Foggy Morning at the Lake

It was foggy this morning at Dewey Lake.  The Greek philosopher Heraclitus said that we cannot step into "the same river twice."  Because the water is forever moving and changing.  And so it is with the fog at Dewey Lake.  Year after year I go to the same spots, many times, and fog is forever changing and so always changing the scenes.  Even minute to minute, the scenes can change dramatically.

But enough pretentious quotation of Greek philosophers.  Here's what I saw at the lake this morning.

A Short Trip

Ann had to go to Louisville for a business meeting, leaving Wednesday afternoon and returning on Thursday.  The weather was beautiful and I decided to tag along and carpe diem.  I went for an early morning stroll with the small Ricoh GRD III in Lousville while she went to her meeting.

The Ohio River at Louisville

Belle of Louisville Paddle Wheel

Sunlight Courtesy of Reflective Windows

To avoid hitting 5 pm traffic in Louisville, we made a brief stop at Lexington Cemetery on the way on Wednesday.  All photos there were take with the Canon EOS M and 22mm lens - an excellent lens for the money these days.

RIP Big Forked Tree

You will be missed. By one guy with a camera anyhow.

Another fallen soldier at the Middle Creek National Battle Field.

April in Lexington Cemetery

I had a busy trip to Lexington yesterday, with only about 30 minutes to spare for a visit to Lexington Cemetery, where the tulips are beginning to bloom, the magnolias are just past their prime, and the cherry trees are amazing.  Unfortunately, many people chose to actually park their cars in the lane that is lined with weeping cherries, eliminating any possibility of good photos there.  Still, I came away with a few decent pictures from my Canon EOS M and zoom lens.

Downtown Prestonsburg: Early Sunday Morning Stroll

Some pictures from this morning

How Much Camera Do I Need?

As I continue to rework older pictures from my Canon G9, I find myself wondering how much camera I really need.  I am very pleased for the most part with the quality I am finding in these files from 2008, although some just aren't up to snuff.  The image quality from my more recent Ricoh GRD III (which came out in '09 I think), seem better.  If only that little camera had a zoom lens.  The more I look at these pictures, the more I think that a small sensor camera might be enough for me.  Maybe a Panasonic Lumix LX7 would be ideal - smaller than Canon's G series and with a Leica zoom lens that starts at a relatively wide 24mm equivalent.  A couple of years old now, and cheap.  We'll see.  Here's some more from the G9, circa 2008.

Rain Begins

Dawn

What Lies Beneath

Ornaments

The Curve

San Francisco: '09 with a G9

We took a family vacation to San Francisco in June of 2009.  It was my first trip with a compact digital camera - the Canon G9.  I've been hooked on small cameras ever since.  As I've been working my way through my archive, reworking older pics with benefit of the powerful tools in Lightroom 5 and Nik plug-ins, I've been wondering how the pictures from the old G9 would hold up.  As it turns out, they hold up very well.  Oh, they aren't usually much to look at when pixel peeping at 100%, but when viewed at normal sizes, they look great.  Software, I think, is as important as the camera.  Fortunately, I shot these pictures in RAW format so all of the information captured by the sensor is still there in the files, and Lightroom 5 does a much better job of pulling that information out of the files than did whatever I was using in '09 - I think it was whatever version of Photoshop Elements was then current.  Here are some of the recent reworkings, some shown for the first time, and most shown for the first time in color.

Sailing

Outside Vesuvio

Inside Vesuvio (extra noise reduction fron Nik Dfine 2 plug-in)

The Cool Smoker (taken by my son, Jordan)

Musicians at Cafe Trieste

Cafe Trieste

Night Life

Taken on a bus ride to Muir Woods

Alcatraz

Guard Tower at Alcatraz

Leaving the Rock

Golden Gate

Fort Point

The Palace of Fine Arts

So the family is walking down the street when these folks on bicycles come by.  Naked.