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August 02, 2006

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While I was chasing a storm the other night I pulled off the main road to see if I could get a good shot of it from a distance. This is one of the actual shots I captured. With a little assistance with the open shutter I was able to get a glow from Phoenix on the left side of the image, light on the trees from passing cars, an airplane zipping across the sky, the stars, and the thunderstorm. But again, if you look carefully you can see that some of the stars are not quite in focus. Since I was facing north, some of the stars further towards the outside of the image are slightly blurred from the rotation of the earth. Still waiting for a good clear night, I do plan to get this motion captured in a good clean shot. 

So while I was out there taking pictures in the middle of the desert, in the dark, I felt like I was out in the middle of nowhere. While I was standing there trying to get some shots of the thunderstorm in the distance, I heard a strange noise behind me. I turned around to find a curious jackrabbit right behind me, and another one off to the side, close to the bushes. Now I haven't been able to get a good picture of one of these things since I've been out here, but they are quite a bit larger than your typical bunny rabbit and they stand rather tall. As I turned around and saw those big ears sticking up it really startled me and I let out a loud scream. I must have really scared the poor jackrabbit as it took off like a flash with it's buddy right along with it. 
So I would have to say that, after that moment, I really didn't have to worry too much about any more critters coming around as I think they must have all heard me for miles away.

Now, although I screamed, in my own defense, I do feel that I must emphasize that it was a manly scream.

Digital photography tip: "Back it Up!"

Probably the most important tip of all is to back up all your images. To save them all to your computer in very easy and organized locations and folders. But also, always back up all of your valuable data, on a regular basis, to CD's or DVD's. Remember, hard drives and computers fail, and CD's and DVD's are also sensitive, fallible, and imperfect media. 
The more copies, the better.

In the past I have, myself, reached into my box of backed-up CD disks and found that some of them had deteriorated. The metallic film had actually peeled up from the surface of the clear plastic and the disk was completely useless. Fortunately I still had all the material stored on one of my computers. Recordable CD's and DVD's are very sensitive products. For an experiment, take a useless disk, (I'm sure you probably have plenty of them lying around) and scrape across the top surface of the disk with a sharp object like a key or knife. You can then see how easily they are to destroy. Or for an even more spectacular display, put one in the microwave for about 10 seconds and watch the show. But make sure you have a responsible adult around. And don't worry, it shouldn't damage the microwave. But I wouldn't recommend doing it too many times.

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