Friday, April 18, 2008

Scenic Highway 101

I spent my three-day weekend this week visiting my grandparents in Florence, Oregon. It's a 265-mile drive each way that takes almost 6 hours to complete (average 46 mph, thanks to the slow twists and turns of Highway 101). On the way home, I hit weather ranging from completely sunny skies to heavy drizzle and fog so thick I couldn't see much of anything but the glare from my own headlights. However, I found a few opportunities to utilize the vista points on the side of the highway to take some photos. Since I still don't have the wide-angle lens for my new camera yet, some of the photos were taken with my old camera. You can click on the photos for larger versions.

Look closely to see if you can find the Umpqua Lighthouse:
The next four were taken just south of Port Orford, OR (the third one down is my favorite, and likely the next photo of the week):
A greeter at the Oregon Visitor's Information Center just north of the border:
On the way home, I had to stop at the Crescent City Wal-Mart to check it out. At only 90-minutes away, it is the nearest Wal-Mart to Eureka:
Finally, a couple of sunset photos from south of Crescent City:

Monday, April 7, 2008

Major Upgrade

As much as I love my current camera (the Panasonic DMC-FZ8S), I finally decided to upgrade to something nicer, namely a digital SLR. Although I still have a long way to go, I feel I have learned a lot about digital photography in the last couple years with lots of practice with my Panasonic. My official reason for upgrading is wanting a camera that provides more manual control along with much improved image quality. However, my secret reason (shh, don't tell anyone!) is that I have a long-standing photography inferiority complex thanks to Jim (yeah, right!). He use to try to intimidate me by threatening to put away his standard camera (Sony H5) and break out his "big" camera (Sony Alpha A100) to take some shots. Of course, the results never fully lived up to the hype, but I always pretended to like his pictures to make him feel better.

Anyway, in my typical fashion, I researched all kinds of DSLRs for an enormous amount of time before I finally settled on the Canon Digital Rebel XTi (check out the home page for this camera here). For lenses, I decided on the Canon EF-S 18-55mm IS and the Canon EF-S 55-250mm IS (see photos below). Together, they cover a zoom range very similar to my Panasonic. As I have done in the past, I ordered this camera from Amazon.com and thus now have to spend a week waiting for everything to arrive (all the various components are coming from different places). I don't know what to do with myself now. I'm having a hard time being patient waiting for my XTi's arrival, but I guess I have no choice. For now, I'll occupy my time (which I'm sure could be better spent!) by reading the downloaded user's manual so I will hopefully have some clue about how to use an SLR by the time it actually gets here. So Jim: I'll soon have my own "big" camera to bring out when it's time to show you how it's done, so just be ready. I can tell you're scared....


(photo from www.luminous-landscape.com)

(photo from Canon)

(photo from Canon)