Scattered Thoughts . . .

The second of two used Canon lenses I had purchased arrived the other night and I had a chance to wander outside this morning to see how well it works on my Sony camera body.  Unfortunately, this second Canon lens is not nearly as fast at autofocusing as the first Canon lens I had purchased a few days ago so I'm a bit disappointed. I was hoping this lens would help resolve some of my longer telephoto woes but now I'm not so sure.  I'm definitely keeping that first lens that I played with the other day to use for landscapes, architecture, cityscapes, and maybe even some indoor wide angle photography. This telephoto lens... I don't know... I'm still undecided. The photos are contrasty and sharp which is quite impressive for such an inexpensive lens but the autofocus is so slow on my Sony camera body that I know it would be too slow for its intended purpose... wildlife photos. I don't need blazingly fast autofocus but I do need reasonably fast... acceptable..

As many readers already know, not only do I struggle with a debilitating and incurable illness but Sheila has had breast cancer and continues to deal with all sorts of things related to that. I don't often write about Sheila's journey through cancer on this blog but, today, it is worth mentioning here since she has (we have) had a rough couple of months.  Sheila has been what is referred to as "cancer free" for almost a decade but the lingering symptoms, constant appointments, tests, exams, and anxiously awaiting lab results... on pins and needles... never ends. Our past two months have been like this... yet again. As I've mentioned in previous blog entries, Sheila has lingering problems related to her cancer and cancer treatment as do virtually all cancer patients but some patients have it worse than others. Since a cancer patient will always be a high risk cancer patient because history has proven that those with cancer once are far more likely to develop new

Here is a short video of us waiting  for Amtrak's Vermonter  at the Waterbury train station before boarding for Lukey and Kenzie's first train trip... I will share another video and more photos soon...

Yesterday, we surprised the grandchildren with their first journey on Amtrak!  I'm completely worn out today so I'm only going to share a few photos and write a short preview of our day... Lukey and Kenzie have been itching for a train ride for years (especially on Amtrak) so we finally arranged schedules with Liza, Nan and Pop and threw together a trip on Amtrak so Lukey and Kenzie could finally get to experience a day trip on Amtrak. The kids didn't know anything about this trip until shortly before getting in the car to head to the train station so it was a complete surprise for them. By the time Nan and Pop arrived at the station to join us, both Kenzie and Lukey were very excited about this much anticipated journey. The plan was to board Amtrak in Waterbury heading south... find a place to stop to have lunch... then hop on the northbound Amtrak to head back to Waterbury.  We knew we would need a three to four hour layover to have time for lunch and unforeseen

Today, in just a couple of hours, we will be taking the grandchildren on another new adventure!  We've had this trip planned for months but we've been keeping it a secret from the kids.  Funny thing is, I had heard through the grapevine that Kenzie and Lukey were asking about this weekend just the other night... Kenzie wants to go to 'The Christmas Loft' and out to lunch and Lukey asked to go to Disney. Liza told them they couldn't go to the Christmas Loft nor Disney this weekend but that they might be able to go out to lunch and left it at that. Then, Lukey asked if they could visit the train station this weekend since they didn't get to stop there earlier in the week...  Actually, we are taking the kids on their first Amtrak trip so they will be visiting the train station... and there, they will be surprised by Gee and Papa and Nan and Pop! We'll be getting on Amtrak's 'Vermonter' this morning, heading south... having some lunch and wal

Two years ago, I purchased a Sony camera. It is, by far, the best camera I have ever used in my life (and I've used a lot of them over the past 40 years) but the selection of lenses available for this new Sony camera is rather poor.  Sony produced this outstanding camera line and keeps pumping out new models of cameras bodies in this new line but Sony has been exceptionally slow at filling out a full line of lenses. To say I've been frustrated by this delay is a huge understatement. I'd like to get rid of all my old gear (other brands not worth mentioning here nor anywhere else) but I've been hanging onto and using my old gear to make up for the holes in the Sony lens lineup. The problem with trying to use my old gear is that I've advanced enough in photography that these older cameras are even more frustrating for me than Sony being slow to fill out their lens lineup. I really should also mention that after using this new Sony camera, I do not enjoy using any of

The other day, I shared some photos here of the grandkids having a leaf fight with Gee out in the backyard. I really like those photos because they show a lot of candid emotion. I actually had a little bit of difficulty shooting photos because I was laughing. It really was a nice few minutes. This morning, I decided to compile those photos into a time lapse animation...

After Gee, Lukey and Kenzie made chocolate chip cookies, I was exhausted and in desperate need of a nap so I moved over to the couch where "The Santa Claus" was playing on the television while everyone else cleaned up the kitchen. The kids were exhausted also so I was hoping they would follow me to the couch... no such luck.  I awoke a fairly short time later (it seemed like a short time later, anyway) to the sounds of giggling outside. I got up and went to the window to see if I could figure out the reason for all the wild giggling... Lukey and Kenzie were having a leaf fight with Gee! I grabbed my camera... swapped lenses for my medium telephoto lens... opened the living room window... and started shooting photos from a distance... At this point, Kenzie grabbed her sweatshirt and came inside to see what Papa was doing... I somehow shot more than 500 ph

After creating some artwork to send overseas to Uncle Adam, the kids jumped into making some chocolate chip cookies from scratch. First, Gee measured out each of the necessary ingredients and put them in separate bowls... then the kids added the dry ingredients together in one big bowl... then they added all the wet ingredients in another big bowl... Lukey mixed up the dry ingredients with a whisk while Kenzie mixed up the wet ingredients with a big wooden spoon... Then, they broke some eggs into separate bowls... then added each bowl to the big bowl of wet ingredients... Adding some vanilla... Little by little, they added the dry ingredients to the bowl of wet ingredients... and taking turns scooping out the dry ingredients and adding them to the big bowl of wet ingredients... Then, making nice little balls of dough... ...well... mostly nice little balls of dough... The cookies were delicious and, unlike pre-made