LOVING my new camera!!

I took a hike yesterday evening to test my camera outside... really the hike was because I told Audrey we were going to the beach and she got SUPER excited, then I looked at the weather report and found it was raining at the beach and decided not to go - and I had to do something! So I took my new camera and a very happy dog up the hill behind my house. I've posted pics from here before - back when I first moved to Oregon. Being outside really shows the power of my new camera - I am VERY satisfied with my selection...

None of these pictures were taken with a tripod. Modern image stabilization is amazing! My old camera had 10x optical zoom but could only go to 5 without a tripod or things were blurry. This one has 18x and does great at full resolution with very crisp photos, then if you reduce the resolution and use the digital zoom is goes to about 115x zoom - and I was able to go nearly to full zoom without a tripod just using the back of a bench to keep my arms steady...

First test that impressed me - taken from my porch, can you see the clump of leaves in the first pic? They're about 2/3's of the way up the tree near the right edge of the 1st photo:











If you think that's good, keep looking... Can you spot the water tower? How about now with the optical zoom?? Then look at the extra detail you get with the digital zoom?





















Can you spot the bird?? How about now? Let me give more help - enhanced zoom :)




























How about the branch? Can you spot it? Here's the progression again!






















I wasn't the only one having fun on the hike - here's my cutie girl:















And here are some of my favorite pics:

Rusty with a drill...

It's either that it has been too long since I've done any household projects, or that I have cupboards made of steal, but I had a bear of a time trying to mount my new under-the-cabinet paper towel holder. This SHOULD have been an easy project...

Four stripped screws and one broken drill bit later, it's finally installed! It only took about 40 minutes!! My vicegrip is still my most favorite tool and saved the day - removing stripped screws and the drill bit that only had a few millimeters sticking out of the wood where it broke - that was a delicate operation!

Maybe I'm warmed up now and can get a lot more done, or maybe I should give up and shorten my to-do list that way!!

Nah... I can do it - I've done so many household repair projects, much more extensive than this little thing. I think it's hard because I don't have easy access to my tools, and I am still thinking about how I want to decorate, so have been reluctant to do much... but I think it's time I make the plunge and move beyond the mostly-moved-in state that I reached last fall, and claim this house as my own...

Testing the new camera

I got the batteries charged on my new camera: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfz18/
and tested it out today - very exciting! Here's what it does on normal mode:











here's what it does on the furthest zoom setting my old camera could do (without a tripod):











And here's what this one can do, no tripod, with only optical zoom (notice the fibers and cat hairs!):











Pretty cool, huh?

Here's my first unsuspecting wildlife shot - he never new I was there... (note he's behind the basket in the first pic above - I was still sitting in the same place to take the pic)











Then I can use the additional digital zoom features to go beyond the optical 18x zoom to a max over over 100x zoom - but I could only get to ~50x without serious blurring, so a tripod is needed here. Here's the wild cat at ~70x zoom with no tripod:











Meanwhile miss Audrey was wondering when we could go back outside and enjoy the porch again!











No wonder she likes it out there - I do too, with the new hammock and seating area, and the freshly planted plants:











And last but not least, the other wild animal of the house needed to feature in a photograph, too!

Ahhhh.... SUMMER!

I love unscheduled days. I am currently working from home, on my laptop, out in my hammock, feeling the refreshing breeze and hearing my wind chimes, and seeing my precious dog chew a stick under my feet. The sun comes and goes from the clouds and provides warmth to counter the breeze. A beautiful day, a beautiful view from my hammock, and I don't have to feel guilty because I'm being productive!!

I just bought a new camera - I hope to get back to blogging more regularly, and improving my blog with much needed photos. I have not had a working camera much of this year, so pictures have been sparse...

So much to blog about - my first grad student finishing, getting my first grant, going back to Purdue for a teaching workshop and meeting up with my fun friend I met in Vegas, going home and seeing my precious 3 week old niece, relaxing with family... Then back to Oregon where I've been very social and am very thankful that school is out!!

Many fun things planned this summer - I'll try to keep it posted!