Mark's Blog

Weekend wrapup

Mark — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:01:09 +0000

The weekend was awesome. Saturday morning I packed up my crap and headed towards good old Green Bay. We meet in the parking lot and I got to see some people that I haven’t seen since last fall.

Well, once the ride got going it was fairly interesting. We managed to head towards the south on the frontage roads. Once we got outside of Wrightstown it was time to start heading back to the north. While on the southbound leg I finally go to see what Hauser looks like when he was in pain, I could tell he didn’t have the kick of years past. Well, that is ok since it is only March 6 because I don’t have the high end either. Once we turn around I start to ride with Steve and just b.s. about different things. I called him a bastard multiple times for the bike that he was riding on. I managed to start splitting up the group with a few accelerations up some hills, but once to the top I sat up and waited for them to catch back on. All in all the ride was good, I heard about 37 miles in about 2.25 hours. That was the first ride of any season where I didn’t feel like dying or being dropped in a long time.

Sunday would be different. I went to the roadie’s, a.k.a. Nate’s, house for a ride with a few of his teammates. We roll out at about 10:15 and head to the south. I could hardly sit on the seat because of the previous days ride. The beginning of the season sucks you have to work out the kinks and get ready for more. I knew going into to Sunday’s ride that it was going to be a faster ride. The ride into Freedom wasn’t bad, a little on the faster side for me this time of season but able to hold on. The rest of the ride proved to be a true test, going down some of the roads Chris would get on the front and my heart rate would go rather high, mid 180’s, as he pushed the pace well into the 20’s. After that it would slow down for a little bit so I could recover and the pace would pick up again. Then when we were almost home Nate was leading the train when he seen another rider on the road up ahead and he had to chase him down. This was another spot where the hr was close to a race effort for me. But the record was when I started to pull Q into the home stretch. I managed to “pin it”, at least attempt to, and I don’t know what the speed was but I could tell the hr was well into the 190’s. After we got back I looked at the monitor and it said that the official high was 196 with an average of 163, what happened to just cruising along for spring miles? Speaking of which this was 42 miles in 2.25 hours.

It was fun for the first weekend of riding. Time to get out and get some more miles so I don’t die on future rides.

Sponsorship needed.

Mark — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:53:11 +0000

If there is anyone that is a member of sportshooter.com and is willing to sponsor me please email me at: mark@markschindel.com.

Thanks

What’s new on this end.

Mark — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:32:40 +0000

Well, I have been busy with photographing different things. Here are some photos that took me a while to get. Other than that I have been busy with working different jobs and getting ready for riding this spring.

Eagles, Eagles, Everywhere! These photos took me a while to get, I also have found out that I have to short of a lens. A 500mm lens would have been the optimum lens, I think. Money, the thing I need but don’t have, is needed for more equipment.

New camera and lens and a few pictures.

Mark — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:57:35 +0000

Last week I managed to get some “new” equipment. I put new in quotes because I managed to pick all the equipment up used at various places on the internet. The lens and body weigh about 10 pounds. Needless to say that after walking around and shooting at the wildlife sanctuary this afternoon my neck and arms are sore. I got a monopod to assist with shooting when I am out for a while. I can hand hold the setup only for a little bit before the weight gets to me.
Well this is a size comparison to what I have been using for shooting basketball and any other sport. The 300mm f2.8 is quite a bit bigger than the 70-200 f2.8 that I have been using. This shot has the lens hood on so I could set the lens face down, to be honest almost all of the shooting that I have been doing with the 300 has had the hood on.

Here is a photo of the lens plate.

Here is a shot of the end of the lenses. You can see that the 300 is A LOT bigger in diameter than the 70-200.

It is big enough to fit a soup can inside of the lens hood.

Now for the pic of the “new” camera.Now, here is a shot with the “new” Canon 1D Mark III, Canon 3oomm F2.8L. The info for the photo 1/1000 sec., f4.0, ISO 125.

Another wildlife photo. 1/1000 sec., F4.0, ISO 125.

I actually work!

Mark — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 05:17:00 +0000

Here is the proof.

More camera equipment

Mark — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 03:48:41 +0000

I know that I have been saying that I am anti Canon, until now. It is true that I have been called a hypocrite in the past and now it will not be different. After some research in what I am going to need for next summer and fall with the Packers assignment I have found out that Canon is going to be the answer. After debating if I want to shell out $6,200 for a lens for my Nikon I found out I can buy a used Canon 300mm F2.8 and a 1D Mark III for about $2,000 less.

I will probably not be able to do a lot racing this year because of the camera equipment. It is extremely disappointing, but I have to make some sacrifices to do other things.

Canon 300mm

Canon EOS-1D MKIII

Another awesome song found

Mark — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:30:50 +0000

Today I was going through some of my music and found a song that made me think a little bit. If you want to listen it is Chevelle’s Emotional Drought.

On another note, besides being busy with work I have been trying to read more books. It has been a while since I have read 1984 and I have been rereading it. I forgot how much I liked that book, it really makes you think about how bad life could be.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Stalin%27s_Mug_Shot.jpg

Busy

Mark — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 04:31:50 +0000

The last couple of weeks have been busy for me. Either I am working at one job or another. I am probably done with substitute teaching for now since I have scored the census job for a couple of months. I will see if that is a good thing or not, time will tell.

Other than that nothing much, I am lacking the ambition to ride the trainer. Mainly waiting for it to get nice to ride outside.

Remember that technology=evil most of the time. You don’t need to be “connected” all of the time. I think of this because of all the new and “better” things out there. Think of 1984, if you get my drift.

Nikon’s Awesome 14-24mm F2.8G

Mark — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 02:24:33 +0000

I am seriously considering getting this lens soon. I went to go and test out this lens today and got some amazing results. Here is one of the pictures that I took with it. Click it for the high resolution version.
This picture was taken at 14mm at f2.8 for the technically savvy people. The lens cap is what I focused on and the subject was only 2 inches in front of the 14mm lens. To get an idea of how wide this view is put the bottom of a cup 2 inches in front of your eye and see what kind of view you get.

On another note, I am planning to go out and snowshoe tomorrow at about 1 at the camp. If you want to go with me just show up and we will head out for about 1.5 to 2 hours of fun.

Once a week

Mark — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 04:21:11 +0000

It seems that I have been slacking in posting to the blog lately. I have been busy with trying to get my website updated and going through my 50,000 photos trying to free up some space on my computer. All this on top of trying to secure a job somewhere. I have been up to really nothing but those few things lately because I want to get all of that done before it gets nice out and then I can go and ride.

Later