Friday, October 17, 2014

Heading North

A parting shot of Fairbanks as I head north once again. I wasn't planning on visiting Barrow until next month but a few things have come up and I've been absorbed in a programming project. The project was fixing an online nomination and election system for the staff governance office. Over the years, I've been annoyed by some aspects of the system and set out to fix them rather than just whine about it. I now know a lot more about Perl, MySQL, Shibboleth and JavaScript. 


Shortly after leaving Fairbanks, I tried an HDR photo showing the fog in the valleys. This photo really demonstrates a major shortcoming of a phone camera. The small sensor results in a lot of digital noise in low light situations such as this. But I still like the colors of the morning sky. Winter-like temperatures arrived in interior Alaska today with temperatures of 11°F. I think that Barrow is much warmer.


By the time we got to the Brooks Range, there was more light so not quite as much digital noise. This is also a HDR photo and both photos were made using the Pro HDR iPhone app. (My favorite one to date) Prudhoe Bay and Barrow are overcast so I'm not sure if there will be any photos from the flight.


Coffee with plain yogurt with granola and fruit. A reasonably healthy breakfast served on the flight up. But it's always a challenge for me to eat healthy while in Barrow. I believe that there would be few, if any, in the science building so I should be able to get a lot done.

12 comments:

  1. Time for me to review HDR again....forgot the little that I knew.

    Stay warm Richard!!

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    Replies
    1. HDR=High Dynamic Range. Basically, you take two or three pictures and put them together. One exposed for the dark areas and one exposed for the bright.

      It's warmer but the humidity and wind makes it feel colder than Fairbanks.

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  2. I like "noise". It reminds me of film grain.

    Breakfast looks excellent and that fabric or mat with the native design is gorgeous.

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    Replies
    1. The "mat" is the paper placemat that Alaska AIr uses.

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    2. I figured that, but it's really pretty. Not all flights offer such fine art ;^)

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  3. Richard - of course the heading of this post, "Heading North" made me chuckle. I already think of you being as far north as man can get ... then you head to Barrow. (Yogurt, granola and fruit ... with a bit of maple syrup is my fav breakfast!) Enjoy the 'problem fixing.'

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    Replies
    1. There's a whole lot more "north" than Alaska.

      All of those items are really expensive here in Barrow. Anything fresh, bulky, liquid, or heavy is expensive. Don't even start on the hazardous stuff...

      This was somewhat of an unplanned trip to address some problems that I was putting off.

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  4. My camera is also challenged when it comes to low light. But hey, at least you captured the wonderful colours.

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    Replies
    1. I thought that the colors were beautiful. And the iPhone was convenient. I don't think that I'll ever have a camera that'll do good in low light situations. Those large sensor cameras are $$$$!

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  5. Staff Governance Board and the paperwork associated therewith? That's right up the digital alley of my new company's offerings! Too bad they have you handling their voting software, it cold be an "in" for boarddocs.com. :)

    I like the look of the snow in the next to last picture.

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    Replies
    1. Given the software budget of the governance groups, your companies offerings need to be more than free.

      Of course, you could go see the snow first hand..

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    2. A lot of school districts, with their budgets can afford us RichardM.....but enough if that, I'm not in sales! :)

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