Super Duper Macro

A couple weeks ago I woke up and it was snowing. I figured it was the perfect chance to try to get some more macro snowflake pictures.

I try to use my car windows and windshield for these pictures; since they're already cold, too, the snowflakes don't melt when they land. I ran right outside (before coffee even!) to try to get some good pictures before it stopped snowing.

After a couple minutes of using my macro lens I suddenly remembered a technique I'd played with in the past: reverse lens macro. You can do this with the lens that comes with the camera (usually something along the lines of an 18-55mm); manually set your shutter speed, take the lens off the front of the camera, flip it around backward so that the front of the lens is now up against the camera body, and hold it all in place (awkwardly) with your hands. You lose the autofocus so you have to move the entire camera back and forth to focus. I was doing this in my pajamas with big fluffy boots, leaned up against my car; I'm guessing my neighbors think I'm nuts now.

It sure does make a difference, though.   :)

I can't wait until it snows again...I can't wait to try to get more of these!

Picture of the Day: January 21st to January 27th

 January 21st: My new folding bike. Mark and I had agreed that buying a Tempurpedic was going to be our joint anniversary present to each other this year, but he was a cheater and bought me an extra present! He'd been thinking about getting a folding bike for himself, so to see what they were like before picking one out he got one for me. It's pretty sweet; it only weighs 30lbs and folds up small enough to fit in the back of my airplane. I can't wait to try it out around the airport!

January 22nd: Restaurant Week in Fredericksburg. Today was our actual anniversary (9 years already!), so we decided to take advantage of Restaurant Week and go out to dinner. We went to Bistro Bethem in Fredericksburg, and everything was fantastic! I was feeling adventurous so I tried the veal sweetbreads and also had shrimp and polenta. Mmm...tasty food...

 January 23rd: Departing AVC. I had a day-long cross country planned with one of my students with the intention of doing short field operations at Lawrenceville (LVL) as well as tower controlled field landings at Charlottesville (CHO). Well, we got the cross country part of it right but strong winds and moderate turbulence threw our original plan out the window. We started at LVL, did a go around, then I demonstrated a short field landing and realized in the flare that I had a tailwind.because the winds were swinging so much. With the moderate turbulence we decided to skip CHO since it's so close to the mountains, so we eventually wound up hopping over to Mecklenburg to grab another airport passport stamp while we were in the area. At least we got in some good VOR tracking on the way back to Warrenton.

 January 24th: Snow! We had a light dusting and it was still snowing when I woke up. I lost my 8am flight for the weather, but since the 10am lesson was going to be ground anyway I still made my way over to the airport. The ramp seemed so nice and peaceful.   :)

January 25th: Frozen bubbles. Did you know that when it gets below freezing, you can blow bubbles and they'll freeze? I saw this somewhere online, and since it's been so cold the past few days I figured it would be a good time to see if it actually works. It does! The trick seems to be getting the bubble solution cold (but not freezing) before you start. Stand someplace protected from the wind, blow a bubble, and catch it on the wand. You can actually see the ice crystals forming on the surface, and when it pops you wind up with little bits of bubble shell. It was pretty cool!

January 26th: Snowflakes! I had an eve shift today so I got to sleep in a bit. It was lightly snowing when I got up, so I went outside to see if I could get some more snowflake pictures. After the first couple I remembered about the reverse lens macro technique. I took this picture with my 18-55mm lens; you just flip it around and hold it up to the camera body backwards. (Apparently they make adapters that can hold it in place for you so you don't have to basically juggle the camera and the lens awkwardly in one hand...I'll have to get one of those.) You have to manually set your shutter speed, and since the lens is backward you have no autofocus so you have to move the whole camera back and forth to focus. My neighbors probably think I'm nuts since I was out there in my pajamas, weaving back and forth and leaning on my car (another tip - your car's windshield is a great place for snowflake pictures - it's already cold so they won't melt, and it gives you a good background). Oh well...it was worth it! I'll have more of these in an upcoming post.

 January 27th: Wine! Honestly, I'm not a lush, but this glass of wine made my night...because for the first time in about a year, I didn't have the mid this week! I almost didn't know what to do with myself Sunday afternoon since I didn't have to come right home from the day shift and go back to sleep. I celebrated with a glass of wine while Mark got ready to go back to work for his mid. I do like working the overnight shifts, but it was so nice to not feel like a zombie for a change!

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's...

 Last week Mark and I got up disgustingly early to drive in rush hour traffic to downtown DC. On purpose. On our day off. I promise, we haven't lost our minds! (I'll also apologize right now for how many pictures are in this post, but I promise it's worth it!)

We're both training for a couple races - I'm running a half marathon in about a month and a half, and we're both running a full marathon this fall - so we decided to take advantage of the great weather and go for a run in downtown DC. We parked at West Potomac Park, just south of the Tidal Basin, and we were off! We ran past the Jefferson Memorial...

...the Washington Monument...

...and the Lincoln Memorial.

Since we were feeling a little ambitious, we decided to add some steps to our run to say hi to both Lincoln...

...and Jefferson.  :)

I always take my phone with when we run outside, and my Google tracker works great! I like how you can see where we ran up the steps of the monuments.   :)   Altogether, we ran just over 4.5 miles.

After a quick stop at the car, we grabbed our folding camp chairs and I grabbed my camera gear and we made our way back up to the National Mall...

...along with several thousand other people. What, you might be asking, could possibly draw this many people outside all at once?

The Space Shuttle Discovery flyby!!!!

Discovery was on its way to the Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles (its new home - can't wait to go see it!), but made a detour over DC first.

Mark had one of my cameras; most of his pictures are of me taking pictures.  :)

I loved how so many people piled out onto the tops of the buildings as the shuttle flew by.

This may be one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken.   :)

After flying several loops around the National Mall, Discovery and its T-38 escort disappeared off to the west. 

All that running and shuttle-watching made us hungry, so we stopped to grab some ridiculously tasty tacos on the way home. Oh baby, guacamole...mmm...   :)

It was amazing to get to see the shuttle in person on its last flight! However, a tiny part of me wished that I had been sitting on position to get the chance to work the flight. I mean, how many controllers can say they've worked the space shuttle? I wrote that off as one of those things that I'd never get to do and moved on. So when I walked into the ops room this past Friday morning and the supervisor pulled me aside to brief me before I sat down on the East departures, imagine my surprise when he handed me a flight strip and told me that the shuttle carrier would be departing shortly for New York, carrying Enterprise!! Shortly after I sat down, the supervisor briefly stopped my east departures, and almost simultaneously Air Force One departed Andrews AFB and the shuttle carrier departed Dulles. I got the president on course and sent him off to the Center as the shuttle carrier made the turn into my airspace. 

Best traffic call I've ever made: "traffic eleven o'clock, seven miles, east-bound, one one thousand, heavy Boeing 747 carrying the space shuttle". And it's possible that I'm the only controller ever that's had both the space shuttle and the president in their airspace at the same time. Priceless.   :)

NJ to VA!

Oh noes!! Where did my instructor go?!?

Just kidding! In early October I finally got to bring my plane back to VA!

Goodbye, NJ...

...hello, Delaware!

The Chesapeake Bay was very pretty.

This was also about the point where I started thinking, gee, I hope I'm not busting any of the restricted airspace around here.

(I wasn't!)

I love how that tiny piece of land is lined with tiny trees. :)

I got to fly past Patuxent; I talk to those controllers at work and send airplanes there all the time, but it's not often I actually get to see the airport!

Finally, home!

I love being able to see the mountains from the traffic pattern. :)

Kansas to NJ, Part 3

It took almost a week, but I finally got back to Ohio to pick up my plane.

And the weather was gorgeous! :)

We took off as soon as we got there and headed east.
Even the terrain was cooperative.
We followed this line for about 10 miles.
It was exactly along our course.

We flew over Wheeling, WV, and after a brief stop at Washington County, PA...

...stopped in Altoona, PA for lunch. Omnomnom!

After lunch we took off and headed toward NJ.
Hello, Delaware River!

And finally...

HELLO CROSS KEYS!!! :)

Finally, the trip was over.

In total:

9 airline flights, including connections
4 days of flying
1100 miles
8 fuel stops
15.2 hours of flight time

Totally worth it. :)

Kansas to NJ, Part 2

The weather continued to be uncooperative the next day, too.

This is Putnam County, Indiana.
We landed here after the clouds closed in around us just south of Indianapolis.

After a while, though, we were able to plot a new route with slightly better weather, and started off for Ohio.

The good weather was nice while it lasted.
Which wasn't long.

We spent the afternoon weaving our way around pop up thunderstorms...

...until they chased us to Dayton, Ohio.
It rained like this for about an hour, so we decided to quit while we were ahead and spend the night.

The next morning started the same as all the others had: foggy.

We had to be off the ground by 11am to make it back to NJ by the end of the day.

It didn't happen.

So it was off to Dayton International Airport for Tom and I, while N1972V stayed behind.

:(

At least the sunset was pretty at 34,000 feet.


**To be continued...**