Testing My Camera

JC · Post by JC » Mon Mar 02, 2009 7:32 am

I just had to buy a new camera. The old one finally gave up after being exposed to dust, dirt, and welding for several years.

Here's two pictures that I took on different settings. Can anyone tell the difference?

Meanderer · Post by **Meanderer** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 7:53 am

Very little difference JC on my computer. The top one has a bit better colouring in my opinion. Remember, everyones computer settings are different so they will probably have a variance to each other but varying dramatically between computers. People get used to what theirs is set to.

EDIT:
I should have mentioned JC, I take a fai few pics on my camera and I always take more than one of the same subject imediately after and on the same setting. Yet so often there is even more difference than what showed in your pics.

I've looked at your area via googel maps a few times. Now that I've see it via these above pics, I can say that one could easily think those pics were taken somewhere in Aus.

(except for the power poles)

Post by **Oscar** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 9:32 am

Very little difference to be honest, but both are very nice. I like the colours!

Bensdexta · Post by **Bensdexta** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 10:02 am

Meanderer wrote:Very little difference JC on my computer. The top one has a bit better colouring in my opinion.

+1
I look forward to lots more pics!
Ben

JC · Post by JC » Tue Mar 03, 2009 7:09 am

Hi Guys
Thanks for the replies. I think I'll just stick to the basics with this camera and not try anything fancy.

Rick,
What part of Aus. does my area remind you of? Does your electricity run underground or do you just not have many power lines?

Oscar,
What colors are you referring to? If your talking about the orange one, it just kind of jumped on the trailer behind a Major that I bought and I had to take it home!

Ben,
I'll probably post more pictures when I get back to working on my tractors again. Everyone is probably getting tired of seeing the same old broken down tractors

Post by **Oscar** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 7:24 am

JC wrote:Oscar,
What colors are you referring to? If your talking about the orange one, it just kind of jumped on the trailer behind a Major that I bought and I had to take it home!

I was referring to the colours in the whole picture, such as the nuances in the sky and such. It's really... I dunno... moody I guess. I like that.

Meanderer · Post by **Meanderer** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 7:37 am

JC,
Nowhere specific. I will use Google maps and street view to find a couple of locations and post the links here.
If those hills were up close then they would probably look different. We don't have very many sharp peaks on hills as this is the oldest continent and hence more weathered. I've driven many a place across plains where there have been hills like those in the distance.
Los Angeles is nothing like Aust but they certainly have planted a lot of our tree species there.
Like Arnie, ........ I'll be back!

Meanderer · Post by **Meanderer** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 2:42 pm

JC,
I spent an age trying to find locations similar. I know they exist in our landscape. It is very hard using 'street view" as so much of our roads are tree lined so you can't see past them. I found a few other than the ones I've posted but Murphy's law came into play. Either the Sun was shining directly at the camera; the road grime had buit up on the lens; and a number of other spoilers.
OK... I've reduced the URLs using TinyUrl site.
You may not have used Google Maps Street View before so it might take a bit of experimenting for you to work it out. A few tips are in order.
The map will probably come up first but wait until the Image appears. When it does, it will probably only be half the screen and text to the left. Go to the top left hand corner of the image and you will see a pair of horizontal chevron arrowheads that when clicked will close the text box and extend the image to full width.
The images can be manipulated using the Compass style controler in the top left of the image. You can use the arrows to rotate the image OR you can use your cursor/mouse on the image to drag it around holding down the left mouse button.
A line appears on the road with two big white arrows. You can move the image one frame in the direction of either of those arrows.
E.g. You will see the big truck or the tractor. You can move up beside them or back away from them etc.
Enjoy playing with them.

http://tinyurl.com/d47ysd
http://tinyurl.com/ddmqox
http://tinyurl.com/bvzxqc
http://tinyurl.com/c2zfc7
http://tinyurl.com/bzsm4f

.

JC · Post by JC » Wed Mar 11, 2009 6:56 am

Thanks for those links, Rick. I finally got around to downloading the Adobe Flash Plugin for Firefox, so I could see them. Most of them remind me of this area, except for the last one, Lake Fyans Road.
You're right, the hills look smoother than the ones here.
Here's another picture that I took, from about a mile south of our house.

I'm not sure that I like not having an optical view finder on this new camera. I couldn't even see the mountain in the LCD and I would never have gotten the guard rail in the pic with my old camera.

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 5:02 pm

Ric. you live is some beautiful country. I hope all the fires are all put out.

JC, Does the mountain in the back drop have a name? It reminds me of Mt. St Helens, but I know that can't be in Calif. You must live as close to the Northern end as possible.

Great pictures from both of you, thanks.

JC · Post by JC » Thu Mar 19, 2009 5:36 pm

Hi Mark,
That's Mt. Shasta. 14,161 ft. tall. I am about as far north as you can get. It's about 15 mi. to Oregon. Sometimes that's still way too close to the southern part of this state

Meanderer · Post by **Meanderer** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 12:44 am

@Mark,
I think we all live in beautiful places. The exception seems to be only the poor retches that are born into some places on the subcontinent. (Like parts of Bangladesh, Pakistan and India) and the likes of Harlem or even NY, NY

@ JC
Yesterday I was driving home from the most regional town to me (20,000 pop) 70 kms away and suddenly realised another scene that looks just like the backdrop to your tractors photo above.

After you posted the image of Mt. Shasta, I went to google maps again and did an overview from satellite and the terrain view. I didn't realise you were so far away from Montague itself. So I'd been looking around the wrong area. I was amazed at the landscape in your part of California! Those mountains and hills that are so symmetrical and pop straight up out of the plains, is like the way they characterise other planets in cartoons!
The circular cropping is also interesting. (Sometimes seen here too). The amusement more being that there are some that look like the PacMan character! *lol*
It's really nothing like our scenery, except for what you see in the backdrop to your tractor photo above.
Do you experience any seismic activity there? How are yo placed with the San Andreas Fault Line?

JC · Post by JC » Fri Mar 20, 2009 6:05 am

Rick,
I do live in Montague. Mt. Shasta is a big mountain. That picture was taken from about 35 mi. away. Most of those hills that you see were created by a giant mudslide during an eruption of Mt. Shasta. It stopped just north of Montague. Its kind of hard to imagine a 35 mi. long mudslide. The first picture was taken to the north of my house. The hills you see are "old" ones. The last of the "new" mudslide ones is just out of the picture to the left.
The San Andreas fault is several hundred miles away. For being this close to a volcano, we get almost no seismic activity. Once in a while, the ground shakes a little bit, but its almost not noticeable. I've been at my brother and sister-in-law's house in L.A. when it shook for real

The "crop circles" are due to center-pivot irrigation. The irrigation pipe is on hydraulically powered tires that pivot around a tower in the center of the field.
OK, that's the end of the history/geology/geography/hydrology lesson for today