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.

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.

Ups and Downs of the Week.

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

Kitties – Always ready to pose.

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.

This morning I walked over to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which is one of the more famous cathedrals in NYC. It’s in the middle of a three year restoration, of course, so it’s hard to get pics without scaffolding or other construction material in them. But I tried.

On the way back to meet Sarah for lunch, I stopped by the Rockefeller Center.

Today I browsed through the B&H Superstore and bought a case for my monopod. B&H is photography paradise. I just walked around trying out cameras I’ll never be able to afford. Afterward I walked over to Central Park for my annual visit to the Ballfields Cafe to have a couple dogs and a Sangria.

On the way I passed the Time Warner Center again.

After lunch at the Ballfields Cafe I walked around getting taking some shots. It was a gorgeous day.

Today I went to the Time Warner Center mall to take some long exposure images. I got all the way up there, set up my camera and tripod out of the way in a corner, and then realized I had forgotten to bring the right lens and my cable release. As I was packing everything back up again, I was interrupted by a security guard telling me I couldn’t use a tripod in the mall. Turns out they are worried about unlicensed commercial use of images of the mall, which I can understand. They’re also worried about security issues posed by tripods, which I don’t fully understand. I realize tripods can be a hazard in a crowded area, but I was tucked well out of the way of any pedestrian traffic. Still, I suppose they just ban all tripods to eliminate the risk entirely. The media access office did kindly offer to let me come back with my tripod and try my shots again, but I was in no mood to haul my gear all the way back up there.

So no pics for today.

We’re back in the city for our annual Book Expo trek. This evening we’re meeting one of Sarah’s friends for dinner at Rosa Mexicano. Sarah browsed the Strand Bookstore while I hung out down the street at Union Square. Got a few interesting pics of typical New Yawkers.

At Rosa Mexicano they make guacamole table side. It was incredible.

Three on a tree.

Willie

The corn is getting near perfect weather for growing. Loads of sunshine and occasional rain. Here’s a rabbit’s eye view.