Saturday, January 16, 2010 - Bosque Birdwatchers RV Park, San Antonio NM
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Bosque Dawn, San Antonio NM, January 16, 2010
This darned camera
This darned camera I'm using, a nice little Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28K 10MP Digital Camera with 18x zoom is frustrating me. It's a pretty good camera for what it is designed for but I see now I'm trying to work outside it's design envelope. Dawn and dusk are magical times in New Mexico. The landscape and wildlife come to life early and late in the day and I'm having a hard time capturing the magic with this camera. I spent the greater part of the day today trying to get control of the camera so I can get better pictures of birds on the wing. Granted my technique lacks a lot but I'm finding the controls hard to, well uh, ..control. Plus I'm realizing the small sensor in these little cameras just can't gather enough photons fast enough to get a useable image of birds in flight in these low light situations. I'm going to have to give up trying or get better equipment. This little hobby could get expensive if I'm not careful. gotta go - I hear cranes calling....
Night camp
Site 16 - Bosque Bird Watcher's RV Park, San Antonio NM
- This is a basic, small Mom & Pop RV Park with full hookups.
- Verizon cell phone and Broadband service are available here with a strong signal.
- Locate Bosque Bird Watcher's RV Park on my Night Camps map
- Click for Google street view
- Check the weather in San Antonio NM
Disaster and the Failure of Authority
Disasters are almost by definition about the failure of authority, in part because the powers that be are supposed to protect us from them, in part also because the thousand dispersed needs of a disaster overwhelm even the best governments, and because the government version of governing often arrives at the point of a gun. But the authorities don't usually fail so spectacularly. Failure at this level requires sustained effort. The deepening of the divide between the haves and have nots, the stripping away of social services, the defunding of the infrastructure, mean that this disaster—not of weather but of policy—has been more or less what was intended to happen, if not so starkly in plain sight.
The Uses of Disaster Rebecca Solnit, Harpers.org, September 9, 2005