whackadoodle coconut

This past weekend was my birthday.  And unlike many other people, I love having my birthday. It is always the best part of the year.  I don't mind getting older.  It's cool with me. This year, the hubby and I went to the Carrizo Plains and Bakersfield for lunch.  Let's take a look at the adventure. Our first two stops were Soda Lake and then Painted Rock.  Then we went to visit Wallace Creek at the San Andreas Fault. It was a really good adventure!  We had some rain while we were hiking and had to take cover under the rocks at Painted Cave and then we saw a bunny doing the same thing. Here are a few panoramics I stitched together in photo shop.      

so, I've set a schedule of sorts for my week.  I like to start with finishing the chores on Monday, crafting/knitting/etc on Tuesdays, comics on Wednesday (since it's new comic day), shooting of all types on Thursday and then my Friday is free to catch up on whatever I'd like.  it has been working out, so lets update on this week (and a little of last week). last Friday I spent the morning in Montana de Oro taking photos for a contest. this is Carolina cove in the morning. and here is the outlook as you start the trail. I also visited (for the second time) Never Not Knitting in Atascadero.  I've been following her patterns, blog and podcast for a while and I was so excited to be able to visit her shop, and meet her! I had almost finished the shawl pattern I purchased last time I went (but didn't get to meet her) so I didn't have it show, however I did wear my wire and wool necklace. she took my picture and posted it to her Instagram accoun...

since my last post, it has been a flurry of day to day action.  I recently received a new DSLR camera, a Canon Rebel T3i we bought at Costco and I have been struggling to use it and learn all it's features.  many of these I cannot control on my Canon Powershot, while I can still take great photos with this camera, I wanted something that would allow more flexibility in my photography. for instance, I could change my lenses, control the shutter speed with a greater range and adjust my exposure for more drama.  this also means that I had a steep learning curve to advance my skills. I started with some basics, the birds next door. I took close to 100 shots to get a couple that remotely resembled the look I was going for.  these were taken with the telephoto lens that came in the kit on full automatic focus. the next day I went to one of the parks in the city to take some more photos of random subjects to see what I could do in the field.  the bir...