Sunday, July 29, 2007

New Toy!

I went out today and bought a new toy/gadget. It's a Nikon D40X digital SLR camera.

A friend of ours was over this weekend and we started talking about photography. He was showing me his Nikon camera and the great pictures it takes. Now I had been contemplating purchasing a new camera for several months, but hadn't focused on it as a top priority. Well after seeing the results of our friends camera and the wonderful conversation around the hobby, I decided there wasn't going to be a better time to take it up myself. So after several hours of research Sunday, I headed out and picked up my new camera.

I have to say that after playing with it for several hours today I am absolutely thrilled with what this camera can do (not that I've even scratched the surface of exploiting all of its rich features).



Of course there's the obligatory flower shot to start things off...






I look forward to experimenting with it more and posting some of my results in this blog and others that I author.

Stay tuned!

Monday, July 09, 2007

New Presidential Helicopter Flies

From the AV web site (http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/avflash/903-full.html#195585)...

The next president will have an "Oval Office In The Sky" aboard what is described as the most technologically advanced helicopter ever built. According to a news release, the AgustaWestland/Lockheed Martin VH-71 flew for the first time on July 3 and test pilots reported the aircraft performed well on the 40-minute flight at Italy-based AgustaWestland’s facilities in Yeovil, England. The flight occurred 30 months after the controversial contract was awarded (this will be the first Marine One that isn’t designed and built by a U.S. firm) and the company says it’s on track for on-time delivery of the first aircraft in late 2009. Although it’s a European design, the presidential helicopters are being developed with Lockheed Martin and will be assembled by Bell Helicopter in Texas. The VH-71s will have significantly better performance than the existing VH-3D and VH-60N aircraft currently in use. The VH-71 is based on AgustaWestland’s EH-101 tri-engine military and search and rescue helicopter. The program is being implemented in two stages, and in the second phase the helicopters will be outfitted with the gear needed to allow the president to exert command and control functions from the air. By 2014, the VH-71s will replace all 19 helicopters currently in the presidential fleet. Why so many? Marine One is usually accompanied by four other identical helicopters that change formation with the one occupied by the president to lessen the chance of his being attacked.