Bark Bark AOOOOOOOOOHHHHH

When the fire trucks roll by in the neighborhood, the coyotes answer. This time, one was in the yard:

Yard Critter

Wile E. is on the prowl in the late afternoon.

If the window had been open, I could have hit the coyote with a thrown book, it was that close.

I now keep my camera right out on the table for shots such as these.

Shutterbuggery

I've been getting back into photography.

One issue that I have is getting out of the Kodachrome mindset, which was my favorite film back in the day. For me, it was expensive, so I tried to put some thought into each shot and then take it. I haven't fully realized that I can take a bazillion shots of anything. Two 36-exp rolls' worth of shots isn't even enough to register on the capacity gauge of a 64Gb SD card.

Autofocus is sometimes problematic. On landscapes, with trees with leaves that are moving in the wind, the camera won't settle down. I have to keep my thumb by the switch to change to manual focus. (My last SLR was a straight stick-shift.)

It's a bit of an adjustment for me.

Foley Guys: Fuck You

I've blogged before about their love of the four clicks of an 1873 Colt.

This time, I want to rant about cameras. A TV show had scene with a news conference. The sound clowns added the clicking of camera mirrors (OK), the sound of shutters (not KO) and the sound of motor drives (also not OK). Professional news photographers made the switch to digital as soon as the technology was practical. Newspapers loved that they could get rid of their darkrooms (sometimes letting nursing mothers use them for breast-pumping).

I'm somewhat surprised they don't add the sound of steam locomotives to railroad scenes.

DSLR Lens Update

(Earlier post and discussion)

So, for about the same price: New 55-200mm or used 70-300mm.

New lens with a warranty or more power?

Thoughts??

Nikon Lens Help/Bleg

I have a D3100 with an 18-55mm lens. I'd like to get a telephoto, either 55-200mm or 70-300mm. (Which would be preferable for both nature and seashore use [boats, ships]?)

Are the Tokina, Tamron or Sigma lenses any good?

Is there a store you trust for used lenses?

Apropos of Nothing In Particular

The whole story.

And this:

The Death of the Pocket Camera

I recently completed a trip. For decades, I always had a camera with me when traveling. That has been a 35mm SLR, a 35mm compact and, for well over a decade, a compact digital camera of some flavor.

On this trip, I took none of them. I used only my phone.

Chicago, looking to the north:

To the left, on the riverfront, is the (in)famous Watergate. To the right of that is the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. This photo was shot during the Potomac River Arrival into National Airport.

The photos are almost as good as I could have taken with my pocket camera. The tradeoff is that I had one less thing to bring along.

Caturday

Bella shows some of the fun of shooting a solid-black cat in a well-lit room using natural light:

I probably should have enabled the flash in order to fill in the background. But I like how it came out.

One-Whistle Passage

Makes Me Want to Cry; Shutterbuggery Ed.

I volunteer at a thrift store that supports the local no-kill animal shelter. My job is to triage and sort the incoming donations.

This camera setup came in today:

I can't tell you how much it aches my soul that a Canon AE-1 with a Canon 65-200mm zoom lens is now worthy only of being donated to a thrift store. I don't know if it works, as the AE-1s required a battery to run them. Unlike, say, the FTs, (I had one, back in the day) that only needed a battery for the light meter.

I've been active in photography from the prosumer level to professional press photography. The difference between film photography and digital is akin to the difference between shooting with a muzzleloader and shooting a minigun with government-furnished ammo. You'd set things up, take the shot, and unless you had access to a darkroom, it could be days or weeks until you knew whether or not you got the shot. And if you were a not-wealthy amateur, using good film like Kodachrome was expensive. so you made sure that you got the shot that you wanted.

But digital? Once you've bought the camera and the SD card, there's no additional cost differential between shooting one photo and a thousand. Oh, if you have a camera that uses replaceable batteries (I like my A1000 because it uses two AAs), you might go through a few sets. But that cost is negligible.

Yes, I can be a bit of an old-school girl. I fly a `40s airplane. Today, I carried a S&W M&P that dates back to the Roaring 20s. But I abandoned film without a qualm.

Now and Then; Big Muddy Edition

The Mississippi River, just upriver of Chester, IL. The shots weren't exactly taken from the same position or with the same camera, but it's close enough.

The first photo was taken in the Fall of 2012:

This was taken yesterday:

The Big Muddy; Aerial Edition

Some photos from a recent flight:

This is a tug pushing a lashup of barges up the lower Mississippi:

This is one of the more important river junctions in the nation: The meeting of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers at Cairo, Illinois. The Ohio is further away. The land closest is in Missouri, the tip is southernmost Illinois and beyond that is Kentucky.

A little further down from Cairo, the Mississippi loops back up, brushes by New Madrid, MO and heads back south. All three waterways visible are parts of the Mississippi. The land between the closest and middle portions of the river makes up the Kentucky Bend, though the portion to the right in the photo is in Tennessee.

When The Powers That Be in Gideon, MO wanted to build a new airport, they just built it next to the old one.

Cape Girardeau, MO is to the left of the river. They filmed some of the last Ben Affleck movie there.

And since this is an airplane post, this one was gassing up at my home plate before I left.

It's a Bowers Fly Baby.

Twangity

Place iPhone inside a guitar. Shoot into bright sunlight with a high shutter speed.

A Ninety-Day Mission of Exploration

That's what the Opportunity Rover was sent out to do. It's now been on the job for 11 years.

It took this photo recently

If the Rover were a human being, it would now be over three thousand years old.

40 Days!

That's how long it's been since the weather and availability have permitted me to go flying. This afternoon was just gorgeous: Low winds, clear skies, temps in the mid fifties. I got in an hour before dark and shot three landings. Maybe I need to fly less, for those landings were all smooth. I did two 3-point and one wheel landing. All no drama.

Some guy had a stuck mic on Unicom. At least he wasn't singing to himself.

Beautiful day to fly. A fair number of pilots were bagging off work and going flying. As did I.

Airport rules require airplanes in the shade hangars to be tied down. The pilot of this Cessna 206 might as well have used baling twine.

Imagine that you have a nice house in the country on a quiet road. You never know what might happen across the street. I'll bet that these two homeowners sometimes feel like opening up a vein.

This farmer may be off the grid, a bit:

The Short and Long of It

A 6mm fisheye lens and a 5,200mm telephoto lens.

You'll need two camera bodies, as the fisheye is a Nikon and the telephoto is a Canon. But what the hell, if you can afford them, the cost of buying two camera bodies is chump change.

Why Do Props Do That?

You've probably seen photos like this:

This is why it happens. The explanation starts out at a "see, this is what is going on" and then, as you read on, gets more into the math of it.

The Great War in Photos

I hope that you've been looking at the series.

Most wars are caused, more or less, by stupid and arrogant miscalculations. That was probably truest for the First World War.

Caturday

George (may peace be upon him), lying in a nearly empty laundry basket.

Empty, or nearly-empty, laundry baskets were a favorite place of his. When he was in them, I'd pick them up and give him a ride all throughout the apartment. He seemed to get a kick out of seeing things from a few feet up.

This photo was taken over nine years ago and probably closer to ten years ago. They were taken with a 35mm and, when I had them developed, the camera store offered the option of also putting them on a CD.

I liked that camera store. Besides the owner being friendly and knowledgeable, the store had a cat-in-residence, which liked to lie on top of the display cases. Because that ensured lots of attention was garnered.

A few months later, the camera store went out of business, leaving only drug stores and Walmart as photofinishers in that area. I've had bad luck with both in the past. It seemed to be the right time to start moving to digital and I did.