Virginia Is For Families

I added something to the Men and Women In Love post.  I made it into a kind of poem with music.  I hope that if you already read it you will look at it again.

The World Series game last night provided a perfect opportunity to write a post that allows so many different views.  I hope they will all be expressed.

Controversial is an understatement.  This game offered us a World Series of controversy.  It was great.  It was something we have not seen before.  I really didn’t care who won although I slightly favored the Rays.  But now! Philadelphia must win or it is the greatest World Series Heist of all time.

The weather has plummeted down into the thirties here and we have had lots of rain.  It has been much like it was last night at the game!  Surprise!  I am hoping that all of this will lead the leaves to explode with color this weekend.

Hopefully my Nikon D70 will return soon and participate in the orgy of color.  The Nikon factory certainly contains an introverted bunch of fixers.  I have not heard a word except that they got the parts and they are sorry it is taking so long.

People love to decorate for Halloween.  Only Christmas is more of a decoration scene.  I learned that by reading one of  Evita’s fine posts.

It doesn’t seem like anyone is really interested in my stumbling/linking ideas.  That’s fine.  Like most of my ideas it is here today and gone tomorrow.  This is what makes blogging such a great medium for folks like me.   It is ADHD heaven.

The election craziness will be over soon.  It may be that Democrats need to be at least 12 points ahead in the polls to actually win on election day based on recent history.  Given this fact it is not wise to let Joe Biden go out in public.  He should go visit VP Cheney at the Naval Observatory and explore his new home  underground.

Can you tell I am not a big fan of the VP in waiting?  Oh well.

Whatever happens we will learn much from the experience.  And the world will not come to an end.  There will be the inevitable reaction in a different direction.  And off we will go again.  Will any truly meaningful problems be solved?  I doubt it.

Beth is coming home tomorrow.  I saved the best for last.  I am going to have to tell Charlize Theron she must  pack up and go back to her boyfriend.

It’s not going to be an easy task.  She has learned to like it here.

sobcon07

, originally uploaded by Davidlind.

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I went down to the James River last evening to try out the Nikon D40 that I purchased from Amazon a few days ago. It’s a smaller camera than the D70 (far less expensive too) and it has a superior LCD screen and setup options on the screen. Here is a photo I took with it. I also bought the Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR Zoom Nikkor Lens. It does take better photos further away than anything I have used in the past. And it has a stabilization process that makes things clearer. I sent the D70 back to Nikon as well so it was a productive day. Hopefully they can awaken it from its coma and send it home again.

I still love you Nikon D70 wherever you are. Get well soon.

We are heading back to Virginia Beach this weekend and I hope to take a few better photos after learning from my experiences last weekend. Of course you can never tell what you are going to get down there. Things may be completely different and it will have nothing to do with my learning curve.

My learning curve sometimes seems more like a speed bump in the road.

I hope nobody is grossed out my the video of Craig Ferguson’s dream. Let me know if it bothers you. I find him to be extremely funny and Beth thinks I have lost my mind once again.

Amazon ads are making an appearance. It’s curiosity. Would anyone actually use them to make a buying decision?

I am skeptical. But I love Amazon and personally try to keep them in business by running the UPS guy up and down the road with packages.

Everyone have a great weekend. It’s the best time of year with the cool, dry weather and the beautiful fall colors coming soon. Or maybe they have already come to you. Bernie?

I know that Jeff is happily snapping photos up there in New Hampshire. I was in upper NH once camping out. I swear a bear was watching me. It was pretty scary.

Something was watching. Do you ever feel like you are being watched? Halloween is coming! Time for some more stories about UFO’s!  Yikes.

, originally uploaded by Davidlind.

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Beth and I both enjoyed this sailboat.  Blue is a favorite color for both of us.  Doesn’t this look like a lot of fun?  One person can run things and I bet it goes fast under the right conditions. I will add a few NextGen photos of sailboats here this evening.  They are a cheerful island in a sea of gray photos I took this past weekend.  I’m so sick of looking at most of them.   Everything is gray and white.   I thought maybe the camera was busted after looking at them awhile.  But occasionally a colorful bathing suit or sail will pop up in a photo.

First, the D40 is twice as sensitive to light as the D40x and D80. (The D40’s ISO defaults to ISO 200 instead of the less sensitive ISO 100, making for sharper photos in any light.)

Second, the D40 is far more flexible with flash in daylight. The maximum shutter speed of every Nikon other than the D40 when used with flash is only 1/250 second, while the D40 easily shoots at 1/500 with flash with no loss of performance.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d40.htm

It’s pretty interesting stuff ( I thought my D70 defaulted to ISO 200).  He has without question guided me towards a lens that has been just amazing in terms of taking photos thru a wide range of distances with amazing clarity.

It’s a miracle! I bought mine in November 2005 and love it. It’s replaced an entire bag of lenses. All I bring anywhere is my 18-200mm, and maybe my 12-24mm for 99% of everything I shoot.

It’s small, fun, flexible, sharp and fast. VR, instant auto/manual focus override and macro and zooming all work perfectly. This lens is too much fun!–Ken Rockwell

He is talking about the Nikon 18-200mm  VR

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/18200.htmI

You can save a lot of money reading this guy.  I swear.  Eventually I will get a Nikon D700 most probably.  But right now I still have too much to learn to plunk down 2500 bucks for a camera.   Although I did spend that much for a computer a few years ago (it’s all about conditioning).    And  televisions can easily cost that much these days.   But some of these cameras are heavy.  And this one ( the D40) is supposed to be very light.  I saw a couple of guys at the beach this weekend with some very heavy cameras and lenses sitting on a tripod.  I’m just not ready to go there yet.  i want to travel light and (hopefully) capture more just by being in the right place at the right time.