Random crap with Uno.

[Unorthodox]

Kyle went on a hike earlier this month, and I sent Clarence along with him on auto. 

Ranged from the great. 
(that's salt lake city)




To the glaring weakness.  Here Clarence autofocused on the bush.  Which wouldn't have been a terrible situation if it didn't have a tendency to run wide open on the F stops.  Coupled with Kyle presumably using the zoom instead of walking up, and you get an out of focus bird. 



This weakness is what I ran into with the bug pics and why I've been going semi-auto on him, usually setting the F stop and letting it figure out the rest, but had to adjust shutter speed as well for my tank. 

A lot of growing left to do on the plants, and I might add a school of mid-swimming tetras once we get a bit more plant growth.  The big rocks are mostly from our yard.  There's a fancy new light that runs a day cycle up top, sunrise-sunset, and moonrise-moonset. 



One of the blue acaras.  They are a breeding pair.  I expect them to get a fair bit bigger, but info on these guys is spotty at best. 

 

As are two of the angels.  The third is not likely to live long, but he's hiding rather well most often.  Here's the female angel who has decided the intake filter tube is a spawning rock. 

[Spacy]

interesting choice... 

[Unorthodox]

which?

[Unorthodox]

Been gluing down some plants to weights, and in the dish where the water was dropping off the pants, we found an incredible plethora of organisms.  Anybody good at copepod identification? 

These little guys kinda 'hop' around the water. 


The spaceship one on the right zooms. 



Several others are nearly clear, can't picture. 

(Vera with the macro lens, all this smaller than a pin head)

[Unorthodox]

I'm out folks.  See ya in a week or so. 

[E_T]

Have fun!

[Geo]

Enjoy vacation.

[Unorthodox]

As soon as we started laying the sod, of course Mystery considered it hers. 



I have a lot of composting and whatnot to do, but everything to the right here is going to be pumpkin patch in the future (minus our milkweed/butterfly garden in the front)



Wildflowers to the left really need some weeding.  This whole thing just sprung to life during vacation. 



Needs some more gardening in the flower beds, but done for this year. 

[Unorthodox]

Vacation:

A little stop for a bite at donner pass...







And a lot of time on the beach of Tahoe.  The smoke in the air made various things miserable (like hiking around Donner pass HURT my lungs, not just out of breath stuff, HURT), but made for GREAT sunsets. 



Clarence getting a little workout. 

[Unorthodox]

Clarence royally let me down in Virginia City, however. 

We did a mine tour and a ghost tour (Talia really dying to do the ghost tour). 

Clarence absolutely REFUSED to take pictures in the dark.  Wasn't bright enough to focus, and it wouldn't go without.  I presume there's a means of shutting that "feature" off, but it wasn't worth fiddling trying to find it in the moment.  Most cameras I've dealt with before throw a 'false flash' out to focus with in these situations.  Not Clarence...it was trying to use this little dim, green spotlight.  Kinda baffled, not that I intend to use him in this situation often/at all in the future. 

This shot it did get in a room that wasn't too dark, Talia SWEARS there's a ghost in the pic.  The dresser to the left of the guide.  The reflection in the glass, she says is an old dress... 

[Spacy]

So, overall good vacation?  Seams like you had fun (except that whole breathing hurting part).

[Unorthodox]

I'm NOT generally a beach person.  But, yeah, loved it.  I think my general problem is crowds.  But, we'd show up at 5 pm or so, everyone else was packing up and leaving, we'd watch the sun set at 8-9 more or less alone.  Haven't had such a relaxing time in quite a while. 

Also did some river rafting, which was something I've always wanted to do and always managed to have something prevent it. 

[E_T]

Sounds like you thoroughly enjoyed it...

[Unorthodox]

Hauntcon wants me to give a lecture on lighting...

[E_T]

nice...