FALCON'S ODYSSEY

[Putts]

Ooooooooo...pinned that bad boy on my map. Thanks!

 

[gargoyle]

Which drone do you use?

 

[FALCON]

Which drone do you use?

It's a DJI Phantom 3 Advanced, with one of the arms damaged by a crash and bent slightly so that sometimes it's propeller hits the arm with each revolution. But it still works great. It was gifted to me by Dan and Cindy from http://bigoxlittlebird.com/

 

[FALCON]

Blog post - JUNE ADVENTURES


lots of pictures.. LOTS. You can also read about my drone getting smashed to pieces.   :huh:





JULY - FAMILY AND SIDE TRIP

At the start of July, I’d just came into Colorado from Utah. I called my Dad to get input on where to go in Colorado. He told me about some places, and then said I should come out to Denver (where he lives) and go along with him out to Tennessee for a couple weeks. He’s thinking about moving there. My ~brother in law and nephew were also going to be going out there during that time. My brother and his girlfriend are also already out in that area. My aunt might be going too. On the way home, my BIL would stop at my Mom’s and Step Dad’s place for a few days. So… if I would just drive to Denver, I could tag along to the southeast U.S., and see all of my immediate family in one trip.

So, of course I went. I’d never been out there, so it was cool to see that part of the country. It was strange just tagging along with people and I felt a little bit like a kid at times.

I also hung out near and in Denver for about two weeks of time.

And that was the whole month of July.



PLANS - AUGUST AND LATER
For August, I’ll be up in the mountain in Colorado for the rest of the summer, heading southwest through the state. Then after that, it’s further southwest and, I still hope, into Mexico for the winter.



CRAZY TATTOO PLANS
There’s an artist in Toronto that I’ve always wanted to get a tattoo from. I used to go there for work so I was trying to schedule time with her during one of those trips. She’s too popular, and her booking process is too tight for that to have worked out. But now, I’ve gotten in during one of her booking periods. I’m looking at going out there in October.

I am approaching this as a challenge to see how inexpensively I can travel across the country. I’d be flying out from either Las Vegas or Los Angeles. I have points from all my previous work flying so those will cover the flights - well, just to Buffalo. Bus tickets from Buffalo to Toronto are very cheap. Now I’m trying to sort out a place. I have a couple good prospects already (one guy from another forum, and one other I know through Instagram). I’ll also need to sort out whether to do the tattoo small enough to all be done in one day, or a larger one that takes two sessions and 10 days in-between to heal. The two-day tattoo would add more complexity between available booking dates, when it would work to stay with someone, and whether staying 2 weeks is actually a good idea

 

[Queen]

Yay, another blog post!

 

[CautionToTheWind]

Great composition!

 

[masterplumber]

Hey Falcon, where about in Colorado are you? I'd love to ride my motorcycle out and say howdy.

 

[FALCON]

Hey Falcon, where about in Colorado are you? I'd love to ride my motorcycle out and say howdy.

Right now I'm near Carbondale. I'll be going south very soon, maybe today or tomorrow. I'm not exactly sure where I'll be over the next week or so, but I'm generally going south and I expect to slow down and spend 3-4 weeks down near Ouray, Telluride, and between those and Durango. I'll PM you my phone number so you can text me as I'll see those quicker than posts or PMs on here.

 

[FALCON]

Blog post - Stars in Utah! (click here or on the picture)


I shot a lot of astrophotography in Utah. This was my first real dive into shooting the night sky. Here's what I got

 

[highdesertranger]

that pic is amazing. highdesertranger

 

[gapper2]

Those shots are indescribably Fantastic.  Hope to see it for myself next year.  Thank You and safe travels.

gapper2

 

[muddy]

Gorgeous!

RE: Waking up at 2AM. Given the hours I keep, maybe astrophotography is the career for me...

 

[FALCON]

Gorgeous!

RE: Waking up at 2AM. Given the hours I keep, maybe astrophotography is the career for me...

Well, I hope you don't need much money (There's very little money in Landscape Photography these days)

 

[muddy]

Shucks! Guess it's back to the computer programming biz for me...

 

[FALCON]

Blog post - Zion Canyon: My Favorite Place in the World


Here are a LOT of pictures, and a few thought on Zion Canyon.

 

[FALCON]

Blog post - August Adventures - Part 1 - Colorado

 

[UmpquaTim]

Blog post - August Adventures - Part 1 - Colorado

Looking at these photos is like DwellerPorn without the shame.  I keep expecting a panoramic centerfold with staple marks.  Great job.  And pardon my unique way of complimenting your work

-T

 

[Putts]

 

[FALCON]

Looking at these photos is like DwellerPorn without the shame.  I keep expecting a panoramic centerfold with staple marks.  Great job.  And pardon my unique way of complimenting your work
-T

Haha, great! Thank you

 

[FALCON]

I'm not sure if you guys will want to see all these kinds of detail. The more normal Captain's log stuff (pictures and notes on where I went with the van) are in the Utah blog post linked at the bottom)


-------------------------------------------
September 2017
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Money

I spent a lot this month, on:
- A big tattoo, and travel across the continent to get it.
- A new camera

TATTOO:

I went to Toronto for the tattoo. There is an artist there that I’ve wanted a tattoo from for many years. I used to go there for work, and I was trying to get a tattoo from her while there on one of those trips. But she’s busy, and that never got anywhere near working out. Nearly all of the cost for this was the tattoo itself. It was pretty cheap because her rates aren’t all that high, and because of the exchange rate.

Travel was cheap by using some of the airline miles I amassed when I used to travel for work, and by staying with fellow forum member @Pooable. He was a great host, and his home is located about perfectly for this trip - right by downtown, a 10-minute walk to the tattoo shop, and a 20-minute walk to the bus station (I’d flown into Buffalo and rode a bus to Toronto as my airline doesn’t fly straight into Toronto).  It was fun hanging out with another ERE minded person, and I learned a lot from him.

The tattoo is of a falcon. I wanted to get some type of outdoors tattoo, and I like falcons (Hence my username). No special meaning other than that. I’m happy with the tattoo.


CAMERA:

I bought a new camera just a year ago. So - why  new one already? Well, I think I’ll enjoy shooting with it more, and it is smaller and lighter.

I bought more camera than I really needed a year ago. I made up some plans and self-promises in my head to justify spending so much on the camera: that I’d pursue getting paid for landscape photography, that I’d at least try out an idea I had in my head for niche vacation photography, that I’d try shooting portraits, that id shoot some real estate, etc. A year later, I haven’t really done any of those.

Also, when I bought the camera, I made the mistake of writing off mirrorless cameras without actually trying one. I assumed I wouldn’t like their electronic viewfinders. But I did look at some recently, and I like them better.

As for the camera, I’ve downgraded in technical capability, from a camera with a full-frame sensor, 36 megapixels, and  14 stops of dynamic range, to a crop (smaller) sensor, 24mp, and I think 12 stops of dynamic range. It’s still a really good camera though.

The new camera works better for the ways I like to shoot , and I think I’ll have more fun shooting with it. It’s also substantially lighter, so it will work a little better for taking on long hikes.

Over the last few months, I’ve been spending more time than I want to editing pictures. I want to shift to shooting more pictures (and deleting more), shooting a wider variety of subjects, and using faster/simpler editing techniques.

So far, I’ve been doing just that. I played around with shooting street photography in Toronto. Now back in California, I’ve been hanging out at the beach a lot in Santa Barbara. There’s one beach where dogs are allowed off-leash. It can get pretty busy with dogs, and the more active ones are fun to take pictures of. So I’ve been shooting them a lot. I’ve been doing a low-effort test of using a site where people can buy prints. I think I may pursue that. I have a pretty good setup for this with the van, because I can walk out to the beach, spend 20 minutes shooting the dogs that are there, mix that in with walking along the beach, doing calisthenic strength training, and memorizing Spanish words. Then I can go hang out in the van for a while, and go back to the beach again when I feel like it (and there will be different dogs).

I’ve started out using only old manual focus lenses, and these running dogs are good practice for focusing.

I’ve shot 4,000 photos with the new camera in less than a month, while I shot only 10,000 with the old one over a year.  I sold the old camera and one of the lenses. I have one or two lenses to sell still. In the end I’ll come out a few hundred dollars behind for a “worse” camera, but will have a much wider range of lens lengths (going from 14, 24, 50mm to equivalents of 18, 36, 75, 150, 300, 450)



Goal Progress

I set the goals below 1 month ago, expecting to complete most within 3 months. Updates in bold for the ones I’ve made progress

INCOME STREAMS
— Execute current Instagram feature
— Get more Instagram product features - start with coffee-making
— Make some more shirt designs
— Make some more investing changes before going to Mexico
— Try out options trading (for some stocks I own and am considering selling)  (Sold options on two stocks. I like it so far)

PREP FOR MEXICO
— Start learning Spanish (on 9/1) - (Started ~9/20. Making decent progress now)
— Get to very basic communication in Spanish (by 11/1)
— Learn about laws, camping rules, and safety
— Research logistics (WIFI, cel service, mail, water, money, laundry)
— Start deciding where to go




Blog Posts

(click the text or picture to go read them)


Stumbling into great places in Utah

I passed through Utah again, and found some amazing places to camp and hang out



A trip to Toronto to get Tattooed

About the trip I went on to Toronto to get the tattoo