Ellie Sparkles

Just playing around with the features in my camera. 

Pretty cool!

I'm having fun learning new things about this camera. 

Please enjoy the star filter photos!

Hope all is well with everyone...

Ellie Sparkles!

 This is my favorite. Star filter combined with lens flare, makes it interesting. 

In my down time....

I had my surgery. Am supposed to keep off my feet as much as possible. 

Again, RV's make great recovery rooms! 

In my downtime, I've decided to learn more about my camera. 

A Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ70. It's a super zoom camera! You can shoot the moon with this camera. 

Shot at full digital zoom. 

 The blood moon

Note the craters!

I love this camera! I'm learning more & more about it. 

You know what? Maybe I already shared these moon pics? I don't recall. If so, please forgive me!

Today, I learned how to do One Point Color. It's fun! Need to take better photos of the flowers though. The winds were blowing them around. I'm also learning how to use my filters & lens hoods. This is so much fun!

(keeps me away from the potato chips too)

Yes, this is a custom hood on this truck. 

This is fun! Maybe once I'm better, I can do a bit of traveling & do some photos & cool videos of places!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day. 

See, one can still find things to do while in down time too. :-)

As far as my healing goes. Had a bandage change last Wednesday. The doc shot my foot with a steroid to stunt the healing somewhat so we can try to prevent as much scar tissue as possible. Yep, that's been the problem. Scar tissue keeps forming, which keeps bringing the Tarsal Tunnel Syndrome back. 

Enough already huh?!

Oh & did I mention I also have a broken finger? 

:::Sigh:::

Another 3 weeks in the finger splint - at least....

At least it's my little finger on my right hand. Sure, I make more typos now, but all in all, it's not that much of a problem. 

Thank goodness. 

Funk - but great moon shots!

Hey everyone, I hope all is well with ya'll. 

Sorry I've not been around lately. I've just been in a funk since my trip to Port Aransas. 

Port A was great, when it wasn't bone chillin' cold & I got tons of great pics & vids from there. I'll share some of that within the next few days. I haven't even finished editing everything yet. 

So to update  - not much has really been going on with me these days. 

I did buy a really cool little washing machine for the RV, a portable washer. I'll share it in another post. 

I am still here on my spot in the driveway. Starting to really yearn for my own freedom now. 

Have been working on youtube videos to help fill my time, plus I like creating videos. 

The new camera is great! It's a Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ70 with a 60x optical zoom. 

Soooo, I will share some moon shots taken 2 nights ago. Someone told me there will be a pink moon on 15th. I have never heard of a pink moon. Hope the skies will be clear! 

So here are a few of my moon shots.. 

Shot over Ellie & my van. You can even see the stars!

 Shot at 60x optical. 

 Shot at digital zoom. 

Shot at full digital zoom. 

Then I saw this & quit shooting!!

Catch ya'll later. Have a great day! I'll post more later. {{hugs}}

Nature in the back pasture

When I got the camera, I wanted to get some nature shots with the new zoom lens. 

I got LUCKY! I got this guy! 

How cool is that! It's a Pileated Woodpecker. I've been trying to catch one for 3 years now. They are shy & pretty much stay away if anyone is outside. They are actually quite big - known as the crows of the woodpecker world because they are big, kind of clumsy & very loud. Yep, that's how I heard him! I heard the noisy wingspan as he was flying to that tree. Then I heard his loud pecking at the tree. I had to be very careful to stalk the tree with minimal noise as not to scare him off. Got it! Then he flew away when I tried to step just a little closer, but I was able to catch him on video as well. I was shooting in weird light too. Against the sun, but in a very black shady area, so I'm happy that I got anything at all. 
The photo image isn't as clear as I'd like, but I'm glad I got anything at all. 

I didn't get any other bird photos...they all seem to disappear when I appear! Little stinkers. I can hear them in the front of the acreage when I'm in the back & vice versa. 

I did get a Mockingbird on the video, the Pileated Woodpecker & a really sharp image of a dragonfly. 
Oh & a vulture in flight. I have to practice up on flying birds. They are hard to track in flight! 
If possible, watch the video in HD for a better image. 

Please enjoy! 





~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after your travels & respect your neighbor~

Google plus + my new camera

Well, Google plus really doesn't have anything to do with my camera, I just combined the subject line! 

I just wanted those that use Google Plus for their comment section, that I do read their posts. 

But. 

Since I'm not ready to join Plus yet, I can't comment....bummer. 

I'm still hanging around, just haven't been as much lately as usual. I've taken an interrupted break from blogger due to other things, but hopefully, I'm back now! 

I sure am glad I bought my new camera. Last week, my van started to idle rough. Took it in yesterday & it's the catalytic converter :-(   They wanted an arm & 2 legs to fix it! I said no & brought the van home, but they still charged me $94.00 to determine that! So I am NOT happy! That could be used towards the repairs instead! Dammit. 

So after talking to another mechanic, he suggested I buy one & take it to a muffler shop to have it installed instead. He said it's cheaper that way & it will be installed properly. So I'll talk to a few muffler shops to see what can be done. 

Always something! 

So like I said, I sure am glad I got the camera before this happened or I'd still be using my cell phone for pics! My old camera is fine, but windows 8 won't accept it. And the memory card is so huge that I have to shell out $25 to buy a specific memory card reader that can read that card. It was time for a new camera. The other is 11 years old. 

I bought a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ70. It's been so much fun to use. I can even shoot the moon with it & get craters! Awesome! 

Another example of the zoom range on this thing, and this is not at full zoom! 

So it's a fun camera. Will be really fun once I do a little traveling! I want to do a couple of state parks here to catch some different birds & such. 

I'll be sharing some of what I've caught within the next few days. 

It's a bridge camera, which means it's capable of being a point & shoot, to professional quality settings. It has a huge powerful 60x zoom lens. Lens is fixed, but you can still purchase extensions for it to attach to that lens. Seems to be the perfect camera for me! 

I'm still in therapy. I hope all this will be over soon! I'm so ready to be done with it all. 

Video from the camera is very good too. 

Later, I'll share some of that as well. Or you can check out my channel on youtube -- ReignbeauHounds to see what this camera is capable of doing. 

I hope everyone is doing well.

Guess I'd better get ready for my afternoon doc appointment & therapy. Have a great day everyone! 

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~