smoke season arrives

The wildfires are in full summer bloom in the western USA. Another Oregon Star Party has been cancelled: the USFS has too much going on to allow for a group of 500 to show up for a week. The 2020s have not been kind, as two Covid cancellations and major road work took out three of the first four this decade.

Well north of the brown smoke shown here, the township of Jasper AB was substantially consumed by a fire yesterday. Over 25000 people were safely evacuated from town and park, but emergency crews had no chance against the swirling winds and walls of flame.

Tough times. 

the small kit, v.1

Here is the small kit I'm taking for this weekend. Plans are to shoot family indoors, a concert at a park, and hopefully a few decent landscape images. 

The camera is an e-M1 and Olympus 17/2.8 lens. For indoors and lightly cramped family the 35mm/e should do fine. A small RRS-style plate is attached to the camera.

In the small bag is the Laowa 10mm/2, Oly 14-150ii and TTArtisan 23/1.4. Those will cover any low light and long images if we're late to the concert and must hang out in back. Included in the bag are a polarizing filter, two batteries and a plug-in microphone whose mount is sticking out in the photo. I should bring the flash for extra security - luckily I have a spare pocket on one side that's doing nothing :^).

This plus a tripod or monopod should be sufficient!

firecracker weather!

 

Typically around here we begin summer on July 5-7th, whenever the last Pacific storm visits with enough strength to keep us in the upper 60s. We are starting a day early this year, and we're trying for 100° this weekend. Just 80 today, it appears - but we may not see another day in the 80s until a week from now. Thankfully the coastal cities and beaches only suffer two days of heat before the onshore flow is sufficient to bring back the 70s - so that's a daytime destination we are considering strongly!

Wrap up: well, that was unpleasant. Portland reached 100° and Salem was a few degrees warmer. We didn't visit the beach, but A/C and mist on the deck were fully employed.

Wed max was 16° cooler after a 10° drop in the morning. A decent west wind broke another 15-foot branch from a tree in our yard.. that's about the fourth of similar size to come down this year!

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!