Around the neighborhood....

[Kathy Rappaport]

I've been stuck in the house with a bronchial infection since I came home from Santa Fe last week and I've been itching to go out in the beautiful weather we had here today in Los Angeles, but, resting was more important so I can return to work tomorrow.

For years my fence has been a pathway for the neighborhood squirrels that drive my dogs crazy. I have always wanted to get out and have them pose for me (sure!). So while reading OPF today, I saw one of them, though the window, sitting on the fence and by the time I got the camera out and the 100-400 on it, of course the squirrel had gone on to torture the other dogs in the neighborhood. So after reading the post about how Ben Lifson mentors photographers, I decided that there had to be something out there worthwhile to shoot, even while in my pajamas, and among the gray tones of winter, even in Los Angeles area, I saw some first signs of Spring right there in my own backyard among the chirping birds and barking dogs and buzzing bees....

http://i5.pbase.com/g6/80/683780/2/75198146.8LxHQCGV.jpg

[Edward Bussa]

Lovely. Especially the part about beauty in your own backyard, and your image is beautiful - in a word - understated. I've been a subscriber to the beauty in your own backyard philosophy for as long as I've been using a camera!

Get well...

[Charles L Webster]

Yes indeed there is beauty in our own backyards. The pictures I posted last week that resulted in so much controversy were taken, not literally in my backyard, but only a short distance from where I live. The setting for the "Abstract Reflection" (title not description) picture is a salt evaporation pond on San Francisco Bay. It is bordered on one side by a freeway and on another by an industrial park.

I sometimes feel that I have "mined out" my local spots, and then I find an overlooked piece of gold.

Kathy, your picture reminds me of the progress of the seasons toward the rebirth of spring, and the renewed joy of being outdoors.

Thanks for sharing

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Kathy,

I wish you better! The pink blossom is a great moode elevator! The flowers do not need that pesky squirrel. There's one of those nearby in Holmby Park that does indeed pose!

However, there's a bluejay that divebombs the squirrel!

I am impressed with that 100-400 lens. Nikolai too has one and it certainly worked well in the Camarillo Air Show last year.

Asher

[Louis Doench]

Thats winter?.... We won't see any flowers like that here in the midwest for another month.

Now i feel colder.... must hibernate....

[Asher Kelman]

Louis,

How about they'll come earlier this year? That's happening everywhere else!

Asher

[Kathy Rappaport]

Winter is Los Angeles is a beautiful thing - normally! But this year with the SNOW we had, lots of our tropical vegetation is shriveled up and brown. I am hoping for a comeback because otherwise I am in for a major expense of replanting. All my flowers and groundcover are gone. So those blooms on the Purple Plum tree are it. Glad you enjoyed the beauty I was able to share with you, courtesy of our favorite passion. Spring will really be here in a few weeks for those still buried by snow.

And Asher, the blue divebomber has taken residence at my neighbor's yard. Babies must be coming soon. Maybe my 100-400 will bring a sharing of them here too.

[scott kirkpatrick]

I think of Jerusalem as being not unlike LA in climate. We also had a longer than usual winter, but only a hint of snow, nothing to freeze the buds off. And it seems to be over now. Kids' coats are put away, they are resisting sweaters, long sleeves will disappear next.

Here's the park next to our house:

http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~kirk/testfiles/L1001644crop.jpg

Leica M8, 24/2.8-asph. BTW, Asher, whatever happened to your infatuation with the M8? A brief affair, now over, with both sides having stories to tell?

scott

(oops, it's a little big, but I can't resist all those blossoms)

[Asher Kelman]

Yes Scott, a little big but very special! The early signs of spring are great. Well, where are the people?

My love affair has been made harder because the M8 in now back in Germany being refitted! Alas, I found a new love, my 5D-50 1.2L combination. It is now my zoom lens, I not rotation or push pull just forward backwards with me feet!

I love it!

Still, the M87\ is much more intimate and less disruptive.

So what do you think is the quietest Digital camera and what is the quietest film camera?

Asher

[scott kirkpatrick]

Still, the M8 is much more intimate and less disruptive.


Did you see on LL, Nick Devlin's penguin test? He claims that the King penguins on South Georgia island will approach him even closer when he has the Leica up than when he wields a Canon 1DIIs and big zoom.

Quietest? In digital I can turn the sound off entirely on my GR-D (and probably that is true for most P&S's), but I leave it on low so that I will know when the shutter has fired. The E-1 I believe still holds the record among DSLR's, but I haven't really been checking. The M8 sounds loud to me, but I recently used it during a home concert and nobody but me seemed to mind it. For film, my M2 is still great. Don't have the other cameras any more, but I believe the leaf shutter in a Rolleicord was a bit more obvious, and the Nikons were, well, like cannons going off.

regards,

scott