I feel like dancing

[Tindalos]

to celebrate reaching 1000 posts. Anyone want to join me?

[JeffR]

1. Heck yes. Congrats on your milestone!

The colors in your photo are really delicious.

(And BTW, if you've run across any of my occasional references to Canadians as "crazy iceheads" and Canada as "Soviet Canuckistan" please know that I'm just being facetious. While being an American living in Canada can be a weird and sometimes surreal experience, it's really a privilege to live here, especially as I've watched my own country slide toward complete insanity throughout the Bush years. NanceGreggs and I feel fortunate to live in a country that seems much more civil and civilized than our own.)

[Tindalos]

12. Thanks

Looks like everyone is having fun.

(Lol. We sometimes call it Canuckistan too. This is a strange country, even by our standards, and I live in the strangest part of it - the Left Coast, Banana Belt, Lalaland ... More than anything else, I think you need a sense of humour here. I'm glad you like it in Canada. Sorry about Harper though; He's an anomaly I can't explain.)

[JeffR]

28. Harper's an anomaly even Darwin couldn't account for.

But from everything I've heard, the strangest part of the country is Alberta, which was once apparently part of Texas but inexplicably drifted north and west while leaving intervening states untouched.

[Tindalos]

32. Alberta is in the Twilight Zone

The combination of oil and cattle does something to people. They start wearing giant hats and spurs, and talking with a drawl. I can't explain it.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

2. sure... last post before I head to

new orleans

[Tindalos]

13. Mardi Gras!

How exciting! Hope you are having lots of fun. No doubt you will have great pictures to share when you come back.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

22. trip fell apart at the last minute

the guy who was supposed to be the money messed everything up

oh well, at least we had not left yet

[Tindalos]

23. Oh no!

That really sucks. How disappointing.

[Blue_In_AK]

3. Dancing, you say?

Congratulations on your 1000th post, and many thousands more. :)

[Tindalos]

14. Can you see Russia from your house?

Sorry, couldn't resist after seeing the first pic. I love the expressions in that photo. It looks a very charming story.

[Blue_In_AK]

20. They're the New Archangel Russian dancers from Sitka.

http://www.newarchangeldancers.com/

While they can't see Russia, they can definitely see "Russian Alaska" since Sitka used to be the capital of Alaska in the old Russian days.

We have a lot of Russian influence here. Down by Homer they have an "Old Believers" settlement, Kachemak Selo, where the people still dress in their traditional clothing and practice their old religion. Kind of like Alaska's Amish. http://old.orthodoxnews.com/131/Wandering.htm

Sarah was stupid to make that remark, though, in the context she did.

[Tindalos]

24. I hadn't heard of the "Old Believers" before

Actually, I'd forgotten Alaska used to be part of Russia. It's cool that some of the heritage has survived. There must be a fascinating mix of cultures up there, including the various First Nations. The more I learn about Alaska, the more interesting it becomes.

[Blue_In_AK]

25. This is a wonderful melding of cultures up here.

Anchorage is now a 50-50 community, meaning that our schools are now 50% minority/ethnic. Over 95 languages are spoken by students in the Anchorage School District, which I think is pretty impressive in a city of 275,000. We have Hmong and Sudanese refugees, large Korean and Filipino communities, Thai and Laotians, many Pacific Islanders, African-Americans, Latinos, people from the Middle East, Indians, Pakistanis. Just about every kind of people you can think of. I was happy that my kids got a chance to go to school with kids from so many different backgrounds...unlike my schools which were all white bread.

[Tindalos]

26. Colour me impressed

95 languages? Wow, I had not idea you had half the UN up there. That does sound wonderful. Instead of traveling the world, maybe I'll just come visit Anchorage.

[Blue_In_AK]

27. It's not that far away.

:)

[Mira]

4. What great timing, congratulations on reaching your 1000th post and also on

running what turned out to be a challenging contest with a few twists.
Good luck tomorrow (today now) on the tests you are taking. I hope it all goes well.
Onward and upward !

[Tindalos]

15. Thanks

You have no idea what is going behind the scenes here. I think DU has hiccuped during every step of the contest, giving me weird error messages. One of the threads never showed up in myDU and the tie-breaker appeared as a reply, rather than as an original post. Added to the usual contest stuff, it has been a very strange month.

BTW The exam went well. Although one never really knows for certain. They're slow marking, so they probably won't post the marks for a few months.

[Mz Pip]

5. Dancing (in red)

[Mira]

8. OHH how I love this photo !

[Tindalos]

16. That is gorgeous

I love the richness of the colour and the motion. Beautiful!

[Richard D]

6. jungle dance

[Tindalos]

17. Great picture

Where was that taken?

[Richard D]

21. Thank you

At a Boras tribe village near Iquitos, Peru, in the upper Amazon.

[ConsAreLiars]

7. Pow Wow Line Dancers

[Mira]

9. WOW ! POW ! Fabulous !

[ConsAreLiars]

10. Thanks! I was playing with multiple exposures that day. Here's another.

The first was tripod mounted, shooting each layer when the dancers next in line seemed likely to be overlapping the dancers in the first shot.

This was hand held, combining a medium zoom of the dancers, a wider angle of the crowd, and a tight shot of a head dress.

[Tindalos]

18. These are amazing

The overlapping images create a great depth, showing so much of what was going on. Thanks for explaining how they were done. I would have no idea how to do something like this.

[ConsAreLiars]

29. Give it a try sometime.

See if your camera has the option to do multiple exposures. Most beyond the basic point-and-shooters have this capability. The only complication is making sure that the exposures add up to what would be needed for a single exposure of the scene. So if you do a double exposure in a setting where a normal shot would be 1/500 sec at f/8, setthe camera to manual exposure and then do two at 1/250th, or 4 at 1/60th and so on. There are more variations, and you can do the same thing adjusting f-stops, but the numbers are less obvious.

[Tindalos]

30. I think I will

Thanks for the info on the exposures. That wouldn't have occurred to me. I'll definitely try this out sometime. I need to play with my camera more.

[ConsAreLiars]

31. Oops, I posted the exposure information backwards

To try again: two at 1/500th add to 1/250th second. 4 at 1/1000th would add to 1/250th second, and so on. Sorry.

[Dallas Dem]

11. Congrats.........

...........I'll be doing the Texas Two-Step for years, before I get to 1000 posts.

Wish I had some neat dance shots to share......(adding it to the To-Do list)..........these are all wonderful.

[Tindalos]

19. Thanks

Before joining the photog group, I rarely posted and didn't think I'd reach 1000 either.

Can't wait to see your dance shots, when you get the chance to take some (no pressure). If your to-do list is anything like mine, it stretches to the moon.