It’s been almost three years since we took a ride on the Alaskan Railway to Denali and then to Fairbanks. All along the way there are scenes like this one of the Talkeetna River as the dome car in which we rode passed northbound from Anchorage.
Vacation
Verna’s Water Zen
Gaze and Relax
You may have noticed the “Verna’s Water Zen” widget in the sidebar. This is the story behind that.
Verna likes the light patterns that water makes when sunlight dances through it. Whether in a swimming pool, in a river, in a marina channel or in a shallow harbor, it doesn’t matter, she likes the shimmering ripples.
Last September (2007), we spent our anniversary, as usual, on Catalina Island. We go to Avalon every year since that’s where we got married. While we were there, we took a lot of pictures and a few movies.
While we were waiting on the Green Pier for our glass-bottom boat tour. I leaned over the rail and captured this short sequence of the rippling water in the harbor. I used my little Canon A710 IS digital camera in AVI mode. I pointed the camera straight down and captured about ten seconds of video. When I showed the preview to Verna, she said it was relaxing like ‘Water Zen.’
So, when we got home, I converted the short video to Flash® and popped it in the sidebar as a remembrance to our time in Avalon and an opportunity to ‘gaze and relax.’
More Grand Canyon
I still have the wanderlust bug today. I’ll put up this photo of Verna enjoying a very nice view of the canyon last summer. Click for the nice 1024×768 resolution.
Grand Canyon Rain
One day last summer, we were visiting the Grand Canyon. The weather was intermittent rain, but the views were spectacular. This view of the canyon is looking west from South Rim Drive between Grand Canyon Village and Desert View. Click on the image for the larger view.
Earlier in the day, we were in Sedona and drove up to the canyon through Flagstaff, where we got gas and did some shopping for sundries and ammunition at WAL*MART. The store in North Torrance has no ammo concession in their sporting goods section. We got several boxes of 100 Winchester 9mm rounds at a very reasonable price.
We stopped at several of the roadside vistas at the canyon, including Desert View, where the Watchtower is located. I stood next to the canyon to pose as Verna took this picture of me. It only looks like I’m on the edge of the cliff, but there was actually another ledge just below the rim. I have terrible vertigo and don’t normally like to stand next to a sheer cliff. Click image to enlarge.
Later that day we drove out of the National Park to Cameron, where we spent that night before heading out to the four corners area the next day.
Ahhhh . . . the wanderlust. Sitting here at my desk, it’s all I can do to get myself back to work. Oh well, I’ve only got 1 year, 6 months, 14 Days and 3 Hours or so to go – but who’s counting?
The Rain Train
It looks like we’re in for a bit of rain here in Southern California. We can use the rain, but it’s going to be showers all weekend. It reminds me of our trip to Alaska in July 2005, when it seemed to rain everyday in Anchorage and Denali. This is a shot of our train pulling into Denali station as we were getting ready to go to Fairbanks. Of course, it was pouring.
Fairbanks, thankfully, was dry when we visited there.
Another New Shooter – A Digital Camera
In a few days, I am getting a brand-new Canon Digital Rebel XTi camera. My current camera, a Digital Rebel 300D, is still a great camera and takes beautiful pictures. I’m not exactly going to retire it, but likely it will be in my camera bag as a standby camera (like with a telephoto or wide-angle lens). All my old lenses will work with the new camera. The old camera can be at the ready should I need it during the next air show or vacation or whatever.
I’m so excited. I’ll be here on Monday.
Here is an excerpt from a review at Digital Photography Review:
Almost exactly three years since Canon changed the digital SLR market forever (with the $1,000 EOS 300D) they announced the third generation of their affordable entry level series, the EOS 400D (Digital Rebel XTi). This new camera follows the design of the EOS 350D, being very compact and relatively lightweight but not compromising on manual controls or in-use performance. The headline changes are another two megapixel step up (to ten megapixels), the nine-point AF sensor from the EOS 30D, a new dust removal system which includes anti-static surface coatings, low-pass filter vibration and software based dust pattern removal. Less important but just as noticeable are the removal of the status LCD, replaced instead by a camera settings screen on the now larger 2.5″ LCD monitor and the eye proximity sensor just below the viewfinder to turn this off when composing your shot.
