One last thing from the Grand Forks Photo Safari...

Sure the stats say the Canon 7D does 8 frames per second, but what does that really mean in a real life situation?  See the sequences below, all shot at 8fps with auto-select 19-point AI Focus.  After the sequences cycle the first time, they should play with 1/8 second between each frame, providing something akin to a real-time representation of what happened.

Why no video?  At the time of the trip I wasn't familiar enough with the camera to feel comfortable shooting a video.

Last week I went on my first photo safari.  I've posted my final photos from the trip and wanted to share a few thoughts from the experience.

The Safari

The photo safari was the 4-day "Wildlife of the West Kootenays" provided by Canada Photo Safaris.  It was a donated safari to support the Woodland Park Zoo's Jungle Auction.

I could go on and on about how impressed I was with the guide, Paul Stone, but really the photos speak for themselves.  He repeatedly put us in positions with great lighting and great animals.  We were dealing with wild animals, and yet he was able to say things like, "we're going to this place at this time, and there will be beautiful golden light on the field with deer walking through it" or "we're going to put out some apples here and we'll see a bear" and more often than not that's exactly what would happen.

I was impressed enough with the trip that I'm eyeing the other safaris that Paul offers, like the Ultimate Grizzly Safari.

The safari was based out of Grand Forks, which is ~2.5 hours north of the Spokane airport, so if you live in the Pacific Northwest it's a very accessible safari.  I only took 2 days of vacation to do it.

SeeHorse Inn

If I visit Grand Forks again, I'm staying at the SeeHorse Inn again.  The view was incredible, but the most amazing thing was Sylvia's cooking.  Seriously, if you ever stay there, pay Sylvia whatever it takes to get her to make you her Doukhabor Borscht dinner.  It was so good that as I type this blog entry, I am trying to reconstruct the recipe based on some info I found on the web.  Her bread, home-made wine, and apple pie were also incredible complements to the main course.

The Canon 7D

I got the Canon 7D just in time for this trip.  Prior to this trip I had used the Canon 20D for 5 years.

Given all the secondary features (better screen, 8 frames per second, integrated sensor cleaning, etc.) the 7D is a worthwhile upgrade from the 20D.  I thought I wouldn't care for 18 megapixels, but I've gotten addicted to how much I can crop my images and still have a usable photo.

The one thing I wanted from the 7D was significantly better ISO performance than the 20D, and the jury is still out on whether this is the case.  Here's an example of an ISO 1600 image (with the background cleaned up with NeatImage), and here's an ISO 6400 image (not cleaned up at all).  The camera is definitely no 5D Mark II when it comes to noise performance, but I was grateful that ISO 6400 was available for me to get photos of the bear after sundown.

In terms of autofocus, the 7D's AI Servo mode hasn't gained my trust yet.  Before going on the trip I read a ton of reports on the web about the various autofocus settings to try, and for most of the safari I used AI Focus with it set to autoselect which of the 19 points to use.  In that mode, the 7D worked superbly.  However, whenever I tried AI Servo, the percentage of shots that were critically sharp went down enough for me to immediately switch back to AI Focus.

One experience in particular is seared into my memory:  I'm photographing the rams clash over and over again.  I'm using AI Focus and it's working wonderfully (easily > 90% keeper rate).  After ~30 minutes of action I know I have enough good photos to play around a bit.  I switch to AI Servo with Zone AF, fire off a series as the rams clash, and most of the series is out of focus.  I immediately switch back to AI Focus.  Two brief birding outings (not on the safari) haven't changed my opinion of AI Servo.

Overall I'm still happy with my purchase (I would still buy the camera again, given the choice), but I am expecting Canon to release a firmware update to address the AI Servo autofocus performance.

We know we know.  It's been an eternity since we blogged anything.  We're making a concerted effort to get better about work/life balance.

We thought we'd post trip notes from our 2007 trip to the Big Island of Hawaii.  We've had enough people ask us for these that we thought we should post them somewhere, and we're very grateful for everyone who has shared their Italy notes with us.

If all you want to see are the photos, click here, otherwise check out the notes below.  Enjoy!

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In Oct 2007 we visited the big island for a week.  We did two parts to the trip: 5 days of exploring the island counterclockwise starting from Kona, and 3 days of relaxing and snorkeling while staying in Kona area.

 

This is the book we used as a guide for the entire trip.  Highly recommended, and it's well worth the money: Hawaii The Big Island Revealed: The Ultimate Guidebook

 

The first night we got in after dark and stayed in a random cheap hotel on the north part of Alii Drive.  Nothing to write home about.

 

Day 2 we spent the entire day driving Highway 11 from Alii Drive to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and exploring multiple places along the way.  Things worth seeing:

South Kona Fruit Stand (photo1, photo2, photo3, photo4)

84-4770 Mamalahoa Hwy., Captain Cook, 808/328-8547

Approximate map location

Superb place to have lunch and pick up a bunch of snacks for the rest of the day.  So good that we came back here at the end of the trip.

 

South Point (photo1, photo2)

Approximate map location

Note: this is one part of the trip where we wish we had a 4-wheel drive.  If you're willing to pay the $$$ and are comfortable driving a 4-wheel, it will allow you to see more cool stuff here (like a green sand beach that we never got to see).

 

Punaluu Black Sand Beach Park (photo1, photo2, photo3)

Map Location

 

We got in to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park at sunset at stayed at The Inn at Volcano, managed by Chalet Kilauea.  It was a nice B&B that we'd likely stay at again if we visited the area again.

 

Note: in the city of Volcano, I think there's a restaurant called Sombats Thai.  It's not worth it.

 

All of day 3 was spent visiting all of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (photo1, photo2, photo3, photo4, photo5, photo6, photo7, photo8).  If you keep yourself to short- and medium-length explorations from the road, you can see all the major parts of the park in a day.  If you want to do some longer hikes, you may want to spend a second day here.  Our strategy was to reserve two nights at The Inn at Volcano so for day 4 we had the option of spending another day at the volcano or exploring the area between the volcano and Hilo.

 

The first part of day 4 was spent exploring the area between the volcano and Hilo.  We drove up Highway 11, then down highway 130.  If you look at a map you'll see that Highways 130, 132, and 137 form a triangle.  I can't remember how much of the triangle we did, but here's what we saw:

We visited Lava Tree State Monument, which wasn’t as interesting as it sounded.  If you end up near it it's worth a few minutes, but it's not worth a trip on its own. (photo)

 

What is worth a trip is the point where 130 and 137 meet and end due to lava flow.  You can walk over a cooled lava field, and at the end is a nice black sand beach (photo1, photo2, photo3, photo4).   Approximate map location.

 

After visiting the black sand beach I think we drove some of 137 along the coast.  There are no specific destinations to see here, except we did find some really pretty turnouts along the way where we just sat and watched the water crash against the shore (photo).

 

After all this we drove to Hilo, and I think we stayed two nights at the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel.  The hotel was exactly what we were looking for: great location, average quality, and great price.

 

Note: when exploring the entire area around Hilo, bring lots of mosquito spray.  I think Robin and I each got bit over a dozen times (and that was with bug spray).  Not cool.

 

Day 5 was spent exploring Hilo and the area north of Hilo on Highway 19.

Worth seeing:  the lookout point of The Waipio Valley (photo1, photo2).  Approximate map location.  Note: there is a road that goes from the lookout point down to the valley.  It looked way too steep for us to drive it (and too narrow to walk it while sharing the road with cars), and we would have paid to ride down in the tour bus, except it was Sunday and the bus wasn't operating.

 

Worth seeing: Akaka Falls State Park.  Map location.  (photo1, photo2, photo3)

 

Candidate for the best restaurant we ate at on the entire island: Hilo Bay Café.

 

Great place to have lunch: What's Shakin (photo)

 

Not really worth seeing: Hawaiian Vanilla Company.

 

Worth seeing:  just walk along Banyan Drive in Hilo.  All the Banyan trees are very cool.  (photo)

 

Day 6 was spent driving up Highway 19, then at Waimea, going north on 250 and then down the coast on 270.  We stopped at some various lookouts, and honestly most of them were forgettable, except one: Lapakahi State Historical Park.  Map location.  (photo1, photo2, photo3)

 

The rest of our time (3 days) was spent on the Kona coast snorkeling and relaxing.  We stayed at the Sheraton Keauhou.  It was a fine hotel, but which hotel you'll want to stay at depends on what you're looking for (a cheap place to sleep vs. a resort hotel).

Candidate for the best restaurant we ate at on the entire island: Kenichi.  So good we went back there twice during the trip, specifically for the vegetarian sushi.  To this day we still talk about how good it was.

 

Snorkeling:  we rented gear from Snorkel Bob's, which is located at the north end of Alii Drive.  We'd rent from there again.

Snorkel Bob's

75-5831 Kahakai St

Kailua-Kona Hawaii

 

Snorkeling spots:  We tried a bunch of snorkeling spots.  Here's what I recall:

 

Total bust: Anaeho’omalu Bay.  Maybe it was the weather, but it was horrible for snorkeling, and we saw zero fish.

 

Above average: Kahaluu Beach Park.  Superb for snorkeling (beautiful fish, turtles, easy swimming, etc.).  Only downside is that it's crowded, and parking can be tough (it's on the south part of Alii drive).

 

Mind-blowing hidden gem: we found an incredible snorkeling spot on the Kona coast.  It's good enough (and small enough) that we don't want to post the details on the web and have it overrun.  So, if you're a friend send us e-mail and we'll provide the details.

This past week I picked up an AT&T Fuze (aka HTC Touch Pro).  If you're in the market for a new Windows Mobile phone, I definitely recommend taking a look at it.

And if you're in the market for a used Smartphone phone for the AT&T network, my 1 year old Pantech Duo is looking for a new home.  Price: free!  It comes with a 2GB microSD card.  First one to e-mail me gets it.  If no one grabs it, I'll donate it.  Overall it has been a great phone.  My only gripe about it is that it's call audio quality is below average.

For once, I'm going to blog about something other than U.S. politics. I have a far more worthy subject: Creme brulee.

Leaving aside the obvious political inferences (only a latte-sipping elitist would even know what creme brulee is), I consider this more of a public service announcement than even my recent jabs at politicians. If you're anywhere near Queen Anne Hill in Seattle, you should definitely check out the Market Spice Tea creme brulee at Opal.

Opal is a pretty little corner place on Queen Anne Ave. and Boston Ave. Like many places on QA Hill, it suffers a bit from the overt yearning to be trendy - but not as much as many Hill spots. It's pretty, all right, but comfortable enough. The window tables put you close-up to the joggers, college kids, and the Hill's "beautiful people" alike, so the feeling is more like being in the neighborhood than being in a hipster hangout.  

Opal recently changed head chefs and menus, and it now offers a "tasting" menu. That means everything is offered in small, appetizer-sized servings as well as large entree-sized ones. So you can easily try two to three items in a visit. While JJ, our friends Dawn and Eric, and I enjoyed a number of the small plates - including the garlicky hazelnut gnocchi, the warm frisee salad, and the pearl-sized "mac and cheese" - the desserts were stand-outs, and especially the creme brulee that was perfectly infused with the sweet, comforting taste of Pike Place's famous Market Spice tea.  

Folks, I don't even like tea. I just happened to have stumbled across Market Spice at the Gene Juarez salon once (another place that yearns to be trendy), when I asked for lemon water and somehow got tea instead. It was a happy accident. The creme brulee at Opal captures all the taste and fragrance in a super-smooth center that everyone at the table loved. I thought it might be a bit gritty like many spiced brulees, but it wasn't at all. It was sweeter even than a lot of chocolate desserts, but nicely restrained in that it wasn't sickly-sweet in the least. More than any piece of decor, it made a classy impression. It's definitely worth a trip back.

And if you're in Queen Anne jonesin' for sugar anyway, you might as well stop at Chocolopolis too. It's a little shop a few blocks down Queen Anne Ave. and is run by friends of Dawn and Eric. JJ and I haven't been yet, but we have had their rosemary and raspberry truffles - and we can enthusiastically recommend both.  

Don't say I never gave you anything. And oh yeah, don't forget to vote...

I admit it.  I'm addicted to financial news these days, partially because for the first time in forever, thanks to having so many great quality souces of information, it feels like I understand what's happening.

I check the TED spread daily.  Here's why.  Despite all the efforts of the past week, it isn't getting any better.  In fact, it's getting worse.  Not good.

Here's a good article from this Sunday's Washington Post about what the world may need to do to fix things.  This weekend's meeting of the finance heads of the major countries in the world is really important.  It will be fascinating to see what they decide on, and whether it works or not.

Lingering in the back of my mind though is this nagging thought:  I really hope all of this remains only fascinating.  It could get terrifying pretty quickly.

One really interesting thing about investing and personal finance is how important the emotional component is.  For example, say you buy a house for $400k.  You can easily afford the payments for the duration of the loan, you have no need or desire to move any time soon, and you have enough money left over after the mortgage payments to live the lifestyle you want.

Case A: One year later the market increases 20% and your house is now worth $480k.  You think you're a genious and you say to yourself, "I'm really happy I bought when I did."

Case B: One year later the market decreases 20% and your house is now worth $320k.  You think you made a mistake and you regret your choice.

The interesting thing is that in either case, you're financially fine.  You can make the payments and live the lifestyle you want.  But the behavior of other people, which is out of your control, makes the difference between pleasure and regret.  Ideally, you'd emotionally prepare yourself for both cases at the point at which you buy the house so that what the market does has no affect on your emotional state after buying the house.

Emotional preparation is really important now that we're clearly in a bear stock market and flirting with a possible economic depression.  So how do we prepare, and what happens next?

Well, it's no secret what happens next.  By the way, the events of this past week were no secret either, if you were hooked up to the right information sources.  One principle of investing is that you can generally tell *what* is going to happen, but you don't know *when*.  Robin and I have been fully prepared for this past week...for about 3.5 years.  Just as the .com boom was a mania that had to end sometime, so it was with the housing mania.  But no one knew if it was going to happen the next week or the next year.

The challenge now is to prepare emotionally for the next phase.  At some point, we're going to reach a time when it's a great buying opportunity.  We'll reach a point where if you have the attitude of investing in something for the long-term (for several years) and only investing when the odds are substantially in your favor (when you have a decent margin of safety), it will be a great time to invest, be it in stocks or in a new house.

But, we don't know *when* that point will be.  It could be next week, or it could be 3 years from now.  However, emotionally preparing now is important.  Because, just as some people laughed at those 3 years ago when they said they had most of their assets in cash (with it's seemingly paltry 4.7% interest rate), at the point at which it's good time to buy others will probably laugh at you when you say that's what you're doing.

But first we have to get there.  First the credit markets have to get unstuck, and then all the sellers have to be exhausted.  That may take a month or several years, but that time is coming.  So we prepare.  And we read our sources of high quality information (which do not include *any* mainstream media sources) to help us judge when the time is right.

There's an interesting new blog/podcast that may turn into a high quality source of information to consume regularly:  the NPR Planet Money blog and podcast.

Here's a not-so-fun thought based on one of their recent blog posts...

Yesterday I criticized the Bush administration for herding us into the $700 billion bailout and not letting it be known that there was an alternative option in the form of the Fed buying up commercial paper.

It might be that I was wrong.  The actual truth might be worse than my view.  It might be this:

* No one actually knows how to solve the current economic crisis in the form of the frozen commercial paper market.

* Their first shot was the $700 billion bailout last Friday.  It didn't work.

* Their second shot was having the Fed announce a program Tuesday to buy up commercial paper.  It didn't work.

* Their third shot was coordinating with multiple countries around the world to lower interest rates today (Wednesday).  Right now it appears that didn't work either.

* Their fourth and current shot, if I'm reading this correctly in this article in New York Times, is to take an ownership stake in various banks.

At some point, the Fed and the government will run out of things to try.  I don't know what happens at that point, but something tells me it's really really bad.  Last week Warren Buffett used the analogy of the athlete who's had a cardiac arrest and paramedics are on scene trying to shock his heart back into beating.  To carry the analogy forward, each of the four actions above are shocks to the system to try to get things going again.  If none of those shocks work, what happens to our economy?

This American Life's latest episode deserves another mention.  Robin and I listened to it last night and I think I fully understand the most recent credit crisis.

It's well worth your time.  Go here and listen to episode 365.  Note that it's only available as a free download for another 5 days or so (after that it's 99 cents).

After you listen to the episode, go read this entry from Beat the Press.  That whole $700 billion bailout thing...did congress and the media get herded again by the Bush administration into making a hasty, incorrect decision of critical importance to the country?  I suppose only time will tell.  The more alarmist/cynical web sites I read say the Bush administration seems to have this down to a science by now...
    Step 1: Declare a crisis.  Use very scary language, and scare everyone into a stampede.
    Step 2: Block all routes and exits except the single one that you want the herd to take.
    Step 3: Wait for the herd to do the only thing it can--run through the only exit available.

With the majority of the U.S. public against the $700 billion bailout plan, this interview with Warren Buffett is an interesting view from the other side of the debate.

My personal beliefs?  I'll be the first to admit that in the short-term, I have no idea what's required to keep the economy from going over a cliff.  But in the long-term, I feel strongly that substantial work needs to be done to rework the incentive systems at the heart of the financial industry.

For example, it's amazing to me to read story after story about home buyers who were essentially setup for failure with their loan.  Yes, they signed the paperwork and they deserve their share of the blame (and financial punishment), but what about all the experts who enabled them?  What about their realtor?  What about the loan officer?  Because realtors and loan officers are rewarded when a transaction happens, they're incented to make as many transactions happen as possible, without regard for the borrower's financial well being.  This doesn't mean that all realtors and loan officers disregard their customer's well being, but enough did it to get us into this mess.

Random idea: instead of giving people huge amounts of $$$ when a transaction happens, what if things went to more of a royalty system, like how musicians make money off of songs.  Say a realtor makes $10,000 off the sale of a home.  Instead of getting all that $10,000 right away, perhaps they get $2,000 and the remaining $8,000 is paid out gradually over 10 years, but only if the homeowner doesn't default on their loan.  If the homeowner defaults, the realtor loses the remaining commission.  If the homeowner moves to a new place, the realtor is guaranteed the rest of their $8,000, but it's still paid out over the 10 year schedule.

Same system for the loan officer.

An alternative system would be to fine realtors and loan officers if a person they put in the home defaults on the loan.  The fine needs to be big enough to hurt, but not big enough to financially ruin someone (unless you put a ton of people in homes they shouldn't be in).  Sure, there will always be some number of defaults for reasons outside of the control of the realtor or loan officer, but I'd argue that's part of the costs of doing business.

In a nutshell, the interests of the homeowner need to be more tightly aligned with the interests of the realtor and the loan officer.

Going broader, it would be great if we could find a way to align the interests of individuals in the financial trenches with the interests of the overall U.S. economy.  I wonder how many Wall Street employees are out there who got in, did a ton of transactions, and got out with several million dollars.  They're all out there laughing at the rest of us as the system melts down.  Did you know the average employee compensation in 2006 at Goldman Sachs was $622,000?  (The median would be a better measure here, but no one seems to have that number.)

If you're making that kind of money, and the decisions you're making are setting up the U.S. economy for the painful position it's currently in, something is fundamentally wrong with the incentives at the heart of the system.