Day 111

My new grand daughter!

-tom

Day 110

My baby.  Meet my Nikon D200 that I prefer to use. I have the 50 mm 1.8D lens attached for this image. I used my Canon SD950 to take this image, which is my favorite travel camera when I want to be more discrete. It's an interesting phenomenon, but when I pull out the D200 everyone gets self conscious. No one cares if you pull out a small point and click. I have a Heliopan UV filter. I like this one as it is thinner than most of the others. A filter is also good to prevent scratches on the lens. I learned that one when I dropped by D80 with a 18-200 lens attached. It crushed the glass in the filter and only a tiny minor nick in the lens that doesn't show up in images. That cheap $35 filter protected the $750 lens. However, I did drop that lens when I was in the Alkmaar cheese market in the Netherlands. The lens was fully extended and hit the brick surface. Repair cost: $150. It worked fine, but I bought a new one and gifted that one to Jenn. She now uses it on my old D70 that I gifted her as well. It still takes great images. And yes, I've learned my lesson and hang on to my camera.




-tom mcmurtrey

Day 109

A small statue at dinner tonight with Angel at Pho Miss Saigon.

Day 108

The occupants of this nest left and are in South Africa attending the World Cup. If you listen to any of the games you can hear them.

Day 107

Dunno, but my salt and pepper have always gotten along just well.

Day 106

Stray. This little guy greeted me when I arrived home today. Took one look at me and left...

Day 105

Yep, that's the needle, presser feet, and feed dog of a Bernina sewing machine. OK, the needle is obvious. The presser feet look like feet, but what's a feed dog?  That's what sneaks up out of the slots in the round plate at the bottom. It grabs the material as you sew. The feet are in the up position. When sewing, the lever at top left is thrown and the feet come down against the material. The needle moves up and down, the feed dog grabs and controls the material, and the bobbin turns. The magic is that the bobbin grabs thread from the needle (there is no thread in the needle in this image) and interlocks it with thread from the bobbin. Quite an ingenious invention. The bobbin (which you can't see in this picture) sits beneath the round plate. You can just make out some white thread coming out from the bobbin.