I didn't know that North Carolina offered a Gator license plate, but here is the proof. How odd. I'm sure that Florida would never offer a Tar Heels plate. I believe that the state of Georgia also offers a Gator plate, but again, Florida isn't going to offer a Bulldog plate. It's great to be a Florida Gator!
Previous states: California, Virginia, Alaska, Connecticut, New York, Maine, Hawaii, Washington, Ohio, Wisconsin
Here are some more photos from the new XSi camera. This is a tri-color heron, which is one of the ones you don't see very often. I've never seen one that had this much blue on his beak. I'm wondering if maybe that's not something do do with mating season. I suppose I need to look that up. These guys are neat to watch when they are hunting, as they contort their necks to get a better view and herd the fish into the best position for eating. Unfortunately, he didn't catch anything while I had my camera trained on him.
Well, after three years, I figured it was time for a new camera. The old Canon Rebel XT has been a great camera, but ever since the new XSi model came out last month, I've been jonesing for it. Today I got a coupon in the mail for 10% off at Best Buy, which combined nicely with 18 months to pay it off interest-free. I figured it was as good a time as any. The new camera is 12 megapixels, versus 8 for the old one, so I'm hoping my pictures will be a little more detailed. It also came with a fancy image-stabilized lens, which I am really excited about. I should be able to get better shots at lower light levels than before. I went out today and shot about 600 pics once I got the battery charged, and I'm pretty excited by some of the results. I stumbled on this night heron at Island Park, and was able to catch him in mid-flight. These are crops from the full frames, and you can see that there is still plenty of detail there. I'm hoping that a new camera will get me more excited about getting out there and taking more pictures, as I've been a little on the blah side about it lately. We'll see.
As I promised some time ago, here are a whole passel of pictures featuring the United States Air Force Thunderbirds. These guys really put on an amazing show, filling every American with so much pride that I saw two or three small people burst from it right there on the tarmac. These pictures are from two shows I caught on consecutive days at the 2008 Sun-N-Fun Fly-in up in Lakeland. I showed up near the middle of the first show, but I saw the second show in it's entirety the next day. I shot over 800 pictures in all, and these are the thirty five or so best. Near the middle of the second show, all six planes were supposed to fly over in a delta formation and execute a roll as a formation. They flew over awful fast, but never rolled. Everyone sort of held their breath as the planes split off into groups of two at the end of the pass. After a minute or so, the announcer came on and said that there was some trouble with one of the planes. Flying off in groups of two allowed each pilot to scan the adjacent plane for visible damage. After another few minutes, one of the pairs flew in low over the runway, and one of the planes landed while the other one watched. The pilot stopped the plane as quickly as possible and shut off the engines without taxiing. They towed it all the way back around to the area where the spare planes were parked in formation. It was later revealed that the plane had struck a bird in plight, but the damage done to the plane was minimal. The other five pilots regrouped in the air and did another twenty minutes of show. Trust me when I say that if you get the chance, you should go see these guys perform. It is incredible.
I'm not sure why, but I found this hilariously funny. I spotted this cigar-loving cop at Tropical Heatwave Saturday night. He was wandering around making sure things didn't get out of control, and every time I saw him, he had this huge stogie between his teeth. I never saw it lit, so I suppose he wasn't smoking on the job, but it's a fine line.
