Preparing for the Eclipse

Today is the big day for the total eclipse in the USA. We are in the 90% partial eclipse range, so won't see the total eclipse but will have a near-full partial instead.

We have purchased solar glasses (Amazon has told us not to use the ones we bought, so we got others, but they both say the same thing on them). I purchased solar film that I had hoped to somehow use on my Nikon Coolpix P500, because it is my favorite camera and I am most familiar with its settings, but there is no way to affix the solar film without it causing an issue with the camera. So I have decided instead to use my D3200 with a 200mm lens on it. The lens is not what I wanted; the Coolpix has a far superior zoom. Plus the D3200 is a more expensive camera and I'd rather not burn out the sensors. My other option is my Nikon D40, which is my oldest DSLR, but it doesn't allow you to take pictures through the monitor and I feel like I need to look at the sun through the camera monitor, not the eye piece. Plus it doesn't automatically focus anymore. It works fine with a manual focus but part of it is broken.

My husband has made two cereal box things that allow you to look at the spot and see the moon coverage, so I will at least have an idea of when to go try to shoot photos. I intend to also take photos of the area around us, just to see what happens. I want to go in the woods in the back, for example, while the eclipse is about halfway, just to see what kind of shadows are around me.

Wish me luck. This is all new stuff to me, and to be honest I do not know the D3200 as well as I should because I haven't fooled with enough, so I am having doubts about my ability to get it to do what I want it to. We shall see.

Spring in January

We had a little flurry of snow last week. It was cold enough for that then. But now it is gardening weather again. I think it hit 70 degrees here today.

Last night I spied some deer sneaking through the yard. It was 5:15 p.m. in January with overcast skies. I had not tried out my new Canon camera in low-level light. Any other camera would have given me only black that I maybe could have contrasted an image out of in photo software. Aside from cropping this, it is untouched.

I was much further away when I took this shot, and still, aside from a little graininess, the images captured nicely. I am very pleased as the only other camera I've ever had that would do this well at dusk or low light was my 35 mm Nikon FG 50, a very old camera. This is only cropped also.

This is blooming in the garden. A whole bunch of this came up in the mulched soil where we left the ground fallow over winter. I am guessing it is what I have heard the elders call a "dry land cress." Actually, it looks like the "True Watercress" in my field guild but that is only supposed to bloom from April on and should be near or in springs and streams, not in the compost in the garden.

My new Canon Camera

At noon today, I ventured outside and found a dandelion growing in my garden. On January 6, 2007. When it should be snowing.

I took this at 7:45 a.m. this morning. I have a thing about light and sky and clouds. . . .

Took this at noon, too. The silo is visible from my office window and I look at it all the time.

This is the cabin, or what's left of it, beside the house. I took this shot with the Canon on automatic.

I took this shot of the same thing with the no-more Kodak in early December, I think. Which do you like best?

Best of all, this morning, I pointed the Canon at the moon, and clicked. And what do you know. I shot the moon.

Fincastle lights

These are lights in Fincastle.



As you can see, I could not stand still long enough in the chill.



I was waiting on a meeting to begin.

The first picture, the last on this page, taken when my hands were still warm from the car heater, turned out the best.

Friday turkeys

These turkeys showed up Wednesday, I guess it was. I grabbed the Kodak Z710 and headed outside to see what I could come up with in daylight.

I think the digital zoom is useless and will have to remember to try not to use it. Look at how it blurs the background in the last shot.

It's enough to make me think I've not been taking pictures for the last 20 years.

The turkeys, at least, seemed very happy. Probably because they escaped being someone's Thanksgiving dinner. Although they may make into someone's Christmas pie, traipsing about like that.

Shooting the moon II

Last night I went out about 7 p.m. with the Kodak Z710 and a tripod.

Prior to venturing out, the Kodak tripod, brand new out of the box, and a gift from my husband last Christmas that I'd never opened, fell apart when I took it out of the bag.

Undaunted, I snapped off an e-mail to Kodak complaining about their product, then grabbed the duct tape.

Outside with the camera, it was about 25 degrees and very cold. I steadied the camera on the flimsy tripod, careful to wrap the camera leash around my wrist in case the tripod collapsed. Then I moved from setting to setting, snapping pictures.


I was shooting through the trees, partially in the hopes of getting something in the picture that looked interesting. I love moon shots but I love moon shots with things of the earth in them even more.

This is with the digital zoom, not the optical zoom, and it appears that using the digital zoom is what I need to do. Alas, the Kodak Z710 has no image stabilizer and even with a tripod, things apparently shake.





Playing with the settings gave me this ghostly shot, which I then brightened up a tad in MS Picture It.




Below is a collage of several of the nearly 50 pictures I took. Still learning am I.


I think I will one day shoot the moon, but maybe not this month.

Shooting the moon

Lo! the moon ascending!
Up from the East, the silvery round moon;
Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon;
Immense and silent moon.

-- Walt Whitman (1819–1892)


I have an affinity for the moon. She has always drawn me and I have always loved looking at her (in some pagan religions, the moon is feminine, no "man in the moon" there).

But I have never been able to take a good picture of the moon. Usually I end up with a big white blotch, like this:

I was hoping with my new digital point and shoot, I would do better. Last night and this morning I tried, I really did. This is better because you can see the moon's oceans, to some degree:



But it is not that great. The picture below has more personality but the camera focused on the tree, not the moon, so the orb is blurred:

I have tried a number of settings on the new camera, trying to make it happen. I have never been that great a photographer, though. I do okay but I would never profess to make a living at it. It is a hobby that I am lucky enough to occasionally get paid for, if I can send in decent enough shots with an article.

This turned out the best, this big ol' moon, but the colors are not that deep and I am not that happy with it.






Somehow, the first day I got the camera, I was playing around and I pointed at the moon and got this shot. You can even see the craters. But I have no idea what setting I was using and I can't just make it happen.

All of these shots were freehand. Tonight, if the sky stays clear, I hope to try again with a tripod. Maybe between now and then, I can figure out how to shoot the moon.