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Cape Vincent Lighthhouse

CapeVincent-lighthouseThe other day, I happened across an article in Vision Systems Design on how CMOS imagers are trying to increase the dynamic range they support so that they can capture images under both day and night light conditions. The article highlights some of the techniques sensor manufacturers are using to increase dynamic range, and references both Fairchild and CMOSIS sensors (among others). Those mentions caught my interest because those sensors have been integrated into the MityCAM platform.

And although I can’t always make a connection between Critical Link products and my personal life, while reading about dynamic range I could definitely make one.

What came to mind was a picture I took on one of the first vacations my husband and I ever took as a couple.

It was one of those spur of the moment trips you can only take pre-kids, and, because if was so unplanned, we couldn’t get a place in a state park. So we ended up in a pretty terrible campsite – definitely not the kind of place we wanted to hang around all day. So we took a side trip to the town of Cape Vincent, on the St. Lawrence River, at Lake Ontario, which – unlike our campsite – is just lovely. Cape Vincent also has a lighthouse, and the sun was falling just behind it, and I decided to take a picture of it. So even though I didn’t have much of a camera – and it was a film camera, so I wasn’t able to keep working the shot until I got it right – I managed to take a wonderful picture. Over the years, my lucky shot became one of my favorites.

Unfortunately, over those years we accumulated the usual avalanche of post-kid stuff, and while I thought I knew where the picture I was thinking of was, it wasn’t there.

What you’re missing out on was just a lovely shot: the sun was falling just behind the lighthouse, in such a way that you could just see a piece of it where the roof meets the tower. It was very bright right there, but it didn’t completely darken the rest of the lighthouse and you could still see most of the features.

Anyway, knowing what I know now about dynamic range, I can’t believe I was able to take such a beautiful picture with whatever junky camera I had at the time, which certainly did not have any dynamic range features. It was purely dumb luck!

But, alas, I couldn’t find the photo I was looking for, but did find a later Cape Vincent lighthouse shot. It’s almost, but not quite, what I was looking for, but I’m using it anyway included it anyway.

Meanwhile, tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and those of us at Critical Link have much to be thankful for, including the wonderful customers who bring us such interesting work to do.

From the Critical Link family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving.