Mt. Katahdin, Maine.

GED

I passed my pre-GED tests this week, so next week I'll be taking the actual GED test in Caribou, Maine.

Hi from Limestone, Maine

Well I've been up here for a week now, its going alright so far, and I'm actually going to be taking Culinary instead of Trucking. I'm supposed to be getting a new Laptop soon since mine died not too long ago. Well, be back eventually.

35mm prints from 2008

I didn't post any of the ones that are wide (landscape) because this site will crop them. Check out www.flickr.com/photos/kurttarvis or the link on my main page on the right hand side of this site for the Facebook page.

BOOK cover

Trying to finish my book up before I move to Maine. Should be available in Hardcover for $34.99 and in softcover for $24.99.

MOZART SEASON

For anyone who knows me, they know my favorite band ever is the California screamo band 'Mozart Season'. They are somewhat well known especially within local screamo/hardcore scenes all over America. They are currently on their first Coast to Coast tour, and I went to their first ever New England show (at Club Hell in Providence, RI) on 8/21. They were late do to a flat tire but they finally came on and played one of the best sets I have ever heard in my life. After their set I finally got to meet all the members of Mozart Season. They were awesome. After getting their EP "Apotheosis" signed by all members and buying a new band shirt, I went outside and got to hangout with all the members for the next 2 hours outside of the venue. They were wicked chill. So myself and my two friends I was with decided to go to show on 8/23 in Lynn, MA which would be their last East Coast show on the tour. Benton, the guitarist, gave me his phone number so we could get in touch and hang out after the next show. So after getting to Lynn we hung out with the members before their set. I sang to ALL their songs when they were playing and of course I was stil the closest person up there to the stage. After this show they needed a place to stay the night. So, after asking my mom, she said yes! Wow, my FAVORITE band EVER is going to be staying at MY house! My friend Chris and myself were so stoked it was ridiculous. So they came over and we partied for a few hours. It was awesome. One day they're just your favorite band, now their actually your friends. It was an extremely great weekend for myself and my friends Chris, Kevin, and Keith. We are all HUGE fans of Mozart Season.
Anyways, I didn't bring my camera to either show due to my insurance running out on my Nikon but here's a couple of pictures from my house while Mozart Season was there.

(DUE TO CRAPPY BLOGGER IT MAY CROP MUCH OF THE PICTURE, CLICK IT TO REDIRECT TO MY FLICKR)


Josh (drums), Kevin, Nate (vocals), Troy (bass), Sam (guitar), and Benton (guitar)



(Back): Josh (drums), Troy (bass), Chris, Me, Benton (guitar), and Keith
(Front): Sam (guitar) & Nate (Vocals)



Nate (vocals) and myself.

No more Canada

Due to me getting re-hired at Hanson McDonalds, I will no longer be able to go to Montana and Alberta, Canada for three weeks :(
But I will still be selling my Nikon D40x so I can save up for a Canon EOS 40D

Boston - June 2009

Del-Mar-Va trip

from May. Camped on Assateague Island and at Delaware Seashore State Park.













and, an HDR

Some more old infrared pictures

from when I had a Sony F717.

Canon EOS Rebel G (35mm SLR)

Today, I got a Canon EOS Rebel G from a friend. The Rebel G is a consumer-level SLR made by Canon starting in 1996. I haven't used it yet, but I will be sure to run a roll through it before I take it to Montana and the Canadian Rockies region in August. I will be on that trip for 3 weeks! This new-to-me camera has a Canon 35-80mm lens. Doing a little research, I found out this consumer lens is pretty bad. Luckily kicking around (somewhere) is a manual focus Sigma 28-70mm lens that I used with my old professional model Canon EOS-1N. Also if I were to use the Canon lens, I have heard that using Agfa film will produce better images than using Kodak. Granted I almost never use Kodak film, I use Fuji.

Here's the deal...

I just shut down www.KurtTarvis.com. I was using Yahoo! Small Business for it, and I just didn't like it. So, my new site is with Zenfolio. I will have the permanent address up once I pay for it.

Be Aware!! Bingo Cameras is a fraud!

No photography today but warning everyone to not use Bingo Cameras (www.bingocameras.com). Complete Bait and Switch. I nearly bought a Canon 50D off the site at a remarkable price of about $1000 with two IS lenses. I did some research on the site and found out that it isn't for real. They may even (upon placing your order) actually charge your card for other items, please read:
thoughts-of-dave

I have a new website!

So my new website is www.KurtTarvis.com
But no worries, I'm still going to be blogging on here!

Back to Hanson!

Welcoming myself back to Hanson.
Moved back home from Marshfield last week.

In the next few weeks as I get everything sorted out, I will have a lot of pictures from my short tenure living in Marshfield.

But, here are some pictures from earlier today. All taken before Whitman-Hanson 2009 Junior Prom. I didn't go, but I am going to Senior Prom on May 22nd.. The same day I get home from a vacation to Maryland (mainly Assateague).





one of my best friends, Colleen :)



Tom and Steve!



My best friend, Amy =)



Mel and Amy




Also, for those of you who like to read books.. I've been reading an awesome book by favorite author, J.A. Jance. The book is called 'Rattlesnake Crossing'.

Infrared.

Within the next few days, I'm going to be moving from Hanson, MA to Marshfield, MA. I will be taking a lot of pictures, but since there is no internet where I'm moving my posts will be less frequent than they already are. But I still intend to be taking pictures :)



Anyways, here's an infrared shot from Factory Pond in Hanson.

3-18-09: Portraits

This is really the first time I've ever tried to seriously take portraits.

Subjects: Amy Welch and Alicia Welch.
Location: Factory Pond, Hanson, MA
Set up: Nikon D40X; 18-55 & 55-200mm lens; Cokin P Sunset & Gradual Tobacco filters.

Tomorrow, I'll try and upload the pictures from my Infrared Canon G5 which are also from this session.

Leave some comments, though no one ever reads this :)

PS- I also took the liberty to leave the links on the pictures that Blogger has so rudely decided to crop (applies to wide images).





Alicia




Alicia




Amy




Amy (click to see full)




Amy




Amy and Alicia (click to see full)

Chris and Lilly

3-11-09
7:30ish AM
South Weymouth, MA
Nikon D40x w/ Nikkor 18-55 & Cokin Gradual Tobacco

Today's my bday!

Finally turned 17... Just 365 more days until I'm an adult!

I had the day off work, after working 18 straight days. Ugh. But at around 3:30 I went to Panera Bread with Amy and Nikki. Then we went to McDonald's to get Kevin. Then we got more food at the Abington Ale House!

So here's my 17th bday picture.




Also took some pictures of my Pentax K1000 35mm SLR.

Brrrr. ANOTHER storm.

yet another winter storm here (South Shore of Massachusetts)








Would have taken more today, but I was about to work a 10 hour shift at work.

Colorado 2/08

I'm pretty sure I only publicly (i.e. on Flickr) let people view 1% of my pictures. Then, I forget about the rest.

Colorado, 2/08.


PS - Sorry about the automatic cropping Blogger does.. Is there a way to change it?




This was in Estes Park, and as you can see, it was brutally post processed via Picnik.com. Used it formerly as the old main picture for the original www.KurtTarvisPhotography.com, before I had it redirected to come here to Blogger.



Heading in to the foothills of the Rockies.



Snow-covered peaks. Behind me in the beautiful Stanley hotel, which was somewhat referenced in the book The Shining.



The Stanley Hotel.



Snowshoeing up in the mountains, very fun, but extremely challenging for my first time.


My first experience with these wonderful pests!

the undiscovered infrared shots from Myles Standish State Park

I was looking through my Flickr account and I have like 3,700 pictures that are set to private, and I found some of these infrared shots. All are directly out of the camera, no editing. I have never seen these before!

They are all from Myles Standish State Park, Massachusetts in June 2008 when my Aunt, Uncle, and myself stayed a couple nights with some other family members before the 3 of us ventured to Maine & Canada.

My picture of the day..

Canon PowerShot G5, IR converted.
PP: B&W in Adobe Photoshop CS2

Anyone in the South Shore of MA who likes hikes

Obviously here in Massachusetts' South Shore, there isn't rugged mountains to hike like there is back out West in the Rockies, but there are still some pretty nice areas to explore. One of them, right here in Hanson & Halifax, is Burrage Pond Wildlife Management Area. These 1,625 acres of public land isn't just the old Bog 18 (formally the biggest bog in the world) but its history dates back to the Native Americans that used to travel those lands. Now adays, the land has been used for Cranberry farming for many many years, but now you can hike in the diverse 1,625 acres of land. At one point you'll see working bogs, then venture in to sand pits, then come across a pond, and then a forest and then into a swamp!

Here's some pictures from my countless treks:

Panasonic Lumix FS3 review

I've been meaning to do a review for this camera for the past week. I have been fond of the Panasonic Lumix line since I used my Uncle's Panasonic Lumiz TZ1 (5 megapixels, 10x optical) back when we were on vacation in August 2006 in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. But I had never really used a camera before, so some shitty 1.3 megapixel camera from Digital Concepts probably would have amazed me. Anyways, months later I recieved a Panasonic Lumix LZ3 (5 megapixels, 6x optical) for Christmas from the same Uncle and Aunt. Exactly 2 years and 2 days later, I purchased my new borderline of ultra-compact point and shoot camera, a Panasonic Lumix FS3. I was sort of iffy because of the low price of $120-something at Best Buy (last one in stock at Taunton, MA). But I figured it may be a little better, or at least the equivelent of my aging and beat Sony Cyber-Shot P200 (7.2 megapixels, 3x optical). Upon opening my new toy, I fell in love. a HUGE and super realistic LCD screen, a built in Leica lens (my LZ3 lacked a Leica lens), and a very compact design that is now my most compact camera by far. I was not looking for a sophisticated camera by any means, but really a good quality camera that I can bring to parties (and trust me, I've already done that) or out on a short hike when I don't want to bring an SLR or dSLR such as my Nikon D40x. Mechanically, the FS3 features an 8 megapixel sensor and 3x optical zoom. Also it has very very very VERY basic shooting modes (Intelligent Auto, Normal Picture, Scene mode 1 & 2, and Motion picture. It does feature a number of cool scene modes though, such as Baby 1 & 2 where you can set the age and name of the baby, which I used on my friends newborn, Lily (see earlier posts in December 2008). Really the only dislikes about the lack of modes are a manual or at least semi manual mode so I can change my shutter speeds. Using Starry Sky (the mode with longest shutter time) it can stay open to a maximum of 8 seconds, when on the Sony P200 it could stay open to 30 seconds on a manual mode. Anyways, other YAYS! of the camera are that it features 'Mega' Optical Image Stabilization, Intelligant ISO Control, Face Detection, and Intelligent Scene Selector. Also, another thing I love is the FS3 supports SDHC cards.
Here's some pics!




my best friend Amy Welch, no flash.


with flash


lol @ us.


Bella, Amy's dog. Looks so nice here... devil dog!


Lily Molinari





Image quality: ***½/*****
Design (looks): *****/*****
Design (feel): ***½/*****
Value: *****/*****
Overall rating: ****/*****

This is definitely a great camera for the value. I'm so happy with my purchase. The only downfall besides the lack of manual modes is that above ISO 100 grain becomes visible quick. That's the problem with putting so many megapixels into these TINY little sensors...
But this is still an awesome camera. I have it in my main bag with all my SLR's. But I also have my mini LowePro bag just for it =]

Canon PowerShot G5 (infrared converted) Review

My new Canon PowerShot G5 (modified for infrared ONLY) is pretty much awesome. I have used a Sony CyberShot F717 and a Nikon D40X for infrared photography, but they aren't as good as this (even though they all capture in different ways).

The Canon PowerShot G5 features a 5 megapixel sensor. Maximum image size 2592 x 1944 pixels. And features ISO modes 50, 100, 200, and 400. This is a pretty advanced camera, and features 12 Canon EOS based shooting modes and even has a built in ND filter. Among other features is the 4x optical zoom, built in flash, and movable screen.

This is a durable but heavy camera that is very powerful.

In the infrared world it works great. I believe it has a 720nm IR filter inside. It works extremely well in PURE daylight compared to my Sony F717 that was terrible in daylight even with a Hoya R72 IR screw-on filter. Bot the F717 and the G5 have a descent amount of grain, but the G5 does better.

Because of the numerous modes in the camera there are plenty of Faux IR colors that can be recorded, or you can just use the built in Black and White mode.


Here's a B&W IR shot from the G5:


A faux IR Color shot from the G5:




Now, here's a B&W IR shot from my Nikon D40X:
**No conversion. Cokin-P IR 89B, Cokin-P Red, Cokin P- Gradual Neutral Grey filters @ 60.4 seconds



And here's the same image, just unconverted, straight out of camera:


Here's an IR shot from the Sony F717 in B&W:



The picture from the Sony looks the best, but IR is best in the summer months when there is more vegetation.


Anyways, overall ratings:
Image quality: ****½/*****
Design (looks): ****/*****
Design (feel): *****/*****
Value: *****/*****
Overall rating: *****/*****

A+. No complaints.

South Dakota 9/08

From my end of summer Western trip




^^ Badlands National Park, SD.



Custer State Park, SD

More later =]

a couple more from the IR G5

Those were from my yard this morning. I was going to take my camera out to Burrage Pond Wildlife Management Area, Hanson/Halifax, MA but I left my boots at work and there's still plenty of snow on the ground =[

Happy 2009! And welcome the Canon G5 to my family

Happy New Year everyone! 2008 wasn't a very good year for myself but 2009 will be better. This year shall be my last full year living in Massachusetts before I move out to Arvada, Colorado in 2010.

This morning I got my Canon PowerShot G5 infrared converted camera.
I brought it to work with me and here's what I have gotten so far.

Farewell to my Sony F717

(credit www.dpreview.com)

My Sony CyberShot F717 is a pretty old camera. First available in 2002 for $1,000. It has a large (attached) Carl Zeiss lens with 5x optical zoom. Another awesome feature is that you can tilt the lens so you can get different angles, and that has come in handy quite a bit! Features a 5 megapixel CCD (very good for 2002). The reason I purchased this was for the NightShot feature. When you turn this feature on in darkness, you can see. So, yes, it is ¨night vision¨. But because some asswipes figured out (on previous models) you can see through certain clothes (the x-ray effect). When you use this feature in lightness it washes out and is pretty much white, but with the use of an Infrared filter, such as the Hoya R72 or Cokin 89B, you can cature amazing infrared pictures. Here's to the memories!

I sold the F717 to buy an IR converted Canon PowerShot G5 (5 megapixel, 4x optical zoom).

Boston w/ Cokin red & orange filters

All these were taken with my 10.2 megapixel Nikon D40x dSLR in Boston, MA on December 3, 2008 with Cokin P-series Red & Orange filters. All set to scenery scene mode.

Sharp Sidekick LX photography

My cellular service is T-Mobile and I have a Sidekick LX (brown) by Sharp. It's an awesome phone with a lot of cool features. The camera is very very poor for such an expensive phone. I believe it's 1.3 megapixels, but megapixels aren't the only thing that matters. For example my Panasonic Lumix LZ3 (5MP) beats the hell out of my Samsung S860 (8.1MP). Anyways...

(above; Lilly Molinari. 12/28/2008, 8 days old)

(above; Chris Molinari and 8 day old daughter Lilly. 12/28/2008)

(above; Chelsea Morrill and myself. 12/16/2008)

(above; Snow storm at work. 12/20/2008)

(above; Boston, Massachusetts. 12/3/2008)

As you can see, its quality is at its best in very good lighting. But when you don't have a legit camera with you, this may or may not get the job done. It did fine in all of these.

The end of 2008 camera binge!

Well, for Christmas my best friend Amy got me a $75 gift card to RitzCamera! So the next day I decided it'd be a great time to purchase a new compact camera to update from my Sony CyberShot-P200 (7.2 megapixel, 3x optical zoom). The man at Ritz, who didn't really know what he was talking about suggested the LOW priced Samsung S860 (8.1 megapixel, 3x optical zoom).

Here's my uber quick review of the Samsung S860:
Pros:

• Quick start up
• Descent picture quality
• Descent color quality
• Low grain below ISO 200
• Easy to use design
• Extremely inexpensive ($84)
• Has a manual settings mode

Cons:

• Very poor AF and macro
• Back buttons may be hit with thumb, especially zoom
• Hard to produce portraits and face shots even with ''Face Detection''
• Images at ISO above 200 have very noticable grain
• Shutter won't stay open for more than 8 seconds on Manual setting
• Has an extremely cheap, almost toy like feeling

Image quality: **½/*****
Design (looks): ***/*****
Design (feel): **/*****
Value: ***/*****
Overall rating: **½/*****



Then, the very next day, extremely unhappy with my purchase from RitzCamera (still my favorite store though) I was at Best Buy in Taunton, MA and I was looking a for a camera to replace the Samsung. I was quite impressed by the Panasonic Lumix FS3. The FS3 was priced at $120 and features 8 megapixels and 3x optical zoom with a Leica lens. I was impressed by the Lumix line when I first recieved my very first digital camera in 2006, a Panasonic Lumix LZ3 (5 megapixel, 6x optical zoom). Even though the FS3 doesn't even come close to my old LZ3 in the optical zoom region, I was looking for an ultra compact camera, and the FS3 isn't quite ultra compact but it will do a lot better than the LZ3 or the CyberShot-P200. I haven't used the FS3 enough to right a review, but I shall soon enough.

Later that day, I realized I just made $320 by selling my Canon EOS-1N Professional 35mm SLR, so now I can afford an infrared converted camera to replace my elderly Sony CyberShot F717 (old enough to feature Sony's NightShot feature). I was going to buy the Sigma SD14 (4.6 megapixels, despite the 14 megapixels it's advertised as because of the Foveon X3 sensor) dSLR that can be used for infrared by removing the dust/IR blocker directly behind the lens, but the kit is about $700-1000+, and I really don't have that much. But I figured a converted point and shoot could be okay. So I purchased an infrared converted Canon PowerShot G5 (5 megapixel, 4x optical zoom). I am awaiting that in the mail!

So, three cameras purchased in 24 hours. I'm terrible.

East Quoddy Lighthouse, NB, Canada

On July 4, 2008, I was in Maine doing a little traveling. Then we all decided lets drive to Canada. So, we took the bridge from Maine to the small New Brunswick island of Campobello. Also known as Head Harbour Lighthouse, which has watched over Passamaquoddy Bay (in the Bay of Fundy) since 1829, making it one of Canada's oldest light stations.

Sweetwater Creek State Park, Georgia

(June 2008. Nikon D40x. credit: myself.)

Whenever I go to Georgia, I make it a plan that I am going to visit Sweetwater Creek State Park. Located 15-20 minutes west of Downtown Atlanta and just east of Douglasville is this very woodsy park. Sweetwater creek (the actual creek) is very rocky and quite rapid. Located right next to the creek is the remains of the New Manchester Manufacturing factory. There's much more than just the awesome ancient looking remains but the history behind it. George Stoneman's cavalry destroyed the factory on July 9, 1864.
-->Visit HERE to read more.

(July 2007. Panasonic LZ3. credit: myself.)

(July 2007. Panasonic LZ3. credit: myself.)

Georgia On My Mind...

I am updating this from the house of my siblings here in Douglasville, Georgia.
It's been a fun trip, I don't want to leave tomorrow night for damned Boston again, but it's whatever.
In the week I have been here I have explored an abandoned house on GA Highway 166, gone to my sister's high school graduation & party, went with my other sister to a show at The 7 Venue here in Douglasville, and tomorrow I will be visiting my favorite place in Georgia -- Sweetwater Creek State Park. Woo hoo!

Cinescope in Colorado

February 2008

Pikes Peak Trail, Colorado



Golden, Colorado