As you avid followers of this website know (all two or three of you), I got a new Canon A2100is camera in May, thanks to my family. While it does have a shortcoming or two (or perhaps a comprise or two), most notably, it has no viewfinder (in exchange for a large LCD display) and still keeping a quite small size (about 4 by 2.5 by 1.25 inches). It has 4000x3000 resolution (what Canon refers to as 12.1 megapixels??), 6x optical zoom plus 4x digital zoom, and the "is" referring to image stabilization. It's GREAT!!! So, anyway, I've taken quite a few pictures (at least, I thought I had, until I saw Evan lately, and he certainly puts my numbers to shame), and the problem then becomes one of pruning. Still got the problem, but I have a good size hard disk so I'm not in trouble yet. Bigger problem is finding the one one is thinking of some weeks, months, or years later. Still working that one.
Note: in case you might wonder, the pictures are numbered in the sequence taken. the prefix "u" is for this camera, the appended letters mean various things: "m" is modified size (to near 800x600, usually), "c" is cropped, "l" is modified lighting, "r" is red-eye fix. Haven't thought of any others.
What I'm working up to is that I finally went through my first nearly 700 pictures (taken from May through July) and picked out a lot that I like for one reason or another. In order to simplify looking at pictures of a particular kind, I've sorted them into categories, with the links to the categories given below.
Approximate dates the pictures were taken can be determined from the following
list;
number up to 110 - first half of May
number from 111-183 - second half of May
number from 184-268 - first half of June
number from 269-378 - second half of June
number from 379-599 - first half of July
number from 591-647 - second half of July
number beyond 647 - August
People, posted 8-24-09
Animals, posted 8-25-09
Birds plus, posted 8-25-09
Sky, cloud, land, posted 8-30-09
Plants, posted 8-30-09
Other, posted 8-30-09
People
For Mother's day, Hailey took us to the Winchester House for brunch. Here's
Amelia and I in the
gazebo. Here's the
three of us. We were
joined by our friends
MaryKay and Dick.
Afterward I got this picture of
Hailey downtown.
The last weekend of May
Mark and Darla came
down from Eugene. This isn't really a picture of a person, but a picture of
a drawing of a person. Our friend Sandy from Green Valley drew this
portrait
of Sulwen from a picture taken when Sulwen visited her house in March. I
think it's wonderful (I'm talking portrait here, obviously not the picture).
Mid-June we went to Prospect to see our friends
Richard and Ina and prospect for a few lava rocks for the yard. Here we are
relaxing on one of their
decks by the creek. On Saturday before Father's Day, Hailey, Tate, and I
hiked to Mt. Ashland and around it. It was very foggy and I missed the view
from the top, but got this favorite picture of
Hailey and Tate and a
ghostly tree. As a reward (I guess), Hailey took us to Harper's for brunch
the next day, and a friendly passerby took
our picture. In early
Amelia and I took a trip to California, stopping by to see Tanna and Sulwen
for a few days (see earlier report). I got several nice pictures of Sulwen.
Here she is riding the
rocking boat I built
about 1968 for her Uncle Evan. Sulwen loves to
swing (but no sissy
swings, please).
Sulwen walks in
determined fashion across the Ft. Ross School playground.
Animals
This is one of the first few pictures I took with the A2100. It is the
neighbor's "rescue horse",
who looks considerably better than earlier. This was taken at 6x and I was
amazed at the detail in the grass. Thanks, "is". This one isn't an animal
shot, per se, but it is
evidence of a large
animal, bear, I reckon, within a hundred feet or so of the house. I made a
bird feeder with a spring loaded perch to keep big birds from getting food.
It sort of works, but as many know,
squirrels are
persistent. We've had numerous
deer around the
property, here are eight in front of the house. One of our frequent visitors
is Tate, head of our
Chocolate Lab Division. Tate dearly loves seeing the
Jack Rabbits, as do we,
but so far he has never caught one (gives up quicky, in fact). Here's a
closer look
than Tate ever gets. I don't know what
these are, but they
apparently hard at work. Another visit from the deer, with a
couple of newcomers,
having some fun
gamboling around the
field. When we were in Timber Cove on a walk at Gerstle Cove I got this
shot of seals lazing
on the rocks.
Birds plus
We generally have at least one family of
Bluebirds in our
bluebird house (sometimes Tree Swallows), but this year we had at least
two. Hummingbirds
are pretty numerous (yeh, sort of missed part of him, but the part I got is
good). This is certainly one of my favorite early shots: Two of four
Red-tailed Hawks orbiting
above. We have a second duplex bird house on the fence, and this bird, that
may be a Flycatcher,
nested on one side of it. The finches (Lesser and
American Goldfinch) love
thistle seed and regularly empty the feeder. One bird I really enjoy
seeing (and we frequently do) is the
Red-tailed Hawk. This
Acorn Woodpecker was
taking a drink at the Rogue Valley Country Club (where I was having a drink,
and eats). Here's a nice close-up of an
American Goldfinch at
the thistle feeder, while
another awaits his turn
in the tree. Here's a
Barn Swallow north of
Klamath Lake. In the same area I took this picture of an
Osprey by its nest (one
offspring can be seen peeking over the edge of the nest). Down near Agency
Lake we saw this
Yellowheaded Blackbird.
I finally caught one of the
baby Bluebirds awaiting
his meal in our bluebird house. Our birdbath is popular - here's a
Canyon Towhee enjoying
it. This is "not quite a bird", a
butterfly on a bush at
Richard's and Ina's place in Prospect. One of the joys of kayaking at Howard
Prairie Lake is seeing the
Bald Eagles that nest
there. Here's a little
closer shot of one, and
here's one I apparently shot at 24x showing the
nest and an Eaglet, too.
Turkey Buzzards float
around over us regularly. Ah, here's another shot of a
Bluebird, I think a
juvenile who has flown the nest, but returned to perch (or wait for Mom or Dad
to come back with a morsel - not likely). In July I saw this
Shag at Gerstle Cove
when visiting Tanna and Sulwen. Also caught a
Turkey Buzzard returning
to the rest of the flock. One day I looked out the window to see these two
Acorn Woodpeckers
on the post below the bird feeder. One flew off, but the other one
posed. One morning
when going to get the paper, there seemed to be a fuss at the nearby power pole.
Two walkers apparently thought a Western Meadowlark was trying to "get" these
babies, but I think that
was a parent. They had flown the nest a few days later. Here's another
Red-tailed Hawk, not as
good as some other shots. The
Canyon Towhee dries out
after taking a bath. This one may be some kind of
Sparrow, but I don't
seem to be able to identify it. The juvenile
Bluebirds are back and
enjoying the birdbath.
Sky, cloud, land
I like cloud pictures, so if you care to look, you'll be seeing some here.
This one just looks like a little stretched thin
cotton wool. This one
looks a little angrier, but not
threatening. Nothing
nicer than fluffy ones
on the horizon out toward Grizzly Peak. OK, OK, we get to one a little more
interesting with this one.
Enough clouds for a little bit. We wenting kayaking on Klamath Lake, Pelican
Bay to be exact. It was very quiet, with water smooth as glass, as they say.
This made for wonderful
reflection pictures. Well, there's a cloud in this one, and its
reflection in front
of the hill. No reflection is this one since there are too many water
lilies on the Bay, but
Mt. McLoughlin is
OK without a reflection. Have to sneak in another cloud picture, this one
with the sun behind it.
Still playing around with the 24x zoom, I took this one of
Baldy Peak that has
the antennae from which we access the internet. Another prominent nearby
peak is Roxy Ann,
also shot at 24x. Both these were hand-held. Some of you know that I also
love sunrise and sunset pictures. Here's a particularly nice
sunset we had
around the middle of June. We sometimes go kayaking on Howard Prairie Lake.
It is sometimes windy, but was
particularly smooth
on this trip. The day before Father's Day, Hailey, Tate, and I hiked up
Grizzly Peak in the fog.
Someone had made Grizzly Peak a few feet higher (reminds me, a little, of
The Man Who Went up A Hill and Came Down a Mountain). Futher along the way
we saw this multi-legged
"creature". The fog made these trees killed by fire several years ago look
a bit ghostly.
Another sunset
picture, this one looking over toward east Medford, with the closer lights
being in Phoenix (OR). This house is across a little valley from us, and
is reminescent of a building in a painting we have, so I walked over a little
closer to it and took
this picture. Nice
looking house, neighbor, whoever you are. Back to more sunset pictures,
with this very red one,
and another looking a
little to the left, and this one a bit to the
right. I like
big fluffy clouds (did
I already mention that?). That one was sort of north, and to the west it
looked like this.
Every year there is a parasailing competition starting at Woodrat Mountain,
and usually one of there courses goes right over our house. I usually try
to get a few good pictures. Here's one that is
OK. A little
further away.
There's a pair.
Another comes by pretty low.
They didn't seem to be threatened by this dark looking
cloud. There are at least
four going by here.
Here's something completely different, a shot of the ocean
off the Big Sur coast.
Here's a real favorite of mine, a shot of the
Bixby Creek Bridge from
the Old Coast Highway. Back home here's another cloud shot
out to the west.
A little later the sun had set, but there was a wonderful
display of the shadow of
the cloud into the sky.
Plants
Lots of pictures of plants, mostly flowers, of course.
Purple iris, just off our
deck. I planted a
Bosc pear some years ago
and it had several hundred tiny pears on it, but by this time may had dropped
many. (A a good thing). The waterfall is still going, and the
ginger on both sides
seems to like it. After Sulwen was born we got a
Dogwood in her honor
and it bloomed nicely this year. Amelia's
Alpine garden is doing
well, and Mr. Frog seems to like it. We had other
iris, this one a gift
from Chris. This is one of the
Yellow water lillies
we saw at Pelican Bay while kayaking. Amelia planted a lot of
Dutch iris and they
bloomed nicely. I got a
Korean Dogwood for my
birthday a few years ago, and it is doing well; it blooms much later than
Sulwen's. We like
California poppies and
these are in our front yard, picture taken from the front porch. These
Oleanders are at Richard's
and Ina's house in Prospect. They also had this
wooden alligator in the
stream off their deck, but it subsequently washed away. OK, maybe
mushrooms aren't
plants, but where else would I put them? - could have been in Misc, I guess,
but they are not. This
Columbine was on Grizzly
Peak. So were
these flowers, and many to
come. Looks like
Daisies to me. This
is a very interesting
flower and I have no idea what it is. Likewise this one
I don't know. Here's
more of them and some
Indian paintbrush.
Here's another unknown,
and yes, it's foggy on Grizzly Peak. Some of these we've seen before, but
there are also yellow
flowers. That was the last of the Grizzly Peak pictures. Back home,
we see the bank of St. John's
wort in front of the house. I can make you feel better. Our "not that
well cared for" Magnolia
gave us many short-lived blossoms again this year. The wildflowers were out
when we visited Gerstel Park in California. Here are
Yellow Lupine. This one
I don't know, maybe some kind of
lily. These may be
wild iris. A
sea of grass looking
toward the sea (Pacific Ocean). Got me on
these, too, as also
this one. I was quite
a distance from these
interesting blooms
that I shot at 24x. Back home and a few weeks later, some shots from our yard.
The "not necessarily well taken care of" magnolia did it's magic again with
many short-lived blossoms.
Amelia's alpine garden has taken on a little different look, but
Mr. Frog gets a better
chance to hide. After some pest problems in the rose garden, most of the
roses brought forth a good crop of blossoms: here's
white, here's
pink, here's
red, here's
yellow, here's
more white, also in
closeup, and finally,
another yellow. The
Day Lillies also put
on a nice show, as did the
Butterfly bush. Finally,
a few garden shots. The zucchini always do well, both
green and
yellow. The
tomatoes promised a
great deal more than they have delivered. Don't know if the weather was too
hot, or whether I've just been treating them too well.
Other
A few pictures didn't seem to fit into the above categories (one could argue
some of the above didn't fit the category, either, I suppose), so here are
a few I couldn't seem to squeeze in above. Here's a shot of a
fireplace mantel at
the DeYoung Museum, followed by a
detail closeup. Also at
the DeYoung was this wonderful
bench. I'm thinking I
would like to make one in the same vein, if I can just figure out how to
incorporate a LazyBoy into it, since that one doesn't look all that comfortable.
And now for something completely different. One day we made a stir-fry and
the vegetables looked so
colorful I couldn't
resist taking a picture of them (nor putting it here).