Gold Winger

Now that you have your digital camera, what do you take pictures of? I took pictures of everything. I like photography so I experiemented.Sunrises, sunsets, trees. . . different f-stops, different ISO settings. Most importantly, to capture the feel of the expedition, you need to take pictures of EVERYONE and get candid shots. Two guys posing next to a tree isn't as interesting as the same two guys examining the mushrooms on the tree. Of course, some posed group shots are obligatory like on top of Baldy. I said take pictures of EVERYONE. If you're a dad, the natural temptation is to take zillions of pictures of your son. Fight it. The other boys don't have their dads (or moms) there. Anyone who was doing anything interesting got their picture taken. Another adult on my crew who had a digital camera made sure that most of his shots included his son. Not very interesting for the troop slide show. There is a temptation to take many pictures of the mountains, just the mountains in the distance. Try to frame those with a couple of the boys hoofing it down the trail with the mountains in the background. After all its about them. I did take pictures of just the mountains but I like the ones with the boys much more. Look for unusual angles. For example, if the boys have climbed up on some rocks, a picture from a distance is sooooo boring -- people on rocks. Get a couple shots looking up at them. In my mind, that's more appealing. Shoot everything. I have pictures of cooking, eating, the red roof inns, mini-bears, burros, hummingbirds, napping, trees, sunsets, frost, bugs, and much much more. Of course, you also need pictures of the boys doing stuff like climbing, riding, sleeeping, shooting. I also tried to get pictures of all the staff that we encountered. The young women were especially open to being photographed. More than once, when something ruined a shot of a staff member, she'd say "would you like to do that over" and then pose for the picture. Maybe it was my charming old guy smile with my week's worth of beard or maybe it was because the staff there are just really nice people. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then I must have taken an encyclopedia's worth of pictures. Out of the hundreds of shots that I took, did I not like any? Sure, some were out of focus. Some were poorly composed. But the great thing is because I have so many, I can get rid of those without feeling any sense of loss. Those are my thoughts. Random as they may be. Now I have to get going and do something to earn money.

I took a small Kodak digital camera to Philmont with a 2GB SD card and I didn't quite fill it up. Over 1,000 shots and the card would have held 1,300. A couple of the Scouts and one of the advisors brought a bunch of single use cameras, the type that most call "disposable" which in retrospect doesn't make much sense. When I say a bunch, I mean five or six apiece. Why doesn't it make sense? Those camera cost between $5 and $10 each and only take about 25 pictures, so you've invested between $30 and $60 for cameras with no zoom and can take only 150 snaps. If you shop carefully, you can find a decent digital with a 3-5 power zoom and video capability for about $50 to $60. That said, what else do you need with your camera? Batteries. Look for a camera that can use AA batteries. Mine uses a special rechargable battery but it can also use AA batteries. Alkalines don't last in a digital camera. More on that in a bit. Ran across a fellow at Philmont who had a nice camera but it could only use a rechargabel flat battery pack. He had two packs but noplace to recharge them. I suppose if he had planned a little better he could have brought a $150 solar charger . . . I correctly assumed that I wouldn't be able to charge my camera and might not even be able to buy batteries on the trail so I set out to figure how many batteries I'd need. First I started off with Energizer alkaline batteries. Amazingly, I could shoot over 300 shots with them but then the strange thing would happen. Overnight, the batteries would die. The same thing happened if I only took 100 pictures, overnight the batteries would die. I contacted Kodak to see if they had an explanation but all they said was, "don't use alkaline." (sounds like dealing with Scoutstuff.org). I then tested the Energize e-lithium battery and found that I could get between nearly 350 photos out of a set. Life does depend on flash, zooming, and use of the screen (I'm old fashioned, I use the optical viewfinder). Energizer also sells e-titanium which were recommened by someone with a blog but the according to Everready, the e-lithium is better for cameras. Now, I've found my batteries. How many do I need? I thought that if I got really exicited and filled the card, I'd need four sets of batteries. So I put a set in the camera and put three extra sets in my ditty bag. I think that I was pretty clever with the batteries. I taped them together in pairs, one up and one down so I could just drop a pair into the camera without much fuss. I also put tape over the terminals so that they wouldn't accidently discharge against something (fold the tape over on one end to make a tab so it is easy to get off). I didn't want the extra weight so I didn't take an extra SD card. :-) Seriously, I figured that over a two week trip, I'd have to take nearly 100 shots a day to fill up the card. I nearly did it but some of that was video another advantage of digital cameras. One disadvantage to digitals is that they take time to "turn on". Two deer came through our camp one evening and started fighting. By the time that my camera booted, the fight was over and they had left. My camera and all of it's batteries weighed less than half a pound. The camera was going to ride in a pouch on my pack's belt but I found it more convenient to keep it in my short's pocket.

However, is it an official Boy Scout jacket? I wouldn't want to get caught by the Uniform Police wearing an unauthorized jacket :-) For the record, my Woolrich jac-shirt (the official one)(1970s Vinatage) works just fine but I do like the idea of the slash pockets to hold gloves, keys, camera, and stuff.

"I also suggest if you do decided to help, don't jump in." Where were you with this advice ten years ago? Sheesh!

What they said!

"The field boots I bought for the Army in 1983 are still in my closet 25 years later" Maybe if you had taken them out of the closet something during the past 25 years they would have worn out! :-)

Just about any shop that does things like sports uniforms or letterman jackets should be able to do it for you. Find a seamstress that has one of those fancy computer controlled sewing machines. I'm surprised that Bob White hasn't chimed in yet, this is right up his professional alley.

I remember many things from a few years ago, most people can. You have my sympathies, I hope your recovery is going well.

I just looked at that size chart and that doesn't look at all like I remember it from a few years back. I did visit Woolrich's web site since they make the Shirt-Jac. They don't list a Shirt-Jac but they do list several Jac-Shirts. I clicked on the sizing chart and it shows an XL as fitting a 46-48 chest. At first I thought, jackets always are little bigger than your actualy chest so maybe the BSA chart is the actual measurement of the jacket. That doesn't make sense either. 10 inches is a bunch. You might have four or five extra inches to allow a jacket to move but .. . I just went and measured my own Jac-Shirt. The size tag is worn out but I believe that it is a size 50. It measures 54" under the armpits. Industry standards? I don't think so. Most likely BSA screwed up their size chart and no one that answers the phone is smart enough to realize it. As you discovered, BSA does their best to isolate themselves from their paying membership.

+/1 .75 inches? A 1.5 inch ranges? That's a pretty crappy standard. If I went and bought two Hathaway shirts and one's sleeves were 1.5 inches longer than the others, I'd never buy Hathaway again. Heck, I wouldn't accept that at Wal-Mart.

" Do you think J.C. Penny tells the manufacturer what the sizes will be?" They probably don't need to but they could. Just like Sears tells Electrolux what features they want in their lawn mowers and Dell tells AMI what features they want in their BIOS. Nah. . . I'll stop now.(This message has been edited by Gold Winger)

"You guys do realize that the BSA doesn't make these things themselves or determine the sizes, right?" LOL! BSA makes a big deal about makings sure that things meet their specs and you want us to believe that they don't have the juice to get the manufacturers to label things the way that they want? If I called up Wang Fu's Shirt Factory and ordered 1,000 shirts to be made in my color, with my special embroidery on them, believe you me that Wang Fu would be glad to put ANY size tag in them that I wanted.

City in my head Utopia Heaven in my body Utopia It's time for me For me to go.

As E said, not having notes is just goofy. What do you do when three months from now someone says, "I thought that we decided to have chicken at the banquet."

"This was, in my opinion, poor customer service. I did not buy a new Jac-Shirt. Not worth further hassle" They're probably in India and have no idea what a jacket is. Last night my DSL went out. Phone worked but I couldn't get to the internet. I called Verizon customer service and got someone who could only read a script. First they asked me if the phone I called with was on the same line as the DSL and then they asked me to verify that I had a dial tone! When I pointed out that I had to have had a dial tone to have called them, I was asked to hang up so I could verify a dial tone. She called back. After she couldn't figure out what the problem was, she said that she'd ecalate it and wanted to caution me that I MIGHT not be able to use the internet. I replied, "I called you because I CAN'T get to the internet!" Customer service is a dying artform. Years ago, I called Smith & Wesson with a question and I wound up talking to the gunsmith who had put the pistol together. Now that's customer service!

" A suit jacket and active outwear such as the BSA JacShirt are not the same thing ." Ah, Bob you're pulling the stand trick of selective reading. Go back and see the part about the overcoat. It was/is sized approximately like my suit coat. t-shirts? In the gold old days when sizes meant something, I'd buy them as a 42 or 44. Now we're stuck with someone's idea of large. Bob, just quit defending EVERYTHING that BSA does. You remind me of a mullah.

Sure Bob. I wear a size 46 suit. I bought a size 44 overcoat because they are cut generously to fit over that 46 suit. In your world I would have needed to buy a 48 and 50. Then again . . . nah, I won't say it. Why doesn't BSA (and most of the world) just go back to proper sizing anyway. My red jacket isn't an XL, it is a 50 (I bought it in my fat days). When I buy a dress shirt, I get it based on collar size and sleeve length. With BSA I have to guess what I need.

"In a maternally dominated society, (If mom ain't happy, nobody's happy!), there will always be a restriction placed on expanded development of males. " I don't know about that. In my youth, mothers wanted us to go out, explore, find things, rough house, in short, be boys. Maybe they weren't happy about the filth but you were either hosed off in the driveway or scrubbed down in the laundry sink.

Our ranger told us that a crew he picked up earlier that summer were actually removing the stoves,water purifier/filter unit and other camping gear from its original packaging during the "junk on the bunk" That never ceases to amaze me. What if you get out there and find that your stove is missing a part? Or it is defective? Sure you can survive but you wind up carrying what is essentially a rock. Makes you wonder if they live the same way in the real world.

"But the 9th Circuit panel said it did not agree, especially because no complaints were received for more than 30 years after the monument was erected." I like this. Basically it says, "it's been there, just leave it alone." "How many commandments?" Most of those are interpretations or extensions of the primary ten. Kind of like how we have laws that say, "Teens can't carry concealed guns" but they have to pass a new law that says "teens can't carry concealed guns at school" and then one that says "not only are teens not allowed to carry guns at school but they aren't allowed to shoot people either, especially at school."

This was one of the monuments put up to promote the movie "The Ten Commandments," Huh? Some civic group ran around promoting a movie? The movie was released in 1956, the monument went up in 1959. Sounds like a bad marketing department to me, promoting a movie three years after its release. Do you have a citation? Of course you do.

" Parents today are afraid of letting their kids experience being self sufficient." I know two young men, now in their 20s, whose mother was terrified of letting them out of her sight, even as teens. They in a nice suburb, and have a big park about a half mile from the house. I once commented on how kids don't play pick up games anymore. She said that she wouldn't let her boys go all the way to the park because it was too uncontrolled. The boys were 17 and 14 at the time. Random kidnappers usually don't want to snatch a 6'2" 190 lb football player. The funny thing is that she really believes that she has raised them to be self sufficient but until they went off to college neither had ever been involved in an activity that wasn't adult controlled.

Gern, after hiking the Grand Canyon and probably climbing Everest as well, I really have to wonder why your guys bothered with Philmont. It semms like it might have been a bit anti-climatic.

"Also, depending on your State, it may be illegal for a non-profit organization that does fund raising outside of simple membership dues to close their meetings, even their board meetings, to their members" Since most parents aren't members, they could be excluded. " Executive Board meetings would be exempt because . . . " What is the committee if not the executive board?

"Then you never go to country/western bars in big cities up north . . ." You're right. I haven't been in a country western bar since 1984 and that was only because the beer was free (am I allowed to say "beer"). I hadn't considered stupid guys trying to pretend that they're something that they're not. I wonder if cowboys intentionally buy uncomfortable boots?