Happy 4th of July - an eventful weekend

Happy 4th of July



You know this weekend surprised me in several ways. And the thing is... I never saw it coming. In this case that is a good thing though :-)

Jacki surprised by initiating the purchase of my new camera house. I know it's not the latest and greatest which cost tons of $$. But for me it's more a question of having the tool that will cover my need.
Sure my good trusty Nikon D70s has been along for the ride quite a few times and performs great. But in the odd cases I have been running into barriers of things you just can't do with it.
Just to mention: high speed capture, time-lapse, better focusing, resolution, histogram for each channel and so on.
The new camera body I got is the Nikon D200 with the optional vertical grip (mb-D200) which allows for vertical shooting and well holds an extra battery :-) I got a well cared for used package which I can only say I am happy for.

Well I know it may sound weird but we did the trade in a microcenter parking lot. not that there was anything shady about it. But you know exchanging items from one trunk to the other... but it was very nice of Spenny to meet us halfway since the drive to pick it up would be kind of long. Thank you :-)

Being in the area we went to a wegmans grocery store to pick up a few items for the weekend and some gluten free stuff for Emma of which they have a selection :-)
Maybe it's guy thing, geek thing or well just a mee thing but just getting a "new" camera there was no way I would let it sit idle for that loooong... So I grab the camera with me in the store since I can get some test photos with Emma while Jacki is looking for groceries. Or well I thought that would be a no issue (more about that later).

Here goes the first ones:



Not having been to that particular store previously I can only say that it was a mess and people everywhere. Hard to find stuff and of course Emma had to use the potty half way through. So we located the facilities and what do you know... Just so happened that they had a pear tree growing in there...



On with the grocery shopping. Mom is picking out sensible good healthy food :-)



Emma found all the gluten free items that we just can't find in our "normal" grocery store. Well this particular wegmans only have half an aisle with the gluten free goodies but hey. They did have the gluten free ice cream cones soo some good did come out of it.



I like when stores does something special (well in particular for kids) which they don't *really* have to. Like putting up a model train in the ceiling. Emma got very excited as you can see.



And here it is:



And that's the end of the photos from wegmans...
why you ask? well certainly not because I got tired of taking photos... I don't know if that actually could happen...

Nope... We were approach by a "floor manager" you know one of those in charge of the ones stacking shelves and they are as such... hmm well you know.
She started out "I know you are taking photos of your daughter and all but you can't do that here...". At which point I am just totally baffled... ok.. so I can't take photos of my daughter... So I am getting back (probably with a snotty) "Excuse me.. I can't take photos of my daughter... you got to be kidding???". And she goes on about "It's our corporate policy that you can't take any photos and you have to attain a permission to bring a camera"... at this point I am kind of like a tree in a hurricane and just fuzzing out a million words in a split second about how ridicules that really is and she better make sure to take a note and inform her "people" about how stupid that really is. And come to think of it... If it's a corporate policy. Where exactly is the "no photography" sign or indication of that corporate policy.
How can a store have a policy and just "forget" to tell any of their customers about it. I mean what other policies do they have hidden up their sleeve??? You never really can know for sure now can you... May someday you will be told you can't wear pink because it's against their corporate policy...
but well I am not going back to that particular store anytime soon...

Maybe it's just that area (which I really don't care too much for either with the traffic and amount of people).
Take this as an example. A new apartment complex was put up on the corner with busy streets on all sides. ohh I mean luxury condos with a convenient location ;-)
They put up some art to spiff it up a bit



Yep... it's a horse head. Emma had the best explanation for it I ever heard.
As she put it they just forgot to paint it. You know like the little figures you can buy at craft stores and paint. Looks just like it now that she mentioned it ;-)

Getting back to mam's house we are preparing for a good dinner. As we are sitting there baby Jimmy wakes up and guess who's there with a new camera ;-) yep you guessed it :-)



Look at this... Mam is in the kitchen and Emma is going nuts... ehhh I mean Emma is excited ;-)



Being the weekend of the 4th Aunt Linda and Uncle Dave came down. Now that is always exciting since it doesn't happen too often (it's a very long drive) and these guys are awesome. You just can't help liking them.

ohh Dave	I'm not kidding. This big	ohhh my gosh

Like last year we didn't completely avoid the rain. Actually it came down pretty good in the afternoon.



But once we made it to Leesburg for the fireworks it was a little wet there but the rain had stopped. This year they didn't have any funnel cakes though which was much displeasure. Now who would think to stop selling something that always sells great on a day like that...



We set up camp on the grass by the cars and got out all the chairs to sit and watch the fireworks. This is where things was different because last year I had made a promise to Jacki about actually sitting down on a chair and just watch the fireworks as I am holding her hand (you know all romantic and stuff). That was made a little tricky since well just got a new camera...
I did sit in the chair and I did hold her hand as we were watching the fireworks. and yet I still got a few photos of the fireworks :-) the new one has interval shooting so I mounted the camera on the tripod. Took a guess at the exposure and setup the interval shooting to just keep firring the camera. It somewhat worked but I think it's because it had a slow memory card and halted due to a full buffer.
But I got 256 photos on auto pilot while keeping my promise and sitting with Jacki just watching the fireworks :-)

The wind wasn't moving at all that night so the smoke from the fireworks just kind of sat there. So a lot of the fireworks turned out to be more of a colored smoke experience than actual fireworks... But it was pretty cool and we had a good time. Romantic and all that ;-)



Ohh yeah and all of this was on the 4th of July... All in one day.
Next up BBQ on the 5th. Check out the gallery with the photos