tigertoy

I went to Homer Lake today, armed with my trusty 75-300 lens and a plan to hike around the lake.  If I had stopped to listen before I left the house, I probably would have been able to hear the whine of the mosquito hordes from 10 miles away.  Luckily for you, dear viewers, I neglected that step, and more surprisingly, I was able to drag my shriveled blood drained carcass out of the Salt Fork bottomlands to bring you these pictures.

We may have our first frost this weekend.  Even if we don't, it will freeze soon, and the butterflies will be gone until next year, so today's post is dedicated to the insects I love.  Not so much to those that love me.  (Mmm, tastes like chicken!)


Some sort of fritillary.

( more pictures inside )

Canon has announced two new D-SLR cameras.

The 1Ds Mark III upgrades the previous world's best camera, the 1DsII, adding 20% more pixels, 14 bit A/D, some clever algorithms to use the two extra bits to rescue detail in nearly washed-out highlights, a 3" diagonal screen, and the ability to frame the shot with the screen rather than the viewfinder like any $200 camera. And it does it all at the same price point as the 1DsII.  Unfortunately, that's still $7999, and I won't be getting one any time soon.

Far more dangerous, though, they have also announced the long-anticipated 40D.  This upgrades the 30D, adding most of the cool stuff that's new in the 1DsIII.  In particular, the image sensor cleaning, a feature I really need.  Plus, software that purports to edit out the dust that the sensor cleaning system doesn't get.  But it also adds the 14 bit A/D, the bigger screen, and the Live View (frame using the screen rather than the viewfinder, which is really useful when you need to hold the camera up over your head).  And it, too, is at the same price point as the model it replaces, $1299.  I definitely want this camera.  Really, I want two of them, because when I'm seriously photographing, I already carry two bodies, and two dust-free image sensors would be a major win.

I finally placed the B&H order (for a replacement 200-500mm Tamron, a replacement Hakuba tripod, the Canon 17-85mm lens, a battery grip, and assorted minor accessories) on Monday.  B&H didn't act on it until Wednesday, which slightly troubled me, but it was in UPS's tracking system on Wednesday.  And Wednesday night, they were claiming it would be delivered Friday, which I didn't expect, since that would be two day service and I only paid for 3-5 day ground service.  And it was coming from New York.

But this morning, they said it was on the truck in Urbana.

( a day of hassles and an evening of glee (and recriminations) )

Apologies to those who already saw this on the GT list, but I'll reach some other eyes this way.

In the very near future, I'm going to be placing a large order with B&H,
for a couple of lenses plus some accessories for my Canon D-SLRs. Does
anyone have informed advice on any of the following topics? Feel free
to email me privately if you doubt the list is interested in the answers.

( list enclosed )

Shopping last night so I'd have milk and bananas for breakfast today, I ran into an old co-worker from the late 1980's I think I've seen once since that job went south.  It was kind of interesting to chat with him but I really was in a hurry.

Gaming was good.  We played Ticket to Ride Marklin, and my instincts for general Ticket to Ride strategy proved sufficient; I was in last place before scoring destination tickets, but I had the most tickets and finished in first place.

The dogs were safely picked up from Jim and Robin last night.  Windy is pretty much the same -- signs of major internal trouble and he's lost a third of his fur, but he's still in good spirits.

The last memory card finished copying into the temporary holding directory last night while I slept.  2698 images from the trip.

Got up and got to the post office to get my mail; turned out they are open half an hour later than I remembered so I could have fiddled around a little longer before going.

Now, as I write this, I'm starting to sort the images.  (There are a bunch of "wait for a bunch of files to copy" steps in my work flow.)

My trip itinerary was:

Thursday, June 15: Drove to Wisconsin.  Stopped at Castle Rock wayside on I-90/94 (exit 55 on I-90, just before Tomah), a quite impressive rock formation, well worth stopping.  Spent the night in Tomah.

Friday, June 16: Spent a few hours at Black River State Forest along I-94.  Drove to Minneapolis, found the motel, found the pre-wedding party, had a good time, found the motel again.

Saturday, June 17: Found Minnehaha Park in the morning. Took a bunch of pictures of the falls area.  Lunch at the park restaurant.  Wandered around, eventually found the wedding site.  Wedding.  Trouble (see below).  Potluck after reception, then found the after-wedding music party, and the motel again.

Sunday, June 18: Drove north.  Visited Gooseberry Falls, Split Rock Lighthouse, and Temperance River on the way to motel in Grand Marais.

Monday, June 19: Drove north again, stopped at Kadunce Creek, visited Grand Portage State Park (Pigeon Falls) and Judge C. R. Magney State Park (Brule River), then back to Grand Marais.

Tuesday, June 20: Briefly north again, explored Kadunce Creek upstream, thoroughly explored Temperance River, stopped at Cross River, found motel in Illgen City, quick look at Palisade Head.

Wednesday, June 21: A couple miles up Highway 1 to the Baptism River crossing at Eckbeck Campground, spent most of the day at Tettegouche State Park (Baptism River), Palisade Head again, dinner at Northern Lights restaurant at Beaver Bay, then a wayside a bit past Split Rock Lighthouse at dusk because the lighthouse was actually lit.  Then on to Duluth for the night.

Thursday, June 22: Visited Banning State Park and Wild River State Park, then headed down along the Great River Road, stopping at Interstate State Park and Afton State Park.  No more significant stops, due to poor time management/planning, but nice views.  All motels full at Winona; finally found a Wendy's in La Crosse and a motel in Sparta.

Friday, June 23: Just drove home.

( the bad stuff )

In spite of the bad things, I had a wonderful time up there.

birder2 has been telling me about this great place for birdwatching, just a few miles from my house, where the Great Blue Herons have a colony of nests, for a couple of years.  But the road to the place has been under construction and it's been more or less impossible to get there.  The construction is finished, though, and she finally took me there.  For my own reference, and perhaps of interest to other people reading this, you get there by taking Henning Road north from US 150 (just east of the M.L.King exit on I-74) past the entrance to Kennekuck Cove County Park, take the first right (2300 N), then the first left, and then after a mile or so, right on West Newell Road, following the sign to Heron Park.  (I believe West Newell Road can also be reached from the other side, from Illinois Rt. 1, but that involves going through Danville.

( pictures of the facilities at Heron Park )

I decided to spend the afternoon at Kickapoo State Park, since it was much too nice to stay inside.  I went exploring in the area of the park south of I-74, places I pretty much hadn't been.  And I took the camera, decked out with the 500mm lens and the 1.4x teleconverter, because I was really hoping to get pictures of birds, and they just won't let me get close.  For the most part I was feeling more like just enjoying the walk than aggressively taking pictures, but I still came back with 140 or so shots, and I'm going to present a bunch of them here.

( click for lots of pictures )

I took a walk at Homer Lake on Saturday with my camera.  I meant to post more comprehensively about it, but I've had no energy today, and every time I try to focus, I find myself dithering about which image I want to work with.  But I do want to post something before I head off for dinner, and this is something I can do fairly quickly.

( look here to see one tiny subject I photographed )

Here’s a few pictures from Sunday at EFRC.

( click here for ~300K of cat images )

When I was planning my trip, I wasn't actually planning on seeing the Shuttle launch.  I just figured that while I was driving to Florida seeing things that should be seen, it made sense to plan on seeing the Kennedy Space Center, and Tuesday, July 26 was the day that fit into my schedule to do it.  By the time NASA seemed pretty definite that they were actually launching on the day that I was going to be there, it was only T minus a couple of days and I was already on the road.  On the one hand, it was cool that I would get to see the Shuttle go up; on the other hand, it was going to mean that I would have to deal with a big crowd, and I wouldn't actually see the Space Center.  At least, the literature says that it's not open to tours on Shuttle launch days, and I assume everyone is too busy doing real work on that day to deal with herding tourists.
( Pictures and some narrative of my Shuttle launch experience )