Citizen Promaster SST U706

This may have been my 5th or 6th Eco-drive watch .. not sure. This watch raised the bar for me. It looks good in the light and dark; it has a Sapphire crystal, water resistant to 200 M, Solar powered, stainless bracelet, alarm, timer, ... I enjoy wearing it.

Changing the time is easy and having access to UTC is also convenient.

This watch has a cool track timing / speed feature that I've not had opportunity to use yet.

I really like how the hands glow so well that they light the face of the watch. And the blueish color looks good.

All in all - it's a Great watch!

If you come across one - snatch it up if it's a fair price as it will probably be working and looking good.

Citizen G900 Minute Repeater

This was my first (or second) Citizen Eco-Drive (solar) watch. It came with the bracelet, but was too small. I looked for additional links, but was not able to locate any from Citizen or the internet.

Recently I bought a silicone band and have since been able to wear this watch. - it's a fun watch to wear as it's not easy to read; you have to look at it and then you remember, "Oh Yeah, the orange hand isn't the seconds - it's the date!". The confusion it causes is part of the fun of wearing it. It's not a put on and forget type of watch (like my H144 is). This watch also "Plays" the time nicely.

Today I took photos .. it was good theropy.

1/40 sec. f/5 100mm ISO 400

Late this afternoon, I put my camera on the tripod and headed out back to see what I'd find.

The sun was low in the sky, so I knew all the exposures would have to be long, so pictures of moving bugs and flowers was out. Thankfully the wind was light and I focused on walking the fence line where the sun was still casting it's rays. Photos started with partial second shutter speeds and went up to 2 1/2 seconds.

1/15 sec. f/4 100mm ISO 400

photo1- I don't know what kind of plant this is: it is a vine with sharp stickers on it, but this portion is being eaten. As I was focusing on the leaf I'm sure I saw a very tiny critter run down the edge of the leaf..that was a very small critter!

photo2 - I think the stem is from the same vine - but not sure.

photo3 - The galvanized nail is part of the fence where the wood has been worn away or come off.

photo4 - The dogs almost look like ghosts as they play with the dog on the other side of the fence. (There are two 'ghost dogs' there, the second is a little more active and more difficult to see.)
 photo5 - This photo was exposed for over 2 seconds, but there is little or no movement of the 'headless' dog.

Forty five photos later, the sun had set, and I was walking in thankful for getting 30 minutes with my camera outside. Looking that closely to small things we don't normally see is good.

(No harm was caused to any animals in the capturing of these photos, or before or after the capturing of these images too.)

1/15 sec. f/4.5 100mm ISO 400

2.5 sec. f/32 100mm ISO 400

2.5 sec. f/32 100mm ISO 400

Housefly and ... clay pigeon shooting

This was a very skittish house fly out on the compose heap and I couldn't get the camera close to it. There are so many variables and moving parts / targets with macro photography. None-the-less, it's fun to try. I think it's time to start looking for a flash solution - I'll have to read up on it.

Now I know the shotgun shots aren't macro, but they too were fun to capture today. It's neat to see the pellets en-route and the clay pigeon start to be impacted and breakup as the pellets intersect with it. I with I would have bumped the shutter speed up as there was plenty of light it would have been neat to see what the images looked like with 1/800 or 1/1600 or more even .. next time!  :)

IO Moth (Automeris Io)

I had no idea what this was when I was taking some close ups of it, but now I've learned it will become a silk moth (IO Moth), well before becoming a moth.. now it's a stinging caterpillar about 3" long with the pink and white horizontal stripe down it's side.

It is very neat and close up looks like row after row of prickly branches, as seen in the below photos. You can see the black on the tips and I was told that the sting is very effective - which I took his word for.

This was the first time I've seen one of these and the first time I was able to photography one as it crawled around in the afternoon sun.

Live View Canon 50D

"Selfie" - 1/15 sec. f/20, 100mm, ISO 400

This week I purchased a used Canon 50D for a good value. Some might ask "why?" if you already have a 40D; I guess the possibility of a slightly better camera at a good value and now having two 'good' cameras were factors.

With work and cold weather I've not gotten a chance to wonder around and try the 50D out, but it feels good in the hands, just like the 40D does. I think I'm set on camera bodies now. The next purchase will likely be a full frame sensor, but not for a while. These may be considered 'old' cameras, but they still take very good pictures - especially behind a good quality lens (no matter it's age).

1/60 sec. f/5.6, 117 mm, ISO 400, Canon 40D

I've discovered the Live View and hope that there will be the opportunity to take some macro shots using the enhanced focus option in Live View this weekend .. post's will follow.

"Differential Grasshopper" found out back

There are lots of different species of Grasshoppers, but I think this one is a Differential Grasshopper. It also was found out back.

1/200 sec. f/14 100mm 400 ISO

1/6400 sec. f/2.8 100mm 400 ISO

1/500 sec. f/10 100mm 400 ISO

1/200 sec. f/14 100mm 400 ISO

1/125 sec. f/16 100mm 400 ISO

Another bug out back ... a Western Green Flower Beetle (Cotinis mutabilis)

"Selfie" - how I look in my wife's eye.

After walking around out back with my camera, just about to come and put it away I saw this beetle. The colors were very amazing and looking through the viewfinder it seemed like I could see through the translucent into the eye of this beetle - which made photographing this beetle more personal (as seen in the second photo).

This photo is where I found the beetle. And after a brief photo shoot in the setting sun, the beetle was returned to the same location .. and soon crawled away.

1/6 sec. f/22 100mm ISO 640

1/30 sec. f/16 100mm ISO 640

1/30 sec. f/16 100mm ISO 640

Katydid (Leaf Bug)

My daughter found this "leaf bug" out back this evening .. it's very cool - the leaf portion looks so much like a leaf!!

1/20 sec, f/20, 100mm, ISO 400

1/15 sec, f/13, 100mm, ISO 250

1/30 sec, f/29, 100mm, ISO 400

1/30 sec, f/32, 100mm, ISO 250

1/30 sec, f/32, 100mm, ISO 250

Citizen Eco-Drive H144

Over the last couple of years I have taken a liking to Solar power and that has spilled over into my choice of watches. I like Citizen's Eco-Drive watches and REALLY like that they are solar powered and never need a battery.

Below is a picture my favorite watch: It's a Citizen H144. It's simple, but does what it supposed to do very well - it always has the correct time (to the second) and always has the correct date! When I travel the watch can be adjusted to where ever it's at and continue to give correct information. It's also nice to look at, has a sapphire crystal and is water resistant to 200m.

125 sec f/2.8 100mm, 800 ISO

My first 1:1 Macro lens: Canon Macro 100mm 1:2.8 USM

Up until this posting, all the macro photos I've taken have been with my Canon PowerShot A710IS. It has taken some amazing macro shots - enough to let me know I enjoy taking them and would like to take the next step at some point. Just this week was that point when I purchased the macro lens used, with out even having a camera to host it.

my thumb nail

The lens (Canon Macro 100mm) purchase, or what my grandpa would say was "putting the cart before the horse", put me into the market for a horse. After considering a contemporary digital SLR, I found a good old horse that I think still has some life in her - a Canon 40D with a Canon 28-135mm IS lens attached.

This weekend I was able to put the cart and horse together and start taking photos again .. WOW .. what a Great camera and lens!! The take away was I need to manage my motion and I need to get a flash rig. There were some images I didn't capture due to blur, but, it was still fun and I have a few decent shots to show for the learning and fun process.

Here are some of the highlights - taken with my new horse and cart!
(There has been no editing to the originals other than cropping them is size.)

Little spider taking in some Dr. Seuss

Spider exploring the kitchen table .. and keeping an eye on me too!

Water droplet on a flower leaf

Some type of small bee visiting a flow I was taking pictures of

Apple and Plum blossom's just opened today!

It's a cold February day today, but as is often the case there have been enough warm days already that the fruit trees have budded and are begining to blossom. (The red ones are apple and the white are plum.)

If you look closely at the apple blossom you can see what looks to be a small bug / parasite??

This plum blossom is quite tiny ... this old Canon A710IS continues to impress with it's very good macro lens.