Posts Tagged Point and shoot
May 4, 2010 – Cherry Blossoms
Posted by Dave in Flowers, Macro, Picture of the Day, Washington State on May 4, 2010
Cherry Blossoms
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
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Oh man, almost ran out of time for a post today. I have an excuse though – I had to go see my eye doctor, which means my eyes are totally dilated. As a result, I can’t see a damn thing on my screen. I mean, I can see big stuff, but I can’t see text. Which means, I can’t really see what I’m typing. I think I’m doing pretty well with the whole typing thing because 1) I sort of do it for a living so I have a pretty good feeling when I screw up, and 2) I can see the little red squiggly lines, so I can say with authority that there are no misspelled words in this post, even though some of the words themselves might be wrong. Whatever.
Every spring, a bunch of trees around Seattle (well, around a lot of places) turn bright fluffy pink. That always weirds me out. I’ve heard the right term for the pinkness is “cherry blossoms”, so I’m going with that, even though I’m almost positive they aren’t cherry trees per se, so I’m not quite sure how the term cherry blossoms applies. Not important. What *is* important is that, to this day, I can’t figure out how to get the picture I want out of them. I just.. can’t do it. I tried for years and years, and I could never really do it. I’ve kind of given up trying the last couple years, but the dream is still alive. Some of them turn out okay, but I KNOW there’s a totally amazing picture to be had of them, and I also know that I haven’t gotten it yet. This particular one was taken way back in 2004, all I had at the time was a 3 megapixel pocket-sized point and shoot. (Well, I had my 35mm SLR too, but that was well past the time that I never used that thing anymore.) It’s been sitting around for quite awhile, but I just realized that back then, I didn’t take the time to touch up any of my pictures, so it was dark and uninteresting. So I went through the pics from that day in Picasa, and brightened up a bit, and.. they’re at least better than they were before. Good enough for posting late in the day on a Tuesday, for sure. Since the blossoms are done for 2010, this’ll have to do until at least next year.
Notes: Canon PowerShot S230 (Point and shoot). 1/125s, f/2.8.
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April 26, 2010 – Craters of the Moon
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day on April 26, 2010
Craters of the Moon National Monument
Monday, April 26, 2010
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HEY! Guess what!!!! Oh, you already knew this was the 200th post? Oh. Well. Umm. This is awkward.
I made it to 200!! I never thought I’d make it past 50, much less up to 200. Also, I thought at this point I’d be totally scraping the bottom of the barrel looking for pictures each day. But, in a rare moment of something other than modesty, I’m going to point out that I’m NOT. I’ve got A WHOLE LOT of mediocre pictures left to post! Don’t be surprised when I’m celebrating my 300th post, is all I’m sayin’. I’ve been doing this for almost a whole year now (sshhhh, don’t tell anyone, but the one year anniversary of my first post is coming up real quick here too.) Feel free to congratulate me if you feel it’s necessary. I mean, it totally is… The ball’s in your court, that’s all I’m sayin’. That, and that you shouldn’t be surprised when I’m celebrating my 300th post. That is all I am saying. That, and all this other stuff that I’m saying.
This picture was taken in Craters of the Moon National Monument, which is in southern Idaho. It’s called that I think because of the expansive lava fields that you can’t see any of in this picture. Something relating to that, anyway. I was driving through shortly before sunset, so I didn’t get much time to explore. But, it was pretty, so it’s on my list of places to go back to when I’ve got more time. This picture is interesting for another reason too. As I was driving through, I obviously stopped several times to take what pictures I could in the failing light. But I also snapped a fair number of pictures with the point and shoot while I was driving past. A “hey, that looks pretty, I should grab a picture so I remember what it looked like” kind of thing. Most of them are good for just that – reminding me what places looked like. But they’re driving pictures. They’re blurry, they’re tilted, they often miss the thing I was trying to take a picture of. But, occasionally (very rarely, but not never) there’s actually something cool in some of them. This is one of those times. Originally I had passed over all of these pics as generally worthless. But way after the fact, I decided on a whim to look a little closer, and lo and behold, I found something worth keeping. Awesome.
Okay, that’s it for today. Don’t forget to become a fan of or “Like” (whatever they’re calling it these days) my Facebook page if you haven’t already. Big numbers there make me feel awesome, and feeling awesome makes me feel good. Hope you all stick around for the next 200!
Notes: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS (Point and shoot). 1/160s, f/2.8, ISO 80.
Popularity: 5%
April 15, 2010 – Silver Queen Mountain
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day, Washington State, Winter/Snow on April 15, 2010
Silver Queen Mountain, Crystal Mountain Ski Resort
Thursday, April 15, 2010
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Hey everyone, happy tax day! Well, it’s happy for those of us that already finished, which at this point should be all of us, right? I actually only finished a couple days ago. I like to wait until the last minute, just in case, you know, something changes. I still hold out hope that one year, on April 10, they’ll just decide “You know what, guys? This tax thing is all a bit ridiculous, let’s just bag it this year, eh?” One day, one day…
Today’s picture comes from Crystal Mountain Ski Resort, just like the majority of my wintertime pictures. This was taken at the top of Silver Queen Mountain, which is at the top of the High Campbell chair. I believe it’s the highest lift-served point in the ski area, although I haven’t verified that against the Northway lift. You can of course hike up to the top of Silver King and still technically be in-bounds, but this is as high as you can get at Crystal on a lift. Today’s picture is also interesting because it’s the second picture in a row that I’ve posted that was taken with a point and shoot. I’m not really sure WHY that’s interesting, but it feels like it is.
Notes: Canon PowerShot SD700 IS. 1/1600s, f/5.6.
So now I’m done talking about today’s picture. Wait, what’s that? You want more? Well, today, I can hook you up. I’m starting to work on a new page detailing out the equipment that I currently use, as well as the equipment I’ve used in the past. I’m even adding links for each item to a list of Picture of the Day posts USING that item. Pretty sweet, huh? Yeah, totally. Here’s a link to the page, or you can click on “My Equipment” on the tabs up above. Currently it’s just got the stuff I’m using now, but I hope to one day have an exhaustive list on there, including all the lenses that I’ve ever used, and a list of all of the little point and shoot cameras that I ever remember owning. That’ll be pretty neat. Pretty neat indeed.
Popularity: 13%
April 14, 2010 – Wenatchee National Forest
Posted by Dave in Fall Color, Picture of the Day, Washington State on April 14, 2010
Autumn in Wenatchee National Forest
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
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Hey everyone! It’s Wednesday, which means it’s time to post another picture. I had a tough time picking one today, I’m not sure why. Some days, it’s easy. Like, the day after getting home from Jamaica. I figured I should post something from Jamaica. (Well, then I had to pick WHICH picture from Jamaica to use, but that just came down to the first one I saw that was good enough.) Some days, it’s harder than that, but still not too hard. Like if it’s been awhile since I’ve posted a picture of a flower, I figure I should post a picture of a flower. Today though, I had no clue what I wanted to toss up here. I literally decided on 25 different pictures but then changed my mind before it made it up on the page.
In the end, I decided to go with this one. It’s a pretty old one, from before the time that I had my first digital SLR. (I had a 35mm SLR way back in the day, but I never really liked using it – the advantages of digital were SO blatant in my mind that the 35mm started collecting dust almost immediately after I got my little pocket digital, which was just a little 2mp POS. I’ve never looked back since, even though that meant spending a few years SLR-less.) But, I like the colors. Fall color shots always put me in a good mood, even in the spring when I should be getting excited about the nice weather that I keep hearing rumors is on its way. (But let’s be honest, I’m in Seattle, it won’t be summer here until July 5th.)
This was taken in Wenatchee National Forest, sort of between Blewett Pass and Leavenworth. For those outside of Washington state, that’s like me saying it was taken somewhere between NYC and Boston. In other words, I’m being kind of vague. But that’s fine for today. Most of the forest is evergreen, but there are definitely pockets of deciduous trees and bushes, particularly along the rivers. So you get some nice color if you know where to look. I don’t know the right way to wrap up today’s post.
Notes: Canon PowerShot S500 (Point and Shoot). 1/200s, f/3.2.
Popularity: 6%
March 11, 2010 – Spring Blooms
Posted by Dave in Flowers, Picture of the Day on March 11, 2010
Spring blooms
Thursday, March 11, 2010
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Today’s picture is an old one that I dug out from the archives. It’s getting to be that time of year now, so I figured I’d should start tossing some of these into the mix. (I saw my first rhododendrons the other day. Whaaaat?! Where’d my ski season go?!) I’m not sure what those green ones are in front, but the red ones in back are rhodies. I love rhododendrons, mostly because I actually know what they are, and I can look (and sound!) smart by pointing at them and saying to whoever is nearby “Hey, aren’t those rhododendrons nice??”
Seattle’s an interesting place in the spring. On the one hand, it’s absolutely gorgeous, because there are rhododendron bushes EVERYWHERE, so all along the streets there are these wild splashes of color. And they come in all sorts of shades too, red, yellow, white, blue, purple, anything you want. Pretty nice. But on the other hand, the weather sucks. Winter’s fine, because even though it’s cloudy and raining all the time, you can at least know that it’s snowing in the mountains, so the skiing will be good. But in the spring, the clouds just linger, and linger, and linger. Long past the closing dates of all the ski hills. Long past when you start hearing on the news how nice and warm it is in the rest of the country. Typically it’s not until the beginning of July that we finally kick the cloudy-with-temps-in-the-low-60′s weather. So it’s a bittersweet time. It’s really the only season that I haven’t grown to love in Seattle. Summer? Outstanding. 75 and sunny every day. Winter? Fantastic skiing. Fall? Have you SEEN the fall color shots I’ve posted?? Spring? Hmm. Pass.
Anyway, I wish I got more of the green flowers in focus. Oh well.
Notes: Canon PowerShot S500 (Point and shoot). 1/200s, f/4.0.
Popularity: 5%
March 4, 2010 – Iceberg Ridge
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day, Washington State, Winter/Snow on March 4, 2010
Iceberg Ridge, Crystal Mountain Ski Resort
Thursday, March 4, 2010
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As many of you know, I tend to really really dislike having people in my pictures. (Well, with the obvious exception of pictures of my family which generally aren’t intended for public consumption, blah blah blah…) I’m not sure why I shy away from it so much. Maybe it’s because the fashions that look good when you take the picture can look horribly dated before much time passes (seeing somebody wearing some ridiculous outfit in an otherwise really beautiful wilderness setting completely changes/ruins the picture, in my opinion anyway), or maybe it’s just because I only know ugly people. But whatever the reason, I really try to keep my pictures people-free. It’s a shame though, because having people in your pictures can definitely add value, it’s really good for adding scale, and it can really draw the viewers in, help them imagine themselves actually being there. Or so I’ve heard, not sure if I’m buying it.
All that being said, I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for this image. It may only be that nice deep blue in the sky. Blue makes me happy. Not sure. But whatever it is, I think I’ve always liked this one more than other people do. Stupid other people. Not you, of course. Like, *other* other people.
Notes: Canon PowerShot S500 (Point and shoot). 1/1500s, f/7.1.
Popularity: 10%
February 22, 2010 – Black Tusk from Whistler Mountain
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day, Winter/Snow on February 22, 2010
Black Tusk from Whistler Mountain
Monday, February 22, 2010
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Wow, Monday again. Not totally unexpected, but still. I decided that this week, I’m going to post only pictures from around Vancouver and Whistler in honor of the Olympics. This probably would have been more appropriate to do LAST week, but you know how it goes – with the time-delay broadcasting and everything, it took this long for the idea to reach the west coast.
Today, you’re looking at the million dollar view from the top of Whistler Mountain: the view out toward Black Tusk. (Yeah, that little cliff-thing poking up there on the left.) Given the predominant weather patterns we get here in the Pacific Northwest, it’s never a sure thing that you’ll be able to see it, but when you can it’s pretty cool. You can basically see it from anywhere along the top ridge (basically anywhere between the top of the Symphony Express and the Peak Chair), and I think this particular view was most of the way from the Peak Chair to the Saddle. (Blah blah blah, yeah, I realize you probably haven’t been there and thus these names are all meaningless. I’m totally just showing off how well I know the mountain at this point. Because I am awesome, obviously.)
Honestly, I’m fairly surprised that they placed the ski courses where they did. They put them all way down at the bottom of Whistler Mountain. But if you’ve been to Whistler more than once or twice, you know that the lower mountain sucks way more often than it’s good. I mean, you’re dealing with more than 5,000 feet of vertical here. The top of the mountain is nearly always fantastic, and the bottom of the mountain is nearly always crappy. So… why put the courses down where it’s crappy? Not only that, imagine how much more awesome the views would be as the cameras followed the racers down the hill if they had this kind of background instead of just grubby trees everywhere? I mean, sure, the visibility tends to be better down low (because when the fog rolls in, the upper mountain is worthless), but still. Hmm. Whatever, I’m sure they have their reasons. Grumble grumble grumble.
See you all tomorrow, right?
Notes: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS (Point and shoot). 1/400s, f/11.0.
Popularity: 12%
February 8, 2010 – Snoqualmie Pass
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day, Washington State, Winter/Snow on February 8, 2010
Snoqualmie Pass
Monday, February 8, 2010
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Hey everyone, welcome back from your crazy weekend! Today’s post is my humble appeal to the powers that be that, for god’s sake, it’s winter, can we please act like it?? To say that it’s been a crappy season is… well, okay, it’s not an understatement. It’s probably not even an overstatement. It’s certainly a little bit misleading. But it still feels true.
See, it’s an El Nino year. Which can mean very little for us up here in the Pacific Northwest. But it can also be really really frustrating. It can mean, like it has this year, that most of the weather systems miss us by just a little tiny bit, and what systems we do get rolling through are too warm to be of any use except dropping a couple inches of rain/snow mix that help keep the existing snowpack from disappearing any faster than they otherwise would. There’s been a couple nice big dumps, but they’ve been followed a couple days later by rain usually, which kind of defeats the point. Although the big saving grace is that we got absolutely hammered in the early part of November, so we haven’t really had many issues with coverage. It’s just a crappy surface, is all. Ah well, we’ve had a string of great seasons, so tossing a mediocre one in here and there is something we’ll just have to accept.
This is, of course, Snoqualmie Pass. Specifically, this is the view from somewhere over near the Silver Fir chair at Summit Central (formerly known as Ski Acres.) Most of us Seattle-based skiers are guilty of poo-pooing on the Snoqualmie ski areas besides Alpental, myself definitely included. But it’s not really THAT bad. I mean, sure, they’re tiny. And they’re low. And they have a maddening flat part at the bottom that you have to deal with both on the way down and the way back up, but if the conditions are right, it can be decent. And, the views can be a lot better than a lot of people give them credit for. On a midweek powder day, you’ll have Central all to yourself while all of the other hooky-players hit up Alpental and stand around in the 45-minute line for Chair 2. Ah, crap, I just gave away my secret. That’s okay, none of you will believe me anyway.
Speaking of midweek powder days… Nature? You there? A little help here? Please??
Notes: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS (Point and shoot). 1/250s, f/11.0, ISO 80.
Popularity: 7%
January 12, 2010 – Whitefish Mountain Resort
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day, Winter/Snow on January 12, 2010
Flathead Valley, seen from Whitefish Mountain Resort
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
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This is a view looking out over the Flathead Valley from Whitefish Mountain Resort (formerly Big Mountain) in Whitefish, Montana, at something-like-sunset. This is where I’ll be in a couple of days. I am extremely happy about this. The weather isn’t looking like it’ll be perfect (it’ll be mostly cloudy with a chance of only a half inch of snow or so each day), but it will still be fantastic. Because I will be there, and I make everything fantastic. There’s a lesson in there for the rest of you.
Last time I was in Whitefish, I only had a point and shoot camera with me. Because at the time that’s all I owned. This time though, I’m bringing the big guns. Actually, I’m only bringing one big gun. I was originally intending to bring two big guns, intending to use my *old* SLR (the XT) just in case I fell on it. I didn’t want to risk the fancy new one. But, my buddy Dan is borrowing it, and I was too lazy to ask for it back. So I may just have an excuse to spend more money when I get home, we’ll see. But that’s the real reason why I have mixed feelings about the weather. I’m afraid of boring light. Oh well. I’m sure I’ll still have plenty of fun. Do you even realize how cheap the beer is out there?! Oh man, it’s heaven on earth, I swear.
I’m still planning on putting up another post tomorrow before I leave, but then that’ll be it until at least Tuesday of next week, so you’d better enjoy it!
Notes: Canon PowerShot S500 (Point and shoot). 1/250s, f/7.1.
Popularity: 7%
December 31, 2009 – One Lonely Tree
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day, Washington State, Winter/Snow on December 31, 2009
One Lonely Tree
Thursday, December 31, 2009
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Welcome to the end of another year! Who would have ever thought we’d make it this far? Better enjoy the next one, you never know when the world will end catastrophically. This was a fine enough year for me personally, although it seems like everyone I know on Facebook is complaining about how much it sucked and how they hope next year will be better. Perhaps I just had a lot of fun at their expense and now they’re just bitter. Not sure.
This will be the last picture posted in 2009. And, more importantly, it will also be the last picture posted this week. I’ll be back in full-force next week though. I’ll post a pretty good picture on Monday to get you interested, then I’ll sneak in something crappy on Tuesday and/or Wednesday, but then I’ll try to finish the week strong on Friday, because that’s the way I roll. That’s how it’s going to go down. You’ll see.
As with most (all?) of my wintertime pictures, I took this one while I was out skiing (Crystal Mountain this time.) We get a lot of days just like this out here in the Pacific Northwest: poor visibility, but lots of nice fresh snow. Although you can tell it wasn’t THAT big of a powder day, based on how much snow is sitting on the branches. But whatever, not the point. Actually, I don’t think there is a point, so maybe there is, and that was it.
Whatever. Have fun tonight! Do at least one thing that you’ll regret next year!
Notes: Canon PowerShot S500 (Point and shoot). 1/320s, f/10.0.
Popularity: 9%
December 11, 2009 – Glacier Express, Blackcomb
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Picture of the Day, Winter/Snow on December 11, 2009
Glacier Express, Blackcomb Mountain
Friday, December 11, 2009
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Hello again everyone, welcome to another Friday during ski season! To celebrate all of the upcoming turns this weekend, here’s a shot taken on the Glacier Express chair on Blackcomb Mountain. (Which is of course part of Whistler-Blackcomb Ski Resort, where the 2010 Olympics will be held.) I say that, but it’s not actually clear if I’ll be making it up to the hill or not this weekend. But a man can dream, a man can dream…
The day that this picture was taken was exceptional for a lot of reasons. It was taken over Thanksgiving weekend, and before we headed up there they hadn’t really gotten any snow at all, so all of the rooms were super cheap and there was nobody there. But once we got there it started Dumping. (With a capital D, did you notice?!) So the skiing was fantastic. Plus, while the weather on this particular day looked pretty crappy down in the village, once we got up top, as you can see, it was really beautiful. (Don’t believe me? Here’s another example.) That always brings a smile to my face. Know what else brings a smile to my face? The fact that all that great stuff happened on my birthday. Actually, that’s not the whole story. Birthdays don’t bring a smile to my face any more. This was in fact the last birthday that did so, because it was my 29th. Ah, those were the days.
Make sure you get outside and enjoy your weekend, it should be a great one! Even if you’re not a skier. What do you people do with your time between November and May??
Notes: Canon PowerShot SD700 IS (Point and shoot). 1/1000s, f/5.6.
Popularity: 7%
December 3, 2009 – Autumn in Seattle
Posted by Dave in Fall Color, Picture of the Day, Washington State on December 3, 2009
Autumn in Seattle
Thursday, December 3, 2009
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Bleah, it’s Thursday again. Another week blown by. It’s not really fall anymore, but I’m still going to pepper you with fall pictures from time to time. I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but I generally try to mix up the themes, and not put, for example, too many pictures of flowers too near to each other. I kind of effed that up the last few days with a string of mountain shots, but I’m sure you’ll get over it. Actually, yesterday I had intended to post a big ole’ closeup of a flower, but then when I was paging through the shots I had conveniently available, I saw that one and decided to go with it before I realized what I was doing. Oh well.
Today’s image is kind of interesting, because I didn’t even really remember I had it. Pictures are kind of like children, in that I pretty much remember all of mine, for the most part anyway. But not this one. I pulled up Rate Dave’s Pictures to look for what I wanted to post today, and there it was. Most of the shots in there aren’t worth posting, so I won’t ever use them. Especially the older ones. But I saw this one, and, yeah, I decided to go with it. Also, it gives you all a break from the mountains. So, cool, there we go.
This also marks another interesting trend: this makes three days in a row of pictures from point and shoot cameras. I keep saying it (over and over and over), but it can’t be said enough: just because you don’t have a big fancy camera does NOT in any way mean you can’t get fantastic pictures. Not that I’m trying to say this is a fantastic picture or anything (it’s not bad, it’s got nice colors and stuff, but it’s clearly not **fantastic** or anything), but the point still stands. It’s true that there are some shots you can get with an SLR and some fancy lenses that you probably can’t get without, but if you understand the strengths and limitations of the camera you’ve got with you, there’s no reason you can’t come up with something wonderful. So don’t let lack of equipment be an excuse. Get out there, experiment, and figure out what you need to do in order to get the kind of pictures you want to take. At the end of the day, you’re taking pictures for yourself, so don’t worry if your idea of the perfect picture doesn’t match up with what somebody else says. If you take two pictures and like one better, then that one’s a better picture, period. Then your job is to figure out why, and go do it again.
I’m sorry, I’m still laughing at that second paragraph. Comedic genius I tell you. That’ll last me for the rest of the day, for sure.
Notes: Canon PowerShot S500 (Point and shoot). 1/400s, f/4.9, ISO unknown.
Popularity: 5%