Deuce

Are you listening? You know what I mean? Huh? Bah.

THanks, Leese! It was helpful to have a small crowd around the TV and to see what got people's attention and what had them starting to glaze over. Never enough fast RW for the belly fliers and never enough vertical for the freefliers! Everybody likes balloon jumps. (There are a ton of balloon jumps) I'm cutting some stuff out, and putting some other stuff in, but I should be all done tonight. Thanks for the feedback. -an aside for the freefly camera fliers: for most skydives you do not need a .3. "Who is flying the widest lens" is kind of like "who has the longest ski's" (Yeah, pre snowboard) back when I was in high school. Remember that Greg Gasson does not use a wideangle at all. Good footage of a single smiling skydiver is much better than eight distant little unrecognizeable blots. There is more pressure on freefly videographers because the skydive is much faster and people don't just "go low" they cork out and disappear and the videographer is very challenged to stay with a beginner or intermediate freeflyer who has both vertical and horizontal movement issues. A lens that is less wide is much more forgiving of good video of pick-up freefly loads.

You left. Bitch.

No down issues at all, other than cost. The metering is improved over the 10D, as is the focus points system. It's lighter. The menu system is faster. The frame rate the thing generates is insane. Like an old time movie. The 20D is not so much better than the 10D that I'm buying one. I'm sure the 30D will be, and then I'll make the move. Very soon now we'll be getting 8MP video cameras, where every frame is a Gig or two. I'll be buying one more "stills" camera between now and then. If you have the bucks, get the 20. I was like that when I go the 10, and I'm glad I did. Most of the folks who got the Digi-rebels get frustrated with it's limitations compared to the pro line. A Digi-rebel is superior to any film camera for learning and improving skydiving photography. For the record (pretending anybody cares) Lowest: any film camera Next: any digital camera Next: Whatever SLR digital you can get the picture with. More pictures=more chances of the perfect shot. Right now I'd say the best off the shelf camera for skydiving digital photography is the 20D. -but resist the urge to use it as a video camera. Editing through all those shots is a bitch.

THe frame rate on the 20D is like a Mac-10. For balloon/helicopter exits, the 20D is worth it. The new XT is about what a 10D is, but much lighter.

Not until my kids are adults. I'm pretty sure that's the deal with Gravity Girl and her husband too. If my daughters want to, and they do now, I'll take them on a tandem for their 18th birthday.

"They're just sniffing your nuts" is what I was told when I was informed I was the subject of my fist law enforcement internal affairs investigation. Truth is, what I did was understandable and reasonable, but against the rules. So, while the higher-ups could understand the how and why, and probably did something similar when they were rookies without getting caught. I got caught, though, and was pissed at the whole double-standard hypocrosy of the event. Bottom line, though, I got caught. I freaking always get caught. So, while I'm all pissed off and indignant my sergeant tells me to just be quiet and let them sniff my nuts. I'm like, "what?" "You ever see a big dog walk up to a small dog and sniff it's nuts? It's like that. If you just stay still and don't make noises the big dog will sniff the little dog's nuts and then go on about it's business. If the little dog starts growling and snarling and shit the big dog will take the time to chew the crap out of it. So just shut the f*ck up and let them sniff your nuts". I now know the details of what happened, and before anybody jumps off with "you weren't there, so you don't know shiite" , BTFU. I put plenty of people in prison for things they did that I did not witness. This is more like me and the charging DA knowing that something happened, but not confident we could prove it in front of a jury. The person who started this thread is very much like the guys who would swear on their testicles that the dope wasn't theirs, and then when charges weren't filed, asked for it back.

Since we've talked around and around the "incident" that precipitated all this (what's the proper tense for "histrionics" here?) could somebody summarize it or PM me? It sounds like somebody like me, with poor impulse control, jumped BASE gear out of a plane. I'm sure if I was a BASE jumper I would attempt to talk a pilot into that. Heck, every time Burner took me up at Eloy in his balloon somebody asked him if they could jump BASE gear out of it. Problem is they got busted, or somebody squealed, right? This is the time to lay down and beg forgiveness. This is the important bit of the the phrase "It is better to seek forgiveness than permission" Lashing out at the investigator will certainly only make things worse.

See The Incredibles.

I was talking with Greg Gasson at Eloy about his televised exploits like the plane to plane jump, and the jump where he takes off his rig etc, and he tells me about this conversation he has with a producer, where the producer is asking him what he wants to do next. "I want to cut the top off a Greyhound bus, fill every seat with a skydiver, and drive it out the back of a C-5" He says this as calmly and certainly as I might suggest taking a 4 way chunk off the Cessna. The producer asks if he thinks Greg can get enough skydivers to fill the bus. "I'll be turning them away" He will, too.

Yeah, NacMac, but I wanted to provide proof I've actually been working on the project. I've even got some great stills that I imported into the timeline that Brent Finley gave me, along with mine and Jim's.

It that like the cousin of Pokemon?

You're so sweet.

You guys are killing me. Each year this gets harder. But you're getting so suspicious, here's some proof. You can each find out exactly what frame you are on. I'm just about at titles. Just a couple more days, or one good creative night tonight. Yeah, Mean-Jeanne, it's soup, but it's not done yet.

You put the dot of the site on your subject. Once that is done, you can keep the subject centered with just your peripheral vision. You remain aware that the site is centered even when you aren't concentrating on it. Much like how you keep your car driving in the center of the lane even when you aren't concentrating fiercely looking straight forward through the windshield. When you don't have the site to remind you of the center of your focus, you will tend to move your head and camera as you look from subject to subject. There are probably just as many opinons about this as there are camera fliers. Mine is that conscientiously using a site is one of the things that separates people who fly with cameras on their heads from camera fliers. It's like not using the viewfinder on your camera. Obviously you don't have to, but if you have one, you should use it to do your best to take the best pictures you can. Come to think of it, it's like using a firearm. "Since it's a shotgun, and I'm close, I'll shoot from the hip". And you'd probably be right. But since the site is available, use it. Or if you have a 20D, just hold the shutter down and you'll be sure to get at least one good one.

I agree with everything you say, MonoUno. Glad to hear you are flying your camera again (that nice light Illusion, huh? ) But you did get that steady head from all that four-way with the site. What I have seen, even with folks who are jumping .3 lenses really tight, is that they look from jumper to jumper in freefall rather than framing all the other jumpers in the shot.

Ed. You are so much weirder than I ever imagined. Tonto: Try the UnderArmour Heat gear or one of thier competitors. It lets jumpsuits of any kind and harness straps slide over the skin without bruising, and keeps zippers at bay. I used to be even heavier than I am now, and zippers and strap bruising used to be a problem. The under armour stuff and compression shorts fixed it.

Yes, ringsite. I see a lot of video. The ringsite will reduce your head movement, which makes for poor video. Once you have your subject centered, via the ringsite, you will use your peripheral vision more than moving your head (and camera) and make much better video that's much easier to watch. If you ever move into photography, you just have to have one. This picture is a full-spread background shot in this months' Parachutist. I took it with a 100mm lens from quite a ways out, which would be just about impossible with a paper dot. The site will get you to move your head less while shooting, which is a great habit to get into. Once that habit is developed, using your peripheral vision more, you'll be moving your head less. Brent's concentric site is best, along with the articulating site. Yes, people have hideous untrimmed sites out there. Mount it low and trim the excess from the shafts.

THank you all very much. JP

How? I want to take some frame grabs out of a DVD I'm working on. And I'd rather not go back into all the tapes and do it out of the camera. Thanks in advance. JP

Snausages.

I've been on the front once, and that was to get my rating. I really disliked it. Having no responbility for safety other than body position was not a fun thing, for me. If a person I trusted was getting their rating, and needed a big passenger and nobody else was around, I'd do it.

but see that's the thing, I love getting closer to my friends, girl OR guy. I'm totally oblivious sometimes if a guy likes me...but if I think the guy is really cool and I enjoy hanging out w/ him, am I just leading him on? Since you can't read the other person's mind, and they can't read yours, it's a smart thing to say "I'm not giving you the wrong idea, am I? I really enjoy your company and conversation and I don't want you to think I'm coming on to you" From your posts it is seeming like you enjoy the sexual tension of your relationships with your male friends, and don't really want it to go away. It is really flattering in many circumstances to have an attractive person make a pass at you. But if you see it coming, and you put the person in the position of having you reject their advance when you could have waved them off before they embarrassed themself, that's just cruel.

My girls were 7 when I took them to England this past summer, and I think that was about the perfect age. Much younger and they aren't likely to remember it, and like you said, when they are teenagers they will be trying to pick up boys.

Don't leave it unspoken. Make it clear you have no intention to have a sexual relationship with the guy. Ever. You'll then just about immediately know if he was your "friend" in the first place.