Yesterday my new Panasonic DMC-LX3 arrived in the mail. I’ve been looking for a smaller camera than my Canon S3 for a while. Although I have enjoyed the quality of my S3 pictures, lugging it around with me hasn’t been fun so I rarely take it out and hence I have missed many great shots. So I purchased the LX3 thinking that I would use it half the time when I needed portability and the S3 the rest of the time when I needed zoom and other features. After a day with the LX3 I’m thinking I can probably sell my S3 as I can’t imagine very many situations in which I will ever choose it over the LX3. The LX3 has far more features, the photo quality seems just as good, if not better, and–to my surprise–the LX3 actually has a 4.5X optical zoom (even though it is advertised as 2.5X).

I’ve been chomping at the bit for 24 hours to take some pictures outside, but it has been raining nearly non-stop. Thanks to the LX3’s size I put it in a pocket and brought it to the YMCA with me today. During a brief break in the rain I took today’s photograph behind the YMCA. I haven’t touched this picture in Photoshop or any other photo-enhancing software. This is what the LX3 gave me with a quick point and shoot–rich color, high quality, and a nice looking photo. So far, so good. Stay tuned for more LX3 images.

Posted on February 26th, 2009 under nature, places. Tags: lx3, trees. Comments: 1

As witnessed on a snowy morning on Ridge Road… I thought I was in heaven.

Posted on February 25th, 2009 under nature. Tags: snow, trees, winter. Comments: 1

Posted on February 23rd, 2009 under nature, places. Tags: clouds, lake of the woods, mountains, skywatch, snow, trees, winter. Comments: 4

Today’s photograph was taken late last fall. The spiders were taking over for the fallen leaves. I don’t imagine there is much for the spiders to catch around here at this time of year though.

Posted on February 21st, 2009 under nature. Comments: 1

This is the view from my upstairs window. If you have looked at past blog entries you have seen a variation of today’s photo close to a dozen times now. My favorite thing about this view is its changing nature. Every day it is a bit different. Frequently it looks radically different on the same day. On the day last week when this was taken, not only was there a bit of snow on the mountains, but the clouds were causing some nice looking shadows on the Siskiyou Mountain Range.

Posted on February 20th, 2009 under nature. Tags: clouds, home, mountains, skywatch, snow, winter. Comments: 2

Posted on February 18th, 2009 under nature, places. Tags: lake of the woods, snow, trees, winter. Comments: 1

I walked out onto Lake of the Woods in several places, but this was one part of the lake that I stayed on the frozen shore.

Posted on February 17th, 2009 under nature, places. Tags: lake of the woods, snow, winter. Comments Off on Cracking Ice

Continuing yesterday’s style of showing you the same scene on a different day, today’s photograph is from Ridge Road looking West past Lithia Park below. Here is how it looked in a prior season:

Posted on February 15th, 2009 under nature. Tags: houses, mountains, snow, trees, winter. Comments: 5

I took a picture of this tree back in fall. In my opinion, this tree looks good in any season if the sky cooperates. Here is the autumn pic:

Posted on February 14th, 2009 under nature. Tags: snow, trees, winter. Comments: 4