June 2012


These two baby raccoons hang out on a branch just across the yard from our living room window.

Sibs

Maggie in her usual spot.

Maggie

Ups and Downs of the Week.

 Red Sox – Still playing well. Franklin Morales pitched a gem last night but the bullpen gave up one run, which was enough for the equally brilliant Felix Hernandez to take the win.

Health Care Law – The law has a lot of issues, but I’m glad it was not to be decided by the courts. Congress needs to do what it is supposed to do and come up with decent laws and programs and stop doing everything they can to thwart the other side of the aisle. Too bad we can’t pass a law to fix the idiots in Congress.

Heat Wave – Over 100F yesterday and today. Tomorrow is supposed to be the same. Yikes.

Inside the new Disney California Adventure Park is an area they call Radiator Springs, which comes from the Disney Pixar movie Cars. The sandstone background is very impressive and makes you think you’re in Nevada somewhere. The background scenery wraps around a new ride and really gives a sense of depth and distance.

Radiator Springs

Radiator Springs

Radiator Springs

Yet on the outside, which we can see from our hotel balcony, the set is not that big. The visual magicians at Disney have just figured out a way to make you think the rocks are way in the distance. Pretty impressive.

Disney behind the scenes.

Too many shots for the larger thumbnails, so click away.

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Sarah received her Louis Shores award from the American Library Association and RUSA tonight.

2012 Louis Shores Award

Disney Magic

Ups and Downs of the Week.

 Red Sox – 8-2 for the last 10 games. Not bad, but they’re still battling with Toronto for Kings of the Basement. Meanwhile the Yankees seem to have remembered how to win consistently.

Anaheim – We’re here for Sarah’s ALA convention and our hotel is this close to Disney.

Disney

Disney

The neighbors across the street have a rat terrier named Sparky. They should have called him Mighty Dawg. He’s fearless when it comes to raccoons (but scared of the cats). Tonight he came charging over and waded into a pack of raccoons who were foraging out back. I thought they would eat him, but they all ran up trees. Here’s Mama and one of her young ones waiting for the ruckus to subside.

Treed

Ups and Downs of the Week.

Red Sox – Shut out by the Cubbies? Really? How low they have sunk.

Kitties – Always ready to pose.

Scotchie

Wally

Wally

In photography there is a term Depth of Field (DOF). It refers to the area of sharp focus in an image. Shooting with wide apertures, like f2.0, will yield a very narrow DOF. In extreme cases a portrait of a person may have the eyes in focus but the person’s ears and hair may be be out of focus. The narrower the aperture, the wider the DOF. Shooting at an aperture of f8 or higher will usually leave most, if not all of the image in focus. In the demo below, the aperture settings can be seen in the lower right corner of the image. Watch how the DOF is very narrow at f2 and widens until everything from the nearest cornstalks to the farthest trees are in focus at f22.

DOF Demo

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