Virginia Breeze

, originally uploaded by Davidlind.

We are back in Richmond tonight.  Here’s a photo from this morning.  I woke up about 4:30 and the person next to me was still sleeping.  I slipped out and walked down to the beach.  Nothing was on my mind.  I was blank.   And I was watching this ship on the horizon.  After awhile it reached a point where the horizon started to glow a little bit and I thought “this must be where the sun is going to arrive”.

, 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.

Today I had a medical physical and then spent the day trying to be more organized. And in the middle of all that I had an attack of Restless Legs (RLS). So when I look back on the day I feel like it was productive. But it wasn’t a fun day.

Do you ever have to wear those little gowns that tie around your neck and don’t really have a back to them? I hate those things. And then they have the AC going like a blast furnace in reverse. So you are freezing your little rear end off. Just sitting there on THAT table waiting for someone to drop by and EXAMINE you.

And then when this person walks in it is not the person you were expecting who has done it before. It’s a woman!

Actually that was a nice surprise. She was nice and I had to ask myself whether I would rather be examined by someone I didn’t really know who was a guy or a girl. And the answer came back. . . .

A GIRL! Woman actually. Health care professional with the XX chromosome. But she took my blood pressure and it was a little high. And it’s never been high. What’s that about?

It’s about geese!! They just walk out into the road in front of your car and they never look first to see if the coast is clear! They just go! And if you are coming down the road at fifty miles an hour when they do it well it’s up to you Jack to STOP THE CAR before there are goose feathers exploding all over your hood ornament.

So that happened right before I got to the medical center. Then it was fifty degrees inside. And then the other stuff happened. Who wouldn’t have slightly high blood pressure after that?

The rest of the day was basically cleaning my office organizing photos and jumping around with restless legs. Jordin Sparks was on So You Want To Be A Dancer tonight. So that was nice. Dinner was lovely. I talked to my son about getting the headlight in his car fixed and he didn’t react negatively.

Basically things went uphill after the geese tried to commit suicide on my car bumper and I got rid of the gown. I’m not really a gown person.

Even a really nice one would not be my cup of tea.

Here are a couple of photos from last weekend that turned out alright. Fireworks!! Don’t you love em. It’s fun trying to time the photo so you take it when the firework explosion is in full bloom.

Father’s Day this year was something special. Beth took your blogging buddy out to breakfast and I was able to enjoy lots of treats that you will not find at the local fast food place. And then we wandered over to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens for the special event they planned for the day.

I have some photos to share of the antique cars and Harley Davidson motorcycles. Also a really cool dragon fly! Some of them are posted at Photo LinkLove which has enjoyed or endured depending on your perspective another face lift. I really think this will be the last one for awhile since it incorporates everything I had ever hoped to do to it.

And then there was Tiger Woods and the US Open! Talk about golfing excitement! Tiger put on an incredible show as he fought his way to the lead on Saturday, came out on Sunday and immediately gave it up when he played the first hole as if I had taken possession of his body and then fought back again to tie the leader on the last hole.

So it’s not over yet! We get to see eighteen more holes today. Father’s Day is extended this year for another day! How cool is that? Do you think I can get someone to take me out to breakfast again before the golfing resumes?

Probably not. Tiger hit some amazing shots over the weekend. He was putting shots in the can from all over the place and the crowds were going nuts. And viewers all over the world were no doubt jumping off their couches and doing the same thing. It was a great day for golf.

And Tiger was hurt too. His recent knee surgery is still in the painful stages when pressure is put upon it. And a golf swing will put lots of pressure on it. At some point yesterday the number one golfer admitted taking the number one pain killer and stopped grimacing in pain. But it was an adventure.

We still can’t figure out why he hit a driver into the thirteenth hole after Lee Westwood put his ball in no man’s land and had to take a drop. Why?  And then on the next hole he hit an iron when he should have hit a wood. Why again?  And he lost a couple of shots for what reason?   But that just made the ending even more dramatic as he made a birdie from a hundred yards or so to send the tournament into overtime.

Tiger is a new father himself these days. Maybe that’s why he was sinking putts from all over creation. I don’t know. But it was a lot of fun and a golf tournament many of us will never forget. Want to see a photo of a cool car?

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