Counting down to Yosemite

With about a week to go before I hit the road for my Yosemite trip, I find I can't think of much else. My wife probably wishes I'd give some consideration to our anniversary but that is is a struggle!

I'm excited to see Yosemite for the first time, but I know my experience is not going to include the best the park has to offer. Spring time is the best time for viewing the waterfalls. When I look at the live webcam of Yosemite Falls, I'm a bit underwhelmed. There appears to be zero water coming over the falls. I'm guessing the rest of the falls are similar. I can't tell how the Merced river is, but I'm guessing that it too will be less spectacular than other times.

I've known that would likely be the case when I made these reservations but I still had to go. I had wanted to go earlier in the year but due to surgeries and other health issues I was unable to. I decided I still had to get out somewhere this year and Yosemite grabbed my attention even with the diminished waterfalls.

I figured that if nothing else, I'd be able to do some scouting as well as see the granite and Tuolumne Meadows. Plus, I'm going to visit Sequoia and King's Canyon National Parks, and I may add a night at Joshua Tree National Park.

I'm just excited to get out and visit somewhere new. The crowds should be thinned out a bit now that a lot of schools have resumed. Who knows, with the waterfalls dried up there may be an opportunity for photographs that only become available at this time of year!

And, I'm already trying to figure out a plan to re-visit the North Rim of the Grand Canyon before the end of the year. Plus my brother Rick and I are talking about something in Colorado where he lives (Rocky Mountain National Park or Mesa Verde National Park). I sure hope that this trajectory continues and I get to experience more of our nation's parks on their 100th Birthday - Centenial Year!

More Support Gear

I could spend a lot of time and money at the REI store in Tempe, Arizona store! I went to Tempe to pick up my freshly cleaned Nikon D610 (it always has that new camera smell and is to shiny when I pick it up from Tempe Camera), but stopped at REI on my way. My wife was with me and wanted to go there too.

My last post was a testimony to travelling light, including NOT cooking. However, I have been toying with getting a backpacking stove and decided to pick one up at REI. My considerations are the following:

1. We have a two burner camp stove. However, it runs on white gas or unleaded. To get it to run I have to carry a supply of fuel. When we camp in our pickup I take a gallon container of regular unleaded gasoline - stored in the bed of the pickup. In my Explorer I either have to have it inside the vehicle or strapped to the roof. I haven't been comfortable with either one since I don't want to smell it inside the vehicle and I don't want to carry it on the roof in Arizona where temperatures often are over 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. A backpacking stove uses the screw on fuel cells with no odor, more easily stored.
3. Using some kind of a small stove allows me to at least cook a hot dog, top ramen, or egg. This will likely save me some bux while providing me with a hot meal. I'll be taking my small cooler anyway so carrying hot dogs and eggs won't be a stretch. That makes me wonder - can I make acceptable coffee? Hmmm...

Primus Yellowstone Classic Trail Stove

So, when I saw this little Primus Yellowstone Classic Trail Stove for $20 I couldn't pass it up. It, along with a pack of hot dogs, will probably pay for itself in a couple of days. 

I added an MSR ISOPRO canister for about another $5 and boosted my stove expenditure to about $25. 

When I got home I boiled a pan of water and it was boiling in about 1 minute. This thing appears to be compact, inexpensive, and efficient at heating (well, at least in 100 degree weather)!

MSR Stowaway Pot - 1600ml

Of course a new stove has to have new cooking utensils, and REI hooked me up there too. They're having a sale on the MSR Stowaway Pot - 1600ml for about $19.00. It looks plenty big to cook some hot dogs, top ramen, and/or eggs. I couldn't pass it up so I didn't.

It held the water that I boiled in less than 2 minutes on top of the Primus stove!

I also added the lovely purple Snow Peak Titanium Spork - Colored in purple. How could I not! Especially when purple is one of my wife's favorite colors!

I think I'm set in the cooking department now. And, since I've received my copy of the gallon water jug, my trip to Yosemite should be very satisfactory.

1 Gallon BPA FREE Reusable
Plastic Drinking Water Big
Mouth "Dairy" Bottle Jug
Container with Holder

I received my 1 Gallon BPA FREE Reusable Plastic Drinking Water Big Mouth "Dairy" Bottle Jug Container with Holder from Amazon yesterday.

It is smaller than I expected but I measured it and it does hold one gallon - with very little room to spare. The liquid comes right up to the bottom of the mouth.

I've noticed that not all one gallon water bottles are the same size when I get them from the gas stations so even if the one I purchase is a bit over a gallon I can simply drink any extra that won't fit in this container.

I also wonder how it's going to work due to elevation changes. I hope it doesn't burst through the lid!

My other concern is that there aren't a lot of threads on the cap. I wish it was a bit more heavy duty by having more and deeper threads. I kind of would like a second one (I usually get water for my dogs out of the faucet and carry it in a separate container - they don't care if it's bottled drinking water and they often don't drink all that I give them meaning that I waste a lot of their water).  At this point, though, I'll wait a while and see how this lasts before buying a second one.

I didn't mention before, but the bottles I've been using are bottled water bottles from Walgreens - they have disposable, squarish 1 gallon water bottles with large, screw on caps. I just wanted something a bit more durable.

Darn Tough Micro Crew Cushion
Hiking Socks - Men's

UPDATE -  I also want to mention a couple of additional items about REI...

1. I got turned on to Darn Tough Socks and picked up a couple of pair through Amazon recently. REI has them in stock and today they were 25% off. My wife picked up a pair but I think she plans to get another pair. They are amazing socks with a life time warranty - the catch is they're not cheap. But I will definitely be getting more. They're cheaper at REI than I paid at Amazon, by the way, even without the sale.
2. My wife tried on a number of hiking boots but didn't make a decision yet about what to get. However, the staff at REI are great when it comes to selecting anything. She plans to go back when it's less busy to see if she can get more info about a hiking boot. One thing we were told was that unless you're definitely going to be getting in water, a non-water proof boot will be a lot cooler in the Arizona heat. We hadn't thought of that. Decisions, decisions.

Non-photographic Support Gear

I'm heading to Yosemite, Sequoia, and King's Canyon National Parks in a couple of weeks (Labor Day week). I'm going to walk where John Muir and Ansel Adams walked, take some photographs, and camp in the parks.

I go on over-nighters a lot (well, I was last year and the year before - this year I haven't done as much due to health problems). And, I'm always working on how to improve the camping portion of my trips. 

My campsite in Oak Creek Canyon

I found that I don't like spending time setting up a tent, especially when I'm just going to be somewhere for one night. I don't like hauling and tinkering with a lot of camping gear such as a cook stove and cooking gear, lantern, coolers with food, a cot, and on and on. The picture to the left is at one of my earlier camping ventures in Oak Creek Canyon, near Sedona, Arizona.

Since I don't really spend much time at the campsite, and am often out trying to shoot photos at dusk and sunrise, the campsite seemed like a burden.

At some point some time ago I tried sleeping in the back of my Ford Explorer and it was good. Much more efficient.

My Ford Explorer campsite

I added a self inflating air mattress from REI. I quit taking cooking equipment and food since almost everywhere I stayed I was within an hour or so of a McDonald's restaurant where I could get my coffee and the double breakfast burrito combo. I was able to go to a restaurant for a warm evening hamburger too. If I wasn't close to a restaurant I sometimes had a sandwich with me or just ate jerky or trail mix which has protein.

I keep a few gallons of water in my vehicle. I generally have some crackers, trail mix, and jerky. But, I can also go without eating for a while without grumbling. John Muir didn't dwell on what he was going to eat - his attention was on nature. I tend to focus on my surroundings too, rather than what I have available to eat.

These changes have been great. I can leave my air mattress and sleeping bag laid out in the back of my Explorer. When I shoot some pics and have my camera mounted on my tripod, I can lay the tripod and camera on top of my sleeping bag when I leave a spot and it provides a cushion for my gear as well as keeps it from rolling around.

For my upcoming trip I'm refining my gear a bit more. I've added a Marmot PreCip rain jacket from REI (this jacket seemed to keep coming up in various reviews as one of the best deals for the money), some Black Diamond Ergo Trekking Poles, some Columbia convertible hiking pants, and a number of polyester blend long sleeve shirts. I've been looking for a long time for re-usable water containers that I think I'd like.

BPA FREE Reusable Plastic
Drinking Water Big Mouth
"Dairy" Bottle Jug Container

I have wanted a gallon jug that is 1) clear so I can see the water level; 2) has a large enough mouth that I can fill it from a gallon jug that I purchase it in at a store; 3) most important for me, I wanted it to be squarish so that it won't roll around my vehicle. 

I finally found the BPA FREE Reusable Plastic Drinking Water Big Mouth "Dairy" Bottle Jug Container for about $14.00 on Amazon that I think is going to fit the bill. I can't wait to get it! Now I can get some gallons of drinking water from the gas station in their containers with lids that pop off once they're opened, and dump one of them in my new, re-usable container.

Besides that container, I like having a second container with water suitable for washing my hands or for other utility purposes. When I camp with my wife we have one of those blue 5 gallon containers but I don't want to carry such a big thing in my Explorer when I'm by myself - there just isn't room. 

Seattle Sports Aquasto 8 Liter Water Keg

While I was looking for the drinking jug on Amazon I came across the Seattle Sports Aquasto 8 Liter Water Keg for about $10.00, which I also ordered.

This unit is collapsible which means that when I'm between campsites I can have it empty and collapsed and not taking up much room. When I get to a campsite I can fill it (or if / when I'm somewhere that doesn't have water such as a BLM area, I can fill it shortly before venturing into the camp area). I don't have to haul around a lot of water weight for this purpose; I can fill the keg on demand as close to the place I need it as possible.

Cleaning my Nikon D610 Sensor

Just to be clear, this is NOT a blog about how to clean a sensor yourself. This is what I do to get my sensor cleaned...

This last weekend I got out and shot some photographs. During post processing I saw a number of spots on the images that I had to spot correct. I've been seeing them for a while and have been ready to get my sensor cleaned. I had it cleaned about a year ago at Tempe Camera in Tempe, Arizona.

Apparently I've used the camera enough that it needs to be cleaned again. I haven't actually been shooting a lot this year (since December 2015) due to health reasons so I'm guessing that if I had shot more I may have been at this point a few months ago. I may need the sensor cleaned every 9 months before I pass my tolerance level.

Dirty Sensor
Nikon D610 + 20mm lens, 20mm, f/10, 1/250s, ISO 100

This weekend I noticed that there were a couple of really bad, dark spots near the center of the images. There were a lot of less severe spots in the upper left corner. Note that spots show up more with a smaller aperture (I shot some at f/8 or f/10, not even at f/22).

The spots can easily be fixed in Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop. That isn't the issue for me. What I don't like is when there are a lot of spots it can take a while. Yes, you can copy and paste them in Lightroom, and I have done that, but you still should look at all of them to see if they were necessary or if the area that was used as the source works in the images where the spot corrections were pasted. Due to that, I typically don't copy and paste the spot correction because they really should be handled from scratch in each image.

The second, and more important issue to me, is that when you do a spot correction, data is being copied from one area of the image to another. For skies and clouds, I don't mind it as long as the correction blends nicely and doesn't look like an obvious patch.

However, if the correction is on more significant details such as a mountain side, or perhaps a building, the correction means that you are loosing actual data in the image. And depending on where the spots are, you could be loosing critical information such as someones head, text on a sign, or the middle of a waterfall.

Since I'm getting close to going to Yosemite National Park, I wanted to get my sensor cleaned so that I won't have spots in the middle of Bridal Veil falls.

I have read about cleaning sensors but haven't brought myself to try it. For $60 each year I don't have to worry about screwing up my sensor. Instead, I can drop my body off with a fully charged battery, no memory cards, body cap, per their instructions. Their biggest concern is having a fully charged battery since the mirror up won't happen if the battery level is at 50% or less.

Last year the results were great - I had it done before visiting Oregon and Washington and barely had any spot removals required when I processed the images. I'm hoping for the same thing this year when I visit Yosemite!

AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR Angle of View Examples

I went to Marshall Lake near Flagstaff, Arizona this last weekend, and shot a few photographs. By the time I got to Marshall Lake it was after the sun was up so I didn't get any shots with great lighting. But, I'd never been there before and really liked the location even if the photography wasn't great when I was there.

It's a pine tree forest with a large meadow with a lake in it. The lake was pretty empty in late August, but it didn't take away from the beauty of the place.

The meadow runs basically southeast to northwest, with the northwest end providing a vie of the San Francisco Peaks on the other side of Flagstaff. This included Humphreys Peak, the highest mountain in Arizona.

Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR

When I saw the view of Humphreys Peak I decided to use my newish AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR Zoom to get a shot. If nothing else, it might prove that when there is snow on the mountains that this location would be a great place to capture it from.

Due to health reasons, I haven't shot much with this new lens and I really wanted to see what it would do. I was somewhat surprised...

According to Google Earth, it is close to 20 miles from Marshall Lake to Humphreys Peak. The 200-500mm lens has a 5°00' to 12°20' angle of view on an FX body. I am not very good at estimating angles, but I thought this would be a good fit.

Note: Google earth gave me an error saying I couldn't use the web version on Chrome - I had to use Internet Explorer! That's funny. Then the IE version wouldn't download the plugin. I ended up downloading and installing the desktop version.

I attached this bad boy lens, sat up my tripod at a small parking lot near the lake, where the boat ramp is, and pointed up the meadow towards the mountain. As soon as I looked through the view finder I was a but surprised.

I couldn't really fit all of the image in the photograph with this lens. Here's the view at 200mm which should be the 12°20' angle of view:

Humphreys Peak (the highest peak on the left)
Nikon D610 + 200-500mm f/5.6, 200mm, f/8.0, 1/400s, ISO 100

I didn't want to cut off the mountains on the sides. I wanted to show the entire meadow - it was really peaceful and a nice change from the desert around Phoenix.

I had to try it, so here's the shot from the same location zoomed in to 500mm, which should be the 5°00' angle of view:

Some of the San Francisco Peaks
Nikon D610 + 200-500mm f/5.6, 200mm, f/8.0, 1/400s, ISO 100

You can see the radio towers! While I appreciate the magnification, it was too much for this shot. Maybe if I was trying to photograph wildlife I'd have appreciated it. 

Here's the shot I ended up preferring, shot with my AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/4G ED VR, which according to Nikon's Angle of View calculator, should be 30°60':

San Francisco Peaks from Marshall Lake
Nikon D610 + 70-200mm f/4, 78mm, f/8.0, 1/400s, ISO 100

The bottom line is that I was amazed by the magnification and narrow angle of view of the 200-550mm lens. The image quality is good. But I was really happy that I had the next size smaller zoom to capture this image. I am really enjoying my lens collection! 

Free Bonus!

I thought I'd throw this in too - I was getting bored in the bright daylight so I decided to take a selfie with my pup Elmer:

Elmer and I at Marshall Lake, Arizona

Depth of Field example from my AF-S NIKKOR 20mm f/1.8G ED

I was able to get out of the house this weekend (8/20/2016), visiting the Wupatki National Monument north of Flagstaff as part of my day excursion. I've been wanting to go there for some years and finally made it.

Lomaki Pueblo
Nikon D610 + 50mm f/1.8D, f/8.0, 1/200s, ISO 100

I didn't visit all of the ruins; I had my dog Elmer with me and it's just getting hard to get around with him. Dogs aren't allowed on the trails at Wupatki.

Lomaki PuebloNikon D610 + 20mm f/1.8G, f/8.0, 1/160s, ISO 100

The ruins that I did visit were fine and I think I got some good shots of them at sunrise. I wish I'd been there just a bit earlier (the north entrance was open when I got there at a little after 6 AM) in order to try to get a sunburst through a window of one of the ruins. Perhaps next time. 

I took a photograph with my Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D but soon found out it was too long. So, I mounted the new 20mm f/1.8G ED to give it a go. The images are very sharp - I like it!

Box Canyon Dwellings
Nikon D610 + 20mm f/1.8G, f/10.0, 1/125s, ISO 100

 Depth of Field

When I was leaving I came across some Morning Glory flowers that caught my eye. I decided to shoot them with the 20mm f/1.8G ED to check out the DOF (Depth of Field). The image below shows how shallow the DOF is. It really was my intent to get the entire flower in focus but as you can see, it didn't work out.

Morning Glory
Nikon D610 + 20mm f/1.8G, f/2.2, 1/1250s, ISO 100

I was shooting at f/2.2 on my Nikon D610 with the flower approximately 1 foot from the focal plane. It may have been less; I didn't measure it. I just know it was close to the front end of the lens in order to fill the frame with the flower as much as possible.

According to DOFMaster, for a Nikon DSLR with a 20mm lens, f/2.2 and 12 inch focus, the total DOF is 0.77 inches! A smidge over 1/2 of an inch! That seems about right (DOF is subjective after all, depending on your threshold for acceptable focus) when you look at this image. The far end of the petals and pistils are out of focus.

Here's one more example, taken at Marshall Lake, southeast of Flagstaff, Arizona. 

Plant DOF Example
Nikon D610 + 20mm f/1.8G, f/2.0, 1/3200s, ISO 100

If you're interested, you can view the rest of my photographs from Wupatki National Monument on my online gallery at https://randallmorter.smugmug.com/Arizona/Wupatki-National-Monument/.

First photos with my new AF-S NIKKOR 20mm f/1.8G ED

I got my new AF-S NIKKOR 20mm f/1.8G ED lens yesterday in time to try to shoot the Perseid meteor shower with it. I went out last night to a spot east of Apache Junction, Arizona, with the Arizona Night Photography group from meetup.com. There were quite a few people there; on the website 77 people said they'd be there.

Arizona Night Photography group
Perseid Meteor Shower 2016

The spot had pretty good levels of light pollution even that close to Phoenix. Unfortunately the moon didn't set until about 1AM. Not that it mattered, we didn't really see much of a concentration of meteors. I was there from about 6:30 PM to about 2:30 AM and probably only saw about 20 meteors or shooting stars. A couple were pretty bright but for the most part it was the same as my previous meteor shower outings - pretty underwhelming. I was bummed because this was being touted as the best event of 2016.

This outing worked like my others (I've tried to shoot Perseid and Geminid showers in the past). I'd see a meteor to my left so I'd point the camera that direction and take a number of shots. While doing that I'd see a meteor to my right so I'd recompose. A gal I met last night likened shooting meteors to shooting whales. You never really know where they're going to show until they're already gone. 

If there was truly a concentrated emanation point it might be different. But I haven't experienced that myself.

I still tried to get some shots with my new lens, even if they weren't including any meteors. I really wanted to see how it worked.

The bottom line is that I think the lens works great, at least compared to my AF-S NIKKOR 16-35mm f/4G ED VR. But I still had the same problems using it.

Moon Glow
20mm - f/2.0 - 2.0 sec - ISO 400

I shot 70 images but only got a few that were in focus. I really have a hard time focusing in the dark. The best subject was the moon but that was only good for the distant subjects such as stars. I was able to do that okay and I think the focus is pretty good. I like that I could use a lot shorter exposure time due to the faster (larger diameter) aperture. 

The image at right was shot with my Nikon D610 and the Nikkor 20mm at f/2.0 and ISO 400. I did crop it because the rest of the foreground at the bottom was out of focus.

The larger aperture diameter also reduces depth of field and it really came in to play. I was hoping that the larger aperture would allow me to focus easier since I thought I'd be able to view the subject better, either through the view finder or in live view. It didn't seem to make much improvement over the 16-35mm for me, however. I still struggled to focus.

I tried auto focus too but it was worse than manual focus. 

Focal Plane Example
20mm - f/1.8 - 8.0 sec - ISO 500

I shot this capture of a cactus but you can clearly see that the focus plane runs somewhere through the middle of the cactus. Some of the needles in the upper "crotch"  of the cactus are in focus as are some of the "blooms" on the ground. This image doesn't have any post processing done to it so you can also see the other artifacts.

So even though I shot a few pics, I don't have much to show for it due to my focus problems. I just couldn't focus on close objects. (The problem was not due to auto focus changing the focus when I shot the photograph - I had the auto focus turned off OR I used back button focus - focus doesn't change unless I want it to.)

If I hadn't been with the group of people trying to shoot night photographs I would have lit up the subjects with a flashlight while focusing.

Beyond that problem, which is with my technique or abilities and not that of the lens (since a few images were in focus), I had heard that the coma was really good in this lens. I know I've had issues with coma in my 16-35mm but this lens is a lot better behaved, probably due to the aspherical elements is my guess. And because this is a prime instead of a zoom.

Here's a pic with a bit of exposure adjustment but you can see the coma in a number of places in the corners. It's not bad. I haven't done it myself but I recently watched a YouTube of a photog who edits the stars that have bad coma, I think it was in Photoshop, and he'd just apply a round mask to the offending stars and get rid of the coma shapes.

Coma Example
20mm - f/1.8 - 8.0 sec - ISO 1000

I'm pleased with the lens so far and can't wait to put it through some more paces.

As for the outing, when I left the appointed location I travelled over to the Superstition Mountains to see if it was any better. It was sort of on the way home and allowed me to wait until a bit later. I got there around 3 AM. I got out of my Explorer, waited maybe 15 minutes but didn't see another meteor so headed home. 

I haven't been out much this year due to my health issues and this little shoot was very pleasant. The air temperature cooled after about 11 PM, maybe to 85 degrees F or so. Just sitting out under the sky, seeing part of the Milky Way with my own eyes, was simply wonderful. I got to meet a couple of gals who are knowledgeable about photography (both shooting full frame Sony A7 and A7R) and was able to talk to them for hours about camera gear and post processing. I don't care if I didn't get any good meteor images - I got a lot of pleasure!

Unboxing my new AF-S NIKKOR 20mm f/1.8G ED!

My new AF-S NIKKOR 20mm f/1.8G ED lens arrived this morning, thanks Adorama! I'm going out tonight to try shooting the Perseid meteor shower with it, near Globe, Arizona. I'm meeting up with a Night Photography group from Meetup.com. I'm anxious to meet the other night oriented photographers and hopefully get some tips.

In the meantime, I don't have anything to report yet about the lens so I thought I'd post the always loved "unboxing" photos that I shot with my iPhone. Here you go:

My new AF-S NIKKOR 20mm f/1.8G ED is on it's way!

Today is August 11, 2016. Tonight is supposed to be the peak of the Perseid meteor shower and it is predicted to be the best event for quite a few years (the next event estimated to be as good will be in 2099 - I don't know if I'll make it or not). 

It seems like just yesterday that I got my AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR. In fact, it was May 3, 2016. Due to my never ending health issues this year, I think I've shot maybe a couple of dozen images with it. 

AF-S Nikkor 20mm f/1.8G

And yet here I am ordering another lens. This time I'm adding the AF-S NIKKOR 20mm f/1.8G ED. I am planning to go out tomorrow evening to use it to shoot some night sky and hopefully capture some of the meteors!

This lens has a much faster aperture than my other wide angle lens, the AF-S NIKKOR 16-35mm f/4G ED VR. I'm using that excuse to add another lens with a focal length that I already have, which I've been avoiding until this point.

Plus, this is a prime, for what that's worth.

I have not been completely unhappy with my 16-35mm f/4 for night skies, but I really got good results last year at the Grand Canyon National Park - North Rim when I used my very cheap AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D. That lens is pretty cool since it DOES have a physical focus stop at infinity; you run the focus into the stop and it's focused at infinity. Not beyond.

My 16-35 will continue to be useful, I imagine, for shots with more light and where I want to have more ability to compose with the zoom. I am planning to visit Yosemite National Park this September and I believe I will have a use for both of these lenses. I'm anxious to give it a try and will post more findings when I do.

Another part of my pleasure with that lens was the aperture. What I don't like about the 50mm f/1.8D is that it is a bit narrow. I'm hoping to get the benefits of a wide, prime lens to make up for it.

This lens doesn't have a stop at infinity focus but neither does my 16-35mm so I'm kind of used to it. It just means you need to address focusing in the dark some how (or pre-focusing the lens before it gets dark).

Similar to my 50mm, this lens doesn't have any VR (Nikon for Vibration Reduction). That seems weird when paying this much for a lens (about $800 from Adorama.com). But, that means there's no VR functionality to go bad either. 

The lens is one of the Nikkor "Gold Stripe" lenses, which they appear to put on lenses with the "Nano Crystal Coat", indicated by the "N" with the gold background. 

I've read a good number of reviews for this and some other lenses and the worst review I saw was from Thom Hogan - and it was still good. He just had a bit more detail about it's weaknesses. I don't see how I can go wrong with it - unless illness continues to keep me home bound!