Ifferjenn Independent

I call this one a telephoto lens FTW! shot. You see, there was some sort of thing going on down at the White House when Ethan and I stopped by on our way home from Disney World. (I dunno, it was Easter.) The whole front area where tourists are usually allowed to walk by was blocked off. However, if you go up to the Washington Monument, you get a pretty darn good view of it straight on, even if you are a half mile away.

Yes, more Disney pictures will come, but this past weekend was partly spent camping at Cauldron Farm for Beltane. I highly enjoyed myself! And forgive me if you see 3 or 15 fire pictures…I got a little carried away taking pictures. But really, you have to admit that a good campfire is a grand sight!

This one was shot with the wide-angle lens, 18mm, f/2.8, ISO 800, and 1/1000 of a second. Yes, I did set the shutter speed faster for some too…something I’d recommend with fire, as it gives it a whole new look.

Ethan and I finished off our vacation in Florida with a half day at Epcot Center. (Though I still prefer plain old EPCOT.) Since we were up late, we slept in and didn’t get to the park until nearly 4. But, Ethan still had a blast, and the fireworks were awesome! Farewell, Florida!

Yesterday was the Magic Kingdom! I only got 87 pictures, though. Why, you ask? Well, we got a later start, then at dinner Ethan starting having some pretty bad stomach pains. Aaaaand, a trip to friendly Florida Hospital in Kissemmee, a couple x-rays, four attempts at a blood draw, an IV, and a CT Scan later, we got back to the hotel around 4 am. Fun times! He is doing fine now, and he got to ride the People Mover in Tomorrowland, which apparently has a hard mission in the Epic Mickey game. And I got a decent picture of Cinderella’s Castle from it! (Which I only had to sharpen a little and rotate to make it stand up straight…)

Press release from NASA today (and oh, did I mention I was at Kennedy Space Center today?):

It’s a “Go” for Endeavour’s Launch on April 29

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 04:53:52 PM EST

NASA managers announced that space shuttle Endeavour is ready to launch next week on its final flight to the International Space Station following a daylong Flight Readiness Review on Tuesday. Endeavour is scheduled to launch Friday, April 29, at 3:47 p.m. EDT.

“We had a very extensive and thorough review today,” said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for Space Operations. “I think the things that impressed me the most is that the team is still continuing to really work issues and look at the vehicle performance on each and every flight just like they would during any normal mission.”

“We’re ready to go fly,” Gerstenmaier said.

All analysis and inspections of External Fuel Tank-122 confirmed its integrity after repairs were made because of damage sustained during Hurricane Katrina, according to Gerstenmaier.

“It was a really good review today from both the station and shuttle prospective,” said Mike Moses, chairman of the Mission Management Team. “Endeavour and the team are in great shape.”

Endeavour is poised on Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The countdown is to begin Tuesday at 2 p.m.

“The final processing flow for Endeavour is going extremely well out at the pad,” said Mike Leinbach, shuttle launch director. “I’m very proud of the team and we’ll going to have a good launch and a good mission.”

The STS-134 crew is scheduled to arrive at Kennedy on Tuesday, April 26, for final launch preparations.

Ethan enjoyed Hollywood Studios much more than Animal Kingdom, so I had a much better time too. Finally getting him to understand that all of Disney World is pretend, so when we saw the Indiana Jones stunt show and Fantasmic, he was less freaking out and more enjoying myself. My favorite quote of the day, as Mickey sailed by on a paddle boat at the end of Fantasmic: “Mom! Mickey saw me waving!!”

Unfortunately, no good pictures there. So this is from The Great Movie Ride, which Ethan hated. With a passion. Though at least he liked the Wizard of OZ parts. We now have two days off from Disney: today is Kennedy Space Center, and tomorrow is Sea World.

Currently, we have two lenses that will fit the Mark II: a 50mm prime lens and a wide-angle lens. The wide-angle lens gives things a bit of a vignette, but the 50mm lens has such a damn shallow depth of field I still haven’t gotten used to using it. (And, of course, I had the 50mm lens on when we met Bailey the Puggle, so I have no good pictures of him.)

But, did get another few good shots of Lucky Bear. Now there is a model I can work with…

Taken with the Canon 5D Mark II…no retouching at all. As John would say, “Yes! Yes!! YES!!!”

Detail of the Lincoln Memorial, taken with my camera phone. Obviously, I’m going through a backlog of pictures.