my life, my thoughts, my world.

This weekend gave me more than a few reasons to load up my bike and head for Savannah. Beautiful weather, free lodging, one of the biggest parties in the country, and the chance to see a good friend before he moves back to Ohio. Along the way I took a bunch of pictures, which I will be posting to flickr at some point today or tomorrow. Important discoveries were made in my travels as well, namely freeways suck, and packing a wind and rain blocking layer is very smart.

From Columbus, GA to Savannah, GA – via Pine Mountain – 312 miles.

• US 27 to GA 190 @ Pine Mountain.
• GA 190 until it dead-ends and turn left on GA 41.
• GA 41 will intersect GA 36 after a dozen miles or so, turn left on GA 36
• Take GA 36 into some small town, and follow the signs for US 19 and turn right.
• Take US 19 to the US 80 East exit and turn left.
• US 80 goes all the way into Savannah, or if you feel like superslabbing it hop on I-16 when you get there in Macon, GA. I don’t advise I-16, 160 miles of flat, boring, straight freeway.

Savannah, GA to Columbus, GA – 275 miles.

• Take I-16 out of Savannah to US 280
• US 280 West to Columbus

The ride there was great, beautiful scenery, fun turns – right up to the point where I got gettheritus and jumped on the freeway. 7k RPM vibration to the backside for 162 miles with no turning makes for a great case of monkey butt. The ride back was very nice though – blast through some curves for 15 to 20 miles between towns, tucked down behind my windscreen, and then slowing down and changing positions to go through the scattered little towns. After the ride back there was no monkey butt.

Pine Mountain Set, Savannah Set, Ft. Pulaski Set

Went out to Fryar Field today to take some pictures of the current Aiborne class jumping. An officer I know got me onto the drop zone for some pretty good angles.

The rest of the pictures are here.

Flickr photo set pics from earlier today. All taken on main post at FBGA, with my Canon 350D and my Sigma 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lense. I’ve got filters on the way (UV, circular polarizer, and warming for each of my lenses.)

Figured I’d take some more pictures of a few guitars @ the house. All are hosted on my flickr.

All images hosted on my flickr account.

Stars and Stripes over Houston

The 610 Loop

Concrete Hill

Ship Channel Bridge

Texas Cyclone

Refinery

Refinery

Refinery at night

I couldn’t really think of anything to photograph last night, so I figured I’d check out the reports that Sigma glass tends to be darker in general than Canon glass. I happen to have two lenses both with 50mm focal lengths and a tripod. The Canon lense in question is their inexpensive 50mm f/1.8, and the Sigma is their “digital” 18-50mm f/3.5-5.6. Given that I can’t go below f/5.6 at 50mm on the Sigma, I set the camera body (Canon Digital Rebel XT, or 350D) to f/5.6 with a shutter speed of 1/3sec.

The photo through the Canon 50mm f/1.8 lense.

The photo through the Sigma 18-50 f/3.5-5.6 lense.

With the Sigma lense being designed for the smaller crop sensor, and the Canon being an EF lense, rather than an EF-S probably makes a difference as to how much light gets through even at the same aperture. Anyway, in my test the Sigma is in fact darker, by about a third of a stop.

That’s the official name of my newest piece of equipment. I needed a tripod, but I wanted one that had a ballhead, and would fit in the tank bag for my motorcycle. The Slik Sprint Mini fit the bill (for a bill of $68 shipped.) Anyway, thus far I like the tripod a lot. It doesn’t get very high, but it does get really low. It’s got spikes and non-spikey options for footing as well.

Pics required, obviously.

Tripod raised.

Tripod lowered.

A shot from the tripod.

Another shot from the tripod.