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Author Archives: powdork
learning the tools – aperture
the hardest thing to grasp for me as i move from a point and shoot in auto mode to a dslr in manual was the concept of aperture. i understand that aperture refers to the size of the hole that the light passes through, but that’s about it. i didn’t understand how i could use it to manipulate pictures. then i learned a bit about lenses, and how those with lower f-number had a bigger aperture and returned those artsy images with the shallow depth of field (dof). these are the images where the subject is focused with clarity and sharpness, but the background is blurred and fuzzy. the term is bokeh
here is an example of bokeh from camluvs7
so there i was thinking aperture was kind of a one sided deal. you paid more and got faster lenses with wider apertures. the lower the better. right? one nice thing about the digital age is that messing up is nearly free, and takes up no time. it may take some of the edge and sense of urgency away from learning, but it also leads to happy accidents. here is one now. i was unfamiliar with the fact that the flash would reduce the shutter speed to a maximum of 1/200, and with a bright spring snowfield behind the girls, the background would be completely washed out, which is cool although not what i was looking for
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Posted in gear reviews and tips, photography
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the ebbetts moon
we hatched a plan yesterday, and let it ferment a bit until it ended up being to ‘ski jobs sister and freel peak under the full moon’ in soft serve slush conditions. that’s not what happened. after dealing with all the logistics of leaving one car at high meadows, for the all nighters’ way out, we packed up the truck with the four of us and headed up fs 051 into horsethief canyon. wasn’t too long before we hit snow on the road. deep snow. deep snow that had already refrozen, despite the fact that we were at @8,500′, it was only 11:00, and it was 47 degrees outside. this meant our assault on freel would include an additional 2 miles of walking prior to starting our ascent to what would at best be very marginal conditions. for those not planning on staying all night, brennan and mike (who had to be at work at 7:30 am), it would mean that same walk again switch to get out. we hatched a new plan. ebbetts pass. there we knew we could get right out of the car and determine whether it was worth skiing, or not. when we got ebbetts, everything was frozen there too. but we knew we would have to get a little bit away from the road before we would know for sure.
mckinney reservoir and ebbetts peak under the light of the full moon
after parking at the pass we found nothing but scary firm snow. just before bailing i walked another 10 feet away from the road into some trees, and found good spring snow. we were on like donkey kong! once committed and heading out the pass ridge toward tryon peak, we soon realized that soft snow behind us would be all we see of that for the night
chris and mike hiking up towards the high point on pass ridge
chris, mike, and brennan (and their head lamps) heading down off tryon peak
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Posted in backcountry, skiing
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edgewood after dark
i’ve been practicing my lack of light photography with my new camera lately, and edgewood is about as beautiful a place to do it as i can imagine.
here are some of my better recent efforts
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g-love couloir (et tu june, et tu?)
well whoda thunk we’d still be posting pow tr’s here in june. yesterday (6/2) was one of those rare opportunities.
1. a pow day in june
2. a really good pow day in june with everything as filled in as it has been all year
3. a great crew, none of which had hit this line before
4. a round of golf on lake tahoe after skiing dry pow til 3:00 in june
on with the pics
heading up with a bit of a late start for this time of year (7:30). the sun was already doing it’s damage. in the background would be our warm up run, chamois
dark star charges down chamois. it was faster than he expected
kfactor opts for pucker factor
and comes up…well, down
dark star had to reach a little for this one, but i still like the pic
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oh….may….god!
tahoe is absolutely off the hook right now.
5.16.2011 – With reports of 20″ at squaw, we head to the wood to see what we see
method mike drops in off ski school
kfactor off the angry gremlin (it was funny watching him get to this)
then we found a cave
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Posted in backcountry, skiing
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amgen is in da’ house
the town is definitely showing signs of the amgen tour being around as businesses are shedding off their winter coats and getting ready for the crowds, and the snow. here are some pics from today of some of the preparations
caltrans is doing their part to get ready
the amgen folks are getting their marketing on
team garmin getting warmed up
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Posted in biking
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a monumental day
last week we had a little teeny tiny storm that dropped about 4-6″ of moderate density snow. monday i wanted to hit monument peak (the top of heavenly), but turned around at the base of milky way bowl and headed for east peak due to time concerns and very limited visibility. as i reached east peak the clouds parted and i was afforded a view of monument which naturally would haunt me till i went back. the next day was tuesday, so back i went with my buddy, coworker, fellow skier turned telemarker for the day, greg.
monument peak from east peak on monday, 5/9/11
tuesday
it sure is nice to be able to take a picture here without a whole bunch of people taking pictures here…
greg hikes up to monument with the crystal range in the background. i see ralston, price, agassiz, pyramid, echo, flagpole, cracked crag, and the camp chute area off tallac’s southern flank
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kirkwood’s closing weekend
first off, there will be none of the shenanigans of the typical closing weekend, since this is a low key journey filled with kid stoke. this was a great way to end another great year at kirkwood. sunshine, great corn, lots of friends, family and fun.
saturday
first we scaled thunder mountain. me with my size 12 collini reversiblurple one piece and 210cm gs race skis mounted with the finest alpine binding ever made
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canadian ski trip?? put your money where the sun don’t shine
if you’re planning a trip to ski canada next season, congratulations. canada has some fantastic skiing throughout the country.
stay away from sunshine village.
the owners there have fired long time mountain management and ski safety employees after the owner’s son was caught skiing a closed area.
while the legal battle has clouded some issues, two things are painfully clear.
1. the owner is attempting to get out of paying substantial separation packages legally required in canada (think long term employees 20+ years)
2. the owner is a douchebag
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somewhere near stevens peak
schraphmacchio and i headed up to the stevens peak area sunday for a walk and some camera time. it was fun.
heading up
coincidentally, schraplh was heading the same direction
the scenery is ok
after heading up for, like, seven or eight hours, we got some down time
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