Monday, March 30, 2009

Safety Check(not)

New Housing

Got my new toy just in time to get some practice with it before the trip. Here's my new Ikelite underwater housing for my Sony HC7 camera. I'm very excited about being able to capture the underwater world of Cozumel on it's first official trip. The "Pool Party" before the trip featured a very full pool as everybody seemed to want to get some practice in the water.

Instead of practicing our buddy breathing, hand signals, and water entry methods, you know all the important things that could keep us safe on our trip, here's me practicing to be the BEST break dancer underwater!


Pool Breakdance from PhotobyAce on Vimeo.


It wasn't all fun and games, okay yes it was! I'm blaming being more concerned about getting a feel for my new housing then I was really practicing the things we should have been going over. I put too much money into this housing to not put it to good use, so I'm going to be confident that Becca will save me if I need it! (Now that my dad is officially worried that I'm not taking my safety seriously, I'll skip telling about the really cool shark dive that I want to do next time!) My buoyancy with the camera was better and worse then I expected. I started out having a little trouble floating comfortably with it, but once I dropped some weight, it got much easier. My videotography could use some work, especially at the end of this clip, but in my defense, Becca and I were playing catch! Here's a small sample of what we did:


Pool Party from PhotobyAce on Vimeo.

Who needs a safety check when I have a good dive buddy? Less then a week before the real fun starts!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Sometimes A Smile Is All You Can Do

Smile with the camera

This past weekend was one of those valuable learning experiences, although very embarrassing to admit, it something to laugh about now. This may be common knowledge to some, but bike peddles are threaded differently based on which side of the bike you are attempting to remove them from! I'm sure I could stop this blog entry with that statement and no further explaining would be needed to paint the picture of what transpired over this past weekend, but what fun would that be?

With our exercise craze, we both are hoping this summer is going to be about putting lots of miles on our bikes, visiting other bike trails, and continuing to be active. If it's going to be done, it's best to do it right, so we decided to make the investment in new bike peddles and special shoes that lock you to the bike. How better to follow through on your goal of biking more then if it's physically hard to remove yourself from the bike? Okay, that really isn't really the reason. The point is provide your foot and muscles to have more of a push and pull type motion providing more power as you ride.

The first peddle went on easily, the reason, we just happened to pick the normal one. Becca, being the man of the operation, tried as she might on the left peddle and couldn't make it budge. Then it was my turn, same result. Next was a team effort of Becca holding the bike upright as I put all the force I could behind my weight as I'm physically standing on the wrench in an attempt to force the peddle to loosen. At this point the cats who were intently watching the activity, sensed this wasn't going to end well and they disappeared (probably to Twitter their other cat friends how stupid these two humans were).

While I attempted to find a long pipe to slide over the wrench and proved even more leverage, Becca by playing with her bike, figured our mistake of which way we really should be turning the wrench. At this point, if the peddle wasn't tight to begin with, it was now super tight with our original efforts. I found a plastic PVC pipe that I use close my skylight shades with. Even though the plastic isn't what I'd call heavy duty, I was so frustrated with our efforts to this point I wasn't concerned about breaking three dollar piece of pipe. Believe it or not, it worked like a charm. It created enough leverage to undo my standing on the wrench to tighten the peddle on without even breaking. It's one of those moments that afterward, we just look at each other and smile. I'm sure both of us were thinking, let us never again speak of this moment, but it's such a classic moment of us the story must be told.

I will however not tell the story of Becca's first experience using her new peddles. So, this picture is my favorite of the weekend. This was about 6 hours before our peddle fiasco while we were at Meijer Gardens, but the point is even though the smile didn't stay the big for the whole day, at the end it was the same.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The Coundown Begins

IMG_2350

It's official, my trip next month is close enough that I can actually start getting excited about it! On Monday was the meeting for the trip, to get our itinerary, know things to bring, get a general idea of what to expect, and most importantly what weapons to bring to avoid the drug warlords. I'm really not worried about the warlords because first of all, I've seen Mythbusters and bullets can't do any damage to the body through more than just a few feet of water and I plan on being much deeper. Second, even when on land, I run faster then Becca.

It looks like it's going to be a blast. I'm most excited about a small side trip where the two guides are going to make a special trip to the southern side of the island for deeper dive at what is called the Devil's Throat. It really sounds like a sweet dive where it takes you through a tunnel and will easily be the deepest dive to date for me. Be prepared for the story between Becca and I as I can already see it now where each of us tries to swim away with who will go the deepest (I'm already planning on sticking my arm in the sand if I have to, just to beat her at something). When they first brought that side adventure up, my comment to them, immediately count the two of us in! So, it's possible it would only be the four of us going, which would be extra sweet.

My Birthday seems to come earlier and earlier every year. Yesterday, with my gift from my secret admirers, I ordered my underwater housing for my video camera. I decided with the smaller still camera, the video camera makes the most sense to try to capture this experience. I'm hoping to get it soon, give it some trial runs in the pool before we leave, and be ready to go so that I can share the Devil's Throat at 130ft!

A hair over four weeks away and counting down!

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Left Brain Meets Creativity

One Petal Short

Just when I think I've witnessed everything the Internet has to offer, that's when I get served a dish of humble pie. Not being one to ever turn down pie, I have to admit, it does taste pretty good and it was a pleasant surprise.

I made a new friend this week. What's different about this friend? Well, we have never seen each other. We don't have any idea what each other sounds like. We don't share mutual friends, work together, or even live that close to each other. The only real thing in common that we share is an iPhone app. Even though none of the traditional friendship common bond type things apply, there is one quality that I find in every good friendship I have, this person challenges me. Where I struggle to do anything creative, this person is almost the exact opposite. It's a refreshing change to hear a different perspective on a topic. Even though I'm always right, it never hurts to listen to the other point of view! :)

In addition to the point of view differences, friendship is about learning from the other person (at least for me). Take Couch Surfing for example. That was one of the first new things I learned that I had zero knowledge of before this week started. Who knew that people traveled around the world staying on strangers couches? Not necessary the safest concept out there and I don't plan on doing it any time soon, but it is an interesting idea. I obviously didn't know about it, but my new friend did. I'm sure it won't be only completely new thing I learn from my new friend either.

Photography has always been an outlet to try to at least prove to myself that I'm not entirely left brained. This is my favorite photo from this weekend. When I spotted it, I immediately knew the effect I wanted to try with it. It's hardly super creative, but it's dedicated to my new friend. I hope just by knowing them, it will unlock more of my creative side, in turn, I hope I can offer something they need in return. Here's to our friendship, may we both continue to learn from each other.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Opening Season

Under my Umbrella..ela..ela

It was opening day for butterfly hunting season yesterday. I can't say that I was in my blind at the crack of dawn, can't even say I made it for the official opening, but the point is I did make it! The number of targets weren't plentiful, but my aim was true and I did walk away with a number of keepers. The trick this year is trying to make butterflies not look like the other hundred butterfly pictures I already have. Can't say I was successful at that, but that's what I'm going for this year.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

The Lost Week

Uploaded - 3\1\09

It was a dark and stormy night...isn't that how most mysteries start? I'm going to spare you the expense of flipping four hundred pages to find out how this mystery ends. The mystery of The Lost Week was because of a head cold. No visits to the gym, no special adventures, the past week consisted of trying to breathe and trying to conserve Kleenex to prevent having to visit the store.

Now that this season's cold is out of the way, lets get back to the fun things.