I'm so glad you could stop by. This is my personal blog of daily life and my journey through life. You will find a strong emphasis on family and friends as well as finding my ancestors through genealogy. Unlike my other blogs this blog is more of a catch-all so any topic is fair game.
Lighting Artifact
August 18. 2010
I took this picture from the boat the other night. The water was smooth and the sun shining brightly gave a lot of photo opportunities. Obviously the lens reacted to the glare of the sun in this image resulting in this rather interesting artifact. I like getting shots like this not only for learning purposes but because the the effects. Quite often the image is just a
delete and forget but sometimes I like the effect.
Garden Gnome
©2006-2010
Interesting Camera Artifact (Sunset)
June 24, 2010
We have been experiencing some rather turbulent weather in our area recently. The result of this has been several great photo opportunities. My husband snapped a few pictures of the sun shining through rain clouds a few days ago. The appearance of sun itself was a fluke due to the fairly heavy cloud coverage. It did not appear as a break in the clouds or as a beam, just simply as a bright, white sphere and only very briefly for not quite 2 minutes. In two of the pictures the sun actually appears a rosy pink as pictured. The above photo has not been altered other than adding the copyright mark and frame. Essentially a couple of lucky shots captured the sun shining through rain breaking down the white light into colours the same way a rainbow forms. In this case only one colour of the prism was caught by the camera's lens.
Garden Gnome
©2006-2010
Panasonic DMC-TZ5July 6, 2009
About 11 years ago I encounter my first digital camera. By today's standards it was very amateur not even having a flash or ability to a memory card. If I recall correctly the internal memory stored up to 8 low mega pixel pictures. It didn't matter to me. I was hooked! About a year later I upgraded to a FujiFilm FinePix that if I recall correctly was a 2 mega pixel camera with very low zoom. It was a lovely point and shoot camera that gave relatively good results without a high learning curve. After that I was on to a Canon PowerShot A530 that met an early demise a couple of months after buying it because apparently digital cameras are not supposed to be slightly bumped. I replaced that with a Canon PowerShot A540 which is a 6.0 megal pixels 4X optical zoom digital. Learning from my previous experience I got into the habit of hooking the strap securely to my wrist when ever I was carrying the camera EXCEPT once a few months ago. It dropped breaking one of the catches on the battery door. So I used painters' tape to hold the battery door shut. This solution worked relatively well while getting a few funny looks but the real problem was the failure to latch properly caused my rechargeable batteries to last for all of about 20 pictures at best. The solution wasn't because I was being cheap either, it was because I essentially didn't feel like doing the research for a new digital camera! Compounding that problem is my husband thought a nice digital SLR camera would be great so we just kept putting it off.
Last night we stopped at Sam's Club and checked out the camera section. You know how you pick up a camera and it just feels good in your hand, something like the right fit for a knife handle in the kitchen? Well I picked up the Panasonic DMC-TZ5 and it was love at first sight. Unlike the Canon with mostly plastic casing the Panasonic has a painted metal casing. To me not only did it fit my hand nicely giving me the point and shoot capabilities it added a lot of other features including higher pixels and zoom capabilities all in a much sturdier feeling camera. We bought it! This is a 9 mega pixel 10X optical zoom digital camera in navy blue and gosh despite the steeper learning curve I'm already taking a few great pictures. What a difference!
We are going to repair the battery door on the Canon. It will make a great back-up camera. My main camera will be the Panasonic so now we need to go shopping for my husband's camera. He's still wanting an SLR digital but that might change. The worst thing about buying digital cameras is the performance does change from year to year. One year Canon will be the top performer then the next year Panasonic will be the top performer. I actually paid less than half for the Panasonic and got a better camera than I paid for my FujiFilm! At the same time digital camera have basically become toss aways! A fairly descent digital can be found for around the $100 mark! If it breaks you can likely go out and buy one even better for less than what you paid. Oh the miracles of technology!
Garden Gnome©2006-2009
Sunset
March 7, 2007
I love sunsets! I think they symbolize a day well lived. Sunrises symbolize the promise of what the day will unfold. We live where quite often we are blessed with glorious sunrises and sunsets. They never cease to amaze or dazzle. No two are ever alike! The sun was just at a perfect spot for this photograph. When I took the photo, I didn't think it would come out this vibrant. I have a Canon PowerShot A540. Quite often this time of year photos are taken on zoom from indoors. That's my
lazy, not wanting to go out in the cold bone coming out. My only complaint with this camera has been that sometimes it doesn't seem to capture the vividness of the pinks in sunrises or sunsets. Of course, some or most of this is due to user error, I'm sure.
Our Iceburg
From the house our mini iceberg was impressive. It almost looked like there was a polar bear on it. It's gone now since the water is moving again. Such a beautiful spot and so many problems...
I'm in a very pissy mood today and something you will seldom see on this or any of my blogs. My neighbours have been at it yet again! We live beside a 7 unit scums-are-us unit where one tenant dictates to the owner what he can and can't do. The owner is scared of this tenant or believing his lies so I've decided after almost four years of dealing with this bs, I'm taking matters into my own hands. Yesterday I put up several several posters in response to their f%^&$#@ orange line marking the property line. Do you know how many people have actually stopped to look at that dang line! Yep, it is the talk of the whole village and she who put it there doesn't want to take responsibility or pretends it doesn't exist while we take the dang fallout. So yesterday after a nice conversation with a passerby and hearing that she who put it there was sluffing it off saying she didn't know who did it even though we have pictures to prove she did it, I decided on the posters. Then I called a nice place that has those portable signs. Guess what is going to be in place by mid afternoon? I'm tired of dealing with this bitch and guess what her rights end at my property line. Period! But I'm not done with her yet. That sign will be lit for at least one month, on our property and not a dang thing she can do about it. Second, I am just in the right mood to set up a new blog not using my blogger ID and hosted elsewhere about these f$%#@(*^ neighbours, complete with pictures. They seem to thing they have all the dang rights while we have to just take it up the arse? I don't think so. And if I think I can get media coverage out of this I will. They put that line down to embarrass us now it is time for them to see what embarrassment is all about!
End of rant and sorry to my readers who have never seen this side of me and like won't again. Sometimes in life you have to make a stand and this time I'm making one!
Golden Glow
The sunset was gorgeous a couple of nights ago so I took several pictures. I took several pictures throughout the day. The sun was so bright giving beautiful contrast between the water and ice. This was the same day that Shimmering Water was taken. We are so very fortune to be able to enjoy such beauty!
Garden Gnome
© 2007
Shimmering Water
I thought I would share this picture with you. I take a lot of water pictures because we live on the water. Hey, it is a perfect opportunity! Anyway, I am trying to learn how to use Adobe Photoshop better since up until I decided to try making a blinkie, I really only used it for cropping or resizing pictures. I took this picture of the water yesterday.
When the picture was uploaded I opened it into Photoshop then decided to play with filters and layers. The sun was very bright yesterday making the water and ice sparkle so I wanted to be able to capture that somehow yet the picture somehow was missing something. I started playing and this is the end result. I at least got that little bit of glitter I was after, something that spoke of how the light played on the water and ice. I think it needs a little more tweaking but am not sure what to do so this is the result for now.
