Category Archives: Outdoors

Sled and Tobbogan Research

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I research all sorts of things... but one area I do not do enough research in is fun - especially winter fun.

With the resent 5" (or theres about) of snow in Eugene I thought I would pull a memory or two out of my past and take a look online to see if I could find any pictures. I am particularly interested in sledding. This is sorta new. Let me explain. Growing up I learned to ski. It was an individualistic sport and did not require cooperation. In contrast to the atmosphere around skiing (at least my exposure to it), sledding is much more of a social enterprise. In database terms, in stead of a one-to-one relationship (skier to skies) it is a many-to-one relationship (people to sled). Give this past I think it might be time to revisit the sled in context of the social element and re-evaluate "sledding".

Last night some students in Becky's program and I got out to a local hill and went sledding. It was a blast. Even though I am the guy in the red jacket. (permissions on video no-longer work)

Meadowbrook Sectional Toboggan

It reminded me of a sled my dad had when I was in the third grade. It was an orange. Recent internet sluthing has shown that it was likely a Meadowbrook Sectional Toboggan. There is a patent for it in google. The only picture I could find on the Internet for the make/model is below.

Long Toboggan

Long Toboggan


Folded Sled

Foldable in three sections.

Foldable sled in extended position

In extended position

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Lightning in East Texas

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Becky and I were flying standby and coming back from our trip in Europe. We had been bumped from a couple of flights and were desperate to get home. So we took a flight which ended in Little Rock, AR rather than Dallas, TX. On the drive to Dallas there was quite the electrical storm. Since I shot my first picture of lightning in Germany, I have wanted to give it another go. This was the perfect opportunity. I pulled off the highway onto a secondary road and drove about a mile before pulling off to the side. Because we were flying standby our checked baggage, including my tripod, were already in Dallas waiting for us – not good when you want to use it before you get to Dallas. So, I improvised. I used the trunk of the rental car and my camera strap for leveling. Here is what I was able to shoot.

Image 9325 possibly the best un-edited photo of the event.

I took about thirty photos playing around with a variety shutter speeds (time lapse), ISO and apertures. All images used my 50mm lens with a UV filter. This one is probably the best one unedited.

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Shooting Lightning

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I was out tonight looking for the moon. It is full moon and I am in southern Germany at the moment. My friend Doris noticed a rather spectacular moon rise while she was out for a bike ride. When she came home she told me about it and we jumped in the car to go try and see it, but the clouds had already come in and covered the moon. Noticing a few cloud-to-cloud sparks I told Doris about how I have wanted to shoot lightning for some time but have not had the chance. I set the camera to 30 sec. exposure and pointed it in the direction of the storm… and this is what I got.

Lightning in Schwartzwald

Lightning in Schwartzwald.

Shoot the Sun…

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Shooting the Moon took less planning. But both of these secessions were mostly spontaneous. After shooting the moon, I was showing the picture to a colleague at work and he mentioned that there was going to be a Transit of Venus. Of course this was the day before the transit was to occur, an event which would not occur again until 2117. I started to diligently look around for how this event should be photographed (including how it was photographed before). I found out about solar filters, I just needed one which would fit Josh’s lens. The best I could find was a filter from Thousand Oaks Optical. It seemed that everyone was recommending them. But it looked like the filter I would need was about $200.
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