Vacation to Hilton Head

I just got back from my vacation around midnight. We went to Hilton Head South Carolina, and even during the 'dry season' the place is essentially a swamp with a beach. We happened to choose a week to go during which tropical storm "Fay" was moving up the coast, soaking the south-eastern shores of the country in violent spurts. It would be nice and sunny outside, and then all of a sudden a huge mass of clouds would come pouring in to drench the island again. We explored the various sections of the island during our first full day there, and happened upon a nice little harbor with a lighthouse on the south side of the island.

The view of the harbor...where you have to pay $5 just to get in...yeah it was unusual

Of all the views from the top of the lighthouse...the "viewing machine" was the most interesting to me

My dad and sister sitting on a crate at the end of the pier

Self portrait in the window at the top of the lighthouse...

On Monday, it actually didn't rain at all until late in the evening, so that was our first day to hit the beach. I applied quite a bit of sunscreen, but in the infinite wisdom of my family, we only had SPF 6 with us...yeah that's SPF 6 as in a SINGLE digit. The next morning I woke up to incredible shooting pains like being covered by dry ice. I was Lobster Boy! I was essentially grounded for the next 36 hours, unable to walk as my knees were so badly burned it hurt to stand up, much less walk. Fortunately I decided to bring my Gamecube along in my Boda bag (my Nikon gear was in the beach proof Lowepro Vertex 300) so I kept myself entertained all day between that and various reality shows in syndication on Bravo and VH1 (hey, there wasn't anything good to watch, what else could I do?) However later that evening we did check out ANOTHER harbor and it sort of reminded me Shanty Town (I'm sure I spelled that wrong) outside of Ocean City, MD.

The Gamecube fit suprisingly perfectly in the Boda...I didn't bring my 360 because it was too heavy and I didn't feel like unhooking the crazy mass of wires I had jumbled together under my TV

I personally wouldn't want to buy anything that had been in a Pelican's Pouch, but to each his own I guess...

With all the stormy weather it was kind of nice to see calm waters...

Also to occupy my time as Lobster Boy, I observed some fauna that happened to congregate outside our little villa (I'm not much of a bird guy, so I have no idea what species they were, but if any of you reading this know what they are, let me know in the comments) including several birds and a plethora of turtles. On the bike ride I chose to pass up, my family claims to have seen an alligator, however I never encountered one during my stay.

This bird let me get like 10 feet from it without moving (Photogs: this is at 200mm with no crop!)

Lunch time!

Down the hatch...yeah that's a WHOLE FISH!

My sister decided to feed the turtles and she had like 10 of them at one time climbing up to get the food she had... this is the only one who got completely out of the water though...

On our final day, my sister wanted to go see Savannah, Georgia for some reason, so we all had to pile up in the car and head TOWARDS the tropical storm, something no other fools on the eastern shore would have done. The truth came out when we got there, that she just wanted to see the birthplace of the woman who created the Girl Scouts (my sister is going to be 21 in 2.5 weeks...yeah definitely no longer a girl scout). My mom and my sister explored that building for about an hour while my dad and I drove around the city looking for anything interesting...there wasn't much there, but I did happen to notice a really cool path with these overgrown trees and had to stop to take a couple photos.

I really liked the canopy the trees created over the sidewalk

A lighthouse we stopped at on the drive home...I took this shot about 5 seconds before torrential rains started to soak me... I'm glad my gear is weather sealed!

Here's my obligatory 'beach' family photo... my family is very self-conscious about pictures of them... my dad kept asking me to completely redo his hairline... I tweaked some stray hairs and told him he'd look like Fabio and left it at that... he never comes to this site, so that will be our little secret :)

The shot is taken at 7AM in the morning with the rising sun lighting up one side of us and a remote SB-800 filling in the rest.

If you like to check out the rest of the photos I took during the trip, you can see them all at noahhayes.net

BTW: What's up with everyone taking vacation this week? Armin and ErinChris took vacation this week too!

FINALLY!!!

Finally!!! (the image speaks for itself if you knew about my car troubles over the past few weeks)

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's the Dulles Air and Space Museum!

Two weekends ago (yeah, I've been busy, hence the few and far between posts lately) I met up with some photographers from DPReview.com at the Dulles Air and Space Museum to hang out and talk about our weapons of choice (Nikons...not aircraft based machine guns and rockets). It's funny, I've lived 15/20 minutes away from this place since it opened, but I had never been. The museum is very nice, although VERY crowded and they plan to cram even more aircraft/spacecraft over the next few years. It's a challenge to only get 1-2 objects in a image since they are litterally stacked on top of each other, there are no less than THREE levels of aircraft stacked!

Exterior of the museum...looks like an airport, but then again it is a stone's throw from Dulles Airport...


This is what I mean by crammed...I'm trying to get a picture of ONE helicopter, and to get the whole helicopter in the shot, I have to have 3 planes and another helicopter in the shot too!


There's a really cool section of the museum (it's actually kinda hidden, because it's behind the stairs) that has a bunch of engines pulled out where you can see all the VERY different designs


Another engine removed from it's aricraft


Yes, even unmanned "aircraft" are displayed here (although they all have the warhead removed).


They have aircraft from all generations, from early Wright-style planes, to modern jets...


In the far end of the museum, there is a huge room dedicated to spacecraft, including the Space Shuttle Enterprise and a number of satellites and sections of rockets... I have no idea what this ring is, but it looked kinda interesting to me...


This is an exhaust from a rocket that I used a blue gel on a flash to give it a "spacy" look...


Self-portrait in a space helmet...


I didn't like how this photo came out, but posted it here to show how cool using a red gel on your flash can be... kinda gives the Blackbird's engine a "I'm about to fire, you should probably move away...unless you wanna get toasted" kinda look...


If you live in the Northern VA area or are visiting, I'd definitely recommend checking this place out, it only take about 2-3 hours to wander the whole place, and is free to get in (well parking is $12, so carpool with some friends).

The Sun is no match for the Nikon 14-24 f/2.8!

This past week I was up in Minnesota for a business trip, and I took my D3 and some glass (why wouldn't I?) and we took a cruise on the beautiful Lake Minnetonka which left right around golden hour, and before we left the dock I decided to test out the flare control of my newest addition to my lens collection, the amazing Nikon 14-24 f/2.8 Ultra-wide Angle lens. It has a nanocrystal coat and a bunch of ED (enhanced dispersion) glass in it to reduce flare and ghosting, and let me tell you...it works like a dream. The picture below is a picture of a ship next to the one we one SHOOTING STRAIGHT INTO THE SUN! The incredible part is there is only a VERY slim strip of flaring at the bottom left of the image!

Click this link to view a larger version

Incredible control of flare for shooting directly into the sun at Lake Minnetonka, MN!

Another test using the same lens with absolutely no flare (also no water to reflect the sun from a different angle...) from rural western VA