Ghost Hunting, just in time for Halloween.

Receding Glacier
Paradise Glacier, Mt. Rainier National Park.

iPhone headphone, modified with sony driver

A so so music palyer with a pair of high quality headphones sounds better than a good player with a pair of so so headphones. I had been a Sony headphone fan for a while back to the magnetic tape era. Unfortunately, Sony did not boom well in the digital years. Not because of engeering. I remembered that long time ago, before iPod arrived, I had a Sony mp3. It was cute, tiny aluminum body, twist forward/backward, and press to select. (It hold only few songs. Well, my computer memory was not much larger at that time). It feels better and works better than Shuffle, not to mention at its time. Unfortunately, Sony decided to stay away from mp3 as far as possible (for copyright protection), thus the software was too hard to use, even for "nerd" like me. How can it boom! I was among the first to get a iPod. Well, now Sony seems totally embrace mp3, and some of its players are total USB drive that play. (You can drop mp3 file to it, and it plays. Plug to you friend's computer, and upload it.) It was too late. I still have the headphone from my original sony mp3 player, and I like it. The cord is short for convenience, and comes with extension cord!

I prefer the shimmer cymbal of Sony to the muddy bass of Apple. I had another pair of Sony, but had a bad connection. So, I switch the driver (with its house). Now it has the remote, mic and the sound that I like!

Footprint on Moon
© NASA (not IR)
most of BW IR photos look like this

It has been 40 years. It proved to us that nothing is impossible, we just need to make up our mind. At that time, the computers on board had less brain power than your cell phone! I could imagin that people watched the whole drama unfold, as if the movie "Armageddon".

After I got my iPod Touch (the smallest netbook), I replaced the wall paper with one of my IR photos. Rightway, I changed it back to the original. It is the earth photo from space, more beautiful than any photos I will ever make. It is where we live, where we photo.

We need to take good care of it.

2009 Loews Dog Surf Competition
June 20, 2009, Imperial Beach, San Diego

"Who are you shooting for?", someone asked me when she saw me with a big lens, wading in cold water in a drizzle and surf spray. "Myself", I said.

Most of us taking photos for ourselves. I have couple of professional photographers there with me, and also, they are shooting for fun. Totally, I forget my own troubles, plus health care, financial system, climate...Most of my images goes directly to my well backuped hard disk, very few showed to friends and here.

There are lot of fun things happen in the summer, like the County Fair, State Fair, and our annual .US Open Sand Castle Competition!

Lotus, My official Summer Flowers

In winter time, I once encouraged a friend in Vermont to go out take a IR image of a red barn (appears white in IR) against black IR sky, with a bare tree nearby, casting long shadow on the white now. (image is only limited by imagination!)

Any season is good photo season. Summer is perticularly good for IR, lush greens, and looong bright days! Please make full use of it!

World Largest Thermometer
134 feet (41 m), reads 101 Degree F
Along the freeway I-15, Baker, Mojave Desert, California

"When the well's dry, we know the worth of water"
- Benjamin Franklin

I went to solute the Colorado River, where most of the water in Southern California comes from. To make it sincere, I chose in a hot weather. I stayed at Vegas, taking IR photos during the day, stayed in significantly under-priced fancy hotel. Without water from Colorado River, there will be no Vegas, not to mention water dance at Bellagio.more photos...

Cotton Candy over Tioga Lake
Olympus E-410IR, kit lens, 715 nm filter, desaturated to B/W
High Sierra, Yosemite National Park

Olympus did plenty of pineer work in d-SLR, such as supersonic dust removal, and live-view (live-view is great when manual focus on a tripod, better than any interchangable screen!). It also made a SLR with the mirror swing side-ways, which made me laugh!

Besides having converted most of the Nikons and Canons, I also did some Pentax. Being curious of new models, I opened an Olympus E-410, once was the lightest d-SLR. It was in fact thinner than D60 and XSi, kind of remind me Leica rangefinder and the grip feels like upscale Nikons. The lens is also pretty sharp when comparing to other maker's entry-level kit lenses. The drive-by-wire focus need some time to get use to (I set the focus mode to S-AF+MF). Image is very good in bright sunlight, and useful functions, such as AEB, mirror lockup are easy to access. Overall, it is very excellent middle-day hiking companion.

Care for another cup of hot tea?
Yosemite Falls, Yosemite National Park

Infrared is invisible. You will be amazed to to see the outcome. The cloud and running water are white, while the sky and still water are very dark. This brings contrast in sky and streams. The foliages can be as bright as cloud and snow, and may have slight varation in brightness and tint. For example, the conifer is less bright as grass blades. The difference is more dramatic under bright sun light.

Of course, the white-balance is critical. I normally use the greens as my white-balance reference, and shoot raw + jpeg. The software that comes with the camera generally works very well (but not third party software). I can use either "as shot" or choose the foliage (cloud, snow...) as white.

Early Summer Wildflowers
a state park near my home in San Diego
might be closed as early as Labor Day

I am appalled by the proposal to close 80% of California's state park and state beach, including Big Sur. Sure, it will cost a lot of money to open, it actually brings more income for the local economy, and bring a lot of fun for the kids and family in this difficult time.

More sensibly, when the economy is sluggish, we need to pour the "stimulus" money to the infrastructure to creat new job. Not to lay off the park rangers. Just like to cut the dental cost, the negnigence will cost us dearly later on. The close of the park will lead to decay of the trail, or even vendalism.

Please call your congressman.

Corn Lily Furnace
IR is best when light is too harsh for color
at my designated lunch area near a trail

The days get longer and there is a lot of greens. Yay, a great hiking/backpacking season begins!

Sunrise or sunset at an alpine lake, with some wild flowers in the front, and the dark side of Galen's filter to hold back the burning sky, wonderful.

To get there, many hours of activities under harsh sun. I normally sneak in a small IR SLR (about one pound) into the side of my already crowded backpack, and snap along the way, when take a rest, or have lunch! I always get excited of what I get, even after shooting dozens of thousands of IR images.

Twisted Turns
Frontal or slight side-lit are best for IR
from Conronado Island, San Diego, May 10, 2009

Redbull brings me wings, I mean the Redbull air race. These are small highly-powered stunt machines. I had to learn how to pan my D90 smoothly for the video.

For best IR, the bright sun above you or behind you, custom WB, f8, bracketing, and be there!