Bokeh are Us!

I am always amazed at how the lighting in the evening can be so soft. I usually refer it to the sun as it is kissing the plants. It feels like it. I was pleased with the soft bokeh I was able to achieve with it too with the sun falling down the sky.

Something new were trying out…

Our camcorder died and so did our little point in shoot that also took video for us in the mean time. So, after much ado about nothing, we decided to buy the Kodak PlaysSports video camera. It is tiny like the a phone, but does video really quite well. HD even. I had originally walked into Best Buy to check them out with Minsan with the intent that I would just love the Flip. BUT, after handling all the products that Best Buy offers, the Kodak PlaySport stood out hands down.  We hadn’t even seen the video quality yet, but the quality and durability of the Kodak one really stood out. The ability to take still shots if necessary stood out. The ability to go underwater or be in the rain with it all stood out. All of which the Flip couldn’t do. Even thought the extreme simplicity of the Flip had first appealed to me, the Kodak stood out even more. Price wise, I think that for a new product for all I got with the Kodak, the Kodak will have cost me a little less with all the features it offers.

Here is the information from Kodak’s website: http://store.kodak.com/store/ekconsus/en_US/pd/PLAYSPORT_Video_Camera/productID.169976100 .

To save money though we bought it on Newegg.com though for a smaller price and bought the 8 gig memory card at the same time from there. Best Buy is just an overpriced monger when it comes to memory cards. Online all the way baby!

Here is a video we found comparing the Kodak to the Flip. Minus the low light quality not being amazing, it was nice to see that the Kodak held up quite well and even performed great.

In the end, I feel pretty good that we made  a good decision to buy the Kodak PlaySport. It didn’t cost the full amount as a regular full sized camcorder (which is why we bought it for now) and yet we won’t be missing some fun video moments of our kids growing up. That was the final decision making thought. Nice too is that the camera fits snuggly in my purse :)!

Below is one video that I tossed together from us taking some sample video. It was us swimming at the pool the other day. I didn’t edit out the boring parts so keep in mind that it is too long when I merged all the little shorts together, but why not, it was the kids having fun. The great part….it is in the water! Woohoo!!!

Swimmin' at the Inn from April Sauers on Vimeo.

Scenes from Country Garden B&B

Frog…

It was amazing how close it let me get to him. He never did hop away even with my camera right in his face!

Favorite Pic of the Day

And then there was one

Just like that, the little birds vanish…I looked around the ground by the nest and didn’t see the other ones so I can only imagine that a mean ole’ cat came in and did something violent to the little family. Weird that a whole nest full of life is left to one of the little scrawny ones.

Thankfully, mother is still hanging in and trying to raise her one.I snapped this picture from far away and cropped it so you could see that indeed she is still trying to save this one. I don’t know if this one will make it either since the kitties will more than likely show back up and rob the nest again. Too bad isn’t it?!

Photo Club Assignment – Summer

Here was my offering to the assignment of summer! I know that you have seen many of these before, but here is what I brought to the July meeting.

Bird Trivia

Well, not trivia, but information I am learning along the way while watching the bird life in my raspberry bushes.

Here is my first documentation of the yellow bird. Take note that there is just one wee little egg. This was on June 13th.  This picture was taken on June 18th…take note that there is more than one egg…I think she laid a total of 3. Here is the momma after her babies hatched on June 28th. Here I am a little braver on June 29th. Here is the momma watching from close by. She moved so often that I couldn’t get a “great” pic of her. Minsan and I have determined that she is a warbler. Based on her color and the look of her eggs when she was born. This site talks about them: http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/334/_/Blue-winged_Warbler.aspx  They are growing fast now, check them out today…and check out how big the one on the left is. Not so sure the little ones will make it. In fact that big one is just HUGE compared to the other ones. Survival of the fittest that is for sure! This is all there is for today! Hopefully they will continue to survive the weather and the pests around here.