Aikido Winter Camp 2013

For the past few years, some of the women that train with Wing have asked me to come on down, so this year, I did.

Stopped and took some photo on the way down.

Foggy Mooing Morning



Hey, Why the long faces? :)




The last of the morning fog.



You know it's a bit chilly out when you're in the rec center, and when you exhale, you breath is visible. Poor Wing... his toes were blue.

Got some great photos. Two great ones, but subject is a bit rough. One of the uke, during a demonstration of technique got injured. I have photo of when she screamed in pain, and when she grabbed her leg at the knee when she hit the tatami. You can clearly see she's in a lot of pain.

Hope to get up early enough tomorrow to get some photos of the local area.

Putting the Kenko 1.4x extender to use

"Supermoon" May 25 2013 with a little cloud cover - Canon 5DMkIII, Kenko Pro 300 DGX 1.4x, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM. Hand held. Not too shabby.




With a bit of cloud cover.

Day started off too damned early

I dreamt I overslept and woke up at 4am, and just could not get back to sleep. So, I stayed up and did some photo sorting, and CF/SD Card clearing. Waiting for Wing to get up as I wanted to get a few things done today before he had do to the gradings at the dojo.

I also did a bit of research on a Kenko 1.4x extension for the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM Lens. Canon makes it and a 2x, but you lose the autofocus on the 5DmkIII with them if you look through the viewfinder, but you do keep it if you use Live View. Now, if I was shooting a stationary subject, the loss of autofocus is no biggie. However, since I photograph birds, and the autofocus on moving animals is not only necessary, but vital. My eyesight isn't good enough to use manual focus (I know, I've got the blurry images to prove it), and using Live View with a heavy lens/extender and holding it out in front of you to focus? Again, I've got the blurry images to show why that isn't such a great alternative.

There is a way to rig the Canon 1.4x (a small piece of sticky tape over the first 3 contacts) that will return some autofocus function, but it's woefully slow and can hunt if light isn't bright enough. Again, not ideal.

I stumbled upon the right search phrase, and followed the links to reviews of the Kenko Pro 300 DGX 1.4x. After reading just about all of them for almost 2 hours, ignoring the posts from people saying 'just get an 800mm prime" or "Just get yourself a 600mm" (yeah,right, do you know anyone who wants to buy a kidney while you're at it?) I decided to ask about them at Camera Electronic. I was heading there to get a small filter pouch I could clip to a belt loop, so it wouldn't be going out of my way.

I had checked the prices on Amazon, eBay etc etc, so knew what I would be willing to spend to not have to wait a few weeks for it to arrive. I told Gavin what lens, what camera body, and he set it up to let me give it a test drive at the store. Not only did it retain focus, but it focused significantly faster than the rigged Canon 1.4x, it was able to do so in lower lighting. Asked the price.. was told how much. I said uhh no, what can you do for me. Well, I got it for $40 more than I would have spent on eBay, but I didn't have to wait, I knew it was in good working order, and brought it home.

Turning a 400mm into a 600mm comes in very handy when stalking birds.



The problem with the Canon MkIII 1.4x and 2x extenders could be fixed with a firmware update. I got this from tech, not from forums. So, question remains, why did Canon hobble the capabilities of their MkIII extenders?

This was the first SciFi book I ever read

I read this when I was a kid, and I guess you could say this book started me off on speculative fiction, science fiction, and fantasy books. (No, not bodice ripper fantasies) I managed to find a copy of it via ABE Books (different cove, though), ordered it, and have been reading it again. It has been mumblty mumble years since I've read it. I found it just as entertaining now as I did then.

That was a bit odd

I just got a phone call, from someone purporting to want to know if I was teaching dance classes. I politely said no, that since accident/surgery we no longer teach, and that I was surprised that this number was still out there as someone to call about said classes.

Caller then said she got the number from our website. (Uhh, no you didn't, but I didn't say that). I told her that the website was there for informational purposes only, and has been for a few years. She once again said she got the number from our website. I checked.. not only is email mostly disabled (with exceptions for advise on sewing), there are no phone numbers on it.

Also, yes... it's been a few years, but I still recognize your voice, you silly twit. Still haven't grown up to be an adult?

Dear Republican Party

Dear Republicans; I type this out in hopes to appeal to the last iota of humanity in you. Now is not the time for you to strong arm a president that doesn't fit what you deem a proper president should be (white, rich, republican), by holding the people of Oklahoma in need of disaster relief hostage. Don't you *dare* hold back federal aid, or even threaten to. I know you're so anally partisan that this will be difficult, but don't do it.

There comes a time when your smarmy grins, smirks, condescension has to stop, and now would be a great time. But, should you choose to try to hold the families of Oklahoma hostage for your damned agendas, the ones that placate your bribers errr donors and lobbyists, there will be hell to pay.

Also, remember this; Texas, Oklahoma were many of your constituents live. If you dare to stab them in the back in order to just once again score points against a not white, not rich, not republican President, there will be consequences and hell to pay. True, many of you are 'safe' until 2014, but when your asses are turfed, and then you to go look for speaking engagements, or dare I say REAL jobs (seeing you haven't done a lick of work in over 4 years, unless you're trying to count trying to repeal The Affordable Care Act for the 37th time 'work'), that's when I will hope it bites you on your over paid, over bribed asses.

Let's see who blinks first. (I already have three other sites bookmarked so won't be me)

The first time I got a rather crushed parcel from you, I chalked it up to poor shipping and handling, or maybe because of your having to inspect the goods. I've gotten three shipments from your service in crushed boxes, two of which the goods were damaged.

I blamed Amazon for the last one, which arrived in pretty bad condition, crushed, packing padding deflated, the books inside damaged. Amazon sent me a replacement of one of the books. The box and book arrived in PERFECT condition. No dings, no dents, no crushing, book in pristine condition, the box looking as if it just came off the show room floor. This leads me to believe your handling of the incoming parcels is way less than adequate. And it's not a matter of them having to be opened to inspect the contents. It's major mishandling, flat out carelessness on the part of the person handling it.

I have another parcel headed to my box, there. If this one arrives to me in a similarly damaged state, I will be looking for an alternate drop mail service.