Fence

Rocky Neck State Park

I'm still learning about photography and have been taking pictures with my Nikon D90 now for about 2 years now.  Before that I used a Canon G1.  I think the current model of that particular Canon is now the Canon G12, giving you some idea of how far digital photography has come since 2001.  Of course one thing that all photographers know about is how the aperture controls the depth of field, or in other words, how much of the picture appears to be acceptably in focus.  Whenever I see repetitive pattern like the fence shown above, I think to myself, "let me practice controlling the depth of field, by varying the aperture."  This is just one example.  The results were not as dramatic as I had hoped, but I think you can see there are a number of posts which are acceptably in focus:

AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED, 105mm,  f/5.6, 1/160

Lighthouses of Eastern Connecticut

There's something nostalgic about lighthouses.  This past summer Michele and I were fortunate to take a cruise sponsored by Project Oceanology, out of UConn Avery Point around the eastern part of Long Island Sound.  We were told that on a clear day, we might be able to see 7 lighthouses on our 2-hour cruise.  I don't think we saw all 7, but here are a few we were able to see up close.

Ledge Light, New London

Morgan Point, Mystic Harbor

Latimer Reef, Fisher Island Sound, NY

Places to stay

We don't often get to take long vacations, so my wife and I plan weekend trips to places we'd like to see here in New England.  I've already shown some pictures taken during a recent weekend trip to Freeport, ME.  Earlier this year, we took trips to Chatham, MA (Cape Cod) and Portsmouth, NH.   On these weekend trips we enjoy staying at local bed and breakfasts.  So far, we have not had a bad experience at any of B&B's we've found.  If you find yourself  in any of these towns, I would heartily recommend the following B&B's.

Applewood  Inn, Freeport ,  ME

We've stayed here three times.  It's close to LLBean, and breakfast is great.  

Governor's House, Portsmouth, NH

This was once the home of New Hampshire Governor Charles Dale.  It's within walking distance to downtown Portsmouth and it's many fine restaurants.

Cranberry Inn, Chatham, MA on Cape Cod

Next time we visit Chatham, we will stay here again.  Very close to the center of Chatham, as well as some very nice Cape Cod beaches.  Too bad we were here in March.  We avoided the summer crowds, but many seasonal businesses were closed. 

Gone Fishin'

I can see myself doing more of this in the coming years.  It's really too bad that despite my best efforts, I never really acquired a taste for fish or else I might be doing a lot more fishing.  I can't think of a better way to spend an early morning than sitting either in a boat or along side the water fishing.  I don't know if I'd be a good fisherman or not, but in either case, the fish would be safe.

Norwich, CT

Life is Good.....

My sentiments, exactly!

Portland , ME

I read somewhere about blogging that it's best to blog frequently.  I'm not sure how often I'll be able to post here, but I'm hoping to be able to make a number of posts each week.  This shot was taken in Portland, Maine a couple of weekends ago.  The sign caught my attention as we walked around downtown Portland.  The city seems to be thriving with many boutiques, restaurants and art galleries in the downtown district.  Portland is also a port of call for the Royal Caribbean Cruise ship "Jewel of the Sea", which happened to be docked nearby.

Jewel  of  the Seas

Free

Freeport, ME

I wonder if it floats?  Can't beat the price.

Testing, Testing......

Ok, I've been spending a lot of time lately trying to figure out all the features of Blogger.  Some things are pretty intuitive, but I'm struggling with some simple things.  If this is a Google product, why do I have such a hard time finding my blog, or my dashboard from google.com.  There doesn't appear to be any simple way to log into my google account, and have this blog just one click away.  Yes, I know I can bookmark this page, but I just haven't gotten around to that yet.  Besides, I'm still trying to decide if I really like this interface, or if perhaps a better blogging option might better suit my needs.  I've settled on the design now, but I reserve the right to continue to tweak it.

Now for the test.  I want to develop a work flow that best prepares my photos for display here, and perhaps elsewhere on the web.  I use Apple's Aperture to organize my photos and one of Aperture's features is that it generates "previews", which are versions of the pictures that can be shared by those applications which can access a media browser.  These previews are used when one uses the insert image button to add a photo to a blog post.  I'm testing two versions of the same image here, one without any adjustments and the other with some adjustments made with Aperture.  I want to see which one displays better here.  Perhaps one can't tell the difference but I won't know until I try it.  The picture was taken at Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park, in Freeport ME.  Let me know what you think, and if you can tell which picture is straight out of the camera, and which had had the image adjusted.  I'd also be interested in hearing how others prepare their pictures for display.

Version 1

Version 2

Johnson Hall "Museum", Wells, ME

Do you ever travel the back roads of this country and find something a little out of the ordinary?  Last weekend, my wife and I decided to spend the weekend in Freeport, ME.  This weekend has turned into an annual event for us, and gets us started on our Christmas shopping.  We stay at a bed and breakfast, shop all the outlets and of course, LL Bean.  We also have a decent dinner or two.  All in all it's a very nice weekend.  This time, we decided to take our time coming home, so we drove Rt 1 all the way from Freeport down to Kittery, ME.  Along the way we happened across the Johnson Hall Museum, and I use the term "museum" lightly!  We saw this from the road and just had to stop.  After being reminded by Bill Johnson himself, that I was ignoring his sign asking for a $5.00 donation to walk his grounds, we apologized, and paid the five bucks.  Helluva deal!  I wish I could've spent some more time there.  He really has some pretty interesting stuff in his museum, and with everything there, Bill has a story to go along with it.   Here is just a small sampling of what can be found here.

Johnson Hall Museum,  Wells, ME

Johnson  Hall Museum,  Wells, ME

Johnson  Hall Museum, Wells, ME

1937 La Salle, Johnson Hall Museum, Wells, ME

"One man's junk, another man's treasure".  Never have truer words ever been spoken after seeing this museum.  Well worth the price of admission.  You can see more of my pictures here.

Freeport ME

They have some pretty big things in Freeport, ME.  Outside of the LL Bean Retail Store one can find this pretty big boot.

LL Bean, Freeport ME

Just a little south of Freeport, along Rt 1, you can find this pretty big Indian.  I'm not sure if the boot belongs to him or not.

Freeport, ME

These pictures are taken with a Nikon D90 and are straight out of the camera without any post processing.  In the coming weeks, I'll be going through a number of pictures I took during our annual trip to Freeport.  Like I mentioned in a previous post, I'm somewhat new to  blogging and I'm still trying to find the best settings to use display my photos here.  This is a start.