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On the plaza sits these enticing “natural Lithia water” fountains. Don’t they look inviting? For kicks, on a hot summer day I should stand nearby and take pictures so you could see the looks on tourist faces when they sample the natural water. Let’s just say that no one who samples this water once tries it again.
Given that it was a school day, and it had been raining, it isn’t surprising that Ashland’s new ice skating rink sat empty earlier this week. The new rink has taken the place of the old Darex Family Ice Skating Rink generously donated by the town philanthropist. This one is sponsored by Ashland Rotary and was strongly pushed by one of Ashland’s famous residents, Tai Babilonia.
Today’s photograph is of the center of the Southern Oregon University campus. Britt Hall is the building in the background. A few months back this stone sculpture was placed in the grass. It must be a nightmare for the grounds crew trying to mow the lawn. While interesting to look at, it isn’t that beautiful except when it rains and the rocks turn a dark color. Despite the blue sky in the photo, it was actually raining lightly as I took the picture.
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.
Thanks to the recession and budget cuts, this is the final year for 5th Grade Orchestra. The venue for tonight’s concert was the Ashland Middle School Gym. The wall in the back looks like the Ashland High School Gym because the high school is temporarily using it while their gym is rebuilt.
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.
To break up all of the snowy pictures of the past little while I dug in the archives for this photograph from two summers ago when I captured my daughter’s first soccer goal. This soccer field is behind Ashland Middle School.
