Monthly Archives: May 2008

I need more space.

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So after I talked about my backup strategy, I went and started my command to sync my pictures. I went to checkup on it, and it was stuck. I checked, and I was out of space. Oh oh. I stopped the sync. Now what? Well, the drives are sporting LVM2, and I had extra space available, so I just added some.

First add some more space to the volume:
# lvextend -L +1G /dev/vgnas/pictures

Then tell ext3 about the extra space.
# resize2fs /dev/vgnas/pictures

Thats it. I did it live, without unmounting. I then went back to my rsync command, and it continued right where it left off. Sometimes I really like linux.

Backup Strategy

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Scott Kelby just posted his backup strategy, and I thought I would follow up with mine.

The thing that is really interresting about Scott and my solutions, is that there are a lot of similarities. But mine cost a lot less.

His first step is to save on location to an Epson P-500 (link). That would be cool. I have looked at those wistfully before. I don’t have anything comparable. I don’t travel as much as he does, so I just have to put in my empty card and go from there.
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I had spam.

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So far, there has been nothing but spam in the comments field. Not that I am expecting hundreds of people to all of a sudden start reading my blog, but I am surprised how fast the spammers picked it up. Especially since I had comments turned off on my last site for over a year. I see one to three a day right now. Actually, I thought WordPress had some type of captcha thing going. Have to check if that is turned on or not.

The Trees are Blooming

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There are some trees along the Minnehaha Parkway bike path that bloom and then lose their flowers for just a couple of days each year. I was hoping to get them this year. Friday I rode my bike to work, and took my camera with me. It just so happened that that was the day! I wasn’t super happy with any of them in the end, but here is one:
DSC_0990

Site Redesign Almost There

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Wow. I forget how much time it takes, and how little time there is to squeeze out of everything else that is going on. I haven’t posted new pictures to flickr in a long time. Anyway, the site is now coming along nicely. The front page is mostly up, with a couple of bugs. I still need to work on the content for the photography and consulting sections, but we are underway. I will post more on how I got the front page later.

Rotating Banner Image

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I got around to creating the rotating banner images last night. I made 3 new ones, but they aren’t really my best images. I need to hunt round for some others. My flowers don’t really fit the landscape type space that is there, but I will have to see what I can do.

To make this work, I started out with some javascript in an onLoad function, but the image would blink with either the default image, or the background color. To fix this, I scrapped that idea, and went to an inline style block that is written out with a little php in the header.php file in the template folder.

<style type="text/css">
  #headerLeft {
    background-image: url(<?php bloginfo('stylesheet_directory'); ?>
        /images/header-img-<?php echo rand(1,4); ?>.jpg);
  }
</style>

This just gets a number between 1 and 4, and the base directory for the template, and sticks it all together to make the image. Presto. No more flickering.

Flower Power

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I am glad that what appears to be my favorite subject, flowers, are back. I wouldn’t have guessed that when I first got my camera, but judging by the number of pictures I have taken, it seems to be a close second to pictures of my kids.

I currently have this one as my background at work:

DSC_0463

This was growing in my grass in the front yard. I take lots of pictures from my yard, or the neighbors when I go out for walks by myself or with the girls. It is hard to get landscapes in the south end of Minneapolis, but flowers… we got plenty.

I am also happy with the 50mm f1.8 I got. I wasn’t sure if I would like it, not being able to auto focus. I am getting better at it, having finally adjusted the diopter on my camera correctly for me. I especially love the bokeh that I can get with it when I take pictures of flowers.

Blog theme is underway.

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I finally have the blog theme close to finished. It looks about how I want it now. The only thing left to do, is that I want to create several images that will rotate with the one that is in the top left. Just need to pick and crop the images, and do a little Javascript.

Tip toe through the tulips in the rain

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I looked out the kitchen window, and at the back fence, I saw that the tulips were coming up. Woo hoo. I have been waiting for flowers to come back around here. I like shooting flowers. Anyway, it was a bit of a trick to take their picture. It was raining. I grabbed Kate’s umbrella. Oh yea, I only had one hand for the camera, and the 50mm F1.8 I had on my camera is manual focus on my D40.

So, what I did was to hold the umbrella in one hand, the camera in the other with the focus set for as close as possible. Then I crouched down with focus just short of the flower. Then I took pictures as a slowly leaned in. I figured something had to be in focus.

This is what I got. Click for larger on flickr.

Red Tulip

Spring Tulips

Water, People, Cards, and the Need for a ND

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There has been a lot of water running down Minnehaha creek recently. I took Kate to Minnehaha falls to try to take some pictures. Kate hadn’t seen a live waterfall either.

I had to park several blocks away. There was a MS walk, and what seemed like thousands of people. Way too many people. I did get the tripod set up once, but I couldn’t get the shutter down slow enough for the look I wanted. It was too bright. Yes, I was there a little too late in the morning, but still, it makes me think that I need to get a neutral density filter of some sort. I would enable me to slow things down a bit more to get that real silky look to the water.

I also me another photographer there, with a massive tripod. She is also on flickr, but neither had a pen. Note to self: carry a pan and paper. Better yet, I want to make some business card type things that would have the address of my blog, and mybe my flickr ID.

Edit: Here is one of the pictures. Links to flickr.

Minnehaha Falls