First off, I do want to apologize for my lack of posting over the weekend. 4 things got in my way...
1. Conch Republic Days
2. Work
3. New Photo Program
4. Loss of Camera Cord to Computer
Beginning with #4 is fairly easy, Don't clean your home up and you won't ever lose an important item again!
Moving up to #3 is an exciting thing, we've been using one program that we were not entirely happy with and continually talking about what to use instead. The most frequent use of the program would be for photo storage, followed by resizing for web display and some cropping. I haven't gotten into playing around with my photos in a digital sense yet. What you see on this blogsite is what I saw and what I tried to capture as naturally as possible. Photoshopper I'm not. So why spend $$$ for a program I'm not certain we would utilyze fully? Rather download Picasa instead! Picasa is a free program that seems to fit our requirements. I'll let you know how we like it. Three days in, we give it a thumbs up for sure!
#2 is fairly self-explanatory, work. Suffice it to say we went from a full compliment of bartenders down to 3 and one is really an office girl instead, so I've been pulling extra shifts. On the bright side, they hired 2 new girls and I get Saturdays off starting this weekend!!!
The first on the list, Conch Republic Days really defies explanation. Look for loads of photos coming soon, until then refer to last year at this time.
Now, I'm off for bed, this is my Friday night and tomorrow I plan on playing with that new program Hal downloaded. I need to discover how to resize my photos! So check back tomorrow for new pictures...
AND
...a totally cool and exciting announcement!
I feel like celebrating, won't you please join me?
See you tomorrow!
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Comments [2]
On September 4, 1622 a fleet of twenty-eight ships left Havana bound for Spain. Onboard was the wealth of an empire, nearly incomprehensable today.
The heavily armed Nuestra Señora de Atocha sailed as the rear guard of the fleet. She bore the name of the holiest of shrines in Madrid. She had been built in Havana in 1620 and was rated at 550 tons, with an overall length of 112 feet (the S/V Mari Hal-O-Jen is 35 feet), a beam of 34 feet (we're 11 feet wide) and a draft of 14 feet (we measure 5.5 feet below the water). She carried square-rigged fore and mainmasts, and a lateen-rigged mizzenmast. Atocha would have had the high sterncastle, low waist and high forecastle of a typical early 17th century galleon.
A second trick is to back off the case and zoom in with a telephoto and no flash to avoid reflections and glare.
The Atocha alone carried 24 tons of silver bullion in 1038 ingots, 180,00 pesos of silver coins, 582 copper ingots, 125 gold bars and discs, 350 chests of indigo, 525 bales of tobacco, 20 bronze cannon and 1,200 pounds of worked silverware! Also onboard were items being smuggled to avoid taxation, and unregistered jewelry and personal goods.
This was shot with no flash but you can still see the reflections from doors, windows and other natural sources of light around the edges of the picture.
The fleet was overtaken by a hurricane as it entered the Florida Straits. By dawn of September 6th, eight of the vessels were scattered from the Marquesas Keys to the Dry Tortugas on the sea floor.
One of our favorite pieces in the museum. This gold cross has the most delicate etchings of Our Lady on the bottom of the cross. Simply lovely! I increased the ISO which increases the camera's sensitivity to light.
The Nuestra Señora de Atocha sank with 265 people onboard. Only three sailors and two slaves survived by holding on to the stump of the mizzenmast, which was the only part of the wrecked galleon that remained above water. Rescuers tried to enter the drowned ship, but found the hatches battened tight. At 55 feet, the water depth was too great to allow them to work to open her.
Shot with the Macro as close to the glass as possible.
Two additional hurricanes further scattered the wrecks within a month. Though the Spanish searched for the next 60 years, nothing was ever found.
A slower shutter speed will also let in more light but the camera must be held very steady.
Then in 1969, Mel Fisher and his Treasure Salvors crew began their search for the treasure of the Atocha. Using sand-clearing propwash deflectors, or "mailboxes," that he invented, and specially-designed proton magnetometers, they found little bits of the treasure over the years.
No matter how long since the last piece of treasure was brought up, no matter the 100+ court battles (which finally ended in victory in the US Supreme Court) no matter the personal tragedies that stalked Mel Fisher, every day was greeted with his signature phrase -
"Today's the Day!" That day finally arrived on July 20, 1985 when the motherlode of the shipwreck of the century was found.
Make today your day. Get out there and do something you've been longing to do!
And maybe take a few photos to share too...
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April 22, 2008, 11:05 pm
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Did you see the full moon rise last night? I stayed out particularly just to try and capture it. Afterall, it only comes around only once a month, (barring Blue Moons) right? That means I only had one chance if it was going to be featured in my most special April Showers of Photos! So I returned to the same beach as my Dawn photos the other day.
I really like this top photo, so clear you can nearly see the Man in the Moon!
However, there were a few outtakes. Would you like to see a couple?
An amazing fountain effect.
A very rapid moon rise.
The moon dancing.
It's nearly waltzing now!
Can you guess what the cause of all this photographic agony was?
Lack of a tripod, perhaps?
Lack of bug spray, in fact.
This lovely Spring Moon has risen on another season of mosquitoes, I'm afraid.
Ouch!
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Tonight was my early night out from work - hurray for time to get out on the water before sunset!
The sunset was truly amazing tonight. I hope you can see on the smaller images but I captured a totally cool halo effect on the lower half of the glowing sun in this photo. It was really spectacular...
As it sank lower a thin cloud bisected the sun. I used a telephoto on all these shots, the closer you can bring the sun in to fill your frame the better!
Once the sun set I turned my attention to the water for a little fun as we headed back to the dock. On Sport Setting you can see all the Sargassum Weed that has floated in with the latest wind shift.
Switch it to Portrait, however, and the water blends into the neatest, smoothest appearance.
We're having a quick dinner of grilled brats tonight and Marianna has made the most addictive stuffed jalapeno peppers to go alongside. Yum! Happy Sunday!
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I grabbed my camera this morning to try a few dawn shots. Wandering the beach before sunrise is just about the most serene thing one could ever hope to do, in my opinion!
The pre-dawn light is such a pretty lavender shading to pink color and these little mangrove babies were perfectly reflected in the mirror calm water.
Eventually, and very slowly, the sun made it's appearance. Silhouette shots during the sunrise or sunset can be very striking. My little 40 Digital Tricks book recommends adjusting the exposure to (-) to take great silhouettes. It seemed to work well!
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Our Homeschool Sail Club meets Fridays at the Key West Sail Club on Garrison Bight.
First off, we start with a bit of chalk talk, today we discussed starts.
It was a tad windy (20+ knots) so only a couple of the older kids went out in Optimas.
Marianna singlehanded for the very first time.
Will, showing her a few pointers.
I could use a few pointers myself on catching the photos though - these little boats are speedy! Between finding them in the telephoto and thinking about the sun's glare on the water washing out the faces, avoiding the power lines in Garrison Bight (not the most attractive of backgrounds) and getting their heads on the proper side of the sail for a good photo...phew! Lots to think about!
Fun though.
For both the photographer and the sailors, I believe!
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We had a totally cool visitor the other day. With animal photos I'm not generally up to speed with messing around with Manual Settings yet. I can't control their actions the way I can with a flower or a person you know! Gotta move fast to get the photo or I'll miss it.
So for this I set it up on Portrait hoping the background would blur into unobtrusiveness. Even if it didn't I liked the graphic feel of the repetitive rocks so I felt that it would be a win-win situation.
I was able to get a tad closer before he moved out of range. On this one I really like the play of colors, the blue of the eye against the brillance of his beak contrasting with the white of the feathers and the rocks definitely became a great background.
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Every so often the D40x sneaks away for an afternoon and when next I check out the photos instead of a lovely food photo:
Pastries by Marianna.
I find this.
What is this?
The depth of field is stupendous! The clarity is amazing! Where was this taken? I've never seen anything like this in...in...3 days???
Alas, the silly camera just can't resist. I don't think it puts up a fight at all. Just look at this shot.
Oh dear.
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Hanging by the water again today, still playing with the Shutter Speed and Aperture. I know you're probably entirely, ultimately, indubitably tired of this conversation but I just don't feel like I've mastered it yet.
Anyone else find that the most applicable quotes come from musicals? Can you identify the musical above? Family members can call with their answer since that quote is basically our Family Motto and must be recited in a certain tone of voice, etc... Everyone else feel free to leave the answer in the comment box - impersonating Grecian Urns while answering is entirely optional.
You know, it just dawned on me that my inability to walk away from these Faucets and Buckets and SeeSaws and the particular songs I'm humming might all be related!
I'll ponder that with my second cuppa joe while we check out the day's haul of photos. Don't worry, I trimmed down the selection to a pertinent few.
Let's start with the fast shutter speed and large aperture, basically the equivalent of the Sports Setting. The water droplets bouncing off the coral rock are frozen in mid-air.
Slowing the shutter speed down a little and tightening the aperture resulted in some nice contours on the water. I don't know if you can see this small, but blown up large you can see little ripples over the rocks below the water and there is a lovely line pointing up to the bottom of the rock on shore where a wave swept in.
Next step (ha! ha!) was a longer shutter speed and a smaller aperture yet. For this one I found that I had to turn my back to the sun. The previous two were basically facing west in the afternoon and that resulted in another completely washed out photo or two (umm...22? Deleted into oblivion now.) Facing east however gave the foam edge of the wave a nice blurry action.
So let's push it just a little farther, shall we? Granted this was a larger wave so we definitely have more water action but check out the droplets leaping off the rock top!
Tempus Fugit, Ladies, Tempus Fugit...
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