Chuckbert's got a brand new bag

A new camera bag, that is!

I love Costco. I can always find something I just can't live without. I had been thinking that it's time to get an SLR digital camera. I'd look over their selection and think it over a bit longer before splurging. But you know Costco, the next time you go they won't have what you had seen last time you were there.

Recently, they had a big display of Nikon D90 boxes right as you go in the door. This camera can do it all. It comes with two lenses, an 18-55mm zoom and a 70-300mm zoom. It has autofocus and manual focus. It includes a 4GB memory card. It comes with a bag to hold everything. IT TAKES MOVIES!

Chuckbert, get it now! It might not be here next time!

I'm glad I waited. I got a Nikon D90! Then and there!

I've made a very simple movie with it (see my previous post).

It took many of the pictures in my recent posts. This weekend I made a couple of outings to try it out some more.

I headed out east through Ramona and Julian, then south through Cuyamaca Rancho State Park to Pine Valley, west to El Cajon then home. For some reason I wasn't terribly inspired to take many pictures. I should have spent time off the highway in Cuyamaca but I just zipped through.

Here come a few pictures from that trip.

But first, in the early 80s I took some photography classes at Palomar College. The first classes used manual cameras and black and white 120 film. We used manual cameras so we learned how photography works. We used medium-format film because it's easier for beginners to handle than 35mm film. We learned that in bright sunlight that you needed a known exposure so we just needed to learn a simple formula for setting the aperture and shutter speed to achieve that exposure. No light meter was necessary. We learned how the aperture setting affected the depth of field. These were good classes.

One assignment was about symmetry. I got 9 points out of 10 on this picture of Ramona's town hall:

Part of the problem is there is writing above one of the windows and that draws your eye, breaking the symmetry.

Here's what Town Hall looked like on Friday:

Why'd they have to block it with trees?

Beyond Julian, I took the obligatory picture of a windmill and dead tree:

Here's a 180° panorama of five pictures stitched together. It was taken from the spot Jerry and I watched a very good episode of the Leonid Meteor Shower in 2000.

Colleen wanted to see the Unarius Academy of Science when she visited several years ago but we ran out of steam before we could get to El Cajon. I walked past it on this outing but couldn't bring myself to go in.

Jerry and I went to the Wild Animal Park on Memorial Day to get some fresh air and pictures.

Here's a picture Jerry took of me with his phone at the WAP. I'm sporting my new instrument:

And here are a few pictures my new camera and I took of animals:

I don't know if this is the February 14th or April 12th arrival. It's a boy in either case.

I have a new gadget!