Check out these flash photo images:
Mock-mirage Green Flash Sunset, Morro Bay, CA 26 Nov 2009.
Image by mikebaird
Green Flash Sunset, Morro Bay, CA 26 Nov 2009. Wiki knows all en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_flash Type: Mock-mirage flash. Characteristics: Indentations seem to "pinch off" a thin, pointy strip from the upper limb of the Sun. Lasts 1 or 2 seconds. Conditions: Atmospheric inversion layer below eye level; surface colder than air. Best seen from: The higher the eye, the more likely; flash is most obvious when the eye is just above the inversion. Photo by Michael "Mike" L. Baird, mike [at} mikebaird d o t com, flickr.bairdphotos.com; Canon 1D Mark III, Canon 600mm f/4.0 Lens with Circular Polarizer (to no expected effect) with Canon EF 2X II Extender Telephoto Accessory (for 1200mm times 1.3 crop-factor = 1560 effective mm, on heavy Gitzo GZGT5540LS tripod with Wimberley Gimbal Head II on leveling base.
Tech Note: Image Stabilizer off; Focus manual via Liveview 10X view on LCD. Burst mode (about ten green flashed were captured in one second - this was the most clear of all those images).
Flash Clock - 10feb2004
Image by eliazar
This is a screencapture of a cool background (for just the background check this pic and this other one in blue) together with a flash clock I made that tells the time through colors. I kept this set as my wallpaper for a really long time and I still like it.
The clock, an experiment, works as follows: At midnight it starts all grey, and throughout the next 10 minutes a (random) rectangle changes color (smoothly) to red. This repeats until at exactly 1AM the clock is all red, now every 10 min. a rectangle changes to blue, and so on.
There are 6 colors (in order): grey, red, blue, green, yellow and pink. So at 6AM, when the clock is all pink, what happens? It starts all over again, now every 10 min. a rectangle changes to grey and at 7AM all of them will be grey. This goes on and on, resulting in a day of 4 cycles: 0-6AM, 6AM-12AM, 12AM-6PM, 6PM-0.
No, you can't tell the time exactly just by looking at the clock. First, any state of the clock can represent 4 different times (as the example in the next paragraph illustrates). Besides this, you can't really tell exactly what minute it is since only every 10 minutes the clock changes state clearly. So until a rectangle completes changing color, you're left to guess at the exact time by checking how faded into the new color it already is. It is a context clock and in this sense it reminds me of the 120-words Toki Pona language.
Example: The pictured clock show's that it's either 3:30AM, 9:30AM, 3:30PM or 9:30PM because green is the fourth color and yellow the fifth one.
I like the clock because I think it's beautiful and simple (though difficult to explain in words), and because I like the idea of time as color and time as cycles (4 every day).
If it sounds interesting to you (it is), I'll be happy to send it to you.
Strobists's flash YN460-II, improved
Image by syamastro
Just got this flash from meritline.com (only 40$ + 8$ S/H), and was surprised to see some improvements which are not mentioned anywhere (including the meritline site), except for the included manual:
- Now it has the PC sync port. I tested it, and it works just fine (only in the M mode).
- Battery compartment was finally made sturdy (and the battery arrangement became linear - more convenient).
- The flash foot is made out of metal, and looks very sturdy.
- The flash head has a few fixed positions (it makes clicks when turned), in both directions.
For those who don't know - YN460-II was already one of the best cheap flashes for off-camera usage (home photo studios); it has full manual power control, built-in optical trigger (both for single flash and TTL pre-flash), fully articulated head with built-in matte screen and reflecting card, very fast recharge time (2s with Eneloop batteries at full power), and the power output of Canon 430EX (real life output of 34 GN).
