These are some photos of wildlife, taken during July while on a trip to Alaska. 

Brown bear: 

Moose:

and a Moose closeup:         

Elk x 2 :

Elk chewing greenery:

It's been a while since I posted, and I've taken tons of pictures since the beginning of November.  I'm only going to post one here right now.

While the Northeast (where I live) and the center of the country deal with the winter storms, I'm visiting southeast Florida, where they're experiencing record high temperatures (hot and sticky, in the upper 80s).  But this morning when I went out on the verandah overlooking the golf course, it would have been hard to prove it, based on the view.

Obviously, what looks like frost is actually dew.

I spent last Saturday helping a fabulous neighborhood organization do some of the last preparations for their big fundraiser of the year.  The Goddard-Riverside Community Center holds a 3-day book sale every year, on the weekend before Thanksgiving.  They ask publishers to donate books, which are then sold at a 50% (or more) discount, and each year (this is their 23rd year) they raise somewhere around $100,000, which is used to support their fabulous work here in NYC.

You can find info about the sale at http://www.goddard.org/bookfair.html, and about the work they do at http:www.goddard.org.

If you live in or around NYC, stop by - I'll be working there on Saturday and Sunday, probably in the Mystery section (though I might get reassigned to somewhere else that needs help).

Here are some photos taken right after the last work session, when all of the books that have arrived have been sorted into the sales categories, and re-boxed - ready for the coming weekend.

BTW: Once HarperGroup's year of playing with the Panasonic HD videocam is done, I plan on donating it to Goddard for their use in the teen video workshops or for their administrative use.

We just installed a new 32 inch LCD TV in the master bedroom, replacing a 9-year old Quasar 21 inch box (you know, 21" diagonal, 19" high, 19.5" wide, 19" deep cube).  The new set is a 720p Panasonic TC-L32X1.  Not too difficult to do, though we're still trying to figure out the HDMI cable placement, since the user manual doesn't seem to have an option for wiring using HDMI cables from the cable box to the TV.  But we'll see.  I'll probably post to the forum for help if we can't clear it up by tonight.

While the screen on the TV is MUCH larger than the old screen, the flat panel doesn't make it seem that much bigger, just as a piece of furniture.  In fact, the room feels somewhat larger.  But the image is HUGE compared to the old set.

Quality-wise, I can see a world of difference between the 32" LCD 720p and the 50" Plasma 1080p.  The latter just blows away the LCD (which blew away the Quasar, obviously).  But it convinces me that the cost of going with the 1080p upgrade from a 720p is worth it for anyone in the market for a new TV.

Today was dedicated to trying to understand more of the options associated with the G10 plasma tv and the BluRay home theater system.  During setup, Greg Harper and Bob (the installer) hooked up the new equipment to my existing audio system, allowing me to use my current LaserDisc player, DVD player (as a CD player), and VCR, all fed through the stereo receiver and out through the Polk speakers I've got.  All of that works great.  I can even listen to the TV through both the home theater speakers (and subwoofer), as well as through the Polks.  What I can't yet figure out (and spent hours today trying) is how to also feed the BluRay DVD sound through both sets of speakers.  I seem to be short of space for an additional set of red & white connectors.

I'm also still struggling to figure out why I can turn on the cable box, TV, and home theater with a single press of the remote "system on" button, but must turn them off using two separate buttons.

I got to browse YouTube today via the VieraCast option, and watched some videos I hadn't yet seen.  Later this week I hope to to connect the Toughbook PC to the G10, but apparently I need to buy a monitor cable to make that happen.

Today I started playing with the GH1 DSLR.  Haven′t had the opportunity to do that at all until today, but brought it along on my way out to pick up stuff from the drugstore this morning.  While the GH1 is MUCH heavier than the Panasoni FZ28 that I have been using this year, it has a lot more options (most of which I have not figured out yet). 

One thing I love is the ability to zoom in to EXACTLY what I want to shoot.  This is something that I loved in my older film SLRs, but came to accept as an impossible dream in the digital point-and-shoot world, where zoom is handled by a switch, lever, or dial.  Because the GH1 is a "real" camera, I^′ve gotten back the ability to be creative in the shooting of photos, not just in the post-shoot (e.g., computer editing) world.

I haven′t taken any truly exciting photos yet (I was only out for 5 minutes, after all, and only went across the street), but here are a few.

(These were actually taken on install day.)

These three were taken of the fruit stand across the street - I loved the color and sizes of the displays.

OK, so I'm like a little kid.  If you tell me a camera is waterproof, I have to test it.  So I did 2 separate things over the last couple of days:

1)  I filled a sink with water, submerged the TS1, and took pictures  Seems to work just fine - both during and after the experiment.  The only complaint I have is that water kept leaking out of the camera (from somewhere) for hours afterward - but it kept on working.  In this photo, I submerged the camera fully, and took a picture upwards.

For this next photo, I submerged the camera partway, and took a photo with the waterline partway up the lens.

The next night, it poured here in NYC - so what a fabulous opportunity to try the camera out under "normal" circumstances - but one in which I would be hesitant to try a traditional camera.  Since we were going to the theater (Carrie Fisher's WISHFUL DRINKING, at Studio 54) I just threw the camera in my pocket and pulled it out before and after the show.

This first image (never rotated - sorry) had the camera pointed upwards into the rainy sky, and displays some of NYC's skyscrapers in the rain and mist.

Here's the theater marquee, under scaffolding, of course - EVERYTHING in NYC seems to be under scaffolding.

On the way home, the bus windows fogged up from the heat inside and the cool outside.  So the images I saw were muted.  Here's one taken through those windows, of the Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Center.