Tag Archives: Panasonic G3

Family, Street

A great start to the new year

Most people when they think of a way to start the new year do not think of jumping into a river of near freezing water.  This is where my wife has a different opinion than most.  Every year, her and some members of her family jumped into the Yough river in Connellsville on New Years Day.  I asked the only logical question when I first learned of this activity, why?  Needless to say, the first New Years we spent together had me jumping into the river right next to her.  It was quite the rush really and something I’ve done numerous times now.  This year (and last year) had me playing pack mule and carrying not only their towells and changes of clothes, but our daughter was well.

So in the backpack went Brooke and off we went to walk around and watch everyone take the plunge.  A good number of people showed up again this year.

This was the group picture they take every year.  Every year is seems to get bigger and bigger.

One of these years, when Brooke is older or if we have a sitter, I’ll take the plunge once again.  Until then, I have a good excuse to simply play photographer.

Street

Lunchtime walk around town

On my lunch break, I needed to take a walk down to the post office to get a package that I missed delivery on and few books of stamps for Christmas cards.  So of course, I packed up the camera bag (Panasonic G3, Pana 20mm,  Oly 45mm) and off I went.  After the post office, I meandered around downtown Scottdale.  Since downtown consists of 1 main street 2 blocks long, it didn’t take much time at all.  I wasn’t really seeing anything of interest until I detoured down an alley.  Right in front of me, there it was.

I’ve walked past this numerous times, but never really stopped to look at what was there.  Everything just clicked into place.  Looking a bit further and I found this.

Having exhausted all of my free time, it was time to walk home and get back to work.  When I got there, I found this waiting for me.  I don’t think the cat moved since I started work at 7.

Animals, Nature

After turkey-day with a deer and the Oly 45

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Let me first say that I hope everyone had a fun and safe Thanksgiving with their families and friends.  My family had a great time getting together, even if it is very busy and sometimes crazy.  We had one more side of the family to visit today, so I had one last chance to gorge myself on a wonderful home cooked meal.  Before that could begin however, I noticed a young deer walking behind the family members house.  I excused myself, grabbed my camera and tried to sneak around out back quietly.

For the people reading this strictly for the gear… I had my micro 4/3’s kit.  The longest lens I currently have is the Olympus 45mm f/1.8.  So that gave me an equivalent view of 90mm (in 35mm terms).  How I wish I would have the 45-200mm right then.  So these shots are cropped in fairly close.

The deer was about 40 yards back when all of a sudden something spooked it and it ran directly toward the house and close to where I was standing.

When it got within 15 feet of where I was standing, it finally realized that I was there and stopped dead in it’s tracks.  Apparently it was rather used to people, because it just stood there for a few seconds looking at me.

Apparently I wasn’t that big of a threat, as I was quiet and I could hear numerous gunshots in the distance (we were in the mountains).  The deer slowly trotted back from where it had come from.

I followed it for 50 yards up into the woods along a path.  The ground was wet and made it easy to be quiet and not make any noises.  The deer knew I was back there all the time, but just didn’t seem to care.  The next 3 shots were all taken from about 12 or 15 feet away.  That was as close as I could get.

After following and observing this deer for about 15 minutes, he simply looked at me one last time, decided she’d had enough and bolted.  It was a great and very peaceful experience, one that doesn’t happen often enough in our busy lives.