New York

For the Fourth of July the family and I decided it might be fun to go to New York. We took the Amrtrak up which was a very nice 3 hour train ride. From Baltimore, that is definitely the way to go. I think there may need to be a Boston trip via the same means. Here are a few highlights from our trip.

After the wonderment of all the sky scrapers, the next thing to catch your eye is the sea of yellow taxis waiting to take your money or get you lost and take more of your money. Surprisingly though the taxi transportation for us was pretty cheap. I think it cost us $8 to get to our hotel in Times Square from Penn Station and then $5 to return. We had luggage and a total of 4 people to transport so that seems reasonble. While on the taxi ride to our hotel, there was sooooo much honking going not only by those around us, but also by our own cab driver. So I thought it was funny when I saw this on a double decker bus tour.

From what we learned on the bus tour, this law is rarly enforced because the police have better things to do than figure who is honking. Another New York icon is the Empire State building.

This was shot from the bus on our way to catch the ferry to Liberty Island to see Lady Liberty herself. On the ferry I just happen to be in the prime location to take a shot of downtown Manhattan.

Finally we make it to Liberty Island to catch the splendor of the Statue of Liberty, on the Fourth of July. Which in hindsight, it probably would be less crowded and more pleasant if we came during a cooler month such as September.

The detail is amazing and she really is something to see in person.

I hope you enjoyed the brief highlights from my vacation to New York. I know it is a vacation that I will not soon forget.

Kalimar Photo Results

Remember that Kalimar SR200 camera that I found in an antique store? Well I finally finished a roll of film and had a CD made with the pictures on them. I must say that I was quit pleased with most of the pictures. I don't ever remember taking very good pictures with non-digital cameras, but that was probably 20 - 25 years ago when I was a kid and had no understanding of taking picture basics. I was lucky if I didn't cut a person's head off or have a finger in the way let alone getting the right exposure and sharpness. So I was happy that I applied what I have been learning to get decent pictures out of an old SLR film camera. All the images are untouched with the exception of cropping.

Olivia was outside blowing bubbles and I thought I would try and capture that moment. She loves to play with bubbles.

In this picture Olivia is rather upset because she decided that she was done swinging and instead of waiting for it to come to a stop she let go and landed on her backside. Now she knows to wait for the swing to stop or to try and land on her feet.

This is Olivia and her Daddy.The camera doesn't have a flash and it was extremely sunny out so instead of having them squint with the sun in their face I just placed them with the sun off to the side.

Even though I love my digital camera, I think the old school camera gives a bit more nostaligic feel to it. I'm sure you could make your digital pictures have that same look through image editing software, but I'm not that advanced yet. You can click the images for a bigger picture. I still can't get over that the camera doesn't take batteries.

Saturday at Sotterly

A couple of Saturdays ago I took a photography class from Robert Tinari that was given at Sotterly Plantation. We were focusing on the gardens and scenery. The light was a bit harsh given that we were there from 11:00 - 3:00. It was also pretty windy out. Even given those conditions I did manage to get out a few good pictures.

This first picture is the under side of one of the flowers in the garden. I had to use my camera pack to block the sun wind. Pink and green is one of my favorite color combos. That is probably why I was so drawn to this flower.

Most of the really colorful butterflies were gone for the season, but these little ones were still having fun. I love how the wings look like they have many "eyes."

Alma Mater Visit...Go Bucks!

Well I did get the pictures back from the old film taken with my antique shop find. They actually printed out. I haven't scanned the pictures yet. I was surprised it could actually be developed. I have new film in the camera now and will see what happens with that. I'm excited.

For now I want to share a picture of my daughter doing her first tree climbing on the Oval at The Ohio State University. She had sooo much fun. I used my 50mm lens for this picture.

We also had to go check out the new student union where I went at least once a week to eat at Mark Pi's. Sadly that eatery is no longer there, but the new union is gorgeous with other types food to energize the growing minds. There was a fabulous life sized Brutus sitting on one of the benches there too. I believe I used my 55-200mm lens for this one.

I have a camera class at Sotterly Plantation on Saturday with Robert Tinari. I'm going to take both my film and digital camera. Hopefully I'll come back with some great pictures.

Antique Store Find

While visiting some family back in Ohio this past week, I found out that my mother-in-law had a booth in an antique shop dowtown. She is starting do downsize some of her belongings. I figured I would go check out the store and see what all was there. Well on a table next to my MIL's booth something caught my eye. It was a camera case that was in excellent condition. Curiosity peeked my interest so I decided to look in the case and low and behold there was a camera that also was in fabulous condition. I checked ou tthe lens and looked through the view finder and both looked outstanding. There is not a single scratch on the lens. The leather strap looks like it was never hung over anyone's neck AND it had the user's manual! I knew this had to be mine. So I looked at the price and it was marked $20. Oh yeah, this baby was going home with me. I forgot to take a picture of the bottom, but it has "Made in USSR". Of course I had to find out what I could about it. It seems to be a Russian made camera for US export called a Kalimar SR200. The Russian version of this in the Zenit-E. It is a 35mm film camera. It takes no batteries. I think it dates about 1979-80 from the Olympic rings on the front. The US had boycotted the Olympics and when Russia was hosting them and sent us these cameras with the rings on there. When I got it to my MIL's house I discovered there was film already in the camera and some had been used. I finished the film yesterday and dropped it off to get developed. How old the film was and whether anything took I will find out tomorrow. I will say the film I pulled out had metal rings on the top and bottom. I will try the camera out with fresh film next. I hope there are pictures and I didn't ruin the other ones when I slightly opened the film area. Anyway here are the pictures...

Island Landscape

Hi all. I'm always sharing pictures with you of the bridge to Solomon's Island. How about a couple of pictures from the bridge of Solomon's Island? Now keep in mind these were taken in a moving car and no I was not the driver. LOL.

It was such a gorgeous clear day which is essential in trying to get a shot like this. Otherwise you would just see a buch of haze. Here is the second picture. The water was a popular place that day.

Garden Splendor

I was off on Friday and after I got things done around the house I decided to take a little trip to Sotterly Plantation to work on playing with manual mode, exposure, and using my telephoto lens as a macro lens.

I spied this bunny statue sitting on bench next to the children's garden. It reminded me of Peter Rabbit and I just loved the weathered look on him. I shot this in manual mode, but the original picture was much darker. I edited the picture Photoshop Elements 6 to lighten and sharpen the image. I actually took a picture that was done in aperture priority, but prefered the underexposed image because the sunlight wasn't as harsh in this picture.

This is a picture a took trying to use my zoom lens as a macro. Not too bad, but I have a feeling that a true macro lens will need to be added to my list. The sun was really bright in the mid-afternoon, but it was the only free time I had so I had to do what I could. I think one thing that I normally come across when shooting in these conditions is that light or white colors will get blown out. This one actually turned out pretty decent, I can see detail on the inner petals although it is a soft focus.