Welcome to Windinsight

This is an attempt to respond to some emails and thoughts that may be of general interest and to be in touch.
As the site and situations change from time to time a dated post will also be made.

On the road with the *MacBook

Apr 2010

Jan.Feb.Mar.
Apr.2011

Journal 2011

*index

Friday, April 30th ~ The warm morning wind cooperated with SW 15 - 20 knots and the kite lesson went well. Rode the board balanced and comfortable for a few short hauls and only had one over the handlebars launch. No damage other than a few mouthfuls of Pamlico Sound. A heartfelt thank-you to instructor Cliff for his time, experience, patience, and encouragement.

The afternoon of our last day here was SW 18 - 24 knots and everyone enjoyed their last round of great windsurfing. The warm water and good wind was a perfect ending to our spring trip.

Once you see those backlit exposures corrected by the reflected light in the sail you just can't stop. Here's a backlit shot of Sharryn in a gybe with some reflected light on her face. (Please click the thumbnail below to enlarge the pic)

Thursday, April 29th ~ Worked the kite and board under the strict, patient guidance, expertise, and strong wing of kite-board instructor Emeritus Cliff for a few hours today until the wind picked up and conditions become both unsafe and uncomfortable. Had a few successful runs and the kept the kite in reasonable control. A few rather awkward starts but no real panic moments. The water in the Sound both gags and tastes awful when ingested in large quantities. (A humbling experience) We windsurfed our buns off for the rest of the day in warm SW 20 - 22 knot conditions. Cliff and Yurii blasted out to the sand reef 6 miles offshore. Only took them about 12 - 15 minutes to reach it in these good winds. It's less than knee deep out there. Love this place!

Took no pictures today but shot some video with the Olympus on the water. Will add it to the movie that's currently underway. Not sure of the extent to which iMovie will ultimately work in the external hard-drive with all of the large files. Finally figured out that the DSLR video clips will have to be edited/cropped/split in the camera/memory card on playback and then imported into the computer as much smaller files. Will try do this next time! Have found in the past that editing clips in the Canon 7D is somewhat onerous.

Leaving for home Saturday morning with the forecast of wind through Monday - Tuesday. It's been another great session and we'e talking about and looking forward to our return in the fall.

The site will report later today and again by Sunday, May 2nd. Hello 70! Looking forward to seeing how the next ten years will unfold - each day, one season at a time.

Wednesday, April 28th ~ Spent another morning working the kite and getting comfortable with flying it and doing some more body drags. Instructor Cliff was both patient and very encouraging hoping hat when he's seventy he can be doing whatever's cool (in 2052 A.D.) May just have to include him in the will. Just when you think you have it mostly figured out the wind shifts or the kite drops, and heads toward a scary kite-mare and thoughts of possibly perishing come into mind. Moving slowly with kiting, one step at a time, one day at a time. Tomorrow the board gets worked!

Have moved iMovie into the external hard drive along with the latest video files that need to be edited. There simply isn't the room in the MacBook to edit any number of larger files from the EOS 7D (DSLR). It took two hours for iMovie 09 to optimize the clips so editing can begin. Not sure if this older MacBook will be able to work the large files without crashing like it did near the end of the other iMovie 09 projects when disc space was almost gone. And, the large source clips can't be deleted to make more room. One of the newer MacBook Pros with Final Cut is waving excitedly at me on the distant horizon near the setting sun in what's left for me, maybe. A new kiteboarding harness is standing there alongside as well. Hello from the distant future John! Just keep on hoping and dreaming! Dreaming and hoping! Hey, it's a 50's tune!

Did get an interesting shot of Henri jibing. Noticed the reflected light of the sun on his face from the sail and used it it help illuminate an otherwise backlit exposure. Was pleased that it worked again a second time and I was able to squeeze off a shot.

(Please click the thumbnail below to enlarge the pic)

Sunday, April 25th ~ Today it nuked. Gusts to well over 35 knots and tomorrow more of the same. Started sailing well before 9 a.m. and by mid afternoon our smallest sails began to feel overpowered for most of us. The spring session can more difficult especially for those of us who neglected those regular workouts in the gym for the past few months. You can tell by the pics in the Hatteras archives those individuals who've been working out.

Shot some pics and some video during sailing recess. Here's the new LCD eyepiece monitor cover for viewing DSLR video in bright sunlight. It does the job well. Another accessory to carry. It attaches to the camera body with rubber stretch cords and has a neck strap to keep it handy when shooting stills. A clever item. (Available at Henry's Camera)

Note the bubble level attached to the tripod. Bracket ~ $1.29 (Home Hardware), level ~ $2.49 US (Sears) Ha!

(Please click the thumbnails below to enlarge the pics)

Thursday, April 22nd ~ (Windsurfers & Kiters - In case you didn't know) ~ JF has a Vimeo account and has uploaded a few videos from LaSalle and Hatteras. It includes a blog. His link is below.

>> JF's blog and videos <<

Wednesday, April 21st ~ Having another round of lighter winds again this week but the forecast says mid teens this afternoon and higher wind tomorrow. The larger rigs are all ready to roll out when the wind clicks in later today. Have a kite lesson tomorrow morning including some board skills to be worked into the session. Looking forward.

Have been practice-shooting some more vid with the 7D but haven't had any really worthwhile footage yet with which to work. Setting up and going over the checklist each day will help when those more memorable moments appear in front of the camera. (Practice makes perfect) Here for another week and a half so something should present itself. The zoom on the 17 - 55mm packed up a few days ago so have to zoom manually (push-pull) by hand and that touch causes camera shake. Will address the fix once we're back home in Niagara.

Found a series of higher quality and somewhat affordable recorder/mike products to improve the sound quality for shooting video with keeper sound input. Will explore them more fully as well on our return. Below is a link and some reviews. Prices are sufficiently realistic for what will be attained. (Walmart sells them here in the U.S. so they are likely available in most electronic stores as well)

>>a few of the Zoom Recorders<<

>>A review of the h4n Zoom recorder<<

Monday, April 19th ~ Put a few clips together of Jean-Francois and myself chasing around Pamlico Sound this past Friday having some fun ripping about in warm SW 20 - 24 knots knot winds on the chop. We shared his GoPro HD headcam for the vid.

>> Chasing Around Pamlico Sound<<

Sunday, April 18th ~ The blue tint in the pictures taken with the 7D for the past few days was a wrong setting. Have been shooting some video this past week. One session last Tuesday evening we were inside and The Rant was doing Dirty Old Town. Changed the white balance to accommodate incandescent light during their performance. Forgot to reest the camera's white balance to auto and for four days all of the pictures taken with the Canon 7D had a blue tint. It was depressing to think the 7D was broken. Worked with both the 40D and 7d with the same lens to compare results till I was blue in the face and the blue hue wasn't there with the 40D. Malfunctioning camera, broken heart. Googled every possible permutation and combination of blue tint and broken camera to see what may be wrong and found no useful info. While checking back to the first blue tint pic and the video that night the incandescent setting connection in my head went off like an old alarm clock. The relief was immediate. The camera is ok. The blue photog funk of the past few days was lifted. Life here in Hatteras is oh so good again, like the wind.

The two pics on the left have an artificial blue hue (white balance set to accommodate incandescent light) The pic on the right has white balance set to auto (bye bye blue) Right pic @800mm cropped about 50% in Photoshop resulting in an approximate 1600mm zoom equivalent. Camera - Canon EOS 7D

Friday, April 16th (evening) ~ Today was windy and warm. It blew 20 - 27 knots throughout the day with higher gusts to over 30. Spent the morning working my 12m kite body-dragging around the Sound and the afternoon keeping up with our younger charges and changing to smaller sails as the wind continued to pick up. We're all exhausted. It's not an easy life this windsurfing, not to mention the beer needed to help stall off the steady dehydration that we face as the day wears on.

Working on some footage shot on the water today. May upload a quick vid to YouTube.

Can't believe we've been here a week. Time flies. Life flies by.

Friday, April 16th ~ The sun's placement can make or break a picture. The 800mm telephoto shot on the left (from Tuesday) was taken shooting into bright sunlight and the figures are underexposed. In the centre is the same shot with some fix. Corrected the underexposure using shadow highlights in Photoshop and finally got a face to show.

The 800mm shot of the surfer on the right was taken with the sun coming from behind me and exposing the subject well except for the right side of his face which was shaded from the sun. Didn't attempt any fix. (Please click the thumbnails below to enlarge the pics)

Thursday, April 15th ~ The wind finally kicked back in yesterday. Temperature has dropped a bit but the next five days show at least some good wind in the forecast each day. Hope to get the 12m kite out this morning in some of today's lighter air. This afternoon looks promising. Hopefully our larger boards and sails will have their way with us on the water later today.

Have used both the 7D and the Olympus 720p in shooting some video. Will begin to edit some of the footage in iMovie over the next week. Looking forward to getting some useable material.

The Outer Banks are an absolute unique wonder and provide one of the best combinations of wind, surf, beach, and launch conditions on the planet.

Monday, April 12th ~ Day 3 with a promise of some wind maybe later tomorrow afternoon. It's been bright sun and summer-like since we arrived. Our younger shoreline joggers and body surfers in the house have encountered pods of dolphin everyday on the ocean. No one is chomping at the bit just yet but if useable wind doesn't materialize soon this mild melancholy we're all experiencing will fast become a raging, dark depression. Wind addiction is such a bummer. Hello. My name is John. I'm a wind junkie. I've been off wind for a week now. Bummer.

Our internet connection is almost adequate at least some of the time. Thank goodness for small blessings. It is close to dial-up in it's speed and often as elusive and available as current wind conditions around here. Must be the lack of wind that's causing a slightly negative tweak in my words.

April 7th ~ Leaving Friday morning for Cape Hatteras. Organizing the trailer tomorrow morning with Denny and Neil then finishing with a final packing. Taking the 120, the 105, and the 65 litre sailboards boards along with the 145 cm kiteboard. Looking forward to wind and warm weather. Site will report daily and post archived pics in Cape Hatteras ~ Spring Trip 2010 (wireless connection permitting)

Hope to make one (or maybe two) DSLR HD EOS movies over the three weeks with the Canon 7D and the new waterproof Olympus HD 3000. The Canon EOS 7D is a joy to use. Pictures are clear and bright. Below are two taken in the last two days (on Lake Erie and Lake Ontario) 1/125 sec, 400 ISOs and look pretty good when hugely reduced (to a medium quality email setting) at about 140 Kb. (Click on the thumbnails below to enlarge the pics)

April 3rd ~ Arrived home safely, other than we ran over a transport tire carcass and munched the ground effects/spoiler on the front of the car. Wouldn't have been an issue if we'd been driving the Grave Digger! Site will be reorganizing a bit over the next few days and setting up for our Spring Trip ~ Cape Hatteras 2010.

That's the original Grave Digger below right! (Click to enlarge) Taken on our way to Cape Hatteras in early March. Only in America!