Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
|
Post by Sabre52 on Dec 19, 2008 13:20:51 GMT -5
Howdy folks. Well, got my Xmas present early, a new camera, and took a hike this morning to give it a try. Kind of a hassle because it takes really huge pics so each had to be downloaded to Photobucket and then individually resized. Worked pretty well and should be good for rocks, bugs, flowers etc but not enough telephoto zoom for birds etc. Fun rig though. Anyway, here's a bunch of pics and I hope I resized them so they don't fill the whole darn page. Warm day today so it was nice along the creek. Flint outcrop in the Edwards Limestone: The Cretaceous reef: Oyster in matrix: This formation is below the Edwards and is either Glen Rose or Walnut Formation. Much lighter in color and just chock full of fossils many of which show in the pic if you look closely: A hunk of chert/flint vein just laying around. This stuff really looks like pet wood! Couple of more flint nodules laying in the dirt: And finally, I love turtles but they are hard to photograph. These are a couple of my buddies in the creek:
|
|
|
Post by Michael John on Dec 19, 2008 13:44:58 GMT -5
Mel, it looks to me like you've moved to rockhounders' Nirvana. I love seeing all of the pics of your new area.
Batch resizing pics can easily be done using just Windows:
* Put all of the pics in a folder on your desktop * Open the folder * Go to "Edit" - "Select All" * Go to "File" - "Resize Pictures" * A little window will then give you size options for batch resizing all of the pics in that folder
Glad I can help you for a change!
|
|
Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
|
Post by Sabre52 on Dec 19, 2008 14:36:30 GMT -5
Thanks so much Michael! If you haven't noticed, I'm not real computer literate. That advice is gonna help me out a lot as the photobucket method flat takes forever to do....Mel
|
|
Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
|
Post by Sabre52 on Dec 19, 2008 14:53:57 GMT -5
OK Michael. I put the pictures in the folder. Went to edit, hit select all. Went to file heading and punched the heading but no resizing option is present under my file heading. I'm stumped....Mel
|
|
|
Post by Michael John on Dec 19, 2008 15:11:40 GMT -5
Ooops ... sorry ... I forgot that this is a special little add-on that I have ... Go to this page ... www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx ... and download the Image Resizer powertoy. It's a tiny download, and only takes a minute to install. THEN you'll be able to do as I previously described. Again, sorry, but I forgot that the morons at Microsoft aren't smart enough to have included such a handy gadget in their service packs.
|
|
|
Post by sitnwrap on Dec 19, 2008 15:15:38 GMT -5
That reef is really cool and it looks so peaceful with the creek and the turtle shots. How can a novice tell the difference between what looks like wood and what really is wood, cause that Flint would have fooled me.
|
|
|
Post by frane on Dec 19, 2008 15:52:04 GMT -5
Beautiful pictures Mel! I would never want to leave my place with so many beautiful places to look at. The only bad thing, I am allergic to misquite trees in the spring. Not sure but it looked like there may be a few there. I do the microsoft resizing also. Much faster than photo bucket, well, just about anything is. Have a great day! Fran
|
|
Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
|
Post by Sabre52 on Dec 19, 2008 17:52:13 GMT -5
Michael: Down loaded the resizer and it works super cool! Thank you so much!
Fran: Not much mesquite on this ranch but lots in the area so it would be rough on you in the spring all right.
Sitinwrap: It fooled me at first too but the flint and chert have no exterior bark pattern just a thin layer of limestone coating. Funny though, it's highly agatized and has woodgrain look, layering etc. If I was in a wood area and found a hunk with no rind, I'd think it was wood. I actually found one piece too large to move and it looks, for all intents and purposes, like a huge slab of colorful pet wood...Mel
|
|
|
Post by sitnwrap on Dec 19, 2008 18:11:35 GMT -5
So it is the rind that gave it away as flint?
Funny story, I was in Vermont and went hiking up a small mountain and found what I thought might be Pet wood. It was big and heavy and no one wanted to help me lug it down (they do not love rocks and were already carrying other rocks for me) so instead of carrying it all the way down, I tossed it a head of me, caught up to it then toss it ahead, etc, etc. They thought this was hillarious until I almost hit someone while tossing it. When we got back down, the others convinced me it was just flint and I left it. Now I wonder cause the outside had a barky look to it.
|
|
|
Post by MrP on Dec 19, 2008 18:16:02 GMT -5
Mel Looks like you made a good choice. Was there a special reason you picked that area?.....MrP
|
|
Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
|
Post by Sabre52 on Dec 19, 2008 19:15:19 GMT -5
MrP: We chose the Texas hill country for a large number of reasons: Great climate, great people, great homes for cheap, no traffic, interesting geology and a new biology after California ( we're both wildlife biologists), uncrowded, unpolluted, low crime, no state income tax etc. We left California because most the same factors were negatives: Crowded with a-holes, terrible traffic, polluted, boring biology, crappy homes, friggin gang bangers everywhere, failing infrastructure, high taxes, etc. Was not a hard choice to make at all....Mel
|
|
NorthShore-Rocks
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since December 2008
Posts: 1,004
|
Post by NorthShore-Rocks on Dec 19, 2008 19:29:33 GMT -5
Beautiful place Mel with a ton of incentives to boot!
What kind of camera?
|
|
Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
|
Post by Sabre52 on Dec 19, 2008 19:37:21 GMT -5
Northshore: Canon Rebel EOS 12.2 MP with a 55-250MM IS zoom lens. *L* Don't blame the camera for my lousy pics. I have it set at the smallest file setting and lowest quality to keep the files small and I'm still finding my way around the rig which is pretty darn complicated *S*....Mel
|
|
|
Post by BuiltonRock on Dec 19, 2008 19:40:18 GMT -5
Mel that flint looks good! I bet the knapper would go nuts over it! John
|
|
|
Post by stonesthatrock on Dec 19, 2008 20:46:03 GMT -5
mel it looks like you've made a wise choice. i lived in calif for 29 yrs so i know what your saying. I just moved to az. alittle over a yr ago. You live in a very nice area.
|
|
NorthShore-Rocks
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since December 2008
Posts: 1,004
|
Post by NorthShore-Rocks on Dec 19, 2008 21:07:44 GMT -5
Nice camera and the pics are far from lousy! They're very good. They're composed well and in focus. Keep in mind, you can always res-down. You rarely can res-up much without a lot of post production if at all. Hard disk space on most modern computers is not the issue it once was and you still had to lower the res for the web anyway. My camera never leaves the highest settings. You just don't know when that once in a lifetime shot is gonna pop-up, you need a bigger print down the road or a publication needs a shot. Plus, the low res stuff for the web doesn't suffer one bit. Sorry, I'm rambling. If you have any questions about photography, don't hesitate to ask. Maybe I can help. As MJ said so well, "Glad I can help you for a change!"
|
|
|
Post by beefjello on Dec 19, 2008 21:14:50 GMT -5
Mel I'd say you gotcher selves a little slice of paradise there. Nice pics too! Thanks for showing us around.
|
|
|
Post by Bejewelme on Dec 19, 2008 21:37:38 GMT -5
Ummm, Mel I am on vacation, when can I check in!!! It looks like a lovely place, how peaceful and wonderful for you both to pursue the things in nature that you love. I loved CA but left in 1996, I can't believe how crowded and expensive it is, but I loved it. I hope you make good holiday memories in your new home. Amber
|
|
|
Post by Tonyterner on Dec 22, 2008 11:50:41 GMT -5
Great pics Mel. The turtles here are all under 2 feet of mud for the winter.
You can have photobucket resize the photos as you upload them. If you are in your album you will see a "choose files" link at the top. Just below that is a drop box that says "reduce to". I choose 640x480 (Large). Seems to work pretty well but fuzzed out the photos that Bejewelme just posted.
|
|
Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
|
Post by Sabre52 on Dec 22, 2008 16:57:17 GMT -5
Tony: if you haven't tried it, try the resizing method Michael helped me download above. It's lightning fast as compared to photobucket , as photobucket takes forever downloading the huge pics before you can resize them at their site....mel
|
|