Episode 62: In Which Jessica Is Home and Has Tragic News of The LCD Type

Yep! I'm home from vacation. Utah looks so much more brown when coming back from Seattle...but it's not Arizona so who am I to say anything?

There is a lot to say about vacation...we were busy every day and still didn't see everything. I did get rice cake though. :) Sadly though I overestimated its reception and got three times as much as I could eat before I got on the plane. I could have taken it on the plane I suppose...but you never know with airport security these days.

Anyhow, I must disappoint you in that this post is not much about my vacation. I can provide teasers here and there but the bulk of it will have to come later when I have the time to sit down and organize things.

I took pictures almost exclusively on my SLR for 2 reasons this trip.

1. SLR pictures are better
2. My faithful little P&S (point and shoot) that got me through my mission and beyond fell victim to what I now call "Jessica's LCD curse"

Remember this?

Last year's LCD casualty?

Well this year it was my P&S. :( I had it in my carry on, but it must have gotten crunched up against something in my bag because the crystals in two spots got cracked and now I have two circles of dead pixels in the very middle of my camera. For those of you know know about cameras, if you drew your "rule of thirds" matrix on the screen (or turned it on) they'd be about midway on both the right and left lines. They're only about the size of a small button so I can still use it...but I'll need a new P&S soon.

In other completely random news...my disney station on Pandora continues to play only reprises of songs. You know...like the short ones that sing a few lines of the chorus and then its over? What gives Pandora?

Oh yeah...back to the pictures. Because I shot with my SLR...everything is in RAW format. Or I WISH it was. I switched it to JPEG for a second so I could take a new profile picture for my sister in law...and forgot to switch it back. 3 pods of Orcas later I realized I was shooting in JPEG. Not BAD necessarily if you don't count the fact that I was deliberately underexposing the shots so I could preserve the highlights for editing. AUGH. Anyhow, the RAW format thing. I have to convert them to JPEG before I can show them to anyone so it will take time. And there is a reason for shooting RAW, I promise...its not just to create an extra step in my life. =P

Also, I'm not sure I got nearly as many pictures as I had wanted. When vacationing with family, you don't have the time to sit and think about what shots you want to create...and when you're trying to shoot and walk so you don't hold people up...well I'm just not that good yet.

Enough excuses. Here are some things to look forward to:

• Whale Watching
• Aladdin
• Rice Cake! Ok maybe I'm the only one excited about that
• Sea Kayaking

And other stuff. I can't tell you all of it now because you won't read my next post....whenever that comes. I'll try to get it up soon, but like I said, pictures must be organized and time must be made. When you're an adult, coming back from vacation is much more of a shock. I have to make sure all the bills are paid and that we have food to eat...and I'm still working full time. Be patient with me. :)

Oh yeah...and I'm shooting a friend's concert on Tuesday night. You can take comfort in the fact that this will force me to get around to organizing and editing pictures.