Only iPhone 6s Photos This Morning

I have posted some photos on this blog when I first bought my iPhone 6s last year. I did an experiment before that and sold my iPhone 5s then went to the 'old fashion' flip phone, just for phone calls. It had other email, texting, smart phone features but I only wanted the flip phone for phone calls.

After 10 months I realized I missed some of the features of the iPhone and one of those was a good camera. I was not seeing the same quality with my old Nikon Cool Pix 3100. So I bought the iPhone 6s last year for the other missed features but to also have a new camera for inside shooting. Yet, I have rarely taken blog photos with it. This morning that changed.

I was reading Al's post over on the Bayfield Bunch last night about his first trip into a retail store that sold smart phones. You can read his story at the link above "Al's post" but basically he was wanting a smart phone for their camera feature. That lit a bulb in my brain where I asked myself why am I not using the iPhone camera for my blog photos? How does the quality compare to my Nikon D3200 DSLR camera?

So today you get to see what I found on our first walk of the day. After looking at my two choices in size of photos for the blog, the size I normally use is x-large but with the vertical iPhone photos that makes them almost too big. The large size made the photos look to small. So excuse me if the x-large photos are messed up on your phone or tablet.

I only adjusted a couple of the photos with one being cropped and two of them enhanced for color, depth etc. All the other photos are exactly as I downloaded them from the phone to my computer and then to the blog.

Besides it being another beautiful day here in 'the tropics', I found the colors to be better on the iPhone compared to my Nikon D3200. For me I have seen the photos I took when i first bought the Nikon D3200 in September 2014 to be much much better than the photos I take now. I am still searching for the reason for that.

The iPhone 6s camera also took sharper images than the Nikon D3200. I did not have to make any adjustments for the sharpness like I have to at times with the Nikon D3200.

With it being about 10° cooler today after 12 noon it was much nicer to walk today. While local towns were having severe thunderstorms within 25 miles of us last night, we only had hard rain for 15 minutes.

I see now that I should have changed the setting on my iPhone to take "square" pictures instead of the default "photo" setting. If not cropped a lot of these photos are too tall.

I found out today that Stella was the one that was sick in the middle of the night last night while I was sleeping. I found a wet roll of tall grass by the door, so she did try to go outside before she got sick. I didn't hear a thing.

I could have cropped these pictures to cut away some of the ground and sky out of them but as a test I wanted to see just what the iPhone would give me. I was shooting blind basically because with the bright sunshine I could not see what I was taking a picture of on my screen, unless I used my body to block out the sunshine.

This camera is a 12-megapixel, autofocus, optical image stabilization, true tone flash, panorama up to 63 megapixels, timer mode, burst mode, f/2.2 aperture, 5x digital zoom, IR filter, auto image stabilization, noise reduction, face detection and photo geotagging. It will also shoot video which I may have to try sometime once I figure out how to post a video on this blog.

Not only Al's blog post last night but also the new iPhone 7 tv advertisements led me to try the iPhone camera today. I'll not buy a new iPhone for quite a few years but the photo advertisements are pretty good for the iPhone 7.

There are a lot more features on this phone that I don't use. I don't mind learning the ones I don't know but basically I like only certain things on the iPhone or any smartphone and use those.

What do you think of the pictures so far?

I do know it was much easier to carry than the light Nikon D3200 but like I said, in the bright sunshine I could not see what I was taking a picture of.

I have my settings where these photos don't automatically go to the iCloud because I don't have enough memory and I refuse to pay for 'cloud storage'. They will automatically load into Google Photos instantly. I will load them into Flickr manually like I do the photos taken with the Nikon D3200.

My weather app that comes with the iPhone shows this kind of weather for the next 10 days with two to three days of possible light showers. We know those rain days are always flexible and may not happen.

Stella may wander on her own while Sadie and I walk but lately she has been veering toward the return path to meet us as we walk back.

It was another day where it looked like she is gaining weight. You can see some ribs there but her chest is filling back in and looks much bigger than it did just a month ago.

Even as we get closer to the house, that doesn't mean the hounds are in a hurry to get back unless it's above 90°. Even then, Stella is never in a hurry to get back home.

With breakfast being served much later today the hounds will not have their 2nd meal until later this afternoon, a time that I would prefer anyway. I'd like to split their meals 8-10 hours apart but they usually want food again 3 hours after their first meal.

After seeing these pictures I think I will try more with the iPhone on our afternoon/early evening walk today. I am going to change the setting to "square" to see if that makes a difference in size and presentation.

With only 2 days to go until I start a new HughesNet billing cycle and a new 20Gb of data, I am still about 1.5Gb's of unused data off of my daily pace. I'll be using that up by looking at more YouTube videos from fellow bloggers and a trailer that I am looking at.

As many of you do, I follow Tioga George's blog on my sidebar and noticed recently one of his followers that comments a lot seemed interesting. So I added his blog on my sidebar today. If you like adventure you might want to take a look ... it's called Point To Zero.

I also added Gone With The Wynns. I use to follow them years ago but deleted them from the sidebar during one of my past cleaning periods where 53 blogs went to 28 blogs on my sidebar. They use to RV, have lived off grid, but are now in traveling on their sailboat.

Another blog I have been following for a while is JD Finley. He is in the process of converting a large passenger bus into a RV. Some great ideas and he documents all of his work with pictures on his blog. Very talented.

Not much is going to happen today. I might have to head out for some grocery shopping as my food supply is low. I sure wish I had online delivery available for groceries out here in rural America or maybe that Amazon drone delivery idea. Even a maid or personal assistant hire might not be a bad idea. I'm not sure if I am really joking about that last idea, doesn't sound like a bad one.

Nothing is going to be purchased for a while but lately I have been back to looking at trailers, trucks, converted cargo trailers and cargo vans ... I'll continue that research today while staying cool while drinking iced tea.

My internal GPS has calibrated itself ... today feels like a Saturday.

All is good today here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

What A Hot Afternoon Walk Looks Like

Sometimes it's best when the hounds don't get their way and a little adult supervision (me) is enforced. I let them have their way most of the time but they are never out of control ... they are actually quiet hounds.

So I followed their lead and what they wanted this afternoon. I think the pictures will show the story why it was probably not a good idea to take a walk at 4pm even with 16mph winds from the southwest.

It was too hot ... even for me.

I tried to tell them it was too hot to take a walk.

The Japanese Yews were a poor choice for shrubs so close to the house. A friend recommended them at that time I was looking for something that stayed green all winter and was soft to touch. After reading more about the size and what these things turn into, I plan on talking them all out. The only decision right now is whether to replant them in the fall on the south edge of the yard to grow and block the view toward the white house ... or take them out now and add them to the burn pile.

Even if I move them they will grow to 10'-20' tall and wide unless I cut them back.

Back to more reading and planning ... and I think we are finished walking the hounds anymore today.  LOL

Still Confused On Day Of The Week

The highlight of the week has been watching this farmer move his mower along a bank and around an old highway sign no longer in use. He was also able to mow grass right up to the edge of his field without a trimmer and not mowing over his first rows of corn. I'll confirm that he does better at the job of mowing near the highway than the state highway department does.

These three photos were taken while standing in my kitchen in an air conditioned environment.

Although the noise was loud enough for me to hear and to get up to see what was going on, Stella was in a deep dream state and didn't move a muscle.

Looking at the temperatures throughout the USA yesterday, I really don't have anything to complain about. My temps only in the high 80's, was one of the cooler parts of the whole country. I assume in the RV parks generators are running at full maximum while people stay inside using the AC. For those that don't have or use the AC in their RVs or trailers, I wonder at what elevation they have moved to trying stay cool?

No matter how hot it was, Sadie kept bugging me to go outside late in the afternoon. At times she will get frantic wanting outside and then sprints to the tallest grass and starts eating it. I saw her run to this spot finding the tall grass amongst the ragweed to eat.  Ten minutes later when I looked outside she was gone.

It was pretty easy to figure out where to point the camera to find her. This is one of her favorite spots in the past month.

This gives you a better idea of how far away she was, as I stood at the corner of the house. Even out there she was giving me the stare down, seeing if I would take her for the 3rd walk of the day. I went back inside where it was nice and cool.

I was also in the middle of watching the Reds game on tv, so it was ten more minutes before I went back outside to check on her to see where she was ... once again ... she's gone.

That meant she was probably over near the woods by the neighbor's house. As I walked to the north part of the yard I called her name ... there she was trotting up the hill from the direction I thought she might be.

It's not has hot as it is out west but it was ~90° and she was feeling it.

Last night sure seemed like a Sunday night for some reason. Each time I looked at the computer or iPhone it reminded me it was only Thursday. Not that it matters to me or what I do.

To start Friday morning off we tried getting back to an earlier start. My garmin vivo tells me I am getting most of my deep sleep between 5am - 8am. So I didn't recall that 7am passed and barely saw 8:30am show up. I was thinking last night all of this weirdness started when I made a mistake last Friday and grabbed a bag of 'decaf' coffee.

I have found out the past week I probably don't drink coffee so much for the taste, although that is important, but for the caffeine boost to start each of my days. I need all the help I can get to wake up ... I never have been a morning person.

So by 10am Sadie, Stella and I headed out for our morning walk. Stella did her normal very wide loop from the yard to the middle of the field to dump her tanks and then circle back to meet Sadie and I. She will turn those directions on her own, I don't have to call her name to get her to come that way.

There is a lot for her to see and it seems more and more she moves on her own schedule, going where she wants.

This is one of those days she looks like she is gaining weight. You cannot see her ribs.

Sadie still cannot figure out why Stella has stopped walking with us.

The longer I walked the hotter it began feeling. All of the rain in the forecast the past 5 days missed us. I remembering the reason I mowed the yard on Monday was because it was going to be a day of thunderstorms on Tuesday.

Stella did a little fast trotting today but not quite a run. I hope this is a sign that she is improving with whatever is wrong with her.

While I walked home following the path, Sadie and Stella decided they would take their own path home. After walking into the yard just past the property line pole that is still standing, they found something interesting enough they they would not leave. Nothing to eat but just a strong scent.

I had cleared out the right side of the trees by the old fence post in 2014. Once the neighbor had the field surveyed during his purchasing process and they decided my property went about 65' further north than I had been told, I decided to burn out all of the overgrown brush, pull out the roots and plant grass. That is the area you see the hounds standing.

It wasn't until last October in 2016 that I decided to do the same thing on the left side of the trees, just at the corner of this bank by the old fence post.

There were some wild flowers but more weeds and ragweed than anything else. I guess now I could have covered that corner with seeds of wild flowers to add some color to a yard that is nothing but green.

I pulled all of those roots out with a rake, then burned them. Once it was warm in March of this spring I planted grass seed only to have it go below freezing the following week. More seed then the rain washed it away. I spread the last third of the bag of grass seed and it has filled in pretty well for it's first year.

I need a landscaping hobbyist or expert, to place some flowers throughout the yard for some color.

While burning leaves last fall I decided I'd burn out all the dead brush on the north side of the yard. Out of nowhere some wind picked up and started taking the fire toward the field further than I had planned. The fire got under control as it was just inches inside the field.

I took this picture with my iPhone while standing in the field wondering if I was about the set that part of the field on fire. Luckily I got it stopped. Someone passing by on the highway stopped to see if things were okay, did they need to call the fire department?

It wasn't until this summer that I saw what damaged that fire caused in the wooded area next to my yard on the north side. You can see which trees were burnt last fall, as it's the only brown in the neighborhood.

I'll be sure to take another photo of this area next summer to see what changes take place.

After our morning walk, I loaded up my 32 gallon container of recycled material. We don't have to sort it for our local center. They compress everything into containers, then those are trucked to Indianapolis where the sorting takes place. I watched the process on YouTube for the specific company. It's interesting to see semi truck containers of compressed paper, cardboard, plastic and glass being sorted as it passes by on conveyor belts.

Heidi jumped in the passenger seat for the short 6 mile ride. With the windows down she was able to sit her nose on the window edge by the side mirror to capture all the scents on the way.

We found out the state highway department is doing work that I have never figured out the reason for. Digging out spots on the highway about every 10', a rectangular shape across one lane of traffic and then covering it back up with new asphalt. The backed up traffic was at least 1/4 mile long, maybe longer.

I was lucky enough to catch our lane moving in each direction so there was zero sitting time for us. As I turned in town to head south toward our house I I noticed stakes about 10' apart along the side of the road for the first mile heading out of town. I am only assuming they will be coming our direction with their strange repairs.

Any ideas what they are doing?

They are not installing any new pipes or drainage systems. When I glanced at the dug out section as I passed, they had taken the asphalt out all the way to the base of the highway. Then filling it immediately back up with new asphalt.

With the lines of backed up traffic it looks like any traveling I need to do or grocery shopping, will be done at night after the road crews have stopped for the day.

Heidi started nonstop barking to let me know it was past time for lunch. With it feeling cooler outside today plus some added wind, I thought she might be interested in going on our walk. Not only was she not interested, neither were Sadie and Stella.

While Heidi studies her next move, Stella has got an itch on the top of her nose. I see nothing there when I checked it out.

As I sat back down in my chair, Heidi gave me a look as if to say "you expect me to stay outside in this?" ... she ran for the door when we all headed back inside, didn't even pee.

I believe the invisible black field cat has been checking out the north side of the yard where the hounds were earlier and also the driveway where Sadie and Stella had the same response.

I remember in the early 1980's when I was living in Carlsbad California, I use to sit on the porch in front and see the Pacific Ocean across the street named Carlsbad Blvd.

Now when I sit in a chair at the corner of the carport, that ocean view has changed to this. A lot can happen in 30-35 years.  LOL

About all I can see happening the rest of the day is ... the hounds sleeping the majority of it. All of them are sleeping scattered in the house at their favorite spots.

Sadie and I will take a late afternoon walk. Stella will decide if she wants to go or not. She passed on the 3rd walk of the day a couple of times this past week.

In the meantime I am going to search my bookshelves for something to read, something that will hold my interest. If that is not possible then I look through my large dvd collection of movies and find something to watch.

(2:17pm - As I started to walk up the drive from the mailbox I saw my first Casita trailer drive by the house ... made my day)

Another good day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.