Captain’s Blog

I’m not wealthy… so I need to work and earn income occasionally. Found a cheap 2 bedroom house for rent ($130/mo.) and bought a cheap car. And, I’m now working with Antonio building boats. Presently I’m building a plug for a new boat design. When it is finished, we will build a mold over it and have a new design for sale.

I start out with wood.

And a set of plans.

Behind the shop is a river to launch the boats and the edge of the rainforest. This male howler monkey was pretty loud, and I got this picture of him…

Capn Scott

Back to my favorite zoo. In Zoo Lujan you can enter the cages with the animals.

We jump on the subway in Buenos Aires for the beginning of the journey.  Then we take several trains out to Lujan.

These lions are just spectacular.  And, being up close is really special…

In the monkey cage.  This is a howler up close.

My roommate trying to get that monkey off his back…

That is just a very funny expression.  It looks as though the other has just said something…

Aldana on the camel.

Elephant rides.

This is such a great zoo.  Everything is interactive.  And, there is an amazing amount of animals just walking around with the people…

Capn Scott

Love the story about Columbus and the red moon.  But got out and had a chance to shoot some pics of it…

Capn Scott

Went to the Reserva to shoot pictures of animals.  Using a 400mm f5.6L lens.

Capn Scott

Let’s try this again with the tree and the backlight…

I think the saturation, color and subject is a bit better…

Capn Scott

Happy New Year to all… Another Saturday that starts out with a call from Diego. Today we’re off to the Rosedal Gardens.

My sentiments… If you’re gonna scratch, make a face at the same time…

Very photogenic

The entire garden was comprised mainly of roses.

And almost surrounded by a very nice small lake with boat rentals and all the good stuff.

More roses

Many varieties

On the outside of one corner of the park was a very nice evergreen area.

This is a normal street in Palermo. Very nicely treed.

Definitely a nice area of town. Oh, by the way, I moved to Palermo a couple of weeks ago.

Capn Scott

I was notified about a night time balloon launch over in the pueblo of Los Cardales. I called Diego, and then confirmed the reservations. The weather has been spectacular and there is a semi-full moon. Hot air balloons, night time, fireworks… Couldn’t see a possible downside on this one…

Half way there, the guides mom called and explained that the town had canceled the flight for today. I’m sure that the honkin winds had something to do with it also…

Great… now what??? Diego says, there’s a special zoo close to there, maybe we could do that. Noone had been there, and we had all heard that you could get close to the animals.  A vote was taken, and off to the zoo we all went… Along the way, had to stop and shoot some pics of this spectacular chuch.

This is supposed to be modeled after the church in Notre Dame. Impressive!

Another HDR image of the inside of the church. You just can’t get a pic this good normally.

We had all heard that you could get close to the animals… But in the cage??? That’s your typical kitty, “scratch my belly please…”

Now…. that’s a yawn… I thought that the guide was joking when he asked if I wanted to go in this cage full of tigers… Yea right…

But then he said that I had to remove my backpack… Really??? The colors up close are intense…

Then there was the nursery, where you could play with the kittens… though these kittens are the size of dogs…

And the guide asks me if I want to pet them, or just take pictures… yep… I need both hands on the camera… thanks anyway…

I probably should have gotten a reference into this picture to show just how huge this dude is… and he’s still very young…

And, of course, you are allowed in the cages with the monkeys… That’s a big pile of monkeys…

You can ride the camels and the elephants…

I’m thinking this is that expression of “kicking up your heels”

This little dude was just feeling his oats and a real cut up…

Would have really liked to seen the balloons, but I can’t complain about this either. This is definitely on the short list of places to visit again. Along with the entire zoo, there is also an antique truck, tractor, military vehicles, trains section… I could spend a week here easily…

Capn Scott

What do you do with a long weekend??? You go to the park! Next to the giant city of Buenos Aires is a unique environment named Parque Natural Reserva Ecologica Costanera. It’s a combination of walking/hiking/biking trails through an amazing marsh area. It is a quick 10 minute walk from the Frigate Presidente Sarmiento.

These orchids had the small lakes surrounded in a sea of yellow…

Look closely…  this dude has eyes in the back of his head…   Kinda like most mothers…

Gottal love the variety of flowers…

This entire tree was blooming…

These guys just look happy…  who doesn’t love dandelions???

Nice balance of colors with the abundance of flowers…

The local insects were also out enjoying the flowers.

This seems to be a cross between some type of guinea pig and a rabbit or something…   hmmm…  anyone have a name for this???

Swans…  and many of them…

The birds were also out enjoying the day…   Hey… stand up straight…

Throw down a little seed and you have instant models… willing to pose and everything…

Just a chomping away on the free seeds…

And what a variety.  These small doves really were abundant as well.

This guy definitely gets the award today for colors.  He just jumped down with the other birds and starts stabbing his beak into the mud hunting for ants.

Capn Scott

Playing with the camera has really been fun. And, like so many other new toys, I now have the urge for bigger and better. I´ve looked around, and there is no upgrade for the 20D in the country, except for the successor, the 30D. I don’t really see an advantage in that upgrade. I really would like the new 5D. But that isn’t gonna happen anytime soon here. Also, the new successor to the 30D has arrived… the 40D. Now, the 40D does look like a decent upgrade, but won´t be available for a while. Though, I really would like to step up to the professional level. The 5D has been out for a couple of years and the life cycle is about due. I just purchased the G7, for a nice almost professional level point and shoot. And, wouldn´t you know it… the next month after I purchase it, they come out with the G9. So, as not to make that mistake again, I will wait for the new successor to the 5D.

Though… I have the monies… The only way to keep myself sane, is to remove the monies from my pocket. I certainly haven´t outgrown this 20D. What a wonderful camera. So, I will take the monies and spend them on the needed lenses and accessories. I´ve decided to pick up the 50mm 1.4, 100mm 2.8 macro and 400mm 5.6L lenses. And, along with them, and monitor/printer calibrator, level, timed remote etc… Adobe, in their ultimate wisdom, has blocked all credit cards being used in any foreign country. So… road trip…

I picked up a round trip ticket to L.A. from San Jose, Costa Rica for around $400. One day in L.A. and return…

I take a taxi from David to the border, then the bus (8 hours) from the border to San Jose. While in San Jose, I have some time to kill, so I take my camera and my 24-70 2.8L lens to the park… again… sometimes the journey is better than the destination…

The obligatory church pics…

This guy really likes feeding the pigeons…

They seem to be pretty tame…

And here come the squirrels…

It was starting to look like… if the kid didn´t give up the cracker, there would be a riot…

These guys would gently take the peanut from your hand.

The kids were loving this.

Peanut… cookie… really didn´t matter.

Everyone was enjoying this outing.

Definitely a commune with nature thingie going on here…

If I were to caption this… that pigeon is saying… “Does noone else here notice that big black camera on the ground?”

Definitely enjoyed the nature thing going on here. These animals seem to be very tame, but what I saw was alot of respect from the humans…