Scruffy Watching the Burros Across the Road

Scruffy watching the burros across the road

Sun 01.31.16 – On our Sunday drive this afternoon, I pulled over at the Echo Point vista point on the Parker Dam Road – California side – and rolled down the window so that I could take photos of the burros across the road. Scruffy used this opportunity to sit in my lap and watch a young burro standing directly across the road – a stare down between canine and equine proceeded.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nikon D800 and a Nikon 50mm f/1.4G lens.

Comet Catalina and the Big Dipper

Comet Catalina and the Big Dipper
Close up of Comet Catalina
The Stellarium map to Comet Catalina

Mon 01.18.16 – Yesterday, the 17th of January, Comet Catalina (C/2013 US10) was closest to Earth before it departs for the outer solar system.

For the last few evenings, I have been duly trotting out around 10 or 11pm to see if the cloud cover has cleared enough for me to see the rising of the Big Dipper in the northeast.

Last night, I got fairly lucky with a patchy sky and the sky opened up to mostly clear in the northeast. The first photo above is my photo of the rising of the Big Dipper, the second photo is a cropped close up to show the small fuzzy turquoise cotton ball that my camera captured of Comet Catalina (top left middle), and the third photo is a screenshot from Stellarium to map out / illustrate where one would find Comet Catalina in the sky last night at the time I took the photo.

Not too spectacular, but I was shooting with my 50mm lens and not my telescope. Through my binoculars, I could see a faint tail. Very faint.

Photos taken with by Jenifer Hanen with her Nikon D800 camera and a Nikon 50mm f/1.4G lens.

Just When One Makes a Big Pronouncement On the Camera Phone Front…

Just when one goes and makes a big pronouncement on the camera phone front, ASUS goes and makes a January 2016 release that makes the camera phone space interesting again.

Hello, ASUS Zenfone Zoom, you may be the size of a wheelbarrow, but that Hoya lens system of yours with optical zoom is intriguing. I will wait for Gavin to take lots of photos and write his review before I wonder much farther…

The Moon and the Puddle

The Moon and the Puddle in the desert

Mon 01.11.16 – While driving just after sunset eastbound on California highway 62, I knew that the new crescent moon would be setting soon behind me. As the dusk deepened, the road turned to Vidal Junction and out of the farside of my left side vision, I could see the moon. I pulled over as soon as it was safe to do so and saw this large puddle from recent rains in the desert and was delighted.

I pulled out the Nikon D800 but could not unearth the tripod from under the luggage, so here is my photo of the Moon and the Puddle.

The Busker, or the last good photo from my Nokia Lumia 1020

The Busker

Sun 01.10.16 – Last night, after 2 years and some odd months of faithful service as my primary camera phone, my Nokia Lumia 1020 leapt out of my hand and on to the concrete floor committing screen harikari.

For a variety of reasons, of which I will blog about later this week, I am not going to rush to order a new LCD screen and install it, nor am I going to rush to use my AT&T upgrade to get the new Windows Lumia 950.

When the timing is right, I will get a new camera phone that will be smaller than the Lumia 1020, it will have a camera strap hook, and it will have a dedicated camera button. While most folks consider the Lumia 1020 to be small as smartphones go, for me it was more than a touch too wide and too deep, which is why my very small hands would lose grip on it.

Until which time I can buy a new phone, I will retire the spider webbed Nokia Lumia 1020 and return my beloved and faithful Nokia 808 back to daily, primary usage.

******

A few Tweets on the subject: