stubbed toes and mud pies

[flowerbug]

some winter pics

 

[flowerbug]

i finally figured what i want to try out next with the picture taking setup. since it is pretty hard for me to get a flat reflective surface in my current situation, i'm going to try reversing the table the computer is on with the picture taking smaller table so that the smaller table is next to the wall which is painted a flat-egg-shell-white and see if that will work. not a small task since the table that holds the computer is a very sturdy table (made to hold a very heavy CRT when those were common). i can dance on it, the legs are made out of 4x4s and metal braces.

taking down the computer stuff and the camera rig will not be too hard, but it will take time and patience. and now i have to decide if i actually want to do this today or put it off until tomorrow. at the rate this morning is going it looks like procrastination wins.

i can't take a picture of the current setup though, because the camera is there too, a good example of the chicken and egg problem...

the nice thing, though, is that at least i did make the rigging flexible enough in setup so that if i do need to move it i can, and i do think i might have to for getting a better camera angle and to give the light more room to reflect...

 

[Ridgerunner]

One of the problems I have is with glare, especially with dark glossy beans. I often do better turning lights off. And then there are shadows if I'm not careful.

 

[bobm]

Here is what I did years ago at UCD Vet. Pathology to publish photos in scientific journals that should help with some issues. I built a transilluminator ... a box that was 2' square and high out if plywood with 4 2"x2" arms projecting up from the corners up to 1'. with cuts on their inside surface to hold colored translusent plastic sheets at variousnd heights. I painted the insides flat white and the outsides, flat black. I installed a light bulb at the bottom of the box with a reostat for background lighting to control the background shadowing as well as light brightness through sheets of colored plastic that slid onto the arms ( single or multiples for changing colors or their intensity. Next, I had 4 light stands with cones over them to direct lighting from all angles. I also put cheezecloths over the fronts of the cones to diffuse the lighting from forming shadows. I had a 8' tall round steel camera stand that held the camera at 90* over the box or I could adjust the camera angle to anything that was needed to take the photo.

 

[flowerbug]

after spending the morning moving things around to where i can use more bounced light off the wall i've cut the glare down quite a bit to where i can at least tolerate the level that is showing up. *whew*

this is a quick test snap shot of how things looked after i had it set up. at least this time i made sure it was reasonable before putting things back in place. at first this morning i had the table sitting there and i realized it just wasn't going to be accessible enough for me to get to the table and camera to take pictures and that being moved over a bit would make sense. so i had to take the rigging down and move it over and then put the table back into place where it was going to be. hehehe...


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[flowerbug]

computer story, skip if you don't care about that stuff. Mom and i are doing ok.

CPU and/or motherboard went poof on the computer i had last week. they had been giving me some signs that things weren't right, but i didn't see anything show up in the log files until last Wednesday morning and then we had a power outage and after that the machine would not boot at all. it wouldn't reset either. took it apart, tried the spare power supply, pulled parts and did all the usual things to check what was going on. no luck.

i had no way of testing the old motherboard or CPU which was fried, i really thought it was the motherboard and that being cheaper to replace i ordered that and then it turned out it was the CPU that was fried. i still don't really know if the motherboard was fried too or not, so i had to get an order in for a replacement CPU and that came this afternoon so i'm back on-line.

so pretty much i've now got a new motherboard and CPU which are both several years newer technology than i had before. i liked what i had before it was perfect for what i needed and wanted. the new stuff is faster and more powerful, but i don't really need that kind of stuff too often. i'll be curious how much juice this actually uses.

 

[flowerbug]

glad to see signs of spring once again. cardinals are out here chirping so loud that i can hear them through the walls/windows. bunnies hopping around like pogo sticks at times. very funny. they play leapfrog at times too. saw the squirrel running along not sure from where but normal for them to be running quickly across the open areas we have. even had chipmunk sighting already.

highlight of the past week was working on moving the computer stuff around and fiddling with it one evening when i couldn't sleep and heard an owl. i was hoping they'd get some of the mice.

had more deer activity with the deeper snow for a while. now that more of the snow has melted everything looks brown and grey again in the field out back. this late afternoon there was a Momma and three yearlings running back on the other side of the big ditch and they stopped back there so i made a point of getting up and opening the patio door and talking loudly and coughing so they'd know that i knew that they were back there. so they ran back the way they came. good. i just want them to know i'm here and that it's not a safe place for them. they'll probably be back though. we have too many goodies here.

 

[flowerbug]

today i had to run into town to grab some tax forms and to check out a few books to see if there was anything i wanted to read at the library.

while there i asked the director if i could bring in my previously packaged bean samples that i had ready for last year's seed saving presentation that never happened. they said ok. so i'll be doing that this next week or so.

i don't want to repackage each of them (there's about 100), but i need to organise them a bit and i can write up and print some sheets that can be put on the trays/box tops/whatever so people can know what they are. i already have all the information written down in a folder, i just need to go through it and make sure they're all on there.

if the weather is really cruddy i can do some samples of squash and melons too - there's no way i can use all these seeds up.

 

[flowerbug]

todo list for today done. tax season is over. mine is pretty easy - i just have to check that some things haven't changed. Mom's is a few hours, but it is worth it as the accountant was charging her $150 and he wasn't catching everything he could have so it was costing her about $500-750 a year total.

 

[flowerbug]

trimming bushes and trees along the fence. very busy work and tough on a body that hasn't done too much the past several months. i had a few dead trees and parts of them leaning up against the fence that i had to somehow get off there - tangled with wild grape vines so i had to track all those down and remove those too while i was at it. i'll still be at it for a few more days...

i noticed that a few trees that are dead and standing there may be weighted enough to fall on my fence so i'll have to see if i can ask the neighbor to come pull them down before they fall. ugh... i hate having to call for help but i sure can't do these any other way. he's got all sorts of equipment and can probably do it, the question will be if he wants to do it or not.

also had someone come over to give me an estimate on doing some woodwork around the exterior of the house. just not something i want to do, but it needs to be done before we can stain the house - which is on our list for projects this season. same place will do the roof vent replacements we need to have done.

otherwise gardening coming along ok. busy time of the season.

and finally we got some rain last night. it has been pretty dry for the last month.

killdeer, robins and other spring birdie visitors are back.