Photo Quality... etc

I've had more than one comment about the quality of my photos.  Or should I say, lack of quality...  Anyway, I've thought about it and since I've never known anybody personally that blogs (okay, in passing a few times)...  but no... "how do you do ....?" kind of thing.  Been pretty much on my own since day one.  

Our Monday morning walk...

I'm thinking over 90% of our time, our internet service isn't the quick, instant kind of type.  It times out a lot if I'm trying to download big files.  So...  One thing I've done is that when I'm getting a photo ready to insert it in a blog, I resize it to 72 resolution.  That's a really low quality picture.  But it's fairly fast....  doesn't bog down trying to load.

At the beach....  the inlet is still blocked by sand....  

When I download my photos, I've been using Picasa to crop and straighten.  I don't do a lot of "adjusting"...  but I'm pretty much a "point and shoot" kind of person often don't have the opportunity to set up the lighting, positioning, etc.  

At the end of the walk, we often stop at this "hole in the wall" cafe for coffee... or for me and Bill, freshly squeezed orange juice.

I brought two cameras on this trip...  my Leica V Lux 4, that has a lens with a range of  25 to 600mm.  (35 mm equivalent)  It has a stabilizer (and more important to me... it has a viewfinder) so it does fairly well for (somewhat) long distance shots.  Nope...  it won't catch the hairs  around an eagle's beak, but it's really pretty good (and lightweight) for an all-around camera.

Mexican Petunias...

The other camera I use is a Canon SX700 HS, (30x zoom).   It does not have a viewfinder...  so when I say it's a "point and shoot"...  that's mostly what I do...  outdoors there is no way I even know what it's "seeing" most of the time.  Why cameras don't have viewfinders these days is beyond me....  surely I'm not the only person who can't see what the heck is on that screen!

Weeds along a fence line....

But I can carry that camera in my pocket...  I don't worry about banging it on a fence post as I'm playing limbo trying to clamber under barbed wire...  I don't have to hold onto it as I'm wading across a stream... barely able to keep my balance anyway...  so...  it's my "don't be encumbered" camera...

An Immature White Ibis

Or... perhaps I should say...  Juvenile...

Hey, Mitchell...  you're only as old as you feel!

During the day I almost always use both cameras...  I try to pick out photos indicative of our day's activities...  yes... we walk a lot...  average 5.5 miles every day.

It was kind of chilly today...  but I had to laugh when we came back to our bungalow and saw the owner's dog decked out in this..  I promise I did NOT laugh out loud...  she (and I can only hope it's a SHE...)  looked miserable enough wearing this outfit.  I know I would have been!

Anyway... today I changed the resolution to 100 instead of 72...  it wasn't a whole lot slower, but when I tried 180 resolution it timed out before it would download.  So...  for me, it's going to have to be written descriptions more than exact photographic depictions.  Unless...  hey... maybe y'all have a way to help me out.  I'm a slow learner...  but I'm willing!

That's All For Today!