Mill Wall

I worked on this image a bit. I am beginning to understand how to work with RAW images. I like this mo bettah

Painted Church

We visited the Painted Church again and I got this shot. It was a dark cloudy day which adds a bit of drama.

Lava In The Water

Lava is now flowing into the ocean. It made it to the edge a couple of days ago, stopped for a day or so and started again yesterday. It is entering in 3 areas, all close together. The entry point is just outside the park boundaries so the county has made a viewing area for the public. It is gated so it gives some amount of control for safety purposes. This ariel shot by NGS shows it well. The red line is lava flowing through the Royal Gardens Subdivision with Pu’u O’o fuming in the background.Click on the image to see it bigger.

Cambria Sunset

Pentax 6x7 transparency

Here is what you don't want to do

Band saws are unforgiving. Four hands around a band saw is an invitation for an accident. This happened on Valentines day at Pat's house. He took me to the emergency room at the hospital not far from here at Pahala. The doctor there fixed me up in about an hour. Today I went to my doctor here at Kaiser to have the stitches removed. Well, it is infected. I am on pills to correct that and I am assured that it will not be a problem. The moral of the story is: Four hands around a band saw is an invitation for an accident. Don't break your concentration with conversation.

NGS images

Another great shot from the NGS web site. That is dear old Pu'0 fuming in the back with the wind blowing the plume to the West. That was the direction the lava flowed before the Father's day earthquake, down slope to the ocean. It is forming ponds now and flowing over the pond walls. Exciting!

Lots for sale, cheap

For months now lava from Pu'u has been flowing towards the Royal Gardens Subdivision. Although Royal Gardens is almost completely abandoned now and has been since the 1980 when Kalapana was cut off by lava, there have been efforts to reestablish the infrastructure and allow folks to rebuild on their land. I don't think that is going to happen now. Click on the image to see it bigger

New Life

As many times as I have seen this drama it never ceases to amaze me.

Big Wave

Storm At The Beach

Lots of wind and high surf

Too Cute

My cousin Wendy sent this to me. Too cute for words.

Cool Chicks

So, I have this buddy, lives in Southern Oregon. We are both big fans of Oregon Pinot Noir. I was visiting him and we proceeded to check out a couple fine wineries close to his pad. We were at the King Ranch Winery having a couple of tastes during a tasting. We spotted these two cool looking chicks, you could tell that they had been there a long time before we arrived. One thing led to another as things do, and it was clear that they were not going to be driving so Don invited them to his pad for a “cup of coffee”. Well as they say “A good time was had by all”. What can I tell you?, Oregon chicks are too cool.

Mauna Loa Rainbow

Pretty morning at the golf course.

San Juan Bautista in color

I made a b&w print of this color shot. Here it is in living color.

Cloudscape

Laguna Pueblo. Pentax 6x7 transparency.

Still Life With Apple

From a 4x5 neg.

Dark Shadow

See me!

Rectangles

Taos NM

Oregon Coast

This is very close to where the Columbia River flows into the ocean. Mamayia 330.

Snow On Mauna Kea

First really good snow we have had up there. Road is closed from 10,000 to the top at 13,000 ft plus. That is tough on the telescope folks.

See Plane?

Can you see the Sea Plane against the cliff? Click on the image to make it bigger

Guess where this was taken

Walk down the gangplank and you are right down town.

Native Dancers

Sitka Alaska

Not A Happy Camper

Stop that crying or we are leaving the beach right now!

Three more of PalaPala

Chain Of Craters Road

I took a drive down Chain Of Craters Road with my 532/16 Super Ikonta. On the way back up I stopped and got this shot. This is Fuji Superia 100. I like it.

Barbara's new ukulele

Well we finally got Palapala finished. I gave it to her Christmas morning after having it for a couple of day and tuning it often to take the stretch out of the strings. Well, she was very pleased. It is very beautiful and because I have been around it so long I forget just what a impact the beauty of the instrument makes on you at first view. And it sounds wonderful. Pat has the action so close that Barbara can play it very easily. When you strum an open cord hard the instrument has a very noticeable reverberation. I think it is the spruce top that makes that beautiful effect happen. She has been playing it since she got it and she plays it very well. Pat and I are tickled. This picture of her was taken hours ago. Kate really helped me with it. Barbara hasn't seen it yet, I hope she likes it. It will be the final picture in the ibook that I am making on the building of Palapala.

Spiderman turns 4 years old

Adrian on his 4th birthday party

Ukulele Building, cont

It has been a few days now since I have posted the latest progress on building Palapala. Here we have glued the neck to the bodyNext we glue the bridge to the body using 3 clamps
We are now ready for final sanding and spraying on the finish
After the finish dries, it will be buffed to a high gloss. Then the tuners will be installed and strung. Ready for strumming. This will happen after I get back from the mainland Sat Dec 8

Ukulele Building, cont

The neck is attached to the body with a dowel. We will drill a hole in the body and then in the neck insert the dowel and glue the neck to the body.The position of the hole in the neck and body must be extremely precise. You can't see it in this picture but there is a small bubble level in the back top of the drill. This helps Pat align the drill so the hole will be straight.
Here he is drilling the body. See the piece of tape around the drill bit. That shows Pat how deep to drill. The top of the neck and the top of the body must be perfectly aligned when the neck is slid on to the dowel that will be inserted in the body. No ukulele work for a couple of days now. Darn.

Ukulele Building, cont

The body has been rough sanded. Is now ready for final sanding after the neck is attached.

Ukulele Building, cont

The ebony fretboard has been slotted. Now we will install the fret wire into the slots. Because the fretboard is tapered each fret wire is a different length. We measured and cut each wire. First each wire is pushed into the slot as Pat is doing hereThen, using a special vise grip and that fret hammer that you can see, the fret wire is forced into the slot. A drop of super glue on each side keeps the fret wire in the slot forever.

Ukulele Building, cont

Here is the neck after we drilled the eight holes for the tuners. Next we will install the fret wires onto the fret board. Tune in tomorrow to see what that looks like.

Green and Orange

Look what I found in our backyard.

Ukulele Building, cont

Continuing on with cutting the slots in the faceplate.

First thing we do is drill a hole in the spot where a slot will be cut so we can get the jig saw blade in. We drill a 3/8 inch hole on both sides.

Here Pat is cutting one of the slots.

Now you can see what I am talking about! The two slots will now be sanded and shaped and make ready for the tuners to be installed. No more ukulele work for a couple of days. Darn.

Ukulele Building, cont

We are going to work on the neck some more. This ukulele will have folk guitar style neck. It is a cleaner design for an 8 string instrument. The folk guitar style has two slots in the head so the turners can be mounted to the sides of the neck
We have glued the faceplate to the neck. The word "Palapala" was burned into the wood with a laser cutting device.
We have placed the neck into this marking jig. We can mark the position of the two slots using this jig. After we mark the position of the slots we will cut the slots using the drill press and a jig saw.

Ukulele Building, cont

We are now ready to apply the binding to the body. Binding goes around the edges of the top and bottom. It adds a decorative touch and protects the ukulele edge from damage.

The body has had the top and bottom trimmed. This shows the hand router that will cut the grove for the binding
Pat is using the router to cut the grove in the top edge. He will do the same on the bottom edge
The binding has been tacked and will be bent around the edge of the top
As he bends it, he applies glue and uses the tape strips to hold the binding to the grove while the glue dries. More tomorrow.