A Walk at Stow Lake

I've had a busy weekend, but I was lucky to find some time to relax and enjoy the fresh air. Saturday late afternoon, after Sophie's birthday party and lunch with Mr. Majors, I went to Golden Gate Park to find a spot to read for a while. Of course I had Madge with me. This, along with all the birds and people and green stuff, distracted me from my new book.

Not all the pictures I took were good, but below are some of the ones that make me smile.

First, let me just say, it is fun taking pictures of Canadian Geese. The pair I came across had no fear of me. I was able to get within a foot of them without them doing any more then looking at me for a brief moment before getting back to their important work of feather grooming. I guess they had plans to hit the clubs.

Babies!

And then there were the ducks. Look closely. They smile. Or is it a smirk?

I'm not sure what kind of birds these are...

After I climbed up the stairs next to the waterfall, trying to get neat waterfall pictures (they didn't turn out very good), I came across some bird watchers checking out the owls that have taken up residence on the little island. I managed to get one sorta good pic of one of the babies.

And not to ignore Stow Lake's other charms.

I took soooooo many pictures! Even after cleaning out all the really terrible results, and then cleaning out some more of them, I still ended up with over 300 pictures. I guess I have a little more culling to do! You can see more of the ones I really like in my In the Park set on Flicker (http://www.flickr.com/photos/snarfff).

 

Really. Seriously. Teef

Okay, maybe I've had one too many glasses of wine tonight. Yes, I went out with Walker after work. Yes, we had wine. Yes, we were stimulated by good conversation. Yes, I'm now temporarily deaf because of how the bar got progressively louder the longer we were there, which was several hours. Yes, we ate tasty food stuffs. Yes, we drank wine. Did I already mention that? Regardless, these factors may all be having an impact on my posting tonight.

But really. Seriously. This is one of the cutest blogs I have seen in a long, long time. Not mine. Which is cute sometimes. But it is never, ever cute like this... one... here...

My Milk Toof.

Go there. Experience it. And then tell me it didn't make your day happier, more joyful, full of bigger smiles that make your mouth ache.

Thanks to Inhae Lee. Thanks to ickle and Lardee. And thanks to my friend, Caitlin, for introducing me to these lovely, happy little teef.

This one might be my favorite so far.

Oh. My. God. The Cuteness!

Sea Ranch Getaway

It's been a while since I've been up to Sea Ranch, but last weekend I had the chance to go up for a few days with the Konyas. We had a nice little place close enough to the ocean that I could hear it singing to me through the night. Lovely.

First, in respect to my backseat companion, an expressive portrait of EB. I do have to say, Electric Bird was pleasant company, though he drinks too much.

Our first night treated us with a beautiful sunset.

In the morning I took a walk with Madge and my two zoom lenses.

These fences abound around Sea Ranch.

As close and as sharp as I could get with the telephoto. Handheld all the way out at 200mm.

In the afternoon we drove out to Boonville for wine tasting. Along the way I got this shot.

Sunday we chilled out.

I'm really glad I had Madge along. We are getting to know each other slowly but surely and the improvement in image quality is clearly evident, though I have yet to print any photos. The real challenge, of course, is in learning when to apply the different exposure settings. So, experiment, experiment, experiment and try to make note of what I'm doing so I can reference back later. I've already taken a couple of thousand images, most of which I've deleted, but I'm having fun even while tormenting my friends. Lisette was especially patient and I got a few really good shots of her.

I continue to make my way through the online photography intro lessons. I'm also working on organizing all my pictures. I'm going through my iPhoto events one by one to delete bad images, naming the files, rating them, adding descriptions. Tedious to do. My goal is to try and do this when I first upload new images so I don't have to go back to do it later. I downloaded a book on iPhoto, which is providing some useful tips.

 

Meet Madge, My New Camera

I suspect I have my compulsive nature to blame for my purchase of the Panasonic GX1, but I'm okay with that. When I got to see and hold it and played with the controls and menus, I new I had found a good fit. I have a lot learn about the many settings but I'm on my way. The camera feels strong and hearty, unlike the G5 the guy at the store had me check out, and I like its somewhat retro look. It's not as retro as the Olympus OMD EM5 (which, from what I have read, is perhaps one of the best MFT cameras out there right now and several hundred dollars more), but the GX1 is still a sexy little piece of hardware.

Along with the body and the standard 14-42mm kit lens, I also purchased the 20mm pancake (really like this lens so far), a 45-200mm telephoto (which I haven't yet tried) and the electronic viewfinder. I wasn't sure how I'd like the EVF, but that has been put to rest - I dig it.

The guy who helped me at Keeble & Shuchat was good about pricing the gear for me. I had my B&H shopping cart printed out as reference. I didn't get prices quite as low, but I console myself by buying local and getting an immediate purchase gratification fix. Not to mention I got started playing with it almost immediately (well, two hours later, after the battery was charged). So, thanks K&S!

Below are some of my first pics. They are using iAuto mode, one of the scene modes or me messing with settings. I need to do more note taking when doing test shots so I can get a better sense of what's happening. Regardless, I'm happy with them.

Lucy: she was very patient as I snapped a bunch of shots using different settings. This was with the 20mm lens.

Matt in monochrome. I think this was with the 20mm.

Faraday: pretty sure this was with the 14-42mm lens.

Vidar: 20mm lens.

One of Matt's escaped bees, up close and personal with the 20mm (I cropped this pic on the iPad).

Keiko: using the 14-42mm lens with available light.

I guess it's obvious l like to get close to what I'm shooting.

On my way home from my visit with Lucy, I stopped to take some shots of the bridge. I wanted to get a sense of how wide the 20mm and 14-42mm lenses would look. It was a bit hazy and was so crowded in the headlands that I wasn't able to park in the place I wanted to be for the pictures, but at least I had a chance to get a sense of space in the shots.

20mm

14-42mm @ 14mm

Next weekend I'll be up in Sea Ranch and will do much more experimenting. I'm very excited with the new gear. Expect to see more photos as I continue learning.

 

On the Road to a New Digital Camera

I love my Panasonic DMC ZS3. I did have a problem with it on my 2011 Steam trip; the lens stopped working. I'm pretty rough on the point and shoot. I've dropped them, banged them, had them flopping around in my purse with who knows what all else, so I'm not sure I can blame Panasonic for the failure, though at the time I wanted to. Getting it fixed on vacation wasn't an option so I picked up a Canon Digital Elph (the store didn't carry any Panasonics). The Elph is also a great camera (it was my first digital camera) and having the Panasonic on the first half of the trip and the Canon on the second, I honestly can't decide which was better. When I got back, the Slacker swapped cameras with me and now I have two Panasonic ZS3s, one that works and one that doesn't.

I have, however, reached the point where I feel I'm ready to move beyond the limited flexibility of the point and shoot. I'd like to have more control over adjusting aperture and shutter speed, be able to swap out lenses, that sort of thing. My dad taught me a lot back in the day with the 35mm. I've forgotten most of it, though, so I've been going through the photography intro classes at Lynda.com. I think I have a good eye for composition but it needs to be buffed up with some of the technical knowledge. There are things I want to see in a photo that I know I can achieve, I'm just not exactly sure how to make it happen. I've also been taking notes for future reference.

That being said, I had no idea what I was getting into as I begin to review my options. Cost. Weight. Kinds of lenses. Manufacturers. Specifications. Features. I've spent countless hours over the last three or four weeks reading reviews and comparisons, looking at model specifications, reading photo blogs, looking a sample photos and talking to friends who are photography enthusiasts.

I've pretty much narrowed my choices down to two possibilities:

If I stick with the traditional APS-C DSLR I'll go with the new Canon SL1, due out at the end of April. It is the lightest DSLR body as of the time Canon announced it and is part of the Canon Rebel family which suggests it would be a good entry level DSLR. With the Canon reputation and their range of lenses, it looks to be a fine option.

If I break away from the familiar comfort of a traditional DSLR (and by familiar I mean most of my friends who are big on photography all have DSLRs with the APS-C sensor) and go with the Micro Four Thirds option, I'm leaning towards the Panasonic GX1. The reviews I have read are positive, they have a good selection of lenses with a good rep and the sample photos I've seen look good. With the kit lens, it only weighs about 13oz, compared to the 14oz of the Canon without a lens.

Feature-wise both seem to have the things I'm looking for - in as much as a novice like me can know. I'm going to try and check both out in-person this weekend. A key differentiator right now, though, is price. Amazon and B&H Photography have the Panasonic GX1 listed under $450, and that's with the kit lens. This suggests to me that Panasonic may be getting ready to announce either a new version of the GX1 or some comparable new model. I'm just not sure I want to wait around for them to announce or not announce such a thing. Price is the differentiator right now and if I wait for the new model then that would cease to be an advantage. Plus, I might be able to get an extra lens, too.

So, we shall see what I determine after I check the cameras out in person. I confess I'm ready for the new camera and want to start experimenting!

It's been a while since I posted a fluffy picture. Here's one of Katja taken with my ZS3 and the same one "enhanced" by the Slacker on his iPad Mini.