Boys and their toys

I have a new computer monitor - 21.6 inches wide. It is one big mothuh. Of course, when I first hooked it up, the picture didn't fill the screen, leaving about an inch and a half of black on either side. A trip to my computer wizard fixed that. I needed a new video card but he assured me DVD movies would run fine now without the herky-jerky pattern of before.

But . . . there's another problem. Now I don't have any audio. My little icon is still on the task bar but none of the computer's sounds and no audio from the internet or DVD's or CD's is coming out of the speakers. The speakers are o.k. because I plugged them into a transistor radio and they worked fine. I've been through and through the sound and device sites and can't find anything muted or turned down. My next step is to look inside the tower and see if the sound jack somehow became disconnected.

It is very frustrating.

I also bought a cheap tripod for my digital camera yesterday to use for macro work but the new monitor and attendant problems have kept me away from it so far.

The SWMBO says this reminds her of when I was a ham radio operator and each purchase of new equipment would require more expense to buy something that would make it work correctly. She may be right.

Picture fun

Here's a photo I snapped at a Buddhist shrine on my last trip to the deepest jungle of Thailand.

No, wait a minute. That face looks familiar. Let me turn the flash on it.

Oh, I remember him. That's actually a small statue in our front garden.

This is a photo of our half-cat Smoke. (You remember, I call him that because he only spends about half of his time with us). He's pretending to ignore me.

Have you ever noticed . . . whenever you want to get a nice tight close-up of your pet's face, he won't settle down. First he walks past your camera one way.

Then he turns and goes the other way . . . always just out of range.

Oh, well, I got one good one of him sometime back. It's at the top of this page.

More Macro

Here are a couple of more images from my macro experimentation. I need to buy a tripod or a unipod.

Rainy Day

Another rainy day in Arizona.

Close-ups: solved

Oh, my!

Reading the manual does help.

Look out, macrophiles, here I come!

Experimenting

I've been trying to figure out the close-up facet of my camera. Here are a couple that I think made it, though I forgot to turn off the flash on St. Frank and he would have been better with natural light.

I think the secret is not to look through the viewfinder but to turn on the screen and use it to frame up the photo.

To be continued.

Monsoon

Kind of a pretty day, heading into Prescott around noon.

Those clouds do look a little threatening but they're still pretty.

Oops! About an hour and a half later, heading home.

See those mountains? You don't? Oh, I guess it's because of the rain.

A little further to the south . . . you can see the edge of the storm.

And here's what it looks like to be in the middle of it.

The monsoon has finally arrived, bringing with it much-needed rain. But, as usual, it produces some flooded streets and other problems. SWMBO said we got some hail here before I got home. Wonder how the BRD's little red Mercedes weathered the storm sitting in her driveway.

The cooler temperatures (around 65 now) sure feel nice.