Month: November 2024

Guest Contributor – TomD – 17NOV2024 – Photo – Focus Stacking Issues

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Tom | Flickr

TomD

Yesterday, I experimented some and found what I consider the Achilles heel of the method. This isn’t a factor for inanimate objects but outdoor nature photography becomes difficult to say the least. I was trying to shoot a clump of red berries in a bush and then a flower (this is Florida)> There was no detectable wind the the 1/4 mph (or whatever) was just enough to move the subject 1/8” to 1/16”, just barely. That would have had little to no effect in regular photography but it totally ruled out stacked images for any purpose. That + the sheer length of time the subject has to remain motionless is hard in the wild. For my initial experiments, I was doing just 25 images with a 2 sec interval. That’s a life time in some circumstances but a bunch of articles recommended 100!

This is different from the focus stacking that i learned when I was in a camera club about 15 years ago. Then the shooting formula was still on a tripod, you would focus the camera on the nearest point you wanted, then the furthest and then input the number of steps that you want. Typically, it was along the line of 5 to 10 intervals, max.

The major downside was that the camera had to be tethered to and controlled by a computer. And the software was expensive.

At any rate, it looks as if this latest technique is limited to purely static subjects. But so to is HDR but to a much lessor extent. The most images you need in HDR is 5 and my camera will whip those out in less than a second. So you have some latitude.

Daydream Believer

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I was working on the outline for my book and I need to add about 50,000 words to the present length.  Luckily, I have a “women and children in danger” scenario that hasn’t even been started yet so there’s 25,000 words right there.  But the other thing I thought of has to do with the wrap up of the story.  Our heroes have survived a direct nuclear attack by the crazed, cowardly POTUS and have retaliated by physically undermining the headquarters of all the centers of power in Washington (White House, Capitol, Pentagon and all the HQ buildings of the security agencies including their data storage infrastructure nationwide). Basically, everyone in those building fall hundreds of feet to their death underground.  In addition, the good guys manage to tunnel under and hijack a bunch of ICBMs out of their silos thus preventing potential future retaliation.

So, the wrap-up has to be a conference between our heroes (or their representatives) with the federal and state leaders about a modus vivendi that will prevent any more bloodshed and allow for more permanent arrangements to be negotiated.  And the demand that the negotiators would make would be for all the rights that the Bill of Rights guaranteed them be restored without question or exception forever.  Now that could easily chew up 30,000 words.

While I was thinking about that, it got me thinking about reality.  Like, what would be the best outcome of Trump decapitating the Deep State and neutering all of the agencies that make our lives miserable?  Obviously, it would be for him to invite the Supreme Court to rule against all of the affirmative action and other unconstitutional mandates that strip away our rights and then use the Supreme Court’s decision to shut down all of the agencies and departments that spend all their time making these regulations.

Can you imagine if all the federal employees who monitor and threaten corporations to hire more girl bosses suddenly had no permission to do such things?  And then extend that to all of the other protected classes.  Imagine if a company could just hire who they wanted to based on nothing more than the fact that they considered someone the best choice?  Why that would be revolutionary.  And imagine if all the corporations could close down their HR departments and allow managers to hire their employees themselves?  Think of all the unemployed blue-haired cat ladies!  Think of the end of HR sponsored struggle sessions around gay pride week and rainbow flag decorations.  No more new acronyms like LGBTQIA and BiPOC and DEI and no more seminars on toxic masculinity, white privilege and hate speech.  And no more stupid slogans like “diversity is our strength.”  From now on everyone doing their damn jobs is our strength.

And after thinking about that I was sitting there with this stupid smile on my face for like five minutes.  And, of course, I knew it was just a ridiculous pipe dream.  But what a beautiful dream it was.  And really, it was completely within the bounds of what the Supreme Court could do.  And it was completely within the authority of what the President could do to respond to just such a Supreme Court decision.

It was completely logical and also completely impossible.  But it was the most beautiful dream I’ve had in a while.  It reminded me of a dream I had a few months ago where I imagined Donald Trump winning the 2024 election with a mandate and a congressional majority behind him.  It was dream like that.

Sony A7 IV Focus Bracketing Test – 16NOV2024

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Welcome to the further adventures of me playing around with the newly added focus bracketing function on my Sony A7IV camera.  Although I was using the Sony 90mm macro lens this isn’t a macro bracket.  I set up a few small statues in a location that caught the late afternoon light and ran a hundred shots with a medium setting on the focus change.  I’ve attached the first file (1) and the last file (100) followed by the merged product.

(1)

 

(100)

 

merged product

 

Now this isn’t all that an exciting test.  Afterwards I though I probably should have included a shot at a very small aperture like F8 or F16 as a comparison of what can be done the old fashioned way without the software magic.  But I didn’t think of that before.

Anyway, just another test as I play around with my fun new toy.

16NOV2024 – Quote of the Day

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Vitai Lampada

There’s a breathless hush in the Close to-night —

Ten to make and the match to win —

A bumping pitch and a blinding light,

An hour to play and the last man in.

And it’s not for the sake of a ribboned coat,

Or the selfish hope of a season’s fame,

But his Captain’s hand on his shoulder smote —

‘Play up! play up! and play the game!’

 

The sand of the desert is sodden red, —

Red with the wreck of a square that broke; —

The Gatling’s jammed and the Colonel dead,

And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.

The river of death has brimmed his banks,

And England’s far, and Honour a name,

But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks:

‘Play up! play up! and play the game!’

 

This is the word that year by year,

While in her place the School is set,

Every one of her sons must hear,

And none that hears it dare forget.

This they all with a joyful mind

Bear through life like a torch in flame,

And falling fling to the host behind —

‘Play up! play up! and play the game!’

Henry Newbolt

Patriot Games

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Lately, I find reality beginning to resemble 1980’s action movie plots.  We have CIA and FBI undercover operations freely mixing into our politics.  Whether it’s Russia-gate or Hunter’s laptop or any of the color revolution activities inside and outside of the United States, it just seems like there’s no longer any brakes on what intelligence agencies will do if they decide it’s in their interest.

It’s as if they’ve been reading too many Tom Clancy novels or something.  And now with Donald Trump taking the initiative by selecting nominees for Attorney General and other cabinet officers who could curtail these activities it almost seems like we’re approaching some kind of showdown between the elected government and the Deep State.

It doesn’t take much imagination to see where this could go.  Now the thing is, the intelligence agencies have a long-standing relationship with many of the senators who run the place.  With Senator Thune selected for Senate Majority Leader I wouldn’t be surprised if they are given marching orders to veto Trump’s nominees like Matt Gaetz.  What might happen might be that the Senate could veto Gaetz but Trump might make him an interim appointee.  I’m guessing that a year in office might be plenty enough to fire and prosecute plenty of Trump’s enemies.  And after the year I’m sure Trump will find plenty of other work for Gaetz.  And likewise for Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense.  You can fire a lot of generals and rescind a lot of DEI and LGBTQ policies in a year.

But it’s easy to see that the GOP establishment is still alive and well in the Senate.  Donald Trump has his work cut out for him and he’ll have to use every bit of the powers that the presidency possesses to bust up the Deep State.  I suspect he may have to declare a national emergency just to shut the border and deport the millions of illegal aliens.  And I don’t think the enemies of this country, foreign (the aliens) or domestic (governors like Gavin Newsom) will just roll over and play dead.  Trump is going to have to play hardball with them.  I don’t doubt that it will lead to violence.  And that’s one of the biggest reasons why he has to purge the military and the Justice Department of his enemies.  Otherwise, they will fight him tooth and nail every step of the way.

I think it will be fascinating to see who wins.  I’m sure the FBI and the CIA will “discover” another Russia-gate to investigate.  And various senators who work for Raytheon and the other defense contractors will accuse Trump of being soft on Russia for not wanting to keep the Ukraine war going for another ten years.  I hope that Donald Trump has learned his lesson and will fire all of the FBI, NSA, CIA and other intelligence agency enemies he has as soon as he gets into office.  And he should similarly fire as many woke generals as he can, as soon as he can.  I think his presidency depends on it.  And with no hint of exaggeration, his very life probably does too.