WildOats

Seems like there is a theme developing this week. Me taking pics with my 300mm lens. Well I grabbed my camera and went off for my walk today. I still don’t feel too comfortable using this lens, so I decided to keep using it. Hopefully I’ll get better with it before too long.No sooner did I get out of my complex, did I see this iguana. It was hanging out on a hedge. I’m not sure how I noticed out of the corner of my eye as I was walking. It was green and blended in with the greenery of the hedge. But there it was.I just assumed it would run away as soon as it saw me looking at, but it didn’t. It just sat there sunning itself. I knew he was looking at me, because I could see it’s eye following me. So I started to slowly move in closer. I didn’t seem mind too much. He still just sat there happily in the sun. I moved in closer and closer, but the thing just sat there. So I started to take some pics of it.Ok…so I remembered what I learned yesterday about using this lens. Try to hold it steady, and to keep a high shutter speed. That way the shutter opens and closes quickly, giving me less time to shake the camera and lens. So I did set my shutter speed higher. But the price for that(again….nothing is free), is that I have to open the lens aperture up. When the shutter stays open for less time, you need to compensate with a bigger opening in the lens so the exposure is correct. When you use a bigger opening, you get less of the pic in focus.So now I had to balance those things out. Trying to get the steadiness that I needed, with the quick shutter speed, with the amount of pic that I wanted to be in focus. Anyway, the result of my attempt is the pic above. How did I do?

Today’s story picks up where we left off yesterday. With my 300mm. After playing with my 300mm yesterday, I realized that I haven’t been giving it much attention as of late. So today I took it out again, when I went for my walk.I was only out for a little while, when I found some nice flowers. So I took out my camera and ran off a few shots. One of the first things I did notice today, is that this lens really isolates your subject from the background. That is really nice. Although this lens is not that high quality, it does a fair job in isolation. I was pleasantly surprised about that.So I snapped a few shots, and proceeded on my way. All of a sudden from out of nowhere I hear this voice….sir….sir. At first I wasn’t even going to look, cause it sounded kinda far off, so I didn’t think it was for me. But I look up, and it’s this guy waving at me. Kinda waving me over as he’s walking toward me. So I thought oh crap….someone I have to talk to. You know how I hate that. But anyway….I walk toward him. As I get closer I notice it’s the mailman. So he says to me….you taking pics? Yes….yes I am I said. So he he tells me he has something I might be interested in photographing. So I said….oh yea? And he says….yea…..down by apt# whatever it was, there’s some really pretty orchids. So that was pretty cool of him to tell me. With that….. off I went to see for myself.I get to the place he told me about…and sure enough. I found some very nice orchids. Here in south Florida, these flowers just grow beautifully outside. It really is amazing to see. I managed to get some pics of the flowers. I found some white, purple, and even orange orchids.But back to the 300mm lens. Today I learned that since it’s a longer lens, I need to increase my shutter speed. It helps in keeping the pics from being blurry. The faster the shutter speed, the less time I have to shake the camera….lol.All in all, not a bad walk. I snapped a few pics, and I learned 2 things about my 300mm lens. I like the way it isolates the subject from the background. Increase my shutter speed to keep the pics sharp. Oh yea….I actually learned something else too, I have a lot more practicing to do with handling my 300mm before I’m more comfortable with it.

The longer the barrel the better the aim. Ever hear of that old saying? I’m not exactly sure I know what that was supposed to mean, but today I discovered it might not be so true in photography.For past few mons I’ve been shooting with my 35-70mm lens. Of the 3 lenses I have for my camera, this is the best of the lot. So I’ve been using it the most. Well today I decided to change things up a bit. I took the 35-70mm off, and put my 70-300mm on. At 300mm this lens gives me almost 3 times the reach of the 35-70. Meaning that this lens will magnify the image 3 times bigger than the 35-70 lens could.The first thing I noticed when I put the 70-300 on, is that the set up is much lighter. The 70-300 is a much lighter lens. Off the camera and in their neutral positions, both lenses look about the same size, but the 35-70 is much heavier. It’s a better quality lens, and you can tell when you pick it up. So when you carry the camera with the 70-300 it feels like it’s lighter and easier to handle.Well after shooting a few pics, I notice that the 70-300 extends as you zoom in. So as you zoom towards the 300mm end, the lens extends and gets longer. Which brings up another old saying……can it ever be too long? Well I’m not sure what they had in mind when they made this saying up either, but I’m here to tell you that yes……… yes it can be too long, when it comes to photography. The longer the lens got, the more unstable the camera lens set up became.Despite the fact that the set up was lighter, the length of the lens changed the center of gravity of the camera and lens. I had much more camera shake with this longer lens. Another thing is that the 70-300 lens magnifies the image 3 times larger. BUT when it does that it also magnifies your camera shake, so the shake appears to be at least 3 times larger as well.Oh well I guess nothing is free. For a larger image you pay for it with more shake. I’ll have to go out and practice with this lens more. But in the mean time, at least I was able to disprove two old sayings.

Lately I’ve been noticing that there seems to be a problem or two associated with digital transmissions. I’m noticing it on both the internet as well as on tv. Anyone else noticing it too? Or is it just me?Back in the the days of analog transmission on tv there didn’t seem to be sync issues. I don’t remember ever seeing the voice being out of sync with the persons mouth moving. Yet now, with all the so called improvements, like better resolution, better fidelity, 7.1 surround sound……….. yada yada, I see this sync issue everyday. It’s almost as if it’s getting worse and more prevalant as well. I did see it before, but it seems to be happening more frequently now.The same thing happens on internet videos, but you sorta feel like you can over look that a bit more. After all the internet is still in it’s infancy….or so they tell us. Bandwidth issues and all….you understand. But on tv? Get it together Mr cable provider.The other thing I’m seeing is how sometimes the screen gets pixelated, and then it’s like the audio and video part just stop. The screen freezes……and then nothing. Then a few seconds later it all corrects itself. This seems to happening more often as well.So…… the observation for the day. Not ALL new things are better than the tried and true.

Since it’s the weekend, and I have some free time I decided to take my camera and go for one of my walks. The weather was nice, so it made for a relaxing little walk. I took my usual route. I like to just walk around the neighborhood. This way when I get tired or lose interest I can walk back home without much effort. I’m a keep it simple kinda guy.The problem with this strategy is that after a while…..you’ve seen it all. So that freshness of seeing things for the first time is gone. You have to see the same old things in a ‘new’ way. For a non creative/artistic person…..that’s not so easy….lol. But I do try my best.Anyway, during this walk I did see a few things I did manage to shoot. One was a huge lizard. It might be an iguana or something. Not really sure. It’s still in my camera(the pic not the iguana), so I’ll have to wait and see if the pic is any good or not. I didn’t bring my long telephoto, so I couldn’t get as big an image as I wanted. But there was no way I was gonna get any closer to the thing than I did.The other thing that I actually think I finally got down, is being able to look into the viewfinder and keep both eyes open. Most photographers tell you to do that. But up till now I have not been able to do that. I have up to now always had to close my right eye and look through the view finder with my left. Which is a pain if you take a lot of shots in a row, or have to wait a while before you shoot the pic. When I finally open the closed eye, my vision is kinda wonky. So I was excited to have been able to figure out the both eye open thing. I’m able to do that with the camera in it’s normal(landscape) position. Turning it onto it’s side into portrait position is still difficult for me. I’ll have to work on that a while longer I guess. But I guess that’s what life is all about. A learning process.

Old people. They seem to be everywhere. Seems like no matter where you go, there’s an old person or worse yet, many old people around. But that’s not the problem, the problem is…..whenever old people are around you have….well….a problem. But why is that? Why does there always have to be a problem? Are these old people…… just old and demented and don’t know what they are doing? Or do they make it their job to bother annoy and get in everyone’s way on purpose? I’ll let you think about it and make your own conclusions. But while you’re doing that let me just bring up a few examples.

I need to be at work early. So when I’m driving in, it’s still dark out. On my way I usually see a few old people going out for their walk. This early? In the dark? Does this make any sense at all? Ok….so lets review. You’re retired. You have nothing to do ALL DAY LONG. You have arthritic rickety bones. Your balance is not there. Your cataracts are so thick you can’t see a thing in broad daylight, never mind at night. Yet you HAVE to go for a walk right now? You couldn’t have waited 1 hour for the sun to come up? What are the odds that you’ll either: loose your balance and fall, trip over the uneven pavement cause you can’t see where you’re walking, get mugged, get lost when you get confused or a whole host of other things?

 You’re driving to or from work. It’s rush hour. There’s traffic all over. Then you finally get around the cars, and what’s the problem? An old person who can’t drive anymore holding up the whole works. Ok…lets review. You’re old & retired. You have nothing to do ALL DAY LONG. Where ever you are going you could go any time of the day. Yet what time do you pick? THE WORST time possible. Does it ever cross your mind that….geee…. I’m not what I used to be. My reflexes are gone. I can’t see squat, if I can see over the steering wheel at all. I get confused with directions. Maybe I should save myself and EVERYONE ELSE the aggravation, and not drive during rush hour?

Know your limitations. Grandma you know you can’t work the VCR or even set your alarm clock right. So what do you do? That’s right……get in the self check out aisle, wait for a ton of people to get behind you. Then decide that you can’t work the self check out register thingy, and make everyone wait. Smooth move yet again.

This one is my fave. That’s why I saved it for last. It works ALL the time in ALL situations. Now matter where you are, now matter what you are doing. Anytime there is an old person in front of you, tell me this doesn’t happen. The old person in front of you is either not moving at all or moving VERY slowly. Yet they are positioned in exactly the perfect way…..that you can’t get around them. They won’t move and won’t let you get by them either, no matter what you try. You’re stuck behind them for the duration. You’d think it might cross their minds. Geee…. I’m either totally stopped clogging up everything, or moving soooooo slowly. Look at ALL those people behind me. Maybe I should move to the side and let them pass. Nope.

Ok….I’ve given you some time to think about it. I’ve given you some examples off the top of my head. Do you think these old people go out of their way just to annoy you?

After reading Chuck’s blog about finishing his painting, I was inspired to do something creative too. Now Chuck is an artist who can paint and draw and stuff. I’m not artistic AT ALL…hehe. Believe me I can barely push the shutter on my camera. That’s about as artistic as I can get.We’ve been having crappy weather now for about 2 weeks or so. It’s been cold, windy, and rainy. Today there was a break, and we actually had some sun. It was warm out, and the wind calmed down as well. So with my creative inspiration and the nice weather I decided to take my camera and set off to see what I could find. And off I went.Walked around for a while but didn’t really find anything I wanted to photograph. I think I was enjoying the sun and warm weather more than anything else. I did see a few things that were cool to look at, but wouldn’t photograph well. There was a cool spider web with a colorful spider in it. But the spider was too small and far away to be seen in a pic.Then I saw some flowers that I stopped to look at, and managed to grab a few pics of. Most of the country is frozen over right now, so it was nice to look at these. I walked through a zen garden, and snapped a pic of the statues there……very serene….shhhhh.So all in all in nice afternoon. If you’re interested in what I was looking at, the pics are in wildshots2.

Happy Birthday to me!! Happy Birthday to me!!! Well it’s my birthday. One more year has passed by. A lot of people make birthdays into a big deal. As if something special or different happens at midnight on your birthday. Some people say you’re one year older today. As if you haven’t aged all year, you’ve been saving it up …..then ….suddenly at midnight on the day of your birth….you all at once age for that year…hehe. No I’m actually one day older than yesterday. Do I look a year older today as compared to yesterday?Some people try to give you a hard time that you’re getting older. And they ask you if you feel older or if you feel bad about being 1 year older. I’m actually feeling pretty good about it. I don’t feel bad on my birthdays. There was only one time when I was traumatized by getting older. That was my 30th birthday. I was like….wow……the big 3-0. It took me some time to get over that one. But once I was ok with it……no problems since. In fact I actually add 5-10 yrs onto my age when someone asks how old I am. Then I ask them if I look good for my age….lol.But birthdays are cool tho. You have people wishing you a happy birthday. People getting you all sorts of birthday cards. Sometimes you get a birthday cake. Sometimes people throw you a party. It’s all for the fun of it. So…..who’s gonna sing to me??

What’s my home phone number again? What’s my cell number? What’s the password to that site again?Ever notice that as you get older it’s getting harder and harder to remember stuff? At this point in my life I’m realizing that I forget things more. If I don’t use or repeat it enough, I will forget it. My cell phone number is a perfect example. I don’t use my cell a lot, and I hardly ever give out the number. So once a year or so, when I need to give the number…..I can’t remember it.I can however, remember my friends parents home numbers. I haven’t called those numbers in probably 25 yrs. But to this day I can dial that if I wanted to. My friends have long since moved from their parents homes, but I remember that no problem. Ask me to call my friends at their own homes today, with their new numbers, unless I look their new numbers up, I have no idea what they are.I also notice that I now have to write stuff down. If I don’t……out of sight….out of mind. I’ll forgot about it for sure. So now I have stickies and pieces of paper all over. Things I have to get to. Passwords to different things or sites. Grocery lists. You name it…I have a list for it. Kinda sad….but if I don’t jot it down, it’ll be forgotten.Or has this ever happened to you? You’re talking to someone. You’re in the middle of your story. You’re happily going along……and suddenly….. you think…..where was I going with this story? What was the point I was trying to make? OpsssOr how about when you……when you…..uhh….uhh…I forget.

Time. Where is it all going? It just keeps ticking away. Remember when you were a kid, and it seemed like time would stand still? The day would feel about a year long. Sometimes it felt like the day would never end. It went on and on forever. The idea of tomorrow seemed SOOOOOO far away. Never mind thinking about next week, month or EVEN next year. It felt like you had tons of time to do whatever you wanted or could do.Well now that you’re older, and can actually do fun exciting cool things……. you don’t have the time to do them. Ahhh yes….another cruel joke of life. Before you had all the time to do stuff….. but lets face it….what can you do that’s so great at 6? Now that you are……well older than 6, and can actually do stuff….. there’s no time for it. Isn’t it ironic? It’s a song you know.Between work and chores and all the other things you have to do, there’s no time for fun stuff. No time to do things you’d actually like to do. Or better yet, after doing everything else, and you finally do find some time……you’re too tired to do anything. I think I’ll just hang out at home tonight and watch some TV or surf the web and relax. Sound familiar?