Bluff Spring Journal
November 2010
Nov 5
Still learning about this new camera. My last point and shoot had the same problem that most point and shoots have that being shutter lag. You know-when you push down on the shutter button to take the picture and all that happens is that your subject moves or the moment is gone before the camera decides to take the picture. I get it. The camera has to do all of it's hocus pocus focus shutter aperture setting before it is ready. Geez with all the technology we have you'd think they could do better. You know the old saying, "If we can put a man on the moon-why can't we put them all there". Couldn't pass the opportunity for that joke. Anyway, I need a camera that is small enough to attach to my chest strap on my backpack but has the other functionalities of a DSLR. This new camera mostly fits those requirements. It has very little shutter lag when in some of the manual modes and still takes Camera Raw picture files. Still learning about the camera and the possibilities are good for it doing most of what I need in a get to it quick camera.
My lovely bride had a day without any meetings scheduled. So along with the earth standing still and a total eclipse of the sun we decided to head to the cabin for weekend. On the way through Harrison we stopped at Big Daddy's Cafe. The food was great. Can't say when I've had a better pepper jack burger with curly fries. Big Daddy's delivers when it comes to comfort food.
As we traveled on we noticed that the fall color was remarkably better than last weekend. The color was also great in some areas but really muted in other. Glad to say that the cabin was in one of those areas where the color was great. Sitting out on the deck you could just feel the peace of the woods fill in those cracks in your soul that appear from the stress of the daily grind.
After a little soul refreshing we decided to head over to Steel Creek to see some of the fall color along the river. Sorry to say it was mostly gone except for a few isolated trees. We hiked along the river with the dogs and enjoyed the reflections of the bluffs and color in the small pools of still water. On the way out from the river to the campground road we passed some folks on horseback. They saw the dogs and commented, "You must be good people if you have Corgis". Of course we beamed with pride as we always do when someone comments on the dogs. Sid and Annie are a handfull but we love them anyway.
After Steel Creek we headed over to the Boxley Valley to see if the Big Boys were out. I've been wanting to get a good photo of some of the bigger elk in the valley. I've got several dozen pictures but none that have met my vision of what I want. Several elk were out near the road and posed for their picutres. I still didn't get 'The Picture' that I have in my mind.
Sat. Nov 6
We decided to check out the fall color near Erbie today. There are two small ponds on the way to the river at Erbie that provide some good reflection shooting. It was a good plan but when we got there the color was past peak. We did the little .3 mile loop to the ponds with the dogs and then headed up river along the BRT. We passed a couple of good waterfall locations that I'll have to remember when we get some wet weather. Today they were mostly dry. As we made our way to the river we came to a large pool of water beneath a bluff with a wide gravel bar. Seemed as good a place as any for a nap. The dogs had a good time and Sid did some swimming.
Annie curled up beside me and we both took a little snooze. It was a great day to be in the woods.
