Leaking boots

I guess I never learn. I bought a new pair of AlpineStar* riding boots last August (2011). I still have them new and unused just sitting there. The Tags are still attached. Everyone who has them says they are waterproof



so when I rode to work today I put on my old riding boots. I just can't bear to throw away something that still has an ounce of utility left. About half way to work I could feel the squishing in my boots and a coldness seeping in



Luckily I carry a change of socks at work which I quickly changed into. I forgot that I also have to breathe out the side of my mouth in order to keep my shield clear. It also helps to keep it cracked open one notch to clear the condensation



We have two other riders at work, but today I was alone



I am glad that I purchased a Lumix waterproof TS3 camera a couple of months ago for days like these. It was my intention to use it as my rain camera, and also for mounting on my bike



It's Spring in Vancouver and the weather is unpredictable. There was thunder and lightning all around us and we even had hail a few days ago, but it was clear sailing for my ride home

Ride to Belcarra

Last weekend we had 11 bikes go on a group ride to Belcarra Park



For once it was a sunny day. We had quite the mix of machines from motorcycles to maxi-scooters. We even had a Vespa 500cc MP3 . Our group leader today was Tom


Tom & Mrs Tom beside their Kymco 250

It was also nice to see my previously sold, Kymco X500Ri


Kymco X500Ri which I sold a couple of years ago

We actually had two Kymco X500Ri today as well as a Honda Silverwing 600. It is hard to believe that many of these riders graduated from 49cc's

We have found that meeting at a Chevron station works out the best because there is room to park and some show up with empty tanks


Honda CBR250RR

It is written in stone that all rides must terminate at a restaurant, and this was no different


Nagano Sushi, Coquitlam Centre

There wasn't enough on street parking so we had to park with the peasants


Vespa 500cc MP3 in the foreground

The food was fresh and well prepared. Another nice day doing what we like to do; ride & eat with friends


Posing at Belcarra Park

I wish to thank David for recommending an APP for my iPhone4 which produces Track Logs, called Easytrails GPS6 . This app produces KMZ and GPX files which can be recognized by maps.google or googleEarth (respectively) . Now I am able to show you our route without having to do the tedious process of drawing that blue line on google maps and getting frustrated in the process. From my understanding the iPhone4 has a GPS receiver and is able to track your route without having to access the internet. It also records your distance, speed and altitude and provides graphs of your route

Our Route:


View Vanskoot ride in a larger map


Action speaks louder than words, so here is the accompanying "talking picture"

Easter Sunday

Every Easter, the Vintage Car Club of Canada has a car parade where their members can show off their classic cars, at Oakridge Mall, Vancouver. The cars are parked in a secured area for a few hours, where we can photograph and talk to their owners, before the police escort leads them to Steveston


Vancouver Police Department

riding their Harley Davidson police cruisers.



There is quite the mix of turn of the century horseless carriages up to 60's muscle cars. Notice that even Tim Hortons was there giving away Timbits (Donut holes) & either hot chocolate or coffee.

I am more selective with my photos but I couldn't help but notice this Barracuda, formula "S", 340 cu in two door hardtop. I had a similar Barracuda but with the smaller 318ci engine



The car that belongs to this iconic emblem was a vintage 2 door model with right-hand drive



I am drawn "like a magnet" to these old MG models, having nearly bought one back in the 70's, until I discovered that they had wooden frames



It was here that I "bumped" into a fellow photographer and blogger, Wayne. Our paths seem to criss cross a lot for when I notice photos that he posts, often I am in the same area. One day soon we are going to walk together for an afternoon.



I think he is more comfortable "behind" the camera, rather than in front. So here is a rare shot of Wayne "in action"



His blog is on my sidebar, or you can click HERE

Here are a few snippets of some of the cars . . .

Happy Easter

This is our Easter holiday weekend. Good Friday is a STAT holiday in Canada so it was a lazy day, then off for family dinner. It's so nice when someone else does the cooking and all you have to do is just show up. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and we had a few hours to waste away


Yellow Flower (<-- technical botanical term)

I decided to use my Canon T2i and dusted off my 100mm 2.8 macro lens and shoot a few flower photos. I'm not as talented as xxxxxxa or xxxxxxb who are able to give you the botanical names of all the flowers. I am used to the keep it simple philosophy


Blue Flower (<-- technical botanical term)

We are not gardeners and everything we touch turn brown and whither away. But we seem to be doing alright with these different kind of Yellow Flowers which seem to sprout "like weeds"



Yellow Flower variety #2 (<-- technical botanical term)

I also have a Sigma 10-20mm UWA EF-s lens which I seldom use, so today I brought it out into the sunlight and found a flower on the roadway


Green/Yellow "flat" flower (<-- technical botanical term)

There is a fish & chip stand down at the Government wharf and this seagull was begging for scraps


Canon T2i, 100mm 2.8 macro lens

I don't know why I don't use this lens more. It gives good results even though it is not an "L" grade lens. That is NOT my hand, a customer was trying to feed the "gull some french fries

Here he is trying to stare me down



There are two cranes on the other dock


Canon T2i, 10-20 Sigma UWA, set at 10mm = 16mm equiv

then I notice the angry clouds



I decide to snap a shot of the aluminum ramp



soon it was time to head over for dinner with the family



Where we were able to view the evening sunset. The end to a relaxing day



Hope all you you had a relaxing Easter too

Mooning

It's Thursday and tomorrow is Good Friday, a statutory holiday in Canada. We are in a good mood knowing we have a 3 day long weekend so I went downtown to meet Mrs Skoot when I noticed



a bright, wide-eyed moon up in the sky. Orin (from Bellingham, WA) was in town to attend the Vancouver Auto Show and we had planned to meet for dinner, but first we had to have some decadent ice-cream


Orin "Skootin Old Skool"

We talked about this and that, took photos of each other and had a great meal at a very busy, popular Cambodian Restaurant where we had to wait an hour for a table. Soon we were finished and it was time to part ways



We may have arrived hungry but they had to roll us out, as you notice we nearly licked the plates clean. (I did take a few photos of our food but I leave it for Orin to make his blog post first)

I couldn't get that moon out of my mind, so when I arrived home, I dragged out my Camera, tripod and telephoto lens. Yes, the same Nikon 70-300mm zoom I used on the previous posts and tried to photograph the moon for you. It wasn't easy, I had to fiddle with the settings but eventually I ended up with something good enough to post


The Moon: Canon T2i, Nikon 70-300mm zoom, F8 1/125s at full zoom

My Nikon lens, part deux

This is a continuation of a prev post, click here for part un

Ever since I purchased my Sony NEX-5n, I have rarely used my Canon EOS T2i, so this day (last week) I decided to dust it off and shoot a few photos. For decades I had been a Nikon user but circumstances conspired me to purchase this Canon for a big vacation to an exotic place where I felt I needed something more modern & capable. The T2i was available on the shelf, but the replacement Nikon D7000 was merely announced and would not be available until after our trip, so Canon it was. I normally don't purchase entry level models but at the insistance of my smarter cousin I went for the Rebel, while my heart wanted to go for the 60D with its articulating screen. Both cameras had the same sensor and images would be indistinguishable, except for perhaps burst speed, the second LCD screen on the top and the dual control dials. If you like to fiddle with dials then the 60D would have been more appropriate. With the Rebel you have less dials and to access the 2nd functions you had to press other buttons, but I managed to figure it out.

Now, one thing that I did not consider with this Canon purchase was the fact that I could use Alternative Lenses. ( <-- click this link for more information, particularly the 7th post down ) There is a table (on the 7th comment) which shows which lenses can be used with which bodies. Luckily the Canon EOS system has a shorter flange to sensor distance than lenses from many manufacturers so I am able to utilize Nikon lenses and mount them on my Canon T2i



Here is the same Nikon lens I mounted on my Sony NEX 5n on the previous post, along with the Nikon Ai/Ais to EF adapter. You have to use lenses which have aperature rings, otherwise there is no other way to change it, or you will be shooting "wide open" by default. You can sometimes "trick" the lens into a certain aperature my mounting it onto your electronic body, setting the aperature to F5.6 or F8 and unmounting it. Often times the setting will "stay".


Nikon zoom lens with Ai/Ais to EF adapter

I have attached the adapter, and can now mount it onto my T2i


Canon T2i with Nikon 70-300 zoom

The T2i seems to meter with no problems. I usually set it to "A" aperature priority so you just manually set the aperature and the body selects the shutter speed which is visible in the viewfinder or on the rear LCD display. You have to change a few settings since the manual lens has no contacts the camera thinks that no lens is attached, so you just set the menu item for it to fire without a lens attached, and of course you focus manually.



Focusing screens of modern cameras do not have the fresnel which makes manual focusing easier, so with older, failing eyes it is hard to actually be sure of your focus point. The Sony NEX 5n has "focus Peaking" which is a great feature to pinpoint your focus point. If you change your focusing screen to allow for manual lenses then you lose the AF points, which isn't good.

There is a little know hack for Canon T2i cameras which allow it to focus peak. You can read about it here . It is similar to the hack for other Canon P&S cameras (read more here) . When I had my Canon G10 I installed CHDK to try out the other functions which Canon left out, like Time Lapse, Zebra mode and higher bit rate for video. I am not sure if a certain someone has checked into this. This hack does not affect the warranty on your camera and does not replace the installed firmware. The "hack" is installed on your memory card and you "load" it when you want to use these extra functions. As soon as you "turn off" your camera, the hack has been erased. It has to be loaded fresh each time you start your camera.

You can use alternative lenses either handheld or on a tripod, which I chose because of the long effective focal length of 480mm (300mm x 1.6x crop factor), and also because I only had 10 toes, I could not hold it steady enough to take a photo of this combo, without a bit of assistance


Here is a photo, for reference. Canon T2i, Tamron 17-55 2.8 lens set at 17mm = approx 28mm


Canon T2i, Nikon 70-300mm, set at 70mm = 112 mm approx

then I went to FULL Zoom, set the Nikon 70-300mm lens to 300mm which worked out to 480mm (300 x 1.6x crop factor). and here it is . . .


Canon T2i, Nikon 70-300mm set at 300mm = approx 480mm

I only carry a flimsy tripod on my bike so it didn't feel that steady so I tried to fire at a higher shutter speed, and used the self timer to eliminate "pressing" shutter shake. I also loaded the tripod with my own weight to hold it down, and held my breath.

Here is a rare shot of the photographer "in Action"


Canon T2i, Nikon 70x300mm zoom set at 70mm, using radio remote shutter release

I have numerous Nikon Ai/Ais Manual focus lenses, as well as Pentax M42 screw mount, Leica M39 and Zeiss which I am able to mount on both my Canon T2i EOS, and my Sony NEX 5n.

This Nikon lens is very versatile, so far I have shown you photos taken with my Nikon 70-300mm zoom on two different cameras. This lens also works on Nikon bodies. I still have my Nikon D80, and a few Nikon film cameras. Let me know if you have any questions or you wish help in buying some of these adapters. I purchased all of mine on eBay from vendors in China or Hong Kong.

Telephone Pole & Jet

We happened to be down in Richmond, late afternoon today. I had my trusty Sony NEX-5n with me as usual and I took a photo of this particular telephone pole (the one with the 3 transformers)




The Rainbow kept getting in my way . I turned around to capture a photo of a jet taking off from YVR: Vancouver International Airport.



It is that small speck just left of centre. You may have to squint a bit . . .

My Nikon lens, Part Un

A couple of weeks ago we decided to head downtown to English Bay for brunch



There was a biting wind coming off the water and everyone was bundled up. We were very lucky to get a FREE strategic parking spot as we made our way over to the Restaurant


Sony NEX-5n, Nikon Zoom and Nikon AiS-NEX adapter

Until recently I had always been a Nikon user but when I upgraded my Camera for a trip a couple of years ago the new model did not arrive in time so I ended up with a Canon EOS dSLR. At that time I didn't know anything about Alternative lenses but I am happy that I am able to use lenses from other camera systems and attach them to either my Canon, or Sony NEX. This day while waiting to order our meal



I took a quick photo with the NEX 5n with the 18-55 kit lens, set at 18mm (35mm = 28mm)



Then I took out my Nikon 70-300mm zoom, attached the Nikon-NEX adapter



and mounted it on my NEX 5n. I usually shoot in "A" Aperature Priority Mode. I manually focused the lens and handheld it at effective 400mm (set at 300mm) and took another shot out the window



you can barely make out the sailboats on the prev photo . After brunch we went across the street and mounted my NEX 5n on a tripod with the Nikon 70-300mm zoom attached



Notice the out of focus orangy freighter "dead ahead". Now here is a photo at "full" zoom


Sony NEX 5n, Nikon 70-300mm using Ais-->NEX adapter, at full zoom

It is very easy to focus manual focus lenses using the NEX 5n as it has "focus Peaking". You can adjust sensitivities and change the focus peaking colour. I have it set to medium & Yellow


NEX 5n LCD screen "UNFOCUSED"

and here is what focus peaking looks like



as you manually focus, all the edges which are "focused", turn Yellow. It is easy and fast. The yellow is merely a focusing aid, there are no yellow edges in any of your images

I am able to mount lenses from other manufacturers onto my Sony NEX 5n. I have many prime lenses; Nikon Ai/Ais, M42 Pentax, Zeiss & Leica m39/L39 which can be mounted using various adapters, as the sensor to flange distance is very short. The APS-C sensor of the NEX system has a crop factor of 1.5x. On M4/3rds systems the crop factor is 2x but the sensor is much smaller. In fact the NEX sensor is larger than the ones used on Canon EOS dSLRs, crop factor being 1.6x Let me know if you have any questions using Alternative lenses