the holes I drilled. I will put the outflow from my canister in the diagonally opposite corner, facing the back of the box in hopes of avoiding any low-flow dead spots.
The original plan was to coat the box in sweet water epoxy to water proof it. Home Depot and Lowes don't sell that as far as I can tell, so I went with another plan. I spread clear epoxy around on the wood to fill holes and knots, then scattered white epoxy around the bed to acts as both waterproofing and glue for some black painter's plastic that I'm hoping will keep things waterproof.
In this pic, I have started to lay down the plastic and kind of rub it into place to bond it to the caulk, eliminate as many air bubbles as I can, and get it read to staple and trim. I just kind of threw the black plastic on the box, making sure that the lengthwise fold looked like it was in the middle, then I started smoothing from the middle out. i'm not sure how to fold or trim the plastic to avoid it bunching in the corners, but I'd like to have started at one end and worked my way across, smoothing as I went in order to avoid the air bubbles I still have a few of now.
The other problem I had was a small rip (the white you see in the photo) where one of the sides met the floor and there was an air bubble I was trying to push caulk toward. so I finished pushing caulk towartd it, hoping to fill the hole in the plastic and behind it. Then I caulked more over the top and smoothed it with my finger. Here's hoping it's enough to keep it water-tight.
After I smoothed the caulk and plastic as much as I had patience for, I stapled the plastic to the outside. I didn't do it a consistent distance between staples or anything, just shot the staples into where the plastic looked a bit loose.
Here's the semi-finished product. I will wait for a couple of days for the caulk to set, then I will use a razor blade to cut an "x" into the plastic at the drilled holes and try to install the PVC and DIY bulk heads.
on the location of the Holes I drilled - I kind of wavered between putting the holes halfway up the back wall and putting them where I did. In theory, with the holes halfway up (as I said in a previous post), it would hold some water in the tank if the power died or the filter/pump lost its siphon for some other reason.
This time around, though, instead of making the bulk heads with male and female bushings, I'm making them with female bushings and a Thread to smooth coupling. I think the female couplings will stick up into the grow bed enough that it will hold a small amount of water in the tank still, so I ended up going with holes in the bottom.
here's hoping it holds water. all that's left now is to wait and see.
Also in that last pic, you can see the coffee table/hamster cages that I built. That's just proof that even though I'm having difficulty with this particular project, I CAN actually build diy stuff that works. :)
so what does that do to the water and plants? Well, Look at the next picture. Green Water and algae covered plants. No Fun! I'll have to look into other options for light which is really frustrating for me since I worked so hard to build that light box and thought I had a nice mix of color to keep the plants happy while letting it be bright enough for people to enjoy as well. Grrr....
In this shot, you can see the holes I drilled. I will put the outflow from my canister in the diagonally opposite corner, facing the back of the box in hopes of avoiding any low-flow dead spots.
The original plan was to coat the box in sweet water epoxy to water proof it. Home Depot and Lowes don't sell that as far as I can tell, so I went with another plan. I spread clear epoxy around on the wood to fill holes and knots, then scattered white epoxy around the bed to acts as both waterproofing and glue for some black painter's plastic that I'm hoping will keep things waterproof.
In this pic, I have started to lay down the plastic and kind of rub it into place to bond it to the caulk, eliminate as many air bubbles as I can, and get it read to staple and trim. I just kind of threw the black plastic on the box, making sure that the lengthwise fold looked like it was in the middle, then I started smoothing from the middle out. i'm not sure how to fold or trim the plastic to avoid it bunching in the corners, but I'd like to have started at one end and worked my way across, smoothing as I went in order to avoid the air bubbles I still have a few of now.
The other problem I had was a small rip (the white you see in the photo) where one of the sides met the floor and there was an air bubble I was trying to push caulk toward. so I finished pushing caulk towartd it, hoping to fill the hole in the plastic and behind it. Then I caulked more over the top and smoothed it with my finger. Here's hoping it's enough to keep it water-tight.
After I smoothed the caulk and plastic as much as I had patience for, I stapled the plastic to the outside. I didn't do it a consistent distance between staples or anything, just shot the staples into where the plastic looked a bit loose.
Here's the semi-finished product. I will wait for a couple of days for the caulk to set, then I will use a razor blade to cut an "x" into the plastic at the drilled holes and try to install the PVC and DIY bulk heads.
on the location of the Holes I drilled - I kind of wavered between putting the holes halfway up the back wall and putting them where I did. In theory, with the holes halfway up (as I said in a previous post), it would hold some water in the tank if the power died or the filter/pump lost its siphon for some other reason.
This time around, though, instead of making the bulk heads with male and female bushings, I'm making them with female bushings and a Thread to smooth coupling. I think the female couplings will stick up into the grow bed enough that it will hold a small amount of water in the tank still, so I ended up going with holes in the bottom.
here's hoping it holds water. all that's left now is to wait and see.
Also in that last pic, you can see the coffee table/hamster cages that I built. That's just proof that even though I'm having difficulty with this particular project, I CAN actually build diy stuff that works. :)
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