raloria

In posting photos from VanCon this year, I've been getting some questions about the camera I use, but I thought rather than just give info. about the one camera, I'd introduce you to all 3 of them.

( My cameras... )

The 4th is over for another year and now at 2:30 in the morning there's only the occasional firework still being set off in the neighborhood.

First of all, I went outside to check and see who was firing things off and found a mess on our car. Grrrrr. Looks like someone shot a painball at it. I cleaned it off as best as I could, but sheesh! Why is it always at us??? We don't bother anyone. Stupid kids.

Anyhoo, I went out to our driveway after 8 p.m. with my camera gear to capture what I could of the pyrotechnics. They were a little slow to start this year, but once it really began getting dark they were off and running. I felt a little more prepared as far as settings on my Canon camera go this time. I put it on Manual, ISO of 100, and on the Bulb setting. The camera was on my big tripod, while my camcorder was on a mini-tripod on the trunk of the car, tilted way up to catch the fireworks on the street to the south of us.

I used the Canon to photograph the fireworks on the next street over to the north. These folks, several groups from the look of it, always put on a great show. The biggest enemy is the large trees that sometimes obscure the view, but depending on where I moved it wasn't too bad. Luckily, I could hear when they fired the things off, so I knew where to aim.

Most of the fireworks going off from the south were practically right over my head most of the time. With the new settings in place on the camera, I got some pretty good shots. I'll post them later today.

Sadly, the video was a disaster. The fireworks were too infrequent and often out of frame. Plus, I had a little accident with the camcorder. :( Once it started to get dark, the wind picked up considerably. In fact, after about an hour, I had to run into the house for my other jacket. I was freezing! Even though the camcorder was somewhat sheltered from a lot of the wind by our trailer, the extreme angle I had it tilted was too much and after I had readjusted the angle on it, it toppled off the trunk and onto the ground. Oooops! :P

I stopped the recording, which was just as well, 'cause by then I realized it hadn't picked up much anyway. Going on 11:00, I could see that things had quieted down considerably. Tired of freezing, I packed up and headed inside. Inspecting the camcorder, it looked relatively fine. The one real spot of damage was to the battery mounted on the back. It's been split apart, a big gap from the plastic base to the main body of the battery. Guess I'll have to track down a new one. As for the camcorder itself, it sustained a few nicks and scrapes by the focus ring, but otherwise it's unharmed. It even seems to work just fine. Sadly, as I said it was all for naught.

I watched the recordings I made on the DVR of the Macy's Fireworks show in NY (thank goodness I could FF through that annoying Bieber kid) and our own Seattle Family 4th fireworks. The Macy's one was big and bold as always, with the 6 barges in the harbor. However, the Seattle one was far and away the most impressive (just as it was last year). The best part was that this year's show really was a miracle. After Chase Bank pulled out as a sponsor after the 2009 show, it looked like the long-standing tradition of a fireworks show at Lake Union would be no more. But once the word got out to the public hundreds of people and businesses in the community rallied together and raised the thousands of dollars needed to put on the show...and did it all within 24 hours! So tonight's show really was for the people and in thanks to the people.

And what a show it was! I swear, the Seattle fireworks show has more variety and colors in it than any show I've ever seen! Simply amazing! If I find a video of it online, I'll try to post it.

Anyway, that's what my July 4th was like...cold, windy, overcast, but still with good fireworks. I'll try to post my pics later on. Got some good ones, I think. ;)

After I got back home from my walk, I grabbed my camera and went into the front & back yards and snapped some pics of the early spring color. Hope you enjoy these, especially if you're still up to your knees in snow or in a chilly part of the world.

( 13 Pics from today...Not very dial-up friendly, sorry )

As promised, here's the best of the photos I took while I was outside videotaping the neighborhood fireworks.

( 25 photos of my evening... )

April 3rd I finally got my new DSLR camera. It's a Canon EOS 50D. What a thrill! Such promise and possibilities along with the hopes of using this powerhouse of a camera in future film jobs as well as the Vancouver Con in August! With only 2 weeks to check it all out before reaching Best Buy's return policy date, I knew I needed to get busy taking a bunch of photos. Luckily, we had a stretch of good weather early last week.

( 20 full sized photos - not dial-up friendly...sorry )