Photo LinkLove

, originally uploaded by Davidlind.

Boo at the Zoo from October 23-26. The National Zoo In Washington DC.

Come on by if you don’t think you will be too SCARED

Click on photos for enlarged view and slide show

, originally uploaded by Davidlind.

Beth and I both enjoyed this sailboat.  Blue is a favorite color for both of us.  Doesn’t this look like a lot of fun?  One person can run things and I bet it goes fast under the right conditions. I will add a few NextGen photos of sailboats here this evening.  They are a cheerful island in a sea of gray photos I took this past weekend.  I’m so sick of looking at most of them.   Everything is gray and white.   I thought maybe the camera was busted after looking at them awhile.  But occasionally a colorful bathing suit or sail will pop up in a photo.

First, the D40 is twice as sensitive to light as the D40x and D80. (The D40’s ISO defaults to ISO 200 instead of the less sensitive ISO 100, making for sharper photos in any light.)

Second, the D40 is far more flexible with flash in daylight. The maximum shutter speed of every Nikon other than the D40 when used with flash is only 1/250 second, while the D40 easily shoots at 1/500 with flash with no loss of performance.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d40.htm

It’s pretty interesting stuff ( I thought my D70 defaulted to ISO 200).  He has without question guided me towards a lens that has been just amazing in terms of taking photos thru a wide range of distances with amazing clarity.

It’s a miracle! I bought mine in November 2005 and love it. It’s replaced an entire bag of lenses. All I bring anywhere is my 18-200mm, and maybe my 12-24mm for 99% of everything I shoot.

It’s small, fun, flexible, sharp and fast. VR, instant auto/manual focus override and macro and zooming all work perfectly. This lens is too much fun!–Ken Rockwell

He is talking about the Nikon 18-200mm  VR

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/18200.htmI

You can save a lot of money reading this guy.  I swear.  Eventually I will get a Nikon D700 most probably.  But right now I still have too much to learn to plunk down 2500 bucks for a camera.   Although I did spend that much for a computer a few years ago (it’s all about conditioning).    And  televisions can easily cost that much these days.   But some of these cameras are heavy.  And this one ( the D40) is supposed to be very light.  I saw a couple of guys at the beach this weekend with some very heavy cameras and lenses sitting on a tripod.  I’m just not ready to go there yet.  i want to travel light and (hopefully) capture more just by being in the right place at the right time.

I told you I was going up to Lynchburg over the weekend to see my son and his family.  What I didn’t know at the time was that they were planning to go to the Virginia Safari Park which is up the road and near the Natural Bridge.  This is a pretty nice area of Virginia with all the mountains and these two tourist attractions.

So it slowly dawned on me as we entered the park and I looked up the road that we would be mingling with all kinds of wild animals. I was sitting in the way back seat of the minivan.  Mom and dad were up front.  And the two little ones were in the middle.

The emu’s, camels, bison, bongos, zebras and wildebeests were all around the car looking at me (the sliding doors were open) and hoping I would give them something to eat.  I managed to move forward in between the two children in their little car seats with my camera and take some photos while I was slamming the doors if they got too close.

I wasn’t about to let them have one of the children for a snack.  I wasn’t worried too much about the blackbuck or the oryxes.  And the watusis horns were too wide to get through the door.  But the zebra were another story and the buffalo definitely were not coming near any of us.  I could see one of them a few cars forward sticking his head in the back of another minivan.

We started out into the park and a camel came right up and put his head inside the front window where my son Jeremy was holding a bucket of feed.  You can see him getting ready to make his move in one of these photos.  Then they would do a tag team drill where one of them would stand in front of the car so you couldn’t move and the other one would sneak around the side and put his head in the window while you were supposedly distracted by the first one.

I have to hand it to these guys.  They knew what they were doing.  And there were several park attendants around with these nasty sounding whips.  The crew would move off immediately when they heard that sound.  I didn’t see any of them actually being whipped.

But then I started thinking about how human beings are actually whipped in various places and how awful this sort of thing is for people or animals to endure.

So we spent an hour or so travelling through the park and meeting the animals.  Once things cleared out a bit things were more relaxed and we enjoyed communing with nature and the animal population.   Here are some photos of our visit.

I tried to name all of them but wouldn’t be surprised if I got some of them wrong.  Please let me know if you you see a missed ID especially where the deer are concerned.

VIRGINIA BREEZE: “David’s blog has some of the most beautiful and cherished poetry I’ve read in a long time. It has moved me to tears on more than one occasion. If you enjoy heartfelt honest sentiments that speak of the core issues of our lives then grab a cup of tea, slow down and read some of David’s poems. They are written by someone who feels deeply and has an open heart. You will go away feeling like you know him. They are easy to understand and are mated with beautiful photos. My post this month was inspired by David’s poetry. His writing sets me free and encourages me to be authentic. He also writes about a variety of topics I find interesting, warm, real (and sometimes funny).”

Naked In Eden Blog – Robin Easton

Author . Speaker . Environmentalist . Musician . Adventurer

First Light

Sailing Away

One Year Old/ “days of our lives”/ Poetry

A Celebration Day/ Lovers Poetry/ Katherine Hepburn/ Phyllis Diller

Romantic Love Poems/  Deeply In Love

Dancing For Love/Photos Of Love

Light And Darkness/ Loving The Wild Ones

Let Your Hair Down

Safe Harbor

Short And Sweet Love/ A Nice Place To Be

Meditation On The Shore

Surfing At Virginia Beach

Love Thyself/ Poems Of Love And Learning

Dad/ Love Is Sometimes Sad Poems

Summer Fun

Taylor Hicks

Life

Evening Sky/ Poetry of Loneliness

Jordin/ Love Of A Fan Poetry

The Blueberry Fields

Meeting On A Bridge

Learning How To Kiss

Beach Watching/ Mother Nature Arrives

Britney’s Song/  He Wishes His Young Girlfriend A Happy Christmas

The Godless Creation

Live Simply

My Dream Lover

The Deep End Of The Pool

The Boss Poem

September And The End Of Flight

Hanging Around

Finding A Date

Blogging Friends