Tag Archives: night

A ride along the American River

Among my many passions in life-activities that I spend my free time doing and, frankly, wish I could make more time for, is cycling.  Unlike the road bike rider that truly owns the classification of “cyclist”, I ride a mountain bike because, well… I like to play in the dirt.  I always have.  While I do love to leap off of the paved trail and tear down a fire trail or horse track on occasion, as I documented in an earlier blog post in which I posted a video of me tearing down a trail in Auburn (my GoPro camera’s maiden voyage) most of my bike riding time is spent on paved bike trails, much of it along the scenic Sacramento and American river trails.

Come along as I take a leisurely ride along the American River Trail at dusk via historic Old Town Sacramento, across SF Golden Gate replica which connects the American River trail to Sacramento State University, then beneath the up lit Tower Bridge, culminating in a short ride down K Street at night.

Stay tuned, loyal followers.   There will be more of these to come, perhaps with music and/or commentary next time.

J. Johnston

Full Lunar Eclipse 2010

Did you see it?  I did, and let me tell you, it was pretty cool!  I have wanted to capture a lunar eclipse since I bought my first DSLR and tonight I was not disappointed.  Granted, I did only document the penumbra state through when the last of the moon entered the umbra at the point that the total eclipse began at around midnight.  By that time it was 47 degrees in my backyard and I had been craning my neck peering through my tripod mounted camera and 500mm lens at nearly a vertical angle for an hour and a half on a work night. 

It was a wonder that the clouds parted for this event as the skies for most of the day were dark with much of the day fully engulfed in scattered rain showers.  I figured that the clouds parted for a reason and I wasn’t going to miss this opportunity to document the only full lunar eclipse to occur on the winter solstice in my lifetime.  The last one to occur on this date was on December 21, 1638.  The next one is not due until December 21, 2094 according to NASA.

Alright, enough suspense.  Here is a slide-show with 8 of the 112 photos that I took between 10:33 and 12:00 midnight on December 20, 2010.  Post a comment and let me know your experience with this or a past eclipse event or just give me some feedback.

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