Using The IPhone To Make A Post...

I know, I have not made a post since Christmas. Life has been busy with projects, family and an endless amount of overtime at work. I have not even used the DSLR since November.

Thanks to the IPhone I have managed to stay connected in some manner since then. I can use it at work during down time or when on the go. The camera is pretty good with some really cool photo apps. These four were all taken and worked up on the phone.

I am hoping to get to SNP in June and maybe even Elk County. Who knows I may be retired by then.

Being my first post from the phone and the blogger app I hope it works okay.

Touring The New Harley Davidson Assembly Plant...

That's right another post already! I am hoping to post two or three times a week and I am going to try and mix things up between wildlife and World War 2 and motorcycle events we attended this summer.

With that said today's post comes from our recent visit to the new vehicle operations center at the York Harley Davidson plant last week. Shane and I set out early one morning for a nice ride through the country on the bike en route to the new facility. We toured the plant and looked at their small museum located in the same building. It was a great time and we enjoyed seeing where our motorcycle was assembled. Many changes have taken place since Linda and I last visited in the 80's. I must say I enjoyed the tour better then and was sad to see that all the old motors and one of the three original 1903 bikes were gone and now in the home plant.

These are the first photos I have posted of my bike since April when it came in, it has under gone many changes since then. Click the picture for a much larger version. By the way these were all taken with the point and shoot Nikon and as in the past no cameras are allowed on the tour.

Happy Anniversary Linda...

Happy anniversary Linda, 27 years ago today we took our vows in a little Church in Centerville. We were young stupid and probably not ready for marriage, thanks to you we made it through all those times to where we are today. No matter how I act sometimes, I not only love you as much as I did then I love you more now than I did then. I have many things to thank you for and you deserve the credit for most good things in our life, but the biggest was giving me a son like Shane a little over 15 years ago. Lets do 27 more years together.

Reading Air and WW 2 Weekend 2011...

Yes I know I have been missing in action the last couple of months. I am still working lots of overtime and now that we have sunny weather I have been riding the bike every chance I get. Shane finished the 9Th grade yesterday and is growing up fast.

Last tour I had my regularly scheduled vacation to attend the Reading Air and World War 2 show. Linda went along for the first time and she and I spent the weekend in a hotel room. Shane camped with the Thuderbirds, 45Th infantry from Friday morning until Sunday evening, I attended the show all three days while Linda spent Saturday shopping at the outlets.

Shane had a great time and it was obvious just to look at him, we also added many more items to his collection some that he will be using again this weekend at a living history display in York. For those of you that do not know Shane or do not recognize him since he is now bigger than me that is him second from the right in the first photograph, fourth from the left front row in the next, with his back to the camera in the third, and yep him passing the ball and on the far left with the carbine in the last photograph.

It was a great weekend and I finally got to use the camera and lens I purchased in February. Who would have thought I could buy a new body and lens and only shoot about 200 photos in three months before this trip. I more than made up for lost time with the camera. Now to see if I can get a few days south for the whitetails before the month is over.

UPDATE, there was five photos here but blogger does not want to cooperate. I can't seem to get the spacing down right and the harder I try the more it gets messed up.

It has been a long time since my last post...

Hello everyone, it has been a long time since my last post. I have plenty I could post but nothing is prepared. I could be revisiting the Elk and Whitetail ruts that I was posting when I stopped or I could be posting a few HFD calls I photographed or even bringing you up to speed on what has been happening at the Harrisburg Fire Department, but I won't for now. Instead I think I will bring you something new since it is prepared.

If you have been reading my blog for sometime then you all ready know that Shane and I are very much into history and World War 2. His paper work is in everything he needs to go to war (summer time anyways) from the HBT uniform to the belt, haversack and small items right down to the Springfield M1 Garand have been purchased, now it is time to face the enemy. His first encampment should be the beginning of June in Reading. If I have everything I need for battle I just may join him in camping out that weekend.

We have already attended one event this year, the Battle of the Buldge with about five more planned. Now it is time to read all we can on the 45TH infantry to really play the part and pass on the living history. It is always fun to find things to do with your children and even more so when it is remembering those who served this country. It will be an honor to keep their memory alive and pass along history to the next generation.

I guess now is the time to give you a little back ground on the photos. Late last year Nikon came out with a new body the D7000 that took what was good about many of their DSLR's and incorporated new features like full 1080 HD video capabilities with auto focus and stereo audio recordings. Needless to say I was a little excited about a new camera body. The camera had been unavailable at every location until about two weeks ago when one of the large New York dealers got some in. I had been very active selling items on eBay and other places in an effort to downsize with retirement potentially nearing. Along with that I sold the D70 and passed along the D90 to Shane with the intent on getting the D7000. About two weeks ago the camera arrived at the front door and from the time I unpacked it the excitement level rose.

Things have been busy and weather lousy so I had not used it except to photograph my feet and the cats as I played with it learning the new controls and menu. A couple of days ago Shane's M1 helmet arrived and before you knew it he was dressed and ready for battle. Wanting photos for his face book page was perfect, I can try out the new camera. It felt great, I played with high ISO settings and was surprised at the low noise on the LCD, it even sounded different than the other four Nikon DSLR's I have owned. Now it was time to download the card and get his photos ready for him. With the card downloaded and in Adobe Bridge it was not allowing me to open them in camera raw, I could not even open them in Photoshop. It was time for some research even though I already had an idea of what the problem was. Shore enough CS3 is not capable of handling the new NEF files from the D7000 just like CS2 was not able to handle the new NEF files from the D300 when I purchased it. I found that the only way to work the files was to upgrade to CS5 or Lightroom 3. This is something I have been wanting to do for a long time so now I have to.

I have not gotten the new programs yet, I am excited about them but not the learning curve required of someone with my computer skills. So you are wondering how did I post these photos if I didn't purchase the programs yet. I remembered that if you use the in camera editing features and save the new file to the camera it keeps the original raw file but the new file is saved as a jpeg. That is exactly what I did then opened them in Photoshop cropped and resized them for Shane too use.

For all you bloggers out there that I frequent I know I have not been commenting lately but I am still looking, Willard is still teaching me thing and posting great stuff, Coy's photos are always awesome and I enjoyed your Florida birds (I am not getting there this year), Woody, I am glad to see some new post, you catch to many jobs to not share them with us and Haney's is always interesting. Are you shore that is you at the snow bank, wow we looked young once. I am hoping to start posting more often on both sites very soon, but for now thanks for stopping by.

3RD Anniversay...

Welcome to the 3RD anniversary post on my photo blog (#803). Instead of coming up with something new I decided to put up photos that have appeared over the last three years. I set out to put up my personal favorites, not knowing how many I would post after going through the file it ended up at 16 photographs. These favorites may not be technically correct or my best but they are my favorites for various reasons. For some of you that have been with me all along you will have seen them before but for the newer viewers some of these will be new to you. Do you have any favorites of mine? Did I post any of them here or did they not make my cut? Here is hoping I stay with it for another three years.

National Boy Scout Jamboree

Before leaving for vacation Shane and I along with a group of other scouts from our council attended the National Boy Scout Jamboree at Fort AP Hill Virginia. It would have been great to have attended the entire Jamboree but because of vacation and other commitments that was not possible this year. We did see enough to know that we will attend the next one for the duration.

The event was attended by almost 45,000 Boy Scouts and adult leaders, this years being extra special as it is also the 100TH anniversary of Boy Scouts. Besides working on merit badges there was many other things the boys could earn that was only available at the jamboree. The site had its own radio station and daily news paper along with numerous trading posts.

In the first photo Shane and Jack (also from our troop) look at one of the two patch walls, in the second photo Shane, Jack and Kelly (Jack's father) take a break in the military area for lunch. In photo number three Shane looks at the many patches that were available for trade. Shane was looking forward to this portion and traded all but one of the patches he took with him. The fourth photos is Shane with the Boy Scout radio station on site and the last photo just shows part of the camp.

Happy 26TH Anniversay Linda...

This post is a day late since I made no post yesterday but a day late is better than not at all. And no I didn't forget it yesterday. On August 18, 1984 Linda and I were married in a small church just outside of Centerville. It is hard to believe that we have been married for 26 years already. They have been a great 26 years and I am looking forward to 26 more. I love you Linda and Happy Anniversary.

The first photo was taken on our recent vacation at Red Rock and the second (taken by me with a wide angle lens at arms lenght) was taken at the North rim of the Grand Canyon. Please visit Shane's blog today for a new post.

Back From Vacation...

Hello everyone, for the last two plus weeks both of my blogs have been running on auto pilot. It looks like everything posted as planned and I think I have visited every ones blog since getting home. I have been off for more than the last month with about a week to go including another Boy Scout Camp before having to go back to work.

Vacation started with a trip to Boy Scout summer camp, a long weekend at the beach that included stops at Blackwater, Assateague and Bombay Hook, an Orioles game, the Boy Scouts National Jamboree and then off to our big vacation for the year. We spent 15 days at Las Vegas and the surrounding area. After leaving Vegas we took a 2,000 mile trip that included Death Valley, Red Rocks, Zion, Cedar Breaks, the Grand Canyon north and south rim along with a few other stops. In all we hit 12 National Parks, Monuments or recreation areas.

Myself I got bored with the Grand Canyon liking the North rim the best. But my favorite stops were at Pipe Springs, Death Valley and Walnut Canyon (home of the cliff dwellers). We seen temperatures ranging from 38 degrees to 122 degrees.

I never thought I would like Vegas, boy was I wrong. We loved Vegas and will be returning. There was so much to see including the Blue Man group, the hotels and the Pawn shop from Pawn Stars on the history channel. And I must admit there was more hot woman there than anyplace I have ever been in my life. I also have to say everyone lied to me, they said I wouldn't notice myself sweating. They were wrong I sweated allot and often. The one thing we seen little of was wildlife but I expected that and did not take the big lens along knowing that it was not a wildlife trip. It is good to be home and sleeping in my own bed now and hearing English spoken instead of every other language. I think after we left Vegas the only people that spoke English were the people working in the areas.

Please visit Shane's blog today for a new post.

Sinoquipe Scout Reservation...

I started my 37 day break from hell, oh I mean work last month by attended summer camp with Boy Scout troop 180. This year the troop went to Sinoquipe in Fort Littleton. This was my first trip to this camp and it was very nice. We had 17 boys and four leaders at camp and I think all had a great time despite the heat and two storms. I enjoyed scouting as a youth but I think it is more fun now getting to do it with my son. I think all of you that view this site know me but if you do not that is me and Shane in the second photo. The first photos is the troop at the color grounds awaiting the flag ceremony so we may get to the mess hall. The last photograph was home for my time their, regardless of the high temperatures I slept very well in this tent. Our next scouting adventure was attending the National Scout Jamboree at Fort AP Hill Virginia, maybe some photos from it later. By the way this is for my old scout friends Dale and David, are you guys missing this yet? These were also taken with the point and shoot camera. Can you tell that we try not to let any grass grow under feet in the Myers house, we are always on the go.

And People Think I am Not Right...

Okay for those of you who think I am not right watch this video and you will see that I am the normal one in the family. I hope the video works, when I upload them they always say an error occurred please try again later but once the post shows up they always seem to be there. This is the sort of thing I have to put up with all the time. This was at the condo we stayed at in Ocean City the other week, Shane finds a luggage cart and Linda acts like a kid with him. By the way the were shot with the point and shoot camera also. I know I sound like a broken record and I am not looking for pity but I have not been happy with the quality of photographs I have been getting lately. I have good equipment and I should be getting better but I seem to be digressing. The post processing skills are not improving either. Since I am doing this for fun I have decided not to worry about what I post anymore, besides on a good day my numbers only around 25 to 30 hits a day anyways.

A Mid Day Orioles Game With Friends...

On Wednesday July 21ST we attended a noon Baltimore Orioles game with our friends the Quigley's that live across the street from us. Not unlike most Orioles games the Birds came out losers to the Rays 5-4 but is was still fun to watch a game. Not wanting to lug around a bigger camera and down on my camera skills lately I decided to take the point and shoot. By looking at the sharpness of the last photograph I guess I am not very good with it either. That is Shane on the left of both photos and John on the right. Go ahead guys grab them for your face book pages if you want them. Don't forget to click the photos for larger versions especially the first photo.

Speaking of Shane check out his blog today for a new post.

Happy Birthday Mom.

More From Benezette...

Last week a posted a black squirrel from Benezette and mentioned that we photographed more than just Elk. Here is the proof, we also photographed insects and other things you will see in the future. The one lens we do not own is a macro so we shoot items like this by getting further away and using the big lens. The first photo is Shane using the D90 that he always uses with my newer lens and tripod that I got earlier in the year. I think he really likes using that set up.

Speaking of Shane today's is Tuesday and that means a new post on his blog so please stop by and visit it.