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[OM] I'm back, rested, and ready to ramble!

Subject: [OM] I'm back, rested, and ready to ramble!
From: "Ken Norton" <image66@xxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 15:48:04 -0500
Ok, everybody.  You can stop talking behind my back now. <g>

The "vacation" up to Northern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan went quite well
and being away from email for over a week was a welcome relief.

Day 1.  Stopped off and stayed with friends that I shot a wedding for and
delivered many hundreds of dollars in reprints.  They loved them.  Including
the accidental 16x20 of nothing special.  Made just enough money off this
wedding to pay for the vacation.

Day 2.  Stayed in a campground in northern Illinois that happened to be
directly under the O'hare flight patterns--although we were 70 miles away.
It's hard to feel like you are camping with jets flying over.

Day 3-4.  Stayed in Northern Wisconsin at a little used campsite on Starret
Lake.  This place was really nice and the tent was about 20 feet from the
lake and we looked directly east across the water.  Made for great
sunrise/sunset pictures.  I now have more pictures than I care to have of
frogs and insects doing unmentionable things.  I doubt that I'll post some
of those pictures as they are rather x-rated.  The first morning my wife
woke me up and kicked me out of the tent to get pictures of the pre-dawn
sky.  About 2.5 hours later, I finally put the cameras down.  At one point
there was a small fishing boat way across the small lake with a swan
swimming around it, with mist rising off the lake and all backlit by a
dramatic sky.  That does it!  I'm getting a LOOONNNGGG lens.  The 200 didn't
quite cut it.  Last morning there it started raining at 4:30 and we
discovered that our brand new tent was as waterproof as a window screen.
Needless to say, the comfort level dropped a bit when a liter of water
decided to make its way through the spot directly above my pillow all at
once.  Noise level at this campsite was very high with frogs, insects, owls,
and one very crazy Loon that took up residence very close to the site.  Poor
Allison was completely puzzled by all the various sounds.

Day whatever.  Next stop was the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.  Got a
few decent shots, but overall not a successful visit this time as time
pressures got us.  Got to do a lot of back road travelling.  Did about 50
miles of it on one sandy logging road.  I think we went airborne a couple
times when we took some bumps too fast.  Not a good thing with a wife who is
6.5 months pregnant!  Allison loved it though.  But Baby #2 is well
protected from the bumps by Mom's bladder and Mom let it be known that the
"waterbed" is not designed to be "jumped" on.  Progress was slowed by
frequent stops.

Tahquamenon Falls is a must see in the U.P.  I have photographed it in every
season but still think that winter is king.  The flow was down a bit this
time and the color wasn't nearly as dark as usual.  I had to work hard at
getting new "fresh" views of it.  I've photographed almost every conceivable
angle so far and this visit was tough as I really tried new and unique
views.  The lighting one evening was fantastic though and I got some great
golden reflections in the water.  The bugs were a living nightmare as the
flies are big enough to carry off small lenses and children.

Of all the equipment I dragged around with me, I didn't use the 35/shift or
the mini-tripod.  Everything else got used.  I shot far less film than I
expected.  Spent most of the vacation actually vegging with the family and
cooking.

Speaking of cooking... I got creative one night.  On the box of Bisquick
there was a recipe for dumplings.  I used a couple packages of Ramen noodles
(chicken flavour) and it turned out perfect!  What this has to do with
Olympus is absolutely nothing, but I'm so proud of this cooking success I
just had to tell somebody.  (use twice the amount of water and hold off
putting the noodles in until the end and add some salt/pepper to taste).
Sure beat hotdogs and hamburgers for another night, but the grill was warmed
up just in case...

Stopped off at my parent's place and got to do a little camera comparisons
with my father.  He has been a N*k*n user for years but just picked up an
Olympus Stylus to replace a OneTouch that croaked.  He absolutely loves it
and it takes wonderful pictures.  But the viewfinder is awfull.  Can they
make those viewfinders any smaller?  Give me an old RF camera anyday with a
decent viewfinder and moving frame lines.  Dad looked at my OM-2s with the
2-4 focus screen and said "wow."   It is amazing just how bright it is.  I
looked at one of his Nikons (8008) and noticed that it has one of the newer
"bright" screens.  The Nikon screen is not quite as bright as the 2-series,
but has a "random" pattern to the etching which gives a more accurate
"bokah" in the viewfinder than the 2-series.  Nice, but doesn't "snap" like
the 2-series.

I picked up a bicycle trailer (Winchester) from my best friend for $75.  Ok,
Deborah, try matching that deal!  Can't wait to get Allison her first
bicycle helmet now.

Oh, welcome to the list, Kerry.  I'm glad there is another verbose person
here in the list to take the pressure off of me.  Most postings here are
great factoids, informational exchanges, etc. but mine are more for
entertainment purposes.  You can usually ignore them--after all, I don't
bother reading them either.  <g>  There are a bunch of terrific people out
there, but ya gotta watch them.  For instance, John H. will blindside us all
with the cold hard facts of the truth.  Denton dabbles in various religions
and has joined the Church of Contax while continuing to attend here.  And
Gary is the ultimate Ballerina of Prose and will suprise you with a wit and
wisdom not usually found in techy forums such as this.  There are many
wonderful people here and I think this is one of the finest lists on the
internet.  Yes, there is the occasional bickering, but we send those guys to
their rooms and they don't come out until they are ready to play nice again.
We all say something stupid once in a while--ok, I say something stupid once
in a while, but the forgiveness level is quite high.

Look out list, I'm back.  Well, I'll be back once the Suburban is emptied
and everything is put away.  That's the bad thing about the Suburban--you
can haul way too much stuff.

Ken N.
Quincy Illinois.


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