Glory Days! -New Edit Suite

Got my new edit suite at the office yesterday...

MacPro w/Dual Quad-Core 2.6's - 12G/ram - &2 Tb

AJA IO

FCS 2

Apple Cinema Display

& Some extra storage...

Hopefully things will speed up now! Old set up is a G4 733 w/ 512 mb/ram. Edited on this thing everyday for 3 years, now it's time to see how the rest of the world lives....

Some portraits from this weekend

Did some shooting this weekend...  

Ashlynn played outside w/ her Dad and Mom, while I snapped away.  Lighting was an issue, we were shooting around 8:00p. White Balance was all over the place, every one of these had to be corrected.

Ashlynn tends to be very pleasant, which makes for a fairly easy shoot on my end.  Really, all I have to do is keep up w/ her.  

See the whole set here.

Some time this week we'll be shooting studio portraits of Ashlynn, so be sure and check back!  For information on booking portrait shoots in the Washington, PA area click here.

So much for a motivated day...

Well I was motivated by Chase's blog post two days ago, but due to the constant influx of new projects, I was stuck in my office until late... Subsequently, I snapped this with my iPhone:

Not exactly what I had in mind when I said "going to do something."  Luckily, I am going to have a pretty free weekend so I'll be super creative to make up for it!  Look for Pic updates as the weekend goes...  I've set up a flickr set here

Also, I'm shooting family portraits tonight w/ Julie, Kris, and Ashlynn.  Look for those updates in the next few days. 

Do something for you

One of my favorite blogs is that of Chase Jarvis. Today, chase blogged about getting out and doing something either for yourself or something that you rarely do. Just do something creative! See Chase's post here.
As a result, I am going to do something. Not quite sure what yet, maybe 100 iphone pics by the end of the day, maybe write the script I've been thinking about writing, maybe go to the local nature trail and take pics, or maybe I'll organize some prints to have made into a book. Regardless, I would encourage you to do the same. Check Chase's Post, there are some great ideas on there! What ever I do, I'll share it tomorrow. Any ideas, please feel free to leave comments!

Tammi's Turtle Tank - update 4

Drilled the hole...

From T's Turtle Tank Journal Pics

I didn't actually "drill" this hole, instead I used a dremel w/ a grinding wheel and a steady flow of water to keep it from shattering. It took a while...

Ordered the turtles today! I should have 'em by noon tomorrow. Watch for pics!

Tammi's Turtle Tank update 3 - The Background

I'm trying to make this environment as realistic looking as possible. Great Stuff expanding insulation foam is great for carving out features and shapes. Once you get the desired shape, you can cover it in Silicone and put sand / rocks / coco fiber, or anything else you wish to, on it. I will be using a combination of rocks and coco fiber.
I started with a piece of fluorescent light diffusion. This is available at any Home Depot or Lowes.

From T's Turtle Tank Journal Pics

Next, I added the Great Stuff

From T's Turtle Tank Journal Pics

From T's Turtle Tank Journal Pics

After Letting it cure, I test fitted it.



In front of the background there will have to be a land area w/ a beach or bog so that the turtles can get out to bask. For this I'll be using Pine Boards covered in Silicone and Coco Fiber. I got the Pine Boards idea from Nat Tarbox.

Here is what I came up with...

From T's Turtle Tank Journal Pics

The perpendicular pieces of wood will ensure that the substrate doesn't get washed away in the bog area.

From T's Turtle Tank Journal Pics

Here's the background sanded away to fit the land mass.

From T's Turtle Tank Journal Pics

I should make a quick note: It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep all of this hidden from T. She is really wondering why I am spending so much time in the basement making crazy grinding noises...
Anyway, next post will be the hole in the tank for the bulkhead.

Tammi's Turtle Tank update 2

Stand update:

The stand has been sanded and primed.
After discussing it with the guys over at Senetsen Products, I am probably going to finish the stand with High-Gloss White Spray Paint that has the "Hammered" texture. Hopefully this will hide any imperfections in my rather-poor sanding job.

Equipment Update:
I picked up a "Statuary Pump" at Lowes last weekend, I'll use this for the wet/dry filter return line. The plan all along has been to use the wet/dry to ensure maximum filtration. The Red Eared Sliders that will be in this tank can be VERY messy! I've also ordered a piece of VooDoo Wood from Herp Supplies, and cork bark background for the land area.

Tank:
I had an old 20 gallon tank that I got from my buddy, Matt. He had started to removed the old silicone seals.

After removing the rest of the silicone, I began replacing it w/ GE Silicone I. From what I've read, this is perfectly safe for fish / turtles / other living things. It is a lot cheaper than buying "Aquarium Silicone"


Silicone takes AT LEAST 24 hours to cure. After waiting 36 hours, I began to fill it:

So far so good...


I left this water in there for about 12 hours. No drips at all. I was pretty impressed w/ myself.

To get water from the tank to the wet/dry filter I'm going to use an overflow pipe. Instead of going the safe way and getting (building) a hang on back overflow, I've decided just to drill the tank. There seem to be a few different ways to do this. In my next post, I'll describe how I did it.