YAAAAAAY....STELLA IS HOME SAFE & SOUND:))

THIS LITTLE GOLDFINCH WAS HAVING A VERY VIGOROUS BATH THIS AFTERNOON (click to enlarge....Goldfinch is facing left)

Received a phone call this afternoon from Stella's owner to say Stella (the missing Burmese Mountain dog) had just been returned home by a lady who had been keeping her for the past couple of weeks. Don't know all the details but she was apparently well looked after & is now happy to be home. Yaaaaaaay Stella:))

ADDED A TOUCH OF YELLOW TO THE BIRD BATH ON RIGHT TO GIVE IT A BIT OF COLOR

Loaded up the 2 big furry guys this morning & we took the big wheels for a drive up to Goderich & back. Sure was nice to be back in the rigs driver's seat even if it was just for a short time. The Sons of The Pioneers boomed out of the speakers all the way there & back. Max & Checkers were all excited thinking we were off to see their pals, Gleason, Pearce, & Corky, at the Arizona ranch. Had to tell them, sorry guys, not yet.....but soon:))

THE GOLDFINCH AT TOP LEFT IS ON FINAL APPROACH TO THE BIRDBATH AS A LITTLE BLACK CAP CHICKADEE WATCHES FROM THE WATER'S EDGE I WAS TOO SLOW ON THE TRIGGER & ONLY CAUGHT HALF OF THIS BLUE JAY LEAVING THE BIRD BATH:((

Had trouble with our external hard drive yesterday so took it along this morning to the computer place in Goderich to have it checked out. All our travel photos are stored on that external hard drive & I didn't want to take any chances on losing them. I also have most of the photos on DVD's as well but that hard drive is the working copy so to speak. MAX & CHECKERS WERE READY TO RUMBLE THIS MORNING. MAX IS MAD AT ME FOR NOT GETTING HIS BEST SIDE!!
THE BISBEE KIDS ON THE DASH ARE WATCHING THE ROAD AS WE HEAD HOME

With the positive response to last night's blog about Picasa 3 I've decided to throw a few more photo examples in to-night's blog.

I ADDED SOME PICASA 3 SOFT FOCUSING TO THIS PHOTO TO GIVE IT A MYSTIC FEELING. I ALSO USED "GLOW" UNDER THE EFFECTS HEADING TO GIVE THE WATER SOME SPARKLE

(when I look at this photo now I realize I should have cropped a bit more off on the left side to rid that overexposed rock...I will do that to the original later but it just gives you an idea of what you can do.

Kelly comes home Friday so that will mean some real food again. I can cook stuff OK if I have too but I think my main problem is that I'm just to darn lazy to go through all the motions so I just eat stuff like cereal, porridge, & Oktoberfest sausage, etc. Whatever is easy to throw to-gether in a few minutes. Swampin down a tin of salmon is always pretty easy too. I've never been a big food person but I sure do eat enough of the darn stuff sometimes!! But never seconds. I just eat what's in front of me & then quickly remove myself from the area, ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF CROPPING THE SURROUNDING BACKGROUND OUT TO FEATURE THE FLOWER. AN EXAMPLE OF ADDING TEXT TO A PHOTO

Was doing a little reading up on Microsoft's new operating system due to launch on October 25th of this year. It's called Windows 7 & sounds good so far. I like the fact that it isn't a power hog like XP & especially Vista.

THESE TWO HUMMINGBIRD FEEDER PHOTOS DEMONSTRATE THE POWER OF THE "I'M FEELING LUCKY" BUTTON. ONE CLICK OF THE BUTTON BRIGHTENED UP THE PHOTO & I COULD HAVE FURTHER LIGHTENED IT BY USING THE "FILL LIGHT" FEATURE FOUND UNDER BASIC FIXES

Not much else new to-day so maybe I'll just throw the cameras in the van & go see if I can track me down a sunset................:))

COLOR HIGHLIGHTING THE FLOWERS IN "FOCAL BLACK & WHITE"

-Hummingbird feeder & single flower photo were taken with a Nikon D40 & 700mm telescope lens.

-The two RV photos this morning were done with my Canon A720 as was the motorcycle pics yesterday.

-The flowers & pond shots were taken from inside our sunroom through a glass window using a Nikon D50 & 200mm zoom lens.

-The birdbath photos were taken from inside the sunroom as well using the D50 & zoom lens at 200mm

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Life is like a roll of toilet paper.....the closer you get to the end the faster it goes.

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

TO-DAY'S BLOG IS ABOUT CAMERAS

To-day's blog is about cameras, but first I'd like to comment on yesterday's blog. After tuning into all the financial doom & gloom on CNN yesterday morning I checked out our financial investments on the computer & of course we had taken a big hit overnight. I should have walked away from the computer right there & gone out & did some gardening or something but instead I heated up the keys & vented some anger & frustration. Debated later in the day whether I should go back & delete that blog but decided to let it ride. Life isn't always a bowl of cherries. Sometimes in my blog I express happy feelings, sometimes sad, sometimes I see the positive side & sometimes it just turns out to be one of those days that you can't win for losing. Yesterday was a flash of anger & frustration first thing in the morning. Guess that is what makes me a human being. Happy to say the day quickly improved & it was on to bigger & better things. We'll be just fine & are proceeding full steam ahead with our "heading west" plans. And, my apologies to Florida. Your a good State:) Thanks to Don, Pat, & Tom for your encouraging words yesterday. Ok, moving on...............................

Over these past few years I have taken many photos of our travels here & there, plus pictures from around our house & our area. Because of those photos I have received some favorable comments, not only on the blog but on other forums I belong to. People have asked how I do some of those nice photos & my answer to that is always the same. I am not a professional photographer & my photos are not on that higher quality level. I think of myself as simply an advanced amateur who is fortunate enough to have some reasonably good camera gear. I use a very simple photo program on the computer as well. The photo program is a free download & anyone can use it to make their pictures better.

First, the camera gear. I have 2 Nikon DSLR's & a smaller point & shoot Canon camera. My Nikon D40 carries a Nikkor 55-200mm f4-5.6 telephoto zoom lens & my Nikon D50 carries a Nikkor 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 wide angle zoom lens. I am hoping to add one more lens to complete my set up which will be a Nikkor 70-300mm f4-5.6 telephoto zoom. Not the most expensive or highest quality camera models or lenses in the Nikon lineup, but they work fine for me. My smaller carry along camera is a Canon A720iS which also is a great little camera & right up there with it's 2 bigger Nikon step-brothers. Before the Canon I had a Fuji E535 which also was a super great camera but it was stolen by some lowlife in Stratford.

The photo program I use on the computer is Google's Picasa. It's a free download & is very easy to use. If it wasn't, I wouldn't be using it. You can sharpen your photos, add contrast, lighten them, straighten your horizons, crop the image, eliminate red eye, enhance the colors, add a soft focus look, switch color to black & white or sepia, invert colors, plus a bunch of other little photo tips & tricks. You can download Picasa 3 here...http://picasa.google.com/
Picasa also has a sister program called Picasa Web Albums which also is a free download. Once you have your photos organized, edited, captioned, & fixed up the way you want them it is only a few more clicks to upload them into the Picasa Web Album program. Once there, they are safe in case your hard drive ever crashes someday.

A few photo tips......
-if it's a cloudy day, minimize the sky or eliminate it totally & look for shots on the ground
-if it's a pretty sky with big fluffy clouds, include more sky in your pics
-avoid putting your subject in the center of the picture
-try to include something in the foreground
-best moods & colors are in the morning around sunrise & shortly thereafter
-cropping is one of the best tools in your photoshop
-don't worry about all those dials on your camera, just set it to automatic & away you go.
-watch out for harsh shadows on bright sunny days
-try not to put horizon lines exactly in the middle of the photo & if you have a tilted horizon you can easily fix that in your Picasa photo program by clicking on the, "straighten" button.

For those of us coming out of the old 35mm film age with all it's inherent problems, the digital age has made a good photographer out of everybody, so grab your camera & get out there.................OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

To-day's photos were taken with Kelly's Canon Powershot A430..... another nice little camera:)