Today was a beautiful Spring day and I decided to get out and sketch while enjoying the weather and a coffee. Coloured in Photoshop.
This is the Creekside bus shelter from the Legends Hotel.
The Whistler Creekside Gondola
555 PIR Motion Activated Camera
I have just started playing around with robotics and electronics after getting hooked by the Arduino microcontroller. Mostly tinkering with different sensors and servos and discovering how things work. The 555 timer showed up in lots of reading as being simple but a very versatile integrated circuit. There are a ton of examples on the internet of what the little chip can do and the 555 Contest sparked my interest to learn more. Here is my entry into the contest.
Nothing real original here, I’m simply using the 555 timer in monostable mode. A PIR sensor detects motion and using an NPN transistor, triggers pin 2 by setting the voltage negative. Pin 3 sends just over 3V to the Canon WL-DC100 camera remote which has been rigged with its button permanently pressed.
Depending on your camera, you could trigger it directly with a cable but I like the idea of separating the sensor from the camera.
Next step is to get this hooked up with batteries in a weather-proof case and try to catch some wildlife.
Lots of fun learning all about the 555.
Here is the schematic for the circuit;
Best Day on the Mountain Last Year
The 09/10 season at Whistler Blackcomb was exceptional to say the least. The snow was excellent and the “Olympic Aversion” kept the mountains empty most of the time. There were many powder days where you’d ski straight on to every lift. And with the tremendous snowpack, I skied-out to Creekside on Whistler’s final day of operations.
It’s hard to pick just one day from last year as being the best but one does come to mind. Instead of a day with the the deepest snow or with the best friends, my best day was January 3, 2010. I planned on riding solo so I could capture some timelapse footage. “No friends on a powder day” and ever fewer are willing to stand around in one place for a couple hours on the top of a mountain in winter.
It wasn’t the greatest bluebird day but I intended capture some of the cloud movement. Using a DSLR camera, a tripod, lenses, and remote trigger I set out to capture the Harmony zone on Whistler Mountain. After scouting a couple different areas, I set up then waited patiently as the frames clicked by.
Here are the results from that afternoon.
Besides learning a bunch about time lapse photography, which I plan as a separate post, I also managed to take some of my favourite on-mountain shots that day. The clouds were layered with a pink hue and the lighting was soft. Here is one of those shots.
I had plenty of great days last year. Each one for different reasons. January 3 stands out for me as one of the best because I could just be up there and take the time to look around. Enjoy the atmosphere and relax in anticipation of how the photos were going to turn out. Here’s to having many more days like that one this year.
Panorama Photo Options
Yesterday I took two panoramic shots of the same scene with two different cameras. Here are the results.
Now there is no doubt which is better. The first was taken with a Canon EOS 40D and a EF17-40mm f/4L USM lens. The second with an iPhone 3GS, stitched with software on the spot, and sent to the internet within minutes. Another minute and I could have had it cropped in the Photoshop.com app. But it was a bit chilly. I know which is a better picture but I also know which camera I would rather carry while snowboarding. The best camera is the one you’re willing to carry and it’s not always the best camera.