Oh Wait! This is Really It!

What comes after giddy? (Besides "up"). We returned to the "big ranch" today, after a one-year hiatus. Things are looking good there.

Let Sandia loose with Buffy and the auld warrior, Randir, and they almost immediately got into action.
Sandia can close! This hare is in peril.

And look who's joining in!! (Shh.. let him think he's helping.. he's 11 1/2 now, after all).

But Sandia apparently doesn't need any help, even though Buffy sneaks into the shot to try and steal some of the glory. This run came as quite a shock to me... I didn't expect this level of performance for a couple of months yet. He's only 8 months old! Thank you Chris! He's definitely a keeper. And to the reader who is here every day from Holland... I expect a comment! ;-)

Semper Fi.

Saw this new TV commercial today during the Patriots-Chargers game. It gave me chills.


I've enjoyed watching the Silent Drill Team ever since I first saw them on the Ed Sullivan Show back in the early '60s; or was it the '50s?!? Yikes! I'm old.

Some of you know that while I was a "Navy guy" for 4 years, my last year, 1969, was spent with the Fleet Marine Force in VietNam, with a Marine rifle company. I have a lot of respect for them.

Semper Fi.

This Is It!

Giddy. That's how I feel. But, after all, what did I expect? He got to watch us on Wednesday. And he got to watch at least 12 courses at the hunt yesterday. I knew he'd know what to do.

Off-lead portrait. Cooke's Peak.

What's that? Something moving!

It's a rabbit!

Go! Sandia, Go!

And, of course, he came back. We'll keep him.

Scenes From a Hunt.

Yesterday, I took Sandia and the camera to a nearby hunt. It was good to see old friends, and meet some new ones, and get reacquainted. But mostly, it was good to see hounds doing what they do, doing what they've done for more than a Millenia; and doing it in such a beautiful setting.

This dog worked hard, over a long, long time and a great distance. Usually, unlike life, hard work isn't rewarded. In this case it was.

They're back out there today, but I have another task. It's time to let Sandia loose on a jackrabbit. Let the learning begin!

Might As Well Get a Greeter Job at WalMart.

It's bad enough these days, when anybody with a couple hundred bucks in their pockets can get a fair-to-decent digital SLR camera, and set up business as a "Pro-fesh-uh-nul Photographer". My advantage, of course is experience. Having the technology and camera speed and knowing how to use the technology and that speed are two different things. 9 times out of 10 I'm still going to get the better shot than the other guy. Or girl.

Fer example, I get communiques like this:

Dan
Are you going to shoot any ASFA trials in places where I tend to show up? J ___ ran pretty well at ___ over ___ _____, but the photographer's work was not very good. __ has a poor sense of timing, and ___ focus is sloppy. I want a good picture of J___ for her breeder
(Edited to avoid embarrassing anyone)

So, what me worry?, right?
But, as "the Coach" on ESPN's College Game Day is wont to say: "Not so fast, my friend". Casio is about to tilt the field of play way out of whack. Beginning in March, any granny, or cuzzin Bruce with a thousand bucks laying around can get the perfect shot, (s'long as they can aim the damned thing, that is). The magic machine they will do this with is below:




See what it says on the lens barrel? If you want to see what kind of resolution you can get at that kind of speed, check out the samples here. Pretty impressive. So impressive I might as well retire to a life of leisure and panhandling in Deming, New Mexico.


Just kidding.

Alone Again. Naturally.

Seems like lately all I'm doing is driving Margaret to an airport. Yesterday, it was the El Paso airport, and she was off for a week in New York, to visit her son, and daughter, who is also visiting NY. Then she'll fly to Michigan to visit with her parents, and get accustomed to that thing we remember as... "snow". Cold, she could have had here. Woke up to 15 degrees this morning. She'll be in Michigan two weeks... long enough to remember why we went away almost 5 years ago in the Express. The forecast for the area is not good; but typical.

Anyway, she took the new camera with her. I thought I'd give the little camera a little review.

A couple weeks ago, when we were still in Texas, we drove down to Austin to the CompUSA store to get a replacement antenna for our Microsoft Streets & Trips GPS. (Sandia-damage, if you must know.) Turns out the store is closing, and had everything on clearance, so we got more than we planned on.

Our shopping included not one, but two of the slick little Fuji FinePix Z10 fd's.

We've always wanted a compact digital camera for those times the digi-SLR's were too bulky to carry. Well, this little gem is compact, as you can see. It has an optical, and digital zoom lens that is completely internal, so nothing sticks out. 7.2MP resolution.. better than my old D70 SLR. It also does movies... as seen in a previous post, (although, I have to work on my technique). It can instantly re size files for blogging... love that! And it comes in cool colors! (Would I pick anything but blue?). 6 other colors are available. They were marked down to $153 from $179 in the clearance sale. If you want one, I just discovered B & H Photo & Video has them in stock for $143. Oops.

But Dan, you say, how are the still pictures? Well, I returned to one of my favorite settings, with my favorite new model, and shot this:

Other than cropping... this is "as is". No other editing. It's also a smaller copy of the original fullsize file (for quicker uploading). I'm likin' it.

A Little Wound-Salt for Our Friends in Texas

Jessica Simpson Completes Elaborate Plan To Destroy Cowboys' Season

You half believe this is true, don't you?

:-p