Snow business

Tioga pass remains high up on my list of things to watch as we get down to the nitty gritty of preparation.

'Why bother watching, you can't affect the result' some may say, well it's me, just my nature. So while David gets on with reviewing the tools to be used for capturing the natural beauty of Yosemite and the Grand Canyon, I get on with fretting over the potential for achieveing a reasonable transit to Death Valley.

Having checked the national parks service website today I can happily report that Mono county and Mammoth mountain road crews are working tirelessly to clear the extraordinarily deep snow from the route.

These efforts have resulted  in the opening of the road to bicycles from Crane Flat to Yosemitee Creek Bridge, although cyclists are advised to watch out for debris on the road and to be aware of road crew traffic, the bicylce zone will be extended further east prior to the opening.


If we were travelling from Yosemite to Death valley by bike (which, just  to be clear..we're not) this news would surely gladden our hearts, as it is, it gives me hope that as our transit date approaches the combined efforts of the crews will improve the chances of an earlier rather than later opening of the pass.

Incidently the Glacier Point Road opened on Friday, May 27, 2011, so at least we can be assured of a spectular view of the Glacier and Half Dome.

Interesting factet: From the Glacier lookout its 3000ft to the valley floor below.

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Posted in: Bicycles,Snow,Tioga

Long Time No Post -- Review

Hey,

It has been a long time since I personally posted on the blog, it has mainly been my Dad, the reason for that is I have been revising for my upcoming exams which are very important to me. Any ways excuses out the way time to get to the topic in hand.

Which is..... A product review of the camera I will be taking some stunning pictures with, while on the road trip. So now that the introduction is out of the way lets get into the review:

Ok, So the name of this camera is the "Olympus SP-610UZ" the camera has got a 22x optical zoom, 3" LCD Screen, HD Video Recording "720p" and also 3D Photo (which I have not come across before however this is superb because it allows you to take 3D Photos and show them on your 3D Television or Screen, This is great however if you are someone like me and have not invested in the 3D market yet, then this is pretty useless.) It has a Focal Length Equivalent 28mm Lens and Takes pictures of a quality of 14MP.

What Comes in the Box?

• Camera
• Lens Cover and Camera Strap
• x4 AA Batteries
• CD-ROM
• USB Cable
• AV Cable
• Basic Manual

Picture Quality 
Here is an example of the picture quality of the camera:


This is without a flash


If you click on the picture you can actually see the full size image and look at the superb Image quality.

Here is a super macro mode photo I took also:

Once again if you click the picture to look at it's original size then you will see the superb picture it is.











Optical Zoom / Image Stabilization
Now For a person like me who doesn't have a steady hand, when taking pictures a 22x optical zoom can be a real problem sometimes, however with this camera I feel at ease when taking pictures with full zoom, due to the fantastic Image stabilization on this camera, No more shall I fear that my shaking hand will ruin a picture. As you can with the picture below the zoom and image stabilization, This camera is Awesome!

No Zoom:

To See the Real Difference of these pictures you will have to click on them to view the whole image. I have marked out where to zoomed picture is focused in on.

Full 22x Zoom with NO BLUR:

As you can see, in the previous picture you could hardly see the houses, However in this picture, You can clearly see the houses and with perfect quality and no blur.

Ok, so now that we have talked about the "Mega Pixels","Optical Zoom", and "Image Stabilization" lets move onto the design aspect.

Well first of all I want to tell you about the 3" LCD screen. I am used to a 2.5" LCD screen on my camera and although it is only 0.5" of a difference, It looks a lot bigger, now I love the 3" screen but the thing that really annoys me is that is it a 'High-gloss' screen, which means I am constantly finding myself cleaning the screen, because I am finding 'finger-prints' or 'smudges' on the screen for one reason or another. Now I realise this isn't a big problem if you put a screen protector on it, however I don't want to ruin the look of this camera by putting a screen protector on it. Not a big deal for all you out there that don't mind about getting 'finger-prints' on the screen however it just annoys me.

Also, there is no "View-Finder" on this camera so if you find your self in a high light situation I don't no what you are going to do, or me for that matter, I personally think it would have been nice if they put a "View-Finder" on it for those high light situations. Apart from that everything else is Pretty much Perfect. The Camera has a nice feel to it, and the Matt Finish is very nice. The Control System is very simple and easy to use also, that is why I believe the manual is very basic and the fact that the camera is very easy to work with in terms of shooting modes etc...

With regards to the weight of this Camera it feels the same weight as my compact camera which is a Casio Exilim. The Olympus apparently weighs in at 405g, but I would definately say it won't weigh any more than that.

Overall I rate this camera a 9/10 due to the fact I don't like the "high-gloss" screen and it has no "Viewfinder". but I think this camera is excellent and well worth the money, and I am 100% sure I am going to take some mind blowing pictures with this camera while I'm in the states and hopefully you guys will enjoy them.

Now that you have finished reading this review hopefully you will be interested in buying this for your holidays If so then please search Olympus SP-610UZ in the Amazon search or just click on the link at the bottom of this page to find the best deal around in my opinion. Olympus 228045 SP-610Uz Digital Camera (Black)

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Posted in: Camera,Olympus,photos,Review

Clarification - Amglish

For those of you that have been paying attention, the blog to date has contained a number of, lets be kind and say 'Anglo Americanisms'.

Ok lets be unkind and say spelling errors, take for example the word 'Plow' mia culpa yup I'm afraid in English the word is 'Plough' as in 'Snow plough' or to 'to plough a field'

In this instance I can only state in mitigation that in my rush to bring you all, the latest 'low down ' on the 'hot' news from Yosemite I foolishly paraphrased the National parks website which of course was carefully hand crafted in 'native' American!

Actually its not, the word 'Plow' is neither Navajo, Nanticok, Kikapu,Bidai or any other native American word.

Iit was actually one of Noah Websters contrivances to introduce an easy standard of pronunciation in his 19th century publication with the intention of assisting in the common adoption of a simple literary interpretation of American English through the diverse immigrant population of the developing USA.

You will note other avoidances of perceived pronunciation and traditional English no doubt as the blog progresses, these should be seen not as errors (erghumm), but rather recognition of the nature of the media (copy & paste) or attempts to make the unreadable at least approachable to one and all.

(No spell/grammer checker in Blogger - its not Word 2010 after all!)

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1983

Road tripping isn't a recent invention, its simply the media for recording the journey that has changed.

The Blog as it's called today is a means of sharing not only with your friends and family, but the wider public as well the excitement, exposure and general wackyness of your experiences outside of your home environment.

In 1983 things were a little different, not only in the style (a la Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes) but also in the quaintly antique way we could record the highlights of such foreign sojourns.

In preparing for this trip I've had the opportunity to browse the historical archives of chez Shephard and one of the items I've reviewed is a faded Boots A6 Notebook which was faithfully used by my Mother to record not one, but two visits to the USA in the mid eighties by my parents.

The images that leap from the hand written narrative, paint a picture of wonder at the serving of 'Parisienne potates & buttered spinach' on the 'Wardair' operated aircraft, the 'great big armchair seats' of their rental car and take in the magnificent scenery of the places they visit, along with the odd gas mask wearing car driver during a forest fire and a cowboy and cowgirl they had occasion to give way to.

Something else that comes out of this personal prose are their meetings with the American people, whose names themselves seem strangely evocative of a bygone era; Francis & Eleanor Picksly, Fred McMann to name but a few.

The helpful Mormon family that extracate them from a problem involving car keys and a dinner date, or the elderly roadside purveyor of fruit who led them into his walk in fridge only to discover it was full of hanging dead Elk. So anxious to remove themselves from the local it was some time before they realised they had left my Mothers spectales and had to drive back to find them on his driveway!

All this is told in a neat script, where the pen changes frequently indicating in a subtle way the passage of time as the distances travelled are recorded along with the places stopped at, people met and meals consumed.

It is to be hoped that the technology of 2011, can at least in part evoke such a sense of wonderment and enthusiasm for the Americas and its peoples, whilst retaining the intamacy of the faded spiral bound A6 Boots notebook in the years to come.

Spiral bound Google blogs the next big thing in social antiquity?

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Posted in: family,history

Three weeks..(21 Days & counting)

Wednesday 25 May means it's three weeks before we head off, it also means it's less than three weeks to the end of GCSE's, (these are as stressfull for parents as they are for stressed out teens), so the coming vacation will be a welcome break!

The national parks service haven't updated their progress report on the Tioga pass plowing since 20th May.

The photos they posted on that day of the Glacier point road showed awesome snow conditions.

Things still to pack;

• jumpers
• snow chains
• emergency rations

lol : -)


With this in mind alternate routes have been input into Yahoo maps and all conspire to increase the driving time by at least 2 hours, not looking forward to that!

By the way Yahoo maps is a top online route finding tool, which proves to be a lot more flexible than Googles, just drag and drop points on the route to choose an alternate.

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Posted in: Plan,Route,Snow,Tioga

Thoughts on Thaws

Preparing for a trip such as this is no mean feat, its one thing to consider the scenery and photo opportunities, another to drive through it, particularly as the sole driver in the party.

Our trip is intended to have us driving through the Tioga Pass from Yosemtie to Death Valley on 21 June, whilst the shortest available route its altitude (9943ft) leaves it prone to winter closures.

This year an unusually heavy snow fall and poor spring weather means that the Plowing crews are later starting their clearance work. According to the National parks service (nps) own website 1.6miles of the pass was cleared on Monday 16th May.

Usually the pass is open by mid June but the nps have yet to release any information about its possible opening date.

This leaves me a little worried because the alternate route through the California valley, Fresno and Bakersfield to Death valley is substantially longer and probably not as breathtaking.

So here's hoping for an intense spring thaw, and an opening closer to 'Memorial day' rather than later.

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Posted in: Plan,Snow,Tioga

Photos :)

Yo! How are we all today?

 I am hoping to take some spectacular photographs during this trip, if you are interested in receiving these at their full resolution please let me know by commenting. Pictures will vary, if you do want me to take any particular photo's please do let me know in the comments below.

Thanks, Y'all, peace out

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Posted in: photos

Road Trip Map!

Nearly forgot..... Here is the route we are taking, Thought you might find it interesting.

Key

1. San Francisco

2. Monterey

3. Yosemite

4. Death Valley

5. Las Vegas

6. Grand Canyon

7. Palm Springs

8. San Diego

9. Manhattan Island

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Posted in: map,Route

A Big Hello

Hello All,

This blog is going to be updated everyday starting from the 15th June, and everyday past then until 3rd July.

- Why? Well that's because Me and my Father are going on a Road trip in america across the west cost stopping in different locations as we go.

- Then why make a blog? Well! I want to share my experience with the world, and this is the best way to do it, Every day there will be pictures going up on this blog as well as diary entries, and if possible, hopefully some video Logs :)

Thanks Y'all,
Cya Soon!

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