FEELING ALL ALONE?

There can be beauty even when you feel all alone!

LOVIN' IT!

Oh, I am so lovin' my new camera!!!!! One of the things I wanted to be able to do is take some pictures of our backyard "wildlife". Now I know our "wildlife" is no where as exciting as friends Lee or Susan's are, but hey, when you live in a suburban housing development ya takes what ya gets! Lee gets bears and Susan, well Susan has what we consider all sorts of exotic critters seein' as she lives "down under" in 'strallia. Here in Germantown we get squirrels, chipmunks, bunnies and the occasional skunk! Fortunately non of those this year so far.....

I've been waiting for some wildlife. It's been so hot here lately I think they've been hanging out in cooler areas, but today my patience was rewarded and I got to play with my telephoto feature on my camera. The first pic is what Mr. Squirrel looks like using the normal lens length. What you can't see him???? Look closely just to the left of the broken fence beam. See him....well I don't really know if it is a him or her, so I will just use the generic him.

Here he is......Isn't he cute? It looks like he has found himself something to eat. Not sure what it is????? It looks like he is not so sure that I might not come to get it, but I think I will wait for a much tastier breakfast of fried egg and English muffin with raspberry jam. This was taken from the same position on the porch just with zoom out to the full 12x. I don't have the digetal zoom engaged as I don't use it, but I wonder how close I could get with that???


I really went out this morning hoping to find one of our resident bunnies, but figured I was going to have to settle for Mr Squirrel. Oh well. I go in to put the camera away and then when I went out a few moments later to get the morning paper look who I found next to the same fence Mr Squirrel was standing on......? I guess Miss Bunny didn't want to miss out on here moment of internet fame....Now why I have labeled her a she I have no clue! Maybe just because I think bunnies are cuter than squirrels.........This picture was also taken from porch with zoom.

So that is it for my morning fun with the new camera. I now have close and far shots figured out. I wonder what I should learn next????? Stay tuned to find out.......

NEW CAMERA!

After 6 years it was time to get a new camera. The trusty ole' Pentax 3MP 3x optical zoom camera just wasn't cutting it anymore and it was getting rather flaky only working when it wanted to not when I necessarily wanted it to.

I had certain requirements that I wanted to find in a camera and debated lomg and hard as to whether I wanted to go all out and get a DSLR. Finally I came to my senses and decided that when I had a film SLR I raely changed lenses. Too lazy to do so I guess and it always seemed I had the wrong lens on for what I needed when I did change them so I missed some good shots. So I decided see if I could find a non DSLR that could do most of I wanted. And I did! The Fugi Finepix s1000fd. I have had it two days and already I love it.

So what were some of my requirements....1) it had to use AA batteries (uses 4 of them) 2) a long optical zoom (has 12x) 3) capable of macro photography (this camera not only has macro but super macro down to .8 inch) 4) preferably used SD memory cards 5) At least 8MP (has 10MP) and 6) settings for high ISO so can do low light shots (can go up to ISO3200 if reduce MP setting)

What I didn't care about was tiny....it fact I didn't want tiny...too easy to misplace. For the powerhouse if a camera that this one is it is amazingly small and light weight. Here is a picture I took of one of the blooms on our azalea bush in the back yard. It is using the macro mode. And I am very happy with how it works. I still have a lot to learn about it though. More as I learn in future posts. Oh the other nice thing about it was the price. I set a limit of $300 and this was on sale from local camera shop for $230. So I think I did good!

BABY IT'S HOT OUT THERE!!!

I've been trying to find a picture that would depict how hot it is today. I've looked everywhere and this is the best I can come up with for now. It doesn't truly show it since this is a desert picture which means little humidity and our humidity is 46% at the moment. This means that though it is only 92 degrees it actually feels like it is 97 degrees. Which I guess is probably a bit cooler than this picture were it was probably about 100 degrees. But when you get that hot what is another 3 degrees....

This picture was taken on a vacation in the fall of 2006. It was a wonderful vacation where we jeeped around south western Utah for a little over a week. I loved our little yellow jeep that took us to some very interesting and desolate spots. This is one of them in Canyonlands Park.

So look at this picture and feel the heat. If you want a true feeling of what it is really like outside here in Maryland at the moment. Go into your bathroom and turn on the shower with the water coming out as hot as you can get it. Leave the room for a bit making sure all the doors and windows are closed. Let the steam buildup and then pop back into the room and close the door behind you. Take a deep breath. If you feel like you are drowning in the steamy heat, you have it. It is supposed to be like this till Wednesday when it will get cold again....89 degrees for forecasted high.

GETTYSBURG BATTLEFIELD

On Tuesday I took a group of women from our church, The Golden Girls, up to Gettysburg National Park. We had a wonderful time and it was an inaugural trip for us and the church van.
If you live in the area or are planning a trip to the area you need to make time to explore this park and definitely do not miss the brand new information center. It is wonderful! Plan at least 90 minutes to tour the center. And if you want to spend some time looking through the huge book and gift shop even more time.

This is a picture of one of the over 600 cannon that are scattered around the battlefield, and according to the guide we heard many if not most of them still work!

It was a good thing that we started our trip with an early lunch in Thurmont, MD. After we spent about an hour at the visitor center (we didn't have 90 minutes to devote to it) we got back into the van and toured the battlefield for 3 hours! It was a fascinating tour which was directed by an audio CD giving history of the battle and actually doing some audio reenactments.

We almost forgot to take a picture of our little group,but we didn't and we found a nice place in front of the largest monument in the park. So here we all are. At this point it had been a rather long day and there still was a 45 minute drive home.

Now they are debating among themselves as to where and when our next outing will be.