A Few Images

Where have I been!

A lot of my contacts over on Flickr have been asking about my lack of activity lately. Well..not a lot but enough to warrant a blog post. As some of you may know, I'm in the Air Force. Been in about 8 years now and hold the rank of SSgt. To promote to the next grade, I have to take what's called a WAPS test, which stands for Weighted Airman Promotion System. Its a point based system which derives points from how long you've been in the service, how long you've worn the current rank, the scores of your annual performance reports, and medals you have, as well as finally, a test based on Air Force and Career Field knowledge. The whole process is intended to pick the most worthy candidates to promote to the next grade. Last year, of all the eligible SSgts in the Air Force, 18% or about 7,000 out of about 40,000 was actually promoted. I, wasn't one of them.

This year was my third year testing for the rank of TSgt, and I was determined to make the cut this year. So for the last few months, and especially in the recent weeks, I had hit the books especially hard to study for the knowledge portion of the test. The agony of the whole system is that it takes a long time to test everyone in the Air Force, to include the guys and gals serving overseas and Iraq, Afghanistan and other locales. Though I tested in February, it won't be till June before I even know what I scored, and whether or not I was selected. Adding to that, everyone isn't promoted at once. Those who are selected are given what's called a line number based on seniority. In the upcoming months from July until the end of the year and early next, they promote so many of those every month. The average promotee has about 12 years of service under his belt. I have 8. So if I was to promote, it wouldn't be till the end of the year.

Is it a perfect system? No, but no system is, and this one is the best we have for now. Anyway, come June I'll have my fingers, toes and eyes crossed. If not...well there is always next year.

Waiting For the Snow to Recede

The snow is really slowing me down these days. I mean, you can only take so many photos of dirty snow. Up here in eastern Washington, it is covering EVERYTHING. SO with that, I start looking around the house for things of interest. You'd be surprised what you can you find, especially when you try to approach it with a fresh pair of eyes. Part of the fun with macro photography is that it can turn ordinary things into items of interest, simply because of the fresh perspective that is put on it. Here are some things I found around my house while waiting for the snow to recede:

I've been...not as busy

Actually, I lost my Internet service for a week (painful!). Finally back up and running and trying to play catch up with all of my contacts and news that I've missed. Like Nikon's new entry level camera release, the D60, and the bevy of new lenses to come including a new 60mm AF-S micro lens.

Speaking of lenses, I recently purchased one as well; the 105mm VR 2.8. This lens is incredibly sharp; more so than my from the looks of it. While the DoF is extremely shallow at close ranges, the amount of detail it picks up has meant so far that there is little need for sharpening in post, though you very well could if you wanted to. The images also come out well saturated with plenty of contrast as well. I'm impressed with it thus far. Looking forward to the spring to get out and start taking some outdoor macro shots. In the meanwhile I'll just have to look around the house for things to capture