Day at the Zoo...

I hit the Tulsa Zoo on Sunday. I figured it would be quite as it was still pretty cool out. I have to admit it was busier than I expected. But, it was nothing like it will be in the spring! I ended up shooting about 200 photos and had a couple of nice ones to show for the effort. It seemed that some of the animal were feeling pretty frisky. The rhinos were arguing and knocking heads and the tiger was making a lot of noise. I did get a nice shot of the tiger. All in all, it was still pretty bleak. The zoo ended up with quite a lot of damage from the ice storm and everything is kind of gray still. I look forward to returning when the colors brighten up a bit.

This weekend...

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Originally uploaded by steveables

I had a great trip to the zoo Sunday. I took about 200 photos. I'm still processing them so I will blog about the trip and post some photos as soon as I get everything processed and uploaded. I'll also discuss some of my observations on the D80.

Curious Goose

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Originally uploaded by steveables

Just another photo from the other day. It was quite ugly weather wise today so I didn't take any photos. I had really hoped to get photos of the eclipse last night but the clouds kept me from ever seeing the moon. Ah well....

New Look

I finally have updated the blog to the new Blogspot template. I will be moving a lot of my old links from the old blog over the next few days as I figure things out. It is a chance to clean things up and add stuff I've wanted to add but never had time.

Lunch Break....

Yesterday at lunch, I grabbed my camera gear and headed down the street to a retention pond about two blocks from work. I was a beautiful day, for February, and I was hoping to get some photos of the local waterfowl. I unloaded my gear once I arrived and placed my Nikkor 70-300mm VR lens to the D80. A short walk later, I was at the waters edge snapping photos of various geese, ducks, and gulls. I forgot to put my circular polarizer on the lens so I ended up with a lot of unwanted reflection on the water. Other than that, I had a nice time and caught a few good photos. I only spent about 30 minutes out there but it was very enjoyable. I think I will be doing that more often.

Photo Sunday....

I was able to get out Sunday afternoon after the rain to do a little photography. It is always so difficult for me to find subjects this time of year. Color is so hard to find. Especially, in nature. I've always heard that winter was a good time of the year for black and white photography. I'm starting to understand why!



I ended up taking about 60 photos on Sunday. I actually liked a few of them. :) My favorite was of a sculpture at Tulsa River Parks. I got a couple of shots of a hawk in flight that would have been nice had it been in focus. It was one of those spontaneous situations where I had to grab the camera and shoot in just a few seconds. The hawk was gone before I knew it. I pulled the photo up on my screen and zoomed in and was quickly disappointed when I saw how bad the focus turned out. I posted the two best to my Flickr account just to share "the moment"....not because they are good photos.



I have been getting out and practicing for the lunar eclipse that is supposed to occur on Wednesday. I'm pretty happy with the results I am getting with the Nikkor 70-300mm VR. I HAVE to get a new tripod someday, though. The rickety one I have now wobbles all over the place with the heavy camera and lens on it. All that said, the outlook is not good for the eclipse. They are calling for freezing rain and sleet Wednesday night. This will be the second eclipse in a row that I've missed due to weather. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Renewed Commitment

My wife and I seem to have survived the year from hell. With that, I have a renewed commitment to my blog and my photography. As to geocaching, I hope to get back to that this spring. I'm going to try to blog at least a couple of times a week. It has always been very therapeutic to me and God knows I need my therapy! After letting my camera languish in it bag for months on end, I finally stuck it on eBay and sold it. I loved my Olympus E-300 and it was a great camera but it was not meeting my needs. I have several Nikon lenses from my old 35mm days so I ended up using the funds off the Olympus to buy a Nikon D80. I've now had it a couple of days and I'm clearly going to be much happier with this camera. My goal is to take a photo every day. Hopefully, I will have many days where I take a LOT of photos.

My wife is doing great. It is nothing short of miraculous that she is even alive. To see here back in near perfect health just amazes me. She has completed all of her paramedic refresher stuff and has obtained her NREMT-P and her state license. As soon as she is 100%, she will be returning to work.

I, on the other hand, am battling my MS. Overall, I am doing well but some of my symptoms are problematic. I'm doing physical therapy three days a week trying to get my back under control. I have a muscle below my right shoulder blade that is in constant spasm. It is a pretty painful ordeal. The therapy seems to be helping to a great degree. We have done trigger point injections several times and that seems to help but it is far from a good fix. We want to do Botox injections to give me a great length of relief but the insurance company won't bite.

I'll leave you with a couple of photos I've taken over the past two days. The first is of Winston. He is a black and tan Dachshund that has been with my wife and I for about 12 years. We do not have children so he and Delia our like our kids to us. The second photo is a shot of a daisy that is in the bouquet that I got Lisa for Valentines.