Happy and also proud

I am happy to announce that one of my photos won Second Place in the Urban category at the 2015 New Mexico State Fair photography competition! It marks a few "firsts" for me.

I've entered other online contests before, but this is the first "real" competition I have ever entered. The photos were judged by a panel of five persons, all professional photographers that also teach photography at various institutions in New Mexico.

The rules for my entry, which was at the Professional level (meaning that if I have ever earned any money from my photography, even a single penny, made me a "Professional") meant that my print had to framed and glassed. The other levels were Adult Amateur and Youth, which only had to be mounted and matted. Funny, I still don't feel like a Pro.

So it was my first experience getting a photo framed for competition. My first juried show. My first award.

By now, Gentle Reader, you are probably sick of waiting and are itching to see the photo that won. Without further delay, here it is. I call it Rise.

Rise by Todd Hakala

Blogger limits how big I can display it here, so here's a link to 500px where you can see it larger.

Comments by the judges, which I found interesting, were that the slight shadow to the left "wasn't necessary", and that it "screams Urban", which is good, because that was the category I put it in.

I also entered Hoodoo Factory in the Scenic category, and though it scored well enough to be in contention for a ribbon, it didn't win anything. I'm including it here for comparison.

Hoodoo Factory by Todd Hakala

Link to a larger version of Hoodoo Factory on 500px. 

Now that you know that Rise is a Second Place photo, you might be wondering what beat it for First Place. That turns out to be none other than my wife, Rozanne, with her photo Helix. That photo not only won First Place, but also Best of Show, which is quite an honor. She also earned an Honorable Mention for Penitente Morada. I'm very proud of her.

Both Rozanne and I are surprised at our success, being newbies at photo competitions. We are also happy that we purchased our first high-end photo printer that we think contributed to our success at the State Fair. We got an Epson SureColor P800 printer, which is an amazing machine. All of our submitted photos were printed on the P800.

Virga Bomb

Add another term to your weather vocabulary: Virga Bomb.

Recently we’ve heard about the polar vortex and the derecho. Now comes virga bomb.

Virga is from the Latin, meaning “twig” or “branch”. I first heard of virga when I moved to New Mexico in 2013. Virga is rain that falls from a cloud but evaporates before it hits the ground. It looks like vertical wispy trails under a cloud.

Over this past weekend, I heard about virga bombs on the TV news. So what are they?

When the rain falls from the cloud and evaporates, it cools the air under the cloud. Cool air is denser than warm air, so the colder air sinks. When conditions are right, the cold air can fall very rapidly, creating a microburst. When the microburst hits the ground, the air has nowhere to go except horizontally along the terrain, causing high, gusty winds.

And that’s a virga bomb!

Got a new camera!

We got a new camera last week! Here's a video from the first week of ownership.

It's a DJI Phantom 2 Vision + (Plus).

This is my first "non-toy" radio control device. I'm amazed at how much technology has changed model aircraft since I was a kid.

The Phantom, or any quadcopter for that matter, would be very difficult to fly without the tiny gyroscope and flight control computer in it. Fortunately, the craft is amazingly easy to fly. It is easy to get over-confident with it, though. Even with all the fancy technology, crashing it is still a real possibility.

The Phantom also has a compass and a GPS receiver built into it. Both of those allow the aircraft to come to a fairly stable hover when both control sticks on the transmitter are released, provided it's not too windy. The GPS, if set correctly before flight, will allow the quad to fly itself back to the launch point if the transmitter signal is lost.

The flight computer also tracks how much energy is left in the battery and calculates how long it would take it to get back home before the battery is depleted. Once the battery reaches a certain discharge point, it will return to home automatically.

I like how smooth the video comes out. Watching it fly in a wind would make you think that the video would be herky-jerky, as the aircraft body often oscillates quite a bit. Thanks to the brushless 3-axis gimbal that DJI camera is mounted on, the video is quite smooth.

The only slightly disappointing part is how the camera tilt function works. The motion is very smooth, but starting and stopping the tilt is very sudden and mechanical looking. This is very obvious when watching the video on a computer.

The Phantom also has a video and telemetry downlink. The transmitter comes with a clamp to hold an iOS or Android smartphone. The free DJI Vision app displays the camera feed on the smartphone screen, enables you to change camera settings while the machine is flying, tilt the camera, take stills, and start or stop the video. Unlike a GoPro, the camera can't take still pictures while recording video.

The downlink video is pretty good even at 15 frames per second. I haven't tried any of the higher frame rates yet. The weakest part of the system is my iPhone 4s. Even when I turn the screen brightness up to 100%, the screen still gets washed out in the sun. Compounding the problem is the reflective screen of the iPhone. I'm currently looking for some way to shade the screen.

The telemetry sent back from the Phantom is interesting, but I have doubts about its accuracy. I have yet to get an accurate altitude even when the quad is on the ground. In one instance, the altitude meter indicated –20 ft, or underground.

Other things on the screen are the number of photos that can fit on the MicroSD card at the current time, how many GPS satellites the Phantom has contact with, Phantom battery level, WiFi range extender battery level, and relative WiFi signal strength.

The video and telemetry data are transmitted over a 2.4 GHz WiFi signal. The transmitter came with a WiFi range extender attached to it. Being on 2.4 GHz, though, means that the signal can be degraded by getting too close to a home WiFi base station. I have experienced the video feed freezing up on me a couple times so far, perhaps due to flying within range my neighbor's base station.

 Off to practice some more!

One giant loss for mankind.

Neil Armstrong died today due to complications from a heart procedure. He was 82. I'm so sad.

Why Photos Are Not Free

Over on Flickr, Extra Medium posted a great one about why our photos are not free. The post is accompanied by a great photo, but it would be wrong of me to hotlink to it here. You'll just have to do the clicky thing to see it yourself. Click here.

As an example, here is one of my photos. It took weeks of planning, research, airfare, rental car, meals, and hotels to obtain and bring back home for your viewing pleasure, Gentle Reader. This one wasn't free, either.

One thing the Extra Medium doesn't take into account in the monetary calculations is time. Time to research and obtain the gear. Time to travel to the photo. Time to process it. Time to create the entire infrastructure of camera, computer, software, ISP and all the other little bits required to post the photo on the Internet.

Time, time, time.

More importantly, time spent reading, looking, and thinking about photography. Good photos require forethought and preparation. Yes, sometimes good photos happen in an unexpected instant, but the brain behind the viewfinder has spent so much time thinking in photography mode that all the elements come together in a perfect and reflexive way.

Our time is valuable because each of us only have so much of it, and when it's gone, that is all.

What is time worth? A lot.

Canon Announces the 5D Mark III

Canon announced the 5D Mark III this morning. This is bound to generate a lot of buzz in the photo blogosphere.

I love my 5D Mark II. It's a great camera, the best one I have ever owned. I'd get another one in a heartbeat. In fact, I did: I have two. Yes, I am fortunate.

Canon announced the 5D Mark II in September 2008, with units reaching general buyers a couple months later. Three years on the market seems to be a typical span for DSLRs now, so this seems to fit right into that release schedule. No doubt it was also in response to Nikon's recent announcement of the D800.

The 5DM3 is expected to ship by the end of March for US$3,499 body only, or US$4,299 with the excellent EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM zoom.

The 5DM3 has some great improvements over the M2, such as:

• Digic 5 processors (versus Digic 4)
• 61-point AF (the M2 had 9)
• 63-zone metering
• Improvements to video functionality
• Two card slots, one CF (like the M2) and a new, additional SDXC slot
• 6 fps burst rate (the M2's was 3.9)
• Increased ISO range to 104,200 (was 25,600)
• Customizable controls
• Larger LCD
• Repositioning of the power switch next to the mode dial
• Dual-axis electronic level
• In-camera HDR mode
• Headphone jack
• Removal of the useless (to me) PictBridge button
• I haven't seen it mentioned in the press releases yet, but it appears by the photos on Adorama that it has a locking mode dial. The lack of this has bitten me on more than one occasion, although I know that Canon offers a retrofit for the 5DM2 and 7D for US$100.

Those things are all good improvements, but I'm a little surprised about what wasn't changed. On my wish list for the M3, I would have like to have seen:

• An articulated LCD screen. This would be useful for on-the-ground or overhead shots, or any time it's hard to directly see the back of the camera, such as shooting at high angles when mounted to a tripod.
• Integrated GPS. Point-n-shoots have this; why don't SLRs? There must be some reason for this, other than a desire to sell the additional, external, and largish GP-E2 module for US$390. I just don't know what it is.
• USB3 interface. While USB3 isn't all that common on computers yet, it will be in three years when the successor to the M3 arrives.

I also like those things that Canon didn't change or wildly modify.

The layout of the buttons are still along the left side of the LCD. I have a 40D which has the buttons along the bottom of the screen, and is more cumbersome to use.

Despite what Nikon thinks, the megapixel wars are long over. The M3 has only a slight bump to 22.4, from 21.1 on the M2.

The basic layout of the camera is similar to the M2, which is pretty darn good.

I don't know if I will get one right away since my M2's are still chugging along nicely. It's bound to have some teething problems like the M2 did. Firmware updates will likely fix those, just as before.

Best Quote I've Heard All Week

Men socialize by insulting each other, but they don't really mean it.

Women socialize by complimenting each other, and they don't really mean it either.

Truer words have rarely been spoken.