A PRODUCTIVE CAMERA AND TELESCOPE DAY

STOPPED ON MY WAY HOME FROM LONDON FOR A FEW TEST PHOTOS IN A ROADSIDE SWAMP

Monday morning weigh-in....209. Well, at least I'm holding my own & I haven't reverted back to my bad old eating habits:)) NIKON D40 MOUNTED ON THE NIGHTHAWK SCOPE FOR MORE TEST PHOTOS IN THE FRONT YARD

Seems there's a big black crow who seems to take great pleasure in perching outside my window every morning at dawn & crowing me right up out of bed & onto my feet. Oh well, different lows for different crows!! I THINK THIS CAMERA & SCOPE ARE GOING TO WORK WELL TO-GETHER

Since hauling my telescope out & dusting if off a few weeks ago I have been in touch with O'NEIL PHOTO in London in regards to what accessories I needed for the scope to make it adaptable for my Nikon camera as well as some different powered eyepieces for Astronomy purposes. This morning I packed up the camera & scope after breakfast & headed off for O'Neill's Photo in London. Joe O'Neill was expecting me & it didn't take him long to round up the necessary pieces for the scope. He has the same Nikon Camera I have & because this was actually Joe's old scope he was familiar with how everything worked. I had traded in my monstrous Celestron Dobsonian at Joe's 3 summers ago for the Stellarvue Nighthawk I now have.
With some instructions, a few test photos out the window, & a hardy Hi-ho Silver, I was on my way home again secure in the knowledge I now had a dual purpose scope with which I was finally happy. More test pictures from our front porch at home later confirmed my satisfaction. Going to be a learning curve though when it comes to something called "exposure" but that's ok because it's going to push me into the more creative side of photography & make me do more of the thinking rather than just letting the camera do everything for me. I have got a bit lazy over the years with, "automatic this & automatic that!!" The Nikon camera cannot automatically adjust the exposure with this scope set up so that is now up to me to figure out using the manual settings on my camera. So far so good & I'm encouraged by the first test results. UNDERSTANDING EXPOSURE CONTROL

I was reminded of my short term memory while reading WANDERING WILLY'S blog last night. He had lost a lens cap & it took him awhile to figure out where it was. I carry a favorite ball cap in the saddle bag of my motorcycle for whenever I stop somewhere. When I take my helmet off my hair is such a floppy floop I have to put a ball cap on so I don't scare anybody. Yesterday while in Goderich I had the hat on while walking around taking pictures of the Point-Counterpoint II boat docked in the harbor. Upon returning to the bike & set the hat on top of a saddle bag while I put my helmet on, jumped aboard the bike, & roared off for home. Well, me & the bike made the trip OK but my hat obviously decided to stay behind. So, all you nice Goderich folks up there, if you happen to see a powder blue baseball cap with the words, Las Vegas on the front could you please pick the little fellow up, dust him off, keep him safe, & send me an email:)) Our addy is on the website. I thank you, my floppy floop thanks you, & I'm sure my hat will thank you too. Came across a fellow's blog a few days ago that had fallen through the cracks & been lost in our bloggers file for awhile. He had first contacted us while we were in the southwest this past winter. Ivan at the time was traveling alone having recently lost his pet cat & traveling companion, Harley. Noticed he had some nice mountain photos from up around Lake Louise on his site so sent him a note to say hello. He not only found another traveling companion, he found two. Not only is there another cat in Ivan's life, there is a girlfriend too & they are about to depart on a roadtrip to the Yukon. Slip on over & hitch yourself a ride with Ivan & the gang at ROADTRIP 09 as they head to a place Johnny Horton sang about years ago.........North To Alaska:)) EVEN OUR PLANTED PLASTIC FLOWERS IN THE SHADE DON'T LOOK TOO BAD:))

And, did you know RICK has himself some competition in the family. You've heard of dueling banjos but that ain't it. How about.........dueling bloggers!! Yep, Paulette has set herself up her very own quilting site called, SWEET PEA QUILTING AND CREATIONS. Welcome aboard the "Blog Log Express" Paulette. Hang on tight cause it leaves the station most every night..............................:))

TO-DAY'S HUMOR: Went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day, but couldn't find any.

I'm going to start putting another photo album to-gether to-morrow for the month of July. I have a few more pictures from Sundays American Waterways Wind Orchestra boat in Goderich harbor.

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/