10-20-2009

Blog #293

David

"Honey, I Think I Killed the Lawn"

  I've been a big fan of Google Earth for years and have incorporated it's features into my lessons over the past few years.  As great as Google Earth is, they have not updated the satellite pictures of any area that I frequent in the past four years.  Offshoots, such as Google Maps, use the same pictures.   Every satellite picture I've seen of my neighborhood has either been the same one or a lower quality with worthless resolution.  Recently a friend emailed me a link to a bird's eye view of our house on bing maps.  I laughed out loud when it opened because our home was encircled with a racetrack of dead lawn.  These pictures were taken in the spring of 2007.

   I Just checked my blog from March of 2007 and must quote myself:

"I Killed the Lawn

   The ski loop seemed like a good idea at the time...  I hope the Google Earth Satellite is scheduled to shoot Summit County soon.  Our house will be easy to spot, just look for the one with the big yellow circle around it.  Papa and I think it will come back; the area between our house and the Collinson's has already started to turn green."

10-11-2009

Blog #292

David

Alaska Pictures and Slide Show

  I've been sick this weekend and didn't do much.  I did, however, sort through some pictures from Alaska.  On August first we hiked at Hatcher's Pass (above Summit Lake, Alaska). Uncle Mark joined us this day. Annika got a bit cold so Joan and Mark walked her back to the car. Svea, Brigitta and I continued up a ridge. Near the top I pulled out a "fro" wig and the girls had a ball goofing around. I took 670 pictures in less than two hours.  This weekend I made a slideshow out the best 90 or so, plus a few fisheyes that Joan took. Svea took the first picture of me and the Ptarmigan with her Canon.  On our site is a 1024x768 resolution version that is 68 MB and eight minutes long: http://hallbuzz.com/movies/2009/aug_1_hatchers_hike.wmv  I also uploaded a lower resolution (and faster download) version on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8niTj6DXdo .

Happy Brigitta Day

  Brigitta's Name Day was October sixth.  Svea made a very cool witch's broom to "share" with all of her sisters and Papa made her a light up magic wand.

Sand Run Hikes

  In spite of being sick, we did two short hikes today which completed our eight for the Summit County Metro Parks Hiking Spree.  We have each earned a hiking staff and a year shield. 

Something Russian Festival

  Last Tuesday we attended the Something Russian Festival in Mogadore.  We watched the dancers and ate potato pancakes and cevapcici, which is a spicy caseless sausage.

10-4-2009

Blog #291

David

Saint Joe's Oktoberfest

  Last night we attended Oktoberfest at St. Joe's Parish in Mogadore.  It was a cool reminder why many places celebrate Oktoberfest in September.  Although it was chilly and dark a bit early, we had a good time.  The girls got balloon animals and the food was good (although not as good GFS).  Annika brought her preschool class bear so we could document to her class how much fun the Halls have.  By the tame Svea's group danced at 7:00 it was dark.  Afterward we went on a hayride. The kids loved it because it went through graveyard in the dark.

   I tested out my new/used, cheap, ordinary Nikon 18-55mm lens.  When I bought my Nikon D200 I also bought a Tokina autofocus 11-16mm lens.  This lens is ultra wide angle with a field of view from 104 degrees to 82 degrees.  I also found a Nikon 70-300 mm autofocus lens at a garage sale.  This lens has a field of view from 34 degrees to 8 degrees.  That left me a huge gap from 81 degrees to 35 degrees, which is where most normal photography occurs.  The new 18-55 mm lens that I bought on ebay covers most of this normal range (from 76 degrees to 29 degrees).  The lens is a bit of a light hog.  I had to turn up the ISO pretty high to get decent shutter speeds; that's probably the main thing that separates this lens from the more expensive ones.  Autofocus worked reasonably well and I am impressed with the good depth of field performance.