Ugh. Sick. I’ve taken a sick day from work and spent most of the day in bed. Thank goodness for nasal decongestants. At least it’s been a rainy inside sort of weekend. although Tom has managed a couple of day hikes with our guests while I slept and hid from the weather. Lots of down time means time to gather together a few loose ends over the last week.
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I had the honor of participating in an amazing digital imaging project this weekend, right here in Yosemite. Yosemite’s the kind of place where you get to see a lot of pretty large, fancy camera equipment and some pretty all-star photographers, on a semi-regular basis, but this project blew my mind.

The groundwork was laid by the xRez team – Eric Hanson and Greg Downing, whose work spread like wildfire through my little Yosemite climbing community when they chose Half Dome and El Capitan as subjects, although they also have many other amazing images of vast landscapes on their sites. As one friend commented, “it’s almost like you can see the individual holds”. Not quite. But close.

But what if, instead of 1 shot, you took a whole series of shots, from all over the Valley, ranging from Cloud’s Rest, to the summit of El Cap to Dewey Point? In collaboration with our Park Geologist, Greg Stock, who will be able to use these images to monitor things like rock fall within the park, they collected/created equipment for 70+ people planned a multi-day event, provided training and set us loose on the park. Can you image the pictures that are going to come out of this project?

It all seems pretty cool from my low-tech climber perspective . I get to go hiking to a place I’d never been before (Eagle Peak), maybe meet some new folks, help carry some nifty camera equipment, and get some bragging rights when the whole thing sees the light of day. Pretty nice day.

It was my fellow volunteers, the ones that flew in from all over the country to participate that were really excited. Not because of the pictures, but because this is truly groundbreaking work in the field of digital imaging. Huh. Imagine that.

The only way I can think about it is based on a TED talk that Tom and I came across serendipitously about some new jaw-dropping 3D imaging software from Microsoft. No, really. Amazing. Watch the video, it’s worth taking the time to download. This is the kind of crazy cool stuff these guys are working on, and then you add the immense resolution of these gigapixel images…

They say that will start having something to show in August. I can hardly wait.

I’ve bitten the bullet, and ordered out for the CIW Foundations course. That comes with 3 (by all accounts giant) textbooks, practice exams, online teaching aids and a voucher for the exam at the end. From what I understand the Foundations course covers all the internet basics from networking, to mark-up languages to… well I guess I’ll find out.

Once the Foundations course is done, you then have the option of picking a specialty. Time to buckle down and get an education… again.

One of the (many) great things about this job is the emphasis on learning and growing, and I’m loving that part of it especially. For example, Brian is buying this course for me, and has given me a lot of support and leeway on taking it. (He said that I needed to sign some sort of “I won’t get the education and leave right away” agreement before he’d pay for it. I haven’t, but I think we both know deep down that it isn’t really necessary.)

Now I have a double goal for the summer. Get back in shape, and pass the CIW exam. Wish me luck.