I took the image one night while my friend and ex-RMSP classmate, Thomas, and I were up on Mt. Jumbo.  He was trying out my 17mm tilt-shift lens and I was just fooling around with my fish-eye lens.  I took a total of eleven images that night.  And, this was the only one that turned out.  I can’t say it ever crossed my mind that I would sell it.

So instead, I’m just going to keep trying to post a picture a day.  I usually have a small queue of images to post.  As long as I continue shooting on a regular basis (which was the whole point of this project anyway), I should be able to post an image a day without having to actually take a photo each and every day.

It all started at 4:00am…or, actually, 3:53am when I woke up, looked at the clock, and cursed because I couldn’t roll over and go back to sleep.  I got up instead and shut off my alarm.  I didn’t want to hear that god-awful buzzing anyway.

By 5:00am, I was on my way to the buses.  The runners were shuttled from downtown Missoula out to the starting line in Frenchtown.  As we were cruising down the interstate for what seemed like forever, I kept thinking “Just how far are we going?  I have to run back.  Can I just get off here, please?”.  But, I couldn’t and eventually we made it to the start.

The start was nothing special.  Just a bunch of runners lining up like cattle ready for a cattle drive.  Then they fired the gun…or, rather, the cannon.  Yeah.  No starter pistol here.  They fired a damn cannon.  A couple thousand runners all jumped out of their skin in unison.  They didn’t give us much warning and…it…was…LOUD!

The race started and I settled in to my pace…a nice easy 9mins per mile.  I had positioned myself about half way between the 3:50 and 4:00 pacers and I was determined to stay there.  At one point, I started to catch up to the 3:50 pacer, but I forced myself to back off.  As a result, I ran the first half almost exactly like I wanted to.  They were calling of times at the half-way point and I crossed at 1:56.  Perfect.

If only I could have stopped at that point.  Right after the 13 mile mark is where you hit the hill on Big Flat Road.  It’s a long steep hill the turns into a roller coaster ride of numerous small hills at the top.  This continues until mile 15.  This is what did me in.  I felt great when I crossed mile 13…not so much at mile 15.  By mile 16, I was getting a little worried because fatigue was setting in pretty quickly.  By mile 18, thoughts of walking were starting to pop into my mind.  But, I refused to walk before mile 20.  My longest training run was 20 miles so I knew I could go that distance.  I told myself I couldn’t walk before then.  Of course, that means I was indirectly giving myself permission to walk after that.  Oops.

I was hurting as mile 20 rolled around and, predictably, succumbed to walking shortly after crossing the mile mark.  But, I knew (from training run experience) that if I walked too long, I would be able to start running again.  And there was no way I was walking the last 6 miles.  So after a very short walk, I forced myself to start running again.  This pattern pretty much continued for the rest of the race.  Short walks, followed by running as far as I could until I felt compelled to walk again.

Mile 21 past…then mile 22.  If I hit the wall at mile 20, then mile 23 is where I climbed over it only to have it fall on top of me.  I started having serious doubts that I could finish even with the walking.  It just didn’t seem like I had enough left for another 3 miles.  It didn’t help that spectators would starting saying things like, “Keep going.  You’re almost there!”  Almost there??? Right.  I have 3 miles to go and I want to lay down and cry. But, thanks for coming out.

(Side note: to all you Missoulians who had sprinklers that sprayed cold water into the road…I love you.  They were so nice.)

Somehow, I managed to keep going, passing mile 24, mile 25, and eventually even mile 26 as I turned on to Higgins Ave for the final 0.2 miles.  Up to this point I figured my desired finishing time was long since history.  With all the walking, I assumed I was well over the 4:30 mark.  It just seemed that way.  However, as I crossed the bridge I saw the official clock and it said 4:15.  Suddenly, I had extra energy again.  My body was holding out me.  I picked up the pace and cruised through the finish line at 4:16:31, my official time.

I ran in my Vibram FiveFinger KSO’s and they performed beautifully.  No blisters.  No toenails lost.  My feet were tired at the end, understandably, but other than that they were fine.  In fact, as I write this my feet feel completely recovered.  Can’t say the same about the rest of my legs.  I was a little surprised that I didn’t see anyone else running in FiveFingers.  They don’t know what they’re missing.  I had quite a few people ask about them, though.  I imagine next year you’ll see more people wearing them.  They seem to be growing in popularity.

So that was my first marathon.  Right now, I couldn’t be talked into doing another, but that may change as the memories start to fade.  It would be nice to break 4 hours, after all.  So we’ll see.

It’s a fully computer-generated film, created by a single person, Alex Roman, that will pretty much blow your mind.  When I first started watching it, I swore it was actual video footage, not CG compositions.  It’s that good.  The artist left some comments on his vimeo page about what is and isn’t computer created:

Well, there are several questions i’ve been asked for…

-I think i must make it clear. There are a few non-CG elements in the shortfilm: photographer (shot on greenscreen), pigeons, timelapsed growing flowers, flying airplane and sky backgrounds.

-It was ALL rendered on an i7 920 and a QX6850 -very low budget :( -

I hope it helps a bit!

I HIGHLY recommend you watch it in full screen HD on Vimeo if you can rather than the non-HD embedded version below.

Then, when you’ve picked your jaw back up off the floor, watch the compositing breakdown:

This year, I stayed on the general admission side of the rodeo ring.  I knew the grandstand area would be populated by the current Summer Intensive students as it was when I was one of them two years ago.  It turns out, I think the general admission side is the better choice for photography.  It doesn’t matter much for the bronco and bull riding events.  They move and spin pretty randomly. But for the calf roping and steer wrestling, the contestants are riding toward you instead of across and away from you on the grandstand side.  You get shots of faces instead of a lot of waving tails and rear ends.

Below are my picks from the day of shooting.  You can see the SI students lining the fence across from me in some of the shots.  I was one of them two years ago.

Click on a thumbnail for a larger view:

Date of Trek: June 16, 2009

Summary: A 6.2 mile hike that winds through a mountain valley, eventually joining Cow Creek and terminating at Bridal Veil Falls.

The stats

What you will see

Where you will go

What I think

It’s been over a year since I did this hike.  It was decidedly less scenic overall than the previous day’s hike.  There really aren’t many panoramic views since you spend all your time in the valley.  Once the trail joins Cow Creek there are a number of small waterfalls and rapids.  The tree canopy also thickens, making the hike more enjoyable on a hot day.  There was some minor rock scrambling required towards the end of the trail just before reaching the falls.  If you daring, you can wade across the creek for some better views of the falls, as I did.

Keep your eyes open for wildlife throughout the hike.

Then, I headed out for a run.  I skipped my normal run and tried instead to run up Mt. Sentinel to the “M”.  I wasn’t able to do it all in one shot.  I had to stop every other switchback to catch my breath.  Apparently being able to run long distances does not directly correlate to being able to run up steep hills.  I plan to keep trying.

After returning home and showering, I put on some music and relaxed for a bit.  I ended up dozing off and taking a short nap.  When I woke up, I went to Taco del Sol for dinner and had a taco salad.  I love salads where you can eat the bowl after devouring the salad inside it.

That evening, I head up into the North Hills to spend some time shooting with my Canon 17mm tilt-shift lens that I bought a few months ago.  The images below are a few from the evening.  It’s an incredible lens.  Really, incredible.  I can’t believe how sharp the images are and I’m comparing it to the Canon 24-105mm f/4L and 70-200 f/2.8L which are pretty amazing in their own right.  I’m going to love this lens.

A view of Mt. Sentinel from the North Hills.

On the North Hills trail.

Sunset from the top of Waterworks Hill.

I stayed up in the hills until after sunset and then walked home.  Despite the fact it was already 10:30pm, I decided to watch a movie.  I wasn’t tired yet, probably because of my afternoon nap.  I watched “The Red Baron” on Netflix.  It was okay.

I started a new project yesterday.  A few years ago, I tried to do a 365 project where I took a self-portrait everyday.  I made it 90 days before giving it up due to time constraints caused by, ironically enough, photography school.  This year, I’m not doing self portraits, but I’m going to try and take at least one picture a day.  Most will probably be taken with my cell phone, which I almost always have with me.  I’ve discovered that my Motorola Droid takes pretty decent photos.  With the PicSay Pro and WordPress for Android apps, I can shoot, edit, and post the images entirely from my phone so I really don’t have an excuse for missing a day.  The images will be posted on my Photoblog and on Flickr in the Year 34 set.

As for Year 34, Day 2, I’m about to head off to visit the National Bison Range Wildlife Refuge.  I never visited it the first time I lived in Missoula so I figure it’s about time.

Summary: A 6.2 mile hike that begins by following a brook with numerous cascades, continues to stunning views at higher elevations, and finishes with a gorgeous waterfall.  Take the free shuttle back to your starting point.

The stats

What you will see

Where you will go

What I think

It’s been almost a year since I did this hike, but I do remember it as being very enjoyable.  It starts in the valley and starts climbing immediately.  You’ll climb 1500ft in less than 3 miles.  However, you almost don’t notice because you are following a lovely creek with lots of waterfalls and cascades.  I could have spent hours photographing here, but I forced myself to press on, knowing I had a long way to go.

Once you get to the higher elevations, the epic panoramas are plentiful.  You’ll be wandering through alpine meadows and stands of evergreens.  I remember the trail being rather wet in places due to spring run off, often leaving me with wet feet (I hike in Vibram Five Fingers).

After reaching the North Longs Peak trail, you start to descend again.  Gorgeous views are still plentiful and the evergreens start to intermix with beautiful aspens.  Eventually, you reach and cross the Glacier Gorge, a raging river at that time of year that eventually spills over Alberta Falls.  You get to see that too. I got rained on during this portion of the trip…a lot.  Remember that you’re in the mountains and the weather can change suddenly.  Dress and pack accordingly.  I had rain gear along, but I learned that it was no longer waterproof.  I guess my 15-year-old North Face jacket had reached the end of its useful life.  I bought a new rain jacket that evening.  Naturally, it didn’t rain the rest of my time in the park.

From the falls, you head to the Glacier Gorge trail head and parking area.  Catch the free shuttle to the Bierstadt Lake parking area and walk the 0.2 miles back to the Storm Pass trail head where you parked.

My part was shot in the green screen studio on campus. It was shot with my Canon 5D MKII. In fact, all of it was shot with the 5D. Most of the post-processing was done in Apple Shake, but some of it was created using Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop for video, you say? Yep. I painted out some objects frame by frame in Photoshop. The painting was proving to be too difficult for the paint controls in Shake and still doing it frame by frame anyway. It was easier (and quicker) to export the frames to individual stills and use Photoshop’s advanced tools.

Getting the right keyboard sequence during the green screen recording proved to be more difficult than I thought.  I fell, misstepped, and just plain screwed up a lot.  I ended up jumping around for quite a long time before I had a couple takes that were decent.  I’m guessing it took between 20-30 takes.  You wouldn’t think it would be that hard.

Anyway, here’s the final product, which earned me an ‘A’ in the class.

The tree house was loosely based upon a real tree house that you can actually buy from Free Spirit Spheres, which look pretty cool, but seem to me like they would sway a lot in the wind.

The project was modeled over 10 weeks in Maya.  It took over 36 hours to render on my 64-bit Macbook Pro.  I started the render before going to bed one night and it finished sometime during the following night.  And that was just the exterior.  Luckily, I had class most of the day in between so I didn’t miss the use of my computer much during that time.

I have a whole new respect for the animated movies that are coming out these days.  I can’t imagine the amount of modeling and rendering time that goes into them.  My “film” is less than a minute long…not even close to feature length.  Crazy.