Playing With Different Camera Settings

After feeding the hounds their lunch around 1pm, I put on a fresh application of the water, vinegar mix for Heidi. I found out that you don't even want to take a day off from doing that. By today almost all the improvement she had shown ... was gone after taking a day off Sunday from any mixture.

I continued to read that link from my earlier post this morning about different focus settings on my camera. I ended up taking over a hundred photos just playing around with different settings this afternoon.

Although we had taken a walk earlier, Sadie and Stella still wanted to get me outside again. Stella didn't hesitate one second on what she wanted to do ... lay in the sun. Of course Sadie is too active to do that and as you can see Sadie couldn't stand still.

Once Stella thought Sadie was getting something, it was worth standing up to see what she was getting. It wasn't anything beside Sadie having her nose in the ground inside the tall grass. Consequently she laid back down.

Stella didn't lay there for long though and was up making sure that Sadie had not found some food that she should be getting. She then started that slow stroll out into the field by the bush line.

In a split second as I turned around they were both gone, hidden by the tall grass.



You can barely see Sadie in this photo. Further out in the field the grass does not even come up to my knees and isn't as thick.

Sadie decided she was going to make a run for it while Stella stay in her favorite part of the 'backyard'.

There is a story about Sadie's missing teeth on the bottom row. While she was a puppy and I was gone all day at my job, for her own protection and my sanity ... I kept her inside, in the largest black kennel you've seen for large breed dogs. Plenty of room. Yet she spent all day trying to get out.

More than a few times she had grabbed those those steel rods that formed the cage and could squeeze them together with her teeth and jaws. I could NOT bend them back using pliers. Eventually her teeth became loose and fell out.

Stella still strolling and once I looked through the camera lens and saw her take a couple of steps inside that brush line ... I called her name and she decided it was probably a good idea to head back to the house.

Only at her own pace ... very slow.

It may say it's 62° but it feels like 50°. A day for lot of reading and more coffee to stay warm. Rain is on the way so a early evening walk tonight may not happen.

After all the different settings I tried on the camera, I can't tell any difference in these photos plus the ones in the pervious post showing our afternoon walk after lunch. Heidi decided staying in bed was the best thing to do with the cold temperatures.

When will it get hot in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana ?

A Slow Monday

Not a lot took place today. I did more reading about the different camera settings from the link posted earlier today. That took most of my time. Heidi had a some water vinegar applied and while Sadie, Stella and I went for a walk ... Heidi hung outside around the house while we were gone.

I tried different settings on this walk and I CAN tell a difference in the photos. The hounds are in focus and not the surrounding grass or bushes. Also when exporting them from my computer, I send them to a folder on my computer so Blogger can import them from that folder. Otherwise Blogger will not import from the Apple Photo program.

In that process on a drop down menu, I changed the photo quality from "high" to "maximum". I did not make any edits to the sharpness of the photos like I've had to do before. I might be getting close to the quality I remember before.

These hounds don't miss a smell. I'd like to see what kind of animal traffic this field gets at night or the predawn hours.

This is Sadie running for once. Usually all the running photos are from Stella but Sadie can run at a pretty good speed when she wants to.

Today I decided I was going to follow Stella up to the right corner and see what was so interesting to her. The past few days she will not leave this area. It didn't take long to see why she doesn't leave. You will have to look closely at the 2nd photo.

I told her to "come on" and she followed me and Sadie for the rest of the walk.

As we approached the backyard I could see Heidi was over in the side yard ... eating tall grass, where I had let it grow out a little bit on the bank. So that is all three hounds that enjoyed eating grass today.

Now ... back to more reading here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Nikkor 55-200 Lens Now Working

With rain predicted tonight, I heard the rumbling sound of farm equipment and assumed the field across the highway was being plowed. It was the next field over, where they had plowed a few weeks ago. One tractor was spraying fertilizer with another following with a new round of disking.

It wasn't long before a 3rd tractor shows up with planters on the back. Of course my Nikon D3200 decided it didn't want to work again. It's been on the blink now for the year it's been back from repair. I don't think I'll be buying another Nikon in the future.

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It looks like a case of user error ... a long article but it's the answer to all my frustration with this camera ... dslr-autofocus-modes-explained.

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The hounds went out for an early scout of the yard. Neither was too enthused about starting the week, although Stella entered the field on the far corner again where the grass is not as high. She tried to sneak out along the edge of the brush line.

It was about this time while I was trying different things to get the Nikkor 55-200 lens to work. For the past several months when turned to the 55mm mark the lens would not retract flush like it should. I found a fix for that on the Nikon D3200 forum months ago. It said to turn the focus ring counter clockwise and the lens would retract to the correct position. When doing that I always felt resistance and hear a slight plastic clicking sound. I figured that was normal since it was being turned counter clockwise. Today when I tried that on the 55-200, it was smooth as butter. There wasn't any kind of resistance nor sound.

When I tried taking photos with the 200mm zoom, the lens auto-focused with the lens moving in and out very smooth without any kind of sounds. Was that my problem with focus in the past? I had not been able to take a zoomed photo higher than the 135mm setting on the camera for quite a while.

With it working I started taking photos from different lengths of zoom. I saw where the birds tried building a new nest in a different part of the carport last night. The problem with this area, that ledge they were trying to build on is only 1/2" wide and not enough surface to hold a nest.

In the meantime as I was trying to get photos of the farming across the highway, Stella decided she would quietly sneak away. I am going to have to start watching her and calling her back before she gets into the wooded area. She has been creeping past her boundary lately.

Sadie decided she would hang back and try to talk me into the first walk of the day but it's way too wet for that right now. It might take a few more hours for the field to dry out from the heavy dew.

Stella starts her escape.

I was only able to get this one photo of the farming going on this morning with a 55mm setting, then I cropped it. When I turned around I couldn't see Stella so I yelled her name pretty loud for her to get back to the yard.

She wasn't happy being caught but did start her slow trek back to the house.

With the camera battery low, I stopped attempting to take more photos, happy that the lens was now working again. I still don't know if it's my eyes but the photos don't look nearly as sharp to me as they did when I first got the camera.

One difference is when I first bought the camera I was shooting NEF Raw quality then but changed that this past year to JPEG Fine due to the large file size of the raw images. With limited data per month I could not afford to upload as many photos to the blog as I do with each photo being 6-7Mb's in size with the raw quality setting, unless I did my blog posts after midnight. Between midnight and 5am I get unlimited data that is not counted as part of my monthly usage.

I've been going over the camera owners manual over and over, reading the Nikon forums in trying to solve the different issues I've had with this camera. Years ago I used a Cannon Manual camera and various lenses without any trouble.

Heidi is headed for a bath after this and a fresh application of the water, vinegar mix. This morning is the typical "two steps forward and one step back" in the process. I'll let you guess which direction she is going this morning.

I'll try to add some more photos to this post after the battery is charged up.

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Here are some photos taken after the battery charged up. The lens is still moving smoothly and retracting to the correct position. It will be interesting to see how long it works.

Sadie and Stella take in a meal of grass chewing. Looking back on the blog a year ago and I see that the field this year is much taller than last. I had not got Stella yet and Sadie was still being tethered while she roamed the field.

Heidi's skin looked almost the same as this year and Winston spent a lot of time just laying in the yard.

Overcast skies and another day of cool temps here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.