I'd resuscitated my old digital camera last year by holding the battery door closed with tape, and later with a rubber band. It was getting slow: slow to start up, slow to focus, and slow to save. Last week, huddled under the thick folds of a damp bandana during several downpours, the lens got cloudy.
On Saturday, while Cheryl and Blake treated us to what I used to call hills (now I can't call a hill a hill unless I fall down), I snapped a few pictures. But my camera was acting funky. First, half the lens protector wouldn't open until I turned the camera off and on again. Then the zoom wouldn't respond. When it finally did, the shutter wouldn't respond unless I hit the button three or four times. This resulted in a lot of me falling to the back of the pack and half-sprinting to catch up.
Anyway, I did get these:
Delaware River, looking south from the Bull's Island Bridge
Hay Bales on 579
Tom got this picture too. His probably came out better. I was getting frustrated trying to snap the shutter.
I wanted to compose these pictures better, but by the time the camera came to life and let me zoom, the rest of the group was out of sight. These lousy shots will have to do. We were on Lambertville Headquarters Road.
I figured I'd mess with the camera when I got home, maybe clean the lens cover area and the zoom and shutter buttons. But when I turned the camera on, I got the White Screen of Death:
!
Lens Error
Okaaaaay. The camera turned itself off. I turned it on again. Same thing. Over and over and the camera's life was over.
For the record, that's two cheap, digital Nikons I've toasted. With a trip to Vermont looming in the coming week, there was nothing for it but to head to a big box store and snoop around for a new camera.
I wound up with a Canon this time, more expensive than the two Nikons combined. This one is leaps and bounds better (but to be fair, my old camera is old technology -- all the way back to 2009), with better resolution, better zoom, and GPS. Now I won't have to guess where I took a picture.
I practiced on the cats first.
Mojo close-up
Is Burnaby starting to look fat? He just turned 8 years old.
Sitting on the floor looking up at a mobile that Sean and Dale gave me.
Burnaby dozing
Moxie eating the camera strap
Here, Moxie was in a completely dark hallway. The flash overexposed his fur, I think. I'll need more practice taking low-light pictures. I was never much good at that anyhow.
In bright light it does better.
I led a mellow Hill Slugs ride in the flatlands on Sunday. Here are some pictures from the top of the first hill on Hill Road southbound:
I took all of these pictures from the road. Below are shots I took with the zoom. Nothing has been edited.
Mike M. had a flat farther down the road. I zoomed this one from across the street.
When there are muffins available at a rest stop I'll usually get one. I only eat the tops, though. People who ride with me a lot know that. When I'm finished I push the muffin stump into the crowd. On this day there were many takers.
As I moved to the edge of the bike rack to get this picture, I heard people asking if anyone else wanted "some of Laura's bottom."
They asked Ed. He declined. "I don't want to be in Laura's blog for that," he said. So he won't be. He's in it for something else, later. Meanwhile, I said, "Right. I'm out," and moved to the front of the bike shop to look at some bike porn.
It's a steel, low-end Schwinn for $600, but it sure is purty.
"Dave, why do you have a toothbrush?"
"To clean my cleats. The sand works its way in there."
When we got back to Mercer County Park we hung around for a while, talking in small groups. When I turned around to join a conversation behind me, this is what I saw:
"I don't lose them this way," he said.
I'll manage to embarrass Ed one way or another.
Plain Jim had ridden with me from my house. On our way back through the bike trail I stopped in the woods on the footbridge over the Assunpink. Overexposed. And what's that rectangular reflection in the center right of the second shot?
At home, the boys were zonked out on the bed.
Not great, but not bad for mucking about without having read the manual. Let's see what I can do in Vermont.
One more thing, something that was sticking in my craw from the middle of the week and again on Sunday: Those who equate speed with fitness are wrong.
1 comment:
"It's a steel, low-end Schwinn for $600, but it sure is purty."
Hrmph. I was taken with it, too... but a lot of the "purty" is the tires that match the bar wrap (both of which are wear items, which will be replaced), and the cheap, plastic, knock-off-of-a-Brooks saddle. And I don't theink the brass plating on the metalware will last. I wish I thought it were a better deal.
But it WAS purty.
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