[Racer X 69]

I'm going to be brave and make a photography post... just to see what you bozos do... taken with a K-3, in the "Why I won't buy a K-3 thread. . Does the moderator ban me from the thread for life? Do thread participants curse my family and bomb my house? Do they mail bomb my email accounts etc with vicious denial of service attacks? It my be fool hardy, but I'm curious.

Or do they just tell me how disappointed they are in my lack of judgement?

I hope nobody faints and spills their beer or drops their cheese.

K-3 Kritters...








I'm waiting for the axe too fall. This might be the worst thing I've ever done in my whole life.

Surely such transgressions can't go completely unpunished?

Norm, your work is always great. You have a great mastery of your equipment, and a good photographic eye.


I for one would never complain when you choose to share your work with us, even in this thread. In fact, doing so helps keep the spirit of this thread in balance, I think.


But we are not bozos.


Diverse to a fault maybe, but not bozos.















Keep up the good work brother!

[dansamy]

Angels

One of the very, very few that I sort of like. AF is really hard catching in difficult lighting. And my own eyes have a hard time with MF because of my eyesight. I was using the K-5ii. Now, I wonder if the K-01, with its focus peaking, would have been easier to use.

[Racer X 69]

But they can install underground cables, which relieves problems with the environmentalists and also prevents trouble with powerlines causing fires and also makes power supply independent of people driving illegally on the footpath.

Buried utilities can have their advantages, but:

But underground cables are expensive to install, and very expensive repair. Even locating a problem point is a major challenge.

Yes, installing power distribution systems underground is costly, 2 or 3 times the cost of overhead construction depending on soil, location, new construction or burying existing overhead lines in established neighborhoods, etc.. And locating faults can be challenging too. Then, once the fault is located, if the lines are direct buried, repairs require digging.


And people don't like it much when crews come along and dig up their front yard.

And I don't think that transformers can be put underground.

Early underground systems did have 'submersible' transformers. But they would ultimately start to leak, then short out. The utility I used to work for adopted the strategy of replacing transformers as they failed with padmount units, which sit on a concrete pad directly over the vault where the wires came and went.


Other equipment, switches and regulators also get set in padmount cabinets.


Some neighborhoods have covenants and restrictions, and the equipment is camouflaged like boulders and will have shrubs planted around them.

Our hard-wired phone service came through underground cables, but every time it rained, we'd lose service. They tried again and again to repair the problem & keep water out of the junction post, but they never succeeded, so we "bundled" with cable TV and Internet, which comes via pole-strung wire, and the only service cut-off we've had was caused by the great Halloween ice storm, and the telephone recepetion is clearer.

Like the electric service, the phone and cable only have the conductors buried, and all equipment is above ground. Stuff like that just doesn't hold up well in a damp or wet environment.

[THoog]

Did I miss anything? And did you guys make 20,000 by the end of Oct.?

Only the most important post, ever! I can't remember which one it was - you'll have to go back & read through to find it.

We made the 10/10 20K goal with a couple days to spare. It's been pretty quiet since, but we are eyeing the all-time longest thread. Some don't believe we can do it, but I have faith in our inability to maintain a coherent discussion!

---

Last edited by THoog; 11-28-2015 at 11:29 PM.

[Racer X 69]

Taking pictures of Christmas light displays after sunset is really, really hard!

Don't I know!







Happy Holidays!

[dansamy]

That's a cool effect. I haven't figured out how to do something like that yet.

[THoog]

Taking pictures of Christmas light displays after sunset is really, really hard!

It was for me too, the first couple times. I'm sure you'll get the hang of it. I find it helps to have a lens that 'stars' nicely and reducing the aperture, even though that's your intuition is to shoot wide open (because it's "dark"). I usually have to apply some negative exposure compensation to get things dark enough, especially the night sky in the background.

I was just starting to get psyched about the annual trip to Richmond for GardenFest!

[THoog]

And sometimes you have to just forget about "good" and have fun with it!

[Joel B]

One of the very, very few that I sort of like

Looks good to me! But what do I know, I use the blaze away like a caffeinated chimp and hopefully one will turn out!

Don't I know!

SWEET! A light sabre Christmas tree! And yes I'm pumped for episode VII!

[Joel B]

And sometimes you have to just forget about "good" and have fun with it!

They forgot the rainbow!!

[dansamy]

Looks good to me! But what do I know, I use the blaze away like a caffeinated chimp and hopefully one will turn out!

SWEET! A light sabre Christmas tree! And yes I'm pumped for episode VII!

Got your tickets yet? Bought ours for the midnight showing already! Although, this dude looks more like my late husband than his own mirror imaged twin. So, that's gonna be a little hard to watch.

[Joel B]

Got your tickets yet?

Way Too lazy for that! We got a theater here that is going to show all 7 back to back for one audience!(numb buns for sure) Starting with IV of course!!

[dansamy]

Way Too lazy for that! We got a theater here that is going to show all 7 back to back for one audience!(numb buns for sure) Starting with IV of course!!

Oh, I'm hating on you right now!! I would totally do a SW marathon. I'd seriously consider a catheter/leg bag for that too...

[tim60]

You guys were so lovely and let me get post 21000, which I did not even realise when I put it up.

That was the post I asked be reserved for me when I kept this thread alive after exactly 12 hours from my previous post several weeks ago.

---------- Post added 11-29-15 at 06:35 PM ----------

In the case of the power lines around here, the local power company crunched the numbers and determined it is more cost effective to keep putting up new poles and restringing some of them each time a major storm comes by versus burying the lines and avoiding any disruption for good. I'm at least glad they are now looking at the trees but that should have started long before the major outage occurred.

Apparently that was bad for business. Plus, the upside for them is, they can continually restore the utilities and look like a hero.

In Australia the companies crunched the numbers and worked out that if their powerlines cause a bushfire in a semi-build up area the negligence liability could be billions, and insurance companies would not give them cover at a sensible price, and they can just put up the price of power since there is nowhere the customers can get it otherwise, except the personally expensive and inconvenient self-generation pathway. And to cover themselves for people who choose to use mains power for just a little they charge very high 'supply' charges before the per unit sale of power. And the cost of certifying isolation of self generation from the external mains is very high, so leads to no power for people with solar cells when the mains fails, unless they go to 100% solar cells and have no mains supply. Summary, they do the work and pass the cost on. Electricity in SA cost me over 30c /kWhr. US students told me they could get it for about 20/kWhr.

---------- Post added 11-29-15 at 06:37 PM ----------

I'm going to be brave and make a photography post... just to see what you bozos do... taken with a K-3, in the "Why I won't buy a K-3 thread. . Does the moderator ban me from the thread for life? Do thread participants curse my family and bomb my house? Do they mail bomb my email accounts etc with vicious denial of service attacks? It my be fool hardy, but I'm curious.

Or do they just tell me how disappointed they are in my lack of judgement?

I hope nobody faints and spills their beer or drops their cheese.

K-3 Kritters...








I'm waiting for the axe too fall. This might be the worst thing I've ever done in my whole life.

Surely such transgressions can't go completely unpunished?

It is obvious. You won't buy a K-3 because you do not need to in order to complete your collection of Pentax (front) branded products.

---------- Post added 11-29-15 at 06:59 PM ----------

Buried utilities can have their advantages, but:

Yes, installing power distribution systems underground is costly, 2 or 3 times the cost of overhead construction depending on soil, location, new construction or burying existing overhead lines in established neighborhoods, etc.. And locating faults can be challenging too. Then, once the fault is located, if the lines are direct buried, repairs require digging.

And people don't like it much when crews come along and dig up their front yard.

Early underground systems did have 'submersible' transformers. But they would ultimately start to leak, then short out. The utility I used to work for adopted the strategy of replacing transformers as they failed with padmount units, which sit on a concrete pad directly over the vault where the wires came and went.

Other equipment, switches and regulators also get set in padmount cabinets.

Some neighborhoods have covenants and restrictions, and the equipment is camouflaged like boulders and will have shrubs planted around them.

Like the electric service, the phone and cable only have the conductors buried, and all equipment is above ground. Stuff like that just doesn't hold up well in a damp or wet environment.

Finding faults in an u/g is not too hard, just apply a TDR box, measure the electrical length to the fault. Then get the documentation of the cables as laid, should get you within a reasonable digging machine digging accuracy of the fault.

Padmount transformers work well. The area I used to work had various covenants, but the law gave rights to certain service providers of utilities so they were partially exempted.

And the supply cables were laid on the road reserve, usually not under the pavement because that would be more disruptive and expensive to work, so landowners had no right to complain about digging land that did not belong to them. And, funny thing, if a landowners own power supply failed on property they usually had little concern for repairs being done, since it was direct help to them. Also, often owners had paid extra for conduit to enable preservation of their driveway etc.

When I redesigned the 19kV SWER power supply to Mantung (googlemap that) I specified adding 200m of overhead 19kV SWER (3 strands 12 gauge galv steel conductor) and a new transformer on one side of the street down the middle of the town. There was a phone line, overhead on the other side of the street which I showed on the drawing. Because of interference and safety issues we had to get SWER extension approved by Telecom. Got a phone call from their technician - the o/h phone line is not being used, there is an u/g line on your side of the road so that makes your proposed extension illegal. BUT our u/g line is there because when the contractor got there to put it in, instructions were the other side of the road, but the contractor thought your side of the road looked easier to dig. So my line now appears in streetview in GM. They moved the phone to the place it should have been.

A short time later the phone exchange was changes from one of the last Australian 7am-7pm Monday-Friday only manual exchanges to a 24/7 automatic exchange.

---------- Post added 11-29-15 at 07:04 PM ----------

That's a cool effect. I haven't figured out how to do something like that yet.

Try zooming during a long exposure. Very small aperture, f22, AND low ISO, 100 or less if available, and minimum scene lighting.


Sorry for the message that looks like a mighty tome. Must be something to do with the time of day here.

[Racer X 69]

That's a cool effect. I haven't figured out how to do something like that yet.

Set up on a tripod, ISO80, long exposure, zoom out during exposure, and allow about 1/3 of exposure to be at shortest focal length.


The outside of the house.