Photography...

I seem to have had good luck with catching cooler weather on the weekends lately. This has resulted in my taking over 1000 photos with my Olympus E-300: mostly at the Tulsa Zoo. I've been pretty impressed with the zoo here. Granted, it is no Dallas Zoo or Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, but it is far better than I would have expect for a city the size of Tulsa. I have especially enjoyed the Wings of Wonder butterfly display. It is so soothing to be in an exhibit with hundreds of butterflies of every color flitting around you. I have capture the best butterfly photos of my amateur career here.



I spent most of last Saturday walking around the Tulsa Zoo taking photos. I have two lenses for my E-300. I have the 14-45mm zoom lens and the 40-150mm zoom lens so I am effectively covered from 14-150mm. With the Olympus 4/3rds digital system, you have a 1.9x factor so the 35mm equivilant is 28mm to 300mm (11x zoom). Needless to say, in a zoo enviroment, my larger zoom lens spends all it's time attached to the camera so that I can get the close-up photos I want. I do not have a macro lens as of yet, but as you can tell in the photo above, the 150mm lens does a pretty good job of getting in nice an close even though I was about 10 foot away from this butterfly.

The lens also lets me get up-close and person with animals. This lends itself to photos that are very personal.



It also allows me to catch so nice action shots.



All in all, I have been very impressed with the Olympus E-300 and the lenses. I've only had the camera about a month and my photos seem to be continually improving as I learn the camera. Oh, if you are ever in the Tulsa area, be sure to drop by and visit our zoo! You will be glad you did.

Okay, I know...

this is a geocaching blog, but you're going to have to put up with it being a photography blog for a little while. Why? Because it is too damn hot to geocache!! No, I'm not a weenie, but I do have Multiple Sclerosis and because of that, I am very heat sensitive. Therefore, in the summer, I can do outside stuff only on particularly cool days or I have to do things in very small segments for very short periods of time.

In light of all of this, you won't see much on geocaching for a while. But, I will keep the site active by sharing my photography! We did have a cooler day this last Saturday and I did get out and visit the zoo so I will share some of the photos I took.

I Must Apologize....

for not posting in a while. Work has been insane and I have had to spend a lot of my weekend time working so I have not got to do any caching in a while. We actually intended to get out this last weekend and had a miscommunication that resulted in our not getting to cache. Hopefully, we can squeeze in some time for caching this upcoming weekend, although, I may end up having to work again.

I Really Intended....

to get out and geocache some this weekend! Unfortunately, it didn't happen. I'm a geocaching loser :) Actually, it was hotter than a...well, we've all heard the naughty comparisons so I will just say it was hot and humid. It is going to be a miserable summer. One of the symptoms of my MS is increased heat sensitivity. When you live in the south, that just sucks. Oh well, I figure I am stuck here for the time being.

Even thought I did not get to geocache today, I did spend a lot of the weekend researching my new camera. Most of everything that I have read about the Olympus E-300 has been very positive. I am really looking forward to receiving the camera! I have been doing the photography thing since I was very young. I got my first SLR camera, a Minolta XG-1, when I was 15. This will be my first DSLR camera. I am getting it only 25 years later. Bummer, I wish I hadn't thought of it that way. I still can't believe that I am 40.

Oh well, I will have a blast with the E-300!

It is a done deal...

Well, first and foremost, let me apologize for the lack of geocaching related post as of late. I have been quite busy lately and just have not had a chance to goecache. Yes, that sucks. I am going to at least try to catch a few caches this weekend, though. I would have liked to get Team ARC together for a good day of caching but real life has interfered with that. Maybe next weekend?

As for this weekend, I will get out and get a couple of caches on my own. Back to the title of this post! After much wheeling and dealing, I have sold a bunch of my stuff that was lying around doing nothing. The end result is that I have ordered my Olympus Evolt E-300. It should be here around the end of next week. I got a great deal and I am very excited about getting my new camera. It include the body and two lenses so it should meet my needs for a long time. I am determined to actually start making some money from my photography now that I have a professional camera. A lot of people who look at my photos at my photography website ask me why I don't sell my images. I guess I have always just did it for fun. That will soon change, though.

Camera Upgrade...

Well, I've finally decided to upgrade my camera. What does that mean? It means that I must sell my old camera, my iPod, and my Palm TX along with the accessories for all of the above. Hopefully, I will end up with enough to purchase an Olympus E-300 DSLR. I am very hesitant to take this step as my Sony DSC-V1 is the best camera that I have ever owned!!

We need rain but.....

I'm ready for a break !!! I was in St. Louis all week on a work related trip. It was a great trip for many reasons. I loved the drive up and back. There was a lot of beautiful scenery. We always have the option of flying on trips of this length but if we are going somewhere I have not been before, I really prefer driving if it is a less than 8 hour drive. St. Louis was only about 6 hours for us. Not only do you get to see new sights, but you have a vehicle for exploring and caching. The bad news is that I was about an hour into the trip when I realized that I had forgot my GPS! Bummer...after all that work getting my caches for St. Louis and the trip there downloaded to my GPS, I left it in my truck.

I still had the hope that I could cache this weekend, but alas, it has rained all weekend. It actually flooded while I was gone. The worst news of all was that a levee broke near the Bass Pro shop and apparently the place sustained some damage. I will have to drop by and place flowers near the building tomorrow. Surely, my fellow hunters, fishermen, and outdoors types have set up a shine of mourning.