Sing, Choirs of Angels

I have long enjoyed singing in ward choirs.  Some ward choir directors were extremely competent and great teachers.  Some hymns were very challenging, and enjoyable, such as selections of Handel's Messiah, or Beethoven.  Christmas sacrament meetings were typical highlights. 

Several years I participated in a community choir and orchestra under Dr. Walter Richardson to perform Handel's Messiah.  The direction and skills required went up a definite notch for me.  And I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I have always enjoyed the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and in recent years have particularly enjoyed Mack Wilberg's arrangements as performed by them.  Their annual Christmas concerts are marvelous, and I own many DVDs of these performances.  It is my fantasy to sing for the Tabernacle Choir someday--but it will never happen.

Last December I attended the Christmas concert of the Portland Ensign Choir and Orchestra, and it was fantastic!  I attended another of their concerts in the spring.  I entertained thoughts of trying to join that choir, and several weeks ago saw a notice for auditions, and signed up.

I went to the audition, and heard others trying out in the adjacent room.  They were very good, and I felt intimidated.  I never had formal choir training.  No singing lessons.  I learned to read music playing the trumpet as a youth.  I never auditioned before.

I read the commitment form and was discouraged further.  Two hour mandatory practices every Tuesday night, September through June, with three concerts (one of which would be during my planned travel for my sabbatical).  I didn't feel I could commit.  When my turn came I was frank with the director and told him so, and that perhaps I could save his time and bag the audition.  He was supportive and said do the audition anyway, which I did.  I sang Redeemer of Israel, plus a number of vocal exercises at his direction.  He said I had a nice voice and seemed teachable, thought they could be flexible with my sabbatical schedule, and invited me to stay for the choir practice that evening.

I thought, "Well, I'm already here.  Perhaps I'll just stay for the practice."  Wow!  I was immediately hooked by the glorious musical selections for the upcoming Christmas concert, by the obvious talent all around me, and the expert direction.  I wanted to do this!

A few days later I got an email acceptance into the choir as a baritone.  I've been to every practice and have spent hours learning and practicing the music (we must memorize it--no sheet music at the concert).  It is very hard, but so rewarding.  This is kind of like the Portland metro area equivalent of the Tabernacle Choir, so I'm living my fantasy, in a way.

More and more Wheat Chex

It is time for my annual blog post about stocking up on Wheat Chex when they are on sale.  Seems like that happens every year about this time.  Here is a link from previously.

No coupons this year, but $1.95 is a pretty good price.  Only 18 boxes this purchase.  Plus, for variety, a single box of Grape Nuts Flakes.

I stash them on top of the kitchen shelves.  There are some Raisin Nut Bran in there, as well.

I find Wheat Chex to be the best cereal for fending off hunger.  I can go well past noon or 1:00 before lunch.  Raisin Nut Bran taste better, but I get hungry a little earlier.  Something like Cheerios?  Forget it--I'm starving by 10:00.

Guten Appetit!

A Miraculous Device

I sometimes think that our parents or grandparents must have experienced the most dramatic changes during their lifetimes--automobiles, airplanes, telephones, radio, TV, home appliances, medical advances.  But I have to say my lifetime has been no slouch in that respect.

Here  and here are posts I wrote in recent months with some examples from my life.  Computers and other technology improvements are profound in our day.

But there is one piece of equipment I have which causes me to pause and marvel time and again--my Apple iPhone.

I remember just a few years ago carrying three devices with me on a hike and thinking what a miracle it would be if the functions could be combined into one handheld device--a cell phone, a GPS, and a PDA.  The iPhone does all these, and so much more.

Time was when I resisted all the Apple hype for iPods, iPhones, etc.  I had a Windows smart phone once and it was okay.  Three years ago I finally played around enough with an iPhone after hearing so many rave about it that I decided to get one.  I haven't looked back for a millisecond.  I use it ALL THE TIME, for a wide variety of things.  I often refer to it as "my brain".

Here is a demonstration video I just did.



What will they think of next!

Cameras, Part 4

Sorry for so many "gear head" posts.  But what do you expect from an engineer?  Stay with me.

So, the problem is we have multiple cameras, each good for specific situations.  The small ones are great for traveling, hiking, and sticking in a purse or pocket.  But they don't have the superior image quality of a DSLR, nor larger sensors for improved low light shots, nor interchangeable lenses.  The DSLR takes fantastic photos, but is bulky and inconvenient to lug around, and the one we have doesn't do videos.  We are bumping up against its 6MP so I have been shopping for a replacement.  While I'm at it, I decided to open up the shopping beyond the traditional DSLR.

So, the Holy Grail of cameras would have the following traits:

Compact size (okay, pocket sized is asking too much, but how about fits in a reasonable belt pack)

Large sensor for improved image quality and low light performance

Interchangeable lenses for zooms, primes, etc.

Has an option for one "travel" zoom lens that spans at least 28 to 300mm (35mm equivalent)

Takes HD videos

Has all the features of a DSLR (bracketing, manual control, etc.)

Priced no greater than mid-range DSLR


There are a number of other features that I personally prefer, like a viewfinder, built in flash, articulating screen, dedicated movie record button--but those above are the main ones.

A couple of years ago I bought a Sony Nex-3, a mirrorless smallish camera, which scores very highly on all the points above, but it didn't have a long enough zoom to cover all the bases.  I always thought of it as a notch below DSLRs.  Almost all of the Sunriver photos (see slideshow in the column to the right) were taken with this camera.  But as I'm doing more research I found there is an 18-200 zoom lens for it.  And the image quality is right up there with DSLRs.  In fact, this camera uses the same sensor type as most DSLRs.  The lens isn't cheap, and it would make for a somewhat bulky belt pack, but it just might be the closest I can come to the Holy Grail.

Here is a neat Sony promotional video for a new camera in this series.   (I feel like I'm starting to drink the Sony Kool-aid.  By the way, anyone know who did the soundtrack music for this video?)



I'll be continuing my research, and then seeing if there are any deals on Black Friday or the weeks leading to Christmas.  Wish me luck!

Cameras, Part 3

Somewhere along the way we purchased a pocket sized camera with auto focus and power zoom.  This was very convenient for travel, handled the focus, and made framing/composing the shot easy (via the zoom lens).

In 2004 we joined the digital camera revolution.  We got a largish pocket sized 4MP Canon S45.

This little camera was a marvel!  Digital film was cheap and this took great pictures.  And we could record movies with it.

We used this camera during our trip to Syria in 2005.

In 2006 we upgraded our SLR to a DSLR, staying with the Pentax brand so we could use our existing zoom lenses.  It was a 6MP K100D.

This camera could do everything our film SLR could do and more, but with digital film.  And it has optical image stabilization, to reduce the effects of camera shake.

Along the way we upgraded our pocket digital camera as well.

We still use this one when we go backpacking.

Seems like we have all the bases covered.  But it is time to update our DSLR so I'm in search of the Holy Grail of cameras.  To be continued . . .

Cameras, Part 2

This past winter while doing our photographic slide scanning project, I was immediately struck by the instant dramatic improvement in picture quality beginning in September 1989.  Very few out of focus shots, almost none with poor exposure.  There were appealing shots with bokeh (purposely blurry foregrounds and backgrounds), and dramatic shots with powerful zooms.  The reason?  I had purchased a 35mm SLR camera with two zoom lenses, the Pentax SF10.

It was like a new world of photography had opened up.  The other thing I noticed beginning in late 1989 was a dramatic increase in the quantity of our photographs, both slides and prints.

Here is a shot of the Portland Temple from late 1989, which won first prize at our county fair the following summer.

This photo shows some zoom and bokeh effects.

We have numerous wonderful photos for subsequent years.  But there were three problems with using this great new camera.  35mm film and processing were relatively expensive, the camera with lenses was bulky (not convenient to carry around), and camera shake could still be a problem.  This led to a couple of new developments and cameras.  Stay tuned for part 3.

In Search of the Holy Grail of Cameras

As a youth the only camera I had access to was a simple "Brownie" style--no focus or exposure settings.  It took acceptable pictures in ample daylight.  Here is an example photo--my coed softball team at BYU in 1971.

And another from my mission in Oberhausen, Germany.

On my mission in Germany I purchased a pocket sized fully manual camera, the Rollei 35.

The portability was outstanding, and I enjoyed manipulating the exposure settings for shutter speed, aperture, and film speed.  It had a light meter on top to help with the settings, but the focus had to be guessed based on distance and a scale on the lens.  A flash could be attached to the underside (which had the unfortunate unflattering trait of casting a shadow up the face). I got some good shots with this camera, but also many with poor exposure and/or focus.


This was our primary camera during the years our kids were growing up, until 1989.  Lots of hit and miss on quality, but here are a few examples.

I love this photo, but the focus is off--see the sharp counter top behind them?

This next one's pretty good.

 

 Here's an example of underexposure.  Lots like this in our archives.

Here is an example of the upward facing flash.  Cute picture, but technically poor.

And two examples of camera shake.  With low light conditions the shutter is open longer so a tripod or very still hand is needed.


It is interesting as I look back at photos taken with this camera.  There were entire rolls of film with underexposed images, perhaps due to a low battery or incorrect film speed setting.  Focus and camera shake were persistent problems.



In September 1989 there was a dramatic change in the quality of our photo archives.


To be continued . . .