Cabin

The camera doesn't come with a square format. So I did it in post production.

Rafting

Data Recovery

The 857th picture recovered. Camping 2009. The Canon SD880 IS, though is not water proof, but it did survive our 4 hour grueling white water rafting trip on Lehigh River. (the grueling and white water parts are of course my exaggeration, but the camera did get wet inside my pocket)

I thought I protected the last 23 pictures before I erased all the pictures in my camera. But apparently I didn't protect any pictures at all. When I pressed Play, it said no images. I am now enjoying data recovery from my SDHC card. The data recovery is in chronological order so I am recovering my earliest pictures which I actually don't need. I just need the last pictures. I am letting the program runs its course, so far I've recovered some 300 jpeg files. Not bad at all.

UPDATE 8/31/09
I almost recovered all the jpegs. Of the 857 files, only the first picture got corrupted, the rest are all safe and sound. Here is my experience.
I inadvertently erased all the files from the SDHC, thinking that I protected some of the images. I did not.
I didn't do any write to the card, that is, I left the card alone once I found out I made a mistake.
I searched online and found a freeware, called PC Inspector smart recovery. It took a minute to download and install.
I ran the program, then plugged in the SDHC card. The program didn't see the card. I exited the program, and re-run it, then the card was seen by the program.
It took 7.5 hours to recover the 857 files from the 8GB SDHC card and wrote to my notebook HD. All the files I wanted to recover were recovered.

Camping

This was our vacation this past summer. We tent camped in Pennsylvania. This was shot using my Yashica Mat, loaded with Portra 120 NC expired some time ago. I like expired film, they are cheap affordable they are good if you can find them. The scan is good not great I suppose. The print is actually better. I am really impressed with my own brand of photography, how do I get my exposure so right? Man, I am a genius. I just love myself as a photographer.

Cast iron pan, I love my cast iron pan.

PS: With the economy in free fall, tent camping might soon become a necessity....

Cooking While Camping

I brought some fruity extra virgin olive oil for salad as well as for sauteing. In retrospect, it wasn't exactly a good choice fro the latter. I believe it has a lower "boiling point" and it gets all smokey pretty fast. It's good for salad but not so good if you want to sauteed. Just plain olive oil is better for cooking.

Cooking utensils. I love my 8 inch cast iron skillet. I adore it. It's heavy, it's tough and it's practically free if you compare other similar skillets say from All-clad. And above all, it gets the job done. I brought mine to camping. Sometimes, I see other campers who bring those girly silly non-stick skillets with plastic handle. I say trash them. They are really good for nothing. The plastic handle is going to melt, the non-stick coating is going to wear out. Plus food got burnt much easier on those flimsy skillets. I can't imagine putting one of those plastic handle skillet on a camp fire to cook anything. Sure, over a gas stove it would work, somewhat.

Camping, Again

My avid readers would have noticed that I have gone camping twice in less than a month, mind you I am not even a park ranger. The first one was a bit of a warm-up, we stayed in a neighborhood park for one night just so we are ready for this BIG one Summer Camp 2008.

You my dear readers must have thought that, hey, you must be an outdoor type because you like camping so much. Wrong, the reason is one word. Economy. Or rather the bad economy. Instead of staying in some 5-star hotel, I stayed in a $50 a night camp ground. Or even cheaper.

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Me and Alex. I like to wear my white 501 jeans. I like to wear them for a week, so they look all dirty then I wear them to camping, with all the grass stain and whatnot. I like my white jeans dirty, super dirty.
Like so many respectable New Yorkers, Alex has a propensity to wear black, already. (I totally made it up, he couldn't care less.)
Smokey Joe. Featured here was my black Smokey Joe, loaded with food. To control the temperature, you need to control the vents. There are four holes at the bottom of the kettle, and by turning the valve, you control the openings and the air intake to the kettle and hence the fire. The fire from the charcoal can indeed goes pretty fierce by simply controlling the vent. If you want to put the doom shaped cover on and want to keep the fire going strong, you should really open up the vents both at the bottom and on the lid. The draft would fan the fire big time. One of the big mistakes for beginners, other than forgetting to bring the charcoal, is they close the vent at the bottom and the vent on the lid. Without air or oxygen intake, I don't care how much lighter fluid you put on the charcoal or worse on your food, there wouldn't be any fire.
I have great success with my grilled chicken with balsamic vinegar and rosemary. I just read the title of the recipe and I made up everything. Hey, it's just cooking not rocket science. I got the boneless chicken thighs a day at Trader Joe's before the trip and marinated them overnight. It was full of flavor. Too busy grilling and eating, no pictures.

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In my book, this is the only right way to start a charcoal fire. No lighter fluid needed, and the food would taste even better. I am usually not into accessories, but I found a chimney indispensable when it comes to starting the fire. There is a perforated metal partition inside the chimney and underneath you can stick two sheets of crumpled newspaper, preferably the New York Times, front page and business section will do. Then pour charcoal briquettes into the chimney. It only takes three or five minutes to get the charcoal in total fire, wait till there is no more smoke, then pour charcoal into the grill and you are ready to barbecue. I found it very efficient.

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Camp ground with power and water hook-up. Very convenient. Harry is charging his hand-held so he can check out the Olympics and gives occasional orders to the office drones.

Alley Pond Park Camping

Alley Pond Park Camping

All pictures shot using a Canon G3, a lowly 4MP camera. Jin was the photog.

Jin and the kids went there first and I joined them later after work. I would never miss camping, I love camping. I took the Queens bound F train all the way to Union Turnpike, then hopped on the Q46, got off at Winchester Blvd. Walked underneath the flyover ... And there it was, Alley Pond Park. I have never been this part of the Park, it was pretty nice. And fire is allowed, see pictures above. We had hamburgers and hot dogs for diner, all courtesy of tax payers' moneys, that is taxpayer as in myself included. Then it was time to setup the tent. It wasn't hard at all. When night came, it was time to roast marshmallow and smores. The kids had a lot of fun playing with the fire, of course. That's almost the whole point of roasting marshmallow. The last activity of the day was a night hike on one of the nature trails. The kids became whiners and moaners after maybe 10 or 15 minutes. Of course it could be a bit spooky in the wood at night. The rangers only showed us some plants and some worms along the trail, unfortunately we didn't see any lion, tiger or elephant. Too bad, the kids were disappointed plus they were totally exhausted after about 45 minutes.

Camping 2006

Camping 2006

Harry is OKAY, we didn't barbeque him.

Camping

The cheapest way to have the greatest fun, camping.