I thought it was funny when Ainsley was giving
all of her stuffed dogs something to drink.
We thought we had seen the last snow of the season a few weeks ago. The
birds have returned, there are buds on the trees, our allergies have
started, and the daffodils are sprouting. On March 14, it was 81
degrees (27 Celsius). Two
days later, we had a wintry mix that left snow and ice.
The daffodils are the first sign of spring in our yard. They
start sprouting in January, it snows a couple of times, and by mid-March,
the flowers start blooming.
I now have a better appreciation for macro lenses. They are
able to zoom in tight at only six inches (15cm) away from the subject. The
single yellow bud was at 250mm on a 70-300mm lens, but at four feet
away (1.2m). That wasn't bad, but photographing tree buds meant
I could not bend the branch at arms length to have a better background. I
was too close and the camera couldn't focus.
The local Girl Scout troop sponsored the annual Father-Daughter
dance for Girl Scouts, Brownies and Daisies. This year's
theme was a country hoe down and Ainsley
and Abbie played the part well. We started at dinner with neighborhood
friends and joined the dance fashionably late. Ainsley loved
the dancing and even tried the line dance to Cotton Eye Joe. It
was a bit advanced for her as the video shows,
but at least she tried it.
Ainsley dances the chicken dance on the left and learned
new lyrics for a song that doesn't have any lyrics. I don't
want to be a chicken - I don't want to be a duck - so I shake my
butt - {clap, clap, clap, clap}. This song was suddenly extra
funny to a five year old. We parents just rolled our eyes.
See more photos.
These are test shots at a basketball game. I've read indoor sports
events are the most difficult to shoot because of the low amount of light.
People can see without a problem, but the camera considers this one step
above night time. I've also read that either a 30mm f/1.4, 50mm
f/1.4, or 85mm f/1.8 are the best lenses for low light photography. Based
on these examples, I think I'd prefer to be courtside with a 30mm lens. I
could always crop to make a tighter photo shot.
18mm, 1/60s, f/4, ISO 1600
30mm, 1/60s, f/4, ISO 1600
50mm, 1/40s, f/4.4, ISO 1600
85mm, 1/60s, f/4.2, ISO 1600
After shooting the first photo, I looked at the histogram and noticed
the photo was a bit dark. I could have used the "levels" feature
in Photoshop to brighten the image a bit. Instead, I used the exposure
compensation and changed it to +0.7 EV to make the histogram shift from
left to right to make the photo brighter. This does not affect the
aperture, ISO or shutter speed. It just changes the camera's sensitivity. It
saved me from having to adjust over 60 photos in Photoshop / Photoshop
Elements.
All of the photos from the night are blurry at 1/60 second. Notice
the people walking in the background. The photos are also
grainy (noisy) at ISO 1600. This is a 100% crop (small part of
a full size photo that has not been resized).
The double decker Airbus A380 will soon fly customers, but for
now, it's making a promotional U.S. tour. There
currently aren't any orders from U.S. airlines and FedEx cancelled their
order after two years of delays. It stopped at New York JFK, Los
Angeles, and Chicago O'Hare earlier this week before stopping at Washington
Dulles on its way back to Germany.
There was a public demonstration flight between 11am and 1pm, so I thought
I'd try to see the landing. I was driving on the Dulles Toll Road
when I saw the plane cross the road to land on runway 19L. I thought
I missed it by 10 minutes. There weren't any official public viewing
areas, so I headed for the top level of a parking garage at the airport. I
knew I was in luck when I saw dozens of people with cameras and a hovering
helicopter next to runway 19R. Apparently, the plane came within
100 feet or so of landing on the other runway and circled around to land
at the runway shown above (19R). I wonder if the first attempted
landing was for practice. See more
photos.
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