Our New Toy…

12. August 2012 · Comments Off on Our New Toy… · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , ,

This was with the 200mm telephoto lens from about 15′ away. Love it!

This past week was Dave’s and my 17th anniversary. Because Dave’s birthday is the same week as our anniversary, he took the day off between the two special events and we had a nice day together. We took the kids on one more trip to the Pensacola MESS Hall, and then after lunch at Cajun Specialty Meats, we visited the NAS Pensacola Naval Exchange (NEX) to browse the DSLR cameras.

We had been wanting a new camera for a very long time. We’d been accustomed to much-smaller point-and-shoot cameras, such as the Canon SD1200 Digital ELPH and the Nikon Coolpix S210. Between the higher-quality photography I require for my GeekMom blog posts, and Dave’s invitation to be part of Kalmbach Publishing’s Great Model Railroads special issue of Model Railroader magazine, we need something better.

We did our research — Dave asked advice of his fellow model railroad hobby friends, I asked my fellow GeekMom writers and consulted with my favorite photographer hobbyist: Maryann of the FotoMom blog. We weighed cost, weight, warranty, and capabilities for super-up-close photography and sports/action photography in our decision. We reviewed well-regarded DSLR review columns such as at Digital Photography Review.

We played for over an hour with two cameras at the NAS Pensacola NEX: the Canon EOS Rebel T3i and the Nikon D5100.  Kissing cousins in capability, we decided on the Nikon in part due to a discounted extra lens promotion they were having.  We got the camera body with the “kit” lens – 18-55mm – as well as an additional 55-200mm telephoto lens.  We also bought a nice carrying bag that came with a free DSLR photography DVD.  Dave and I would need it!

The following day I took the kids to the splash park at Navarre Park to play, and I had a chance to take some great photos.  Enjoy!

I love photographing water features. And kids playing in the water.

This is a single color selection feature. You use an eyedropper type of thing to pick up a single color to turn on…and all other colors on the palette are turned into greytones.

This is with only the green turned on.

The rest of the photos are of the same thing, but with the assorted settings on the camera. It was fun playing with the settings.

This is “Landscape” setting. Not noticeably different.

Black and White.

Silhouette, pulling out the colors in the background more.

Hi-saturation.

Low-saturation.

Color sketch. So it looks like a drawing, I guess.

I don’t remember the settings of these last two…I *think* this is the “Miniature” setting, but I do notice the blurriness on the edges…sharpness in the center.

Definitely don’t remember this setting…

 

Meet My Famous Dear Husband!

21. June 2011 · 3 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

Imagine my delight when I saw N-Scale Magazine sitting in a magazine rack yesterday at the Strasburg Station train store in Lancaster, PA.

And here’s Dave’s super-awesome front cover picture, and inside is his feature article! I wish I could share the whole article here with you, but from our vacation we can’t do it — and instead will refer you to your favorite model railroading hobby shop for the latest copy.

The work Dave had put into the photographs for this article was remarkable. I’d estimate over 1000 pictures, and over 20 hours worth of work staging the shots and getting the color composition right. We definitely used our small, but capable Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS to the max! Our friend Maryann @ Fotomom helped Dave with the photography quite a bit and we’re very grateful for her expertise and advice.

It also has us considering whether a higher quality camera — such as a DSLR — is in order. We discussed it earlier this spring, but it’s an investment that will have to wait until after we pay off our summer travel.

As they say in the Navy (because the Air Force doesn’t have a cool, historically significant saying like this), BRAVO ZULU Dear Husband!

Happy Belated Father’s Day!

20. June 2011 · Comments Off on Happy Belated Father’s Day! · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , ,

Happy Belated Father’s Day to any of my Dad readers!  We were happy to get to spend time with Dave’s Dad early in the day at Dave’s family reunion in Pennsylvania, then we drove down to my parents’ house in West Virginia in time for dinner with my Dad.

Earlier in the week GeekMom solicited the writers for some posts for Father’s Day. I was encouraged to write one about Dave’s model railroading and the project he’d been doing with Jacob.  It was shown over at GeekMom on Father’s Day!

With Dave’s recent N-Scale Magazine article (on the shelves right now!) and this week’s talk at the N-Scale Convention in Hershey, PA, it was appropriate to show off a little about him!

In the Home Stretch

23. November 2010 · Comments Off on In the Home Stretch · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

I’m stealing this picture from Dave and his latest blog entry. Tonight we loaded up a U-Haul trailer with his model train layout. By leaving the legs up on the two parts of the layout, we have a plethora of space underneath that I found no problem filling with a couple dozen bankers boxes with assorted papers, liquids, and cleaning supplies.

It’s going to be VERY cold tonight, so I have held off on loading my violin or my worm bin, both of which won’t do well for too long when it’s <50F.

Tomorrow we will do the final packing while the boys are at school.  Dave checks out of the base, I will turn in the cable box and turn off the cable/Internet and then we’ll get the kids from school and hit the road.

This is our first serious cold-season move, so we’re working with very limited daylight right now.  I don’t want to do tag-team driving in the dark, so we’re trying to give ourselves enough time to get down to Overland Park, KS before dark (about 3 hours).

My next post will be from on the road!

From 2010 11 11 PCS2010

Photos from Dave and Jake’s Dream Train Vacation

05. May 2008 · Comments Off on Photos from Dave and Jake’s Dream Train Vacation · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , , , ,

Enjoy these pics from Dave and Jake’s big model railroading/railfanning weekend. Hopefully Dave will blog about this soon on his own.

Timmy and I had a fun weekend together in South Carolina!

PS: We have two offers on the house, possibly more by tomorrow morning! Whoo hoo!

Puddin’ Pleasures and Dave’s Blog

09. January 2008 · Comments Off on Puddin’ Pleasures and Dave’s Blog · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

The banana pudding was quite delightful, thank you. No, you may not have any…make your own! Just kidding — come on by and you can help me finish ours. I’m tempted to just grab a spoon and snuggle on the couch with the rest of the dish (which is about 3/4 of it!).

Also, Dave now has his own blog. I’ll be interested to see the wide range of topics he’ll discuss — it could be absolutely anything from model trains to home brewing to Scorer Parameters. Maybe I’ll embarass him with this picture.