Stella Ran More Today

When things don't go as planned you end up picking corn in the dark. I am not sure what the reason was for the delay yesterday afternoon but it turned out to be a very long day for whoever was driving the combine. By the time I returned from Best Buy around 12:45pm today, they had finished picking the corn and were loading the trucks to haul it away. Interesting Best Buy story below. You'll also see that Stella ran more today than yesterday and the past year.

For the camera to focus automatically on the combine in the dark I had to turn on the flash setting. That is one reason this photo of Stella looks brighter, but if you look at the next photo it was not even dark yet ... all three photos were taken within minutes of each other in different directions.

Heidi followed Stella outside to see what all the excitement was about but she didn't want her photo taken. She kept turning her head away when I pointed the camera at her. I barely caught her as she was looking from behind the wood frames in the carport. Notice the swelling on the side of her nose is gone.

Looking at my weather app on my iPhone it's nice to see we have only three more days of hot weather counting today. It will take an immediate 15° drop on Wednesday and continue to lower our high temps for the day from 65° down to 54° a few days later. Since it wasn't that humid this morning the temperature on our walk didn't feel that hot. Stella was not bothered by it and actually had whined earlier to come outside.

I may have mentioned here, can't remember, that the strap to my Garmin VivoSmart3 broke a couple of weeks ago. I didn't take long to go online and buy a replacement, same model3 instead of the new 4. I received it two days later and started wearing it. After the fact, I did an internet search on why that strap broke, was it common etc. The answers led me to the Garmin forum where the same questions I had were being discussed.

I sent an email to their support address listed not really expecting any kind of answer. Instead a few days later I received a reply telling me they needed my name, address, phone number and serial number of the activity monitor (what I call a watch). They shipped me a new replacement at no cost to me. I received it on Saturday, deleted my recently purchased unit from my Garmin Connect App and then synchronized my replacement with my iPhone.

So that meant if I wanted to get a refund for the one I bought 14 days ago I'd have to make a trip to the local Best Buy store. I headed over this morning to do the exchange and look at some cameras I was interested in again. It wasn't a normal trip though ... a little crazy.

I tried to get ahead of Stella in the first part of the walk after we made our first turn at the corner of the woods. She was lingering behind so it gave me a chance to get out in front so I could see if she would run to me to catch up, in a different part of the field. She did .... she ran hard. If you see her ears flopping or not in view ... that means she is running at a pretty good speed.

As far as cameras, which is the lead into my Best Buy story, I have always been amazed by the clarity and sharpness of Mark's photos on his blog BoxCanyon Blog. We have traded emails on photos, camera etc over the years. I started by asking what kind of camera he was using. He uses on the of the older models of the Canon PowerShot ELPH's. So I wanted to look at one of those today, hold it in my hand to get a feel of taking photos with it.

I also wanted to look at the Nikon Coolpix B500. While looking at both cameras on a shelf with a few other Canon and Nikon point and shoot cameras, someone asked me if I wanted to know what the best camera was on that shelf from 8 different models and two brands. Before I let him know, "not really" ... he gave me his opinion and without wasting a second told me he won his MMA fight last night in Milwaukee ... (250 miles from me).

What gave me a hint my enjoyable time looking around the store at things was about to turn into one big hassle? I couldn't escape him and even the Best Buy employee walked over and started playing along with this man's question and answers.

While the employee and I discussed the different cameras, this guy moved in-between us because he was the camera expert. While he talked I was planning my escape. I slowly moved away toward the Apple Watch and MacBook Pro table while the employee was cornered by the "MMA Champion" who had won a car, cash and showed me his bloodied knuckles.   LOL

I had just picked up the Apple Watch 44mm on display to get a feel for it. I found out my 'expert' was also an Apple Watch expert. I could not believe how fast he found me since the camera and computer departments are a good 40' apart. This time the conversation changed from the Benz he had won, to gambling casinos etc. Our conversation ended when he was telling me he had given the cash he won for fighting to his newborn child and had only $7 left until he received his DISABILITY CHECK next month !!!!! I had a feeling he was about ready to ask me for some money.   LOL

You probably get the picture.

Other employees stood and stared talking amongst themselves not really showing any kind of interest in getting this creep that smelled like he had been on a 7-day drinking binge away from me ... finally a Best Buy employee moved in between me and the 'expert' and I walked away. I was almost to the door to leave the store when someone said "what did he say to you" ... the voice of a Best Buy Manager. After I told him the story, he said he would take care of it. I didn't want to be around when the manager confronted him, so I got in my car and headed off for home.

On our walk this morning when I saw Stella raising her nose turning to the field behind us I didn't know that she would also start walking that way, even looking to see if she could get over the worn down metal fence. I saw no deer, no other dogs, nothing that would lead her into the next field, except what her nose was smelling.

I let her look around and she eventually started my direction.

Back to the camera discussion ... the Canon PowerShot ELPH felt too small in my hand plus it didn't have a good place to put your thump while taking a photo. I could see why some buyers had written reviews complaining of blurred photos. It would be easy not to hold the camera still for the perfect photos like Mark takes.

The camera I really liked was the Canon PowerShot SX-530. It felt lighter than the Nikon Coolpix B500 and felt more comfortable in my hand. Another big difference at least for me, the Canon ran on a rechargeable lithium battery, where the Nikon Coolpix used four AA batteries. I'm not a fan of AA batteries even if they are rechargeable. Of course by that time it was really hard to continue my analysis of both cameras with the 'expert' a foot away from me talking non-stop.

I already knew from my online research before I made the trip to Best Buy that the Canon PowerShot SX-530 was not in stock at the store I would be visiting.

While I made the 30 mile drive to the store I wondered what my sudden urge to buy a different camera was about. Was I tired of using the D3300 with a 18mm-200mm lens for 99% of my photos? I love my iPhone camera's photos but only for inside and low light conditions. Since I returned my Garmin and the Otterbox case I had bought a couple of weeks ago they gave my $50 reward back to me with a deadline of December something to use it by. So I could buy that Canon PowerShot SX-530 for $199 using the reward they gave me.

Stella started running toward me from the back of the field once she realized that I was getting too far from her. At this point of the walk, seeing her run hard two different times was good to see.

The ATVs did not return this summer. So the major ATV path from last summer has almost grown over. Stella needed to make sure and check out some scent along that path.

Once I told her "let's go home" she veered my direction and then stopped in the same spot of the path to scratch her neck.

So again she is in the same exact spot she was in yesterday when she started running toward me for her third run of the walk.

Like I said, IF her ears are not in view (laid back), that means she is running at a good speed.

She still wanted to show me she had prowling capability in case a cat or bird would be found in the field.

It will not be long before we start our 2018 Leaf Raking Project.

For the fourth time of the walk, she started running toward the house. Not a sprint but faster than a trot, more of a gallop.

I spent some time researching cameras by looking at the CNET reviews, customer reviews on the Best Buy and Amazon websites. The NFL games were on the tv but more of background noise than having any interest. For some reason today I didn't feel like watching football.

Heidi spent all day on the couch, then on both blankets in different locations to sleep the day away. She is really looking good, acting different than before her tooth surgery of course and never letting me forget what time breakfast and lunch are.

It's was another great day in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana today.

Cameras

A few months ago on my way to recycling, which our center is located out in the middle of some corn fields, I passed a field of horses. It was a great opportunity to take a neat photograph but all I had with me was my iPhone 5s, I had no way to zoom in on the horses themselves. I took a couple of photos, one of them when they took off running but I was too far away. That was when I had a short mental bolt of wanting a different camera.

Sometime last month I was going through some older boxes of stuff when I had a sudden urge to downsize a little more. I found an old Kodak 8x11.5" box I had forgot I had, full of photographs I had taken close to 30 years ago with my Nikon (can't remember the model) and 70-200mm zoom lens. Some of those were black and white 8x10's, some where 5x8's in color.

A few of the photographs I took as a series on the beach in Hawaii as the sun was setting, not knowing my zoom lens was picking up a kyaker moving in front of the sun. What stood out to me was how sharp they were, even after 25-30 years old. Of course most of my photos were on 35mm slides. There must have been 1,000's of them, too many to look through and the thought of scanning them was overwhelming. I glanced through a lot of them, holding them up to the light and instantly going back in time and could almost feel like I was there.

Once again ... quality was sharp and clear.

In the mid-90's I sold all of my lenses, filters, the bag, tripod and camera body to a neighbor in high school wanting to pursue photography. I am not sure why I decided to sell that stuff, except a few years prior to that for some reason I had stopped using the equipment completely. I may have started taking photos with a smaller camera with a built-in zoom lens. I don't remember the name or model of that camera, but I do have a few photos from that time period.

Maybe the convenience of not carrying a bag of equipment with me? Maybe it was having just one camera and a multiple size lens that made me change my direction in photography? I don't know but I do remember after 1994 I started taking photos a lot less. Hardly at all. My bag of equipment sat in the closet never used until I sold it.

Last month I kept going back to those older photos and looking at how sharp they were. Then I would look at all my digital photos on my blog and in iPhoto on my iMac, trying to compare the difference. I thought my iPhone took pretty good photographs but one thing I noticed was when I would crop the photo and it would zoom into a closer view, the sharpness disappeared. You can see that in yesterday's post with Heidi at the top of the page. The other two photos were not cropped but for some reason were not as sharp as normal. Could it have been my hands, the light ... don't know.

When I mentioned I was looking at different camera equipment on my blog, a few made comments, a couple answered my questions by replying in emails and other's I found out what kind of camera they were using from their websites. All of them have great photography of their travels posted on their blogs. All of them were high quality and reminded me of my older photos that I shot with my 35mm camera years ago.

I knew then I wanted a different camera than my iPhone and the palm sized Nikon Coolpix 3100. I had bought the smaller camera in 2005 to take photos of items I was selling on eBay and my other websites. I've rarely been able to take good photos with that camera without using the tripod ... too small to hold steady.

So the past few weeks I've been spending more time looking at different cameras online, reading suggestions as I get them and just like my rv decisions ... hadn't come up with one.  Still I am much closer today on what to buy than I was a few days ago.

I've looked through all the specs, customer reviews, and even wrote down a list of camera models and lenses used by people that had commented, emailed or blogs I follow. NO ... I have not put that information into a spreadsheet like I have done on everything else, so I am pretty proud of myself that my camera analysis has not gone to that depth.

I was close to buying a Nikon D3200 last week. Since it was an older model, it was on sale. It came with the bag, battery, charger, strap and an 18-55mm lens. I didn't buy it, I wanted to research some more.

Albireo uses a Nikon D3300 and is considering moving up to a heavier, larger camera, the Nikon D810. That is some great equipment but might be more camera than what I am looking for. I don't know how far I want to take this reborn hobby, so I am almost starting over with a camera that a beginner would buy .. maybe 'intermediate' would be a more accurate level.

Al over at The Bayfield Bunch takes fantastic photographs daily. That is his hobby and although he claims he is not a professional photographer, the quality of his photos and the way they are taken are every bit professional. He has different cameras with different size lenses mounted for different shots. They range from a Nikon D3100, a Nikon D-90 and his older camera for backup, a Nikon D-40. He has a Canon SX210iS on his belt at times for the unexpected shot and a Canon A730iS near his chair inside to shoot the Phebe's. I do those kind of inside shots with my iPhone 5s, although Sadie is not a fan of being a photo model.

Chinle at Spotted Dog Ranch takes her landscape photographs of her travels with a Canon EOS Rebel T1i. A lot of her photos are using a larger zoom lens, one that I would need. I would have to buy the new version, a T3i if I went that route, unless I could find a used T1i on Amazon or Craig's list. Yet, there is just something about buying used equipment from those two sites that I don't like. I would buy used equipment from a 'old school' camera store or a friend though. From her photographs from Canada this past summer, I see that I would need 200mm or 300mm zoom capability for what I want to shoot.

Gary Ramsey has some fantastic photography at Travel Small With Ramsey. He uses a Sony NEX 5n. Those cameras are a little out of my price range, although the price for a used Sony NEX 5n is reasonable on Amazon, but you know how I feel about buying used equipment.

Basically I had been looking at different cameras that had interchangeable lenses. I was favoring the Nikon D3200 due to the customer reviews, the price and it was within a short distance from my house. I haven't bought it because I didn't know if I wanted to go back to carrying one camera and then a bag with different sized lenses. I had done that before many years ago when cameras that had multiple range lenses built into the camera were not available.

I kept reading and looking.

Then yesterday I get a comment on my blog post from Lloyd over at Enjoy The Journey. His older blog name was Wanderin Lloyd for those that follow blogs. Either way his photography is also fantastic with different cameras used over his 13 years of traveling. You will see in his comment yesterday that he uses a Canon SX40 for his trips to zoos, museums, etc and uses a Canon SX700 30x lens when hiking.

Those two cameras kind of hit home with me. Great photographs, great consumer reviews and I noticed all the photos taken from a distance were sharp. Just like the cameras I mentioned above but these had just one built in lens with a wide range of different distance. Was the Canon SX40 the camera I had been looking for?

I spent a lot of time last night looking at those types of Canon and Nikon cameras. I am thinking that might be the type of camera I need. 

What I want is one camera, ability to shoot macro shots, landscape, shots of my hounds even in "action", zooming in on the eagle that shows up in back on rare occasions. Then at times I'd like to zoom in on the 10-15 deer that surprise us at times just in back of the house. I also wanted to be able to catch action shots that requires high speed, at sport events, especially when I go to the Indy 500 to watch practice or the times I am sitting on row 53 at a football game wanting to take a shot down at the line of scrimmage or sidelines.

After reading about the Canon SX40 and SX50, I am beginning to think that is the camera I've been looking for. I would have to buy the SX40 on Amazon, everyone locally is selling only the SX50 model with the SX60 coming out in October.

So I will let those thoughts brew for a while, maybe a day, maybe hours ... before I decide what to buy. The Nikon 3100, 3200 and 3300 are available locally as well as the Canon SX50.

In the meantime, the hounds will continue to "sleep on it" before the decision is made.