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Last week, we had a few nice nights with clear skies. On one of these nights, it happened to be also very close to the full moon. It’s always a spectacular sight. To the left of the Moon was another very bright spot, way too bright to be a star, it had to be a planet. So I ran to the basement to take out my telescope and try to identify the planet. I thought that I could try and take some pictures of that as well so I ran back inside to grab our digital camera.

The Moon is of course easier to photograph, for the planet, although I could see it pretty clearly, taking a decent snapshot with a handheld camera through the telescope’s viewfinder is a tad harder. Anyway, here’s the best I could take of Jupiter and it’s four Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

Un nouveau site vient de paraître sur le web. LeJardinDeMarieJo.ca est un nouveau blog en français avec principalement des photos de plantes et de fleurs. Un site haut en couleur à voir absolument!

Les photos sont prises par MarieJo, et ce sont toutes des plantes et fleurs présentes dans la cour. Beaucoup de celles-ci ont été parties par MarieJo dans la maison avant d’être transplantées à l’extérieur.

I haven’t updated my blog in a while but I’m still planning to. I’ll be updating my pen cabinet project very soon, I’m just about to complete it. Then I’ll start the workbench.

My todo list just keeps growing and growing so it’s not easy to tie up all the loose ends.

I created this short article for a pen turning forum, a French speaking one : www.atelierdustylo.ca

Thought I’d share with you folks here too. Comments welcomed.

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I’m not professional photographer nor am I a pro pen turner either. Through some reading I have improved the quality of my pictures and although there is still some room for improvement, I’m sharing with you what I have learned.

The light tent is easy to build. I used some left over scraps of 2×4 and built 3 frames: 2 on the sides, one on top. The structure is about 12 inches x 12 inches. I placed white cardboard on the sides to reflect the light from the source. The top is also covered in white board but with a hole in the middle to let the light source shine through. I’m using white silk paper currently to act as a diffuser.

The light source consists in a lamp I bought at IKEA with a compact fluorescent bulb of the 5000-6500K color temperature. 6500K is considered daylight so it would give the truest color rendition. Two lamps would be better but this setup allows only for one because of the size.

The background is a beige suede fabric. I don’t like white backgrounds but wanted a neutral color. This all makes a lightweight setup that is easy to move around. Below the photo studio on the kitchen tables (besides my wife’s tomato planters for the garden).

Now for the tricky part. To have good color consistency, the camera needs to be white balance calibrated. Once the installation is done, a white carboard is placed in the light tent and the white is measured. (Check you camera’s manual to figure out how to do that). I don’t have a fancy camera. It’s an old Nikon 4 MP from 2002. Without proper calibration, the color of the pens will have an effect on the rest of the colors used, in this case, the background. Below, the same background used with two pens when no calibration is used.

Next, depth of field. This is adjusted by change the “F” setting on your camera (check your manuals). Crank it up to a high setting. I’m also using the Macro mode. A bigger “F”, gives more depth of field resulting in more of the picture being in focus.

Low “F” setting”:

High “F” setting:

If you look closely, you’ll notice that on the first picture, the middle of the pen is in focus, but the cap and nib are a bit fuzzy, and so is the background in front of the nib and behind the cap.

On the second picture, not only all the pen is in focus but so is all the fabric around. Magic? No, proper depth of field. Happy turning!

Earth Hour originated in Sydney Australia but currently Canada is leading the way as far as registered participants. The event consists of turning off your lights to reduce your electrical consumption.

The event is for tomorrow, March 29th 2008 at 8PM. I plan on participating.

More information available at Earth Hour

Joyeux Noël à tous! Merci à tous mes lecteurs!

Merry Christmas everyone! Thank you for you readership!

Le weekend dernier se tenait à Ottawa, le Ottawa Wood show. J’y suis allé pour la première fois afin de voir ce qui s’y faisait et aussi rencontrer certains membres de La Mortaise. A première vue, c’est assez typique de n’importe quelle exposition, des kiosques partout, des produits, du monde, des démonstrations et un coin bouffe avec de la nourriture hors de prix.

L’endroit est bien, c’est au Parc Landsdowne à Ottawa, au Pavillon Abderdeen. Cependant, ce n’est pas un pavillon isolé et puisqu’il ne faisait pas très samedi (-17 Celsius, -27 C avec le facteur vent) il ne faisait pas très chaud à l’intérieur non plus. Il y a bien des chaufferettes radiantes mais elles ne suffisaient pas à la tâche.

Côté bonnes affaires, la majorité des exposants offrent habituellement un rabais d’environ 15% lors de l’évènement donc ça peut être intéressant. Personnellement, je n’ai pas fait de gros achats, seulement quelques ensembles de stylos pour combler un besoin plus urgent, un produit de finition pour mes stylos et un abonnement à un magazine.

En parlant de magazine, il va y avoir bientôt un nouveau venu sur le marché québécois. Une revue sur l’ébénisterie. Pas de plomberies, pas de constructions, pas de papiers peints, que de l’ébénisterie. Le premier numéro paraîtra en mars 2008. Mon abonnement est déjà posté!

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