I took a Monday off from work and made my first trip to Moon Mountain Ski Area in Lincoln, NH. This is a trip I had wanted to make for years. It was a clear and cold morning. They were making snow like crazy to recover from the rain of the previous week. Their efforts paid off since the snow conditions at Loon were better that day than many other New Hampshire and Vermont ski areas.

I enjoyed a fantastic view of the south face of Whaleback  Mt from the Rampasture trail. Rampasture turned out to be my favorite trail of the trip. I enjoyed more runs on this trail than any other on the mountain.

After many runs from the Kangcamagus Express Quad I finally made it over to the Gondola lift and went to the summit. I enjoyed a great vew north towards the Pemigewasset Wilderness region.

This is one photo of the view looking north from the first corner of the Exodus trail. The panorama view from this vantage point is spectacular.

This is the view northeast looking towards a snow covered Mt. Washington off in the distance. I am very impressed with the trails, the view and the grooming at Loon mountain and plan on going back, maybe even for an overnight trip.

In addition to photographs I took several minutes of video footage which I hope to make into a YouTube movie . Visit my page at Flickr.com for the full photo set and my channel on YouTube for the video.

A popular Christmas season tradition for many in the Upper Valley is a trip to see the light display at La Salette shrine in Enfield, NH. This year I actually went on Christmas day. I decided to bring my Pentax DSLR camera and snap a few photos.

The rest of the photos can be viewed at Flickr.com.

Christmas Eve day was my first day of the season on the ski slopes. I took the day off from work and headed to Mt. Sunapee. The weather report said it was going to be a nice day with temperatures in the mid-thirties so was surprised to find overcast skies and the summit covered in fog and snow from their snow guns. It was a little spooky skiing in the low visibility of the “fog like” conditions. It was not until mid-morning that the sun burned through so I could see the view of the lake that  Mt. Sunapee is famous for.

Although not all the trails were open conditions were good with well groomed packed powder and machine groomed snow.

I also took my video camera with me and experimented with shooting video on the ski slopes. I am working on a short video which I hope to post to my YouTube Channel.

The Digital Gallery Website

It has been months since my last Blogpost. Since finishing my degree program at Franklin Pierce University I will have more time to write (in theory anyway). A project I had put on the back burner was a redesign of my personal Website.

This project had a couple major goals.

• Switch from using Microsoft Expression Web to Adobe DreamWeaver CS3.
• Create links in the navigation bar that went to photos, video and social networking site content rather than creating content in traditional Webpages.

This is a standards based Website using Cascading Style Sheets, Spry navigation menu’s and the Spry Accordion in the right toolbar. I also used the DreamWeaver “Image Viewer” control to create a Flash slide show.

I had fun making the banner image. I was able to experiment with making gradients in Photoshop in addition to using an extract filter to isolate objects from the background so they could be used in other graphics.

Heron fishing on the point on a foggy morning.

Thanks to my sister Anne, I was able to spend long weekend at our family vacation home in Bristol, Maine. Although I was expecting bad weather the whole time, I was fortunate enough to enjoy some sunshine on Friday and Saturday.

The big treat from a photography perspective was some early morning heron photos and a large family of Canadian Geese that has moved into the two coves on either side of the house. I got several good photos of them. On Saturday evening the geese actually chased a heron out of the cove.

Family of Canadian geese on the point

 

Canadian geese in the back cove at our vacation home in Bristol, Maine

It was really good to get the kayak out on the water. One of the most memorable events while kayaking was a sighting of some Harbor Pourpoises. I saw dorsal fins break water four time. I saw one seal way up near the top of the East Branch of the Johns River, which is unusual. I did not see many (two sightings) on the their usual spot near the head of the bay where the east and west beanch meet, but I was out at high tide which is not the best time to see them.

Lobster boat on Johns Bay

An added pleasant surprise was when Steve and Patricia Carndall stopped by for a visit on Saturday afternoon. Plus my sister Anne and her family arrived Sunday evening so I was able to visit with them and play with Tristan and Erin for a while before leaving on Monday.

I just made a big jump in camera technology for my photography hobby. After weeks of research I decided to get the Pentax K2000 Digital SLR for a starter digital SLR camera. One of the major features I was look ing for was image stabilization. The Pentax K2000 has the image stabilization in the body and not the lense. I also got a great deal on the price. I was able to find the kit that included both a 18 – 55mm Lens and the 50-200mm Lens from Amazon.com. I have to get a few acessories now and get out to practice and learn.

I went to see a play based on the Steinbeck classic The Grapes of Wrath at the Hopkins Center last Saturday night. The show was excellent! If you have read the book or have been curious about the story I would recommend this play.

It’s a powerful story of a family leaving the “Dust Bowl” of the Midwest hoping for work in the fruit orchards of California and a new life. They arrive only to discover the farm owners are exploiting the workers and paying starvation wages. In addition to the Study Guide I discovered a fantatic overview and analysis Website about the story at SparkNotes.com. While class and economic divide is a major theme in the story, I think there are many lessons about human nature, compassion and family as well.

There will be an 8pm show on February 25-27 and a 2pm show on February 28th, 2009.

The Dark Knight finally hit Pay per View! It has been on my list of movies to see since it was released. This is another film by Christopher Nolan, producer of Batman Begins.

It was as good, if not better than everybody said it was. It set a tone to the story that was more realistic and less “comic strip like” than previous Batman films. There is a lot of potential for another sequel film in the same style and cast of characters.

Heath Ledger did a fantastic job as the Joker! Ledger’s unexpected death and the subsequent success of the Dark Knight have been mentioned as one of the top entertainment stories of 2008. He has recently been nominated for a Golden Globe award. A Reuters.com article even mentioned for a “rare posthumous Oscar recognition.” I would vote for him! What do you think?

 Of course there have been a ton of rumors about the Dark Knight sequel film and especially which villain will be in the film who will play the part.

I am new to the world of Facebook so I am still on the journey of discovery. A friend that did not know much about Facebook asked me what is was all about. I had to think for awhile before answering, “It is many things to many people with networking and communication as the commen thread.”

I initally made a Facebook  profile to join the AIGA NH/VT group. Once I got a profile started I  started to wonder what other groups were out there. I was glad to find a uvScene.com group had already been started, which I quickly joined. If you visit the uvScene.com and have a Facebook profile (or want to make one) please join the group. It would be cool to see the membership grow. A few people also told me about an Upper Valley (NH/VT) regional group, which I also joined.

I then discovered that Facebook is more than profiles and groups. There are lots of cool Facebook applications you can add to your profile. There are so many of them it takes some research to find good ones. I am learning about many apps based on what people on my friends lists are using. Thanks everyone! In addition to the basic applications they start you out with like Status Update, Photos and Notes, I am checking out applications like:

• (Lil) Green Patch
• WeRead
• Music iLike
• Where Ive Been
• Flickster Movies
• Visual Bookshelf

I am currently comparing WeRead and Visual Bookshelf. More people on my friends list use Visual Bookshelf than WeRead. Anyone have an opinion about which one is better?

I just added Bumper Stickers and Causes to my application list but have not fully expored them yet.  I also just discovered the Facebook Marketplace, which seems popular with everyone on my list. Anyone have suggestions for more applications?

A few weekends ago I got the opportunity to spend some quality time using Adobe Illustrator to create new map graphics for work.

We had a graphic that showed the towns in our territory but none of the surrounding towns. It also did not show where we were located in relation to the rest of VT and NH.

My goal was to create a series of graphics with layers that would allow me the flexibility to customize the map depending on the project.

The project gave me the chance to experiment with the live trace and live paint features in CS3. I was able to make a tracing from two seperate state map graphics and place them together in one file. Since the tracings are not perfect (but pretty damm close.) I got some practice with the pen tool. Mastering the pen tool is essential to mastering Illustrator.

I eventually made a version of the VNA & Hospice territory map that showed only the towns in our “territory” and surrounding communities.  This will be better suited for the limited space on a brochure panel.

Overall it was a rewarding project which allowed me to get some much needed practice with Illustrator’s pen tool, the live trace and live paint tools.