DIY Camera Remote

For a few weeks now, I’ve been thisclose to buying a remote for our digital camera. I’d like to try my hand at some star trails like this one taken by Declan McCormak:

 

To get pictures like that you need to use an extremely small aperture (large f-number) and a long shutter time. The shutter time for this shot might have been 10 minutes or more. The longest possible exposure time on our D60 is 30 seconds, so any star trails would be almost impercepticle. The camera also has a bulb setting, where the shutter stays open for as long as the release button is pressed, but it would be a huge pain to hold the shutter release down for 10 or 20 minutes. Your best best is to use a remote, like Nikon’s ML-L3:

With the remote, the camera can be set to open the shutter when the remote button is pressed once, and then close it when it is pressed a second time. The remotes are between $15 and $30, depending on where you buy. Every time I thought about buying one, I decided that I should just wait. The other day, I stumbled across an application called PhotoIRmote for Android. This application creates an audio signal that can be converted to an infrared signal by a couple of photodiodes (basically LEDs that emit infrared radiation instead of visible light). Simply put, it turns almost any Android phone into a programmable camera remote. This remote can control most new Nikon, Canon, Olympus, and Sony cameras with an infrared port (probably mostly DSLRs). It can also be programmed for time-lapse photography, delayed shutter release, and extended exposure times. It has more functionality than the Nikon remote and at $4, it’s a bargain. The only thing missing was the infrared emitter.

The PhotoIRmote website has instructions to make one using two infrared photodiodes and an old pair of headphones that you don’t need anymore. Like everyone else, I have about 12 pairs of Apple headphones lying around from a decade of iPods that me and Emily have gone through. I decided to use one of those old, beat-up pairs of Apple buds for my IR emitter. When I cut it open, there were four different wires inside. One copper, one red, one green, and one with both green and red bands. After some time, I found out that the red and green are the audio signals, while the red+green and copper are the ground wires. If you use iPod headphones, just cut off the red+green and copper wires and don’t use them. The second hurdle is that these wires are all covered with acryllic. Acryllic makes for bad electrical contact. What I did was use a crème brûlée torch to burn off all of the acryllic. It burns pretty fast, and you don’t want to keep heating the metal after it’s gone because before too long it will melt. The acryllic burns brightly, so it’s not too hard to tell when it’s gone. Once you’ve burned off the green and red acryllic, go ahead and wire up your photodiodes and you have your emitter. Honestly, it took me about 10 minutes to go from iPod headphones and photodiodes to a finished, working IR emitter. It’s extremely easy to do. My finished emitter looks like this:

The PhotoIRmote application has a feature that lets you check to make sure your emitter is working. I tested mine and it worked on my first try, so I tried it on the camera. It worked perfectly! In fact, I took this picture on the kitchen table using the application:

I still have to clean up the exposed wires, but other than that it’s done! This has been one of my easiest projects ever and It ended up costing my under $6. The application was $4, the IR photodiodes were $1.65, and the headphones were free! As soon as I get a star trails photo that I’m happy with, I’ll throw it onto the blog.

MIA

I feel like we’ve inadvertently neglected our blog. Lately our life has been filled with the following: fall semester, football season (and with that, the all consuming fantasy football leagues…Mckay is in two and it’s pretty much equal to a part time job). We’ve managed to squeeze in a few lovely hikes over the weekends. The first was up Dry Fork, where I did more complaining than I probably should have. but me and steep rocky hills don’t get along. In fact, we’re in a fight. and judging by the scrapes near my left knee cap I’d say the hill is winning. I’m going to be honest, I hated hiking that day. but it was good to get in some quality family time and enjoy a pretty view I suppose.

We also hiked around Squaw Peak, right around sunset. Romance. and it was the babe’s first successful ride in the backpack. so fun. we only had the film camera so no pictures of that. but definitely a hike we recommend, the views are incredible.

We also enjoyed a weekend with Chris and JJ, and the rest of the family, where we all had a good laugh over the epic fail of BYU (eventually it just got ridiculous). and our sweet babe turned 7 months on the 11th.

aaaaaaaand, as for me whenever I’m not cooking, cleaning, laundry-ing or …henry-ing, I’m working like crazy on this thing:

yes that would be the old quiet book. the one I started forever ago, even before henry was a blip on our radar. I’m in the middle of completing 6 new pages (probably some of my favorites so far) and once those are done I only have 8 left. I can finally see the light at the end of what’s been a very long tunnel. but I’m excited to get it done and move on with my life. Hopefully I can post an update on my progress in the next couple of days. or maybe I’ll wait till it’s all finished, but who knows when that will be.  I guess we’ll see.

Pinterest!

McKay here. Emily and I have made our way onto Pinterest. Maybe you all know what it is. I didn't until today. It's a kind of online corkboard where you can pin pictures of stuff you think is cool or that you want to remember or anything else you can imagine of doing with pictures. She explained it to me better than that. Anyway, if you get bored and you've already gone through the archives of this blog and read and commented on every post, then you can also come and see what we are thinking about on Pinterest. She requested an invitation from the website and got it pretty fast I think, but if you are waiting for one then either of us can invite you. It's a pretty great idea, and even though I didn't know about it until like 7 hours ago, I'm already pumped about it.

I really should do a blog post about some of the things I've been up to lately, but there is a Green Bay game and we are going to watch it with the Klappoths. And don't worry. I won't bore you with transport phenomena or anything else chemical-engineering-related. I probably will mostly talk about photography. I've recently gotten very enthused about it, but the Packers come first and so it will have to wait. Thanks for reading.

-McKay

Quick craft for sir henry’s room

 

I’m slowly finishing some projects for Henry’s room. Awhile ago I made a fabric mobile to hang over his crib and we finally got around to hanging it up this week. This project was so quick and easy, I did it during naptimes.

Sorry for bad lighting, this is as good as it gets in a room with no windows :(

While choosing toys and decorations for henry’s room I knew I wanted lots of bright color and varying patterns and this mobile has both. another perk to this project was that it was super cheap. Supplies: embroidery hoop (about $1 at hobby lobby) paint (already had), fabric (I used fabric scraps I already owned) ribbon (hobby lobby), fusible webbing, and fishing wire to hang it. so I don’t think this project cost more than $5. wonderful. if only all projects could be so cheap and easy, then I might actually finish a few… 

I was worried Henry would hate it. He loves his old mobile, a plush car musical, rotating thing we got as a gift. but I cut the cars off so he got some new toys, and the one I made is always swirling a little so I’m hoping he likes it. so far he hasn’t told me otherwise.

big days

we’ve had a few important days recently. first, our anniversary on the 21st. since mckay was on a kayaking trip we had to wait until he got back to celebrate. since dates with just the two of us are scarce we decided to splurge and get a hot stone couples massage, fancy pants. we’ve gotten massages one other time in our life, so this was a treat. once I got over the initial weirdness of letting some stranger rub oils on my body it was heavenly.

so four years of married life with my sweetheart. so much I could say. so much mushy stuff. what fun we have had. of course we’ve had our ups and downs, just like everyone, but I couldn’t imagine life with a better husband. and now with a babe, oh my goodness did I get lucky. mckay is the most wonderful dad. we love our little life and are so excited for what the future has in store for us.

and on to the next big day, Chris entered the mtc yesterday. it was sad to say goodbye, but he was so excited and so prepared that we couldn’t help but be happy and excited for him. He will be serving in the Chile, Osorno mission and we know he is going to be incredible. for anyone keeping track…this is the third brother in a row we’ve sent out on a mission, and the second time two brothers have overlapped (marty comes home this october). we are very proud of our brothers for serving missions and grateful for the blessings our families receive because of them.

lastly, school started this week, which means the rat tail is no more, a noteworthy day indeed.

misc. and a new trick

after henry’s blessing the rytting group headed up to the cabin to spend a few days together. we read, relaxed, talked, played hand and foot (me and mckay were destroyed) took a pretty drive and explored a little. it was a fun little trip though too short in my opinion. mckay was experimenting with the cameras and snapped a couple fun photos:

love those stars.

on wednesday we helped mckay get ready for the boys kayaking trip in canyonlands. which means hen and I have been spending some quality time with nana jacobs.

on a sidenote: (and since we’re still in that phase where  we think everything our child does is the cutest and worth documenting.)

the babe has found his feet. so funny.

blessed

last Sunday our little man received his blessing. that’s right, at 6 months old. a little later than normal its true, but mckay wanted a small gathering of only our immediate family and grandparents and with all the summer travelling both families have been doing August 14 just so happened to work for almost everyone. Adam had just returned home from Jerusalem, our celebration was just missing chris, jj and marty. the day was beautiful and mckay did a wonderful job with the blessing. the feeling was so peaceful and all day I felt so happy and grateful for all the love and joy my little family brings me. how amazing that I get to spend eternity with these two.

half birthday

mr. henry reached his 6 month birthday today. can’t believe our babe his half a year old. whether it was residual trauma from last nights failed attempt at weaning off swaddling, or his poor irritated gums, our little man was not in the mood to party. we did end our day with a family date out for pizza and a walk through the park.

as for an update, Hen is gobbling up baby food like a pro. we haven’t dared to try rice cereal again but he certainly is enjoying his mashed up fruits and veggies. We have definitely seen an improvement in tummy time, which is saying a lot. he’s rolled over a few times though we’re pretty sure they were accidents... we have high hopes it’ll happen for real sometime soon. his new favorite thing is to arch his back, its pretty funny and sometimes a little inconvenient, mostly when it’s in the middle of a diaper change. the worst is when he arches his back while I’m holding him, like he wants me to put him down….he’s already trying to get away from his mama, so sad. we’ve found a few tricks to make him laugh like crazy, and those moments I must say, are the best.

happy half birthday sweet babe.

(I realize this orange striped top has made quite a few appearances on posts in the past, but when you go through 2-4 outfits a day, repeats are bound to happen.)

new do + new tunes.

every summer mckay grows his hair out. this summer was no exception. an upcoming river trip and a new byu semester meant it was time to chop it off, but he decided to have some fun with it. mckay’s definitely had some interesting haircuts but this one beats them all.

before:

After:

front shot. looks good right? wait for it……

there it is. oh my.

ps.  we have finally added some new songs to our blog playlist and that makes me happy. (you should check it out!) but not quite as happy as I’ll be once that rat tail’s cut off. I deserve some sort of treat for putting up with that for awhile, don’t you think? : )

July Reads and how life is funny.

Not all that exciting of a post but I have a few things I feel like writing down. Since we have been consuming books like crazy at our house I’ve been meaning to write a little about them, so I can remember what I thought of them when I’m thinking of reading them again. Plus I like hearing about good books and what others are reading, so hopefully this interests somebody….

first up: Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard

4 out of 5. This book was made for me. Recipes and falling in love in Paris, how can you go wrong? This was fun to read, basically just an autobiography of her building a life in Paris. The descriptions of the city and the food made me want to hop on a plane and fly to Paris that day.  The recipes are mostly things I would probably never attempt to make but they were tied into the storyline ex. what they had on their first date, the first meal her husband made her, etc. pretty cute.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

4 out of 5.  or 3.5 I cant decide. this book has been widely read and highly reviewed. I was excited to read it and see what all the fuss was about.  The book was very well written, beautiful descriptions of life in the circus years ago. although the story was really interesting overall the language and **adult content** in the book was just a little to mature for me…. I’m kind of a sissy.

my antonia by Willa Cather

 

5 out of 5. most people read this book in junior high or high school, but I had never read it. I needed a book to read in Yellowstone and this was what I found. this was a beautiful story, so well written and you really fall in love with the characters. it was interesting to read about the midwest so many years ago. classic read for anyone.

POISONWOOD BIBLE by Barbara Kingsolver

5.5 out of 5.  this is the book me and mckay chose to read together this month. We both loved it. I read this book back in high school and was excited for mckay to read it. This is one of those books that you think about days after reading it, one of those books we have had multiple conversations about. I cant recommend it enough. its long, 649 pages in fact. but it’s worth every single page. The story is about the Price family whose father is a minister. He takes his family to the Congo in the 60’s intent on baptizing as many Congolese as he can. The story is told through the perspectives of the mother, and four daughters. This style of writing helped develop each character individually, which made us feel more emotionally invested in the story. love love love.

on to another matter of business.  people have been asking us about Grad School and what our plan is so for those of you who are still curious I will explain. it’s been quite the process.

Back in January Mckay applied to a number of Graduate Schools for both Chemical Engineering and Nuclear Engineering Programs. In April we slowly started to hear back from a few schools and after awhile we still couldn’t figure out what was taking all the other schools so long to make a decision. While we were still waiting for answers from several schools we started hearing a few things. From people who worked in Academics all over the country we learned that Congress had cut funding for the sciences. Because of this lack of funding professors aren’t getting the money they need to do their research and the Universities can’t afford to accept as many students as they had in the past. (Science programs usually pay their students since they are benefiting from their research.) In fact we heard that a lot of professors were going to schools in Europe where there is better funding for research. We were pretty discouraged to hear this since research is primarily what Mckay wants to do. It’s also disappointing that the government doesn’t view scientific research as very much of a priority. Anyways, so schools weren’t accepting as many students and with the recession a lot of people were leaving the field and applying to get more schooling. We heard that all this made it at least 5 times harder to be accepted into programs this year.  - another issue. The nuclear crisis in Japan made the future of Nuclear power very unpredictable in the United States. so, pursuing a doctorate in Nuclear Engineering would be a little risky, Mckay might not have the same opportunities as he would with Chemical Engineering.

So after a long, and very anxious wait we finally heard back from everybody. We did get into a few great programs, but in the end none of them felt right for our family. And so, just when we thought we were leaving BYU forever, life threw us back into Cougar-land for another 2 years. (poor Mckay…) Mckay has been working for a company run by some professors at BYU. They asked him to stay on with them to continue doing work and research for them and they would put Mckay through BYU’s Chemical Engineering Masters program.  At the end of the program Mckay will apply for a doctorate again. cross your fingers for us : ) After all is said and done we’re grateful for how things have worked out. Of course we were looking forward to experiencing Graduate School outside of Provo,  but we have faith that this is the right decision for our family right now. There are benefits to staying here for sure, the main one is that we get two more years living close to our families. major plus for mr. henry. and us. so we’ll be around for a couple more years, let us know if you want to play! : )