A losing battle

The new year started with a death.. not something major but surely the elders in the family would have said "that is a bad omen".

Well, the Black Molly that lived for more than 3 years in our tank (kid you not) reached god on New Years day.

That meant a trip to the Pet store to get the last remaining fish some company. We bought a male and female Yellow mollies. The store also had a few baby black mollys which they threw in for free and the kids being kids were just thrilled to have more than one or two old slow moving fish in the tank.

As it so happened the bag with the fishes had a small snail! I never realized it.

Jr. who has very sharp eyes said "you know there is a sea snail that came with the bag. it is okay because they live in the water. our class aquarium had a sea snail". I questioned that saying "sea water is salty. this is a fresh water tank. I doubt it" and she said it was a freshwater sea snail at which point I realized that we need to fact check Jr. much like we need to fact check the Politicians in Washington. They will say whatever they have to, in order to get what they want!

Jr. pointed it out to me and this lazy thing on the bottom of the tank (smaller than a dime) did not seem to pose a threat to the fish. So I told Jr. and the little one that the snail stays till the next tank cleaning session at which point it will have to leave the tank.

Yesterday morning we went to feed the fish and found the entire walls of the tank full of black moving dots! There were hundreds of baby sea snails, if that is what they are called.

Within 24 hours some of these babies were no longer babies. they were practically the same size as the original snail and some of them started to climb the walls above the water level. Worried about a snail invasion in the house, we called the local Pet Store and the lady said "just change out the water, carefully clean everything in your tank and put it back and they will be gone"

Me : are you sure there are no microscopic eggs in the water? Am I going to be cleaning this out every alternate day?

Cust.Rep : No Sir. Just clean it out, scrub all your plants, gravel etc. and you should be fine.

So the evening was spent on cleaning, scrubbing, practically boiling the gravel in the bathroom under the hottest water available in our hot water faucet and guess what?

We put a handful of gravel back into the tank and out come two really tiny snails! Now the tank is practically empty with no decor and a few gravel stone and marbles.

The plan was to go to the store tomorrow and ask for free gravel and replacement decorations! After some internet reading it appears that there are tricks we can do with warm lettuce leaves and salt water soaking of gravel that can eliminate the problem.

Have never seen anything this scary. Saw the impact of unchecked breeding firsthand..

On the bright side, learning how to take close up videos of the fishes by using a macro lens and manually focusing on them by putting the lens practically against the glass.

It is a true test of lighting optimization!

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X-mas in the Park - San Jose - Photoblog

A street in downtown San Jose filled with rides and lights, two dozen mini Christmas trees decorated with everything from lights, ornaments to music CD's, twilight giving bright hues and saturated colors..

Here are a few photographs..

Did get to practice motion blur shots and pulled off one with San and the little one on a swing ride. All the ideas not tried this year or ideas that came to my head only after reviewing the photos at home will be tried at the next opportunity.

When you see a Ferris wheel after dark, one should at least take one shot with long exposure times with a high f number and a curtain flash. Try it.

Here are some HD videos..

If you live in the bay area, X-mas in the park is definitely worth an evenings visit!

Walking around is free. The rides cost you tickets. An arm band for 13 bucks gives a kid unlimited rides. However, the kid has to be at least 42 inches to ride alone. If shorter an adult has to accompany the kid.

That costs you a lot of tickets or a screaming kid... your choice!

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Lessons learned and learning..

The sun was setting and the skies turned red. The green leaves looked greener.. the red ones looked a flaming red and the gold leaves, well they looked amazing!

Took a shot of the 50+ foot Crystal Amber tree in the backyard and was extremely happy with the results.

Then the thought of placing a kid in the foreground and how it would be great entered my head. My ever willing model aka Jr. said she would step out and pose for one photo and one photo only.

We took one photo and she went "Daddy, I cannot see anything anymore!". For a second I got really worried. Luckily, her temporary blindness faded and she is fine and can see everything.

Just out of curiosity, took a shot without Jr. in the frame with the flash. This thing is very very powerful! The apple tree is a good 40 feet away and it got lit up with the flash. Poor Jr. , no wonder she had a temporary blinding effect.

Should have bounced the flash off my back! There is a lot more to learn on what not to do as well as what to do with this new equipment!

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Party time, taking some things for granted

This is our fourth year at the annual IBM Christmas party for Children. Those of you who have been reading this blog long enough know that each year we put a caricature comparison of the kids done by the same Artist year after year..

This year is no exception!

Big Al actually remembered the kids this year! This year they have finally outgrown those same tee's they wore three years in a row. Both of them have mature faces now!

We also did the usual face painting, cookie decorating, getting balloons etc.

For the first time we attended the magic show and it was a ton of fun. Have never seen the kids this animated or happy in public in a long time. At Disney it was awe and wonder struck faces. Here is was pure glee!

Jr. gave me a nice pose. The little one erased part of her X-mas tree and was refusing to pose.. she is turning into a mini me. Cannot stay still in any place for more than a few seconds... she was just whizzing through the whole thing!

They do a really great job of decorating the place each year with a different type of tree (one year is green, one year is white, etc.) and the whole thing is extremely well organized!

We are all aware of the real Santa. Still the allure of sitting on Grandpa Claus and getting a picture is fun! The kids loved it.

If you do look at the youtube video link in this post, have tried to explain the issue on the video in the Youtube description. If you have any pointers towards the real problem or a fix, please let me know...

Another year has almost rolled by and is coming to a close. It has been a tough year that is coming to a close. Counting days at work, at home, over the phone with relatives..

Hope we count down the remaining days without any major issues!

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HD video ... as recorded

First upload of a HD video taken at home using the Canon EOS 5D Mark ii.

The playback using quicktime gives me a headache (30 or 24 fps videos both do this, give me a headache that is..)

However the Youtube uploaded video does not have this issue. Have some homework to do to figure this out.

Have been sick with a bug the last 36 hours. Have been sleeping through the afternoon and evening. The kids were getting depressed seeing me down. Shot this video just to show them that daddy is getting back to his usual self. They are not convinced. Heard the little one tell Jr. "he is still sick. he is just trying to act normal". Kids are very very perceptive.

Hopefully the bug stops with me. Every December, irrespective of taking flu shots, I get sick with either a flu or a stomach bug. The old blog posts show that it happens with such consistency, it is sickening!

Now it is back to sleep time.

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