Some people go on vacation to relax and unwind, and I suppose that’s true of myself – to an extent. The difference is that while some would prefer to lie about on a tropical beach or swim in a hotel pool, I like to seek out adventure wherever I go. That means eating unfamiliar food, trying to make sense of signs written in a foreign language and occasionally getting lost on purpose.
Last year, when I visited a friend in Romania, we spent much of the time roaming through the busy streets of Bucharest and biking through the rugged areas of Padurea Cernica. Traveling with several heavy bags just wasn’t an option, so I had to pare my luggage down to the bear essentials: my passport, a water bottle, my camera case and just enough food to last the day.
My grandmother got me interested in bird watching at a young age by taking me to monthly meetings of the Audubon Society. As much as I enjoyed the tales of guest speakers and the frequent potluck dinners, nothing compared to getting out in the field and spying a new bird for the first time. I came to look forward to winter because it meant the annual Christmas bird count.
I would wake up early Saturday morning, put on some warm clothes and pull my trusty pair of Olympus binoculars out of a desk drawer. Then grandma and I would inspect the backyard feeders for signs of life. Moving beyond our own house, we ventured along the river and through some nearby parks. My greatest find was a bufflehead duck diving in the icy river with its distinctive markings on full display.
I still remember the precise moment when I transformed from casual observer of the night-sky to full-blown amateur astronomer. As a small child I had been away to science camp where we learned about the stars at a very primitive, rudimentary level. Those were the days when Pluto was still considered a planet. But then everything changed. My mother had been watching the television news and had heard about a comet traveling close enough to Earth that it could be viewed with the naked eye.
We climbed up on top of the garage and located the comet Hale-Bopp with its distinctive tail of brilliant ice. Immediately I began to clamor for a Bushnell telescope to improve my viewing ability. I started checking out astronomy books from the local library and by the time I got to college I knew it would be a lifelong passion. Now I’m working as a teacher’s aid and studying astronomy in graduate school.
I’ve been working as a freelance photographer for a little over a year now. Although the job doesn’t provide enough money to make ends meet, it has been artistically fulfilling and it’s helped me to make contacts in the newspaper industry. Two of the papers in my community pay me for my work regularly, and I’m actually the point person for most of their high school football photography each week.
As I alluded to above, it’s often necessary to do some work on the side. I turned my attention and my Fuji digital camera to other photographic pursuits including personal portraits. There are always customers out there looking for wedding photos, and it just gets busier in springtime when senior prom rolls around. In order to set myself apart from other portrait photographers in town, I encourage action shots and unexpected angles.
In recent years, I’ve noticed that many of my friends have become amateur photographers. Armed with just a digital camera – or in some cases a cell phone – they document parties, trips and even aspects of their everyday lives and then share them on Facebook or Flickr. While I’m also guilty of posting a few superfluous photos, I prefer to take a more carefully chosen, artistic approach to my photography.
I like to wake up early on the weekends, taking my camera along with one of my vanguard tripods. I search all over the city for a suitable viewpoint – usually of a memorable landscape – and set up the tripod. The early morning light is perfectly suited for picture-taking, and it’s especially peaceful because few people are awake at that hour. The results are probably Facebook-worthy, but I prefer to keep them for a private collection.
Before the advent of the digital camera, photographers had only two options if they wanted to get a close-up shot. They either had to bring the camera physically closer to the subject or utilize an optical zoom function. Optical zoom is immediately recognizable as it requires that the lens pops out of the camera in order to magnify the subject. A simple toggle switch on the camera controls this function, and the buttons are usually labeled W and T for wide-angle and telephoto.
Digital zoom works in a much different way with the results being less precise in most cases. The lens stays put while the camera crops out the outer edges of the subject, adding extra pixels to a single desired area of the photo. While these added pixels can detract from the quality of the image, digital zoom remains a much more subtle way of homing in on a subject. When you simply have to get a candid shot with your Olympus digital camera, digital zoom is more than up to the task.
I’ve been a practicing lawyer for more than 20 years, and the job is just as demanding and rewarding now as it ever was. In my spare time – which is extremely sparse – I like to unwind by cooking meals and spending time with my family. Try as I might, it’s difficult to keep up with the latest developments in my kids’ lives. Fortunately, I think of them many times each day thanks to my Catronics digital photo frame.
Over the years, I’ve stockpiled thousands of family snapshots. My wife scanned most of them onto the computer, which allows me to keep the photo frame replenished with fresh images. Throughout the course of a day, the images flicker past almost like a slideshow, reminding me of just how proud I am of my exceptional family life.
The Kodak company got its start before the turn of the 20th century and quickly distinguished itself as a producer of quality cameras for amateur photographers. As time went on, practically became synonymous with photographic film. Just try leafing through an old photo album without finding numerous snapshots that bear the distinctive “K” logo on the back.
Five years ago, the company stopped marketing film cameras in the U.S., instead shifting its attention to the increasingly popular digital camera market. Today, the Kodak digital camera is among the industry leaders in terms of quality and ease of use. The company has never forgotten its allegiance to hobbyists and creative types, and that fact continues to show through.
This summer marks my last as a college student. I’m not nervous about graduating after my senior year, however, because of all the great internship experience I’ve gotten – including my current gig as a camp counselor for troubled youths. The camp is hundreds of miles from my home. It’s situated in the midst of a giant pine forest in upstate New York. Every once in a while I miss my family and my friends from school, but there are ways to combat that problem.
One of the first items I bought with my counselor salary was a Creative Labs web cam. It matches the web cam my parents have at home, and allows us to communicate for about a half-hour each week. I also try to find time to catch up with my friends, who are spread out all over the country this summer. Most of them have laptops that are web cam-equipped, so we can get each other up to speed without a problem.
Last spring, I began to notice a bald eagle hanging around the pond in my backyard. This wouldn’t have been particularly interesting, except that the eagle seemed to be returning day after day to catch fish. One evening, I traced its line of flight through the sky to a stand of trees a few hundred yards behind the house. The next morning, I set out with a pair of Bushnell binoculars to scan the tree line for a nest.
It took me about 15 minutes to locate the nest, some 150 feet up in a towering white pine tree. The binoculars brought that nest into pristine focus, and I was stunned at the sheer physical size of the nesting materials. It seemed that the eagle had collected enormous fallen branches to construct a home for its young. I couldn’t wait to return to the nest periodically to try to catch sight of an amateur bald eagle.