blue sky baby

After an unexpected sprinkling of snow yesterday, this morning we woke up to this. Blue skies. I had just about forgotten what they looked like. It was so clear that on the drive to church I saw mountains I'd never seen before. I knew we had peaks on two sides out here. Turns out that on a clear day we have them on three. It was hard to keep my eyes on the road.

I was hoping to take my shiny new toy out for a spin and see if I could shoot a panorama but I couldn't quite get the right vantage point for a clear shot. I tried the airport, but the ground dips just there and the buildings got in the way. Pesky buildings. I headed to the park at the end of the street but the bird's nest shot above turned out better than any of the mountain shots. Trust me, this does not do it justice:It turned out to be a good day for experimenting, just not one for having much to show for it. I'm running into trouble with lighting when shooting indoors. I don't know yet if it's a setting I've got wrong or if the factory issue flash just isn't going to cut it. I've been trying to get a photo of the camera itself and so far this is the best I've got:

And yes, it's photoshopped within an inch of it's life to try and salvage something from what was a not-great shot to begin with. Note to self: if you're going to take self portraits of the camera, clean the mirror first. There's very little detail on the camera itself, but hey, my nails look great :) I was pretty impressed to see anything at all. In the initial viewing this shot was a black square with a flash spot in the middle. They say experience is a great teacher. Good thing, I've got a lot to learn.