So, where to start?
Almost 2 months later and what have we been doing?
Well, our area has had an early spring with all the snow gone and temps well above normal since early March which 'used to be' still winter around here. Last weekend, the 9th and 10th of April were pushing the 80s which is really warmer than the average upper 40s to low 50s for this time of year, but no records were broken, it just got close.
Everything in the plant world is going green very fast and already flowers and dandelions are blooming as well as many of the bugs are out like the mosquitoes and hornets are out buzzing around again. We had the snow tires off the Prius in mid March since the snow was gone.
With the time change on March 13th the days instantly were longer but the news reports the days are still getting longer at almost 2 minutes a day this far North as the rush is on for the summer solstice. Around our house the Robins are back and waking me up pretty much every day around 4:30 to 5:30 in the morning as they are screaming to attract a mate!
Also in February, Stacy graduated to the ranks of us now older Americans by going through her first colonoscopy. Luckily nothing was found, so at least 10 years for her until the next one. I had mine done back in 2013.
2016, a new camera and equipment, including a new laptop.
In late February I was asked to be the reception photographer for a friend at work's, 2 daughters. She has 4 girls and 2 are already married with her younger 2 getting married, one right after the other and the youngest at 19 was married in March with the one up older getting married next week with her reception next Friday evening. I had done the youngest daughter's graduation photographs.
As they were, and are, getting married out of the area, the family is having local receptions for all that couldn't attend those out of area weddings and receptions.
Thanks to Stacy and her father (yup, he's still kicking) I upgraded camera equipment to include indoor lighting and reflectors with speedlights (flash units) and stands with umbrella kits. Two flashes, two mid size LED panel lights with diffusers and stands for lights and or umbrellas.
As with many things nowadays, Amazon is, in my experience and opinion, the best resource for good, affordable, photography equipment. eBay is too, but I like the reviews of equipment on Amazon for gauging quality.
We also spent the big bucks this time and upgraded a camera too. I went "full frame" and got a Nikon D750 camera and two new lenses, a 50mm prime and a 'kit lens' of 24 to 120 that came with the camera. While I've had no real issues with my D7000 Nikon, and that model was a great step up from the D60, I can honestly say after using the D750, I didn't know what I was missing!
The photo images with the D750 were, and are, fantastic!
What started the upgrade discussion was the two photo jobs so Stacy's father had wanted to get me a Leica camera he'd read about in a magazine, and while it sounded nice, at $7,000.00 I couldn't really justify to use it, let alone afford any lenses for it!
Since I went from the D60 to the D7000, and still having those cameras and several lenses that work with either that would also work with any new Nikon, I explained that while he felt the Leica was a 'forever' camera like he grew up always hearing about, the Nikon DSLR line is, to me, just as dependable and forever, for a lot less money, and as said above I feel I'm already invested in Nikon to want to get a whole new brand of camera as well as new lenses, accessories, etc.
The venue for these receptions was / is the large "Multipurpose / Gym - Room" in the local Mormon Church. I'm not quite sure yet how next weeks will be decorated and how the room lights might be used but the one on March 19th was very dark as the bride wanted more "mood" lighting.
Luckily with Stacy helping as co-photographer using the D60 in automatic mode and with both cameras in "RAW" mode, which just means the complete photo file is uncompressed and way more usable to editing, I was able to make most of the over 600 photos very usable and lighten up those often too dark photos.
With the higher megapixels of the D750, 24 MP, it also gave me the ability to crop, or zoom in, into certain areas of a single shot with no loss of photo quality, very nice!
After getting all the photos together I started to edit them and then I found out I didn't have any computer with the processor and RAM necessary to handle editing those very large 20 MP RAW files from the D750! I mean, yes, I could work on the photos, it just took almost 2 minutes for the computer to process any changes for each photo!
So a new laptop was in order for now and future portable, on the go, use! My last laptop was just before we'd moved here so about 10 years ago!
Stacy and I found a great price on a Toshiba laptop with 12GB of RAM, a 3 Ghz processor and 1 TB of storage. Lightweight and thin, it still even had a DVD drive installed so that was the one to get! I was going to go Amazon as I do most of the time but we actually found the laptop at the Staples in Sandpoint and for less than the similar setup was on Amazon by over $300.00.
Now editing is no problem and even the large D750 files just take seconds. The smaller files of the D60, 10 Mega Pixel or the D7000 16 MP are even faster.
At least with some better weather I'm getting the quadcopter flying more often!
Yes and I'm enjoying the photos and video I'm getting. I've been getting the town as I like having those photos up in my office so I'd been working on those right now. I'll be getting more as the seasons progress and all the trees in town get all covered in leaves again, it will make them generally look better. And I will be really looking forward to next fall when the trees at the Courthouse go very golden as do many of the trees on the hillside in this photo.
Almost 2 months later and what have we been doing?
Well, our area has had an early spring with all the snow gone and temps well above normal since early March which 'used to be' still winter around here. Last weekend, the 9th and 10th of April were pushing the 80s which is really warmer than the average upper 40s to low 50s for this time of year, but no records were broken, it just got close.
Everything in the plant world is going green very fast and already flowers and dandelions are blooming as well as many of the bugs are out like the mosquitoes and hornets are out buzzing around again. We had the snow tires off the Prius in mid March since the snow was gone.
With the time change on March 13th the days instantly were longer but the news reports the days are still getting longer at almost 2 minutes a day this far North as the rush is on for the summer solstice. Around our house the Robins are back and waking me up pretty much every day around 4:30 to 5:30 in the morning as they are screaming to attract a mate!
Also in February, Stacy graduated to the ranks of us now older Americans by going through her first colonoscopy. Luckily nothing was found, so at least 10 years for her until the next one. I had mine done back in 2013.
2016, a new camera and equipment, including a new laptop.
In late February I was asked to be the reception photographer for a friend at work's, 2 daughters. She has 4 girls and 2 are already married with her younger 2 getting married, one right after the other and the youngest at 19 was married in March with the one up older getting married next week with her reception next Friday evening. I had done the youngest daughter's graduation photographs.
As they were, and are, getting married out of the area, the family is having local receptions for all that couldn't attend those out of area weddings and receptions.
Thanks to Stacy and her father (yup, he's still kicking) I upgraded camera equipment to include indoor lighting and reflectors with speedlights (flash units) and stands with umbrella kits. Two flashes, two mid size LED panel lights with diffusers and stands for lights and or umbrellas.
As with many things nowadays, Amazon is, in my experience and opinion, the best resource for good, affordable, photography equipment. eBay is too, but I like the reviews of equipment on Amazon for gauging quality.
We also spent the big bucks this time and upgraded a camera too. I went "full frame" and got a Nikon D750 camera and two new lenses, a 50mm prime and a 'kit lens' of 24 to 120 that came with the camera. While I've had no real issues with my D7000 Nikon, and that model was a great step up from the D60, I can honestly say after using the D750, I didn't know what I was missing!
The photo images with the D750 were, and are, fantastic!
What started the upgrade discussion was the two photo jobs so Stacy's father had wanted to get me a Leica camera he'd read about in a magazine, and while it sounded nice, at $7,000.00 I couldn't really justify to use it, let alone afford any lenses for it!
Since I went from the D60 to the D7000, and still having those cameras and several lenses that work with either that would also work with any new Nikon, I explained that while he felt the Leica was a 'forever' camera like he grew up always hearing about, the Nikon DSLR line is, to me, just as dependable and forever, for a lot less money, and as said above I feel I'm already invested in Nikon to want to get a whole new brand of camera as well as new lenses, accessories, etc.
The venue for these receptions was / is the large "Multipurpose / Gym - Room" in the local Mormon Church. I'm not quite sure yet how next weeks will be decorated and how the room lights might be used but the one on March 19th was very dark as the bride wanted more "mood" lighting.
Luckily with Stacy helping as co-photographer using the D60 in automatic mode and with both cameras in "RAW" mode, which just means the complete photo file is uncompressed and way more usable to editing, I was able to make most of the over 600 photos very usable and lighten up those often too dark photos.
With the higher megapixels of the D750, 24 MP, it also gave me the ability to crop, or zoom in, into certain areas of a single shot with no loss of photo quality, very nice!
Above: all the lights on with the finishing touches getting done before it started, and
Below: the actual room lighting with the overhead lights off
Below: this photo of the couple dancing was cropped in a bit to make the photo fit them better. But one can see the challenge of even a diffused flash in a generally dark room and her with the really white wedding dress and his really black suit.
After getting all the photos together I started to edit them and then I found out I didn't have any computer with the processor and RAM necessary to handle editing those very large 20 MP RAW files from the D750! I mean, yes, I could work on the photos, it just took almost 2 minutes for the computer to process any changes for each photo!
So a new laptop was in order for now and future portable, on the go, use! My last laptop was just before we'd moved here so about 10 years ago!
Stacy and I found a great price on a Toshiba laptop with 12GB of RAM, a 3 Ghz processor and 1 TB of storage. Lightweight and thin, it still even had a DVD drive installed so that was the one to get! I was going to go Amazon as I do most of the time but we actually found the laptop at the Staples in Sandpoint and for less than the similar setup was on Amazon by over $300.00.
Now editing is no problem and even the large D750 files just take seconds. The smaller files of the D60, 10 Mega Pixel or the D7000 16 MP are even faster.
At least with some better weather I'm getting the quadcopter flying more often!
Yes and I'm enjoying the photos and video I'm getting. I've been getting the town as I like having those photos up in my office so I'd been working on those right now. I'll be getting more as the seasons progress and all the trees in town get all covered in leaves again, it will make them generally look better. And I will be really looking forward to next fall when the trees at the Courthouse go very golden as do many of the trees on the hillside in this photo.
Above: Taken on a early Sunday morning, the town landmark large USA flag in the light Easterly winds that day. The flag stands at memorials for the Veterans and others in the darker gray area at the base. The building to the right is the county library.
Below: the "J" shaped building in the photo is the Post Office. It was built in the late 1930s and we work on the second floor of the building. It used to also house the Border Patrol until they moved to the 3 million dollar government facility built a few miles North. The photo above is towards hill in this photo to give some perspective to the old town layout. On the right edge the building is the County Sheriff's Office and the parking lot is to the market.
Above: looking Northward across the Kootenai River, which flows right to left in the photo, looking to the older home neighborhoods, an old schoolhouse that's now a bed and breakfast, the hospital and so on. The smoke is from burning of "slash piles"that happens in the spring and fall since usually in the summer there's often a burn ban. But people make piles of branches and dead trees and burn them if they don't want to haul them to the dump which is located on top of the ridgeline in this photo. To the left are one of the several sets of train tracks that run through the town and to the right is the main highway, 95 and go to Canada, North, or the 2 and go to Montana and East when the highways split at "3 Mile Junction". Or if coming down the road you could be going all the way to Mexico going South on the 95 or go West to Seattle on the 2.
Above: at the pull out entrance to the Kootenai Wildlife Refuge with the big signage and the refuge as far as you can see to the mountains in the photo.
Below: taken just last Sunday the 10th since was a basically windless evening and the afternoon sun getting low. It was really good "Golden Hour" lighting!
Even with all the early Spring weather we're having, most places that are seasonal in the North are still closed and don't open until mid May or Memorial Day.
Stacy and I are really looking forward to the summer RV trip we've been planning for a couple of months that includes taking daughter Sandy and the grand daughters! All this early warm weather is making us really want those trip days to get here faster!
I have a card that was hacked, AGAIN!
This just happened in the last week with me having to file a charge dispute and order a new card yesterday.
Several years ago this had happened to me. I later found out someone, I think that worked at the mini-mart in town when I'd gotten gas, had copied my card numbers as it was all various local destinations when it was discovered and all the charges were tracked back. Even one of the orders was delivered to me at the post office since the area is small and they knew my address wasn't the one on the box so it got to me if someone else was waiting for it.
At that time I didn't monitor my account that closely so back then it was the bank that contacted me asking about a rash of small charges over several weeks to businesses I never use or buy from.
They, the bank, called me and closed the account and then it took 6 months to dispute the over $200.00 in charges, but all was finally settled.
Since then I started to closely monitor my account and last week I had seen a charge for a purchase from Nike.com for over $100.00. Now, I don't buy shoes of any kind online and wouldn't ever spend that much for any shoes let alone sports shoes!
The next day I was going to check into it but it had gone from a charge to a credit. Stacy and I talked and we figured someone had made a mistake someplace and it had been caught, OK, no problem.
Then Monday there's a new charge from a place called fastline.com for $74.87, I knew I hadn't ordered anything for that amount and when I looked it up it was yet another sports shoes place!
So, hacked again!
I did an online chat with the bank and that was the end of that card! The online rep closed the account right then and started the dispute paperwork, I just had to go to the branch and sign it.
The bank people said anymore "it just happens"!
You do your best and make sure you keep track of your accounts to catch them if the bad guys (or gals) get to an account you have.
Tell next time, and I'll try to make it not so long!
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