rose festival weather

 Here it comes again: the early-June shower pattern for areas around Portland.

Since the Rose Festival carnival rides are always on the lawn by the Willamette, it's a good bet that they will become muddy in the next two weeks. Portland itself is only in the half-inch zone at this point, so nearly not mud. Living an hour north is big though, as we are forecast to see over an inch by the 4th of June. Much of that comes on the 1st/2nd as of now, so several days of pattern mutations are still available.

I'm trying to whack down some blackberries before damp times return, and the new 62v whacker is doing nicely with its bonus torque over the 18v model. 

Don't make me get out the chainsaw!!

Another yard task is to burn the debris that has accumulated near our driveway over the past two+ years. Some showers are expected tomorrow, so that would be ideal as long as the winds are not active. Hopefully by the weekend the yard will be looking far better than it has in a long spell!

wow - best geomag storm in ~20 years!

 

That's a kP index of 9, class G5. Pretty much top of the charts! 

The yellow highlight marks the time when we were outside.

8:35 - sunset is very soon. The rest of the world is having a fine time; now our turn is coming!!

10:00 - not really dark yet, but photos already show the colors. Amazing.

11:00 - full blast, nearly all-sky coverage. Even visually we can tell green from deep red areas. Even areas around the moon are showing the glow, due west of us. To the NE it looks like an early green dawn is breaking.

We shut down about 12:20am, 8:20UTC. Two cameras taking dozens of images at different settings, in attempts to catch both colors coverage and detail in the curtains. I'd never thought such coverage would happen at 46° latitude. Photos are coming in from Florida Keys and many other southerly sites. Wow!

another dry month with a wet finish

  -- coming soon!

We've had less than 30% of our April normal, and a week to make up for it. A totally dry week ends today: tomorrow should have a bit after dark, but Thursday will bring close to an inch. Wow! We'd need 3½" to catch up, and that is not expected to happen. 

This hurts more because I now have my tool prepared for halting the blackberry invasion. I looked up how to swap the brush blade onto our string trimmer and how to actually start the beast. Tomorrow is a travel / medical day, so we'll be back with a few short hours to work before darkness arrives and the rain begins. Friday should be less wet but showers continue for several more days. 

Guess I just need to embrace the dampness and get cracking! :^)

One piece of good news though: the riding mower is functioning again! I replaced a few parts, zip-tied the front end into a reasonable approximation of its original orientation, and finally found the culprit: the fuse wiring had come loose from part of its harness and was dangling uselessly. Now to purge the ancient gas and oil from it, and forget the last two summers were such a challenge..

this just might work!

The a99 has arrived, and first tests are promising. While the size will take getting used to again, the interface fits me pretty well and the screen is plenty good enough. The multi-tip-flip screen can do much more than I'm used to as well.

The kit as it stands now is pretty convenient too! 

1. When bulk isn't called for and wide-normal shooting is all I expect to do, the 24-105 and DT 55-200 (in crop mode, 80-300 but ~10Mpix) covers the ground nicely. 
2. When 24Mpix is valuable for all shots, I can carry the 100-300Apo for telephoto imaging and pay the 250g penalty (or take the slightly lighter 70-210/3.5-4.5). 
3. And when close is best the 50/2.8 macro can do 1:1 just fine and capture more light than the zooms. At some point I'll pick up a 20/2.8 for seriously wide sky or mountain vistas (4-26: done! A 20/2.8rs is on its way). Possibly I'll spring for an 85/2.8 at some point.. 

Most of the a99 reviews tout its impressive HD video abilities; at some point I will explore that and do some comparative shots with the eM1. I sure wish I wasn't constrained to 16x9 video with my 3:2 and 4:3 sensors, but at my price point I take what's available!

urge and purge merge

 Well, the 'great' purge lasted nearly three months. I then worked myself into a corner with a few curious decisions:

1. My tech sense becomes overwhelmed  between the eM1 mk.1 and mk.2, strange but true. Newer isn't better, for me. I have no explanation for it.
2. My Minolta-af zooms didn't depart soon enough.
3. Unstabilized camera bodies are an issue for me and my collection of primes.

I decided that too much money is still locked up in camera gear. I've tried twice to embrace the em1.ii but just can't deal with it, so I looked for a camera to take its place.

 

I wandered over to the big-sensor area to check on early Z and L-mount types.  Body prices aren't bad net of what I was selling .. but oh those lens prices. No savings in those deals. 

Oh wait, my Maxxum lenses are still here! Bummer that no one but Sony adapts them to modern mirrorless bodies.. except Sony. And how are prices on an a7xx and ea4 adapter? Tempting - but my last attempt (a7ii+ea4) was a decisive failure.

Hmm.. so what about a body that needs no adapter?

And so an a99 Sony is on its way. The penultimate 36x24 A-mount body with SLT hybrid features, bonuses like the multi-tilt screen, no-crop video scaled to HD, an in-body AF range limit (like the eM1.ii) and decent battery life. The 24Mpx sensor specs don't match today's stacked/BSI models but DR and color depth scores are great at DxÖ.

Yes, it will do nicely!

But..

I realized my native μ43 and Pentax primes now had no IS-within body to perch upon!! The G100 has many nice features but stabilization is not among them. Not ideal.

Welcome back my friend, to a kit that never ends!

 

Yes, an eM1.1 (a silver one!) has returned to the fold! I'll return the G100, whose price matches the eM1 ±$5. Too bad, but the eM1 will be fine as the Little Camera. Money back, another possible 36×24 companion and my favorite μ43 body. Done, and DONE.

---

So the kit is changed.
Again.

What point in claiming any justification for these changes? 

None that I see. All explanations are weak. 

OK 🤔 here I go anyway: the larger sensor will be nice, occasionally; it will be interesting to compare a99 +24-105 to my old D600 +28-105 shots. The eM1 is a proven commodity in my hands and it doesn't bring me the same feature overdose as its 2nd edition. That's all the excuses, and it's enough.

Here's the latest list. 

Why a DT lens? Well, it's half the weight of either the 100-300 or the 70-210, and owner ratings are excellent. On days that 105mm should be enough, a 10Mpx raw will suffice in an unexpected situation. Definitely beats no shot if the 105mm image is too small. 

Oops I'm justifying again!!

welcome to March!

 

The cold, somewhat messy March lion has arrived!

After a five-day rally to make February into an above-average month (105%), March cones in chilly. The 7-day forecast is for about 1½" of wet snowflakes; we have a solid trace on our deck and in our grass as I type, and a snowy mix is falling.

It seems that our groundhog lied. Break out the pitchforks and torches!!

Update. The early forecast was for perhaps 2" total snowfall, at best an inch each night and gone the next afternoon. Reality was more exuberant: over 9" on the ground at maximum, and today (3/8) still ,shows three inches on deck and driveway! 

Exuberant indeed. 

late-month rally

 With five days to go, February was 39% of normal for precipitation. That's asking a lot of five days.

And then it began to rain.

As of this morning we're at 60% - and forecasts add about 2½" more (thanks to having a 29th  day this year!). If this pans out we'll have (a) two really wet days, and (b) 105% of normal!

Let's find out..

Update, 28 Feb. Now just 0.8" short of average (87%) -- and the cold front is making its appearance at the coast! We never used to have such detail, but the somewhat recent addition of a radar near Aberdeen really improved the up-wind view.

The next seven days are quite damp, showing that the first few days of March 

will come in like a lion - and not just for us!!