4 days and Counting

I am so excited for my China trip. There were two shows on TV today on China. One talked about the controversial three gorges dam on the Yangtze river (I now know not to drink the river water) and also one on Hong Kong.

My bags are all packed, which goes against every frustration dream I ever have. I have Chinese Yuan and Hong Kong Dollars. I have 9 memory cards for my camera, with a backup battery and backup camera. I have plenty of new and matching underwear, which is a drastic departure from my frustration dreams.

Desiree suggested I bring a mask in case the air in Beijing in poor. Air quality can be poor on a scale not seen in the US. They all had smokers coughs after a few days in Beijing. The coal power plants are a big source of the air pollution.

I have a journal put together that has google earth images of each place we visit. It will also have a front guide in it with essential Chinese Phrases, Nikon camera settings to use for special circumstances, and phone numbers if anything is stolen.

My biggest accomplishment in preparation for this trip is that I have lost 18lbs to date (my goal is 20lbs). Motivation; I didn't want a repeat of the picture of me on a camel in Egypt.

National Geographic

I purchased a CD-ROM today from Costco with every issue of National Geographic from 1888 through 2008. It is pretty cool.

Pelican Brief

In an effort to be more prepared for my China photo shoot, I mean trip, I went to Bountiful Lake to practice taking shots with my macro setting on my 70 - 300mm lens. It is a Quantaray Lens that works with a Nikon camera. I took it to Hogle Zoo, and wasn't happy with my pictures. I kind of gave up on it. I decided to give the lens another chance and see how it did in another situation. I would take it to China for the river cruise, to help me get long shots of things on shore.

Bountiful Lake is a ghetto finishing spot west of town. If you can avoid the trash on the shore, power lines, the dump to the north, and the sewage treatment plant sto the south, you can get some decent pictures. I am just hoping that people go there to catch and release.

My big goal was to capture the pelicans flying. They have like a 7' wing span. I was happy with the results. I also tried my RAW format setting. My photoshop wouldn't "develop" the file type NEF, but I found that I could develop them with the lighting and color saturation settings that I wanted in my camera. It would then output the image as a jpg in the images shown below:

All In A Days Work

I worked on the UTA trax line transfer station deadline. I worked on it by myself today. I got done everything you see pinned up on the board. It is color coated and prioritized. I am pretty proud of it.

Tiptoeing Through The Tulips

The Cummins and I went to the Tulip Festival at The Gardens at Thanksgiving point. Here are some pictures.

Dye Not Included

Today I bought eggs at the store, but not dye. I used what I could find in my house to dye eggs:

Skii Trip

I went skiing. I think that I am the first Martineau to try downhill skiiing. I learned how to turn, slow down and stop.

Before:
The Line For the Skii lift For the Bunny Hill

Beautiful blue skies. Notice many are under 36" tall on this hill.

Picture of me taken with a timer set on a trash can lid.

Katie and I drove up together. We went outlet shopping afterwards.