Hiking in Cartersville

We did a 4.5 mile hike today at Pine Mountain in Cartersville. It was nice to get out with our friends and the dogs, and I also played with the new 40D. We never knew that this mountain existed and its a great spot to get some hiking in about 20 mins from the house. Elevation went from 800ft to about 2k over 2 miles. Whew!

I do dig the new camera. The picture quality isn't that much better then the 350d, but the whole package is greatly improved. The "feel" in my hand is a lot nicer, and the shutter on it rocks. It just sounds a lot more solid. I had to throttle back the drive setting, as leaving the shutter button pressed for a split second too long results in 3-4 more pictures because of the fast fps the camera is capable of. The 3" screen also rules. Reviewing shots is a good bit easier then the 1.5" screen I got used to on the 350D. I'm looking forward to getting out and shooting more with the new toy.

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V-Day Roses

So I got Cathy some roses for V day. Since I got the new camera, and the purple roses were unusual I snapped a couple of pictures. Don't think I'm going with simple red roses anymore, as the flower shop had a ton of other choices. We'll see what combo I come up with next time :)

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Canon 40D!

So I pulled the trigger on my upgrade. I've used the 350D for over 2 years now. I'm an "ok" amateur and never thought I would need an upgrade. I went the $$$ glass route, as suggested by many peers smarter then I, and it was well worth it. I got some great shots out of my 350D and 70-200L,24-105Ls. Recently, I've gotten the gear bug though, and with the used 40Ds coming down so much in price, I finally pulled the trigger.

Here are my impressions of 40D over the 350D for anyone else considering such a move

• The "feel" of the camera is much better, yet smaller then my 350D + grip combo. The 350 w/o the grip is too small for my hands, but the 40D fits just perfectly.
• The grip, the buttons, the locations, are just "right on" with this body, compared to being cramped in the 350D. I've seen people post that the 350D was a toy compared to the XXD series, and I kinda see what they are saying now.
• The "click" of shutter sounds better. The 350D has more of a slap, where the motorized up and down of the 40D sounds a lot beefier.Its wierd, but I really like the sound of the 40D shutter.
• In good light with 100 ISO, I can't really tell a difference between two "internet sized" shots. At full zoom, you can see a slight detail difference, but there isn't a huge wow factor in this situation
• In low light, the difference really kicks in. 1600ISO on the 40D is about equal to 400ISO on the 350D. Its THAT much of a difference. I took a well exposed shot at 1600ISO and it looks excellent. Wow!
• 6.5fps = Wow. That part is NOT going to suck for taking 1/80th pans of race cars. The keeper ratio was low with the 350D when trying for such low shutter speeds. With the 6.5fps, I'll be able to nail a 4-5 shot combo of each car, where with the 350D i could get ~2 shots of "in frame" in.
• Haven't noticed a huge difference in AF yet, but I haven't done any AI Servo work with race cars yet. The 40D seems to catch a little faster then I was used to, but its not that much. Then again, most of those were in great light, so the 350D didn't have much trouble and my amateur self never found the AF lacking with my 350D as I use the center point 99% of the time.

Not saying the 350D is bad. Its certainly a GREAT body, and at current prices ($350 used) its a KILLER deal for someone trying to get into DSLRs. Its just that the 40D really is a great step up and with the improved controls/format/performance allows you to enjoy photography more. I'm sure liking mine, and glad I pulled the trigger finally..

We're going for a hike this afternoon, so I'll take it with me and take some test shot. Sweet!

Car in the shop and PBR

So my race car is in the shop. Since I'm the DIY type, it doesn't happen that often, but after the ARRC wreck, I decided to have the car checked out by Trever, who is the one that built it. I looked it over at the house and it doesn't actually look too bad. The only thing out alignment wise was the right front camber and toe. Looks like the upright got bent. The other 3 wheels where right in sync with each other and not even more a smidgen. The bottom subframe, which was 1/16" away from the header looks to have maybe moved in the accident, hit the header slightly cracking it, and then moved back. Since thats a $$$ custom header, figured, lets have it fixed by folks that know more then I do.

Once Trever gives the car a thumbs up, I'll be taking it over to the body shop to have the rear quarter panel dents touched up and sprayed over with red paint. I might take it home inbetween and see how much of the body work I can touch up to save money. We'll see. Since I need new fenders and a new front bumper cover, I decided to go with a slightly different paint scheme for next season. I'm going to cover the hood and fenders with carbon fiber look vinyl, so I don't have to paint. And then extend that vinyl into the doors with some kind of design. The front bumper will stay "factory black" as its just easier that way.

Also yesterday was about the nicest day in the last month or so here, so we went out to the dog park with a couple of our friends and out for some beers and pizza. They had $5 PBR pitchers which I couldn't pass up :) I was actually pleasantly surprised at the taste of PBR being sober, as I usually reserve PBR for the end of the night once I don't care about what I'm drinking.

Cheap Digital Camber Gauge

A few years ago I used someone's "Smart Camber" digital camber gauge. It was awesome! You could zero it on the ground and measure your camber on uneven ground with 0.1 accuracy. I was going to get my own, but the $250 street price kind of discouraged me. Being the DIY type, I decided to make my own.

Take:

• (1) Digital Level from Sears with 0.1 accuracy which can be found on sale for $35
• (1) 20in long, 1" wide, 1/8" thick piece of steel from Home Depot Racing
• (2) 1" long 1/4" thick metal spacers from HDR
• (2) Allen head 1.5" bolts
• (2) Nuts and washers

Drill a hole on one end of the sheetmetal, then 3 holes for 15, 16 and 17" wheels on the other end. Put in the bolts into the spacers, through the sheetmetal and throw a washer/nut on the other end. The pictures at the end of the post show what I'm talking about. The level attaches to the sheetmetal and is very sturdy as it has a nice big magnet in it.

To do an alignment, just set the gauge on the ground in front of your tire and level out to 0 with the "zero" button. Then place against your wheel and do a tiny bit of math. 88 degrees on the gauge = -2 degrees camber. Easy, accurate to 0.1, and under $40 including all materials. It's been working great the last season and between this, and stringing up the car for toe, I can do pro alignments in the garage or the pits whenever I please. After the lift, the Jeep went to the shop for an alignment, so I got to verify the accuracy of the gauge and it matched their Hunter machine.

I've thought about making a better mount for the level, which would allow me to zero out the gauge vertically, but this has been working so well, I never bothered. If someone comes up with something better, send me a note.

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BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir

This past Saturday we went to the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Temple in Lilburn GA. This is an amazing temple and a serious work of art. The entire structure is floor to ceiling marble and the carvings and detail work is incredible. This particular one in Atlanta is the largest such temple outside of India and is a place we're going to have to take our Atlanta visitors from now on. We also did a little "mini tour" and learned a bit about the Hinduism. I wish I could have gotten some pictures of the interior but there are no cameras allowed inside. I took a panorama of the structure from the outside and a shot of the fountains out front.

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House WIP

So we've got most of house completed. Took a couple of weekends working our butts off, but it was totally worth it. The appraisal came back right at the amount we needed, and the house looks awesome inside now. We decided to put the outside on hold until the spring, and at that time redo the shutters and tear ALL the bushes out to create a clean new look. As far as the inside, we finished everything except the crown molding in the upstairs hallway. We didn't need to do it for the appraisal and I haven't been inspired enough to take care of recently :) The bathroom came out being our favorite "after" room, as Cathy's paint work on the cabinets transformed them from old school oak to a nice looking cherry finish.

Here are a couple of pictures of the WIP and the "before" on the bathroom. Once we put our paintings/etc on the walls and finish cleaning up I'll take some after pictures.

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