12 June 2015

Grape flowers, cameras, and comments

These are grape flowers. As you can see, the individual flowers are tiny. All the vines are in flower right now, but you have to look closely to notice that fact. By the way, I took this photo with the Canon SX700 HS camera.


I haven't modified or enhanced the photo in any way other than re-sizing it to 1600 x 1600 pixels, because that seems to be the biggest photo I can upload to Blogger. To see it at that size, you have to click on it, maybe twice. As you see it above, it is only 860 x 860 pixels. The Canon SX700 is capable of taking photos like this one.

So why did I buy another new camera? Well, as I said, I missed the Panasonic Lumix that I had before. Actually, this is my fourth Lumix since about 2007, and I've been happy with all of them. Look at this test photo I took with the new Lumix DMC-TZ60 (called the DMC ZS40 in North America):


And then look at this one, taken with the Canon SX700:


I did my best to take the two photos in identical conditions. Again, I have only cropped and resized them for posting in Blogger. To my eye, the Lumix photo is much sharper, expecially towards the top of the image. I'm happy with that. Here's a photo of tiny yellow flowers that I took with the Lumix TZ60 yesterday:


Click on all the photos to see them at full size, as always.

Meanwhile, this morning, I got a nice comment from a reader called NorthwestUSA. It said:
My grandmother was born in 1897 and raised at Castle Aiguevives (she was adamant that it was a castle and not a manor). Her father and grandfather were groundskeepers and her mother was the cook for the staff. She said it was an English widow that lived there and she had 2 sons and they were into horses. Wonder if it's still the same family? She had a postcard of the abbey and I was able to locate it by satellite map and see the surrounding area but the castle was hidden by trees so THANK YOU for sharing your picture of the house. That is a real treat to see. My grandmother was a WWI war bride and left France for the U.S. in 1919 and only made 2 trips back, 1928 and 1948. She died at 99 years of age.
Comments like this are one of the reasons I keep doing this blog. Besides the fact that I love taking photos, and I have to do something with them all! The post that NorthwestUSA commented on is this one, Aiguevives abbey near Montrichard, from 2006. Here's an even larger view of the château or manor house shown in my post:


Again, click on the photo to see it at full size (1475 x 1476 pixels) on your monitor. I took it on March 2, 2006, with an old Canon camera I had back then, before I got my first Panasonic digital camera (the TZ3).

Another note: it was 12 years ago today that we moved into our house at La Renaudière outside Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher in the Loire Valley region of France. Wow.

9 comments:

  1. Happy "moveiversary"....
    is this the longest you and Walt have stayed in one house?
    I'm sure you've mentioned lengths of stay recently...
    but my mind is too full of other things at the moment...
    garden, meadow, the longère, trees, possible change of car....
    et cetera, et cetera, et cetera....

    The difference between the Canon and Lumix is very noticeable...
    Susan is looking to replace her "bridge" and I suggested the Lumix bridge camera...
    which I had noticed had very good reviews... but she seemed to have heard otherwise...
    but as you've found, there are differences between cameras!
    I love the dew/rain on the St.John's Wort petals... that is crisp!!

    We all web-log for different reasons, although they started out as fairly private, personal diaries I believe...
    they have now evolved in many cases into something far more interesting...
    a personal take on life...
    the fact that "NorthwestUSA", most probably researching family history, was able to find information from yours...
    is, as you say, one of the reasons to blog.
    I found some information from someone-else's blog yesterday...
    very valuable info to me and one member of the wild community here...
    so keep on blogging, Ken, yours is a very nice, if occasionally hunger-pang-making, read early doors!
    Tim

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  2. Well it's easy to understand why you prefer the Lumix. The Canon can't quite focus as sharply or evenly.

    Those crisp grape leaves make me think of dolmas.

    Congratulations on 12 fine years.

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  3. Might it be a camera angle thing? I can't see a difference in the lower part of the map photo. Comments out of the blue from someone who has a connection to a post are great. I remember posting about the late US risqué singer Ruth Wallis and her son made a comment on the post.

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    1. I took several shots, trying to be sure to keep the conditions and settings the same. The Lumix consistenty gave better results. Of course, it cost nearly twice as much as the Canon camera cost...

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  4. Your blog gives so much useful and helpful information about all kinds of things, making it great reading and eternally interesting.
    Much more so than the self indulgent tittle tattle and chest beating that is so often found in blogs - which is entertaining to read but has no lasting interest or value.
    It's something to be very proud of I think.

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  5. I agree with Jean's comment --absolutey!

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  6. I do heartily agree with all you said, Jean. That's what I've been telling Ken for years. Thanks again for a very pleasant afternoon.

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  7. In my opinion your American camera is better

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    Replies
    1. Both the Canon and Panasonic cameras are Japanese.

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