Photos Experiment Continues

Since I only used my iPhone camera yesterday and didn't download anything from my Nikon camera, this picture of the Friday night rain did not show up until my download this morning. While surrounding towns had severe thunderstorms and wind, we had only heavy rain for only 15 minutes.

I didn't post any photos last night after our afternoon walk because using the 'zoom' feature on the iPhone 6s camera did not work out well.

I had fallen behind transferring photos from my computer to Google Photos and Flickr. I use both for online backups with a ton of free storage available. So I spent a little time doing that Saturday afternoon but also once they were uploaded I looked through them. In both programs the photos looked great whether they were from my Nikon D3200 or the iPhone 6s camera. Flickr still has better quality because it does not compress any photos that are uploaded.

These next 3 photos are from the iPhone yesterday afternoon and edited.

I wanted to continue my test for blog photos so I changed the settings from 'photo' to 'square'. I still needed to crop all of them to center each hound. I clicked the enhance icon on a few of them. I realize that each camera can do different things and each has it's own features to like ... so I have two really good cameras.

About the time that Sadie, Stella and I were going to head back inside after their late lunch break, I couldn't find Heidi in back or the carport. She had moved out to her favorite sunning spot in the front yard.

I am thinking of trimming the top third off the Yews to make them shorter. I know that I don't want them to get any higher than what they are now.

I found it to be very easy to zoom taking iPhone photos. All I needed to do was spread my two finger on the screen. It would be simpler if the sunshine did not block out what you were trying to see.

Sunday morning ....



By the time I had coffee, some internet and blog reading this morning, Sadie and Stella were more than ready for our first walk of the day. With the high humidity early this morning Heidi was in mid-afternoon form and had passed out on the couch with the AC running at maximum output.

With my running shoes getting soaked yesterday when it was after 12 noon, I decided to go back to my waterproof hiking boots for this morning's walk.

As I was saying earlier, using the zoom feature on my iPhone 6s last night did not work out well. I zoomed in the hounds where they had filled my screen before taking the picture. Every one of them turned out too blurry and distorted. Even those photos I took with 50% zoom turned out the same way. They were so bad that I did not even keep them in my photo library on the computer.

This morning I moved back to the Nikon D3200 for this morning's walk. I cleaned the lens, the mirrors inside with a camera cleaning kit just in case there was some dust affecting the quality of my recent photos. I cannot tell that the cleaning made any difference ... although I like these photos better than those taken with the phone.

Stella likes to change her walk routine about every 2-3 weeks. Today for some strange reason she never went left to the middle of the field but stayed on the path I walk and was the 'leader of the pack' for a lot of it. The theme of the day was 'adding protein' more than 'identifying scent'.

They were both around the corner and out of sight before I could raise my camera. Stella was doing a fast trot but not quite the same run that Sadie was doing.

Believe it or not, this is Stella out in front of Sadie and I ... she is usually way behind us.

Stella again ... Sadie is back near me before she took off sprinting to see what Stella had found.

With this much intensity I would expect to see something fresh but as you will see a couple of pictures lower that is not the case. The ground is basically dry under her nose.

Even with me standing above her saying "let's go" ... she doesn't move and in fact she resisted as I tugged at her collar.

As the hounds took off toward the far right corner of the field they had found some more additional protein. This area is heavily traveled by deer as it is just outside their entry down into the gully.

I looked at and even touched this area their noses were at and it was nothing more they dead dry grass near the dirt.

I took this same picture yesterday with the iPhone camera and wanted to do it this morning for comparison. Only today I did some editing and took out the power lines that were in the left corner of the photo. I prefer to keep pictures as original as possible but I did like not seeing the power lines in this picture.

Stella was more active in the field this morning than I had seen her in a while. A few times just after taking a picture of her in the distance by the time I turned to look for Sadie, Stella had ran up right behind me.

This is also a deer path along the back of the field that goes around the large power tower and heads north into the woods or into the field to the right.

Once we make that final turn home Stella always slows her pace, if that is even possible, and slowly strolls home. The last time I left her out there to go at her own pace and to go where she wanted ... she didn't show up at the house to be let in for 35 minutes after Sadie and I were inside.

Her newest routine, about 4 days old, is veering on the return path through the middle of the field and toward the pole that shows the north property line. As I walk the normal path that moves away from her, she heads toward the yard.

Today would be the type of day to move a chair or tie up a hammock in this shaded area and enjoy the day. I could move a chair and my ice tea but my hammock was lost or left in one of my moves decades earlier.

I have a busy sports day today on tv. This will keep me inside and out of the hot humid temps. I like this weather but I still don't want to spend all day outside in it.

After the hounds are fed lunch once they wake up ... they have all overslept their normal lunch time ... I'll get another walk in before the Formula 1 race is on at 2pm. Yes it was ran live this morning but I'm never in the mood to watch racing at 7am.

That race will lead me into the Reds game at 4pm while the DVR will turn on at 5pm to tape the IndyRacingLeague race from Iowa. I'll watch that later tonight.

On a recommendation from Tom I bought a circular polarize filter yesterday for my Tamron lens. With my Best Buy certificates and award points I had forgot about I had a huge 75% discount on the cost. I am anxious to try it out and see the differences. I'll let you know when I start using it. It's due to arrive on Wednesday, maybe sooner.

For something different I'll leave you with our morning picture of the cornfield across the highway in what my Apple Photos editing program calls "mono".

I think I can squeeze in a lunch before the hounds wake up. It even feels like a Sunday today so I can confirm my internal clock has been calibrated.

Perfect weather today here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

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