Hobbies

How to Take Pictures of Lightning

February 23, 2007 0 Comments

Taking pictures of lightning is not nearly as hard as you may think. In fact, it’s actually quite simple assuming you’re taking pictures at night. If you’re shooting during daylight hours, you’ll either need lightning quick reflexes (pun intended) or some expensive shutter trigger hardware. The reason being, at night the entire scene is dark, or nearly dark which allows you to keep the shutter open for long periods of time without exposing the sensor or film. When a lighting strike occurs, it acts as a natural flash exposing the…
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Photography

Pictures of Farmland

February 22, 2007 0 Comments

While chasing storms on the Colorado plains, I’ve found farms also have a lot to offer photographically. Windmills in particular provide a function to the farm that has been invaluable to farmers for decades. And after years and years of intense abuse, some are still standing today as a relic to the way things used to be. Below are some pictures of farmland I’ve come across while chasing storms in Eastern Colorado. This was a shot of a distant thunderstorm over the Rocky Mountains just after sunset. This photo was…
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Photography

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Pictures of Clouds

February 21, 2007 0 Comments

Every aspect of the weather fascinates me, including things as mundane as the clouds. This fascination probably manifested itself early in childhood. Growing up and living the first 24 years of my life on the beaches of sunny Southern California offered little in the way of exciting weather, unless fog excites you. I remember as a kid reading books and seeing pictures of huge super cells and clouds bubbling from beneath and thinking the pictures were fake. Nothing could look that cool and be natural. It wasn’t until I moved…
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Photography

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BMW 650 GS Tail Light

February 2, 2007 0 Comments

One of the first things I noticed about my BMW 650 Dakar was how dim the taillight was. The little incandescent bulb is not very bright and if the plastic light cover is even just a little bit dirty (as it always seems to be) the light is even more unnoticeable. And that’s the one thing you don’t want to be while riding a motorcycle on busy city streets, unnoticeable. So, one of the first things I bought for my bike was the Brake! LED taillight from Touratech online. This…
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Motorcycle

BMW 650 GS Givi Top Case

January 17, 2007 0 Comments

When I bought my 2005 BMW 650 GS Dakar, I quickly realized I was going to need a top case for carrying some of my gear. The question was, do I go with the BMW case that is made for the bike or do I go with a 3rd party case? After speaking with some co-workers who have BMW motorcycles, none of them had many good things to say about the BMW top case. The two biggest complaints I heard were it was very compartmentalized which made storing larger items…
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Motorcycle

My BMW 650 GS Dakar Review

April 5, 2006 0 Comments

When it came to choosing my first motorcycle, I decided on the 2005 BMW 650 GS Dakar over some other comparable single cylinder motorcycles for a couple of simple reasons; looks and performance. Bottom line … I LOVE this bike! Some of the other bikes I looked at were the Kawasaki KLR, BMW 650 CS/GS, and the BMW 1200 GS (a bit much for a first bike), but the 650 Dakar was exactly what I was looking for. And I have no regrets whatsoever! I wasn’t interested in buying a…
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Motorcycle