Chaos Love: love, life, design and more.

The records of this Service indicate that you entered the United States as a conditional permanent resident on 12/18/2007. In accordance with Section 216 of the Immigration and Nationality Act you must file Form I-751, Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence. Failure to do so may result in the automatic termination of your Status. You can obtain Form I-751, as well as filing information and fees, from www.uscis.gov or call 1-800-375-5283.

With this tersely worded letter, the final part of my immigration to the United States has begun. It's hard to believe that something that was set in motion back in 2006 will finally come to an end at the end of 2009 (or, more likely, some way into 2010 if the usual processing speed of the USCIS comes into play).

Because I entered the US on a fiance Visa, then got married to claim residency, the US Government basically doesn't trust me an inch. They've seen every single marriage trick and scam in the book, and in their eyes, we're all suspicious until proven otherwise. The first Green Card you get when you enter the country is only valid for two years instead of the usual ten (because they don't trust you), and you must start to renew it within 90 days of its expiration, or you get booted unceremoniously from the US.

To renew it, we have to send in yet more evidence that our relationship is a bona fide marriage – joint bank account statements, lease notices, photos, notarised affidavits from friends, that kind of stuff. Oh, and another $500-odd for the processing fee and yet another set of fingerprints... this'll be the third time! But really, it's one of the simpler tasks we've had to complete on this long road, so I can't foresee too many problems. And then... freedom!

Posted in: chaosboy, immigration, united states on August 30, 2009 at at 9:24:00 PM 0 comments    

Thanks to all for your warm wishes and support!
Cam and I have had such a blast this past year and it all has been going by so fast! This coming year brings us into a realm of real security and comfort as Cam establishes work in America and we start going on trips together such as Amsterdam coming up in 6 weeks! With him having steady work and me getting done paying medical bills, we know that this year will have a lot of good times in store. We had a lot to celebrate and last night we went to Rocky Butte where we were married back in our youth and had a picnic of bread, exotic cheese and local wine. If my foot was in good order, I would have brought the trampolines. But we did bring the space helmets, of course, for photographic moments!

Posted in: anniversary, chaosgurl, photography, portland on July 22, 2009 at at 10:40:00 AM 0 comments    

Golden, Golden Gate, originally uploaded by Senex Prime.

Well, I'm back from my little jaunt down to San Francisco. Even though I worked hard (staying in the office until 10:30pm the night before the presentation), I did manage to get out and about and play the tourist a bit.

Here's my favourite shot so far – the always impressive Golden Gate Bridge (coincidentally, the subject of the presentation) as seen from Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf. The place is way too touristy, but it does offer spectacular views of the bay, especially at sunset!

More soon!

Posted in: chaosboy, photography, travel, united states on July 12, 2009 at at 10:10:00 AM 0 comments    

Seriously, its getting too geeky on here. I need to fill this space with some gore! It hasn't been all puppy dog tails over here. Cam has been working REALLY hard with a full time job and taking care of my crippled self. Tomorrow he is off to the great land of San Francisco to do amazing things and move ahead in the world. Me, on the other hand has just managed to make Mac and Cheese by myself without toppling over and calling 911. No but really, I am doing ok these days and I have my fingers crossed that two weeks from now, my doctor will give me good news like "go ahead and walk out of this office."
For the last two months, it has been a bit of a hardship and I have been sitting around a lot but Cam and I have gotten out and done all sorts of crazy stuff that normal people with broken ankles don't do.
Lets take work for example. For a month now, I have been helping the masses in a wheelchair with a laptop on my lap where I can sort out all their needs on the spot. It's been very gratifying for me and my customers to not have to stand behind a counter, stare each other down or print out giant receipts for them to sign. I take credit cards wirelessly and send them invoices via email and most people are "impressed" by my abilities although it is nothing special. It's how I get by. In reality, its just pure laziness on my part. One gentleman told me the other day that he was "glad the store hired people like me" and quickly backed it by saying "my happiness was pleasant to work with." Yeah, yeah. I do feel like people treat my like they have just entered a Goodwill sometimes, smiling instantly down on me when they came in with a frown. I can't say the wheelchair has hurt sales. I actually think business is doing better.
Outside of the store, the wheelchair has been a novelty. I can sit down in long lines. Women in heels run to get the door for me. People in coffee shops offer help when I am just sitting quietly by myself waiting for Cam. I think I have renewed hope for the human race at this point. Everyone loves to be a hero helping someone who "looks" like they are in need.
Everyone has hurt themselves this summer. As we rolled around town yesterday observing the Blues Fest by the waterfront, I was counting the casts, crutches and fellow wheelchairs go by. I used to think it was a heightened sensitivity, but I am pretty sure now there is no mistake, people are getting out there and slamming themselves. Can't blame them, this summer has been gorgeous. We have been able to go on a road trip, camping, festivals, concerts, or just out for drinks as if my hinderance were nothing more than a skin rash.
Other than my new profound outlook on life, let it be known that its going to be an exciting week of Christine's Birthday Festivus! With the bad leg and all, the video project of everyone dressed up as dinosaurs in the forest will be postponed to another date. I might just be up for sitting around in good company with a cold beer in my hand on a hot summer evening. Oh and Im sure Cam has some sort of crazy party in space planned for me *wink wink* right darling??

Posted in: on July 6, 2009 at at 3:05:00 PM 0 comments    

Last weekend, Christine and I headed on out to Homedale, Idaho to attend Water on the Ditch, the annual party/jam session thrown by some of our good friends each year. As always when travelling, I took my camera with me, but I wanted to make sure I tried some new things out. Because always taking the same kind of shot gets boring, y'know?

The one type of photography you simply can't do in Portland is star trails; the light pollution from the city simply outshines the faint imprints left by the stars. I did try some when Christine and I camped out in Central Oregon (now forever known as "The Ankle Trip"), but I obviously wasn't thinking straight and shot at ISO400, adding so much noise to the shot as to render it useless.

So I tried a shot on both nights. The first one was okay, but nothing special. However, the second night's shot turned out perfectly:



This is an hour long exposure facing almost directly north. The camera settings were ISO100 at ƒ/8, 17mm focal length. A lot of people suggest opening the aperture all the way up, but I was concerned that doing this would totally blow out the foreground detail (which I was hoping would be the best part of the shot), so I closed it up a few stops. Of course, the camera was mounted on a sturdy tripod and the exposure was started and ended with a cable release. I had the long exposure noise reduction option in the camera set to "On", but I have since read that you shouldn't really bother with this, as post-production noise-reduction in Photoshop or via a plug-in like Noise Ninja will always produce a better effect.

I really am amazed this turned out so well. The foreground is everything I could have hoped for and then more. The light from the stage on the trees surrounding the house is quite magical, and there are lots of little details from lights that went on and off during the exposure as well: someone walking with a flashlight, headlights from a car turning into the property, camera flashes and so on.

Post-production was limited to noise reduction (it still needed it, although not to a huge degree), cloning out some dead or hot pixels in the image and then adding some extra saturation/brightness to the colors. It prints beautifully at 13"x19" on our Canon Pixma Pro 9000 and we plan on giving one to our friends who host the Ditch each year as a token of our appreciation for this most excellent of parties!

The more we get out of the city, the more of these I'm going to take... I can only get better with experience!

Posted in: chaosboy, oregon, party time, photography on July 4, 2009 at at 2:56:00 PM 0 comments    

The one major, major flaw in older digital SLR cameras like my Canon Rebel XT (that's a 350D for those outside the US) is that they are dust magnets. Changing lenses or even using the zoom on a telephoto lens seems to positively suck dust and dirt inside the camera, where it sticks to the mirror, the focusing screen, and – worst of all – the sensor array itself.

Newer DLSRs have fancy vibrating ultra-sonic cleaning mechanisms that can shake dust loose from the inner workings of the camera, mine does not. As a result, my nearly 3-and-a-half year old camera was becoming something of an embarrassment... clear blue skies were covered in dust spots that had to be cloned out in Lightroom or Photoshop, and any shot stopped down below ƒ/16 was absolutely covered in horrid little black dots as the dust was brought more into focus. I'm using a tripod, stopping down and doing a lot more long exposure photography these days, all of which are guaranteed to show off those spots in all their unsightly glory. After our trip to Central Oregon last month, these spots crossed the line from "slightly annoying" to "I can't stand these damn dust bunnies!"

So what to do? I could just take my camera into a pro photo store and have them clean the sensor, but there were many reports on the web of cameras returning from service either exactly the same or worse than when they went in. That sounds like $60 poorly spent to me. So I decided to look into self-cleaning solutions, as scary as that sounds! Again and again, the same name kept coming up: Copper Hill Images. Their website posts the most detailed instructions on cleaning the interior of a digital camera I have ever seen, and they sell the kits that give you the tools to do it as well. So, after reading and rereading the site and other people's opinions of the method, I went ahead and ordered a kit. It arrived yesterday, and I have spent the morning giving my camera a thorough, well-overdue cleaning. How did it go? I think pictures tell the story. These are shots of my computer monitor with a sky-blue image filling the whole screen (the dust is always more visible against the sky in real-life, so that's what I set out to simulate on another grey Portland day!). The aperture was set to ƒ/22 for all these shots to bring the dust into focus as much as possible.

First up, a shot taken before any cleaning:

Disgusting, eh? There must be over 100 individual spots here, including some really big ones. This is what comes from changing lenses out in the open and rarely cleaning your camera!

After taking each shot, I brought them into Photoshop and ran Auto Levels (Command-Shift-L) on a duplicate layer of the image. This allowed me to really see each and every dust bunny on the image, which I've circled in red.

My first step was to get the SensorSweep brush, give it a light static charge by blowing air on it from a blower and lightly – oh so lightly! – brush it over the sensor to remove any loose dust particles. This done, I took another test shot:

A huge improvement already! You can see that the large spot has moved because I used a different focal length to take this shot compared to the last shot - indicating that this one is on my lens or filter, not the sensor.

Next, I thoroughly cleaned all my lenses and filters with the brush followed by lens tissue moistened with optics cleaner. Getting there! Now for the final, most daunting step... wet cleaning the sensor itself. This uses lint-free photographic wipes moistened with a drop or two of Eclipse optic fluid, carefully wrapped around a little stylus to do the job. With a steady, light hand, you brush the wipe across the sensor one way and then back the other, using one side for the first stroke, then the other side for the second stroke. Whatever you do, don't go back in and do another wipe after this - you'll just end up depositing all the removed dirt back on the sensor array!

And the result:

Still not perfect, but what an improvement over the "Before" photo! The big spot still seems to be on my lens – I'll have to investigate its exact location further – but we're down to a handful of dust spots on the sensor. Hopefully, with regular cleaning sessions, I can continue to reduce this number even further!

I am already very impressed with this method of cleaning, but it's certainly not for everyone. If you have poor eyesight, unsteady hands or are terrified of damaging your camera, then I would recommend that you look into alternative methods instead!

Posted in: chaosboy, photography on June 6, 2009 at at 12:41:00 PM 1 comments    

Yay! Getty have selected five more of my photos for inclusion in the Getty Images Flickr Collection! While it's true that I haven't made a sale yet through this system, I feel that that Getty is capable of reaching a much larger audience than I ever could, and eventually I'll reap the benefits. These are the photos they've chosen this time around:

Fire: this is a simple little shot of a bonfire that I took at a party last December - the high shutter speed (1/1250th of a second) does a good job of freezing the licking flames in time.

Nom Nom Nom: This is one of our pet gerbils enjoyig a little snack in her cage, taken with my 70-300mm lens from a distance. I really like the shallow depth of field in this, which - for once! - has focussed on exactly the right place.

Folds II: One of my abstract shots from the Painted Hills in Central Oregon. I'm ecstatic that they've chosen one of these, because they really are one of my favorite series of photos.

Washington Bound: A shot taken from the passenger seat of our car as we drove across the Astoria Bridge from Oregon to Washington. I've always really liked this shot because of the combination of sharp detail, motion blur and even the rain on the windscreen.

Lunar Eclipse, 20th February 2008: Yes, yes, yes! If this isn't a saleable image, then I don't know what is! I put a huge amount of work into this composite image, and I really think it shows.

Interestingly, the last two images are being marketed as Rights Managed shots, rather than the more usual royalty-free model. This means that each and every use of the image by a client is negotiated separately, and often for more money per use... we shall see what that brings!

The titles of each image above links to the relevant photo in my Flickr stream. See also my previous post about the first images chosen by Getty Images.

P.S. Getty also just sent me an email saying that I'm allowed to choose five images that I would like to send to them for inclusion in the collection, and I'm somewhat stumped so far. Any ideas?

Posted in: chaosboy, flickr, photography on May 25, 2009 at at 9:51:00 AM 0 comments    

The best – the absolute best – thing about having our own car is that we can get out of Portland on a whim and go Elsewhere. For once, Christine and I both had the same two days off (Sunday and Monday), so we decided to head out to Central Oregon to see the high desert sights.

We decided to camp at the Cove Palisades State Park, simply because it had the best facilities. I had originally wanted to stay at Smith Rock State Park – an area that looks absolutely stunning in photos I have seen – but their camping facilities were limited to a bivouac area with a pit toilet and no open fires allowed (due to the sensitive nature of the park), and what fun is camping without a roaring campfire and marshmallows at the end of the day?

Because we organised so quickly and changed our preference of campsite so late, we didn't really have much idea of what Cove Palisades would be like... were we in for a pleasant surprise! You can't see much as you approach, but gradually you realise that the high, flat plain is intersected by deep river canyons, well over 1000 feet deep. Further downstream, the gorge has been dammed (for hydro-electric power), filling the canyons with a large lake, upon which boats of all descriptions were enjoying the beautiful weather.

We had arrived too early to check into a campsite, so we hiked from the valley floor to the top of the escarpment for spectacular views over most of the park:

The isolated plateau between the two arms of the lake is known as "The Island", and is one of the last remaining areas of never-farmed grassland left in the United States. As such, it is a vital habitat for eagles and other raptors as well as being an important research site – it is closed to all public access to preserve it. It looks like something from "The Land Time Forgot" to me, and I half expected to see dinosaurs roaming across it. That's Mount Hood you can see way, way off in the distance. This area of Oregon offers the most amazing views of the Cascades mountain range I have yet seen; from Mount Hood in the north all the way down to Mount Bachelor (near the town of Bend) to the south. Here's a shot of some of the mountains that I took on Sunday morning:

To the left is Broken Top (most southerly), followed by the "Three Sisters"; South Sister, Middle Sister (almost obscured) and North Sister, also known (apparently) as Faith, Hope and Charity. In the foreground, you can see more of the spectacular gorges of the Cove Palisades State Park.

However, our trip was not all fun, games and awesome photos. Late on Saturday, we were at a fun little beach within the park to take some photos of what promised to be a beautiful sunset. Christine ventured out along a pier and onto some floating pontoons that eventually joined back on to another wooden dock at the other end of the beach. The gap here was wider than the first gap, but Christine was confident that she could jump it, rather than having to walk all the way back along the pontoons to the first pier. I decided to take a photo of her leap...

... which turned out spectacularly well, but unfortunately the jump itself didn't end quite so happily. Christine's left foot slipped on the wet wooden dock, and when her right foot tried to compensate, it got bent in the wrong direction, causing a horrific sprain in her right ankle. However, we didn't know this at first, as the initial pain was in her shin. Thinking she'd just grazed her shin and that she'd be fine after the initial pain died down, we sat around for a while, telling concerned onlookers that we'd be alright in a minute.

However, when Christine tried to stand, the real injury became apparent and its serious nature sunk in. Christine was in immense pain with every little movement of her ankle, and I had to enlist the aid of a nearby burly gentleman to help me carry her back to the car park. We headed back to the campsite and got directions to the nearest hospital, which was in the nearby town of Madras. We set off on our way, with me trying to drive both quickly and smoothly at the same time, as every bump in the road caused Christine excruciating pain. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, we arrived at the little hospital and checked Christine in. After an interminable check-in process ("Do you have a religious preference?" was one of the questions!), Christine was attended to. X-Rays confirmed no break, just a serious sprain and we were soon on our way, with Christine's ankle safely held in an air cast,armed with painkillers and a pair of crutches, which the hospital were very reluctant to give her until they realised she had insurance!

Remarkably, we went back to the campsite (which we had set up earlier in the day) and camped out as intended... although we arrived back at camp after 10:30! On Sunday, we drove down to Bend and had lunch at the excellent Deschutes Brewery and Public House before returning to Portland in the afternoon. Quite the adventure!

Posted in: chaosboy, hiking, oregon, photography, travel on May 20, 2009 at at 10:54:00 PM 0 comments    

Nothing makes you realise just how darn fat you were more than some good old fashioned before and after photos... and I've got some of the best, thanks to the DMV. The one on the left is from my instructional permit, and was taken on November 20th last year, when I was probably at my portliest. The one on the right is from my new Oregon Driver's Licence, taken last Tuesday.

Freakin' scary.

Posted in: chaosboy, general musings on May 1, 2009 at at 4:21:00 PM 1 comments    

So I finally got off my butt and went and got myself an Oregon Driver's License today. I just realised that there was no reason not to get it apart from procrastination. While procrastination can be fun, it was time to join the real world... so at 8am in the morning, Christine and I headed off to the grandly titled Portland Drive Test Center... really just a ginormous DMV.

For some reason, this is the only DMV office in the entire Portland metropolitan area where you can actually do the drive test... totally unlike Sydney, where every RTA (Roads and Traffic Authority) office does it.

Anyway, of all the hoops I've had to jump through in my quest to lead an American Life™, this was probably the easiest of all. Sign in, fill out some paperwork, show my Green Card, pay the test fee of $9 and then go for a drive. The tester was a pretty relaxed guy and I really didn't feel nervous at all. And drive tests don't really agree with me – I failed back in Australia five times before I got my license. I kept getting the same drive tester, and for some reason, he just didn't like me and failed me for more and more ridiculous reasons each time. On the sixth time, I got someone else, and – surprise, surprise – I passed!

So I made a couple of little mistakes in the test – I stopped too far into the intersection at a couple of stop signs (a matter of inches!), and turned into the middle lane when turning left into a multi-lane one way street (you have to turn into the left-most lane). Nowhere near enough to fail me, anyway! I was slightly annoyed that after diligently practicing reverse parks all week, I didn't actually need to perform one in the test – I just had to pull in to an empty curb as if parking, and then reverse two car lengths in a smooth manner. No other cars anywhere near me!

Back at the DMV, I paid my $59 for an eight-year license (showing my Green Card again), and then had my photo taken by another staff member for my license (third time for the Green Card!), which will be mailed to me in the next week or so.

Road trip, anyone?

Posted in: chaosboy, driving, portland on April 28, 2009 at at 9:58:00 PM 1 comments