Canon PowerShot SD1100

I have been trying to do a daily photo blog but I am constantly falling behind because of a camera issue that I keep trying to deal with. I have a Canon digital SLR, but sometimes its just too damn big and heavy to take with me. Plus it was fairly expensive to buy (good old student loans!) and I have a couple really expensive lenses. I really have to be motivated to take it out with me, and often when I do, it gets left in the car.

I decided to get a pocketable camera. Abelisto & I went to Best Buy to see what was available. I ended up getting a brown Canon PowerShot. I like my big Canon, it had good specs, good reputation and it was reasonably priced. I am really into brown right now and the fact that they had the brown one in stock clinched the deal. It is actually a rich dark brown, like expensive cocoa, not the muddy taupe color of this image...


When we got home with it I discovered that that Mike & Nova have the same camera (theirs isn't brown though...).

The battery is charging. In a little while I will go out and test it.

Winona Daily Foto Blog

Started another blog. The new one is a photo blog:
Winona Daily Foto - Taking Everyday Photographs of Winona Minnesota.
The plan is to post a photo taken in Winona every day, photos either taken by me or sent to me by others.

I think I will like doing this photo diary, but I may want to get a small point-and-shoot digital camera to make it easier and more spontaneous. I have a Canon digital SLR and it is too heavy and awkward to carry around for those spur-of-the-moment shots - not to mention too expensive to risk on the bicycle...

Abelisto and I are thinking about getting a Digital Camcorder to do some video blogging . Abelisto is doing sustainable beekeeping and currently is documenting the process with still images and text. Some of what he is doing would be great videos.

Lunar Eclipse

My attempt to photograph the lunar eclipse. It's not real crisp (but the night was) probably due to the fact that I was using the Subaru as a tripod (quadrapod?) and it was so cold it was hard not to shiver. Maybe I will try when it happens again in 3 years. Maybe it will not be 15 below zero at 2:00 AM on December 21st, 2010... hmmmm, better not count on that.

It was - however cold we got - a wondrous site. You can see how ancients would assign portentous omens to an event like this. Rightly so, I would say.

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Mount Trempealeau

One more river fog photo

This one is the Mississippi River with Mt. Trempealeau (the largest sandbar on the river) taken from the Minnesota side, a few miles downriver from Winona Minn.

We get a considerable amount of fog throughout the bluffs that border the river here. I believe this is Radiation fog (fog formed by the cooling of land after sunset by thermal radiation in calm conditions with clear sky. The cool ground produces condensation in the nearby air by heat conduction. Radiation fogs occur at night, and usually do not last long after sunrise).

In the early spring we get Advection fog (fog caused by moist air flowing over snowpack). It happens when it gets warm one day and the air fills with moisture from the melting snow. The next morning all the bluff tops will be covered in hoarfrost, every tree, every dried weed stalk, every blade of grass. It is amazingly beautiful and haunting. I have a photo of a spruce tree covered in hoarfrost, I will have to try to find it and post it here...

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Another Photograph

Mississippi Bridge

You can sort of see the second rainbow just to the left of the main one.

The bridge is the one crossing the Mississippi River at Winona Minn. You cannot see the river from this view. We tried to get closer to the bridge/river before the rainbows vanished, but they were gone in a matter of minutes. They reappeared later, but we had parked the car (with the camera in it) and were on bicycle by that time. I love to ride just after a rain, or in a light drizzle rain (as long as it is not a cold rain).

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Some Photographs

Lake Fog
A lone fisherman and bird, out on Lake Winona early one morning (5:30 a.m.)

River Fog
Fog on the Mississippi River, near Trempealeau Wis. Photo taken from the Minnesota side, just downriver from Winona.

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