Third Roll of Film

My third roll of film came back last weekend. I'm really pleased with the results. Enjoy!

Stevens Canyon Trip Report

Some months ago, I promised a trip report for my April backpacking trip to Stevens Canyon in the Escalante. Well, here it is:

Stevens Canyon 2009

I hope you enjoy it! Thanks to my lovely wife Erin and all my friends that came on the trip, for making it a great trip and giving excellent feedback on and comments for the report.

Please e-mail me with any comments or questions.

Weekend To-Do List

• Publish April trip report
  
• Blog some photos
• Vacuum, mop, sweep
• Clean out e-mail
• Revise teaching statement
• Draft research statement
• Play Dark Castle
• Do dishes
• Try to fix monitor hum
• Call Katadyn, MSR, Marmot
• Go to library
• List Pentax stuff for sale
  

CS Department Open House

The Computer Science Department Open House was on Friday. GroupLens, my research group, had five posters: two on Wikipedia, tagging, Q&A sites, and Cyclopath.

Katie Panciera is a Ph.D. student and the newest member of the Cyclopath team.

Alex Stuart is an undergraduate working on Wikipedia.

Jesse Vig is a Ph.D. student with some very nice tagging work going on.

Morten Warncke-Wang is a Ph.D. student working on Wikipedia.

Weekend To-Do List

• Try to fix monitor hum
• Order more books from library
• Touch up Andy's photos
• Blog some photos
• Upload CS open house photos
• Prepare for CS123 teaching on Monday
• Revise cover letter
• Publish April trip report
  
• Clean stove
• Gear list notes for trip
• Fix broken PNG thumbnails
• Create training plan for Grand Canyon trip
• Vacuum, mop, sweep
• Clean out e-mail
• Do lens tests
• Go to REI
  

Lens Focal Length Analysis (Backpacking)

The above is a histogram of the focal lengths I used on my recent backpacking trip to Stevens Canyon (full trip report coming soon, btw). I took two lenses: a Sigma 17-70mm, and a Sigma 18-125mm. The latter stayed on the camera most of the time.

As the two modes are at the extremes of the zoom range, this shows that I would have used both shorter and longer focal lengths if they were available. Similarly, activity is present throughout the zoom range (much of the "chunkiness" is due to quantization of the focal length reported by the camera in EXIF).

Conclusions:

1. A superzoom is essential for my backpacking (as I have no patience for lens changes while on a trip).
2. 18-125mm is insufficient range.
   

Weekend To-Do List

• Finalize PFF dates
• Publish April trip report (Tuesday, to give others time to submit stuff)
  
• Go to Target, Rainbow
• See Erin's play
• Play Bridge Building Game
  
• Finish most of PFF assignment
  
• Clean stove
• Gear list notes for trip
• Fix broken PNG thumbnails
• Create training plan for Grand Canyon trip
• Vacuum, mop, sweep
• Clean out e-mail
• Do laundry
• Go to library
• Do lens tests
• Clean up Garmin page
• Help get rid of old dressers
  
• Mail film to A&R