Jasonisms

On December 24th, 2012, for the second time since moving to Colorado I went to the Denver Botanic Gardens  for their Blossoms of Lights event. The first time, with an ex-girlfriend, happened a few years ago and neither of us brought a camera. To be honest, she wasn't entirely thrilled with my desire to photograph my life and I carried the camera (my trusty Pentax *IST DS) rarely. This time, however, I went for their Blossoms of Lights  showcase alone, with the specific intent to bring my camera and tripod, so I could take my time and work on my schedule, not having to worry about someone else's concerns. I chose Christmas Eve thinking most people would be home with the families, preparing for the December 25th festivities.  I was wrong. Apparently, December 25 is a very busy evening for the Gardens. I was surprised at the number of people there and getting shots without  people turned out to be very difficult.  With the overcast skies and the lights from th...

Just a little something from last week. This is from Indiatlantic, FL looking west over the Indian River in Brevard County, FL.

Finally had a chance to take the K5 out for a few shot this morning. Wow. Compared to my *IstDS it is amazing. Sort of like a Ferrari compared to a 1977 Ford Bronco. Here are some images from today. None of them are special, I was just practicing with the knobs and buttons.

First image with the new K5. Yes, this is my dog, Rufus. He is a very unwilling model so I had to stuff his Kong with elk meat. This image is SOOC ( s traight o ut o f the c amera). In other words, no post processing, no cropping, no nothing at all. I know, it's not a great image, but I wanted to use the camera!

Been charging the battery for a few hours now. Argh! This is not fast enough! I want to play with my new K5! Reading a manual can only do so much. That's one benefit of the *Ist DS over any of the more modern cameras: AA. No, not A lcoholic's A nonymous, but rather AA batteries. Since the DS runs on AA's, no matter if my rechargeable's were charged or not, I could always throw some new batteries in for instant access to the camera. Now I have to wait. Sure, in my bundle that I bought I received a couple of spare batteries (2, in fact, for a total of 3) but they all need to be charged. And yes, I checked: I cannot toss AAs in the battery compartment which would have been nice. I guess I will have to wait until tomorrow for taking the first images. Argh! Who's not a happy camper right now? I'm  not a happy camper right now!

Arrival of the K5 was as simple as opening the door to the UPS man. I unpacked the box (the deal I got had a lot of extras)  and while the battery is charging, I am reading the manual. About 350 pages! I've read novels with less pages! This camera has many many many more features and options than my poor *Ist DS does. The the DS has very basic features, nearly the same as one would find on a film SLR camera. The K5 seems to have so many more options! I better not lose the manual.

Twelve days ago I bought a Pentax K5 (online) to replace my Pentax *Ist DS that I've owned since 2006. According to Amazon.com my order was shipped on November 10, however it didn't start UPS tracking until six days later with " Shipment has left seller facility and is in transit ."  Grrr! And  they gave themselves a week window for deliver with today being the last day of that week. As of this morning, it is out for delivery: November 22, 2011 04:48:00 AM Commerce City CO US Out for delivery Here it is, 11 hours later and nothing. Nothing! I don't want to leave the house (much to the dismay of my dog) in case I miss the UPS guy. I'm not sure if he'll leave it on the porch or if he'll leave a note saying "sorry we missed you."  It needs to hurry up and get here! I'm losing light, dammit!