BenSpark Family Adventures

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02131 My new phone a Google Pixel 9 Pro, arrived today and it has a built in Macro Mode for the camera. This new camera on the phone is awesome. So many megapixels and the ability to shoot in macro. The tough thing is holding the camera still enough to get a good macro shot. I was trying to take a few shots and they did not come out great because of how close I had to get and how still I needed to keep the camera. But I think this image of the inside of Optimus Prime’s chest in my LEGO Optimus Prime came out pretty good. You can even make out the backwards LEGO word.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02029 Tonight Eva showed us all of her photos and textiles from her time at SCAD. Her photograph class was all about taking photos without a camera. She did some amazing things and was so excited telling us all about her class. She enjoyed Textiles, too but photography was definitely the class that she loved. It was great to hear all about how much she enjoyed her week in Georgia.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02018 We got Mom and Dad a slide scanner for their anniversary. They have a bunch of old slides and this would be a great project to get them all digitized to keep. Many of the slides are from our great-uncle Richard. He took so many photos. My parents have all of them and so the slide scanner will be very useful to help them clear things out. Then they can get rid of the physical slides that are taking up space. The slide scanner is hooked up to Dad’s new computer. That arrived today and I got everything set up so that he can start using it right away. I hope I didn’t miss anything.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01422 We’re down the Cape for the Thanksgiving holiday. We headed down today after the kids had their half day at school. We got to the Cape in the middle of the afternoon. We enjoyed some Paul’s pizza with my parents and my Uncle Jim. At this time of year the sunsets are so beautiful and we can see them from the porch. Eva has been taking lots of photos of the skies lately. She was very excited for the sunset tonight and so I snapped this photo of her snapping sunset photos.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01318 I took the drone back out this morning. I braved the possibility of hitting myself again and did much better this time around. I flew the drone up over Bristol Beach and took some shots of the beach after it was cleaned and it looked like a Zen garden. I also took a photo back towards the house and down Falmouth Heights Beach. We went home today. That worked out well because the morning was the best part of the day. In the afternoon there was some light rain but we did come home to much cooler temperatures.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00946 We went on a walk the other morning and as we walked around the Attleboro gardening club space Allison nearly stepped on this moth. It was on the ground attempting to fly. It stayed still for a moment and I snapped this photo. It is a very beautiful moth. I cannot specifically tell you which type of moth it is but I do like how it looks. the marking look like eyes. Andy said that it made him think of an owl for some reason. Because it is Summer the karate and krav classes are earlier for the kids. Eva went with me to the morning class and was paired up with my friend’s daughter. We worked this out ahead of time as this was he way we could get both girls to come to class. As long as they did not have to partner with adults they were fine to come to class. I know that Eva liked the intensity of class this morning, it was a a lot of fun. I also like that she gets a little extra time in class because my class is a longer one overall. Andy had class right at the end o...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00844 I picked up a new piece of equipment, a GoPro Hero MAX. This is a waterproof camera that records video and stills and also makes 360 videos. I plan to use this on my kayak this Summer and make a bunch of videos for my YouTube channel. The camera is really cool and can do some major high end recording. So be on the lookout for more content with me using that camera.

I recently purchased a Canon SD600 Digital ELPH for Allison. She has wanted a digital camera and while I was researching a Canon SD800 IS for myself I came across the SD600 for Allison. I gave her the camera last night and we haven’t had much time to play around with it but there are some great features of the camera. It was very simple to set up and I was clicking away after about 5 minutes. It would have been sooner but I put the camera in the camera bag, added the wrist strap and all those things that you do to really get it ready. Then I used the camera to take some pictures as well as record some video. I played with my SD800 too and I really like the features of that camera. Once we use the cameras more we will start posting more information about them.

This summer Allison borrowed a camera from Andrea when Andrea got her D50 Nikon. Allison and I did a few camera days where we went out and took pictures. I bought her an SD600 for Valentine’s Day and gave it to her last night. I also picked up two LowePro Ridge 10 camera bags. I love these bags, For one thing they were only $8.95. That is a great price.  They fit the SD600 and SD800 perfectly plus they have a belt loop, a carrying strap (we both took ours off) two pockets in addition to the main camera pocket (which is padded and lined with a soft liner that will not scratch the LCD screens). I bought a blue one and a red one and asked Allison to guess which one was hers. Since I buy blue for everything I own she picked the red one the correct one for her. I am very satisfied with this purchase. The case is even slightly smaller than my old case for the Sanyo Xacti C4. I’m going to put the Sanyo up on eBay and sell it soon. So you can pick it up on the cheap when I do.

Photo-A-Day #673 Notice the scarf Allison is wearing. She made that. Bonus Picture of Allison for today. Today Allison and I went to IKEA to return a rug we bought along with some roman shades. We picked up a new rug as well as a chair for the office and some lamps for the bedroom. A couple other things and we were all set. We walked through IKEA in record time on this trip. It took as almost no time to get there. We’ve tried many different routes but the one today was faster than all the others. And on the way we listed to my iPod on my new Monster iCarPlay Plus Wireless FM Transmitter/Charger for iPod . The sound quality wasn’t fantastic but was okay for our ride. We listened to an old Pop Candy Podcast. After IKEA we stopped at the Red Wing Diner. It is an old diner that has fantastic fried seafood. And you pay for it. We split a Fisherman’s Platter that was loaded but it should have been for the price. The place was nice and very lived in and comfortable. A real place for regulars ...

So the other day when I was without my Buzznet account I posted my photo-a-day stuff to my Flickr account. And while I was there I learned a fantastic feature of Flickr. You can search for pictures based upon the camera that took the pictures. Flickr takes the EXIF data and keeps statistics about the cameras that supply the pictures that are uploaded to the site. The section is called Camera Finder and it came in handy when I wanted to see what sort of pictures the cameras I had been researching would take. I love this feature. If automatically collects the data that is stored on each image and organizes the photos according to many facets of that data. Check out Camera Finder on Flickr.

Photo-A-Day #670 I was searching through some Posties websites and I came across a project called the toss a camera. What you do is set your camera's timer and toss it in the air and let it go off. All I seemed to do was toss the camera across the room after setting the 2 second timer and have it go off as it hit the bed, across the room, then it went off. On this one the camera bounced off the bed and then went off capturing my suitcase and a tie, I have no idea where the lights came from in the picture. The one thing that seemed to help when I tossed the camera was that it now focuses a lot faster than it had been lately. That is weird. The poor thing is on its last legs. Today I crossed the mighty Mississippi River on my way from Missouri to Illinois. It was the first time I had even gotten close to the river. Unfortunately I was on a bridge and could not stop to take any pictures. I was only in Lubbock Texas for less than 24 hours so I could not get to the Buddy Holly Museum. T...

Today on my way home from the airport I stopped into a couple of stores to see the differences between a few cameras that I had been looking into purchasing. The most helpful store was Best Buy. I talked with a guy there on the type of camera I was looking for. I want an optical viewfinder, at least 6MP, must use SD cards, And needs to be able to be charged by my iGo Juice. He directed me to the Canon SD line of cameras and specifically to the Canon SD800. The SD 800 is a pretty amazing little camera. It has optical image stabilization. I took a few pictures and found myself using the screen rather than the viewfinder. So I guess I really don’t need the viewfinder after all. I would take the picture and it would start out fuzzy and then become crystal clear in a second. The camera is pretty amazing. However I don’t know if iGo has a tip for this line as their website does not show the SD line on the list of iTips. I sent them a message to ask which one to get. If they do have the char...

While I was in Best Buy today I took a look at two Canon cameras. The first was the SD800 Digital ELPH and the second was the SD900 Digital ELPH. Both Cameras were pretty sweet but the SD900 was a 10MP where the SD800 was only 7MP. The SD900 is made of a titanium casing. So it is light and super strong.  The only difference I think is that the SD900 does not have the optical stabilization which is better than digital stabilization. There is also an optional underwater case for this camera. I think I may want to get back to being able to take some underwater shots or at least take a camera with us when we go kayaking and not have to worry about getting it wet. And I have been toying with the idea of a kayaking video podcast. Who knows maybe I may choose this one. I have to do more research however.

Photo-A-Day #658 01/26/07 These are the great awards that were given to the top marketing folks today. They were huge. Our theme was the Oscars and I had to make a Red Carpet themed video. Today was the big presentation at work. I completed the videos last night/early this morning/first thing this morning. Basically I am now running on adrenaline and the refusal to go to sleep right away. First off, my comedy of errors. Okay, yesterday I finished up all the filming of the videos. I came home and edited all the pieces into the show and then started a final DVD burn. The DVD finished burning at 1:00am. I then reviewed the DVD. And I discovered that my anal retentive nature paid off in this case. I found that the key video cut off two minutes too early. The key video by the way was an 11:37 video of two top VPs so I could NOT screw this up whatsoever!) I was incredulous. how could this have happened? Well I guess I wasn’t so thorough. I missed a step along the way. Basically this is how I...

Photo-A-Day #656 01/24/07 This is the office at the end of the night. Filming ran late (does it ever run early?) so I was at the office with the night-time cleaning crew and still had a drive home and about 5 hours of work ahead of me to complete this video project. The video has to be at the most 10 minutes long. I had over 15 minutes in the first cut. Then I paired it down to 10 minutes 16 seconds. That is going to have to do because it is 11:30 and I have to get back up at 5:30 to do a run through and film one more piece for the video. I would be lost without Adobe Premiere Elements however that does not mean that I had an easy time of this. Each clip had to be individually edited for length, audio and background noise. I didn’t get to the background noise yet. And the Sanyo Xacti C4 I have picks up everything. Well I need to check on my film to see if it rendered yet.

Photo-A-Day #655 01/23/07 Spent much of the day doing videos. So I took today’s photo of me working on editing the videos and my setup for the video editing. I am really enjoying using Adobe Premiere Elements. I am looking forward to upgrading to the next version. For the most part I am happy to be doing these videos but it gets a bit tedious. The edits the rendering and just basically the repetition. I didn’t get to the gym today. I’m going to start going to the gym in the mornings. I’ve got to get there much more often than I do now. Just been so busy.

Last night I had dinner with our friends Autumn and Kenny. Kenny brought his new camera backpack. This thing was awesome. It had one large compartment for a laptop computer. Since I do so much digital stuff on a laptop this is a must for me. There was also a catch all compartment for he easy to grab stuff like my mini tripod and whatnot. But the best part is the padded, adjustable pocket for the camera and lenses and memory cards and spare batteries and all the things that I would need when taking the camera out on a photo shoot. I admit it I have backpack envy right now. I will have to save my pennies because even though the pack is on sale at Amazon it still is a bit expensive and I made all my huge purchases for the month with all the other stuff I got and ordered. But soon when I earn a bit more play money I will get myself a great pack like Kenny’s.

Last week when I went crazy and started buying things from Amazon.com in large quantities I bought something pretty cool. No it wasn’t the iPod, that was pretty cool but I picked up a Gorillapod. What the heck is a gorillapod? Well it is a flexible tripod for digital cameras that can be mounted to the most unlikely places. The three legs are made up of many flexible joints that can be bent and rotated 360 degrees so you get eh perfect shape for your tripod. Suppose you are out in the woods and you want to take a picture of yourself but the only place to mount the tripod is on an uneven rock. With a standard tripod your camera is going to go tumbling into a ravine. However, with the flexible legs of a gorillapod you can place that camera anywhere on that rock and get a great stable landing to take that picture. I’ve been wanting to pick one of these up for a while now and haven’t made the time to buy it. I can’t believe I’ve waited so long. There are three versions of the gorillapod out...

A month or so ago I had to make an extensive video for work. I jumped at the chance because I could learn Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0 while at work. Hey I’m not dummy. I wanted to learn he ins and outs of the program before I started working on videos for my family, including the wedding video that I am going to put together for our wedding. Should be ready by the 2nd anniversary. I’m not using the program for another work related video and I am using the green screen functions to make something truly interesting. Wish me luck.