Reason #937 why I love my new camera....

My parents were visiting over the weekend with their dog, Buddy who is a very high energy English Springer Spaniel. We decided to get him out of house and hit the neighborhood trail along McCracken...Creek...Run? Not sure what the official title is. Anyway, it's a great trail along the water, part of it a path through the woods and part following an old train bed.

Of course, I brought my camera along to snap photos. I was fiddling with the settings (since I haven't really sat down and read the instruction manual, I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing) and happily clicking away.

When we uploaded (downloaded?) the pictures to the computer later, I was disappointed to realize I had inadvertantly left the white balance scale to Tungsten lighting. Bummer. All the pictures had a washed out, bluish cast.

I figured I'd just have to sacrifice the lot and chalk it up to inexperience, but then I read (in my new, colorful, and very informative book I got from Joseph Beth's last night) that RAW files (fortunately for me, in my changing camera settings I had set the file to RAW) capture all the information the sensor reads and with some editing I might be able to salvage them. YAY!

After some trial and error, I was able to correct all the pictures. Woohoo!

As for the hike, It was wonderful. A beautiful sunny day.

Libby was strapped into her Beco (which I highly recommend!)...

and was so comfy she even dozed off.

Anna played with her "cousint" Brynne.

Earl pointed out fossils to the girls, who then proceeded to haul an armload back to the house.

We even had time to pose for a few portraits.


And we all enjoyed the beautiful scenery.




What a great afternoon!