Misc Photos

The Last Olympus D-40Z Picture

The Last Olympus D-40Z PictureNo I haven’t given up taking pictures, there on the left hand side of that photo you will see the LCD of my new camera, a Kodak V570, displaying the EasyShare System logo.

The couple of negatives I didn’t like about the camera, proprietary battery & no direct USB connection to the PC, were over ridden by the positives, seperate 23mm wide angle lens, very small (about 2/3rd the size of a deck of cards) , 2.5″ LCD and short shutter lag.

I have always loved the look of wide angle shots, so the separate 23mm lens was the big factor in the decision. The other lens is the typical 35-105 found in most point and shoot digital cameras. The big factor for my wife was the short shutter lag. It has always been a thorn in my side, but after Donna struggled mightily to take picture during the BMW Ultimate Drive last week, she said, “You’ve got to find a better camera.” This camera has about a 2/10 second shutter lag which feels positively instantaneous compared to the Olympus.

The rechargeable battery gets juiced up as long as the camera rests in the dock, but I’ll probably buy a second battery somewhere down the line, they’re only $20. The no direct USB connection to the PC will be solved by getting a SD card reader for the laptop to take along when traveling. The camera has 32MB internal storage, but I bought a 512MB SD card when I picked up the camera last night.

The Olympus had a panoramic mode where you could take several shots and then you knitted them together using the Olympus software on the PC. This Kodak has a panoramic mode where you take 3 shots and they get knitted together right in the camera. With the 23mm lens you can get a little more than a 180 degree picture. I experimented with it this morning when we were in the woods. I may go ahead and add a panorama gallery to the website.

We Have A Winner

We Have A WinnerWe stopped by the Aiken County Museum this afternoon to check out the entries in the 2nd Annual Sculpture Competition. Last year there were about 20 displayed outside with the rest indoors. This year there were only about 5 outdoors with the majority inside. This picture is of the 1st place sculpture, Gretchen Lothrop’s ?A Subtle Miracle.?

I didn’t bring a tripod, so shooting indoors was really out of the question, but I saw one that was interesting and seemed to have enough light. But when I snapped the picture, the flash went off, causing one of the elderly volunteer ladies to come over and chastise me. I apologized and made sure it wouldn’t happen again. As it was it didn’t matter as there was nothing else I found photogenic anyway.

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A 1,031 Words

Lines

Email notifications of comments is working again. I think turning them off and then back on did the trick.

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New Photo Gallery

Because I never did find another spot (I really didn’t look to hard) to do another year long series of shots like I did for Mr. Fletcher’s Ride, I have decided for 2006 just to take my camera every time we hike and once a month post the one I find most interesting of the bunch.

This morning we went for a nice long and somewhat muddy walk in the woods. I snapped a couple pictures of a familiar spot from a different angle and from those selected February’s entry. I then dug through my shots from a couple of January’s hikes and picked one to represent that month.

Hitchcock Woods 2006

I Still Miss Sharona

Donna, Sandy & DogCaught an episode of Monk on the tube this afternoon and the cute little Téa Lenoni look alike just doesn’t cut it. I still miss Sharona.

For tonight’s excitement we dipped into the Big Box of Morrison Memories. I scanned about a dozen photos for Donna to email a cousin that is also doing the whole genealogy thing too. While I was at, it I also scanned a few more photos for a small book we are doing for her brothers and sister that will be filled with pictures from the past. Including the one above showing Donna’s early predilection for riding around in convertibles. From July 1972, her younger sister Sandy (who now also drives a Miata) at the wheel and the family dog in the back seat of a VW Bug, Donna smiles for the camera.

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Boating Anyone?

Donna\'s Mom and Dad on a Boat in 1970 Back over Thanksgiving week when Donna and her sister were going through pictures to take to the funeral home for them to use in producing a tribute video of their mom, Sandy kept looking for a picture she had seen before and wanted it included, but looking high and low it couldn’t be found. Donna and I hadn’t ever seen it before and we were beginning to believe that it didn’t exist, that Sandy had a false memory implanted somehow or was confusing/combining two separate images in her head.

This weekend Donna has been in the back bedroom continuing her daunting task of sorting through thousands of family pictures. So guess what she happened to find today? That’s right, Mom and Dad on a boat. Sorry we doubted you Sandy…

Never Buy A New Toy On A School Night

Never Buy A New Toy On A School NightGoing to be up a little late this evening playing with my early Christmas present, a HP ScanJet 4850. Going through all the boxes of photos from Donna’s side of the family, that have resided in our attic for the last five years, made us realize that there were a lot of memories that needed sharing. So I have added a flatbed scanner to the slide/film scanner I already own.

About a year ago I borrowed an older flatbed scanner from a friend for a project and it didn’t stay long, I’m sure it was one of the cheaper models and boy howdy did it make a racket when it was working. This newer one is quiet enough that you can be in the same room with it when it is scanning, plus it is fairly quick. When I hooked it up I used Windows Device Manager and got just the TWAIN driver installed and not the whole bloated HP Scan Suite. This way I can just use Paint Shop Pro to import the image without having to dance through HP hoops.

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