Category Archives: Northern Life

Northwoods Tripod!

Northern Life

My wife gave me a Gorillapod Hybrid for Christmas… a neat and flexible tripod. Today, after consuming a 3 pieces of Julekake and much more for brunch, I decided a cross-country ski was in order through the Northwoods. I drove 25 miles out of Duluth to Boulder Lake and was lucky enough to be the 1st person of the season on the trails. After a 11.5 kilometer ski through a Winter Wonderland, I returned to the trailhead and grabbed my new tripod. Actually I wrapped it around my bicep and headed back out into the forest.

I took the photograph shown below by attached the tripod to the trunk of a small pine tree, and then using the carpenters level which is built into the tripod to insure a level photo. Pretty Cool. Merry Christmas from the Northstar Nerd!

Click upon either image to maximize.

Read my trail report via SkinnySki.Com … learn more about Boulder Lake.

 Gorilla-pod Boulder-Lake-Christmas

Northern Newspaper App … the USA Today

Android | iPad | Kindle Fire, Economy 2.0, Northern Life

You may not think of the USA Today as the newspaper of Duluth, Minnesota. After all, Gannett certainly does not target the NorthstarNerd who lives in the frozen northland! However, spend some time with my post and you will learn a number of items:

  1. The USA iPad App is phenomenal, and free!
  2. Old media which does not adjust is doomed.

Let's address the second item first. The largest newspaper in the state of Minnesota, the Star Tribune, offers a digital only subscription for $52 per year. While I applaud the Star Tribune for their efforts, review of their iPad app demonstrates a less than optimal user interface, and integrated digital media. Like most newspapers, the Star Tribune covers national stories, but they are really only repeating what any netizen can get from better national sources who have deepers pockets (like the USA Today).

In terms of the first item, review some of the images I've included below. I added USAToday.Com to each image to insure proper attribution. You'll discover that the USA Today has an easy menu, and integrated video, weather, and high resolution photographs. I've only included sports photos, but they have the "Day in Pictures" for each section. One of my personal games is to review all the high-res celebrety photos and see if I even know who are the stars and starletts featured (normally, the answer is "no"!). I also like to toggle the descriptions on and off for the main "Day in Pictures" photos, and see if I understand or know the context.

The USAToday is one reason I love my iPad. The reading experience is wonderful, and "consuming" the app has become part of my daily routine.

Oh yes … why is the USAToday the NorthstarNerd's newspaper of choice. Believe it or not, I am constantly amazed how often they have photos of Winter sports events presented in a manner which my Minnesota media does not. (two versions of every photo … with and without captions).

Enjoy! (one football photo for you non Winter sports fans)

Remember … click on any image to expand and view at full resolution.

  USA-1 USA-2

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Biathlon! (Nordic Skiing)

Biathlon-1 Biathlon-2
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Ski Jumping 1! (Nordic Skiing)

SkiJump-1 SkiJump-2
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Bob Sledding!

BobSled-1 BobSled-2

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Cross-Country Skiing! (Nordic Skiing)

X-Ski-1 X-Ski-2

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Ski Jumping 2! (Nordic Skiing)

SkiJump-3 SkiJump-4

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Downhill Skiing! (Alpine Skiing)

Ski-1 Ski-2

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American Football

Football-1 Football-2


Elm Creek Park Nordic Ski Photos

Northern Life

Normally I only use my GoPro camera for cross-country ski races. However, this afternoon I decided I would take photos of citizen skiers out for a fun afternoon. Due to the lack of snow, the entire world turned out to ski at Elm Creek on the 2 km man made snow loop. There is not a single photo of me, but you'll find my wife in the earlier shots (woman with light blue hat, and dark blue stocking cap)!

I wear my GoPro on my back and take still shots of everyone else. SkiCam Man returns for my 3rd Winter. Enjoy!

Here are my two Picasa links:

A quick side note. GoPro cameras take better photos when it is sunny … during my ski it got cloudy.

PICT0048

Lego Mindstorms Meets HDR Photography!

Legos, Northern Life

Wow! Fantastic! Superb! I really can not think of enough adjectives to complement French photographer Tanguy Louvigny, who created a time lapse video of the Normandy and Brittany country-side using High Dynamic Range photography (HDR Wikipedia Link). His movie incorporated 30 frames per second, that’s 90 exposures for each second of screen time (HDR takes each shot in triplicate using different exposure settings … learn more from my prior post on HDR).

Equally amazing is the Legos camera / tracking system Mr. Louvigny  built using Lego Mindstorms. Quoting Open Culture, which is the web site from which I first learned of this video: "To create the moving-camera effects, Louvigny designed and built his own robotic three-axis motion system using Tetrix motors and a LEGO Mindstorms control system, which he programmed in ROBOTC language. This allowed him to automate the tortoise-like dolly, pan and tilt movements."

Lego-Camera-Tracking

Take some time to review the photographer's web site … you'll find more equally fascinating creations. However, for the moment, relax, turn your computer's speakers on, and enjoy a trip through the French country-side from sunrise to sunset. Wow!

Hdr skies from Tanguy Louvigny on Vimeo.

 

Nordic Night Skiing

Northern Life

For those of you from warmer parts of the world, this photo is an attempt to help you understand why I love cross-country skiing at night. While exercising the body, I relax the mind! Who cares if the temperature is 14F? This photo uses HDR technology and was taken a few hours ago just outside the chalet at Elm Creek park in suburban Minneapolis. Click upon the image to view full sized.

Elm-Creek-HDR-2