Cashmanimal

Lets all go on strike and demand higher pay then? Watch your buddy step in and do it for a free skydive. It's a choice, you either do it at the "market rate" or you dont do it at all.. To me, the "lot of money" refers to the 100 - 125 bucks the customer forks out to get the photos. Not to my pay. If I did this for a paycheck I'd want at least double what I am getting now (30-40 bucks) per jump. I always hand out my business card with their photos and ask them to check out my style of photography and post-processing, and if they like it to email me about giving their photos the same treatment. This way I can make some side $$ (help justify jumping my work equipment), and they can get a high quality print with the photographers unique touch. Everybody wins. It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

Not an entirely true statement. For the most part, this theory will work in skydiving. The hyperfocal distance on the 15mm Sigma is just short of infinity... This setting will produce fantastic shots as long as you are flying outside camera. How depressing to get on the ground and see all the shots I took while docked on the tandem are blurry Get closer than ~4.5ft and all your shots are frustratingly JUST out of focus... This is the reason why I jump (with tandems) AF, AV at 4.5... 9 out of 10 times the prints I sell are the photos I took while docked and on my back with a tandem (after cross grips). The drogue starts to blur, creates the depth that makes it a powerful photo, and the autofocus guarantees it's sharp (relying on the hyperfocal theory blows that right out of the water). That lens combo is so damn fast, in this application I don't see a reason not to use it. But for the sake of an internet forum, yes, you are right

I will start by saying that I agree-- if they don't care that much, why should they care that much? My counterpoint would be if they don't care enough to make stills look at least marginally better than the video they are shooting (using the term "better" loosely, of course), then why not just jump video and take stills frames from the video? Saves the time and hassle of setting up the stills and then jumping them, losing the added weight as well. My personal opinion is if you are jumping a still camera, you are *theoretically* supposed to have the flying skillzzz already from jumping video... so why not develop the photography skillzzz? Also, I understand this would be negligible for someone who has never picked a camera up in their life, or has limited experience. The best fliers in the world might know nothing about cameras (which might be true in most cases?) . So I will some up my argument by conveying it mathematically: Auto>nothing, understanding+caring>auto It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

Anybody watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia? I bought this suit after the third season, its been put to good use. This takes the cake though (personally) Lessons learned: 1) Flying while wearing a skin-tight spandex body suit (also known as a "unitard," haha) is incredibly frustrating. Gonna take some practice (in case you couldn't tell) 2) A rig which fits perfectly when fully clothed may not fit so perfectly when wearing above mentioned suit. Also, said rig will slide around. A lot. You'll notice the funny nature of the transitions... (Look closely, you can see it slide over my shoulders a couple times ) We'll be trying the jump again later, this was more of a "can it be done?" sorta thing. To try and answer some questions ahead of time: -Yes, I could see fine. Everything within 10 feet of me was pretty clear, anything beyond that, I would consider "recognizable." -I pulled the hood off before deployment (Zipper in the back) -2 audibles, as I could only see my altimeter if the sun was at my back Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCAjjVMhMNw It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

I was on some mind-melding drugs and thought about how fun it would be to transition into a daffy while sharing a double cheeseburger with Mr. Spock. Sounds awesome, I wanna jump with that guy. It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

I can't figure out how that rumor started. Have you tried it? It works fine. Really! Dave In my experience, I have landed with a handful fewer photos than in MF (which makes sense-- but it seems exaggerated on the original XT) than in AF. The my primary concern lies in the exit (primarily referring to tandems) since the distance shift is so fast... going from 3-4 feet from their face as they climb out and I snap a few to a greater distance coming down the hill, I found that I was about 50/50 on whether or not it focused down the hill, where the "money shot" is. On a (sort of) related note, our other camera girl and i made a sunset jump filming a couple's tandems, her filming the guy and me filming the girl. She flipped a Sigma 15mm on her XT, and I had mine on my 40D. After much discussion, she decided to shoot in AF, and in turn ended up missing many amazing photo ops... she ended up with 4-5 freefall shots, and I had around 30 (also in AF). I hadn't considered it, but is this because the Sigma wasn't scripted for the XT? Either way, she was pissed and blamed it on me (which I don't REALLY blame her) because of my "neer had a proble with AF" statement prior to boarding the plane. It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

Like everybody said, there are ~9 million different ways to do it. But if I had to offer my own advice on a general setting that will work the better majority of the time: -ISO at 400 -AV mode, set to 4.5 ish (Higher if the middle of the day) -Large jpg if you are trying to sell them, medium, if you want okay shots and lots of them for practice' sake (camera will work faster, not get backed up writing the images to the card) AF is a roll of the dice. I jump my 40D and Sigma 15mm on AF, but the two together work relative quick. If you are jumping the kit lens on an original XT, it is probably not going to be quick enough to do what you want... MF, set your focal length and tape it in place with some gaffers. Read/watch a couple brief tutorials on photography, then in your free time go take some photos, it will teach you a lot. Fill up your memory card a few times.... It's digital, it's free, why not? Better to fu*k it up on your own time then to miss something on a skydive. What an empty feeling It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

I do the 20 hr drive from the Bay Area to Albuquerque (N. California to New Mexico) 3-4 times a year, there and back. I always do it in one shot, with a couple short naps at rest areas during the drive. It's really not that bad. I like to plug my laptop into the stereo system and listen to movies so i can try and envision them... help keeps the mind going, keeps me awake, keeps the drive interesting (The Mojave desert is horrifically boring, especially after the 15 or 16th time you do it) It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

Tandem from saturday It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

thanks, Mom! Off to Kino's again. Thank God Kinko's is open 24 hours. "Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat... and then I remember... 'Oh yeah, Kinko's.' Then I go right back to sleep." (RIP Mitch) It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

4:45 in the morning, and I continue to build portfolio's and finish project. Third all nighter in a week. Red Bull loves me, my heart and body hate me. Funny thing is, I have never planned/worked so far ahead before. We're talking weeks here... that's unheard of for me. Maybe that's the problem? Oh, and did I mention my house doesn't have a source of heat? The little ceramic heater in the corner is working it's ass off, says the room is a mild 52 degrees. Good morning east coast people! It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

Congratulations on your jump! Videographers/photographers are often overlooked (in my experience) in regards to the product they produce. Often, people assume they paid for it, the guy did his job, end of story... but it's always nice to hear the appreciation of the work. Congrats again! It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

The last couple weeks were pistachios. I bought a huge ass bag of them for like $15, and it took me a couple weeks to eat it, eating a few handfuls a day. I never really got tired of them.... Since I was alone on thanksgiving, I said fuc*k it and bought a Honeybaked ham, something i was in love with as a child but only got about once a year. I'm really glad its as good as I remembered, because I have a lot of ham leftover.... every meal for a few weeks, haha! Other than that, I go through stages with good cheese and grapes. And I am always hooked on sour candy. Primarily Sour Patch kids and Sour Bright Crawlers, but Sour Skittles get thrown in there every few days, too. It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

Hmm. Well, can't argue with facts. It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

I didn't actually take the above photo... meant to put it in the "shots of you while working" thread. Why can't I edit/delete my post? It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

Accidentally posted this in "post your best shot" first.... A tandem and I a few weeks ago... It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

"sunset" It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

Can't find any pictures on the laptop, but here's a video. Her name is "Baby" and like other posts, it was the first thing like this I paid for with all my own $$. Bought it my sophomore year of high school and built it into this. The video was taken after I had put new gears in it, and I was also running it with my street-legal exhaust (usually run it with open headers, even on the streets... needless to say, I looooove driving up and down the aisles of paring lots setting off all the alarms). Still couldn't get traction in 1st... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhQLGw_D5t4 Runs the 1/4 in the high 12's.... not bad for a high school student building his first car. Unfortunately she's sitting up on locks 'til I get ot of college It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

Haven't been following this thread as closely as others, but if I can donate my two cents here: I had the (privileged???) opportunity recently to see a tandem wrapped in it it's drogue. Not going to say where , when, or who, but I was doing video when the TM pitched the drogue at the exact WRONG moment, and before I could really comprehend it they were wrapped up and in serious sh*t. At my experience level, there was no way in hell I was going to try and chase them down and attempt anything, despite it being pretty evident from my standpoint that they were tangled and helpless. I did my best to follow it hoping I wasn't filming the last moment of their lives, and at around 4k, they rolled out and got the main deployed. After the passenger made it very clear that he understood it was a "freak" sort of thing, he refused a refund as he said all parties involved did their jobs. Except for me of course, because I "forgot to turn the camera on." The tape from the camera was magically turned into fairy dust. The point being, seeing two people wrapped in a drogue was enough to instill an unprecedented level of respect for the airspace and equipment of a tandem. I don't care who the TI is, who the student is or how good i or anybody else is, I would never want to see myself in that same position... I might not get that lucky break, ya know? I treat the drogue like a case of TNT, for the sake of all parties involved. It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

Funny, I was doing this for a while just to have fun, then I realized one jump after a transition that i did exactly what i had done in the pool probably thousands of times just for my own amusement. I like going into the diving pool so I have some depth to work with... it's surprising how much the water can teach you about the symmetry of your body, it acts exactly like really thick air... essentially, you get to work in slow motion, something freefall isn't so generous with. It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

The drugs solution (while incredibly appealing) is probably a little over the top in this situation. I am hoping since I am still fairly new to her (the cat, that is) that it's just a phase. I think I'll give the fresh litter idea a shot, it seems like the first step here. It's not like its an everyday thing, but it's just often enough to be irritating, maybe twice a week. The funny part is we even moved the litterbox, and she still crapped right outside it today... hence my request for help. I also can't help but laugh a little, because I keep putting myself in the cat's position and thinking how hilarious it might be to express my anger by taking a shit right outside the bathroom door every time someone was sitting in my spot on the couch or something. I guess the cat is doing the best she can with what she has to work with. It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

My girlfriend of a couple months has a cat, and with the exception to one or two things, it is really actually a joy to have around. The problem is that one of those things is the cat shitting on the floor. I am almost positive it does it out of jealous rage towards me because the cat used to sleep in the bed, and now I occupy that space the nights I stay there. It only does it after we are in bed, and it always shits on the floor right outside its litter box. It's a very well trained cat, and actually really likes me. I just think it doesn't like the attention we give each other in what she probably considers to be her space. Even when I was cat-sitting and had the cat with me for a few days, it was fine! Anybody have cat training experience that will help me convince the cat to top shitting on the floor? Walking into the kitchen and being bombarded with the smell of shit is quickly becoming my least favorite way to start the day. It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

Love 'em.... one of those bands i think is still yet to be "found" It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

In case nobody felt like reading my novel, the bottom line was the government can't regulate and tax it (to the extent they would like). It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

I saved easily $1000 last year smoking instead of going to the chiropractor. I am a "one o those stories," I guess you could say. I broke my pelvis in a baseball game in high school. Since then my back has been so royally fucked that at times I can't sit in chairs and am in constant pain. The only thing that kept it in check was going to the chiropractor twice a week for months at a time, then taking time off because I was out of money. California restricts how much work a chiropractor can do to you (electrode stuff, all the special treatments). My chiro back home would give me the full shabang for about $20, but in CA the $55 price tag PER VISIT, twice a week for a basic adjustment was absurd. Health insurance paid for the first $750 in treatment, nothing after that. I got a doctor's recommendation for medicinal marijuana and it has changed my life dramatically. I brought documented proof of my ailments to a doctor who reviewed my case and approved me. Now, instead of spending $100/week to spend 3 minutes in an office with a sweaty dude crackin' my bones, I can spend $40/week on high grade bud from the dispensaries (imagine TGI Friday's, except good, and instead of food they sell weed). Once educated, you honestly can take really good care of yourself. I prefer smoking it because it brings on the immediate high. I will usually do it right before bed with a heavy indica ("sleepy time" bud), and then do specific stretches to help relax and re-align my back and hips. I have never slept so well, so comfortably as I have in the past year of doing this. I can sit through an entire class comfortably without shifting in my chair all the time. I take lots of art classes, and I would have to get up 2-3 times in a 2-hour class to pace around because it hurt, and now I only get up when I am bored. I don't think everybody should be allowed this privilege. It's abused, I see it all the time. But if I can afford it, and I can smoke and possess it legally, maintain my part-time job, and keep a 3.7 GPA as a full-time student, I think I should have that right. And pretty much what everybody else said, it's not legal because the government can't regulate and tax it. (although I might point out that when purchasing in Santa Cruz, California, patients pay California state sales taxon their weed). There's your answer in one sentence. I can (legally) have 13 plants in the county I live in in CA. 13 plants is MORE than enough for me, and if I had the time to invest in growing, I would. But since I can't, they provide very, very safe environment where I can go to obtain what I truly consider to be medicine. 98% of people don't have the time, space, or technology to produce their own alcohol, or grow their own tobacco fields. A pack-a-day cigarette smoker would destroy acres of land growing tobacco (HORRIBLE for the land), while a 2-joint-a-day marijuana smoker can maintain a few plants to provide their relief. I have learned a lot since becoming a patient. It's honestly not a plant high school and college kids buy to get stoned and play guitar hero while eating 7 bags of Funions (although, it really is). It's also not as if I can buy and sell and share my bud with anybody. If I get pulled over in my car by an officer of the state of California and i am smoking a joint, I simply have to show my paperwork (on me at all times), have them call a number to verify my status, and then I get let off (from the weed, anyway). But if I have someone else with me who is high I could face some serious repercussions. There is extensive jail time for selling my medicine, just as there are repercussions for those selling their vicodin or adderol or norco's or whatever chemical prescriptions are floating around on the market. It's not like I get to go buy and share... there ARE rules! When the Gov't figures out the profit to be had, I think this will all be a pointless argument. Some people will grow, MOST people will just go to a dispensary and buy it. I don't remember the exact number, but I am almost certain I read a statistic that CA dispensaries made hundred of millions of dollars in profit in 2006 (I would love if someone could take the time to verify this real quick). I still support the notion that if dispensaries offered marijuana at prices far below street value, we would see a dramatic decrease in the street activity (it will NEVER go away). At the current time, they try to compete. It's still $$ driven, like everything else in this country. It'd be neat if Walgreens was my hookup at some point. It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye