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Post by fernwood on Sept 6, 2021 23:38:22 GMT -5
Your cat may have a future as a paw model. Seems to be very calm and able to pose. I have also noticed that white balance can be improved by putting something white next to what is being photographed. The cabs are great. I have a septic system. Do pretty much the same as hummingbirdstones I always check any cleaners for caustic materials. My plumbing is a combo from the 1950's to 2014, so a mix of metal and plastics. |
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Post by holajonathan on Sept 7, 2021 0:47:04 GMT -5
I'm too big of a ninny to do that. 
We do put active yeast down the cleanouts once a month on the advice of our plumber. Keeps the good bacteria population up.
I add good bacteria the old fashioned way. I won't elaborate. Those brecciated bubbles in the Imperial are gorgeous! Stunning cabs! Adrian They are pretty cool. It's a tough rock to work with. Super hard, scratches easily and deeply with the hard wheels, and laughs at the resin wheels when used to try to get the scratches out. But when they turn out nice, it's worth it.  Very cool cabs and kitty. That super clean is awesome stuff but yeah PPE is a good choice. Be careful around finished or painted surfaces with it too. Kitty is cooler than the cabs, but thanks. The super clean is good stuff. My hands are still super clean a day later. Seriously.  Here's my guy Tuffy. You've been holding out on us (by not posing photos of Tuffy sooner). He is gorgeous. And dignified. And since he's a cat, he knows it. He also matches the rug. Bleach is rough, because of the chlorine. Caustic is a common cleaner, and you’re right about it becoming less caustic as it reacts with organic matter. We do some lab cleaning with NaOH, because, unlike soap, it doesn’t leave a residue that can interfere with assays. As it reacts with organic matter, it typically drops 2-3 pH points (that’s a 100-1000x reduction in alkalinity), making it legal to put down the drain. I'm sure I am getting some organic interactions in my pipes before it hits the septic tank. But I think dilution is an even bigger issue. 5 grams of NaOH into 2000 gallons of water, and the impact on the ph of the septic tank contents is negligible. I’ll have to remember to use cat paws to white balance. I often use grass. For some reason, it is also photographically neutral (that comes from a pro photographer — I was pretty surprised to hear that). Great cabs. Love the Botswana. The RIJ is actually quite close to being a tongue shape, which is one of my faves. As for Brazilians, I honk more people don’t cab them for a few reasons: 1. They’re so bloody hard 2. They’re brown (a lot of people seem to dislike brown rocks) 3. They have a bad rep, since they’re often dyed You might need white cat paws to set white balance... I don't think cat paws inherent reflect the light spectrum with great fidelity. Although it wouldn't surprise me. Cats do have some special abilities. I have found that when shooting in natural light (like the photos in my original post), as long as you have a good mix of colors in the photo, even (modern) cell phone cameras do a good job with auto white balance. The only way to screw up the white balance in good natural light is to have a photo dominated by red, green, or blue colored objects. The camera sensor white balances by measuring the relative amounts of red, green, and blue light hitting the sensor. Using this information, it can calculate the color temperature of the light. But if you photograph a solid blue object, for example, it screws this up. The blue background in my photos (a blue polishing cloth) has that effect, such that even in natural light, the camera gets confused when white balancing. Although the kitty's paws did do the trick, so does including a little bit of the wood table in the photo. The sensor just needs a decent amount of light reflecting off something that is not solid blue, and the auto white balance does its magic. The Brazilian agate was very hard, but not any harder than the RIJ or Montana agates. Many Brazilian agates are brown, but there are a lot of nice blue and yellow ones also. And on occasion I have gotten all sorts of wild colors, like intense pink, and almost black. Your cat may have a future as a paw model. Seems to be very calm and able to pose. I have also noticed that white balance can be improved by putting something white next to what is being photographed. The cabs are great. I have a septic system. Do pretty much the same as hummingbirdstones I always check any cleaners for caustic materials. My plumbing is a combo from the 1950's to 2014, so a mix of metal and plastics. Something white is the gold standard in white balancing, I think. Some pro photographers use a white balance card, which is basically a piece of white plastic, to set the white balance on their camera. When shooting professional quality photos (in raw mode) you can also do this after the fact through post-processing, but with a cell phone camera like I use on most days, it's better to get it right the first time. My house was built in 2004 so I've got newer pipes. My last house was built in 1942, and it had quite a mix of building materials, including aluminum wiring (copper unavailable due to the war). |
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Post by holajonathan on Sept 7, 2021 0:56:55 GMT -5
I’ll have to remember to use cat paws to white balance. I often use grass. For some reason, it is also photographically neutral (that comes from a pro photographer — I was pretty surprised to hear that). Great cabs. Love the Botswana. The RIJ is actually quite close to being a tongue shape, which is one of my faves. As for Brazilians, I honk more people don’t cab them for a few reasons: 1. They’re so bloody hard 2. They’re brown (a lot of people seem to dislike brown rocks) 3. They have a bad rep, since they’re often dyed I should have mentioned, the 3rd, 4th, and 5th photos in my original post are tight crops. The original photos were dominated by the blue background; hence, white balance was screwed up. I would have simply taken macro shots, but with a well polished dome, there is no angle in which the reflection of me and the cell phone do not cover half the face of the cab. So cropping instead of macro gives me some working distance from the cab -- minimizing unwanted reflections. But then, the cab itself is only a small percentage of the original photo, so the color variation in the cab itself is not enough for auto white balance to work well. The solution: a cat's paw. |
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Post by stephan on Sept 7, 2021 0:59:16 GMT -5
holajonathan 5/6 cats in this house have white paws/ legs. Three off them might be willing models. Yeah, 5 grams in 2000 gallons is pretty dilute, but as the safety guy, the motto “dilution is not the solution to pollution” is pretty firmly ingrained. Remember, though, a tenfold dilution only drops pH by one point. Reaction with organic matter can drop it by 2 or 3, since most organic material acts as a buffer. Ha ha ha. You know you got a good polish when your reflection obscuring everything is the big obstacle, and you figure you’ll fix “the other stuff” in post-processing
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Post by holajonathan on Sept 7, 2021 1:06:51 GMT -5
fernwood Paw model sounds more humane than my plans for him, which involve an old-fashioned circus, the type they don't allow anymore out there on the left coast where stephan lives.  This is from his circus audition tape. His circus name was going to be Picasso the Little Circus Tiger. "The little tiger" because of his tiger stripes. "Picasso" because he sometimes appears to have been dismembered and put back together wrong.
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Post by holajonathan on Sept 7, 2021 1:09:35 GMT -5
holajonathan 5/6 cats in this house have white paws/ legs. Three off them might be willing models. Yeah, 5 grams in 2000 gallons is pretty dilute, but as the safety guy, the motto “dilution is not the solution to pollution” is pretty firmly ingrained. Remember, though, a tenfold dilution only drops pH by one point. Reaction with organic matter can drop it by 2 or 3, since most organic material acts as a buffer. Ha ha ha. You know you got a good polish when your reflection obscuring everything is the big obstacle, and you figure you’ll fix “the other stuff” in post-processing I think you mean paw-processing. |
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Post by holajonathan on Sept 7, 2021 1:27:33 GMT -5
holajonathan 5/6 cats in this house have white paws/ legs. Three off them might be willing models. Yeah, 5 grams in 2000 gallons is pretty dilute, but as the safety guy, the motto “dilution is not the solution to pollution” is pretty firmly ingrained. Remember, though, a tenfold dilution only drops pH by one point. Reaction with organic matter can drop it by 2 or 3, since most organic material acts as a buffer. Ha ha ha. You know you got a good polish when your reflection obscuring everything is the big obstacle, and you figure you’ll fix “the other stuff” in post-processing Good point about the alkalizing capacity of something that is 13 on the ph scale, given that ph is a base 10 log scale. In other words, NaOH is really, super, duper alkaline. Those logarithmic scales are tricky. Like the richter scale, where each whole number increase equals more than 31 times more energy released. |
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Post by stephan on Sept 7, 2021 8:04:56 GMT -5
holajonathan 5/6 cats in this house have white paws/ legs. Three off them might be willing models. Yeah, 5 grams in 2000 gallons is pretty dilute, but as the safety guy, the motto “dilution is not the solution to pollution” is pretty firmly ingrained. Remember, though, a tenfold dilution only drops pH by one point. Reaction with organic matter can drop it by 2 or 3, since most organic material acts as a buffer. Ha ha ha. You know you got a good polish when your reflection obscuring everything is the big obstacle, and you figure you’ll fix “the other stuff” in post-processing Good point about the alkalizing capacity of something that is 13 on the ph scale, given that ph is a base 10 log scale. In other words, NaOH is really, super, duper alkaline. Those logarithmic scales are tricky. Like the richter scale, where each whole number increase equals more than 31 times more energy released. 10-fold 😁. That’s what “base 10” refers to. ETA a half point on a log10 scale is 3.16 (the square root of 10) EATA oops. Learned my item for the day. I thought the Richter scale was base 10 as well. You’d think I’d have known, living in earthquake country |
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Post by holajonathan on Sept 7, 2021 14:27:26 GMT -5
Good point about the alkalizing capacity of something that is 13 on the ph scale, given that ph is a base 10 log scale. In other words, NaOH is really, super, duper alkaline. Those logarithmic scales are tricky. Like the richter scale, where each whole number increase equals more than 31 times more energy released. 10-fold 😁. That’s what “base 10” refers to. ETA a half point on a log10 scale is 3.16 (the square root of 10) EATA oops. Learned my item for the day. I thought the Richter scale was base 10 as well. You’d think I’d have known, living in earthquake country My prior post was misleading. The Richter scale is a log10 scale, but it measures the amplitude of vibrations, not the energy release. There is a non-linear relationship between energy release and amplitude, as well. Stated differently, to double the amplitude of vibrations you need more than double the amount of energy. Add it all up, and you get 31X more energy released per whole number increase on the Richter scale, even if the 31X more energy only creates 10X stronger vibrations. When it comes to the human impact / destructive power of earthquakes, the amplitude of vibrations is more relevant than the energy release. "How hard does everything shake?" matters more than "how much geological energy was released?" So thinking about earthquake intensity as being measured on a log10 scale, like ph, is probably the best way to think about it. For some reason the 31X more energy factoid always stuck in my head, however, as a good of example of how non-linear scales can be tricky. |
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Post by parfive on Sept 7, 2021 15:41:28 GMT -5
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Post by jasoninsd on Sept 7, 2021 15:46:07 GMT -5
I’ll have to remember to use cat paws to white balance. I often use grass. For some reason, it is also photographically neutral (that comes from a pro photographer — I was pretty surprised to hear that). Does that only apply to green grass...because all we seem to have around here for the last few years is brown grass...which would just blend in with the ugly brown rocks I seem to be cabbing lately (e.g. Teepee Canyon Agates, Thundereggs, and soon Brazilian Agates! LOL) holajonathan - How're the hands feeling today? |
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Post by stephan on Sept 7, 2021 16:05:08 GMT -5
I’ll have to remember to use cat paws to white balance. I often use grass. For some reason, it is also photographically neutral (that comes from a pro photographer — I was pretty surprised to hear that). Does that only apply to green grass...because all we seem to have around here for the last few years is brown grass...which would just blend in with the ugly brown rocks I seem to be cabbing lately (e.g. Teepee Canyon Agates, Thundereggs, and soon Brazilian Agates! LOL) holajonathan - How're the hands feeling today? I does have to be green grass, which shouldn't exist around here either, except that businesses seem to be exempt from the rules ordinary people have to follow. Hey... I never said that I thought all brown rocks are UBRs, just that many people do. Like the former SMS shop steward I've told you about, and even he made allowances for Owyhee and Trinidad jasper. Teepee Canyon doesn't even count as a brown rock, by the way. |
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Post by stephan on Sept 7, 2021 16:06:52 GMT -5
10-fold 😁. That’s what “base 10” refers to. ETA a half point on a log10 scale is 3.16 (the square root of 10) EATA oops. Learned my item for the day. I thought the Richter scale was base 10 as well. You’d think I’d have known, living in earthquake country My prior post was misleading. The Richter scale is a log10 scale, but it measures the amplitude of vibrations, not the energy release. There is a non-linear relationship between energy release and amplitude, as well. Stated differently, to double the amplitude of vibrations you need more than double the amount of energy. Add it all up, and you get 31X more energy released per whole number increase on the Richter scale, even if the 31X more energy only creates 10X stronger vibrations. When it comes to the human impact / destructive power of earthquakes, the amplitude of vibrations is more relevant than the energy release. "How hard does everything shake?" matters more than "how much geological energy was released?" So thinking about earthquake intensity as being measured on a log10 scale, like ph, is probably the best way to think about it. For some reason the 31X more energy factoid always stuck in my head, however, as a good of example of how non-linear scales can be tricky. Whew! Only a partial brain fart, then. I was thinking, who the heck came up with a base 31 numbering system anyway? yes, I know the answer is "Richter," but still.... I've seen base 2, e, 8, 10 and 16, but not 31. On that note, does e, being a transcendental number, meditate? |
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Post by holajonathan on Sept 7, 2021 18:59:33 GMT -5
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Post by holajonathan on Sept 7, 2021 19:00:32 GMT -5
Well that was a timely connection on your part. Story just published today. And a good read.  |
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Post by stephan on Sept 7, 2021 22:09:32 GMT -5
Well that was a timely connection on your part. Story just published today. And a good read.  Good article, indeed. Fun fact: they gave only the literal translation from German for the gene referenced (“Dickkopf”). Literally, it does mean “thick-head,” but in practice it refers to a stubborn person. |
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller 
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,723 
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Post by Fossilman on Sept 9, 2021 11:44:34 GMT -5
Excellent workmanship...
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