My photo walk of 28 April 2009

28 April 2009

100% crop from photo 11 below showing the effect of ISO400

My first photo walk of a few days ago was so successful (good exercise, fun photography) that I did it again today, this time experimenting with the Canon G9 set at ISO400 for most of my photographs (see 100% crop here of photo 11 for an example of the photo quality using ISO400). For the reduced sizes of the photos used on web pages the quality seems quite adequate. I walked to the local county fair office to see if they had booklets available yet for this summer's Ingham County Fair. I intend to enter my famous chocolate fudge this year. In addition to the normal fairway entertainment and livestock exhibits and competitions, they have all sorts of cooking and handicraft competitions. I took second place for fudge many years ago and thought I'd try to move up a place this year. No luck (booklets are at the printer), but it gave me a nice walking experience in a different direction. Spring is very much in evidence with many flowers popping out and a few trees developing leaves. I walked by my granddaughter's school (Steele Street Elementary) and my grandson encountered me buying some birthday ice cream at a local popular place Dairy Hill. It was a little cool without a sweater but still very nice. Following are some pictures I took along the way.

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1. Just around the corner I spotted these colorful "child vehicles".

2. Many neighbors place interesting decorations in their gardens.

3. Yard gardens are popular in Mason. I liked the shape of this one.

4. A telephoto shot showed an interesting interaction between houses.

5. An old push lawn mower makes an interesting garden decoration. I remember in my youth the sound of these lawn mowers clipping the grass. Now everyone uses the gas-powered (and noisy) mowers.

6/7. My granddaughter's school is just a few blocks from home. I like the patterns in this nice brick building.

Steele Street Elementary School.

I often walk to school to meet her as school is out for the day. She comes home with me a couple times a week to have lavish snacks and watch her favorite TV programs. There's nothing like being spoiled by grandparents!

8. Rayner Park. This was part of my destination for today's walk, since it is right next to the Country Fair office. I've been planning to take photos of the water flow through here with my SLR, but I thought it would be good to try out my Canon G9 on it today. Water flows into the park forming the lake in the background to the left. The water then flows out of the lake under the bridge. Besides being pretty it also makes a very pleasant sound. I'll be back here again.

9/10. Here is the water flowing out of the Rayner Park lake. There are attractive grounds here as well as picnic tables. During the County Fair people park here and walk next door to the fairgrounds.

11/12. Many trees are just now forming buds. Here are two macro shots.

13. The bridge over the Rayner Park lake.

14. The County Fair office. I like the patterns in the brick building.

15. An attractive house near the fairgrounds.

16/17. Here are two interesting signs in Rayner Park. I guess it isn't safe mowing the weeds if you get too close to the water.

18. This interesting knotty tree shows no signs yet of leaves.

19. Some garden decorations are quite colorful.

20/21. The flowering trees are in bloom and quite attractive. The second shot shows a popular ice cream shop in the background "Dairy Hill". After this picture I walked over and bought some ice cream to eat with my birthday cake.