This week I am in Destin/Ft. Walton Beach, FL to watch 6 autogun tests, all with propellant I have made (well, had a hand in making). Our customer for the propellant is internal to ATK where they make the full round (bullet+propellant+case). Their customer for the complete rounds is the Air Force. Prior to accepting a new lot, the Air Force will test each lot in their autogun, located on Eglin Air Force Base in Ft. Walton Beach, FL. Scott (from our ATK internal customer) always comes down to assist with a lot acceptance test. This time, I was given the opportunity to visit, since I helped Scott prepare a special blend of propellant. We will be using specially made cardboard grids and cameras to measure muzzle flash, smoke dispursion and residue. The least amount of flash, smoke and residue is better for the pilots, the gun system, and everyone all around! During the first day of testing, Scott would lead you to believe I touched the gun and broke it. However, the gun actually showed signs of electrical failure the day before we got here but no one really knew what to do about it (thus nothing was done!) and then the day of our testing it broke. They spent all day Wednesday fixing the problem - so Scott and I were able to “take in the local flavor”. Some pictures are here

<3 Cindy
http://www.LearnFamily.com

Cindy and I recently started playing around with a peice of software called Garage Band(it is part of the iLife package by Apple). It is a program that allows you to create your own music, either by recoding something that you play, writing your own music, or just mixing in various pre-defined loops.

We have posted some of our first attempts at writting and mixing music here.

-Matt

After Cindy and I got home, we decied to spend a little time taking some pictures (we are working on a publishing project and needed some more images)… So we went outside and took some of the flowers and such around her house. Some of the pictures came out really nice, and some did not, but that is the best part about digital, who cares….

So after dinner, I decided that I wanted to try something that I had seen in Popular Photography, it was an article about a guy taking a picture of a fly, really close up. In the article he was using bellows tubes, but since I do not have those, I went ahead and used my Macro Coupler. So I took my Sigma 105 and my Nikon 50, mounted together and worked with a dried bee that Cindy had in the back of her car.

As you cna see by the pictures, I did manage to get atleast a few good ones. The details is just great. I was fairly happy with the results, but I did find out one problem with doing this at Cindy’s house. The floor in her place is wodden and it moves a little bit as I look in the camera and then sit back trying not to touch anything. The floor moves enough that at this close distance, it throws off what is suppose to be in focus and instead is a little in front or behind. So, when ever possible, work on a concrete floor when trying to do extreme macro!

Hope that you enjoy the pictures…

-Matt