Saving

 I've been saving and selling some unused items so I can get my new SLR. I am so exited,I can't wait to get this thing. Not to much longer to go now. 

This WII is just taking up space

And the wife is right again

Here ( Wii ) Go

I would have to say the most useless thing in my house would have to be the WII that I insisted my wife and I buy. We rarely play it.

What a waste of money. It looks fun on TV but most of the games are just boring. And yet again the wife is right.HA HA

One day I'll roll in a new Camaro

The dream car.

Camaro Concept

Most would say Lamborghini,Bentley, maybe even Porsche.

I live right by Ogden Avenue In Illinois and you can find every car dealer imaginable down this little stretch of road.

The other day I was driving past the good old Chevy dealer and I see this beautiful black shiny new Camaro.This car had my mouth down to the floor and wishing and trying at the same time to talk my wife into letting me buy it. Well needless to say I am still driving the same old vehicle I have been for the past two years.

If pot is legalized, I expect increases in tax revenue

Although, it will never happen but if it were to the government would make so much revenue in taxes we might pull ourselves out of this economic turmoil. MAYBE.

Lyman woods in Downers Grove Illinois is lovely this time of year

My favorite outdoor spot.

This is a little forest preserve that I like to go to. It's nice and quiet and there aren't many people. There is a good abundance of wildlife as well, the wildlife includes deer,coyotes,owls,hawks,ducks,geese, and many different species of birds.

What to use to clean lenses and LCD screens.

 I have found in my experience the best thing to clean lenses, is the lens pen. I highly recommend this product. You can use it on point and shoot cameras as well. I use the lens pen on my camera  as well as my telescope eyepieces and I am just amazed at how clean it gets them especially after a good night of dew. Here is a website to check out the lens pen. http://www.lenspen.com/

 Now to clean LCD screens I recommend a soft micro cloth. You usually do not need and kind of solution but if you do only use a little bit. You can usually buy micro cloths at any local store. But I'm going to recommend a site here of a telescope dealer because his service is just outstanding. The name of the company is Camera Concepts. http://www.cameraconcepts.com/store/

Oh, to be in Hawaii

My vacation-honeymoon

It was actually our honeymoon, but it was a vacation as well.We stayed in Maui.

The weather is beautiful there, everyone was friendly and the food for the most part was great.

If you go there do not go to any fancy restaurants, the dive places were the best. We went to a couple of fancy restaurants spent about a hundred dollars at each one and the food was terrible.

If you ever go take the road to Hana trip you will love it.The waterfalls were great the air even had a different smell to it.

My money's on the pack of hyenas

Although gorillas are very strong, I think hyenas are little more agile and they are very efficient predators.If the pack were large enough I don't think the gorilla would stand a chance.

I can hear them laughing as you are reading this post.

Which is better?

 Everyone who owns a camera probably knows what image stabilization is. So you understand the concept. 

      Well the big question is for SLR cameras, is internal or lens image stabilization better?

 If you have a standard point and shoot camera you probably have some sort of image stabilization. Now your camera may have what is called picture stabilization which is not the same thing. What picture stabilization does, it turns the ISO speed of your camera up to compensate; now in turn that degrades the picture quality, the higher the ISO speed the worse the picture. I don't recommend using this feature.

 Now the big debate in SLR cameras is whether or not the image stabilization is better inside the camera or inside of the lens. Personally I think the lens should have the image stabilization. Why you might ask. Well if you were to buy another camera and it doesn't have image stabilization built in then your saved.

Solar Observing and photography

To begin, when solar observing do not and I repeat do not look directly into the sun and defiantly do not look at the sun with a telescope without a proper solar filter. A proper filter will fit in the front of your telescope. Now the best time to view the sun is when there is activity on the sun aka sun spots or solar flares. Now solar flares require a special filter(H-alpha) that we will not discuss here but here is a website for more info  http://www.thousandoaksoptical.com/.

 Now solar photography is basically the same as moon photography but you have to be a little more careful when observing and photographing. You will need a tripod and a little Patience. Now your photos will not give you true color because you are using a filter but they will look cool. Especially if you have a H-alpha filter that can view solar flares. Here are several websites with more info. 

 http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/sun/3304286.html   http://sungazer.net/photo.html   http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/01/amazon-solar-ph.html  http://www.daystarfilters.com/

I don't dress to impress sorry.

I'm not dressing to impress.

red, white, and bluejeans

Well i don't dress to impress. I wear bluejeans and a t-shirt of some sort. And no this is not a picture of me.

Suggestions

 If anyone has any suggestions for this blog please feel free to either comment here or e-mail me. I have nothing but open ears. Whether good or bad. 

Keeping in touch from Indiana to Illinois

My long commute to Illinois got me the girl.

Well, I no longer live in Indiana but when I did I was dating my present wife. It was pretty tough, I was driving back and forth from Indiana to Chicago just about every weekend. It was about a 2 hour drive and if you add Chicago construction it was even longer sometimes. However, we made it work out and no we're happily married. Sometimes.LOL

Selling photos

 Selling photos can be a real bare especially if all you want to do is get your photos out into the public via paper not the Internet.

 Well I've found a few ways to do this. For starters you can start a blog like the one I have here and try to sell them using Paypal. I recommend Paypal because it is a secure transaction but they do charge a percentage. With little or no problems. If you've used EBay then you've probably used Paypal.

 Your second choice is to try stock photos. Now a lot of stock photo sites require you to be a professional or have almost flawless photos. However, I have found a few sites that do accept amateurs. I will list them after the post. 

 Well if all you want to do is get your photos into the hands of the public ,here are a few options to try. Don't get frustrated, if you don't sell photos right away. Remember Ansel Adams didn't start out being a professional.  Visit these sites for more info. https://www.123rf.com/    http://www.istockphoto.com/

Growing up may not happen according to my wife.

Well I don't plan on growing up so it looks like I screwed.

Over editing

When is a photo over edited?

 Well when it takes you longer to edit the photo then it did to go on your photography trip, it might be over edited.

 If the photo looks nothing like the original that you took, it might be over edited.

Editing photos can be fun and be a very creative procedure. However if your trying to improve your photo through editing and it takes you hours upon hours then maybe the photo just isn't worthy.

I'm in the ansel adams Hall of Fame

Well thank you Mr. Warhol

Well thank you for the 15 minutes of fame Mr.Warhol. I would definatly promote my photos to the world.

When do the 15 minutes start Mr. Warhol?

5 awsome photos

Here are five photos I found over the Internet that I think are really cool. I hope you agree with me,just click the link to go directly to the photo.1.http://www.k-director.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/windowslivewritertop10blackwhitephotographsbywired.com-1466811.jpg 2.http://www.k-director.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/windowslivewritertop10blackwhitephotographsbywired.com-1466821.jpg3.http://www.k-director.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/windowslivewritertop10blackwhitephotographsbywired.com-1466841.jpg 4.http://www.k-director.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/windowslivewritertop10blackwhitephotographsbywired.com-1466871.jpg 5.http://www.k-director.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/windowslivewritertop10blackwhitephotographsbywired.com-14668101.jpg

Please get these songs out of my head before I shoot myself.

And the worst songs ever are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

womanizer by Britney Spears

The song is the most annoying thing i've ever heard.

ice ice baby by vanilla ice

Does it need an explanation, listen to the song.

Rico Suave by GERARDO

Is it really a song?

Portflio website

If your an amateur photographer like me and want a simple website to advertise your portfolio Figdig is right for you. I recommend this site because it's easy to manage and it's free. So if you want a way to get some free exposure for your work try it out and while your there check out my free portfolio.http://figdig.com/ , www.figdig.com/portfolio/kirkgrove/

Stuck in an elevator with jennifer aniston

jennifer aniston
I don't think I need to explain.

2009 Internet Fools' Day

As much as I would like to answer this I can't because I haven't seen any pranks online. SORRY.

The infamous owl

Well I wake up this morning and my wife goes to work and I'm sitting at the computer and what do I hear (an owl). So I go outside and look around thinking I might be able to get a shot of this thing. I really like owls I think they're cool. Anyway, I look around and I don't hear him anymore, so I go back inside and I can hear him again.
I stick my head by my chimney and I can hear him plain as day. How funny is this I'm always trying to get a photo of owls and I can't. Now I have one so close to home and I still can't.
No the owl is not in the chimney,he is just by it. Well wish me luck maybe he'll land on my patio.

I could eat nothing but steak for a year

If there's no known region I'll make one up

Japanese Steak House Master Chef Overseeing Student

Well I don't know what category steak would fall in but I think I could handle eating it for a year.If anyone knows what region this falls in let me know.