Photos
Pictures: Spring Break Ski Trip
I spent four days earlier this week skiing in Utah with some friends. We all skied at Snowbird, except for one day when I got an Alta pass and headed over the mountain to check it out. I had borrowed a video camera from a friend to try and get some handheld skiing footage, which seemed to work fairly well until I accidentally dropped it in some deep powder on some steep terrain and couldn’t find it. After that unfortunate episode, I was inspired to check out some helmet cams. I think this one seems pretty good; check out the video taken with it partway down this page.
I also had the chance on this trip to try out a new slope meter my brother gave me for Christmas. It was interesting to see how poorly I estimate slope—the very steepest terrain I skied barely hit 40°. It definitely doesn’t seem like that when you’re looking down from the top.
Fun with the Canon EF f/1.8 50mm Prime Lens
As a Christmas gift, I received the Canon EF f/1.8 50mm lens for my XSi. This is an awesome lens for several reasons, not least of which is the fact that it sells for under $100, making it essentially dirt cheap as far as lenses go. The reason that Canon can make a lens with an aperture this large for so little is that it is a prime lens, so it has few parts. The lens is known for having fantastic optical quality, even compared with much pricier lenses, at the cost of relatively poor build quality (it has a plastic housing that apparently doesn’t hold up well to wear and tear).
After messing around with it for a couple of days, I am very happy with it. At 1.8, the depth of field is ridiculous—for example, it is very easy to get the wrong part of a face in focus. The lens has a bit of trouble focusing, particularly in low light, and the motor is fairly noisy. Going for the $350 f/1.4 USM lens would probably fix these problems. I also definitely noticed the lack of IS as compared with the kit lens, but as this thing is so fast I really can’t complain about that. In fact, any criticism of this lens can be more or less rebutted by recalling the absurdly low price.
Summer ‘09 in Pics vol. 16
Wilson Peak
This is the second-to-last last entry for the summer. The week before school started, I went on an ambitious hike to some fourteeners known as the Wilson group. We had initially intended to hike all three in a day, but as it turned out we only managed to do one: Wilson Peak. You may have seen a picture of this mountain before:
Not depicted: me at the top.
Summer ‘09 in Pics vol. 15
San Gorgonio Mountain
My last day of work this summer was August 14th, and I planned to drive home the following day. Unfortunately, I still hadn’t hiked the last Saint, San Gorgonio Mountain. This is the highest mountain in Southern California and I certainly couldn’t leave without bagging it. So, I packed everything from my summer accommodations the night of the 14th and woke up at 3am on the 15th to do my hike. I had been unable to get a permit for my desired trail, Vivian Creek, so I instead had one for the longer South Fork trail. This trail is about 11 miles long (each way) but has the nice feature that the top section can be done as a loop so I didn’t have to retrace my steps the whole way. I got on the trail at about 6:00 and, hiking quickly, gained the summit at about by 11:00 traveling up the Dollar Lake fork of the trail.
Summer ‘09 in Pics vol. 14
More Pictures from the Beach
Here I have included a picture from a late July sunset on the beach. A few days later, I went up to Lower Trestles with my friend Kevin to check out the big waves that were the result of a nice southern swell.
Summer ‘09 in Pics vol. 13
The City and Experiments with HDR
I was in San Diego to watch Harry Potter last night (terrible, by the way) and I took the opportunity to check out downtown and Coronado. I’ve included a couple of pictures I took from Harbor Island.
Then today I spent more time taking pictures on the beach. I’ve been trying out some HDR techniques; you can see the results below.
Summer ‘09 in Pics vol. 12
Beach, Surfing, and a New Camera
For the past couple days I’ve been heading down to the beach to take pictures of the sunset with my new Canon EOS Rebel XSi. I’ve really been having fun with this camera, and I’m learning a lot (especially how to estimate settings—I’ve been trying to force myself to use full manual controls for most of my pictures, and my eyeballing skills have much improved). I also got the chance to try surfing this evening, but I didn’t get any pictures of that.
Summer ‘09 in Pics vol. 11
Baldy, Part II
I intended to climb San Gorgonio this past weekend, but couldn’t because my intended trail was closed due to “bear issues” (direct quote from the ranger). I ended up hiking Baldy again, this time with my friend Kevin from work. We went up the same way as I went last time, but we were both pretty tired and ended up going down via the ski area (and one helpful lift ride) to hitch a ride back to our car. The weather was unpleasantly hot, and is making me rethink my plans to do more hiking this summer. It was also crowded; Baldy’s proximity to millions of people makes it a very popular mountain. I’ve only included a few pictures because they were kind of uninspiring after Mount Rainier.