Finally, some photos

June 10, 2007
Unionville, PA

OK, I'm way behind on the photo front. Today was a cloudy day, so I've been experimenting with different ways to manipulate, store, and post travel photos. As I mentioned in an earlier post, there are a lot of different options, at varying costs. For now, I'm working within the Google family of tools, using their Blog and Photo sharing sites. We'll see how this works out and probably change later or add options as needed.

I've posted two albums today, culled from several hundred pictures taken with the new camera.

1) Scenes from Annapolis Harbor <http://picasaweb.google.com/GeorgeandGeri/ScenesFromAnnapolisHarbor>

As posted earlier, Geri and I went to Annapolis as a day trip. I wanted to give her a chance to have Maryland Blue Crabs. I brought the camera equipment (well, the 35mm equipment, anyway) to continue to familiarize myself with the D200. Most of the day's shots were simple "travel snapshots", so I selected a few that don't have any particular theme.

2) Day trip to DC <http://picasaweb.google.com/GeorgeandGeri/DayTripToDC>

I took a "solo" trip into DC one day. It's a "Trains, Planes, and Automobiles" kind of a process. OK, no planes other than those flying overhead, but the heart of DC is pretty close the Reagan National Airport. In any event, the RV Park we stayed at has it's own bus terminal right next to the office. They sell bus tokens, Metro passes, etc. right there, and it's the "end of the line" for a bus route that goes to the local Metro (subway) station. I bought a token and a 1-day Metro ticket and off I went. It was about a one hour total trip, and I got off the Metro near the Archives. From there, it was a couple of blocks south the the National Mall. I stopped in the Air & Space Museum (more to use the loo than anything else), and continued west to the other end of the Mall. I walked north to another Metro stop near Georgetown rather than trudge back to my starting point, so I had to make a connection from one line to the other. I've been to DC enough times in the past (mostly business) to make it easy enough to get around.

A few observations:

It was a nice enough day for pictures although the sky was a little washed out (I'll play with Nikon's Capture NX to see if I can help that). Since many places in DC don't allow tripods, I didn't bring mine and regretted it from the photography point-of-view.

On the other hand, I was glad I didn't have the tripod from the weight management perspective. I've been planning to pick up a good medium-to-large photo backpack for a while now, and I really should have done it by now. The bag I have carries my 35mm stuff, except the filters, which are in the medium-format bag. Carrying the bag on one shoulder all day really aggravated my shoulders, making me remember why I stopped doing that with my computer bag while w*rking! I'll decide and order one for delivery to CT so I have it before we get to Maine and Canada.

Another "I just know better" moment: I hadn't gotten an hour into the walking on the Mall when I knew that I had the wrong shoes on. My Naot sandals are generally comfortable, but my walking shoes (or better -- fashion aside -- my hiking boots) would have been a lot better on my feet. I came really close to having a couple of serious blisters, and had to walk very carefully for a few days to avoid making them worse. I think I dodged a bullet on that one.

I also didn't bring any water with me, on the premise that I didn't need the extra weight and that I could buy some as needed. Underneath that, there's always a worry about finding a restroom. As it turns out, the National Park Service apparently doesn't want the whole tourist population using the nearest tree, so there are facilities spread around, actually more than street vendors.

I also learned that there are better times to visit than early-June. When I first went to Washington on my 8th Grade Class Trip, I didn't notice so many busloads of kids running around. I'm sure that's because I was one of them. Now, they all wear matching t-shirts in some bright color (yellow and purple seem popular) with their school's name on them. We had to wear jackets and ties (no, really, we did!). And I'm sure we were more respectful of our surroundings (well, maybe not, but it seems that way). On the other hand, Our trip to the Lincoln Memorial was cancelled because there was a large anti-war rally happening at the Reflecting Pool (remember the scene in Forrest Gump?) so we weren't allowed farther than the Washington Monument.

One last observation was that the grounds were looking quite peaked. The grass along the Mall is in pretty bad shape and many of the buildings and signs were showing their age. A lot of the directional signs haven't been updated in years (e.g., the Korean and WWII memorials aren't on the "you are here" maps). More budget cuts, I suppose.

All in all, a good day!