Bending

Posted by dkrashb on June 15, 2013

The Walnut Street Bridge takes a wild turn

I have discovered a whole new way to have fun with my iPhone camera. Yes, more panoramics! But in this case, instead of creating a really big view of a vast landscape, I’m making a U-shape! I know, I am easily amused.

But how much fun is it to stand on the Walnut Street Bridge and take a panoramic shot that starts by looking up the bridge, then pans across the scene of Riverbend and ends looking down the bridge?

I clarifies the concept of putting a 3-dimensional landscape into 2 dimensions in a brand new way. I am starting to think of other possible uses for the panoramic capability. I will cover 240 degrees. That means I can’t quite create a circle. But horseshoe shapes? The bridge is pretty close to a horseshoe.

Bending the bridge around the Carousel in Coolidge Park

Before I get carried away on the possibilities, let me just mention that we are rapidly approaching the close of this year’s Riverbend Festival. Riverbend is a pretty big deal that takes over the river front across the river. They close the main street that runs along the river, float in a big stage, and book many bands. Lynrd Skynrd played last night. That was a bit of a shock–I thought most of the band died in a plane many years ago? I guess you can still be a band even if you’ve replaced most of the original members.

In any case, Riverbend attracts a large crowd. Supposedly, over 600,000 people descend upon Chattanooga over the course of the 2 week music festival. To put that in perspective, there are about 170,000 people in Chattanooga proper. Believe it or not, that makes Chattanooga the 4th largest city in Tennessee, and only a about 10,000 people behind Knoxville, the largest city in East Tennessee. Only Nashville and Memphis are larger.

A panoramic that stops short of making a bend

By the time you add 600,000 people to Chattanooga, that’s enough to bump the population up to the largest city in Tennessee. Of course, they’re not all here at once. But, the extra crowd may explain the extra people hanging out in the park looking like perhaps they are camping out there. It’s hard for me to believe there are enough hotel rooms in town to house even 300,000 extra people. The building we live in has suddenly filled with extra people we don’t recognize and cars in parking spots that are normally empty.

We’ve learned that locals are not fond of Riverbend. I think people camping in the park do not help the locals lack of enthusiasm. But it’s likely the fight for parking is the bigger issue. People park anywhere they can. It’s pretty rare to find free parking anywhere in the vicinity of downtown. During Riverbend, unless you have a reserved spot, you’re pretty much out of luck.

However people feel about Riverbend, the fireworks display at the end of the festival is a big deal. We’ll see if it’s as impressive as last year tomorrow night.

Tisen cuddling with daddy

Storms

Posted by dkrashb on June 14, 2013

Tisen posing on the top of the sledding hill with the bridge over the wetland in the background

Although we seem to have largely skipped right over spring, we didn’t skip over the storms. I’m not sure if we’re still having spring storms or if we’ve moved into summer ones, but we’ve had some doozies lately.

Now days, Tisen usually sleeps through storms–provided they’re not too loud. Before we moved, the rain would hit the roof and echo through the metal sheeting, creating a drumming sound so loud that if it was raining really hard, I had trouble hearing if I was on a conference call. That is one of the perks of our new location–unless there is thunder and lightening, the rain can only be heard hitting the windows.

But there has been thunder and lightening. In fact, one day earlier this week, a storm broke loose with what seemed like almost constant thunder and lightening. Because I was on a conference call with noise-blocking earbuds in my ears, I really didn’t notice the thunder until Tisen suddenly wiggled his way between my chair and my desk and managed to wind himself around my feet. I couldn’t figure out what had come over him until I took out an ear bud and looked out the window.

Tisen hiding from thunder

I had to attempt to photograph him wound around my legs. However, it was a bit challenging with my iPhone shooting from straight above. When you look at this photo, the thing in the top left is my knee. Directly under Tisen’s nose, if you look carefully, you can see my foot with Tisen’s legs over it. Just below his nose, you can see one wheel of my desk chair. You can also see the various items under my desk like power cords, a printer, and a basket of office supplies, that Tisen wedged himself between in order to have physical contact with my foot.

I don’t know exactly what makes Tisen feel safe when he is in contact with my foot. I’m certain that if I’d been sitting on the sofa he would have been up in my lap trying to press himself against me as if he was trying to get inside my skin. However, he made due with my foot since my lap was wholly unavailable.

Tisen preparing to go out

Tisen has other ways of finding comfort. He doesn’t like to leave without a toy. Sometimes it seems he holds his toy more tightly than others. I’m not always able to figure out what exactly makes him nervous. I know large crowds make him cling to his toy more tightly, even in hot weather. But on the day I took pictures of him with Pink Elephant up on the sledding hill, I’m not sure what inspired him to carry Elephant all the way to the top.

Perhaps indicating confidence, he’s left a trail of toys lately. He dropped Moose one day and Duck the next. Two days later it was Duck again. It’s a good thing our neighbors know whose door to leave stray toys in front of!

Another pose on top of the sledding hill

Rainbow Moments

Posted by dkrashb on June 10, 2013

Panoramic View of the North Shore and Water Front at 7:30ish

Timing is everything. I could come up with hundreds of stories of how timing made the difference between what was and what wasn’t. Of course, I suppose that is true for every moment in every day for everyone, so perhaps it’s not particularly remarkable.

But there are certain events that occur in a moment and then disappear–you either see them or you don’t–dependent on their timing and yours. Rainbows are a great example of transitory events that occur infrequently enough that most of us are still amazed whenever we happen to witness one.

On this particular day, at 7:30 PM, I had just gotten back from taking a break to walk Tisen. I’d decided to run down to a common room in our building with great views to try out the panoramic feature of my iPhone camera from the balcony.

My 24-70 mm lens just wasn’t wide enough at 8:30ish

I guess I was inspired by the sky while I was walking Tisen, but I don’t remember. The clouds were interesting enough to enhance the panoramic view, but it was too early for any interesting sunset color. So, around 7:30PM, I was out on the balcony taking the panoramic shot above.

After shooting several panoramics and deciding I liked the one above, I returned to my office and went back to work. About an hour later I got a text from my husband telling me to get down to the exact same spot I had been shooting from an hour earlier because there was a huge double rainbow.

Knowing rainbows cannot be counted on to hang out waiting for me to get my equipment together, I grabbed what I thought was my tripod bag, my DSLR with a 24-70mm lens on it. and my iPhone (of course) and left for the common room so quickly, I was half way down the hall before I realized I was barefoot. Not having time to return for shoes, I kept going.

I manage to capture the rainbows with the panoramic feature on the iPhone, but the 2nd rainbow is faint

I got to the clubroom, and immediately realized the bag I’d grabbed was not my tripod bag. Rather, it was a bag of lighting stands. For those of you who are not into photography, lighting stands are not at all helpful when what you need is a tripod–at least not if you need it quickly. Perhaps with enough time and ingenuity, a lighting stand could be rigged into a temporary tripod. But a rainbow is not the time to try this.

So, handholding my DSLR, I took a few shots of the huge double-rainbow visible end-to-end in the sky and realized my second problem–24mm wasn’t wide enough. I couldn’t fit the double rainbow into the frame.

While I got out my iPhone and started taking more panoramics, my husband kindly ran back to our place to grab my tripod and 16-35mm lens for me. He returned in record time. By the time I switched my lens, there was only one strip of rainbow still visible. Maybe next time.

At 16mm, I might have gotten both rainbows, but it’s hard to say for sure

Last Look and Eating Badly

Posted by dkrashb on June 9, 2013

My favorite view from the easily accessible overlooks at Cloudland Canyon

These are the last of the photos I will share from a week ago when we went to Cloudland Canyon (I promise). The sad truth is that that was the last time we did anything physical. Well, other than my Friday morning yoga class and walking Tisen–the last vestiges of exercise in my life at the moment.

Tisen poses pretty well for me for the 2nd time in the same day

I was thinking about an article I read a long time ago where health researchers looked at evidence from anthropology findings about the life style of hunter-gatherers. The theory went that since humans were hunter-gatherers for the majority of our history, our bodies are most likely geared towards that type of lifestyle and, therefore, for optimal health, we should emulate the variety in diet and level of exercise from that time in our history. The one key difference was that they speculated that while there were periods of famine for our ancestors, the findings (based on other studies) suggested that our bodies response to starvation, while allowing us to survive, is contrary to long-term health, but that’s another discussion.

The canyon walls on the other side of the creek

The point I am (slowly) getting to is that research suggested that hunter-gatherers spent most of the daylight hours walking, climbing, picking, and, well, gathering. There were occasional springs and jogs, but most of the time our ancestors were in gentle motion. I compare this to my lifestyle of spending 10-12 hours in front of a computer at a desk five days a week. The only thing that could possibly be further from our ancestors lifestyle would be to sleep for 20 years straight, Rip Van Winkle style.

Closer look at the end of the canyon ridge

It strikes me as rather ironic that through all our progress and technology, we have jobs that keep us from doing what makes us healthy and we struggle to find time to get the exercise we need because we’re so busy working, but if we spent our day gathering food instead of making money to buy food, we’d get all the exercise we need. Mind you, I’m not suggesting I want to go back to a hunter-gatherer world. I’m not that fond of famine, ice ages, disease, and all the other things that kept life expectancy down to something like 30. I guess that’s the big flaw in assuming that our bodies are honed to that lifestyle–the hunter-gatherers didn’t life long enough to have a lot of the diseases we struggle with today.

Vertical view

I contemplated all of this, of course, as I was eating a large hunk of a baguette slathered in about two tablespoons of Irish butter. I found myself wondering why I am able to still tell myself “tomorrow I’ll eat better” and shove a week’s worth of saturated fat into my belly and think it’s OK. The thought crossed my mind that it’s like committing suicide slowly. I did a little googling, but I couldn’t find any “I’m about to eat badly” hotline numbers. Then I went and dished up some ice cream.

iPhone panoramic from the second overlook

The First Overlook

Posted by dkrashb on June 7, 2013

Panoramic view taken with the iPhone

This is going to be a short post. I’m writing at 11:15PM on Thursday night. I just finished my “day” job 15 minutes ago (I guess that makes it a “day-and-night” job) and if I try to write my usual 500 words, I’m likely to end up writing this post in my sleep (yes, I’ve done that before–check this out).

Cloudland Canyon is one of those must-see places if you’re anywhere in the area. They have nice facilities including campgrounds, a picnic area with restrooms, an interpretive center, a spectacular view, and lots of great trails, including backcountry trails.

Looking the opposite direction down the gorge

That said, if you are having a low-energy day, there’s also the leisurely walk around the mostly flat path along the cliff top. There are several nice overlooks that always make me feel like the $5 parking fee was well worth it even when the path around the cliff top is the only path I walk that visit.

Looking up the gorge at a rolling valley covered in dense green you can hear a distant waterfall

All of the images in this post were shot from what I think of as the first overlook. It’s only the first overlook if you start with this one. 🙂 I like to park at the far end of the cliff top path and walk uphill around the rim. I don’t know why I like this, but it might be because even when the park is really crowded, there are usually still parking places in this end of the parking lot.

The other reason is because it’s a short walk from the car to the first overlook, so there’s a quick payoff. One drawback is that the restrooms at that end are often closed, so stopping at the first set of newer facilities (in a concrete block building) may be imperative, depending on your situation.

Rocks and trees along the cliff top

A short walk down a dirt path followed by a steep descent down metal-mesh steps takes you to a panoramic view up one leg of the gorge. I, of course, was standing there with my 5D Mark III and my husband’s T4i with a 70-200mm lens on it (don’t ask) hanging around my neck while I stood on the overlook creating panoramics with my iPhone. I sometimes think I should get my husband to take a picture of this with his iPhone just so I can see how ridiculous it looks!

Tisen does not like metal-mesh steps

Friday Morning

Posted by dkrashb on June 2, 2013

The moon shines brightly even as sunlight begins to overtake the night sky

It’s Friday morning and incredibly early. Early that is for my recent routine, which has excluded morning biking and rowing ever since injuring my back. In truth, my back has recovered and it’s time to get back on the bike and into the boat, I just haven’t managed to get out of bed early enough.

But today is Friday. And Friday is special. On Friday I get out of bed at 5:15AM whether I feel like it or not. I do this for two reasons. The first is because I have yet to regret it. In fact, each and every Friday that I crawl out of bed at 5:15AM, by 6:30, I’m glad I did.

Friday morning yoga class starts at 6:30AM. We are a small little family of 4, sometimes 5, that reunites each Friday morning (when we’re all in town) to spend an hour breathing, stretching, strengthening together.

The second reason I get up at 5:15AM for my Friday morning yoga class is that it’s my class. I mean, I feel personally committed to this class. It’s not something that exists whether I show up or not; it’s something that exists because I show up.

This is partially factual. The instructor has told us he needs 3 regular students for it to be worth it to him to get up at whatever time he has to get up to drive down from Lookout Mountain in time to beat us all there. And, since he travels a lot, he counts on us to show when he has a sub because it’s hard for him to find a substitute.

And so, feeling both that I know I will enjoy the class once I get there and the sense of responsibility to keep going so that the class doesn’t go away, I rush through my pre-yoga morning routine. I double-up on walking Tisen and drinking coffee at the same time (something I find hazardous and usually avoid) to save 15 minutes. This gives me time to climb the sledding hill with Tisen in tow and take some panoramic pictures before dawn. The iPhone has lots of noise in low-light photos, but I can’t resist capturing the bright moon next to the early morning light.

The other side of the scene–no moon, but dark clouds instead

When I get to class on this particular Friday morning, there are 4 additional students. One has been coming for quite a few weeks now and is at risk of being considered a “regular.” The other three are new additions. It’s nice to have the extra students–it helps reduce the responsibility of being reliable enough to keep the class going.

I finish the class and find myself smiling–one of the common side effects of yoga. I return home to find Tisen lying by the door waiting for me. I take him for a longer walk in the now fully-risen sun. We pause long enough at the riverfront to take one more panoramic photo.

A panoramic view of the bridges and aquarium of the Chattanooga waterfront

Flipped and Whopper-Jawed

Posted by dkrashb on May 31, 2013

I have so many tips for you today! First, let’s talk about when your computer display suddenly turns upside down. I remember the trauma of getting my first Windows PC plopped on my desk at work and having my UNIX-based Sun Workstation carted away like it was yesterday. That was nearly 18 years ago now.

In all those years, in spite of having just about every problem imaginable, including a few that people didn’t believe unless they saw it themselves, I never had my display suddenly appear upside down. Not until yesterday, that is.

As it turns out, on a Windows PC, if, for reasons I haven’t come up with yet, you want your display upside down, you can hit the CTRL-ALT-Down Arrow keys simultaneously and your display will flip. Use CTRL-ALT-Up Arrow to flip it right side up again. This only works for monitors, not built-in laptop screens.

Yes, my computer is displaying upside down

I was quite surprised to learn this trick when I was attempting another 3-key command (CTRL-SHIFT-Down Arrow) in Excel, which will select everything in the column you’re cursor is in in a spreadsheet. Imagine my surprise when, not even knowing what actual combination of keys I’d just hit, my screen went black and then turned back on upside down! I was so amused, I took a picture and texted it to my Bestie in the middle of the work day!

The rest of my tips for today are iPhone photography related. All are using the panoramic feature, which I am enjoying immensely.

The image you see as you’re shooting is significantly taller than what will be in the actual image. In this panoramic taken from the top of the sledding hill, I thought I had Tisen positioned nicely as I twirled around the hill with the camera pointed down the slopes. As it turned out, I nearly cut Tisen out of the photo all together.
Learning the hard way that the image isn’t as tall as it looks when you’re shooting
It’s hard to hold the phone vertically, keep it level, and keep your fingers out of the image, especially while holding a dog leash. Stand on the leash, hold the phone on the outside edges, and try not to shoot when the sun is directly overhead, making it almost impossible to see the screen and recognize when your fingers are in the photo.
Scene plus finger plus some whopper-jawedness looking away from the riverfront
If you get whopper-jawed as you pan, stop moving and get yourself level again before continuing around the scene. The iPhone camera will wait for you to get situated. In this photo, I stopped 2x and I can’t find where. In the first of the panoramic images above, can you see where I got whopper-jawed and kept on going as I straightened out the camera?
Scene along the riverfront from the sledding hill
Panoramic images work best when the scene is further away. Close up objects are less interesting for some reason. Well, at least the ones I chose.
Some subjects look best in “normal” images.
My handsome boy is easier to frame well in a “normal” shot

iPhonoramic

Posted by dkrashb on May 28, 2013

Mocassin Bend from the Point at Point Park, Lookout Mountain

Back home in Chattanooga after a week away at a work conference resulted in two things. First, a lot of napping and second, a disappointingly dull Memorial Day weekend.

Feeling obligated to do something both celebratory and respectful of those who have served, we managed to muster enough energy to go up to the military park on Lookout Mountain, Point Park, and take Tisen on a walk around the point.

If you’ve been reading my blog for very long, you’ve undoubtedly seen photos from Point Park many times–it’s one of my favorite places to take visitors because of the spectacular views from the point.

And, in fact, I took enough photos for at least two more posts (sorry), but for today’s post, I thought I would share my iPhone panoramic experience.

Another go at Moccasin Bend – almost level

First, I confess, I was not an early adopter of this capability. I updated my iPad to iOS 6 (the update required) months ago when it first became available. However, updating erased all the data on my iPad, which I restored from backup. Since I wasn’t sure I had a backup of my iPhone, I waited to upgrade until I had a chance to do a full backup. It took the moment when I was in the Grand Ole Opry wishing I could take a panoramic shot on Wednesday night before I had sufficient motivation to do the backup and upgrade process.

At long last, I made time for the upgrade (iOS 6 has been out so long, it’s moved on to 6.1 now) on Friday night. Ironically, I immediately forgot I’d upgraded and now had the ability to do panoramic images. In fact, it wasn’t until I got to the point in Point Park and saw a guy pull out his iPhone and start taking a panoramic shot that I remembered I too now had this amazing “new” technology!

Another way to get Panoramic–using Stitch to piece together multiple photos in software

Truthfully, the ability to produce panoramic images has been around for many years. I believe the first Canon digital camera I ever bought back in the late 90’s came with software called “Stitch” that would allow you to put together multiple photos into a single panoramic view. If it wasn’t with my first digital camera, it was certainly with my second in 2003. I have silly looking panoramic shots where the photos create a rather embarrassing curved shape. If they weren’t on a different computer, I would post one for you now.

A really old-fashioned way to get a panoramic image–crop to panoramic dimensions

By comparison, the iPhone panoramic feature is easy to use. Rather than taking a bunch of photos individually and either using a tripod or hope to line them up horizontally so you can “stitch” them together in software later, the iPhone uses a video-like mode and guides you through capturing 240 degrees of image while it automatically puts the images together into one. The result? Well, you go home with a panoramic already done. On the down side, the exposure is set from where you start, so choose your starting place carefully.

Starting the image capture in the shadows results in an overexposed bright area

Blast from the Past(s)

Posted by dkrashb on May 27, 2013

The unidentified warm-up act had audience members up on stage singing. The foreground beer does not reflect any endorsement of the consumption of alcoholic beverages on my part.

One of the interesting aspects of conferences is the really cool and exciting event planned for one night of the conference to make our customers feel like they got to experience something special.

While I could worry about how many people could be employed for the same amount spent on such special events, in a time when there are no holiday parties, no fancy dinners, limits on spending that make it difficult to get a new pencil, and no excesses in spending in any part of the budget, it’s kind of nice to get to be there to experience something really grand.

The Grand Ole Opry filled slowly with much of the audience hanging around outside until the big acts began

And grand it was. In fact, it was in the Grand Ole Opry–that makes it grand by definition, even if the Grand Ole Opry isn’t so old anymore having been moved to the Opryland resort outside of Nashville in 1974. Well, maybe that is old?

If you look carefully of the photos that include the stage, you can see a light circle in the wood in the stage. That circle was cut from the stage in the previous home of the Grand Ole Opry, Ryman Auditorium, in downtown Nashville. I got to see Ryman Auditorium from the outside when I diligently followed the directions my GPS provided, taking me to the former Grand Ole Opry location in spite of the fact that the Grand Ole Opry hadn’t been located there since long before the invention (or at least the availability of) GPS.

Gin Blossoms had the place hoppin’ with lots of audience participation

What was amazing, was to be at a conference of about 3500 people and to have the entire Grand Ole Opry to ourselves. Although its maximum capacity is limited to a surprising 4400, we still had plenty of space up in the balcony at stage left to sprawl in our seats.

If having this historic place to ourselves wasn’t impressive enough, the line up of bands to entertain this small audience was over the top. The Gin Blossoms opened (which was impressive to those of us who went through their musical formative years in the 90’s) followed by Uncle Kracker (which was impressive for those who were into country), followed by Foreigner (which was impressive to everyone even if only one of the original band members was still part of the act).

Uncle Kracker was probably also exciting, but this is about when I went out to get a beer

What was most impressive was the all-out attitude of all three performances. I can imagine for any of those bands, who enjoyed huge popularity at one time in their history, playing to a corporate conference audience could have been a bit of a let down. If they were disappointed, they kept it well hidden. They had us all rocking right up to the last chord. I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun at a work conference.

iPhone Photographers note: While the iPhone made for the best camera because it was the only one I would have carried with me during a work conference, adding a telephoto attachment might have made for some better images from the stage.

Foreigner brought down the house–I’ve never seen so many people over 40 moving so well

Dead Animals

Posted by dkrashb on May 26, 2013

This little guy might have been less startling had his back half not been missing

After a long lack of business trips, I spent most the week in Nashville at a conference. It’s rather ironic that the conference was in Nashville–only a 2 hour drive from home. Because I was there to present at a “pre-conference” session, I had to arrive on Sunday. Fortunately, I wasn’t the only one.

A group of us congregated in the center of the Opryland Resort, trying to decide where to have dinner. Since the probability of leaving the resort decreased with each day we were in Nashville, we decided to go off-prem for dinner since it was likely to be our only chance.

This guy gives the place a little kick

However, we ended up taking the hotel shuttle across the street to a place called Caney Fork. Personally, I would have gladly driven downtown just to get a chance to get away from the resort that night, but I guess across the street was far enough for the rest of the group.

Caney Fork was a bit of an enigma. It’s tag line is “Southern Style Camp Cuisine Served with a Killer Smile.” There’s just something creepy about the word “killer” in that sentence. That’s not the only thing creepy about the place.

A white-tail deer stares down diners

I’m not fond of being reminded of the life I’m participating in taking when I eat a piece of meat. I know this is hypocritical of me. I have a great respect for responsible and talented hunters who take care to kill as quickly and painlessly as possible and who eat what they kill. I just don’t want to be the one holding the gun.

The bar has a nautical theme

I was a vegetarian for 10 years, but I guess that doesn’t give me a free pass from facing that the meat I eat comes from a living creature. None-the-less, despite the hypocrisy, I do not want to face my dinner staring down at me from the wall while I eat. I had a hard time swallowing the Elk burger I ordered as the glass eyes in the elk head on the wall glared at me.

A view of the dining room–including the front of a truck stuck into the wall

The other thing I found a bit odd was how many of the animals displayed in the restaurant cannot be found in the wild in Tennessee. Elk were recently reintroduced in Great Smoky National Park, but other than that herd, there hasn’t been an Elk in this part of the country since 1700. That didn’t keep them from appearing in the Caney Fork restaurant next to wolves, moose, and a variety of other critters I’m pretty sure can only be found with any predictability out West.

A moose head decorates the entry area

I’m always suspicious of a restaurant whose interests seem to cross over into taxidermy. But, the burger was pretty good, as were the fries. No one seemed disappointed with their meal and I came home with some pretty interesting iPhone images. While it would have been nice to make it downtown, Caney Fork was an adventure all its own.

Waiting for the shuttle back to the hotel

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Combining living on the road with a mainstream lifestyle

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