Testing, Testing, 1,2,3

Ominous Skies

Ducks on a Rock

Small flowers growing in crack in rock

This weekend is the Fossil Festival at the Falls of the Ohio State Park, and highlight of the season for the volunteers. It rained at home when I got up, but only sprinkled on the fossil beds. We had wonderful crowds come to hike on the Outer Fossils beds across the river, as well as the Lower Beds on our side. While roving on the fossils beds, with a few trainee volunteers, I took photos whenever the opportunity presented itself.

The lower beds are usually covered by rushing water. When the river level goes down, the flat broad rocks are exposed. Everything is covered with a layer of silt, so our favorite activity is getting the children to scrub off the mud to see more of the fossils. Natural springs seep from the cliffs on the shore, feeding small puddles across the rocks. Children love to jump over the puddles, but when they miss and go splat into the dirty water, they think they've broken a leg! The ducks don't ever have this problem, of course. I like to watch the seedlings and small flowers that put root into this unforgiving environment. I know they won't last longer than a few weeks, until the river rises again, but these small plants persist.

Will it rain on the Ryder Cup, being played in Louisville this weekend? I certainly wouldn't bet against it, from the looks of this giant puffy cloud.

Double Crested Cormorants drying off.

More river birds taking their ease.

Goldenrod Leatherwing beetle.

I love this macro on the new camera!

New Camera - Happy Happy, Joy Joy

Wide, wide panoramic view from Conference Room on 32nd Floor of the Aegon Building, Louisville. Medium zoom to barges on the canal. Zoom, zoom, zoom.

Although I like my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30, it didn't seem to do what I wanted on the close-up pictures of butterflies and bugs this summer. And it's been a bit of a nuisance to cart it around with the teleconverter, which is heavy and limits my ability to change from telephoto to close-up shots. Therefore, I've been on the lookout for a new camera.

I found the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28, a 10 megapixel camera with 18X zoom and 27mm wide angle in a Leica lens. Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy! It is much lighter weight than the old one and takes unbelievable macro shots. It's a smarter photographer than I am, and I can set everything on automatic to correct my errors, or put it on manual if I get brave. My hope/plan is that the zoom will be enough for my birds, but if not, I can use the teleconverter I already have with a simple adapter to fit the front of this one. AND, I can use the extra batteries, cables, etc from the old camera since they are the same brand.

Louisville's West End from Aegon Building.

Power Plant stacks - about 3.8 miles away.

With the lens set at wide, I can move it as close as 1 cm to the subject and still get a good focus. With this we should be able to count the hairs on a butterfly's legs! The real test will be how well the zoom does getting birds across the river at the Falls tomorrow. I have high hopes!