Interesting Props

Every now and then Naomi comes home with some craft supplies that make for great subjects. Recently she bought some glass beads for making ornamental stepping stones with the kids. On spotting them I immediately started thinking of ways to shoot them. Here’s what I’ve gotten so far:

-Paul

Today’s Catch

Here’s some shots I got today. Like yesterday, all these were shot with a reserved 50mm.

“Now what?”

“Slope”

“Leaf” (Couldn’t think of a better name.)

“In Wait” — I had gone to check up on my favorite crab spider when this little fly landed on the leaf above him.

“Cosmo Leaf”

- Paul

Bug Hunting

While out for her morning check on the garden Naomi found a Cicada, fresh out of its skin. I grabbed my camera and (what I’ve been using as) my macro setup: a knock-off copy of the BR-2A that I got on eBay, an old 50mm 1.7 Mamiya / Sekor and a home-made flash defuser. This site has some great info on how all this works. Here’s a few photos:

Naomi also spotted a small Praying Mantis, got a shot of him too:

-Paul

Hawtch-Hawtcher Bird Watcher

I am becoming the Crazy Bird Lady.

But I don’t have the photographic skills to back up that claim.

I spend a lot of the mornings when the kids are independently studying, lurking around the windows with the book and binoculars close by. Five years ago I wouldn’t have known a Cardinal from a Robin’s underside, but now it’s my personal goal to spot and identify every single one–resident or migratory. When someone else in the family points one out that I haven’t yet noticed, there is a pang of resentment (get away from my window).

Paul got into photography when he was younger, and has always had his eye on the latest and greatest middle-0f-the-road equipment. I admit that I have always complained about the expense and pointlesness of it all…until one day when I commented to Paul that it would be great if you could put binoculars on a camera, and he looked at me kind of weird and educated me about zoom lenses. A great big zoom lens started looking really good to me as I tried to get a closer shot of a house wren nesting in a tree cavity, to no avail. And, we’re taking our first little family vacation this summer, to Glacier National Park…so the bird-watching opportunities will be varied.

So, great big zoom lens it is. All for the sake of some twittery little animals that wake us up in the spring with their infernal yammering and peck each of my tomatoes exactly twice…(sigh)…I pitched in for half the lens with my allowance, and I’m learning the basics of picture-taking. The one he bought has “VR” built in, which basically means it steadies my hands. (I’m sure the other blogger will fill the reader in with the technical jargon, at some later date.) Paul’s probably wondering if he can con me into pitching in for a flash, but maybe he realizes that I don’t really need a flash for most bird shots. Anyway, I’m looking forward to posting some (hopefully) good pictures of birds, kids, etc. that I couldn’t previously capture. Stay tuned.

– Hawtch-Hawtcher

Keeping warm…

What better time to post about our new furnace than a warm almost-summer day. We did get a new furnace this winter, and I have to say, I’m glad we went that route over a wood stove. I like the idea of going it on our own as much as we can, but we’ve got just so much to do; adding the re-supplying of our wood pile to the Spring’s to-do list would be too much. I think about how much time it took to do the two window wells we’ve got done, with three more left to do, a little time spent traveling, a little time spent just taking it easy with the family… There’s no way I’d want to add wood splitting to the list.

Back… November I think it was, the weather was pretty mild up to that point. The furnace needed its yearly maintenance so we had a local HVAC company out to give it a good once-over. Unfortunately, it was in such bad shape by that point that the technician turned it off and advised us to leave it that way. Every person who had come out to maintain the furnace had told us it was about spent so this was no surprise.

Just a week earlier we got a Home Equity loan from our bank; “Just in case.” Well, just in case now happened. We called around and had two HVAC companies out for estimates. They were two ends of the spectrum, professional clean cut and the local boys. The clean cut sales guy knew his facts, but the local boys sent the owner’s son-in-law, who wasn’t clean cut but really knew his stuff. We walked through the basement and he commented on craftsmanship of the house’s return duct work. Unfortunately the supply ductwork had been damaged by a burst water hose in the bathroom above and torn out, unprofessionally replaced by ugly ducts each running the full length from the furnace to the vent they supply. This will eventually need to be redone.

I was impressed with the owner’s son-in-law so we went with those guys.  It was an alright choice; they did a very good job of installing the furnace but could have done a better job cleaning up after themselves.  Nothing major, but just a little more and it would have been a perfect installation.  Also, we’ve never gotten a follow up call from them.  We spent over $3000, a call asking how things were running would have been appreciated.

The details:  It’s a 90% efficient Bryant with single speed blower.  For purchases like these I usually like to try to get something that’s a little more than we need but not over-kill.  The choices were 80% or 90% efficient with a single or variable speed motor.  90% single speed would get the job done well with out the added expense of the variable speed motor.

So, one more big-ticket item to cross off the list.