Dive At Stonington Point [    ]

Chi and I made a dive in Stonington Point tonight. We actually planned for two dives but we did not make the second one. The current was very strong and it's getting very dark. Most important, there was not too much under the water. I remember there were a lot of stuff in Stonington but this year underwater, it's deadly silent. But we actually saw several strippers. They just passed by and have huge size. I got a shot of one of them but it's just not very good.

Earlier I met Don at the shop. He will go to North Caralina with us. People who don't take pictures really don't know how hard it is. I have to take care of navigation, darkness, cold and still need to hold the camera. Sometime it's really frustrated.

Weiwei posted @ 19:48:51 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Imagin Anatase (001) Surface [Research]

I stayed up all last night in the lab, imaging the anatase (001) surface. It's cool I got atomic resolution. You can see the image on the right. The rows show the (1x4) reconstruction on the surface. I have been working on this for several weeks and finally got this little bit progress.

However with the image I also found some problem of the STM. The atomic rows on the adjacent steps are supposed to be perpendicular but they are not on the image. Well something is wrong with the hardware and we need to figure it out.

Recently all the people squizzed into the same system, which makes the experiment time very limited for each of us. So I need to work on some wired time schedule. And also I need to work on my thesis.

Weiwei posted @ 19:28:18 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

The Little Baby [General]

I saw this little bird on the way to school this morning. I believe it fell from the nest. There were two adult birds flying around, really close to me and making loud voice. I think they were trying to protect the little bird and keep me out of the area. It's a disaster for a young bird falling out of the nest. I was trying to get closer but it jumped into the grass. I could not find it any more. Well I hope it will be fine.

Weiwei posted @ 08:02:39 || New Haven, CT || Comments (1)

Trip To Sky Meadow [Photography]

The trip to Sky Meadow is wonderful. Thanks for Gary and all the others from the club. Also thanks Les for his wonderful studio and hospitality. I put everything together in the travel jounal or you can click here to enter.

Weiwei posted @ 17:46:51 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Open Dive Invitation [General]

Mark forwarded the message to me. Unfortunately I cannot go because of my finger. If you have interest, please go and enjoy. It's not only for diving but other interesting stuff and free food also.

Weiwei posted @ 20:10:40 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

High Cumulative Score Award [Photography]

Turned out my finger is fine. I went to the hospital and it was too late for the stich. But fortunately the bleeding stopped. But I can not use my right hand too much recently.

I got the high cumulative score award from the club. It's fun to review all the good pictures again at the end of the year. I am not sure how much I can do for the next season. First of all I should focus very much on my experiments and the job searching. Moreover, I need to put a little bit more effort on my underwater photography.

Well I like to push myself to the very limit - busy and productively busy. It's hard sometime on the road - but you will get paid off afterwards.

Weiwei posted @ 19:40:19 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Diving the Poling In Gloucester [Photography]

I signed up the trip to Gloucester to get familiar with my housing and prepare for the trip. But everytime I came to Gloucester, I would look like a sh*t. There is no exception this time - with my scary blooding finger. It stopped bleeding last night. But I know it will if I use the strenght. Well EXPLORATION is not as cool as it sounds like.

I have been to the Poling once last year for my advance certificate. It's about 80 feet deep. The problem is it's damn cold. For my everything goes very well at the beginning except I have to explain to everyone who sees my finger. I know it looks really really terrible. There is no problem for me to get down. Well I have to say it's really really beautiful. It's not like the picture you see from the tropic sea, which are colorful, warm and peace. Here the scene you see is cold, dark and deep, which I think is especially beautiful.

The only problem I had with camera is that sometime (well seems like many time to me today) it would not fire. I had thought I am too close to the subject. But now I think the problem is it's too dark and the subject is either not on the focus spot or the auto-focus would not reconize it. I think this is the big point I learned today. It's terribly cold down there - 43F.

I even did not make the second dive and I was shivering to the death. And I really really need to see the doctor about my finger.

Weiwei posted @ 20:25:15 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

My First SLR Diving [Photography]

I went to Stonington today with Chi. This is the first time of the season I went the site. It would be my first diving with my Ikelite housing. It is also Chi's first diving after he got certified.

We met Ed at the shop to get the tank filled and headed to the site. As usual the Stonington Point was crowded. People were curious about scuba diving and often stopped to talk with us. We tried to dress up slowly to prevent any possible mistake.

The water was very calm and the visibility was actaully very good. To my suprise, the housing was actually very easy to handle under the water. You would not feel any bulky at all. But I had problem for my first shot - 'Erro 01'. I did not know what's that - but I saw the aperture shows 00. I went back to the shore. It was really as I had guessed: the lens was not all the way locked. I am glad it's not a big problem. And I know a good point of Ikelite - the plastic housing will let you know what's going on for the camera.

I found the lighting is very important - it's even more tricky for wiide angle shots in the very dirty water. Mount the strobes above and in the same plane of the camera. Extend further out to the side and point the outside a little bit. Amazingly you can get very clean shot even in this very dirty water.

The water was clear but it's very cold. And there was not too many things to see. But I did a very stupid thing - I did not wear gloves and tried to dig something which I thought was a horse-shoe crab. Turned out it's a glass bottle and I got a very deep cut. We had to abort our planned night dive.

I start to worrying about the dive tomorrow becuase my finger was cut very badly. It's bleeding and seems will not stop soon...

Weiwei posted @ 22:05:29 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Ikelite Underwater System [Photography]

I eventually upgraded my photography gears and had a whole Ikelite system (an IK6870.1 housing and two DS-125 substrobes). This is something I could not even dream of a year ago and I am glad to make it happen, eventhough it really cost me a lot!

My first impression to the system - it's so heavy and bulky that makes me really nervous because I have to worry about how I can carry so much stuff for the trip. I am pretty happy with the other aspects especially the TTL provided by the system.

p.s. During my first test, I found one of the strobes did not fire and it's the problem of the strobe itself. I called BH. They are very supportive and send me a new one for exchange.

Weiwei posted @ 12:38:57 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Update [General]

I am really sorry for not updating the journal for quite a while. I have been really focused on preparing my job interview recently.

I just came back from Harvard today for the interview. (I brought my camera with me but obviously taking pictures of Harvard campus is not on the top of my to-do list.) I prepared all I could and did as what I had expected. Well the thing I can do now is to pray for the best. Thanks Andy for the dinner, which made me feel better in the town.

I just got my housing and the two strobes. They feel extremely heavy, which makes me nervous. I will put a picture later after I assemble all the parts.

Weiwei posted @ 23:12:50 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)