Fishing Trip News and Friday Shoot-Out-Letter M

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Fishing Trip

We went to Reed Bingham State Park near Adel Georgia. We got our trailer set up Sunday morning and then we drove over to Valdosta to visit with our son, David, and his wife, Tish. David is a master of the grill and grilled pork chops to perfection along with a few sausage. He said if you going to light the grill you may as well throw on a few sausage :-) It was really a wonderful visit.

Our fishing consisted of me catching one itty-bitty brim that was so small that it fell off the hook and back into the water before I could get my hand wrapped around the little thing. If it had stayed long enough for the camera I would have had a photo of a minnow... I would have called it a minnow for the Shoot-Out! Frank caught one small catfish. It was big enough to eat, but not enough to mess with unless more were caught, so it was released to grow bigger.

Nibbles on the line and looking at water wasn't a bad fishing trip. It was great to relax and break up the routine a bit.

On Tuesday we checked our home answering machine. A message to call the orthopedist's office was on there. So on Wednesday we called back and set up the date of my shoulder surgery for the 2nd of July. A few seconds after the phone was hung up Cindy called back and said there was a cancellation... would the 17th of June be all right? Yep, next Wednesday is the date. Yesterday afternoon I saw my surgeon's partner and the blood work, EKG, chest x-ray and paper signing was done. I signed about a dozen papers.

So, yesterday was a full day. We were coming home anyway. It took us an hour and seventeen minutes to come home and only an hour and ten minutes to go to Reed Bingham State Park. Why is the trip home always longer? Not that we were in any hurry, I didn't have to be at the doctor's office until two. It was fun taking snap shots coming home for the shoot-out and the trip didn't seem to take that long... except when we got behind three tractors... each taking up more than one lane and they were difficult to pass.

Friday Shoot-Out

A very proud grandmother, Sara Lulu, chose the letter "M" for this week's Friday Shoot-Out in honor of her newest grandchild, Matilda Margaret.

MOI?
Meet MONSIEUR MAURICE Squirrel

Did I mention in my previous post that Shutter Speed was important? If I had had the shutter speed a bit faster there would be no motion blur in this photo. I like the motion blur. It gives the sense that MAURICE has just turned towards me and is surprised to see me... which is what happened :-)

MOTHER Goose Flamingo

From a distance I thought she was Mother Goose, but when I got closer I could tell it was she was a Flamingo. She is so colorful and quite the MODEL.

Okay... I'm pushing it a bit :-)

Maybe I shouldn't have posted my best photos last week. You will expect too much from me. I flub up photos a lot... a WHOLE LOT.

Did I mention that one thing you need to do is know your camera and lenses for good photos? I don't know my camera and lenses very well... my learning gets interrupted by daily life.

One thing I want to know better about my camera is the white balance. Auto doesn't work well all the time and then I forget to change it to daylight, shade or whatever from one picture to the next. I want to learn how to do the white balance with a gray card. I know it takes time, but I think in my next photo's case it would have helped.

The sun was to the right of the MARTINS' home and it was also a bit hazy. The photo came out more of a silhoutte. It was also a bit grainy. I was experimenting with the sports setting on my camera. I don't think I would have done any better with my little knowledge of manual settings.

You won't see the photo as the camera saw it, because it was very, very bad. Instead you will see my poor artistic rendering of it through filters in my photo editing program :-)

Purple MARTINS

It might make a nice card or postcard. It is a much better rendering of what I saw than what the camera captured.

MUSHROOMS

Did I mention lighting was an important part of a good photo? The light was so nice upon these small mushrooms... or is it fungi ;-) I just had to get down on my knees and take a photo. Getting down on my knees isn't too pleasant these day, but it was worth it for this photo.

In the next photo the blossom was nicely contrast, but the leaves were very dark when I used one lens and when I used the other... a longer lens... the blossom lost its detail with the same settings. I should have taken the time to bracket the photos (basically using different settings) for both lenses to get a photo that had better exposure. I took the darker photo... the one that had more detail in the blossom petals and edited it. The leaves looked almost black in the original photo.

MAGNOLIA Blossom

Natural framing is nice too. Did you notice how the leaves frame the blossom? The front leaf on the right bothers me just a little, but is acceptable.

Did I mention shadows can make for a good photo? This photo would be very uninteresting if it was all light or all dark. The shadows make it interesting... well, at least to me :-)

MONUMENT
Reed Bingham State Park near Adel Georgia
(where all of the above photos were taken)

The rest of these photos were taken on our way home through our truck's windows... most of the time while moving. They are what I call snapshots. Snapshots are great story tellers :-)

MOULTRIE Georgia
The first town on our way home... we didn't stop, except for stop lights and stop signs. We are making a right turn, but we are not going to Tifton.

MOULTRIE Technical College Sign
The electronic sign had writing flashing, but I missed the writing in my photo. Taking a couple of close together photos is a good idea when motion is involved, such as a sign. I did get one photo with the writing, but the building was not composed correctly for the background. I could have taken the sign from the other photo and place it within this photo... blending the two photos. The college building is off to the right... I don't know what the building is pictured behind the sign. It is a new building and unoccupied. I didn't see a sign stating what it was... I guess it could be part of the college.




MELONS
The melons, watermelons and cantaloupes, were probably brought up from Florida. Georgia's watermelon season doesn't get into full swing until around the 4th of July.




MOBLEY Gin Company
Doerun Georgia

They gin cotton. I wanted to get a photo of the whole bin, but we couldn't stop. The combined length of our travel trailer and truck is 54 feet, so not easy to find a place to pull over on the shoulder of the road.

MELLOW MUSHROOM Pizza Sign
Albany Georgia

Taken while going about 60 mph on the bypass. Frank spotted this sign as I was sipping my cola. I had to quickly grab the camera before the sign photo op disappeared as many other M pictures had done.

MANN'S Self Storage
Albany Georgia

MCDONALD'S and Super 8 MOTEL
Slappey Blvd. Albany Georgia

A slower speed, but still moving. Getting the camera to focus... even on auto... is difficult while moving.

I wasn't going to go into my archives... but :-)

Got MILK?

An old bottle that is part of Frank's collection of MILK bottles.

I hope y'all enjoyed my M finds.

For a list of more participants in this challenge go to Friday Shoot-Outs . The list is located over on the right-hand side. Patty has done a blog to explain the rules at Friday "My Town" Shoot-Out and tells how it all started. Y'all come join in on the fun!