The Art of Breadmaking

What fun an afternoon of making bread.  Darwin was in the class, I took pictures...... 7D+60mm and 1D+100mm  No flash.  I didn't want to interrupt the class at all.

Bluebirds

Darwin & I went to Branched Oak this afternoon to go digiscoping from the truck.  Oh my is that ever hard.  First, you have to look about a block down the road in your binoculars so you can see if there is anything interesting.  Then once you stop and set up, you have to find the bird through the scope and focus.  So here is a group of bluebirds....notice that I was focused on the one in the tree!!!  Oh well, he's in focus.

Here is a little better shot.  Again, this guy was about 100 yards away from where I was.  One thing I realized is that I need to add a bit of exposure compensation, in camera, and set my shutter to continuous, not one shot.  Even though it won't be 8FPS, it should give me a couple more shots.  We also saw a bald eagle, but that would be a no go for a manual focus system!

American Casserole

Dawn & I went out birding on Thursday.  I saw this bird and stopped to take a picture.  Of course her camera was available and mine was not.  When I got home and verified that it was indeed a Kestrel, I called to tell Dawn.  She couldn't believe that there was an American Casserole so close to her house.  She needs a bird book....bad.....if anyone has a spare to loan her!  7D + 100-400

Digiscoping at the lake

Got almost the last part of the scope today.  The fixed 30x eyepiece.  It is like night and day vs the 20-60x.  So much clearer and easier to put the camera behind it.  All of these images were taken with the camera handheld, which is less than ideal, but as you can see, works pretty darn slick!  The top picture is just with the P&S and you can see the blue hut as the target.  I zoomed my camera into 85mm and put it on the back of the scope and the entire tent filled the frame.  There is no crop on that picture!  I'm trying to get a sense of how far away I can shoot.

I was going to go downtown to take a picture of the sower, but since I could see it from Holmes Lake.......can you believe it? 

And yes, I saw this hawk.  I was shooting with the scope attached to my car window, so I could be far enough away that it didn't fly.  I missed the focus as it caught the tree and not the bird, but it was close.

Bread & Cup morning part 2

American Goldfinch

Getting better using the scope.

Digiscoping with a Zeiss Diascope 85 and Canon S95

This is taken with my office window open.  It is my S95 at 50mm.  You can see a gray circle just left of center along the fence.  That is my subject.

This is the S95 at 50mm mounted behind the scope (on a tripod).  I was at 20x and it goes all of the way to 60x.  There is a lot of heat coming out of our house when I have the window open and you can actually see the heat waves in the scope.  It is wild.  I have a long way to go, but it should make for a fun year of birding.

Camera Lesson at Lauritzen Gardens

Worked today on noticing things that had a distance between them and the background.  This can be a physical distance like the first 5 photos, or a distance between the quality of light, like the last 2 pictures.  We also practiced our quick draw techniques on plant signs, but I'll spare you from having to look at plant labels!

Meet my new friend Evie - 100 years young!

Today, Dawn & I were at the Lauritzen Gardens for a camera lesson.  I was just walking about and ran into this lady.  I stopped and talked to her as she was just a sight to behold.  She was looking about and just amazed at all of the beautiful tropical flowers that she saw.   I asked her if I could have the honor of taking a picture for her.  She quickly announced that she turned 100 years young 4 months ago.  And yes, she only needs glasses to read.  I'll be sending her some copies tomorrow and was reminded that you're never too old to make a new friend.  7D+200L lens - not your ordinary portrait lens, but it was all I had with me!

If you want to know more about Evie, check out this link:  http://leoadambiga.wordpress.com/category/evie-zysman/

Snowflakes

A few snowflakes from tonight.  It is 7 degrees.  Perfect to keep everything cold.  The snowflakes weren't near as perfectly formed as the blizzard of 2009.  You can see in the bottom 2 pictures that the snowflake is picking up a lot of moisture on its way down.

The first picture was taken with my new softbox.  I saw way too much texture in the waxed paper below the polarizer.  So, I had to go to plan B.  I cut apart a vitamin container and put the polarizer on the top, like a lid to the bottle.  The interior of the bottle was white, so having the LEDs shining into the bottle gave me plenty of light to take the picture with.  7D + 60mm macro

5 am baking at Bread & Cup

I went down very early this morning to work with Alison as she baked.  It was a hoot.  Since there was flour everywhere, I thought I'd try the pictures in b/w. 

A short 21 day stay.....

Now this is a great "what is this" sample.  I'm sure glad I made my little snowflake backlite.  I couldn't get the actual titanium clip that was removed in surgery today....but I did get 3 films (xrays)!!!  Here it is, the clip with the tip of the wire that was inserted before surgery.  This film was taken after the surgery with the marker outside of my body in a dish with the other tissue that was removed.  So, I've gone full circle in less than a month, seeing the microcalcifications, seeing them removed in the boipsy sample, seeing the maker that was left behind and now seeing that the marker is out.  Simply put, praise the Lord!

Fun.....or maybe not so much fun......can't tell

Pam & I went snowshoeing this afternoon.  I had an absolute blast.....Pam.....well, she is smiling in this picture!  It was so fun to be out in the sunshine and walk and here the swish, swish of the soft snow.  There isn't a "crust" yet, so it is absolutely lovely to walk on.

Finally an hour on the snowshoes!

Deb & I went out this afternoon.  I think the windchill was something below zero.  Really cold.  We figured out a route that kept us out of the wind after an initial 10-15 minute walk straight into it!  I had my G11 in a fanny pouch.  It worked really well.