A Super Long Day!

I woke up and jumped in the car immediately to head to NASA. I spent most of that on the little adventure I describe below, then came back to the hotel to run the webinar. After that, I worked on the photo below before editing together the video (which is still going on). And then I’ll begin a long upload before leaving just after 2 AM to get to NASA at 3AM. I gotta get my tripod set up in the perfect place for the launch that will happen a few hours later. No sleep… just rockets and photo-editing… a marathon of fun! But I’m doing it for Stu, Gordon, Abe, Scott, Cliff, and all my other friends like you guys that couldn’t be here with me.

Daily Photo – The Mighty Rocket Awaits

Today I had a great day at NASA. I’ve come back to the space coast in Florida to see the space shuttle Endeavor blast off, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Around noon, I was invited out with a group of other Twitter peeps to see the RRS Rollback event. This is the slow-motion but exciting time when they peel away to the Rotating Service Structure to reveal the shuttle. It was so awesome that I almost forgot to send a tweet.

And, below, you can see a zoom in I took at 300mm. It shows one of the workers on the scaffolding making some final preparations for the launch.

This lens has quickly become one of my favorites. Some people complain that it is not very fast, but I don’t notice these things since I’m usually on a tripod. You can see more at the Nikon 28-300 Review.

Filed under the categories: Florida, NASA, Nikon D3X

Great Prize Bundle – Thanks Photomatix!

Here’s a fun prize! This is open to all that have registered for the Photography Webinar. It starts tonight, but you can still join even up to a week late and just download the classes you missed!

• Grand Prize: All Expenses Paid Trip to Austin to shoot an abandoned power plant with me – Thanks Photomatix for this prize
  • Plane, +Hotel (2 nights), +Car, +$100 in meals!
    • Note: Plane allotment covers anything below $750.  If you are overseas and want to make up the difference, then feel free to enter below!
• Bonus Prize: Photoshop CS5 – I have another new copy I’ll give you when you arrive here in Austin.
• To Enter: Leave a comment below!  People with more than one comment are disqualified.
• Eligible: You must be registered for the Photography Webinar
• Contest Ends May 15th at midnight CST. I’ll select a random winner and announce on May 16.
• Questions? Contact support@stuckincustoms.com

And, of course there are many other prizes as well, such as a New Drobo every class. Pop over to the Webinar page to see them all listed out.

Daily Photo – The Megahangar at NASA

Here is a zoom-in of the image below to give you a sense of the size of this beast.

Imagine a giant skyscraper, but hollow and filled with people making rockets.  That’s what the VAB is.  To really get a sense of the size of this thing, look at the outline of the man standing in the distance, his body backlit by the door.

The VAB, or Vehicle Assembly Building, is the worlds largest single-story building, and it’s where NASA assembles many of the rockets, including the mighty Saturn V.  It’s also the tallest building in the US that’s not in a downtown area.   It’s situated at Launch Complex 39 at the Kennedy Space Center, and it’s awesome dot com.

The thing is so big that it even has its own weather system.  In fact, on humid days it can even rain inside the building!  In my photo below, you are really only seeing part of it.  Off to the right, they are fueling up the Atlantis for its upcoming mission.  Staring through the girders from another angle, you can easily see the giant orange tank going through its pre-launch ordeal.

Getting into this place was very difficult.  I felt privileged to even get through the various security screenings and get the governmental approval to go inside.  They let in little groups of us from the Tweetup, and I have to thank Stephanie Schierholz for making it all happen.  It’s one of the mysterious places on earth I’ve always wanted to visit, so I was very excited to be inside.  My next goal is to get back inside and get up higher… perhaps even get in while they are prepping the next rocket.

I have many more shots of this building that I’ll be sharing in coming weeks and months… you guys know how I like to keep these threads and stories open for a long time!

Filed under the categories: Florida, NASA, Orlando, Travel

A Long Day on the Cape

I’ll talk all about my day at NASA in a later post… I’m super-duper tired… but I wanted to share this photo I just took of a massive storm sweeping over the complex on the evening before the launch.

I was supposed to be going over to the actual launch pad as night was falling to get a shot, but this storm started to roll in, upsetting those plans. The big structure you see on the other side of the flag is the Vehicle Assembly Building, and that blue structure you see to the left is the famous countdown-clock you always see in front of the press area before the launch.

Right as I was taking this, an official lady from NASA ran into the field warning me that this was now a “Level 2 lightning alert!” I happen to be standing by another NASA Tweetup invitee, Lavar Burton. He asked, “Is that like a Level 3 diagnostic?” Greatness. He was a really cool guy, btw… I put up a photo of us together over on my Facebook Page.

100 Cameras in 1 – Try it Free

We have a new free version! (iTunes Link) It comes with well over a dozen effects for free. You will have fun using this app and giving it a whirl. There are some options inside the app if you want to unlock more effects too.

Also, you’ll see we added a new camera interface that is very cool… I think you’ll like it. We have an iPad version too, of course. (4.5 stars with over 200 reviews – thanks!)

Filed under the categories: Florida, NASA, Nikon D3X, Travel