A new, exciting way to die?

Ive never heard of jerry reed

brushlessmicrodude wrote:

Ive never heard of jerry reed

<pick on mode on>
You've never heard of punctuation or capitalizing either.
<pick on mode off>

You're loss. He's a country guitarist, singer, songwriter, actor (he was snowman in Smokey and he Bandit).

Try doing an internet search (I prefer Google but Ask and Yahoo work well also) and you find out more and possibly some music on YouTube.

Snowman? you mean like a Yetti?

oh that guy i know who he is

OK, so I knew the Christian campground down the road was bringing in earth-moving equipment for some reason. And, I knew they were having some big gathering this week...but I ignored it (I live in the country, why pay attention to camping)? Anyways, this morning as I'm waking up I smell Castor Oil...wait! Whats that? I think to myself, Oh my God! its the sound of angry two stroke engines! Lots of them!

So I jump in the car and follow the sound... it turns out the Fellowship of Christian Athletes is having a Dirt Bike camp/workshop. They have former Pro Riders coaching kids from I think they said 8-18. Unfortunately by the time I got there they were wrapping up the instruction with the pros...but the semi-pro riders were still coaching the kids. So since I got my start in racing in motocross I grabbed a few pictures.

Awesome pics man! Your really making me miss my dirt bike And making me hate the city more than I already do.

Sidewinder, you are having way too much fun for living in the sticks.

Shaun, I live in the big city and I see kids on bikes and ATV's running in the streets and alleys. It's illegal to do so but they don't see to care (or get caught.) I know of a few areas not far from my house that I've seen people riding dirt bikes on, one is near the NE airport in Philly.

Now Philadelphia has the largest in-city park in the country (if not the world) but you can't run those noisy dirt bikes in it. Human powered yes, non-human powered no. I personally think if they could keep the noise level down on the bikes so not to offend the residents living next to the park and don't trash the place (thread lightly) they should be allowed in the park. Maybe make a separate trail for the trail riders away from the paved bike path. The bike path is over 8 miles in length for the route near me. I rode it a couple of times when I was young and in a shape other than round.

I lived in a couple of cities before, but I just couldn't take it. I like being able to walk out in my back yard and being conected with 4795 acres of pristine woods. But I'm sure having Chinese food delivered makes up for all of the lass and concrete surrounding you.

Shaun, I know what you mean about missing your dirtbike...I've been missing mine for the last ten-fifiteen years.

Oh and Bilbo, itskind of funny that you pointed out the old try to wreck in front of the photographer saying. I wasn't able to climb up on the earth mover (something about them being afriad I'd fall off and hurt myself...which just means they know me pretty well) but I did manage to talk the security gaurd at the far gate to let me sneak out past the fence and hang out on the back side of the "hill." I had cars fly over the top twice and slide right past me into the trees! When I get the pictures downloaded I'll either post them or a link...I hate to keep burning up their storage here with a lot of pics.

awesome pics sidewinder

Thanks.

On the top of the banking or "hill" of a dirt track you get whats know as a cushion. It is a mound of dirt that gets pushed up to the top If you hit it with your back tire it holds you on the track when your going faster than you otherwise could. Its the best felling in the word...well, close anyway. That's when it's done right. Like this:



If your tire jumps over the cushion, well...it gets more interesting. Not the best feeling in the world...not even close. Remember this is about 110 MPH or more. Like this:




Then sometimes you miss the cushion entierly. Ever wonder what's on the other side of the bank? This is not the way to find out:

you get all the good pics

Thanks. Its because of two things: 1 I've been around the tracks long enough to know where stuff happens. And 2, Racers are risk takers...even though I'm not in my car now I have this (sometimes problematic) beliefe that I can do anything without getting too hurt. So I go places where you really shouldn't stand.

And this won't mean anything to most people here but I know one person who'll get it: The properties section on the second photo shows a focal length of 28mm. (but, to be fair, I did crop the edges just a bit).

sidewinder wrote:

And this won't mean anything to most people here but I know one person who'll get it: The properties section on the second photo shows a focal length of 28mm. (but, to be fair, I did crop the edges just a bit).

Sidewinder, do you thing you are Bruce Willis in Unbreakable?

Are you going to make me instruct the kiddies about focal lengths (then ramble into Depth of Field and shutter speeds). I guess you are.

OK guys here it goes, I'll try to keep it short.

The size of the lens is called focal length.
The lower the number in millimeters (mm) the wider the angle of view in the image, the higher the number closer the object appears.
When using 35mm film (like any of you use film anymore) a 50mm lens is considered a normal length because of what it sees is about the same view the human eye does. Interesting fact measure the frame on the diagonal of any film you will get the normal lens size for that size of film. DSLR's have a slightly smalled frame size than 35mm film so a normal lens for it would be between 35mm and 47mm, close enough for most people to still keep 50mm as standard.

Lenses are separated into categories by their uses. These ranges are for lenses on 35mm film cameras because that is what I learned on.
8-12mm Fish-eye (really cool distortions in the images over 180 degree field of view.)
16-34mm Extreme Wide Angle (slight distortion in image)
35-49mm Wide Angle
50mm Normal
50-70mm Slight Telephoto
70-135mm Portrait (If you are taking shots for year books this is the range you use.)
136-200mm Telephoto
200-400mm Extreme Telephoto (Great for getting shots of things you don't want to have seen taking pictures of)
400mm+ Specialty Telephoto (These are the ones used at sporting events. The cameramen at football games usually use 800-1000mm lenses to get those great shots. Sidewinder really needs one of these but the costs are really in the stratosphere, think 10k to start.)

I think the focal lenghts must be somehw different for the digitals...I cant explain how it would happen but the shortest lenght 28mm seems about the sam as 50mm did on my film cameras. I actually will probably get a shorter lens for closer stuff before I go longer. I'm still trying to locate a friend with a compatable teleconverer, so I may just go ahead and buy one.

Oh andd the reason the shot was so close was it was the first lap and I was comming in from the infield so I wasn't quite off the track far enough by the time they got there...I just got lucky and still had the camera on. The truth is I was torn between taking the shot and running out of the way.

How much are fish eye lenses?
I've never look at camera attachments other than tripods and memory cards

I'm tired of taking crappy pics

Fisheyes can be really expensive

sidewinder wrote:

I think the focal lenghts must be somehw different for the digitals...I cant explain how it would happen but the shortest lenght 28mm seems about the sam as 50mm did on my film cameras. I actually will probably get a shorter lens for closer stuff before I go longer. I'm still trying to locate a friend with a compatable teleconverer, so I may just go ahead and buy one.

Oh andd the reason the shot was so close was it was the first lap and I was comming in from the infield so I wasn't quite off the track far enough by the time they got there...I just got lucky and still had the camera on. The truth is I was torn between taking the shot and running out of the way.

There are differnces but the percentage varies by manufacturer. Most seem to be about 90% of the frame size of 35mm.

Micro-T Master wrote:

How much are fish eye lenses?
I've never look at camera attachments other than tripods and memory cards

I'm tired of taking crappy pics

They are extremely expensive for the DSLR's. There were times that someone made an adapter that attaches to the front of the p/s film cameras but I haven't seen one of those in years.

I'm not sure what to recommend but with a little research you might be able to pick up an "outdated" camera on eBay that has a few lenses. I know the early digital Rebels (6MP) aren't going for much anymore...but the lenses would still be expensive. I did pretty good with a Fuji S7000 until I killed it at the track...but they shoot pretty well and they are really getting cheap on eBay. Just research whatever you look at, some cameras become obsolete because they are replaced by newer stuff, some become undesirable because they were crap to begin with.

sidewinder wrote:

I'm not sure what to recommend but with a little research you might be able to pick up an "outdated" camera on eBay that has a few lenses. I know the early digital Rebels (6MP) aren't going for much anymore...but the lenses would still be expensive. I did pretty good with a Fuji S7000 until I killed it at the track...but they shoot pretty well and they are really getting cheap on eBay. Just research whatever you look at, some cameras become obsolete because they are replaced by newer stuff, some become undesirable because they were crap to begin with.

When looking at cameras on eBay and Craig's List look at these things.

1. MP (also called Mega-pixels.) - The higher the number the better. Make sure it's real MP, Fuji was notorious a few years ago by advertising cameras as 6.2MP but it really only used 3.1, the other 3.1 they called shadow MP that they claimed made the pictures better.
2. Memory Card. - There are several types of memory cards on the market. The most Popular are:
SD (Secure Digital) used by Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, Pentax, Samsung, Konica Minolta and others.
XD used by Olympus and Fuji
MemoryStick used by Sony
Stay away from SmartMedia. They are very old technology and there have been no new cameras made for them in about 7 years.
3. Zoom - On the Point and Shoot digital cameras they will have the zoom range listed as Optical and Digital. Most have a 3x Optical and the remainder of their zoom range as Digital. Optical Zoom is much better than Digital Zoom. There are a few P&S cameras that have a 12x Optical zoom.
4 . DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) - These are the higher end of the digital world (and I wish I had the money for one.) Since new models come out every 3-6 months the older models can be had at a reasonable price used. The only Manufacturer I would stay away from is Konica Minolta Maxxum series because Sony bought them out and basically are trying to make it that you have to replace with the new Sony Alpha which uses the Maxxum Lenses.
5. When you see one you like go to the Manufacturers website and see if you can download the owners manual. It'll give you an idea of any special feature but you can find out the manufacture date. This date is IMPORTANT. Since the government tells the manufacturers they have to make parts available for repair for 7 years from the date it's discontinued most will push the envelope and stop repairing them as quickly as possible, some are stopping at 5 years or less. So if the camera is over 4-5 years old I'd stay away from it.

PS... oh, point and shoot. I get it now, your digital equivalent of a box camera. That took me a while. Of course if you want to have some real fun you could make yourself a pinhole camera for a couple of bucks. I'm sure there are plans out there for free... its a great experiment and you'll be amazed at the results. Just google pinhole camera.

sidewinder wrote:

PS... oh, point and shoot. I get it now, your digital equivalent of a box camera. That took me a while. Of course if you want to have some real fun you could make yourself a pinhole camera for a couple of bucks. I'm sure there are plans out there for free... its a great experiment and you'll be amazed at the results. Just google pinhole camera.

Point and Shoots can be fun to have around, I keep a cheap 7MP one in my pack I carry all the time. I just have to remember to recharge the batteries. I just won't say what we've call P/S cameras for years.

I did a pinhole camera back when I was in Middle school (7th-8th grade), they can produce some interesting shots but give me a real lens and shutter any day of the week.

Got 7th grade that was along time ago im only going to seventh grade

At 13 I was entering in 9th grade, but I was the youngest in my class. Beat the class cut-off by two days. Yes I'm bragging.

I graduated at 17, I could have graduated earlier but I needed English credit. Yes, I was a poor student in English, but better in math, science, art (for me the fun classes), history, etc..

yeah you should be 14 you skipped a grade or something my sister did the same thing

the lug

rclugnut wrote:

yeah you should be 14 you skipped a grade or something my sister did the same thing

the lug

Nope, didn't skip any grades. I wasn't that smart. When I was in school many decades ago they had a rule stating if you were born before the midpoint of the school year for kindergarten you could enter and get credit for the full year and get an earlier start on 1st grade. The mid point was the end of January, and I was born at the end of January, couple of days before the cut off. My baby brother was born a year and a half after me in July so when he started he was 2 grade levels behind me.