Uebelhart . Net

Photo Albums coming up

Posted on July 29th, 2007 by Brian.
Categories: Website Updates, Photography, Trips.

Okay - after the website crash I could not get my image uploaders to work right, nor the old album software.

So I got some new stuff installed.

The beginnings of the England & Scotland albums are here: http://uebelhart.net/photos/

(There are just a few images, usually just 1, in each “album”, as I am using them to set up the sorting of the images)

Edit (Sunday Evening): There are alot of pics in the various Scotland albums now - they were just quickly sorted and no ‘fixing’ (i.e. light balance, etc) was done to them yet.

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Scotland Pics

Posted on July 24th, 2007 by Brian.
Categories: Trips.

Here’s a couple to wet the whistle:

http://www.zooomr.com/photos/steelsun/sets/18627/

(Note: We are having website problems, so we can’t get them uploaded here full size yet)

1 comment.

Back In Town

Posted on July 21st, 2007 by Brian.
Categories: General, Trips.

We are back in town.

The UK airports we had to use (Glasgow for the Scotland to London route , and Gatwick for the London to Houston) were both really screwed up today and we almost did not make either flight.

Picture counts are around 4000 for me, and 3000 for Dawn, so we’ll be awhile sorting and processing the best of them.

My Camera also developed a major error and will have to be sent in for repairs (happened on our first full day in Scotland). Yuk.

We are ordering Chinese, doing laundry, then will take a shower and grab some sleep.  We’ve been going since about 6 am UK time, which is about midnight last night Houston time.  I only slept about 20 minutes on the planes.  But did catch several movies (Wild Hogs, the Drew Barrymore/Hugh Grant Romance, and something else I can’t remember, plus parts of 300, TMNT, and Hot Fuzz)

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UK post 2

Posted on July 12th, 2007 by Brian.
Categories: Trips.

At an internet cafe this time (easier to get space on than the library).

We spent yesterday in Norwich - visited 2 cathedrals (the giant Norwich Cathedral and the newer Roman Catholic one), also Dawn got to ring bells at a smaller church.  Those were great.  Also visited the “castle” in the center of town - that was a disappointment - a tourist trap for kids (looks great from the outside though). 
For dinner, Neil (a local bellringer Dawn met last year) took us to “The Waffle House”.  This is NOTHING like a US Waffle House - it’s a restaurant that serves it’s meals on waffles.  I had a Bolognaise - which was meat spaghetti sauce on a waffle - not too bad, but not the best way to spend what amount to $12.  Dawn had a ham cheese and mushroom waffle.  For desert she had a Banoffee Waffle - which is a waffle covered with bananas, toffee, and chocolate.  I had dutch apple pie filling on mine.

Earlier in the week we visited Cambridge and “punted” (google cambridge +punt for an idea).  That was fun.

I also made a special trip to Cambridge on Tuesday - my battery charger for my camera dies overnight - no one in Ely (small city) has one, nearest place was Cambridge, so I took the train over (20 minutes), took the bus into the market district, and found the one store that has one (after asking a pro photo shop, electronics stores, and more).  The only one they had was a universal charger that will fit almost any camera and camcorder battery out there for £49.99.  That’s about $100 US.  It sucks, but I needed it.  Yikes.

Which brings us to the fact that everything here is much more expensive than the states - food, beer, whatever.  You see prices like a burger & chips (fries) for £4.99 or a coke (No refills) for £1.25 and you think “that’s normal” but with a $2 = £1 rate, it’s awful.

Oh well.

We are enjoying it though.

I may try to bring photos in tomorrow to upload if I can.

Monday we leave for Scotland.

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UK post from Ely Library

Posted on July 10th, 2007 by Brian.
Categories: Trips.

Well, we don’t have internet access at the B&B like we thought we would, so I am posting this from the local Library.

 It’s been good so far, aside from a few gaffs.  (I’ll post later about the Tour De France in London, and a $100 battery caharger).

 We are all safe and having a fun and wearing off shoe leather (rubber)

 Ta Ta for now.

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Prepping for Vacation

Posted on July 3rd, 2007 by Brian.
Categories: Trips.

Dawn & I will be leaving Houston in 2 days for the UK.

There is a “Scotland 2007″ link on the right to give you some idea of our plans.

Right now is the last minute scrambles to get things ready to go: Work, House, Packing, etc.
For once it looks like I won’t be workign all night long the night before the departure!

We have a friend, Ryan, staying at the house and watching the dogs while we are gone.

Of course I’ll be taking pictures. Lots of them.
I am bringing my laptop, so hopefully I’ll find some wireless to be able to upload and post a few notes and images now and then.

Also I’ll have a UK cellphone from work with me most of the time for emergencies
Phone # is 011-44-7738-899-474 (that’s the number to dial from the US - it is a long distance international call for the caller)

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New Lights & Teela

Posted on July 1st, 2007 by Brian.
Categories: Photography, Dogs.

I bought a new lighting set up (strobe, slave, barndoor, honeycomb, umbrellas, stands, etc) last week and finally got a chance to try them out today. I have to learn ratios and such to work these better.

The picture below is of Teela with the following setup:

Camera settings: manual mode - f5.6, 1/150 sec, iso 100, 28mm, autofocus.

Main strobe: placement to the left (when observed from camera), at 1/4 power, through a white umbrella, about 5-7 feet distance, about 2 feet above the subject head
Slave strobe: to the right, bounced off silver umbrella, about 6 feet distance, 2 feet above the subject head.

The second image is re-processed with a new idea I am working on, involving the image layered several times, with an sharpening layer, and a desat layer modded on, and some other tweaks. Gives the image a funky feel.

Edit:

Here’s one processed for Dori also.

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