May 25, 2015

  • Seeking and Finding

    Bookmark61 and I got home last night from a four-day geocaching vacation. We left Thursday morning and drove from Michigan to Maryland for GeoWoodstock XIII. The drive out was cool and damp through Ohio, then wet and foggy through Pennsylvania and into Maryland. We stopped for a few geocaches along the turnpike in Indiana and Ohio, but they were pretty boring caches; mostly magnetic key holders or pill bottles hidden in guard rails. I'm no geocache snob; I don't mind micros (tiny caches not big enough for swag), or nanos (super tiny caches) as log as they are hidden in a fun way or at an interesting location or accessible by a pretty hike or bicycle ride. The hikes to get to these mostly involved dodging semis in the truck parking areas of the service plazas. All of that to say, we got bored with turnpike caching and the weather was disintegrating so we gave up on caching about halfway through Ohio and got serious about driving to Maryland.

    Somewhere early in the trip, Brett asked me what we had in the bag of snacks. I started listing things and he wasn't responding, so I grabbed the bag to look. He asked, "What else is in there?" I pulled out the baggie of Chex Mix and said, "Homemade pop tarts, Pringles, peanut butter cookies and... hmm... something striped." There was a box in the bottom of the bag wrapped in striped paper. "What's that?" he asked. "I don't know," I replied, "I guess I'll have to open it and see." It was an early birthday gift - a Sony Cybershot DSC-HX300 digital camera. It's 20.4 mega pixels and 50x zoom. Just the right speed for someone who is comfortable with a point and shoot camera, but wanted to take photos that are richer, sharper and better overall quality. The next time we stopped to stretch, I took the camera with me and tested the zoom on it. Here is what we could see with our eyes.

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    Just to the left of that larger white building was a tiny yellow dot. "Can you read that sign?" Brett asked. I squinted into the viewfinder, zoomed in on the sign from about a quarter-mile away and read, "STOP AHEAD."

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    It's blurry because I had the lens extended as far as it would go and I didn't have a tripod with me. I thought that was pretty darned impressive. I spent a good part of the next couple of hours trying to read license plates on vehicles that were ahead of us on the highway. I also took a shot inside a tunnel in Pennsylvania. There really is a light at the end of the tunnel!

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    So far I haven't had to edit the sharpness, color temperature or saturation of any photo I've taken with this camera.  That makes me so happy!

    We arrived at our hotel in Hagerstown, Maryland a little before 9 PM and ate tuna salad sandwiches in our room before taking showers and collapsing into bed. This post is already getting too long, so I'll continue later.

Comments (6)

  • That something stripey was the best travel snack ever! Sony Cybershot is a good little camera, and that sounds like an excellent model! Happy Birthday!

  • I like point and shoot because that's mostly what I do. :-)

  • I liked that there was something stripy at the bottom of the bag. That was a nice surprise.
    I don't think the scenario was at all exciting where you were, but it's good that you had a place to check out your zoom. I like the tunnel shot a lot though. I think it's fun to go through tunnels, and a little bit daring; they could flood, or collapse, or you could get stuck in one against an swarm of sentient robots bent on destruction....I think I've seen too many movies.

  • I typed scenery, but auto correct changed it to scenario. Sorry.

  • I tried to hold my breath through the tunnels unsuccessfully! Hehe! I'm curious to see if the photos I took of you and Brett came out or if I was too shaky and made them all blurry... I really hope not!!

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