The HEY! CHECK ME OUT! thread.

[noises]

Like the title says, this a thread where you can come and go, "hey, check me out," and proceed to show or tell us all about what it was you did that was so great you thought you should run onto the internet to tell people about it.

Pretty straight forward, right?

Do you have hobbies? Do you do creative things? Have a youtube channel? A flikr account with thousands of pretty decent photos? Do you knit? Do patchwork? Cook like a pro? Whatever it is you DO and you DO well, share it.

To kick things off, here's a link to my youtube debut, a short film about rally driving through the jungle near where I live, set to some of my own music. I like motorsports, obviously, and I love nature, so rally is like my PB&J of things to do. In fact the first road I ever drove on was pea gravel, like driving on marbles, and the only way around the corners was sideways, so, you know, some things are like riding a bike.

This video's on mud, things are a little different, it's all about inertia and grip, more than countering lateral forces. (because you can't on mud )

YouTube - Dambulla Rally (Playing Dirt in real life.)

ps lol pardon my youtube login name. it's from the old guy in The Vicar of Dibley, I don't have tourettes, I swear! :lol:

[Mad Scientist]

OK. This is my latest project. My garden shed was starting to show its age so about a month ago I decided it was time to fix it up a bit. From the pictures you will note that there is a maple tree next to it, that tree did not exist when I built the shed. However it self planted itself and then proceeded to grow. Early on I was going to pull it out but was informed that it was a “nice little tree and I should leave it”. Well it obviously continued to grow some and since then and it got to the point where it was caving in the side of the shed. Clearly there is no way I could save the old shed the only thing I could do was to tear it down and build a new one.

Now I could have just copied the old design or even done the unthinkable and just gone out and bought a new one. But what’s the fun in that, plus I would then end up with your typical generic garden shed. So I decided to design my own and do something a little different. This is the result.








I too am interested in auto sports and have driven in some local rallies and slid around in gymkhanas that were set up on a frozen lake.
Definitely not quite as scenic as your jungle route but probably cooler.
Another project I have been working is the restoration of an old car that my father had originally bought. It is detailed on a forum that is dedicated to this particular car. As it is a long post so I will not re-post it here, but this is a link to it.

Master… Master… It’s alive! It’s alive! It’s alive! - Mark II Forum - A Forum for Continental Mark II

[Ingram]

Of late I have been experimenting with auras produced by buried metals using digital IR photography.

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[Kevin]

Hey noises!

Great idea!

I have mentioned how PATHS helped me revive a long lost dream...

fear-sprouted-wings-flew-away

It has been almost 3 years that I have been enjoying the open road again.

Here are a few pics from a recent trip-

Camping in Georgia on the way to the Smokey Mountains



Met up with a bunch of friends in Pigeon Forge, TN and explored some the beautiful roads and scenery in the Smokies!

[future pather]

Wow I might not have recognized you with the longer beard

Thanks for sharing the pretty pics and update.

[Kevin]

Wow I might not have recognized you with the longer beard

Thanks for sharing the pretty pics and update.

Yeah, it's getting longer! Mary likes it.

[Kevin]

Outstanding.

The moat and drawbridge in particular are truly inspired.

Kevin, from one road warrior to another, that popout camping rig is a very nice piece of kit.

I've got a foldaway cot/tent hybrid thing. And a fold up chair. And an inverter so I can run my laptop and a desk lamp. And a little stove, so I can brew up a coffee anywhere I can pull over. Which is often somewhere like this.



(That's lake Tinaroo, where the world record for the largest barramundi caught on a line was set. Don't mind a bit of fishing, either.)

Hey Noises,

Can't beat a pop up tent trailer...or one that fits in the bed of a truck...way easier (and more comfortable) than setting up a traditional tent after a long day of riding.

Sounds like you got all the same stuff we do...inverter, small camp stove, laptop, fold up chairs, etc.

Home on the road!

[Kevin]

OK. This is my latest project. My garden shed was starting to show its age so about a month ago I decided it was time to fix it up a bit. From the pictures you will note that there is a maple tree next to it, that tree did not exist when I built the shed. However it self planted itself and then proceeded to grow. Early on I was going to pull it out but was informed that it was a “nice little tree and I should leave it”. Well it obviously continued to grow some and since then and it got to the point where it was caving in the side of the shed. Clearly there is no way I could save the old shed the only thing I could do was to tear it down and build a new one.

Now I could have just copied the old design or even done the unthinkable and just gone out and bought a new one. But what’s the fun in that, plus I would then end up with your typical generic garden shed. So I decided to design my own and do something a little different. This is the result.








I too am interested in auto sports and have driven in some local rallies and slid around in gymkhanas that were set up on a frozen lake.
Definitely not quite as scenic as your jungle route but probably cooler.
Another project I have been working is the restoration of an old car that my father had originally bought. It is detailed on a forum that is dedicated to this particular car. As it is a long post so I will not re-post it here, but this is a link to it.

Master… Master… It’s alive! It’s alive! It’s alive! - Mark II Forum - A Forum for Continental Mark II

I like the shed....You get an itch to do some more creative stuff like that, pop me a PM! I got plenty to do around here!

[future pather]

Yeah if you checked me out this week you'd find me in grungy clothes and doing a lot of little maintenance projects. Nothing as awesome as that castle though. . .

Although I worked on this a long time ago, I've recently made a video of where you can see me as an extra in the movie She's Out of My League.

I can't believe how little it is out of all the time I worked (over two weeks of very very long days). A lot of times I worked in scenes but they cut the camera too tight and you don't see me.

Here are the scant places you can see me:

YouTube - ‪Where You Can Find Me‬‎

There are a handful more movies I did extra work in that are not out yet. . .but last night I did see a preview for one of them.

It is called Unstoppable with Denzel Washington. I doubt you will be able to recognize me, I play one of many townspeople in danger of harm because of a run away train with toxic explosives on it

[Kevin]

Yeah if you checked me out this week you'd find me in grungy clothes and doing a lot of little maintenance projects. Nothing as awesome as that castle though. . .

Although I worked on this a long time ago, I've recently made a video of where you can see me as an extra in the movie She's Out of My League.

I can't believe how little it is out of all the time I worked (over two weeks of very very long days). A lot of times I worked in scenes but they cut the camera too tight and you don't see me.

Here are the scant places you can see me:

YouTube - ‪Where You Can Find Me‬‎

There are a handful more movies I did extra work in that are not out yet. . .but last night I did see a preview for one of them.

It is called Unstoppable with Denzel Washington. I doubt you will be able to recognize me, I play one of many townspeople in danger of harm because of a run away train with toxic explosives on it

Hey Jessica!

Thanks for the clip....please post up more as they become available.

I remember you sharing some stuff about your work a year or so ago. It is exciting that you are getting to do this, and I look forward to seeing more!

Congrats!!!

[Kevin]

And this was my second attempt.

Both those pics are trick!

Look forward to more of them.

Is it something you do while taking the pic, or is it all post pic taking work?

[Nadda]

That truck is wicked. I've never seen anything like that.

[Genie]

WOW! Check You Guys Out!

How incredibly talented you all are! I love the 'shed', all the pics are truly awesome and Kevin's beard is something to write home about!

I have to add a little something completely different...but it's not my invention... it's my husband Glenn's unique artistry. We call them Tye Die Gecko and Cosmic Frog. I thought he was nuts when he was painting them, but they came out great!





Glenn was inspired by Jerry Garcia and Glenn's own 'younger' days

We love making ceramic creations - it's a family affair for us here in Arizona.

[noises]

Cosmic frog is awesome! Hindi creation myth says the universe is made from and carried around by cosmic frog. Willing to bet your own looks cooler though.

Namaste, and thanks so much for the compliments on the photos. The HDR technique isn't very complicated, first it involves taking multiple photographs of the same scene at a variety of different exposure levels, then you use software to combine the correctly exposed parts from each of the images into one perfectly exposed photo. Software does most of the hard work, but you have to be aware of what you're actually shooting, with a mind to the post production process as you shoot to get the best results.

There's a few other creative effects you can achieve with the process, such as making a real object look like a CGI model (like the old truck,) or give an almost oil-on-canvas feel to the light and foliage in landscapes, as if it'd been painted. It's also very useful for getting photos in the rainforest, where shadows are often extremely deep dark because of the very bright tropical sun. Seriously. It's HDR or going into the jungle before dawn, setting up and using the faint light before sunrise and incredibly long exposures if you want to be able to shoot decent exposures in there, which I and many others have done.

For example, in the above photo which was shot at around 11am, one of the composite images has the ferns (in full sunlight in the middle of the creek,) correctly exposed, while in that same photo the opposite bank of the creek is extremely underexposed, appearing as a completely black shadow. Conversely, the lighter almost white parts of the lichen covered stones further upstream are in direct sunlight, and are massively overexposed, coming up in that shot as a white blur. But combine different exposure values and you can exceed the camera's ability to capture the variations natural lighting in a scene with such high dynamic range, hence the name of the process That one image composites across 7 full exposure values, and there's still parts that are a bit blown out, and others in black shadow. This is what nature pits me and my puny technology up against to show people the places I love as I see them.

What I was saying before about getting an oil painting sort of effect, you can see in this next image. The technique does incredible things with what would typically be a grey, washed out, overcast sky with no detail rendered.

(image removed.)

I wouldn't even get my camera out for a scene like this until I discovered this technique, it just brings skies to life, it's incredible, I love it. Google HDR tutorials, all you need is a $100 camera and a tripod and some free software to get started, and these are typical results for anyone with a basic understanding of photography and bottom of the line equipment like mine.

[Genie]

Cosmic Frog Myth and HDR

Cosmic frog is awesome! Hindi creation myth says the universe is made from and carried around by cosmic frog. Willing to bet your own looks cooler though.

Namaste, and thanks so much for the compliments on the photos. The HDR technique isn't very complicated, first it involves taking multiple photographs of the same scene at a variety of different exposure levels, then you use software to combine the correctly exposed parts from each of the images into one perfectly exposed photo. Software does most of the hard work, but you have to be aware of what you're actually shooting, with a mind to the post production process as you shoot to get the best results.

Thanks for the compliment on Cosmic Frog! I forgot about the Hindi creation myth - coincidence.... hmmm

Love your explanation about the HDR technique - that's really cool and I really like the results! Makes me want to break out my camera for more tahn just shooting ceramic pics.

We have some lovely sunsets here in AZ. Thinking about trying out the HDR method on some of those shots.