Barçelona y Sevilla Pics
I have about 1/3 of my Spain trip images up on Flickr. Check `em out if you want.
Portable (Digital) Photo Storage
I’ve been searching for several years now for a device that I can unload my memory cards onto when I travel. I shoot RAW files, and while I’d like to dump $800+ into a 160GB Epson P-7000 “multimedia photo viewer,” I certainly don’t have $800 that I want to spend on such a device. Ideally, I would like to use something that I already have, like my 80GB iPod. Luckily for me, Apple made a little dongle that you can plug into the bottom of an iPod, and plug your camera’s USB cable into the other side of it, and easily transfer your photos over.
Problem solved, right? Nope, Apple no longer supports this for one, and it takes forever and a day to transfer the contents of a 4GB card on older iPods. To make matters more complex, transferring an entire 4GB card uses about 95% of a full charge, I’m guessing because the internal drive on the iPod is spinning the whole time. Ugh. Back to the $800 Epson that I’ll never get because there are too many other things like lenses and an archival printer that will always come before the storage device.
So my search continued until, oddly enough, I found myself on a bachelor party booze cruise to the (unbeknownst at the time) home of the swine flu, Mexico. One of the guys in the wedding party found himself in the same situation, and went ahead and made his own photo storage device… and he decided to sell them. OK, fine, but c’mon, it’s $800 for 160GB, isn’t it?
No. For a mere $150, you get 80GB, and 500Gb will only cost you $300. It’s not as fancy as the Epson with a screen for reviewing, but I just need to know that everything has transferred from the card so that I can clear it off (or not if I’m using the device as a backup). I’ll review things on the computer at home, and if I really need to review on-site, isn’t there a screen ON MY CAMERA??? It seems weird to me to pay such a massive premium to have a duplicate screen for reviewing.
The device is called the MoFoto by Momenta, and I’m a cheapo, so I’ll be getting an 80GB model for the low price of $150. It’s not just limited to digital photo storage though – you can also use it for digital video cameras. I can’t wait to get mine.
Old Photo Revisited
Looking west over the San Fernando Valley from the Mt Lowe-San Gabriel Peak saddle.
Poppy Reserve
Photos from the California Poppy Reserve in Lancaster on April 2, 2009. I’m linking to the slideshow now 
QuietTube
Are you ever distracted by the clutter on YouTube?
Get rid of everything but the video easily with the QuietTube bookmarklet.
Angeles National Forest
I took another driving/photography adventure, combining two things I like to do. This time, I drove on some roads that I had been meaning to explore for a while now – Angeles Forest Road past the intersection with Big Tujunga Rd, and then onto Upper Big Tujunga Road. Here’s the first shot:
Tour of California Pics Up
I have some new Tour of California pics up on Flickr from stages 6 and 7, in Solvang and Pasadena, California.
Night Photography
Thanks to my resourceful Amazon-wishlist-finding wife, I now have a light weight tripod to take with me on my night time mountain bike rides. I have only recently become accustomed to hauling the extra weight of my camera on my back, and now I can add a few more pounds of tripod to that. So far so good though, as I have some reasonably interesting photos, and both camera and tripod have survived a significant spill.
My Photo in Seattle Schmap
My photo from the Olympic Sculpture Garden was selected for the Seattle edition Schmap map. If you click on the Olympic Sculpture Garden, you should eventually see the photo. I think a lot of people get these requests from Flickr.
Here’s the Seattle Schmap widget: