Arboretum

Hey blog fans! Out today with Momma for a stroll. The buds are poppin! St. Patricks day and 80 degrees today. Yow! Great corn beef and cabbage dinner and now a little b-ball, NCAA.

Macro lens

Hey all! Third straight day of 70+ weather and more to come next week. Pulled out my cheapo macro lens that had been gathering dust for a number of years. This lens is 100mm (150mm on my d7000) and I shot this at f/10. I always knew it was pretty sharp and I am still imressed. I think I paid about 80 bucks for it 10 years ago. Phoenix is the brand. Any way, I am off to Glen Ellyn tomorrow and then Shanghai on Sunday morning. They don't let you view blogs in China but you can post to your blog through email which is what I'll try to do. Thanks for looking!

Day Two: Opening

Well, we'll do just about anything to get excited about spring and we're excited to see any kind of color pushing through in the fields. On day two I went to check out the flowering tree on the horseshoe trail and the flowers are coming right along!

SPRING?!

Well, if this isn't spring I don't know what is. An earlier post had a picture of this tree with just buds. I'm not sure what kind of tree it is but today the buds opened. 75 degrees today. Crazy. March 14 in Pennsylvania! We should be preparing for a nor'easter! Another new lens today. I know, that's it for a while. It's a 50mm Nikkor 1.8 (75mm on my DSLR) and boy is it sharp. So enough of those manual lenses for me. I'm done being a luddite.

More Horseshoe Trail

Out on the trail again today only this time with Elsa! Still testing lenses. This is the 35mm 1.8G that I have had for a while. 

Horseshoe Trail

     Here we are, living in Hershey, PA. and right in our backyard is the Horseshoe Trail. This trail runs about 140 miles from Valley Forge then northwest through Pennsylvania until it connects with the Appalachian Trail. We are about 50 miles from the Northwest terminus of the trail. I've ridden my mountain bike on many sections of the trail but I have yet to make it up to the Appalachian trail. The trail is really rugged in sections and I have found that a mountain bike is all but impossible unless your willing to carry it up and down steep hills. In the pictures are some common trail markers that are maintained by the Horseshoe Trail Conservancy. The wooden posts have yellow blazes that keep you going in the right direction. In the bottom right foreground of other picture you can see a rock with a yellow blaze painted on it. 

     I took these pics with the new D7000 and a 100mm manual focus lens. I love the feel of the manual lens but not sure about the sharpness.

In Tokyo

I have a new toy, a complete 180, I think it's a good decision. More to come!