Photography

County Fairs - Pony Pole Racing

For many years Dave and I used 35mm SLR cameras for our photography experiments. Some time ago I convinced Dave to give up his Cannon and switch to Nikon so that we would only need to carry one set of lenses (I had more Nikkor lenses than he had Cannon). We shared lenses and used a Nikon 8008s and an F5. We have always taken slides instead of prints and do have a slide scanner to get the photos into our computers. But when we moved into our motorhome in January, 2001, we stored all the slides. We have way too many to store in the coach or to scan and then cull. Some day we will have to go through the slides and cull them severely and then scan some in.

One of our major inspirations was the photography done by John Gavrilis. We saw his beautiful photographs of New England, which we have never seen, and the South West, which we have visited. When we were planning a tour of Southern California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah, John recommended that we take a photographic tour of Antelope Canyon near Page, Arizona given by Rodger Ekis. Antelope Canyon is protected and you can only enter with an authorized guide. Rodger is very knowledgeable about the canyons and about canyon photography. His tour was a real learning experience. We highly recommend Rodger's tours to anyone who is near Page and wants to learn about the slot canyons or wants to photograph them.

A few years ago we found the joy and ease of use of digital cameras. We started with a Nikon Coolpix 950 and a 990. We needed two cameras because I don't share very well (and we were living 600 miles apart for several months). We like the Coolpix because of the high resolution and especially the swivel feature. The lens swivels independently of the LCD view screen so that I can take photos of things close to the ground or even overhead without getting down too low or up too high. It's really handy. We use a PC Card to download the pictures to the computer, then delete the images off the memory card. No expense or time delay getting film and getting the slides developed.

We recently added to our digital camera collection. Dave has a Coolpix 5000. It is really small. It does still have the swivel view screen and the matrix metering works very well. I wanted to be able to use my collection of Nikkor lenses so I chose the Nikon D100. My favorite lens is still the Nikkor 24-120mm VR telephoto. If I'm only going to carry one lens it is usually this one. Dave joined me in the move to digital SLRs with his purchase of the Nikon D70. In order to have a very light camera for hiking longer distances, I chose a Coolpix 4800. It takes great pictures and I can barely feel the weight on my shoulder. For my birthday this year I have ordered a Purple Nikon Coolpix S550.

Since moving to Oregon we have found a wonderful independent photography shop, Oregon Camera. The people that run the store are so very helpful. I knew that I needed to get a camera that was much lighter to carry than my D100. I simply told them what I needed and they had several suggestions. I chose the Coolpix 4800 because of its size and weight and the through-the-lens viewfinder and the macro capability. There is no way that I can (or want to) keep up with all of the new cameras that are coming out. I really value the knowledge of the people at Oregon Camera.

In September 2002 we went to my niece's wedding. We both took candid photos during and after the wedding. Fortunately, I am learning to use Photoshop, otherwise I would have had to toss most of the images that I took. I just didn't have the exposure correct - background too bright, people too dark. I was able to fix most of them in Photoshop (and also straighten a few tilted horizons). A few of our wedding photos are in the photo galleries with more to come.

To display some of our images we have two photo galleries, one that uses JavaScript and one that does not. The information about the photos is stored in an MS SQL Server database so that I can add and delete images without changing and republishing the photo gallery web pages. The hierarchical data, category and photo title, are retrieved from the database using the MS SQL Server SHAPE command.

The JavaScript-enabled Gallery is organized by photo category. Select a catagory and then a photo name to view the thumbnail. Click the thumbnail to see the larger image. Photos which were uploaded to the database within the last 7 days are marked as '(New)'. A short description follows the photo. JavaScript is used to populate the two dependent select boxes from the hierarchical data.

The No JavaScript Gallery displays the photo names and date the photo was taken. The names are listed by category. Click the photo name to display the image. The description is not displayed in the No JavaScript Gallery.