2008-01-03

Happy New Year

Hope every one is doing o.k. on this fine, first week of 2008. :)

We started the year off with a flat tire on the new car and the old one is refusing to run although it tries. *sigh*

Christmas was a nice time at my sister's place with a nice buffet dinner. I made a cauliflower dish which was so-so since dinner started kind of late and it got a bit- mushy you could say.
New Years were pretty quiet as we were both sick although hubby is worse off than me- he was close to getting pneumonia it turns out. He got antibiotics from the doctor today...
My sniffles are almost gone.

I am updating my web site's photo galleries and tutorials pages but this is kind of slow going as I am trying to be systematic about it- photos from 2005 first, then 2006, then 07. The tutorials for graphics are pieced together from existing ones but they have to be broken down to fit into the format I've chosen for my web page- can't just post those huge files that my art site allows!
Tomorrow I will go to the printer and get some photos done up to send as (kind of late) gifts...and hopefully the sun will be out so I can start taking pictures that actually look cheerful!



Bigger View

The above is an example of a panoramic image I made and just recently wrote a tutorial about at Deviant Art. The tutorial is here for anyone who is curious about this kind of picture. I happen to have specialized in panoramics because generally the expansiveness of a view can't be captured by standard lenses and I'm not a big fan of wide angle lenses. Actually, the truth is I happen to dislike switching lenses altogether but realize that most highly variable zoom lenses are going to lack in quality at one end of the extreme or other- so my best bet is keeping a moderate zoom lens as my standard and having 1 or 2 really good quality lenses along for photo jaunts.

On the last day of last year I headed out to Mission, B.C. rather late in the day and missed one of the most beautiful lighting spectacles I've seen in quite some time. The road leading up Stave Lake is a nasty one to begin with full of potholes, but now it is also covered in snow. This was the closest I got to 4 X 4ing in the new Jeep but I was actually a bit scared and barely had room to turn the car around on the slippery, lumpy logging road. I barely got any shots coming in and none going out- it took 23 minutes to drive the 6 km back to Dewdney Trunk Road. Horrid.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad to hear everyone is on the mend now. Here's hoping we've all gotten our illnesses out of the way for 2008.

The Hunter's Wife said...

Glad to hear you are feeling better. That picture you took from the road looks very steep. When we were in Tennessee for our wedding, I had a hard time in the Smokey Mountains with all the steep hills. Scares me.

Marian Ann Love said...

Wishing you and Othmar a very Happy New Year. Glad you both are feeling better now. I'm looking forward to seeing your beautiful pictures that you are putting up on your blog. Take care.

H.I.Koehler said...

Kristine- sorry I'm so late coming back here to post- yup, slow going for Othmar- he was borderline on pneumonia which was stunning to find out. (He's supposed to use an inhaler till it's completely out of his system which he despises!)

Hunters Wife- I get a cold maybe once every year or so and this one was the mildest ever. I've been to Tennessee! (Drove thru actually) It was purty! I like hills- just not snowy ones or pulling trailers on them lol

Marion- thank you so much and same to you! I'm looking forward to actually taking lots more photos once this rainy season passes. (We are freakishly located on the very border of 'snow country' in Maple Ridge and just a few kilometers north of the 'good weather'. :( )