Photography
Jason O'Flaherty
Fiber Optic Rock Photography

Discover the unique optical properties of Ulexite, often called "TV rock," and its application in creative photography. This article explores the challenges of using the mineral to capture striking landscape images and details innovative solutions, such as projecting images through Ulexite with a smartphone and an iPad. Insights into the creative and technical process are accompanied by compelling visuals showcasing the results.

Fiber Optic Rock Photography
Photography
Jason O'Flaherty
What are Drop-In Filters?

Curious about drop-in filters and how they fit into high-end lenses like the Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3? When I first encountered them, I found little to no explanation about what they were or how they worked—until I got hands-on. In this article, I break down the mystery behind drop-in filters, show you how they function, and share tips on where to find replacements. Whether you’re a wildlife or astronomy photographer, this guide will help you get the most out of your gear. Click to learn more!

What are Drop-In Filters?
Photography Tutorial
Jason O'Flaherty
11 Secrets to Stunning Zoo Photography

Unlock the secrets to capturing stunning wildlife photos at the zoo. With 11 expert tips, you’ll learn how to transform ordinary zoo snapshots into professional-level portraits. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned photographer, these insights will help you elevate your zoo photography to new heights.

11 Secrets to Stunning Zoo Photography
Product Reviews
Jason O'Flaherty
Ulanzi Cooling Fan

The Ulanzi Cooling Fan is a cost-effective solution for preventing camera overheating, significantly extending recording times for models like the Sony ZV-1 and Fujifilm X-H2. Learn more about its impressive features and why it's a must-have accessory for videographers.

Ulanzi Cooling Fan

Rode Wireless Go Mic Update

Update July 13, 2019:
See original post below

I contacted Rode’s customer service via email explaining that the Power button on my receiver unit was faulty. I wasn’t expecting much because the device technically still works. I also am always leery of getting a replacement for a brand new product that I can’t just return to the store. I was afraid they would need me to send back my defective one and then wait for weeks while they fix it, but I thought I’d give it a try contacting them.

My Email to Rode

I got the standard automated response back saying someone would get in touch with me in 48-72 hours, then almost immediately after, another email that said due to higher support volume, it may take longer than 72 hours. My hopes weren’t high at this point.

However, less than 48 hours later, Peter emailed me back and no questions asked offered to send me a replacement provided I return my defective product in a prepaid envelope. Of course I would.

Rode’s Reply

Rode’s Reply

I sent them the information they wanted the following day and waited.

6 days later I got an email saying that the shipment was delayed, but they expected it to ship in the next 72 hours. I wasn’t surprised by this because from what I could tell, this product was in high demand (hence why it was sold out in stores and online when I bought it) and I assumed their supply was low.

7 days later, so a bit longer than the 72 hours promised, they sent me a UPS tracking number. 3 days later (accounting for the timezone difference) the box was at my front door.

All in all, it was a very pleasant experience and I was so distracted by other things, holidays, preparations for a trip, etc, that it seemed much faster than it does now that I go back and look at time stamps of emails.

I was really surprised when I looked at the customs form and saw more than just the replacement unit. (Yes, I admit that I knew what was in the box before I opened it). I decided that this level of customer service quality needed to be shared. However, I did not know if the button would be fixed or if there would be another issue so I also felt it would be beneficial to let the public know if the faulty button was a systemic problem or a one off.

As you can see in the video, the replacement unit works just fine. I’m going to contact Rode about sending back the faulty unit though so once I hear from them, I’ll update it here.

If you like the audio quality in this video (shot entirely with the Rode Wireless Go) you can pick one up here and help support my channel:
Rode Wireless Go: https://amzn.to/2XrQPyd

The Follow Up Video

Original Post June 24th, 2019:

The Rode Wireless Go microphone uniquely combines the mic directly into the transmitting pack, eliminating the need to wire up the speaker with a corded lavalier mic, but is the audio any good? Let’s compare it to the competition in its pro-sumer price range with an audio test!

I’m pretty happy with the audio quality from the microphone so far and really looking forward to not having to use my lavalier mic. The cable on those drives me nuts, plus the audio quality on mine that came with the Zoom F1 Field Recorder doesn’t have much dynamic range. The Rode Wireless Go on the other hand does a much better job capturing the bass and tenor fluctuations of my speech.

1 Amazon Reviewer said they had issues with the transmitter not switching back to internal microphone after plugging in an external mic, but I haven’t experienced that issue. The only issue I have, as I said in the video, is that the power button is hard to press on the receiver. I’ll update this post if/when I hear from Rode on getting it serviced or replaced under warranty.

If you decide to pick one up for yourself, please consider using the affiliated link on the right to support this channel.

The Original Video

The rest of the items
Rode Wireless Go: https://amzn.to/2XrQPyd
Rode VideoMicro: https://amzn.to/2Y8QAVZ
Zoom F1: https://amzn.to/2FtD4Vw
Zoom H5: https://amzn.to/2Y8yu6p
Zoom Stereo Shotgun Mic: https://amzn.to/2XpHPcX
Fujifilm X-T3: https://amzn.to/2WZ6RLF
Sony FDR-AX53: https://amzn.to/2FvNFPA

Anker PowerCore+ 26800

After spending hours comparing different brands, capacities and features, I ended up settling on the Anker PowerCore+ 26800 and here’s why.

  1. I bought this specifically to take on my week long trip backpacking off grid. I am planning to film a lot and knew I needed high capacity. This power bank is up there near the top of the list before you start getting into either excessively large power stations or batteries that are not safe for airplanes. While I’m not flying on this trip, I wanted to make sure it could be taken on future trips as well.

  2. In addition, it needed to be compatible with all of my stuff. Last year I really tried to make sure nearly everything I own can use USB-C plugs so my battery bank needed to have one as well. The fewer cables that I have to carry, the better. Plus, USB-C has a multitude of other functions depending on the device. My phone can even charge other devices in a pinch.

  3. It also needed to be able to charge both itself and other devices quickly. I’m planning to carry 5-10 things on this trip that need charging and I can’t have one of them take several hours to charge. I need to be able to charge one quickly and move on to the next device so I’m not spending all my time focusing on batteries. This also means that it needs to be able to charge from more than one port at the same time so I can double or triple up on the devices. After a long day of hiking, I don’t want to have to stay extra time charging just so that I am ready to go in the morning.

  4. Lastly, it had to be from a brand I trust.

  5. A nice to have feature that I looked at was ruggedness. Is it water or drop resistant?

Eventually the list came down to just 2 devices, both from Anker

  • The Anker PowerCore+ 26800 PD

  • The Anker PowerCore 26800

Anker PowerCore+ 26800 PD

Both offer 26,800 mAh which is capable of charging my largest battery, my Pixel 3 XL (3430 mAh), almost 8 times. My other batteries are all around the 1,200 mAh capacity so they met criteria 1.

They are both by Anker, a trusted brand and a leader in power banks so they checked off criteria 4.

They both can charge from 3 ports at once and they both offer high speed charging of devices, as well as options to charge themselves quickly, meeting criteria 3.

Criteria 2 is where one stood out from the other significantly. The PowerCore+ has 2 USB-A ports and 1 USB-C which is capable of Power Delivery (a high power capacity standard) where as the PowerCore has 3 USB-A ports and 2 USB-Micro ports that are only good for charging itself.

Anker Powercore 26800

By going with the PowerCore+ I can reuse the USB-C cable for charging the power bank and for charging devices. With the PowerCore, I’d need to carry around 2 USB-Micro cables that are incompatible with most of my stuff so it’s extra baggage and one more thing to keep track of. Also, the PowerCore+, with its Power Delivery (PD), can charge itself in 4.5 hours using 1 PD capable charger (included) where as I’d need either 2 chargers or use 2 ports on a charger to charge the PowerCore in 6 hours.

Also, because the PowerCore+ can put out PD level power, it can charge high capacity devices, like laptops. It also offers higher speed charging of normal devices like phones compared to the speeds of the PowerCore.

I was also encouraged to see that FujiFilm, maker of my X-T3 camera, officially recommends the PowerCore+ for use with its cameras.

Unfortunately, neither had any water or drop resistance, but a good waterproof bag will serve the same purpose. It also has a pretty squishy carrying sack that should help protect it a bit.

Yes, I did end up paying twice as much for the extra features, but when you’re relying on a piece of equipment in the field, you have to pay for what you need.

I’ll be giving a post camping trip gear review and I’ll make sure to talk about if this power bank lived up to my expectations.

If you’re planning to buy one, I’d appreciate if you use my links below to help support my channel. It doesn’t cost any extra. I just get a little advertising revenue from Amazon.


Google Street View Tutorial - GoPro Fusion

Update #3!!! - 11/11/2019:
I've just learned from GoPro that you need to look at your GoPro GPS icon on the display to ensure it has GPS Lock. If it is just an outline then it doesn't have lock yet. It must be solid black. Hopefully that helps ensure GPS data is recorded to your video.

I've also tried this out using a GoPro Max. It kind of works. You can't use Timewarp because although it saves GPS data, the Desktop App won't export the GPS. It does work using Video mode, but you have to pick h.264 or hevc for the output type and click the "Retain GPMF Data" button. I also had to trim a 35 second clip into 3 pieces. Trailblazer didn't like the 35 second clip for some reason, but was fine with 10-15 seconds.

Update #2 - 10-15-2019:
After a recent Trailblazer version update, the files did finally switch over and stop saying Processing. They now show up correctly.

Update #1 - 07/15/2019:
The Tours never did leave the 'Processing' Status. I reached out to Panoskin tech support and they said based on what the Google Street App is showing, it appears the tours are processed. The Trailblazer software is still in Beta and they've recorded this as a bug that will need to be addressed in future releases. For the time being, they suggested I edit the name of the tour to "Processed" so that I can remember that they are finished.

Original Post 06/16/2019:
I’ve been uploading 360 photos to Google Maps for a while and know that they are available from Google Street View, however, I recently learned that you can map roads and upload that footage to Google Street View as well.

Why would you want to do this? Well, you can fill in the spots on the map that Google hasn’t driven past yet. You can also update areas that have changed considerably since the last time the Google Car drove past.

You can use several 360 cameras, but in this tutorial I’ll be using a GoPro Fusion 360 camera.

You’ll also need a free program called TrailBlazer which you can download here: https://www.panoskin.com/trailblazer

along with at least version 1.3 of the GoPro Fusion Studio to process the video from your Fusion camera: https://shop.gopro.com/softwareandapp/gopro-fusion-studio-app/fusion-studio.html

You can watch the video below for a more in depth tutorial, but the basic steps are:

  1. Turn on GPS on your Fusion Camera

  2. Set the quality to its highest which is 5.2k

  3. You can record either a video or a video time lapse. I recommend a video time lapse because it is easier to process the video

    1. If doing a video time lapse, set the interval to .5 seconds

  4. Record the section of the road you want to add to street view

  5. Process the video using Fusion Studio on your camera taking care to cut out the beginning and end parts of the video so that you only include the part where you are actually driving on the road

  6. Create a new adventure in the Trailblazer Program and upload the video that you created in step 5 and hope the GPS data didn’t get corrupt. (If it did, you’re out of luck and have to start again. See the video for tips on avoiding corruption)

  7. After Trailblazer finishes, wait for Google to process your footage (can take up to 2 weeks for it to be completely finished, but you can start to see sections on Google Street View within a few hours as it processes it)

Feel free to comment with any questions you might have. I’ll do my best to answer them. If you have advice on how to get better reliability with this process, I’d appreciate if you share those as well.


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Oregon Trail Camping Adventure

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Well, have I got an adventure to share with you. Let me start out by saying this write up has a lot more details than what’s the video so if you want all the details, keep reading.

Chimney Rock, NE

Despite living in Nebraska my whole life, I’ve only seen Chimney Rock once. There’s usually been about 500 miles separating me from it. The one time I did see it was on a family vacation as a child while heading up to South Dakota.

I see a lot of pictures from Nebraska photography groups that I follow showing the chimney and it’s been on my list to go out and see again. When I realized I needed to try out all of my backpacking gear, I decided now would be the perfect time to make a weekend trip out of visiting the Nebraska Panhandle.

I got off to a slower start than I had intended. I was up too late preparing my gear, but still managed to make it out of bed by 5:30 a.m. My goal was to make the 6 hour drive and arrive before noon so I’d have the entire afternoon free, but before long, trips to the gas station and the store and a return trip home and then waiting for the local Farmer’s Market to start selling the bread and breakfast burrito I was craving, all put my departure time further back to where I ended up leaving Lincoln at 8:30.

I decided since I was going to look at Chimney Rock, a feature on the Oregon Trail, I’d look to see if there were any audio books about it to gather information to pass on for the video and to kill the time.

I stumbled upon a series called Wagons West by Dana Fuller Ross with the first book being Independence!
Honestly, when I started out, I thought it was going to be non-fiction, but about 2 chapters in I realized I accidentally got a fiction book. It was still interesting and seemed accurate enough based on my understanding of the history. It’s a really easy listen with plot points that don’t take longer than 1 chapter to clear up. The Narrator is one of the best I’ve ever heard. If you’re interested about the Oregon Trail and want something simple to pass the time, check the series out.

Driving west along Intestate 80 between sunshine and 5 minute bursts of rain got me wondering where you could still see the Oregon Trail tracks at. I remembered reading years ago that it was possible. A Google search told me there were 9 spots where they were still relatively visible and one of them was only about a 15 minute detour out of my way.

I swung up to Brule, NE where I went on the hunt for California Hill. I cut it out of the video, but I spent about an hour trying to located the tracks. I drove up and down the dirt road looking for some sign of where to go.

California Hill Entrance

I was thrown off by the actual entrance because of the mailbox and behind the fence there was, what looked to be a tractor. I assumed it was private property, but after ruling out all other possibilities, I drove up and saw the Oregon and California Trail signs.

My Google Street View addition

To help others out, I went ahead and did a Google Street View recording since there wasn’t one for the area yet which is now live on Google maps here.

Needless to say as is evidenced by the video, I was really excited. I spent about an hour running up and down the trail taking photos and videos and Google Street View images that I will upload soon. I had great feedback on Facebook from all the other people who grew up learning about the Oregon Trail and how they wanted to see it themselves.

As I continued towards the campgrounds, I noticed Historical Marker indicating someone who died on the Oregon Trail was buried near by. I thought that would be really neat to visit. It’s not often you see a 150 year old tombstone.

The grave site was behind a fence that looked like it was normally open to the public, but that it just hadn’t yet been unlocked for the day so I decided to hop the fence and visit it. I took some photos and a Google Street View image of it so others can visit the site anywhere in the world. Personally, I don’t see this as being disrespectful. There’s nothing more I’d like in the afterlife than to know people were still visiting my grave and learning about who I was and my life story.

John Hollman. Born 1833. Died June 5, 1852 on the Oregon Trail.

Click to zoom in and read the text.

By now I was way behind schedule, despite gaining an hour due to the time zone change so I headed for the lake. When I decided on my camping location, I must have glazed over the actual spelling and instead read it as Lake Miniature, when in fact it is Lake MinATARE.

Upon arriving I realized 2 things. 1. It was WINDY as heck. It must have been 20 mph sustained and gusts up to 28 mph. 2. The trees there were really old. There were hardly any smaller trees and no lower ground cover. This did not bode well for my attempts to put up a hammock which requires about 17 feet of clearance between trees that are thin enough to wrap the straps around.

I drove around the lake for about an hour trying various spots that met my needs for the hammock. I settled on about 3 different spots before realizing they wouldn’t work. The on in the time lapse was abandoned because I realized I was on sand and the metal stakes in the ground wouldn’t hold the rain fly with the amount of wind.

The entire lake shore was nothing but sand, but some areas had some foliage that allowed me to get purchase with the stake which is what I finally decided on, but it forced me to shave some width off the tree which I absolutely hated doing. I realize that if everyone modifies a camp site to their needs then soon there won’t be any camp sites left.

After spending what seemed like hours finding a spot and figuring out how to set up my hammock, I was finally done around 7 p.m. just in time to enjoy the sunset before cooking up dinner.

View from a hammock

For dinner, I used my Jetboil Cooking Stove (see my video on it here) to cook up some freeze dried Fettuccine Alfredo by Backpacker’s Pantry. As far as freeze dried goes, it was really good.

I’d planned to do some star gazing and night photography, but the long day and lack of sleep the night before caught up with me and almost as soon as the sun went down, I was ready to call it a day.

The temperature went way down and despite putting on all of my clothes and jacket, I was still cold. Being so close to the water I’m sure affected that, but it was unseasonably cold anyway. Over night my core got too cold and I had to retreat to the car to turn on the heater. I think I had the under quilt to snug against the bottom of the hammock so it was being compressed. Compressed insulation doesn’t hold heat.

In the morning, tearing down the hammock was pretty easy. I’m not sure rolling is the best space saving packing method for all of gear though. It takes up a lot of room in my pack. I’ll have to look into folding or using a compression bag to suck air out and make it flatter.

Day 2 is when all my trouble happened.

It started with my DJI Mavic Air drone. I thought it would make a really neat transition shot to fly my drone from my current location over to the LightHouse. I didn’t realize just how far away the opposite shore of the lake was though. I in a no fly zone, but their was an airport no fly zone that ended about 4 miles away so I decided to be extra safe and only fly my drone 100 feet above the water.

After getting my drone almost a mile away, I started to lose connection. The controller said I still had 2 bars of connection left though so I figured I was just losing visual connection and that controlling the drone would still be fine. I realized I wasn’t going to have enough battery to go all the way to the LightHouse and back so I stopped, but thought about doing one of the predefined drone shots so started tapping on the phone to select one. I was still dealing with connectivity warnings.

Taken from the flight log

Next thing I know, I get a notification that the drone’s altitude is -18 feet and I got one picture of the water really close before the controller stopped updating information. I was panicking quite a bit because I couldn’t even recover the drone to send it in for repair if it went down in the middle of the lake so that means replacing the whole thing. Then the controller gives me the notification that I could tell the drone to return home so I smashed that button like there was no tomorrow. Soon the drone started giving updates to the controller again. I thought the drone maybe just got close to the water.

On the way back, I noticed the camera wasn’t responding to move commands. Sometimes when it is really windy, the drone has to lean one direction really hard and it is so far that the gimbal can’t compensate so I thought that was the issue. It wasn’t until the drone landed in my hands that I saw it was covered in water. The drone had either been splashed by a wave or actually got so low that it the propellers sprayed the water around. There was even water INSIDE the drone, like where the air vents are, water came out.

I pulled the footage off the SD card and the result was even more extreme than I thought. It actually plunged briefly into the water! It’s amazing that it made it back.

Mavic Air isn’t supposed to be amphibious

Well, the gimbal never did recover and I had to send it in to DJI for repairs. I tried to convince them that this was hardware/software failure because I didn’t to anything that would have caused the drone to go down 100 feet. Also the sensors that are supposed to prevent it from crashing into the ground (or presumably water) didn’t work. They reviewed the logs and footage and said that a landing notification was triggered. I know I wouldn’t have pressed land, 1 mile away over a lake, but had no way to prove it so I just paid the DJI Refresh Care price to have them fix it and get on with my life. I am however now out of DJI refresh care fixes so the next time the drone breaks, I’ll be paying full repair price.

Well, I had a lot of things still to do so I went on to check out the LightHouse of the Plains. As I drove around the lake, I noticed I had a low tire pressure light on. I got out and saw my back driver’s side tire was a bit low. Driving around in the country the previous day looking for the Oregon Trail must have put a nail in it. It seemed like a slow leak so I thought I’d just add some air and drive on it.

I kept it as a souvenir

Well, I hooked up my portable air compressor, but didn’t get a very good seal on the valve. I went to take the air compressor clamp off, which was very tight, and then I felt something snap and all the air started rushing out of the tire. I stood there in disbelief looking at the piece of the valve that had snapped off and was now sitting in my hand.

This meant I had to get out the spare tire. I was really concerned because I wasn’t sure if any of my other tires had nails and if I got a flat, I’d be out of luck and have to call a tow company. Also, as I’ve found out in the past, most tire shops are closed on Sundays. Fortunately a park ranger stopped by and told me that Walmart in Scott’s Bluff, just 30 miles away was open so it gave me hope.

The car falling off the jack almost impaling my foot

I set to jacking up the car and I swear, I’ve never had a car fall off a jack before. In the first time-lapse, you can almost see the tire iron gets close to impaling my foot with the weight of the car on top of it. The only thing that saved me was that my toes weren’t in the tip of my shoe.

It almost fell off again

I was afraid I broke the jack and was now even more screwed, but it seemed fine so after driving a bit to free the jack from under the car I did raised the car again, but it almost fell off again. You can see me lean into the car to push it back straight while changing the tire in this second time-lapse.

Well, I had to keep going with the video so I set to filming the LightHouse quickly so I could get over to Scott’s Bluff and get the tire fixed. If you’ve never had the privilege of driving with a spare tire, know that there is a speed limit on them. Mine says 80 km/h which equates to 50 mp/h. Can you imagine having to drive home at that speed if the tire couldn’t be fixed? A trip that already takes 6 hours at 80 mp/h and being stuck going 50 mp/h would take nearly 10 hours!

Fortunately Walmart’s automotive department wasn’t busy and they were able to get me in right away and had me on my way in 45 minutes.

960 mm equivalent zoom

I had planned to drive through Scott’s Bluff, but I knew I wouldn’t have time to do it justice so I pulled off on the side a camp ground with a good view and gave my bit of historical information. My 40x zoom lens came in handy to get a close up look at some of the features on the bluff that gave context to what I was saying without having to actually drive up closer.

Just as I was leaving the Bluff, I noticed my dash cam was complaining that the SD card wasn’t working. I tried formatting it, but it kept reporting an error. I’d used that SD card for nearly 2 years so it was just time to replace it. I drove BACK to Walmart, ran in and got a replacement SD card.

Chimney Rock

Then I was finally ready to head towards Chimney Rock. I found a nice secluded road to pull off and do my presentation. For some reason, my super nice and expensive Fujifilm X-T3 did not want to cooperate and focus on my face. I tried everything I could think of, but it just kept pulsing back and forth trying to find a lock on the focus. I’ll have to investigate this problem, but that took nearly 30 minutes to sort out to get a halfway decent image. Then the wind picked up and as I said in my video, the wind filter on my lapel microphone blew away. You can hear half way through that I had to switch to my backup microphone because the lapel mic’s audio was unusable after the filter disappeared.

The picture as recorded by my camera in a video of the timeline.

By the time I finally made it to the visitor’s center, it was after 4 p.m. In order to go to the viewing area, you have to pay for the museum fee. It was only $3 so I gladly paid that. I got to watch a video about Chimney Rock and view the timeline on the walls. I had the foresight to record the entire timeline and it’s pictures. Many of the engravings you saw in my video were taken from that recording. I just extracted the frame from my recording, processed it and added it as a new image.

This is the same engraving from above, but processed and used in my video.

I only brought my smaller Canon SX740 HS camera with me and a 360 camera into the museum so when I went out back and started recording my final piece, I was at the mercy of the wind. I had the auto wind reduction mode on which is why you can hear me at all in the end of the video, but despite some heavy post-production processing, I still couldn’t get all of it cleaned up. I’m looking into more audio options to prevent this from happening in the future.

Narcissa Whitman Historical Marker

On the way home, I kept seeing more Historical Markers and kept pulling over to take pictures and log them for posterity, for example, these “ancient bluff ruins” as noted at the Narcissa Whitman Historical Marker.

“Ancient Bluff Ruins”

I also swung by Lake McConaughy, just for a change of view. It’s a 21 mile long reservoir. I stopped just past the dam and grabbed a few more photos.

The shoreline next to the dam of Lake McConaughy, NE

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this. I normally don’t go into quite this much detail about a trip, but this was quite the adventure and I wanted to record it as a log for myself and for you to enjoy. Please feel free to share it so other history nerds can read about my modern adventure on the Oregon Trail.

Gonex 30L Travel Daypack

In today’s quick video I have 2 things to show you.

The first is a daypack by the company Gonex. A daypack is a small, lightweight backpack that you use when doing day hikes away from your camp so you don’t have to carry your full backpack. Having a separate light pack is great because you don’t get as tired and you can move more freely.

The Specs of the Gonex Pack are:

  • Weight: 11.28 oz / 320g

  • Capacity: 30 Liters

  • Compact size: 6.6 x 6.6 in / 17 x 17 cm

  • Unfolded size: 18.9 x 11.8 x 17.8 in / 48 x 30 x 20 cm (H x W x D)

  • Rip and water repellant nylon

  • 1 year warranty

You can pick one up for yourself and support the site using this link: https://amzn.to/2IhqThA

The second thing to see is my new set. It’s still a work in progress, but I think it’s shaping up to be a great area. Let me know what you think in the comments.


Jetboil Flash Java Stove Unboxing

In preparation for climbing a mountain this summer, I’ve been buying some needed gear. One of the new items is a Jetboil Flash Java cooking stove. Weighing just 13.1 oz (371 grams), it’s a light weight stove that can heat up 2 cups of water in under 100 seconds.

This kit comes with a french press coffee attachment that makes it easy to brew a couple of cups of coffee as well, which is always welcome on a cold day camping.

My friend has had this stove for several years. We used it during our Kayaking Adventure at lunch. The quick hot meal and coffee did wonders for our spirits. You don’t want to have to wait to get a fire started before you get something warm when tired after exerting yourself for hours at a time.

In this video I unbox the stove, brew up some biscuits and gravy and try the coffee press out.

Pick one up for yourself and support the website using this link: https://amzn.to/2VXporr
You can follow along with my journey to climb the mountain by clicking the ‘Mountain Climb’ link at the top of this website.

South Dakota Travel Vlog

Over the Summer I went on a week long vacation to South Dakota. We started from Lincoln, NE, then made our way up through South Sioux City and up to Interstate 90 in South Dakota. Along the way we stopped at Mitchell, SD, home of The Corn Palace. We overnighted in the town of Wall where we visited The Badlands and Wall Drug before continuing on to our final destination, Keystone in the heart of the tourist area.

Travel Route

Mitchell is home to the Corn Palace. In its spare time it doubles as a Gym/Auditorium for the local basketball teams.

Days 1 and 2

Day 3

Day 4



To be continued…

Filming Gear - Jan. 2019

I like cameras, there’s no denying that. I spend a lot of time looking for the perfect one to meet my needs. I also like a lot camera angles when I’m filming, trying to give you at home a good or interesting view on what I’m doing. This means that I’ve accumulated a lot of cameras, both to improve the quality of my videos and to satiate my love of technology.

In 2019, I’ve found what I consider to be an optimal selection of camera and microphone gear. It meets all of my current needs. From Point and Shoots and DSLRs to Action Cams, 360 cameras and Pocket Stabilization, join me as I wander around the Nebraska State Capitol showing you what gear I use to film my YouTube Videos.


Q&A about Adobe and Apple Video Editing

I’ve done a number of videos about the best settings to use when exporting your own video, however, it seems I’ve missed answering some of your questions. In this video, I picked out 4 of them that I thought a lot of other people might have and find out the answers.

If you have any more questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments below. I’ll do my best to answer them in text or maybe make a video about them in the future.

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Pixel 3 Super Res Zoom Test

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For the last 3 years, I’ve had a Google Pixel phone. I started with the first Pixel XL in 2016 after having to return my beloved Note 7 due to the batteries exploding. I haven’t gone back. I got the Pixel 2 XL in 2017 and just recently upgraded to the Pixel 3 XL.

There are several things I love about the Pixels, the fast Android updates and build quality are up there, but what keeps me coming back is the camera and unlimited full quality photo and video uploads to Google Photos.

The camera is amazing despite there only being 1 when everyone else is packing on 2 or 3 now. This year’s model comes with some software improvements that supposedly can’t be ported back to the older Pixels. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it is a speed thing or something new the photo coprocessor.

The main new features are:

  1. Super Res Zoom

  2. Night Sight

  3. Top Shot

  4. Groupie camera

Pixel 3 XL

The Night Sight isn’t out yet. Google will be releasing an update to enable it. It promises to let you take photos in the dark with much less digital noise producing images that don’t need a flash. Top Shot lets you pick a different photo in case you missed the action or someone blinked. Groupie Camera is a 2nd front facing camera with an ultra wide lens to fit more of your background or other people in your selfie shots.

The one we’re looking at today is the Super Res Zoom. Google uses the natural shake of your hand to take multiple pictures and stitch them together to give a sharper digital zoom. The questions is, is it any good? See the video below to find out.