Random Photo Thread: The Sequel

[caseydog]

I like my astro-turf idea better.

I know what you're talking about with the aggregate. Too bad there isn't an epoxy tough enough to stand up to TX heat. There is a company in OH (maybe other states, too) called Nature Stone that uses a thick epoxy to seal the stone floor/driveway/etc. From the looks of it, though, it's still not a smooth surface. Probably a lot nicer to walk on barefoot, though, than just stones tarred to the driveway.

The problem here is not the heat, it is the black clay ground we live on. Think of it as the opposite of frost heave up North. The black clay shrinks in hot, dry conditions, and what's on top collapses. Driveways and sidewalks are least able to take it. And, aggregate driveways and patios are worse, because they are not as strong.

The saying here is, there are two kinds of houses in North Texas, those with foundation problems, and those that will have foundation problems. My foundation is 16-inches thick, and I had to have the front of my house jacked up and piers installed that went down 16-feet to bed-rock. Driveways, patios and sidewalks are four-inches thick. In August, my driveway is typically three-inches lower than in January. Not all of the sections move the same amount. It gets really interesting during a long drought.

CD

 

[RPCookin]

When it is 30-degrees and raining, ice forms on trees. We get this a lot in North Texas. I looked out my office window, and grabbed my camera...

CD

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That's something that happens so rarely here that in 45 years in Colorado, I really can't remember seeing it. It does make for some really good photo ops.

The problem here is not the heat, it is the black clay ground we live on. Think of it as the opposite of frost heave up North. The black clay shrinks in hot, dry conditions, and what's on top collapses. Driveways and sidewalks are least able to take it. And, aggregate driveways and patios are worse, because they are not as strong.

The saying here is, there are two kinds of houses in North Texas, those with foundation problems, and those that will have foundation problems. My foundation is 16-inches thick, and I had to have the front of my house jacked up and piers installed that went down 16-feet to bed-rock. Driveways, patios and sidewalks are four-inches thick. In August, my driveway is typically three-inches lower than in January. Not all of the sections move the same amount. It gets really interesting during a long drought.

CD

Same is true for a lot of areas along the front range here in Colorado. There is a lot of bentonite clay, and it's infamous for destroying foundations from swelling and shrinking as the moisture content changes. I can recall many reports of lawsuits against developers for building and selling costly homes that became unlivable within just a few years because of severe foundation issues. Some of the issues were only only revealed when a homeowner made significant landscaping changes which required a different watering pattern, changing the amount of water that was absorbed into into the clay.

 

[taxlady]

Both of the houses I lived in in the San Fernando Valley in California did not have foundations. The were on some sort of concrete blocks. The crawlspace had a dirt floor.

 

[caseydog]

Both of the houses I lived in in the San Fernando Valley in California did not have foundations. The were on some sort of concrete blocks. The crawlspace had a dirt floor.

Very common there at one time. Pier and beam construction. Unless your piers go down to bedrock, pier and beam doesn't work well where I live.

I doubt California earthquake codes allow pier and beam construction anymore.

CD

 

[buckytom]

The foundations of the houses in my development were blasted out of an iron ore mountain, some partially blasted in to fit in with the landscape along the ridge, or like mine, my foundation is entirely set into ledgerock. Everyone has exposed boulders or boulder retaining walls, or the like as landscape features that were left over from the blasting.

The air in my basement keeps amazingly steady temps and humidity. I should grow something, or store wine or cheese down there.

 

[caseydog]

The foundations of the houses in my development were blasted out of an iron ore mountain, some partially blasted in to fit in with the landscape along the ridge, or like mine, my foundation is entirely set into ledgerock. Everyone has exposed boulders or boulder retaining walls, or the like as landscape features that were left over from the blasting.

The air in my basement keeps amazingly steady temps and humidity. I should grow something, or store wine or cheese down there.

Builders here won't do basements. They say it is "too difficult" in our ground. Yet, people in the NE use dynamite to make basements. So, we live in "Tornado Alley" with no basements. The real reason we don't have basements is because builders here want to slap together a house as cheaply as possible, dress them up with cheap decorative "upgrades," and sell them for huge profit margins. When my house was being built, I bought a cheap pickup truck to haul building materials and tools, and came to the house almost every evening, made improvements and fixed things that were done wrong. And, I had one of the better builders.

CD

 

[TATTRAT]

I'\d never lived anywhere with a basement until moving to NOVA...I had always associated them, with a dark/dank place just to chuck stuff, but LOVED having a finished basement in our first house here. SO much room for activities!

Here's something from the Potomac. I kind of like how this turned out, over exposed and slight tripod wiggle while setting up a shot. Kinda like a watercolor painting.

 

[caseydog]

Nice image. It does have a watercolor feel to it.

I have a blurry shot that I love, but I did not take it. It was taken with my camera, but not by me. I was at an Audi Club track day at Motorsports Ranch, and was photographing the action when I wasn't driving, and handed my camera to a friend as I got suited up and jumped into my car for the last session of the day.

She decided to take some shots, handheld, as it got dark, and one was this shot of me at the apex of a left turn on the track. I named it, Voiding my Warranty.

CD

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[blissful]

The air in my basement keeps amazingly steady temps and humidity. I should grow something, or store wine or cheese down there.

Cheese, sausage, wine, beer, fungus/mushrooms, canned food, potatoes/onions/carrots/turnips.

 

[buckytom]

Cheese, sausage, wine, beer, fungus/mushrooms, canned food, potatoes/onions/carrots/turnips.

Yeah, we're set to survive a while if shtf, but I'd love to do cheese or mushrooms as a tasty hobby.

 

[Cheryl J]

Nice pics, guys. I enjoy this thread.

 

[blissful]

Yeah, we're set to survive a while if shtf, but I'd love to do cheese or mushrooms as a tasty hobby.

We'll bring the cheese, and if you have boiled potatoes with some home canned dill pickles, we can melt some raclette over it for a shtf dinner.
You might want to measure the ambient temperature and the humidity, a temp and RH meter costs about $6, and then you know, what you know.

 

[Just Cooking]

Nice pics, guys. I enjoy this thread.

+1

Ross

 

[buckytom]

Anpther "pastel" of lower Manhattan: (from my buddy's boat, the Sunshine Daydream)

 

[TATTRAT]

Yeah, we're set to survive a while if shtf, but I'd love to do cheese or mushrooms as a tasty hobby.

I use to do mushrooms as a hobby, but they were not tasty!

 

[TATTRAT]

Getting around

 

[RPCookin]

This one I was trying to practice panning. He was moving a a fast trot, and I got his head pretty clear, but everything else was moving in different directions.

Then later I did some fast shutter, stop action shots:

 

[caseydog]

This one I was trying to practice panning. He was moving a a fast trot, and I got his head pretty clear, but everything else was moving in different directions.

Then later I did some fast shutter, stop action shots:

With panning shots, I think a little bit of blur is a good thing. It shows motion. I like that in your slightly blurred dog shot.

I do a lot of panning shots with cars, using slower shutter speeds to intentionally get a little blur. I set my shutter to "continuous" mode, and shutter speed to 1/250 or 1/320, and shoot 10 fps while panning with the cars.

CD

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[buckytom]

Getting around

Police cars look much nicer these days.

 

[caseydog]

^^^^^

CD