after I showed bugaboo around my old High School, we went tromping up to the local mountains and took some pictures in Ice House Canyon.

I spent the majority of my time playing with shutter speeds and water. I am not that steady and a mono-pod is next on my 'to buy' list. It was a lot of fun to take pictures with someone else (especially since we both have the same camera and the lens we were using was comparable: 70-300) and seeing the difference in results due to style.

slow shutter speed 1/125 second, ISO 400, AV 4.5
fast  shutter speed 1/15 second, ISO 100, AV 5.0
slow1 shutter speed 1/500 second, ISO 400, AV 5.6
faster1  shutter speed 1/15 second, ISO 100, AV 8.0

My favorite Shutter speed 1/4 second, ISO 400, AV 8.0

While I regaled bugaboo with local history, she helped me learn how to take better pictures. Part by example (very patient) and part by experimenting with me.

We've been busy for the past few days; I've got to do some things I've never done before!  It's been fun!  We went....wait...let me just show you...

What I've been doing

I hope you like these.  We have to wait a couple of days before we go back out...Kay hurt her leg, so right now, we're just hanging out at the house.  She says we'll go to Elephant Rocks State Park next....I can't wait!

I went out today with the express purpose of finding a "falls" that I'd heard was beautiful.  In my mind, for some reason, I thought you could drive to it.  NO PROBLEM!!  As I was going there, there was a pull-off where you could see for miles.  Here's the pano of the view.  (I messed up on the first stitch, tried to fix it, but couldn't.)  So, I get to where I'm going only to find that you have to hike a  trail that takes between 2-3 hours!  I wasn't dressed for this, but I thought, what the heck, I'm here.  I'll go for it.  So, we (my dog, Baby and I) take off walking.  A L O N G ways into the hike, I see some water.  And, then I see a little  falls.  Not what I had imagined I'd see.  We kept going.  And getting hotter and  hotter.  We did meet a  friend or two along the way.  I saw a lot of trees like this.  We kept going, but never did find the "big falls".  Just when I thought I couldn't go another step farther, I spotted these.  But, we were real troopers and kept going 'cause I'd seen a sign that said the parking lot was only a few hundred yards away.  We made it back to the car in record time, I thought.  It took us 2 hours to make the "loop".  Driving out of the park, I spotted   these, these,  these and  this.  Hope y'all enjoyed the walk!  Man, my feet hurt......

I was out driving around today, and although I see these every day, it never crossed my mind to photograph them.  They are found at the local VFW. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 (I know I'm giving SG fuel, but, what the hey.....)
A little farther out, I revisited the quanset hut so I could get a better pic of it for those of you who actually knew what it was when I just posted the windows.  front side pano back side pano.
Even farther out the road (out of the 10 mile radius) I saw this  old machinery.
I also did an experiment today.  Cruising at 78 mph and  snapping pictures like Dirkbag.  I know mine aren't good like his and my windshield is dirty, but I just wanted to know how hard this is; all I got to say is I sure do hope you pull over the next time, Dirk!  I was all over the road!  Think I'll try a safer experiment next time......
Hope y'all enjoy!

Having not posted in a while, I thought I'd share our trip to Mexico with you. I've never been there, so it was a "culture shock" to me! As far as beauty, it paled in comparasion to Hawaii, but I had a better time there. We went deep sea fishing and caught a couple of marlins ; it was exhilarating, to say the least! I had never seen pelicans before, so I took numerous pictures of them; here's one coming in for a landing . When you come back from your fishing expedition, you always have lots of greeters wanting food. Here's one of the water spray behind the boat. The Pacific sunrise was beautiful! When a ship has to come in for repairs, they have a great way of hauling it in. Of course, street vendors are in abundance, and no one is left out as is witnessed in this small child. She had hit us up numerous times to buy something, but we didn't get anything. Of course, after I took this pic, her mother sent her after us saying "One dollar for picture". We obliged. The trip was great, we plan on going back again next year, but it was wonderful to get back home to the budding and blooming of the crocuses. There's no place like home! BTW, the thumbnail is of the sunset at the hotel pool.