“Palouse Evening on Linville Road”
Click here to see other photos from this shoot.

I got a big surprise this morning via bashpodder, my podcasting aggregator. Scott Brenner, of the famous “Today’s Podcast”, featured a word I sent him a while back. An Appaloosa is the beautiful Nez Perce horse breed famous for their agility and their spotted rumps. Scott produces a word or quote of the day podcast that is always interesting even I can’t seem to work many the words into conversation.

In the podcast Scott refers to a picture I took called “Palouse Morning on Linville Road”. Now on closer examination of the exif data associated with the image it was “Date Taken: 2002:05:08 19:48:17”. So I have to rename it “Palouse Evening on Linville Road”. Sorry.

You can listen to Scott’s “Appaloosa” podcast here. Visit “Today’s Podcast” and subscribe to Scott’s podcast here.

“…and tell all your friends about podcasting.”

Friday morning I got the change to take some more pictures of the aerial display called cropdusting. This is the season for taking pictures of cropdusting. My neighbor had his field of lentils sprayed by Fountain and crew. They fly a 76′ Grumman biplane. I applied some of what I learned from the previous 2 shoots. Unfortunately I still got caught on a sunny morning with the sun in my face. This makes for difficult shooting. I scrambled to change my position to the other side of the field but by the time I got there the spraying was finished.

I need to reinforce to anyone shooting aerial application of herbicides or pesticides - Stay out of the spray and driftzone. These chemicals are not at all good for you.

The LinuxChix GIMP course is conducted on the courses mailing list, and the lessons are archived via the list archive. The course consisted of 11 weekly lessons, starting with Lesson 0 on Jan 25, 2005...

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Yesterday I took an alternate route home from work and serendipity struck again! The very same crop duster (Ken from Ranch Aero Precision Ag) was dusting a field of lentils right beside the road and there was a convient pullout right where I needed it. I had just enough time to get my camera out of the bag, switch lens and set the camera to time priority @ 1/30 sec. and capture the last 5-6 runs.

This is take 2, shooting crop dusting operations. In take 1, “Serendipity”, I found myself poorly positioned with the sun in my face, without the correct lens for a dramatic shot of the action and the camera set to freeze the action. This time I was still poorly positioned but I had the right lens and was thinking ahead how I wanted to capture the action. I really like this picture and this series of images.

What did I learn for next time.
1. Try to get positioned between field and sun.
2. With a fast moving plane, set camera to 1/30 - 1/90 sec. time priority.
3. Set camera to follow focus and no AE lock.
4. Try same technique with longer lens.
5. Biggy!! stay far enough away that you don’t get sprayed!!

Podcasts are time-shifted audio programs. Another way to think of it is to equate podcasting with Tivo®, as in Tivo® for radio. Most of the best are amateur productions. No need to have an iPod®, any mp3 player will work and you can even listen at your computer. To get the whole scoop on podcasting check this Wikipedia link. Here is the list of my current favorites science programs. Over the next few days I’ll post more of my favorites from other categories.

Science Programs

• Berkeley Groks - journal review and interview sometimes comical sometimes slapstick. Berkeley California.
• Dr. Karl -fun call in show from Australia.
• Quirks and Quarks -smart call in and interview program from Canada.
• Science Friday-interview and call in program carried on NPR in US.
• Dr. Moira Gunn -smart interviews covering biotech and other tech sciences. US origin.

This weekend, we returned to Grandmother Mountain with Boykan. The wildflowers, especially the Beargrass, were in full bloom. The air was cool in the shade and warm in the sun and the wind was blowing enough to cool us on the uphill stretches and enough to keep the bugs at bay. In otherwords - perfect!

Serendipity! I’m driving down Reisenauer Hill on my way home from work and I notice a crop duster working the field next to the field next to the road. In other words, two fields over. Serendipity! He’s not too close and there is a little foreground between us. Serendipity! There is a highway pull out conveniently located for a near perfect angle. Serendipity! He still had 4 runs to do after I got set. In less than 5 minutes it was all over. 48 images ‘in the can’ and I got a great shot of him soaring back home.

The most cool thing about this series of shoots is the cooperation I got. At the very end he made a low and close pass over the field directly in front of me just so I could get a closeup. It was exciting and exhilarating! Unfortunately he was too close for the lens I had on the camera. Even with the 100mm, he more than filled the frame and I didn’t get the great shot he and I had in mind. Just to be clear, there was no communication between us, not on the physical level anyway. I really appreciate his consideration. I had no idea how good the shoot was until this morning. Check it out.

Notes to self:
• Next time use a slower shutter speed to blur the prop and background via panning.
• Carry the wide angle in pocket so if a close encounter occurs, you’ll get the shot.
• Try to get between the sun and the field for better lighting.