Blizzard 2009

So we got a ton of snow last night. My husband got up before me to shovel the steps. Aunt Leslie gets up pretty early, so she was using her new snow blower on our side of the house when Cliff got up there. And, it turned out that a neighbor from across the street used his snow blower to dig our cars out. I haven't been feeling well (stuffy nose), so I was very happy that I didn't have to go out and shovel.

I did go out later on to take a few pictures. I brought out my Sony a300 to play with. I plan on using it a lot more now that I have a new, smaller carrying case for it. Carrying the big camera bag around can be such a pain.

This picture is from our walkway. I was standing against our gate, trying to get a shot that would show how deep the snow was. Unfortunately, I had to shoot into the sun, which isn't something I usually like to do, but I think it came out nice here.

A sort of hiatus...

Since I haven't updated in awhile, I thought I'd do a quick update. These next few weeks are going to be busy with Christmas preparations, so I might not have too much time to take pictures until closer to the holiday. I'm also expecting a new laptop any day, so I'll be spending some time transferring files over from this computer.

Since this is a photography blog, here's a picture I took at the Bronx Zoo in the summer of 2008. I thought it was kind of a cute picture.

New Blog

Well, I decided to just get it over with an make a blog for my crochet stuff. I don't want to keep posting it here when this is supposed to be for my photography.

If anyone is interested, you can check it out here, at A Stitch in Time....

And since this is supposed to be a photography blog, here's a picture I took back in 2003, according to the date stamp. I think I took it with one of my film cameras, which is a Pentax IQ Zoom.

Back from vacation

I went to visit my parents last weekend, so I wasn't really around to update my blog. Unfortunately, I didn't really get to take pictures. I'd intended to, but I forgot my camera before we headed to the touristy area of the county. I was driving, so I couldn't have gotten the shots of what I saw anyway. :(

One of the things I was working on last week was a baby sweater for my friends Rusel and Sarah. I got the pattern from Bella Bambina, a wonderful knitting and crocheting blog I found. This is the picture I took with my camera phone before I started to add the sleeves. Eventually I'll get started on my crochet blog so I don't clutter up this blog with more pictures of yarn.

Today I went to a Flickr workshop. It was interesting. Needless to say, I have a Flickr account now. *g* We also learned about Picnik, which is a photo editing site. (I now have an account there as well.) I already knew about Picnik, but it was interesting to get reacquainted with it.

So far I've only uploaded a few pictures to my Flickr, but I hope to add more this week. You can check out my Flickr page via the badge on the right.

Completed Projects

It's so late, but I just thought I'd post this before I go to bed. It's a screen cap from a video I took with my Flip video camera to show my mom my completed crochet projects. It's no masterpiece picture, but one can get the general idea. :-) I hope to post better pictures tomorrow.

The blanket in the upper left corner is a baby blanket I made for my friends Rusel and Sarah. I love the colors. I have two skeins of yarn left, and I was trying to figure out what to do with them, when I found a really easy pattern on another blog for a newborn sweater. I think with the rest of the yarn I should be able to make a hat and booties.

The blanket in the middle is a baby blanket I made for my friends Nicole and Ken. I wasn't sure what she was having when I bought the yarn and decided to take up crocheting again. Turns out she's having a girl. I think I'll get a more girlie color and make her the same sweater I'm making for Rus and Sarah's baby boy.

The purple creation on the bottom is a scarf I made for myself. It was so easy and quick that I decided to make a few as Christmas presents.

My mom suggested I make a crochet blog to post this kind of stuff. It's a good idea. I'm going to visit my parents this weekend, and I hope to get some good pictures while I'm there. Unfortunately, most of the fall leaves are gone, which is something I love to photograph. However, it's so scenic there that I'm sure I can find else interesting to photograph.

New Project

I've been making a baby blanket for my friend Rusel, and I only have four more inches to go, so I decided to do something a little different for my next project. I bought two skein of Vanna's Choice yarn in Purple Mist when I first bought my crochet hooks. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them, but I figured that maybe I could just use the yarn to practice my stitches or something like that.

Turns out that in one of the books I bought there is an easy pattern for a scarf. I happen to own a pair of gloves with similar colors, so I thought making a scarf might be a good thing to make. I started it tonight in case I finish the blanket while I'm at work. I don't like to do the border at work, because the first part includes counting stitches. It's distracting enough to count to 184 when I'm home alone, and in a staff room full of people, I don't think I could do it without pulling some of my hair out.

When I'm finished with the blanket, I'll post some pictures of it, as well as pictures of the first one I made. Both of them are the same pattern, but the type of yarn used makes them look different. I can't wait to give them as gifts. :D

Paradise Stream

We took a long weekend and went to Paradise Stream. It was a nice time. We did the outlets and went to Mount Airy Casino for the first time. It was nice, but it was just machines, mostly slots.

I was able to take a few pictures, mostly the ducks that were on the lake outside our cabin. Every time I went out on the deck, they came swimming over to me, so I was able to get some interesting closeup shots. I'll post a few of those tomorrow. This picture is of a stream behind the lobby. If it wasn't so cold that day, it would have been a great day for a hike.

Shelburne Farms

I finally found the box of photos that I've been looking for. It didn't have everything I thought was in there, but it did hold a few things that I wanted. The pictures I'm going to post today are from a trip to Vermont four years ago. I always wanted to go there in the fall, and it was so beautiful there. I'd love to go back.

One of the places we went was Shelburne Museum, which was founded in 1947 by Electra Havemeyer Webb. Mrs. Webb had 18th and 19th century buildings moved to the land from New England and New York to house the collections that are displayed there.

The first picture (up top) is just something I took on the grounds. The next picture (to the left) is a lighthouse that was relocated from Lake Champlain. I thought it was so odd to have it just standing in the middle of nowhere like it was. To the left of the lighthouse is the Ticonderoga, which is a steamboat that used to operate on Lake Champlain until the early 1950s. We approached from the other side of the steamboat, which is an even stranger sight standing in the middle of the grass on the grounds.

I would love to go back up there soon. Maybe next year. I don't know if we'd go back in the fall, but I'd like it if we did. This is my favorite time of year. I just wish that the weather had been better this year, because I'd really like to get out there and take some pictures. On the bright side, I'm almost done with my baby blanket. Just eight more inches to go before I can put the border on. I'll take more pictures of it once it's done.

Crocheting

This is what my baby blanket looks like now. I measured it last night, and it's 26.5 inches long. It's supposed to be 42 inches long when it's finished, and then I can add the trim. I'm so excited to be more than halfway done. :D It's not really a super photograph, but I only took it to show my mom my progress so far.

I found out my friend Sarah is having a baby boy. She and Rus want "outdoor" colors for the baby, so even before I knew what they were having, I bought this cool variegated yarn called "Mellow Yellow Smart Print." It's got yellow, tan, brown, blue, and green in it. I did a trial of two rows of the pattern I'm using now, and I think it's going to come out really nice. It's a slightly different texture, so I think it's going to look a little different from the one I'm currently doing. Plus, the yarn is a little softer, so it's going to feel really nice, too.

We took my in-laws out to dinner for their 40th wedding anniversary, and on the way out to the restaurant, I was looking at all the beautiful fall foliage. I wished that we could be going somewhere that I could take some pictures of the leaves. All the colors looked so beautiful. Hopefully the weather will be good enough next weekend for me to venture out and use my camera. Otherwise, I'll have to wait until we go to the Poconos the week after.

Other hobbies

The weather has been so crummy lately that it's been impossible to go outside and take pictures, which is something I've really wanted to do. I've been using this opportunity to refresh myself with one of my inside hobbies: crocheting.

After a false start, I've finally gotten the hang of this pattern to the right. I brought it wiith me to work all this week, and I found that I'm able to get 3 or 4 rows done on my breaks. I'm getting faster as I go along, which is so great. I'm nearly done with a skein of yarn already.

This pattern is baby blanket. Two good friends of mine are currently pregnant, and their due dates are within days of each other. Even though they're not due until March, I thought it might be a good idea if I got an early start of it. I'd also like to work on a cross stitch blanket that I started awhile back. I'm not sure who's getting what blanket yet, but I'll figure it out eventually.

I took the picture with my cell phone (an LG Voyager). I tried to take a picture last night with my compact digital camera, but I guess because it's a mostly white blanket, the light kept reflecting back, and I don't have much room for adjustment with the Samsung. I didn't feel like getting the Sony out, so I thought I'd use the camera in my cell phone, which doesn't have a flash, so it's a little darker than I'd wanted. I'll take a better picture as I get further along.

Dahlia

This was a lazy weekend. I've had an ear infection all week, and I've been feeling so drained. I'm not sure that it's better yet, either.

This is another picture I took from my trip to the LI Fair last week. It's a strange shot, since you really have to look to see the stem of the dahlia, but it's such a pretty flower. In fact, the dahlias were some of the nicer flowers there. Judging takes place on Thursday, so by the time we got there on Saturday morning, some of the roses, etc. were looking a little wilted. Maybe next year I'll be able to take the day off and see the judging firsthand.

2009 LI Fair

So today was our trip to the Long Island Fair. We got there around a quarter after 10 and stayed until about 1. There's so much to do, but we didn't really see too much of the entertainment. We only saw part of the Punch and Judy puppet show and the end of a lumberjack show. We did go into the Grand Exhibition Hall first, where they have various things on display, such as the flower to the right.

Since the weather was predicting rain, I took my little Samsung camera, so I could hide it in my purse if I needed to. It turned out to be not so bad. It was cloudy but bright. It did rain for a minute or two, but we were in the tent with the petting zoo, so it's not like we were out the in the rain at all.

There were plenty of farm animals. This horse was in his stall and turned toward me when he heard us talking. He posed for me until I took his picture. There were also these absolutely gorgeous black and white horses. I think they were Clydesdales, but I couldn't get a shot of them. I believe the stallion won first prize, but we missed that part of the judging while we were watching the lumberjack show.

It's been a few years since I've gone to one of these fairs, so I don't know how long they've had rides. No one seemed to be on them, but I'm guessing that they were more popular later on in the afternoon. It was starting to get crowded when we left, and the weather was getting even better.

I took this last shot as we were leaving. I had another shot of them walking on the bridge, but you could see regular people in the background, and I wanted to make it seem more "period," so to speak. With no one else around, it's easier to imagine yourself in a different time.

I would have liked to stick around for the Old Time Baseball Match, but it was getting late...and pretty humid. We decided to call it a day and go out for lunch. I might post some more pictures in the next few days, since I was able to take so many. Hopefully next year the weather would be better and I can bring my DSLR.

Mets Game

So my husband got the company tickets for the Mets game tonight. I should have brought my camera, but I was concerned it might rain, so I left it home. I took the picture to the left with my cellphone. That was the view from the seats. Pretty awesome, huh?

It was a great game, but I didn't really get to see Francoeur's homerun, since the aisle was crowded with the food delivery people. That was another cool thing, we got to order something from the Shake Shack without having to go stand on the line. *g* I got a black and white shake, and it was delicious. After we finished our shakes, we went down to the Team Shop in the lobby. After that, we left. We got home in half the time it took us to get there, of course.

I have to get my camera ready for the Long Island Fair tomorrow. It's supposed to rain, so I don't know how long we'll be there. I'm a little disappointed, but maybe it won't be so bad in the morning.

Weekend Plans

Didn't really do much this weekend. I somehow hurt my back/neck this week, so I wasn't up for too much. It rained for most of today, so I took my niece to A.C. Moore, and we got some crafts. She did some Halloween foam art, and I bought some crochet supplies. I haven't crocheted in a long time, so I bought a book on learning to crochet. It has some stitches I don't know in it, so I thought it might be a good learning experience.

My friend Maryanne and I plan to go to the Long Island Fair next Saturday. Right now the forecast is for rain, but I'm hoping it'll change over the course of the week.

We went a few years ago, and it was a lot of fun. The picture to the right has a little too much light, but it's the only picture I have on the computer from our last visit. I'm pretty sure I used a film camera. I have a disk of pictures somewhere, which I've been looking for most of the week. I found quite a few other photo disks instead, which have been interesting to look over.

Hopefully I'll have some pictures to post Saturday night. :)

Good-bye Summer

So it's fall already, which is my favorite time of year, but I don't have any suitable pictures on my hard drive, so instead I'll post some pictures of a trip to Pennsylvania we took this summer.

In July we went to visit my parents for the July 4th weekend. My mom heard about this restaurant in Wrightsville, PA, called -- go figure -- the John Wrght Restaurant. There's also a store inside that had some unique items. The building is a restored warehouse, and that was pretty cool. They have some nice pictures on the website, but I'm going to post a few of mine. They're not photographic masterpieces, but they're good enough for what they are.

Here's the entrance. We went in through the brown door.



The dining area inside wasn't that large, but we ate outside on the patio. It was a little windy, but it was nice being outside. The dining area is under the green and white striped awnings.



From the patio, we had the view of two bridges that crossed the Susquehanna River. We crossed one coming and went home using the other. My dad, who is a Civil War fanatic, proceeded to give us a history lesson of how the visitble stone abutments date back to the Civil War. He told us that the Union soldiers burned the bridge to stop the invading forces.



Not that I doubted my dad, who could probably teach a history class on the subject, but where I went down to take some pictures, there was a plaque that read, "In 1814, the first bridge connecting Wrightsville and Columbia was completed. It was the longest covered bridge in the world (5,690 feet.) Since then, five additional bridge have spanned the Susquehanna at this site. Of the six, two were destroyed by natural forces, and one was burned in 1863 by Union militiamen and townspeople to prevent Confederate troops from invading Lancaster County and reaching Harrisburg."

Photography lessons

I was looking for some interesting photography blogs today, and I got a little sidetracked by this one: Capturing Moments That Last Forever. On this blog, the author has a "free online photography course" for compact cameras. At the end of each of his lessons, he has a project for the reader. I thought this might be good for me to try in my spare time.

Since this is my photography blog, I thought I'd post a picture that I took at Westbury Gardens last year. It was just such an interesting statue that I had to take a picture. I would really like to go back this fall with my Sony DSLR. There was a part of the grounds that we were just too tired to explore. Even though we went this time last year, it was a little warm out. It's been much cooler the last few weeks, so I'm hoping we can go soon. Next Saturday isn't possible, but I'm hoping the week after that is nice enough to walk around outside.

Experiment

I was fooling around with my Samsung the other day, and I found this interesting special effect. I would like to learn how to do a picture mostly black and white with something (like a flower) in color. I don't have Photoshop, though. I have Paint Shop Pro. I could probably do it with my program. but most tutorials out there are for Photoshop.

I thought this effect that's built into the camera was kind of close. It's interesting, anyway. There's also a feature that will make only a circle in color, but it's a little awkward looking for the pictures that I took. This is one of the pictures I took in the Butterfly House at Hershey Gardens a few weeks ago.

This weekend is supposed to be really nice. I would like to go somewhere and play around with my DSLR. My niece is sleeping over this weekend, so maybe we can take her to the park on Saturday. There's a nice park close to here with boats and a playground. I'm hoping it won't be too crowded, since this is a holiday weekend. If I take anything good, I'll post it here.

Some thoughts and a wedding photo

This picture really isn't anything special. Last September we went to Westbury Gardens, which is really a great place to take pictures. I'd love to go back there this fall with my Sony.

Anyway, there were three wedding parties having their pictures taken on the grounds. I believe one of them was actually having a reception there, which must cost a fortune, but I'm digressing again... My favorite bride was this one. I wasn't a fan of her bridesmaids' dress color (black), but I did love the idea of the parasols. I love black and hot pink together. I wish I would have been bold enough to take some pictures as they were posing. The bride's dress was really neat, because it was split in the back with some pretty fabric underneath. As it was, I felt very daring as I took this shot. LOL!

I've been searching for some photography blogs, and I did find a few that were really nice. One of them made me think of my film SLR, and how I haven't used it in such a long time. I've been thinking about it for awhile, actually, because while I do love my digital cameras, I felt so comfortable with my Minolta. Sometimes I felt it was so much easier to focus manually. I think that's the one part I really prefer. Sometimes the auto-focus is nice, but a lot of times I thought it was better to go manual. I'll have to work on that with the Sony. So far I've only used to LED screen, but I'd like to play around with the view finder when I can get the chance.

Pompeii

Today is the anniversary of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. I'm very interested in ancient history, mainly Rome and Egypt. Pompeii and the Etruscans are two subjects about which I have several books.

I totally forgot about the significance of the date until I went to bing.com before to look up something. I also just like looking at the daily pictures. Even though I prefer Google to search, Bing does have that one cool feature with the picture.

This isn't my own picture, although I hope to go to Italy one day. I found it on SPQR 360

Another butterfly house...

Hershey Gardens has a really nice Butterfly House, like I posted a few days ago. It's smaller than the one in the Bronx Zoo, but it was jam-packed with butterflies. My only complaint was that the walkway was kind of small. One of the rules of the butterfly house was that we had to watch out for butterflies on the walk.

My niece Maddy seemed to take that very seriously, because she wouldn't walk around a butterfly on the walk. She was behind me, so I didn't see the whole thing, but my brother-in-law had to pick up the butterfly with the garden map and move it to safety. She acts so brave, but she's pretty afraid of bugs. I hope she grows out of it.

I just finished catching up with all the shows I DVRed tonight. The last one I watched was Bridezillas, which I find hilarious most of the time. It reminded me of some pictures I took at Westbury Gardens last year. There were three weddings being photographed there at the same time. Maybe I'll post something from that visit next.

ZooAmerica

We went to ZooAmerica on Tuesday morning. It was already getting hot, so some of the animals were either hiding or sleeping in the shade. The bears had a nice pool stocked with fish, which I thought was pretty cool. There was a place where people could watch the bears swimming in the water. In fact, one of the bears swam right up to the glass, but, of course, there wasn't a spot over there for me to get a shot. (People who don't give other people a chance to experience things like that up close annoy me.)

One day I'd like to take my DSLR to places like this. I'm glad I didn't do it this weekend, though. I was already sweating bullets. I need to get a little case for the camera, though. One came with my Minolta SLR, which was great. I can't imagine lugging around the camera bag I use for my digital stuff in that heat. I could use both lenses and my bounce flash, though. I was even toying around with the idea of bringing the Minolta with me, even though it would mean actually getting the film developed. I miss it sometimes.

While we were away, my sister-in-law told me that my niece Kayla wants to become a photographer now. I thought that was kind of cool. I always toyed with the idea, but I never did anything about it. Maybe for Christmas we can get her a simple digital camera. I've seen a few nice ones for kids. It reminds me of when my godson first got interested. I wonder if takes any pictures beyond the ones for his MySpace now. LOL!

Hershey Gardens...

This morning we met my in-laws at ZooAmerica in Hershey, PA. I got some nice pictures there, but many of the animals were sleeping or hiding, since it was pretty hot, even this morning.

We went to Chocolate World after that, which was a nice, air conditioned break. After that we went to Hershey Gardens. I've never been there, but I've always wanted to go. I'm not really sure today was the best day for my first visit, but there you go. I managed to get through the Children's Garden, the Butterfly House, and most of the Rose Garden before I gave it up.

This picture was taken in the Butterfly House. Like a lot of pictures I take with the Samsung, I wasn't totally sure how this one came out until I got it on the computer. I didn't realize that I had taken a picture that included the statue of the little boy fishing. I didn't notice him when I took the picture. I really just wanted to take a picture of the pond and the plants surrounding it. It was a nice surprise.

Trip to Mystic

We took a trip to Mystic, CT this weekend to see Jeff Dunham perform at Mohegan Sun. (He was great, by the way.)

Before we left this morning, we went to the Mystic Aquarium. I'm glad we went early, because by the time we left, it was HOT. One thing that annoys me when we go anywhere during what's close to a tourist season is rude people, ie. people who walk right in front of you when you're trying see a display. I actually had a guy try to crowd me out of the way so he could take a picture at the anemone garden! Are you serious? They're anemones, they're not going anywhere. The most annoying exhibit for me today was the Beluga whales. People were just being...well, browsy (please refer to John Pinette's latest DVD, I'm Starvin' if you don't get my joke there. He's hysterical.), so I couldn't get any decent shots of the whales.

We got to see the Birds of the Outback exhibit, which was new to us. I thought it was mostly parakeets. We did get a millet seed stick to feed the birds, which I didn't do. It's not easy to hold out a millet seed stick and take pictures at the same time. LOL! I did get a few nice pictures of the birds, though, and this is one of them.

We leave for Lancaster, PA tomorrow. We're going to meet my in-laws to go to Hershey, so I'm hoping to get some good pictures at the zoo.

Local Color and a Thought...

This is QuackerJack, the mascot for the local minor league baseball team. Usually I get some faraway, grainy shots of him, but the night I took this we managed to score seats right behind the dugout. I have some other shots as well, but this one came out the best.

We're going to Hershey the beginning of next week, and I'm thinking of taking my D-SLR with me. I think we're supposed to go to ZooAmerica, and hopefully it won't be too hot for the animals to show themselves. The last time we went it was too hot, and most animals were hidden off somewhere.

I'll probably bring my Flip camera as well, but I probably won't be posting much of what I record with that, because it will probably be mostly videos of my nieces. I won't be posting any pictures of them on here. Anyway, I got a Flip HD for Christmas last year, and I really like it, but I don't use it as much as I probably should. I just keep forgetting to take it places. Maybe I can take it into Chocolate World with me. LOL!

An idea...

My mom suggested that maybe I can post some of my photography on my blog. I thought it was a good idea, so here's a picture I took last summer on a visit to the Bronx Zoo. I'm assuming I must have been there as a child, but if I did, I don't really remember it.

My favorite part of the trip was the Butterfly House. (We didn't have enough time to visit the tigers, unfortunately, but I think we got in just about everything else.) We were able to get into the Butterfly House twice, since we went about a week after that horrible incident with that overhead tram thing. I would love to go back again someday.

This is one of the pictures that I took. I have a little Samsung camera that I bought the night before this trip. It wasn't too expensive, and it takes great pictures. Unfortunately, it can be a bit of a battery hog, so I have to get special batteries for it. I was able to get quite a few pictures in the Butterfly house before the batteries gave out on me, though. The detail in some of them was excellent, which I couldn't tell from the screen as I was taking the pictures.

First Post

I'm not really sure what I'm going to do here yet, but I thought it might be something interesting to do. So I guess it's a work in progress...