Raccoon Gets into Bird Feeder: Gary Walts Photos

I look out the window this morning and see a raccoon getting into our birdfeeder at our home in Chaumont, NY. It was a rainy and dark morning, 7:30 when I snapped these photos. I took them with a Sony a6000 camera and a Minolta 200mm f2.8 auto focus lens.

Raccoon at bird feeder, Chaumont, NY. Sony a6000 camera, Minolta 200mm f2.8 lens, Sony LA-EA adapter.  Photo copyright Gary Walts

Raccoon at bird feeder, Chaumont, NY. Sony a6000 camera, Minolta 200mm f2.8 lens, Sony LA-EA adapter.  Photo copyright Gary Walts

Raccoon at bird feeder, Chaumont, NY. Sony a6000 camera, Minolta 200mm f2.8 lens, Sony LA-EA adapter.  Photo copyright Gary Walts

Raccoon at bird feeder, Chaumont, NY. Sony a6000 camera, Minolta 200mm f2.8 lens, Sony LA-EA adapter.  Photo copyright Gary Walts

Raccoon at bird feeder, Chaumont, NY. Sony a6000 camera, Minolta 200mm f2.8 lens, Sony LA-EA adapter.  Photo copyright Gary Walts

Wooden Sailing ship off Cape Vincent Ny, Sony a6000 & 500mm f8 Minolta lens

We were at our favorite swimming spot at Wilson Bay, Cape Vincent NY and saw this wooden sailing ship way off on the horizon. We could barely see it. I snapped a photo of it with the Sony a6000 and a Minolta 500mm f8 auto focus mirror lens. It was very hazy. I had to do quite a crop and then play around with photo shop to somehow make the photo interesting. This is what I settled on.

3 masted sailing ship on the horizon, Lake Ontario, off Cape Vincent NY. Sony a6000 & Minolta 500mm f8 AF lens. photo copyright Gary Walts 

Guitar playing at Channelside Restaurant in Clayton NY

Wednesday July 10, 2019.
Had wonderful time playing guitar from 6-9:00 at the Channelside Restaurant in Clayton NY.

Earlier in the day I mowed part of the lawn. I had to stop because the cable that engages the self propel feature on the lawn mower broke.

It's a Toro walk behind mower.

Here is a photo I snapped from the parking lot of Sam's Club in Watertown NY a few days ago. I think it really says Summer.

Summerday in northern NY. Photo snapped with Sony a6000, 200mm f2.8 lens from parking lot of Sam's Club, Watertown.  photo copyright Gary Walts

Busy day today and old Tri-X negative copied with Sony a6000 camera

Monday, May 6, 2019

Had a terrible nights sleep last night.Truly lucky if I got a solid 4 hours. Sometimes that happens. Very little guitar practice this morning. However I had a productive day. I worked quite awhile cleaning the garage. It is packed with about 30 years worth of disorganized stuff ranging from personal memorabilia to a variety of odds and ends gathered for various art projects that never got off the ground and it's doubtful they will. Anyhow, I carted off a load of scrap metal, old books, and other stuff to the recycling center. Then I went Walmart and picked up a couple of items to make guacamole. Then I changed the oil in the Better Half's 2011 Kia Sedona van. after that I mowed the lawn. Then I sat on the porch and drank a beer. It hit 71 degrees today and mostly sunny so it was wonderful. Oddly though, I didn't snap any photos today.

One of my first attempts at digitizing my black & white negatives with a Sony a6000 camera. It appears to be a satisfactory alternative to using a film scanner. More testing and experimenting needed to confirm. 

The photo posted  I snapped in April or May of 1977. My ex brother-in-law RC is at left, my brother Dale at right. This photo was made with Kodak Tri-X black & white film and a Minolta SRT 101 camera. A couple days ago I copied the negative with my Sony a6000 camera fitted with a Minolta 50mm f2.8 auto focus macro lens. I converted it to a positive with Adobe PhotoShop. It is an alternative to digitizing film images with a film scanner. Something I've been wanting experiment with.

Sunset photos on the St. Lawrence River, Cape Vincent, NY December 29, 2018 Sony a6000 camera

Saturday, December 29, 2018, I take a drive to Cape Vincent, NY, a picturesque village on The St. Lawrence River, about 12 miles from our home in Chaumont. The tree photo was snapped with my iPhone 6 and then cropped and filtered with the Instagram app. The giant su setting on the water with some birds was taken with the Sony a6000 camera and a Minolta 500mm f8 auto focus reflex lens. The LAEA4 lens adapter was used to mount the lens to the camera.

Sunset on the St. Lawrence River, Cape Vincent, NY.                     iPhone 6 photo by Gary Walts

Sunset on the St. Lawrence River, Cape Vincent, NY.  Sony a6000 camera with Minola 500mm f8 lens.   photo by Gary Walts

Rhodes Greenhouse a camp fire and Moon photo made with Sony a6000

We had a nice day in northern New York. It was sunny and mild. After working on a project in the garage the Better Half nd I took a drive to Rhodes Greenhouses in Henderson, NY. They have an abundance of plants for home and garden. Over the years I have frequented various garden / greenhouse centers in the north country. Rhodes' plants always seem to be superior to me. They are lush and robust. Why they seem better to me than their competitors I can't really say.

Rhodes Greenhouses in Henderson, NY. Their vegetable and flower plants are lush and robust. They have a large selection too. iPhone 6 photo by Gary Walts

From there we went up to visit my mother t the Hospice care facility in Watertown. We spent the evening with  her daughter H's family in Brownville. We sat around a fire in their backyard, drank a couple of beers and had a most pleasant time. 

Video is a slowmotion clip of the campfire.

When we arrived back home about 11:00pm I snapped a quick sot of the moon over our house. I used a Sony a6000 camera with a Minolta 300mm f4 AF lens.

Moon photo shot with Sony a6000 and a Minolta 300mm f4 AF lens.   photo by Gary Walts

Sunset photo made with SONY a6000 camera and 500mm Minolta AF lens

Sunset, Chaumont, NY. Sony a6000 camera, Minolta 500mm f8 mirror lens iso3200, 1/250th sec. f8  photo by Gary Walts

I snapped this sunset photo in Chaumont, NY a few days ago. I took it with a SONY a6000 camera and a Minolta 500mm f8 auto focus mirror lens. I have owned the lens for many years. It is one of a number of great AF lenses  I have for my Minolta AF film cameras. Since the digital era arrived I had not used any of those lenses. The company I worked for provided me with digital Nikon cameras & lenses so I never bothered with getting a Minolta or SONY digital body that would accommodate those lenses.

Sony makes 2 lines of cameras. One uses the Minolta lens mount so that all the old Minolta AF ;geneses can be used with them. The there series of cameras utilize Sony's E mount lenses. I have been torn about which camera to buy. I settled on the Sony a6000 E mount camera. I got a terrific buy on it. With it I purchased the LA-EA4 adapter that allows the use of the Minolta lenses on the E mount cameras. That is what I used to attach the 500mm lens to the a6000. I have been having pretty good results with it.