Night Photography Fun.

September 15th, 2012

So last weekend I went out with a few of my friends and we all took some attempts at night photography. We had a pretty damn good time and I enjoyed myself.
We started out at this abandoned factory building. So some of my shots are not all night shots.
I took most of these shots in 3 exposures (-2, 0, +2) and attempted to create some HDR Photos. I feel these all turned out pretty well, all except for my sky shot.
The only reason the sky shot did not turn out so great though was because the clouds were moving and in the 3 exposures taken the clouds ended up being in different spots.
I will post of those photos from 9/8/12 at the end of this post.

Today a few of my friends and I are heading out to try and attempt at some more day/night shots. I think we are going out on a “nature” photography hunt.
So we will see how well this goes and it should be interesting.

Anyways! On to the Photos!

These few photos are my attempts at HDR Photography:


These are a few photos of the Canadian Side of the St. Clair River:


Couple shots of the Blue Water Bridge (Port Huron, MI):

Photography of a UFO!

Random Photos I thought turned out great:

Light Streak (Long Exposures) and Moon Jars:

Well that is pretty much everything! Hope you enjoyed!

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Photography | Comments Off

Astrophotography

September 1st, 2012

Oh man! 3 posts in one week!
So last night Aug 31st was the second full Moon August had. It was called “Blue Moon”.
In honor of this I went out and I attempted to get footage of the Moon to share on the web with my friends and family.

Well since I am pretty new with Photography I can say that my shots were not award winning photos.
I did however manage to get a few decent photos. I also ended up getting a video of the Moon as well. It was very shaky but it got commented on and “liked” quite a bit on my Facebook so it made me very happy.

First off before we get to the photos the smaller shots of the Moon were taken with my Nikon D5100 with a 70-300mm Lens (4.5-5.6 aperture) all the shots were done at 300mm.
I also have a manual 6inch Orion Telescope (4ft tall weights about 70lbs) I hooked my Nikon D5100 up to this and took a few photos along with a video of the Moon.
The biggest problem I had was keeping the Telescope steady. Since it was not on any kind of tripod it was very hard keeping the telescope still and from moving around on me. You will notice in the video it is very very shaky. Even my photos are a tad blurred because of this. I am working on a way to remedy this though for next time.

On to the photos!

All these photos were taken with the Nikon + 70-300mm Lens
This first shot is my favorite.

These next shots were taken with the Nikon + 6″ Orion Telescope:

Finally here is a video I made using the Nikon + 6″ Orion Telescope. (Note it is very very shaky and jumpy. Still pretty darn cool though)

Enjoy!

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Photography | Comments Off

HDR Photography Attempts.

August 31st, 2012

So here are a couple of attempts in HDR Photography I have done.
What is HDR Photography? It’s when you take 3 identical photos but in different exposures and then you mesh the 3 photos together and create most of the time a cool looking image.
Here are a few of my attempts.

Original File:

HDR Version:

Original File:

HDR Version”

Original File:

HDR Version:

Original File:

HDR Version 1:

HDR Version 2:

Let me know what you think.

Posted in Photography | Comments Off

Hectic Life – Run, Run, STOP!

August 31st, 2012

Been a while. It’s always been a while since I last posted.
Diet thing is pretty much off the table as of right now. I got too much going on to try and keep track of what I am eating and what I am doing.
Not sure if I mentioned this in any other posts, but I started going to College. I am attending WGU and its and all online college.
I am liking it so far, but the downside is my life is so hectic right now that I don’t have time to do anything in the class. So I am pretty far behind.

Why is my life hectic right now? I guess it’s not too bad and it’s not too abnormal from what happens most everyday. My boss at my job ended up leaving and I am left with myself and my brother to do a job that in all honesty should be done by at least 4 people. I have to let that go though because I doubt I will ever see more than 2 full time people working this job. Then you have to add in the position above me which “was” filled by my boss who left the company. His job consists of other things, but one of them jobs was working with the crew (me) to help get things done. So my brother and I are working a job that should require 4 people and we are doing it with 2. That’s where the hectic-ness comes in to play.. I always feel like we are scrambling to get things done on certain days. I really don’t like that feeling so I will be very happy when things come back to normal.

I also realize I am sitting at an impasse with myself about my life and what direction I want to go in. It’s nothing new to me, I have always been stuck here trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. What is going to make me “happy”?
I am going to college, but am I going for the right reasons? Sometimes I feel like I am going just to get a degree to make other people happy. Everyone says this is something I should do because I am “smart” and I should not waste my life and intelligence on “junk jobs”. (I am using tons of quotes in this and honestly I don’t even know if they are needed LMAO!)
I really don’t know if I want to work in the computer industry or not. I am for the most part happy with my life how it is. I wish I was making more money and I wish I was living on my own.

I decided today that I was going to apply for that job that just opened up above my job. I would like to become the new boss of the facility. I think I would be happy with this job. I would make more money and it possibly would be enough for me to continue what I am doing and move out on my own. Well it’s really not that I cannot move out on my own now. I could not move out on my own and continue to pay off my debt is what it is right now.
So I guess we will see in a month or two what ends up happening with all this. I should probably begin prepping for a job interview. Figure out what I am going to say and try to guess what might be asked. I am hoping my LGM since he is conducting the interviews will give me a few tips on what I should work on.
I think if I land this job I am going to celebrate by moving out lmao. Well depending on the salary anyways. I am still kind of thinking they don’t make a whole lot more than I do currently.

So yeah.. In other news I picked myself up a Nikon DSLR D5100. I am going to eventually try to get into Astrophotography. I will probably start out just doing Star Trails and what not. I don’t really have 2G’s to drop on a motorized Telescope at the minute. I do however have a 6″ Orion Telescope my grandfather let me borrow for the time being. It’s a stationary telescope, so I will only be able to get shots of the Moon and possibly some planets. I am also into Light Trails which are pretty much light streaks created by traffic on the road when you use a long exposure on your camera. I will probably add my photos to this blog for a place to store them so anyone interested can view them whenever. I have attempted to do a few HDR photo’s but they came out pretty crappy lol! I need to learn to use Photoshop. It is actually quite sad Photoshop has been around for years and I think I have only tried to use it once to twice.
Well.. That’s all folks! It’s Friday! Have a good weekend!

Posted in Photography, Random-ness | Comments Off

2 Weeks In.

July 7th, 2012

Well we are about two weeks in on the journey to healthier eating.
So far, so good. I have been mostly eating salads and fruits for snacks and/or dinners. I gotta admit it is actually pretty rough. The first week was bad due to the fact it felt like I could never be full. I think my body went into starvation mode though so I am going to have to take a look at eating small snacks more through out the day. I actually gained 10lbs in these two weeks. I am up to 230lbs right now and I feel like shit (mentally).

So starting this Monday we will continue to eat the same way I have been the last two week, but add smaller meals through out the day.
I am also going to try and add in a 45min elliptical run once a day and every other day hop on the Tower 200 and do some resistance exercises.
I thought I did not care about my appearance, but someone said something to me the other day and I think it was the first time I ever had/let someone hurt my feelings. They did not really say anything at me about my weight, but it was a remark that had to do with me and it got me thinking.
Today I was looking in the mirror and I felt quite awful about the way I look.
Kind of dumb how we let stupid things like this get to us.

Well let’s end this here. Lets see how this next week goes.

Posted in Health and Fitness |

Thoughts and Motivation.. Mostly Thoughts…

June 25th, 2012

Most people can always find something they dislike about themselves. I don’t really think anyone is every really happy about everything they have been born with in life. Most of the time it is the way a person feels like they look to the outside world. No matter how much our loved ones tell us we look beautiful/handsome we never believe them, but always thank them for the compliment. It really is quite sad.

I think my generation has it quite bad in the terms of feeling unattractive in the perspective of others.
The world has changed quite a bit since my parents generation. Back then you always had attractive people in Hollywood, but nothing to the extent that you see in today’s generation. You rarely see people in movies or on TV today that don’t have 6 pack abs, beautiful white teeth (unless it’s a British show), and a pretty cut looking body.

It’s rough for a guy to try and feel like he can compete in a world where expectations that all “attractive” men should have some if not all of these features.
They actually say females have it worse and I would agree 100%. Females have so many more body parts/features that have to look a certain standard to be accepted in the perspective of our eyes.

While these “Hollywood Expectations” may not be true or even real other then in our own minds. It still makes one think more than once before asking a person out or going to the beach and showing a little bit of skin (or going to the beach at all for that matter).

What really stinks and does not help any of us with our weight issues is the affordability of crappy food over good food. With so many people jobless, under paid, over worked, or just not enough money to get by in life. Why would you spend so much money trying to eat healthy when you could buy a cheeseburger for $1?
I know common sense tells you, its better for you to eat better and stay healthy but again life and the perspective of the way people are supposed to live tells us to save what money we can so we can spend it on useless/material things we can’t even afford to impress people we don’t even like.

I am not one to try to impress people but I sure like to save my cash to buy myself things I want. So eating the dollar menu rocks my world! Also eating fast food and pizza is super convenient. In this world where we have no time or feel like we don’t have time it becomes super easy to just eat already prepared food.
Working 40+ hours a week and doing 16 credit hours in College you have no time for food and sleep and you have no money. So grabbing that dollar menu is an easy simple choice.

I am about to take a journey to drop from 219.5lbs down to 180lbs. I said I was going to do this back in Jan/Feb and I started but then stopped.
I feel like I have gotten to fat and I feel my belly sticks out to far. I looked at myself in the mirror the other day before taking a shower and I was sort of disgusted at what I have let myself turn into.

Steps I am taking:
1.) Stop eating Pizza.
– I currently eat pizza 2 to 3 times a week.
2.) Start walking again.
– I am a lazy ass. I never do anything other than watch TV or play on the PC.
3.) Eat better.
– No pizza for a while, sticking with Chicken, Meats, and Greens.

For now these will be the only steps I will be taking to be healthy and active. I will be adding more to the last 2 steps later when it has become more routine to me.

The routine I am going to try and get myself into will look something like this:
Get home from work -
Homework -
Workout – (Tower 200 and/or Elliptical)
Eating Food -
Guitar Practice -

On another note. I ended up getting myself my first Guitar. Fender T-Bucket 300CE (Acoustic).
My goal is to put in at least 1 hour a day on this thing. It is something I have wanted to learn for a long time and I really hope it works out well.
The guitar is beautiful looking too.

Here is myself getting to know the new guitar.

I just had another thought a second ago. I never mentioned on my blog that I dig music. I actually have been trying to create/produce music.
My ultimate goal would be to become some sort of Producer/Artist. I should start blogging about what I have been up to and links to my songs on SoundCloud.

Well I think we will end this here. I will do my best to keep the world informed on my progress. As always though, I say I will try to do these things and I never do. Lets hope we can over come this laziness.

Until next time……

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Health and Fitness, Random-ness |

TalkAndroid.com New Forums

February 11th, 2012

If your into Android Phones and Tablets check out TalkAndroid.com Forums.

The website itself has actually been around a while, but just as of this past week the forums are getting a face lift. We would like to try and get our old users and also get some new users over on the forums to help out the community.

Even if you have no clue what your doing with your Android device you should still sign up with the community. They offer good advice if your ever stumped. The TalkAndroid.com main webpage will keep you updated on Phone/Tablet Technology News as well.

So Go Check it out! Sign-up! Join our community and help make it great for users of every experience level!

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Technology | Comments Off

CES 2012

February 11th, 2012

This is quite a bit late since CES 2012 was in January. I figured I would still post of my thoughts and what all I got to experience.

The Consumer Electronic Show is held yearly in Las Vegas. This year I was invited to go by OverclockersClub.com and it was a hell of an experience. This was my first time in Las Vegas and the city is very amazing and beautiful (for the most part lol.). CES was just huge and I did not get to see everything. Tons of companies some you never heard of and some very familiar. While I did enjoy CES very much I was however a bit disappointed with it. I was expecting to see more from the companies I know and love. Seagate had a booth at CES, but they had nothing really going on at the booth. In the booth itself was 2 desktop PC’s setup with a game you could play and that was it. A ton of the other stuff at CES this year mostly consisted of companies who made iPod/iPhone/Android/Phone cases. So in that whole aspect of CES it was disappointing to me.

Nvidia, however had a great booth. They had on display a bunch of it’s new 3D equipment and also it’s Tegra 3 chip. I got to talk with a Representative and he explained to me what they planned on doing with the chip and how they were going to start looking at using the chips in our future automobiles. I took a video of it and posted it on my YouTube account.

Also at that same booth Nvidia had the Tesla Model S on display. Such a sexy, sexy car. Then outside of CES they had a car booth with a Lambo and Audi.


Another company that really impressed me was Qualcomm. We went through the companies booth and they showed us it’s new Snapdragon S4 processors that will be in our future phones and tablets. They are pretty hardcore processors. Qualcomm allowed us to play with one of it’s tablets that had a First Person Shooter game installed on it. The game ran super smooth but was a bit difficult to get the hang on since it was played directly on the touchscreen. Qualcomm said the tablets and phones using this setup can handle up to an 8 user game. Pretty sweet and sexy technology.

One other video I want to post is not from my YouTube account it is from the OverclockersClub.com YouTube account.
The Zotac Vapor Phazed PC. This thing was pretty dang sweet! It was a PC that was submerged in liquid to keep it cool.

If you are interested in reading more about CES 2012 please check out the OverclockersClub.com Review of CES 2012. I took part in helping of writing the articles. The link will include new products you should see this year from different company’s, video’s, pictures, and of course BOOTH BABES!

Finally I would like to give thanks to OverclockersClub.com (Dave) for allowing me to tag along with them and experience this truly awesome event! I appreciate it and it will be an experience I will never forget!

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Technology | Comments Off

Activity Update.

February 11th, 2012

So I officially started my diet/fitness routine this week.
I cannot say I did a whole lot, but I did end up start eating better. I have been staying pretty close to 1100 calories a day. People have been telling me it is not really safe and you will end up gaining all the weight you lost back once you go off this routine. Well I do know the later is a true statement, but what I plan on doing is once I hit the weight I am looking for I will gradually increase my calorie intake little by little. Thus not gaining all of the weight I lost back.

So what have I been up to?
I started walking after work. I have been doing about 2 miles a day. Mostly on the treadmill just because the weather outside has not been all the great. I have to deal with the cold all day at work so anytime I can avoid being cold I do.

So far this week I have lost 3lbs.

That is about it for now. Until next week!

Tags: , ,
Posted in Health and Fitness | Comments Off

Weight Management in 2012

January 7th, 2012

I am looking forward to 1/16/2012.
I will be starting my exercise and diet routine back up again.

Before the Fall College Semester I weighted in at 178lbs. After an entire semester of stress I am up to 220lbs.

I will again use my webpage to track my progress. I will keep track of my activities and give a run down of what I am doing and using to help shed the weight.
Here are my current measurements as of 1/7/2012:

  • Weight: 220lbs
  • Waist: 40 1/2 inches
  • Belly: 46 inches
  • Left Bicep: 16 inches
  • Right Bicep: 15 1/2 inches
Goals:
  1. 175lbs
  2. 30 inch Waist
  3. 28-30 inch Belly
  4. 20inch Left/Right Bicep
  5. Rebuild my Stamina (I would like to be able to hike up a steep hill with out losing my breath lmao!
  6. Become a Stealthy Ninja who Crushes his Enemies with his trusty Katana

Ultimately I would like to be down to 155-160lbs. That seems a bit unrealistic though and I think would end up taking more than a whole year to achieve this.
I will try for this though and hopefully eventually hit it. I just do not think it is realistic in 2012.
Supplements: 

I will do my best to keep the use of any supplements to a minimum.
What I will continue to buy and use is going to be Omega-3 (aka. Fish Oil) and Whey Protein.. I like the Fish Oil because I feel it improves my mood. Keeps me from being depressed. If I am not depressed then I am more motivated to want to go out an exercise and actually eat well to better myself. Whey Protein is almost a necessity for anyone trying to lose weight IMO. The Protein makes you feel full and it also keeps your body burning because of how long it takes for your body to actually digest the Protein.

Here is a break down of what I am starting out with. (Below is what will be taken on a daily basis)
  • Omega-3: 2,000mg
  • Whey Protein: ~<50 grams (This will probably vary)
  • Garlic Pills: 600mg
  • Glucomannan: 3450mg (30mins before meals)
  • Green Tea Extract: 2 cups of Green Tea/day. 

(Note: Green Tea is known and proven to be a great source of weight management/loss. You can buy Green Tea Extract Pills, but I enjoy drinking Green Tea so I am going that way.)
That pretty much sums up the supplements I will be using. I plan on walking/jogging at least 2 miles every day. Also every other day I will probably pick up the curl-bar and dumbbells and doing some reps with those. I will also do a series of push-ups. Possibly sit-ups. I have read though that sit-ups usually give you more grief then they are actually worth.

The Supplement Glucomannan is supposed to help make you feel full before a meal so you do not eat as much. I doubt I will buy another bottle once the first bottle is done.
I am using it in hopes that it does do this job and I do not end up with tummy aches and tummy rumblings because my body thinks I am still hungry.

One other tip I will remind myself of, and anyone who could possibly read this. It is very important that 1 day a week you go off your diet and eat what you feel like eating.
Cookies, Chips, Pizza, etc..
When you go on a diet your body will go into some sort of “Starvation Mode” and it will stop burning fat because you are not consuming calories like you had been in the past.
Eating/Splurging once a week will fool your body into not going in to that “Starvation Mode” and allow you to keep burning fat instead of storing it.
Just a little tip I thought should be known.
Well I think that is all for now! Good luck to you all! Good luck to myself!
LET’S DO THIS!

Posted in Health and Fitness | Comments Off

« Older Entries