What's Life with a Senior Moment or Two?

I was out shooting again yesterday. I think I'll try and do it every other day (weather permitting). Besides, it's good for my fat ass.

I got a few new species to add to my collection...a couple of new butterflies and a few fly type insects. Just before I headed off to my favorite shooting site, I noticed a couple of large bumble bees flirting around in my landlord's flower garden.

One of the two was a species I hadn't seen before, and the other I have only so-so images of that type. I was able to knock of a couple of dozen shots, some of them pretty good based on what I saw in the viewfinder. I generally don't chimp my shots to see what they look like, but I was shooting manual and guessing (from experience) what the shot settings should be. So, I looked at the last image and was happy to see it looked okay.

Feeling good about the exposure of the bee images, I headed off towards the Dry Canyon Trail. Just as I got to the top of the stairs leading down to the trail, I thought, "Did I reformat my CF card since my last photo shoot?"

I looked at the image count on the camera, saw it was about 20 images lower than full capacity, and in a total "senior-moment" reformatted the card to full capacity. I then continued on my merry way wandering the dry canyon area, looking to subjects to shoot.

As I said before, it was a good day...but I had realized at one point that I had forgotten to take along some of my glucose tablets (I am a diabetic) and the lack of sugar in my system was causing my legs to cramp up. So, I did the smart thing and headed home.

Once I got back to the house, and things got back to normal with my legs, I put the CF card in the computer, transfered the images to my computer and began looking at them. I was almost finished looking at the images when I remembered the bumble bee shots and went back to the beginning of the image list. When I saw my first shot was inside the dry canyon, I was confused, until remembered what happened at the top of the stairs at the canyon.

I think the dents on the tabletop of my computer desk still visible.

Now, I am waiting for FedEx to delivery my repaired lens to me. I sure do miss that lens. As I mentioned in a post a while back, it's the Canon EF 70-300 stabilized, which replaced the EF 75-300 stabilized which I used in the interim. The older lens is slower in focus and not as sharp, plus the stabilization in the new lens is slightly better. I'll be glad to get the lens back and on my camera.

The Eyes of Texas are in My Photos

I have been working on my Texas pics and posting them on Flickr. It's a slow process of select the best image, work it over until I am satisfied, locate an identification on the subject, upload the image, title and describe it, ok it, then go on to the next one.

Depending on the image, that can take between 30 minutes and several hours. I even spent four days trying to ID one critter in my early uploading days.

I don't mind...I learn a lot on each image I search for identities, so it's a win-win situation. A person can never know too much, which is a hell of a lot better than not knowing enough.

I also redid one of those MySpace things. I always wondered why my nephew has sooo many women on his site. But I don't anymore. He must "approve" everyone of those spamming hussies he gets a request from...hehehe. I have declined at least a dozen already. If those gals really looked at my profile and/or really looked at my photo, they never would have sent me the request. Well...maybe they would...but a pic of a hot, sexy slut begging me to approve her as one of my friends just ain't what I am about.

Now, if they would knock on my door, well, that's a different story.

Home Again

I probably should have updated this a couple of days ago, but I didn't. 8v) I am back in Oregon now. San Antonio was fun, humid and stormy. The best part of the trip was seeing family and an old friend I hadn't seen since like 1970 plus or minus a year or two.

The evening I arrived in San Antonio, my brother and his son went to a gathering of amateur astronomers they knew my friend would be at. When we got there, I had a little fun with my old buddy and walked up like I was just an interested person with a question. I asked one, my friend turned around and began to answer when suddenly, I could see things began clicking in his head. It took a moment for him to figure it out, but needless to say, the look on his face was worth it. Sorry Yogie...but I couldn't resist.

I also saw a lot of new birds, bugs and butterflies and got some good photos. However, I had some equipment problems and my photos aren't as good as I hoped they would be. I did however, push my 20,000th image through my Canon Digital Rebel.

I am currently working on the uploadable images and will be posting them to my Flickr photostream when finished. Most of them are of butterflies. The birds in San Antonio knew how to hide from me. The trees were all fully fledged with leaves and I figure the comfort of all that green surrounding them made it a nice place to hide...but that is bad for a photographer with low-end gear. 8v(

Anyway, it might snow tonight in central Oregon. I have a lens to ship off for repairs. And it's time I got it out.