Nodnarb.Net

Springfield First Night 2011

brandon — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:17:54 -0600

For the past 25 years, Springfield has held a "First Night" event on New Year's Eve. First Night is a celebration of the arts that benefit programs and services of the Springfield Area Arts Council, such as grants and resources to local artists, arts organizations, social service agencies with arts programming and educational arts programs in public and private schools of some of Springfield's surrounding counties.

What does all this really mean? After living in Springfield for nine years and not having anything going on for the 2011 New Year's Eve, I decided to check it out.

First Night was supposed to kick off with a fireworks show at the Illinois State Capitol but it was too windy to safely shoot them off downtown. That was a bit of a bummer. Representatives from the arts council, Springfield's mayor and a few former mayors started the evening with speeches instead.

I then headed to the Old State Capitol and saw a collection of short films by the Springfield Public Schools Student Film Club. The films are created and edited by area high school students with assistance from faculty members. I wish my school in Missouri had that when I was that age. (That makes me sound old!)

Next, I headed to "Representative Hall" for a Civil War-era ball by the Springfield International Folk Dancers. Friends of mine were dancing with the group, so I stuck around and took some photos and videos of the performance. Below are a few of my favorite shots from the ball, along with a video montage of some of their dances. You can see all of the ball photos at my SmugMug site.

After the ball, I went to the Hoogland Center for the Arts. There was a lot going on at the Hoogland all night. I saw Brian the Juggler, a.k.a Brian Pankey, who is from Springfield and has been juggling and performing since he was 13 years old. He holds numerous records, has appeared on "Late Night with David Letterman," and works at the Department of Motor Vehicles. His juggling and balancing feats were great. I made the highlight video below of his performance. You can find out more about Brian at brianthejuggler.com or his YouTube channel.

I stuck around to see the beginning of the next performance, Troupe Zahava, a middle-eastern dance company, but wanted to see The Muni's "25-Year Retrospective," before the night was over. The Muni is Springfield's outdoor theatre. On New Year's Eve, performers sang numbers from the last 25 years of productions at the Muni. The theatre was packed and the performances were amazing, as always.

I'm glad I got around to checking out First Night. Even though all was over by 11 p.m., I was happy to get out and join hundreds of others for the night's festivities.

Sangamon Valley Trail - GoPro

brandon — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 16:34:00 -0600

I recently bought a GoPro Hero camera. It's a great little cam that you can mount almost anywhere. While I haven't recorded myself doing anything extreme with it, yet, I wanted to try it out in some way. I decided to take a short, leisurely bike ride down the Sangamon Valley Trail in Springfield, IL. Here's a video of that sped up several hundred times.

Stop-Motion Video Trial 1 - Sangamon Valley Trail

brandon — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 10:50:00 -0600

I've wanted to make a stop-motion movie for a while. Below is trial number one. The images were shot at the Sangamon Valley Trail bike path in Springfield, Ill. Check out the video and read the notes below.

The Experiment

I ventured down to the Centennial Park entrance of the Sangamon Valley Trail on the morning of Dec. 4. It was an overcast day, great for an experiment such as this. My gear consisted of my Canon 50D camera, Canon EF-S 10-22mm lens, a UV filter and Manfrotto tripod. Because I didn't know how long I'd be shooting, I set the image quality in the camera to small, fine JPEG. This setting, with an image resolution of 2352x1568, is more than enough resolution to create an HD YouTube video, and the small file size allowed me to snap more shots, of course.

My method was simple. I would take a shot, pick up the tripod, take two steps, set it back down, recompose, take a shot and repeat. I manually set the f-stop to 7.1, for a nice depth of field, ISO to 200, manual focus and varied the shutter speed.

During editing, I batch-applied an "aged photo" look to each of the images to make them stand out a bit more. I imported the pictures into my video-editing software to make the stop-motion video. The outrageously awesome musical score is something I tapped out on Garage Band for iPad. I used the "smart" instruments. There's no way my musical ability could even come close to sounding decent.

What I Learned

Overall, I'm pleased with how it turned out. I played around with the exposure as I progressed down the trail. After reviewing the photos, I can see that even a few thirds of a stop can make a big difference, because you are viewing them so quickly one after another. Varying cloud conditions also contributed along the way.

I have a few ideas to try next time:

Do the whole trail in the spring! It was cold out (in the 30s) and I wasn't dressed warmly enough. It became apparent that the winter months just won't have enough hours of daylight to complete the trail in one day.
Pay close attention to the exposure. This will drastically cut down on editing before importing into the video editing software. I didn't edit any files for exposure for this test video.
Watch the horizon. Bobbing up and down for the entire trail won't make for a great viewing experience.
See if I can get wheels for my tripod. I think this would cut down a lot of time. Instead of picking up the tripod and moving, I could just push it two steps forward.
I'll probably use a polarizing filter next time to cut down glare from the trail itself.

Hope you liked it!

114th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry Flag Retreat

brandon — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 13:26:10 -0600

Tuesday, Aug. 30, was the final flag retreat ceremony of 2011 for the 114th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry at Lincoln Tomb in Springfield. The 114th is a local group of Civil War-era reenactors who perform at many ceremonies at historical sites in central Illinois and surrounding states.

The flag is lowered with pomp and ceremony by the men of the 114th in their dress uniforms. After the lowering, the flag is folded and presented to a spectator. If you wish to be one of those lucky spectators, pre-registration is required so your name can be drawn at random. For 2011, the ceremony occurred at 7 p.m. every Tuesday night from June 1 to Aug. 30 and lasted around 45 minutes.

My wife and I attended the last ceremony this year and photographed it. Many spectators attended as it was a nice, cool evening. Please check out the photos below and visit the 114th at their Facebook page if you would like to keep up with their activities.

Old Capitol Blues & BBQ 2011

brandon — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 19:16:56 -0600

This year, I went to the Old Capitol Blues & BBQ festival for the first time. The annual festival features barbecue competitions, blues music and all the barbecue you can eat.

This was the largest crowd I've ever seen at a Downtown Springfield event. The section of Fifth Street between East Washington and East Adams streets was jam-packed, almost shoulder to shoulder. A sea of people seated in lawn chairs and folding seats filled the portion of Fifth where the performer's stage was located. Despite the crowd, I was able to navigate through. I picked up some delicious barbecue along the way and snapped some photos of Jimmie Vaughan, older brother of the late Stevie Ray Vaughan and Saturday evening's headliner.

Click the thumbnails below to visit my gallery at photos.nodnarb.net.

Independence Day Photos

brandon — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 01:06:00 -0600

Happy birthday, again, America. Across our nation this weekend, citizens are venturing out to their respective city parks and other locations to catch firework shows. Despite the heat and humidity, we did the same. The following were some of my favorite shots from the July 3 celebration in Chatham, Illinois. Click any photo to view larger versions.

The last photo is one of my favorites because of a new technique I picked up this year from Creative Live. If you view the photo on my SmugMug gallery, click the Photo Info button that appears when you move your mouse to the right side of the photo. You'll see that the photo has an exposure time of 31 seconds. Most firework photos are two to five second exposures. The technique I learned involves using a black card to block the lens while taking a long exposure. When the firework explodes, move the card away. Move it back again and wait for the next firework. You can "stack" fireworks into one photo using this method. Many thanks to Creative Live and John Cornicello for putting on this free Photographing Fireworks workshop where I learned this trick.

My Pal Esteban

brandon — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 03:42:24 -0600

It was so nice outside yesterday I decided to go outside for a bit when I got home from work. I walked around the house to check out how well, or not so well, the lawn has been. We've had a ton of rain lately, so I was expecting decent results. On my way, I came across the baby bird pictured here.

At first, I thought it was injured. It didn't move a bit, except for its head. I was able to get right up on it. When I put my finger close to the head, it opened its mouth ... as in, "Hey, feed me!"

If I'm going to feed a bird, then it has to have a name. That's just natural. The bird's name was henceforth "Esteban." Why Esteban? Why not? As a great movie scientist once said, "It just popped in there." Note, I have no idea if this was a male or female bird.

Why would I want to feed a wild bird? Why not let nature take its course? Should I adhere to a strict policy of non-interference? Nah, I really just didn't want a dead bird in the lawn. I have to mow tomorrow.

So, I was off to get Esteban some food, but what do baby birds eat? Bugs! Yes, bugs. I put gloves on and dug around in the rocks in front of my house for a few minutes. I managed to squish a few small critters that I hoped would be to Esteban's liking. Feeding a baby bird squashed bugs is a little harder than it sounds, though. Let's just say it didn't go so well.

What to feed poor little Esteban now? Worms? Yes, worms! I needed to find some worms. The ground was moist from recent rains, so this should be easy. Nope. I dug around the yard a bit with no luck. I would be an awful bird mother!

With my options running thin and daylight slipping away, I did the only logical thing a geek could. I turned to Facebook.

One friend, a bird owner himself, provided a solution of what to feed Esteban: a small amount of warm milk mixed in with egg whites. I didn't have any eggs, alas, so warm milk it was.

Note, 15 seconds in the microwave for a teaspoon of milk is not warm. It is boiling lava hot! I had to wait a few minutes for the milk to cool before I could feed my new friend. My feeding apparatus was one of those teaspoon-sized "measuring spoons" you get from the drugstore when getting a liquid prescription, like cough syrup.

Venturing back out, I convinced Esteban to open up once more. I poured the milk mostly down his mouth. He seemed to like it ok. It took a few drinks to finish the teaspoon. I'd say about 40 percent made it into his mouth. He wore the rest. See it over there? The cool thing is how a baby bird's feathers (down?) bead the liquid up, keeping them dry.

Round two. Esteban still opened up when I put my finger near his head, so he must still be hungry! Back to the kitchen for me.

When I returned, Esteban was gone! Where did he go? Did the nurturing milk give him the strength he needed to pull through, spread his wings, and fly? Did a predator gobble him up? I spent about 15 minutes looking around for the little fluff ball. I found him just around the corner in front of the neighbor's garage. This little guy could move and flap (kind of).

It took a little convincing to get Esteban to chow down this time, because all of a sudden, he remembered how his legs worked. Belly won over brains and the feeding continued. I'd say about half ended up in his mouth and the rest ended up on him, so there was a slight improvement in my pouring milk down a baby bird's mouth.

The next part was pretty surprising.

Here I thought little Esteban was abandoned and alone. Left to fend for himself in a world where the rules are eat or be eaten. Apparently, not so.

My feeding activities began drawing a crowd. It was a bird crowd. Nothing like "The Birds," but it was definitely the same ones flying from rooftop to rooftop between and my neighbor's house and mine.

One bird, in particular, caught my eye. This bird had a juicy worm in its mouth. Why would a bird keep a tasty morsel like that and not eat it? Was this Momma Bird?

I couldn't get close enough to Momma Bird for a decent photo. Momma Bird was very skittish. Maybe she thought I wanted that worm for myself? After all, I could steal it from her, feed it to Esteban, and then win him over for life.

Momma Bird kept a close eye on my activities. When I'd approach, she'd fly away. As I would move back, she'd attempt to approach my hungry little buddy. I hid around the corner by the garage, camera in hand, ready to capture the magical moment of mother and son (?) reunited. Popping back out for a shot would scare her away again. This went on for maybe 10 minutes. What to do?

I went inside to photograph from there. I'd effectively be closer to the action without scaring off the subjects. Quickly, I set up my wife's camera on a tripod, set it to video mode and began recording.

Moments later, success! Mother and bird were reunited. Esteban scarfed down what I'm sure was a moist, delicious worm. I began snapping photos with my main camera, attempting to capture the bird tears of joy. The screen on the window caused some interference that made the photo turn out not so great. I salvaged what I could for you, so enjoy.

Even though I'm sure I'll never see little Esteban again, I should revel in the fact that my quick actions saved the innocent life of a near-helpless baby bird that I, strangely, gave a name to. I'm sure Esteban will grow up to become a strong, healthy bird that feeds on many bugs and worms, soars through the air at great altitudes and poops on my windshield.

Video: The Reunion

ThinkGeek got it right

brandon — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 16:39:25 -0600

Hey there! I'm just now posting my follow-up to my follow-up. There's no unboxing video for you to enjoy. I figured it wasn't worth it when I received a padded envelope (right on time, I may add). ThinkGeek made good on the order for the "Meh." badge holder.

So how is the badge holder? It works as promised, but the string is a little too short for me. The belt clip also tends to come off my belt when pulling the badge. The "Meh." is just a sticker that wasn't even centered quite correctly. Now that I have it, I'm not even using the thing. Ah well. At least I have Cyber Clean!

ThinkGeek follow-up

brandon — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:42:00 -0600

Much to my surprise today, I received a ThinkGeek shipping conformation that was completely unexpected. You see, I never bothered following-up from my previous post on my ThinkGeek shipping snafu. Ironically, I figured "meh"...

The shipping conformation correctly lists the "meh." badge holder I originally ordered as its contents, but will it truly be so? Find out when I receive the package! Yes, I will make an unboxing video for your enjoyment. More to come!

ThinkGeek is trying to tell me something

brandon — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 03:03:17 -0600

Happy holidays, blog! I forgot about you for a while! Before 2010 is history, I wanted to share a little Christmas-related story with the Internet.

We all know shopping online is convenient, time-saving, and an overall joy compared to fighting retail crowds for the hot merchandise, parking spaces and shortest checkout line. One major hassle with doing your gift shopping online, though, is returns. Online returns almost always mean filling out forms or calling a number, shipping back your merchandise, waiting and so on.

I recently ordered some swag from one of my favorite nerd-accessory sites, ThinkGeek. One of the items in the order was a badge holder that says "meh." You can view it here. It must have been popular this year, because it is out of stock as of this posting. When I received my items, however, my "meh." was nowhere to be found. Instead, I received this:

Cyber Clean? That's definitely not a badge holder that says "meh." The order's packing list showed the "meh." badge holder, so I assumed this was just a mix-up during packing. It was right before Christmas, so I can imagine things were flying off ThinkGeek's warehouse shelves.

No problem; I'd just give TG's customer service a call to exchange the Cyber Clean for the badge holder. I got through after waiting a short amount of time. The customer service rep was very professional and apologized for the mix-up. He scheduled the badge holder to be delivered by the Monday following Christmas. TG even let me keep the Cyber Clean as a gift for the mix-up. Getting the badge holder before Christmas was definitely not a big deal. It's just a badge holder, after all!

My shipment arrived Monday as scheduled. I didn't get around to opening the package until Tuesday, however. The box I received was a bit big for a badge holder, I thought. Here's what was inside: [more]

Yes, MORE Cyber Clean!

Confession ... OK, guys, you got me. My keyboards and mice don't quite have that new-from-factory look any more. I don't know how you knew that, but I've been caught. Is this a digital Intervention, ThinkGeek? Somehow, your monkeys have discovered my dirty digital devices and have decided to take the action that my long-time denial has deterred!

The packing slip in this shipment listed the Cyber Clean as the product that was shipped, so who knows what the problem was this round. The SKUs for the "meh." clip and the Cyber Clean are different, so there could be a problem somewhere down the line at TG HQ.

I'm in no way sore at ThinkGeek for my extra helping of Cyber Clean. In fact, I LOL'd upon opening the box. I'll give them a call this week to reserve my "meh." badge holder and I'm sure they'll be happy to help me out. In the meantime, maybe I'll do a Cyber Clean review. I'll try to get that posted sometime before 2012.