Friday, September 30, 2016

Friday September 30, 2016 Vistas



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Friday September 30, 2016
OMG, where has September gone now???  Has anybody seen it???  Have we really hibernated the whole month???  Because it doesn't seem like we have been out at all.
The weather is definitely getting warmer as the sun swings back towards the Southern hemisphere and the rains have lessened so we don't have to wipe the dogs feet six times per day after their walks.  The dogs are enjoying their daily outings and it is so funny to watch them do their tug-of wars at the park.  Today we had several people stop and watch and laugh along.  See my latest YouTube contribution at 
https://youtu.be/6wAdJkK7rfQ
One of my friends notified me that my main website listed above is showing a blank page.   I tried all kinds of things and finally went to my hosts' site where they say that they have had a cyber attack and are trying to repair the damage...  Fun, fun, fun.
I know that I normally go out with the Herederos del Pasado de Cuenca on Thursday nights for the moto ride but.....  The World Cup Of Hockey finale was on last night, Game 2 of a best-of-3, with Canada having won Game 1 easily over Team Europe.   Last night was a different story, with Team Europe dominating for 50 minutes and they were up 1-0 until around the 57 minute mark.  Goalie Carey Price was keeping Canada in the game.  Then, Canada scores on a powerplay, and a minute later they score a short-handed goal to win the Cup!  Two French-Canadians playing for the Boston Bruins were the heroes and the series MVP was the very-deserving Sydney Crosby.  
I think that I will be watching a lot more hockey from now on.  I found a decent VPN server at SetupVPN.
Also it appears that my Saturdays may soon be freed up with my Saturday employers, Joe and Joseph, soon heading North.  As far as I know today, new gentlemen are taking over the reins so I doubt that I will have a role to play there any more.  I will find out more tomorrow hopefully.
We went again to see Cristina's surgeon to confirm that she is indeed mending well.  That is good news as she is planning to go to Colombia for a bit next month.  We took the elevator up to the 6th floor cafeteria just to enjoy the nice view.  I took one photo of El Centro by holding the camera at arm's length out the window, past the frame.  then I took a shot to the left of the Turi mountain.  Then I thought, what the heck, take the middle shot and maybe I might get a nice panorama out of it....  The pano shot is stitched by Image Composite Editor, and I haven't done anything to the result except to crop the edges.  Pretty spectacular software (on a free download)!
I hope you enjoy the photos.  That was the day's excitement,   Cheers, Al 
© All my work is COPYRIGHT protected and may not be used in any way without purchase, or without my permission.
NOTE that you may click on any photo for an ENLARGED VIEW.

Sunrise yesterday morning, taken pretty late

Sunflower a neighbour has planted out front

Blue skies are coming back

This is a shot looking east from the Doctor's office (3rd floor)

Shot southwest towards Turi from the 6th floor cafeteria

Middle shot west to the Cajas

Right shot northwest to El Centro

Pretty fancy stitch job by a free program, wouldn't you say ??!!


Monday, September 26, 2016

Monday September 26, 2016 Tests



Souvenir Photo Studio is now open.  Book your session now.
****
Please see more of my artworks for sale at http://saccc05.tripod.com
****
Welcome…..  Please note that you may SUBSCRIBE to this Blog on the right. 
NOTE: It is obvious that many (all?) of you are not receiving the subscription emails and it is obviously a universal Google problem that they have not solved yet.  Therefore I REALLY appreciate all the folks that manage to view my Blog every day.  I find it both gratifying and humbling.
****
Comments or purchase requests are graciously accepted at souvenirphotostudio@gmail.com.
****
Monday September 26, 2016
Nothing earth-shattering this morning.  I just took a few more test shots with the Lumix and am discovering more and more options every time.
I have taken all of these shots strictly in JPG mode and am impressed with the quality so far.  First there were a few shots of the early morning sunrise, which wasn't spectacular, but made better when I added a little exposure compensation, something I had never tried before...  I like it!
Then it was a test of the Stop Action feature when the dogs were play-fighting and doing tug-o-wars with their leashes.  They are so funny when they do that, often tying themselves together, or Mariposa tugging on her own leash and shaking it all about (my gosh, is she doing the hokey-pokey??).
After many problems yesterday with my SD cards, USB ports, and the computer not recognizing anything I plugged in, today has been much better so far.

Afternoon update:
I took the new Lumix on a noonish walk with the dogs and decided to test it a bit more.  So far, I am quite tickled with the quality of the output.  The reviews say that this is basically a daylight camera and that it suffers a little in low light situations so I will have a lot of testing to do.  
They are resurfacing more of 24 de Mayo west of the traffic circle and I am very happy about that.  That stretch of road, all the way to Parque Paraiso is horrible, especially on a motorcycle, a truly teeth chattering and dangerous experience.  In Canada, I have seen them lay a new stretch of road literally overnight with modern equipment in a line-up (dig it up, clean, and lay down the new asphalt), so I they take much longer here with older equipment and a lot of manual labor involved.  You would think that they could get organized better, after al, they don't have winter to worry about, just rain...
I hope you enjoy the photos.  That was the day's excitement,   Cheers, Al 
© All my work is COPYRIGHT protected and may not be used in any way without purchase, or without my permission.
NOTE that you may click on any photo for an ENLARGED VIEW.

Sunrise 1- Not enough gap at horizon for the sun to light up the clouds

Sunrise 2 - Processed in PhotoShop

Sunrise 2 - Processed in Smart Photo Editor

Stop Action - I didn't think it would work this well

The dogs getting their early morning run

Mariposa in full flight

Then getting into tug-o-war mode

They can't go very far this way... lol

Tying each other up

Luckily the cords are strong

Turi, Princesa and Mariposa

Turi getting loose

Turi in full flight too

Their play-fighting looks vicious

All 3 getting a run
Afternoon photos:
Panorama mode, from my office window

Zoomed in to the north

Not-so zoomed in

Zoomed across the street

Road work continuing west of the traffic circle

We'll see how fast they can get this done

The road had many potholes so it will be nice to get this resurfaced

They don't have to worry about winter, just rain..

A little too much exposure compensation (looking east)

Turi in her office