JayKnight Life: Running, Reviews, Photos

   So, the Knight Family got a cute and cuddly kitten yesterday. Her name is Whisper. She's a calico cat full of energy. She was tuckered out after a long day of playing with Ethan all day long. But we are just getting to know her and Whisper is just getting used to her surroundings.

    These pictures were shot with on My new Canon 600D (3Ti), but with an old 50mm lens from my dads old film camera. This thing takes some amazing pictures. In some of these shots the aperture is way down to 1.8. I had to back it up to 2.0 to get his hole face in focus. I can't wait until it stops raining so I can take this thing out for a test drive. The depth of field or bokeh is great. You can't even see how messy or clean my house is.      I also want to play with the lens that came in the kit, an old 70 - 200mm telephoto.. and some macro lens attachments. So, stay tuned!

  The last time I stood in line for an hour and a half for anything, I think I was trying to get some financial aid in college. Usually I'm too busy or uninterested to stand in line for movie tickets, concert tickets or things like that. But, thank God for patience. I got there somewhere around 8:30... and so did everyone else. 

      I always love impromptu trips to Lyman's Orchard in Middlefield, CT. truth be told I love doing anything Impromptu since my day job requires so much precision planning. One my weekends (when I'm not working) I like to fly by the seat of my pants.

   Nikon's First SLR the F (1959)        So, Nikon has jumped into the mirrorless Camera market...great...  It kind of makes you think: Why do we need mirrors in cameras?      According to my always resourceful and sometimes accurate wikipedia sources, SLR's or Single Lens Reflex cameras have been around 1884. They were called single reflex because of the action in the camera that moved the mirror out of the way to expose the film or sensor. 35mm SLR's weren't commercially available until Leica's PLOOT camera in 1935.     In 1952 japan jumped into the SLR game.. with  ( Pentax ) releasing the  Asahiflex . Asahiflex 1952     Nikon , Canon and Yashica introduced their first SLRs in 1959.    SLR's were needed for serious photographers who really wanted to see exactly what would be captured on the film. Before SLR's your viewfinder was just a hole through the camera above the lens -- Close, but ...

On the graveyard shift I get a lot of chances to check out the moon at night. There have been some pretty spectacular nights with large harvest moons, moons with a tinge of orange and some eclipses. But it's ironic that I am always working while the moon is out and i never get the chance to stop for a ten minutes and take some good pictures. So this past weekend I took my opportunity.. while I wasn't working. I did a little experimenting with exposures and ISO and even the aperture. I posted some of the picture stats next to each clip so you can see what worked and what didn't. Model Canon PowerShot SX20 IS ISO 1600 Exposure 1/2 sec Aperture 5.0 Focal Length 54mm     For one thing, the 1600 ISO on this camera was way too high. There was a lot of "noise" as they call it. to me it just looked out of focus. So, I brought the ISO down to 400 where I felt a little more comfortable. In those pictures you can really see some of the detail of the craters in the moon. For ...

        I've been missing for a while, but here we go again. photos from the beach in West Haven, CT.

      So, after a minor delay, .. Ethan had his first day of school today. The First day in the beginning of what will be a long and promising educational career. From Kindergarten to Middle School to High School, College and Grad School. He'll probably spend the next 20 years in someone's classroom somewhere learning and growing.    

This picture makes the pavement look like grass.. that's how many leaves were on the ground which contributed to a strong fresh cut tree/grass smell in the air. Normally above water, this flower is drowning    

    For the most part, we all survived hurricane Irene. That storm did beat up some of our cars, homes and forced hundreds of thousands of people into the dark. But we Survived. Even with all the damage and suffering caused by the storm only about 46 or so people were killed. Being in TV news, I know that there are countless stories of families struggling without power and trapped in their neighborhoods by downed power lines and trees. Thank God I fared pretty well after this storm.      My power was only out for 12 hours. Unfortunately some of my co-workers were in the dark 10 times as long or more. Six days to a week for some. It almost makes you wonder why so many power lines, cable lines and phone lines are above ground. I didn't do too much of any walking into any wooded areas... but I bet most of the trees that fell were along some kind of road, driveway, yard or field. The trees in the middle of the woods probably don't fall as much because they're protec...