A New Lens and a Lot of Help

Terri and I were out and about on the weekend and we decided to stop in at a camera outlet store as we were passing by … literally passing by, I made one of those right turns from the far left (three lanes over); at the stop light no less.

We walked into the store and started looking around, neither of us were really looking for anything in particular just whiling away the afternoon together. Every time we go to this store I always stop to look at the “used” lenses and happened across a good condition Sigma Zoom 100-300 1:4.5-6.7 DL lens. The glass was clean and as far as I could tell also clear. I hung onto it and continued to look around. Terri found herself a great “macro” lens at the other end of the table, a Canon 28-80mm, that she is very happy about, too. I’m sure she will post some of her pictures soon enough at Terri’s Tales.

We eventually talked to one of the sales associates and put the lenses on a T series Canon to check the optics … for the prices we paid we’re happy, even though the Sigma is a little quirky at lower zoom values.

The following is a sampling of the pictures I took with my T3i and the Sigma lens. I wasn’t really having much luck with post-production so Terri offered to see what she could come up with. The gallery below is the result.

Just to note, the dandelion image was taken and processed by Terri with the Canon lens.

Photo Walk: Niagara Falls 2014-03-08

It’s not a common thing for Niagara Falls, or perhaps more accurately the Niagara River area around the Horseshoe Falls and the American Falls to freeze but this was not a common winter for cold either. These are are a few images from a photo walk Terri and I took yesterday:

First Days Of Winter 2013

The first day of Winter brought with it freezing rain. Now this was not so bad by itself, a light coating of thin ice makes for beautiful images and generally does not have a dramatic impact on the trees around Lake Aquitaine …

… but unfortunately the weather forecast and the continued freezing rains that followed left many of the trees around our lake in a sad and broken condition.

Terri and I walked around yesterday (follow the link to her images) taking pictures of the trees and other ice covered pieces around the lake, my images are in the first gallery. We walked around again early this morning (more images by Terri) and this is when I took the second gallery images.

San Francisco to Big Basin Redwood State Park

Piano on the beach

I expect this will be one of many posts describing our vacation in Monterey and San Francisco.

A little back story before the first gallery of pictures …

… Terri was away for business in Fort Worth, Texas. She knew this a few weeks in advance and suggested we take this opportunity to have a “real” vacation since it had been 15 years since our last one. So, our plans were set in motion. I would meet her in Fort Worth on Thursday Night and then we would fly to San Francisco Friday morning; pick up a rental car and head south to Monterey. This is when the fun begins.

Terri drove out of the airport and we found our way heading south to Monterey. We knew our check-in time was after 3:00 PM, and it was just past 10:00 AM so we thought some site-seeing along the way just made sense … and with the sign pointing to Half Moon Bay we were off to Highway 1 and an adventure. We found Half Moon Bay State Park and stopped there to see the Pacific Ocean first-hand. A first for Terri and 40 years since I last was near enough to see it in person for myself. We found some interesting sites and even some interesting sounds with a weather-beaten stand-up piano on the side of the road over-looking the beach and the ocean (rumor has it belongs to Neil Young whom supposedly lives nearby where we found the piano).

At this same time, the US government in their infinite wisdom (really, you seriously decided to put all of those people out of work because of some sort of pissing content?!) closed and therefore all of the National parks were closed, too (with serious fines for those found “trespassing”). This made us go looking for other parks where we could see the majesty of the Redwoods which led us to Big Basin Redwood State Park.

Now, let me tell you a story about why you should not turn on the “Avoid Freeways” option with a GPS. We call our GPS, Maggie (short for either Magpie or the actual brand Magellan) … and Maggie did a phenomenal job of leading us on a beautiful scenic route to the park. She said, turn left onto El Honda Road, we turned left. She said “Warning”, to tell us we were going over the speed limit. She reminded us to stay on the road … well, the mountains were making it a bit difficult to keep the satellite lock but Maggie was diligent in making sure she told us to stay on the right road. We stopped at a local deli/market for lunch then got back on the road. Maggie told us to carry on to Old El Honda Road and follow it … and the adventure got real.

Old El Honda Road winds and turns and follows the mountain up … and up … and down … and up … and up some more. All that would be fine, except it also essentially turns into one of those one-lane, nothing on one side and a mountain on the other which can be quite terrifying for someone afraid of heights, like Terri. She did amazing given the challenges of the drive but soon enough we switched places as the emptiness over her left shoulder was just too much. I drove the rest of the way to the top of the mountain, only about five more minutes of hell but we ended on a more proper road that we followed to some similar but not so severe roads that eventually took us to the park … just when we thought we had enough we turned a corner and there was the park ranger station.

These pictures were mostly from the passenger seat of the car as I tried to capture the essence of the drive …

Into The Foggy Night

Man and Child on a Foggy Night
Man and Child on a Foggy Night
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