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My daughter’s soccer team was getting beat pretty badly a couple Saturday’s ago. The weather was perfect though, and I started taking more pictures of the scenery than the game. This is from the lower soccer field at Ashland Middle School.
A different angle on the same field and same goal can be seen here.
I probably should have waited another week or two to take this one as the leaves are just beginning to appear. In a few weeks this tree will be really green. Oh well. Here is what it looked like last fall.
Even the cemeteries are screaming new life at this time of year.
Ashland is somewhat famous for its “custom” cars. There are probably a half dozen in town with a certain theme. There is the fairy car, the Barbie car, the angel car, and a few others. For the 4th of July parade these kinds of cars come from all over the country to participate as a parade entry. Sometimes there will be almost 20. It’s a crowd favorite.
This cat car I spotted on my way home from work. The cherry blossom background made it a great photo opportunity.
The box office for OSF has moved across the street this year to Carpenter Hall. To the left of the box office in this picture is the “New Theatre” (now in its seventh year).
Last weekend we had perfect weather for soccer (and just about anything else). Temperatures were in the low 70s, the brownish-green winter grass turned a bright green, and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom.
This game was Ashland vs. Medford in Medford, 10-year old girls in a competitive league. The outcome? 0 – 0. Don’t you just love those high scoring soccer matches that can end without a victor? 😉
The cherry blossoms have begun to make their appearance. This tree is in the Ashland YMCA parking lot. Grizzly Peak is in the background.
I headed into Lithia Park to try my first pictures shooting in RAW. The above isn’t one of them. I took the same picture in RAW and could not get it to look anywhere near as good as this. I took a bunch of others in both JPEG and RAW mode too. Same result. All look far better in non-RAW mode. The processing of the RAW images is a huge hassle too. Just to load one takes a few minutes and then the manipulation can take pretty much as long as you want to spend on it.
Some people don’t shoot in RAW because it takes a few seconds to save it to the memory card (as the RAW files are huge). That isn’t a problem with the LX3. In fact, I think you can take something like four or five pictures a second even in RAW mode. But my initial experiment in RAW will not likely have me using it again anytime soon.
This photo is of Ashland Creek in Lithia Park. The little kid’s playground is just off to the left.
Yesterday was a good day for taking photos in Lithia Park as it was raining and yet there were spots of blue sky. The rain is good for photography as it keeps the people away while at the same time making the moss extra green and the rocks a richer, darker color.
This picture looks much better (on a big screen) if you maximize your browser and then click on it.
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.