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We have about 10 trucks at the shop where I work. 1 Ford and the rest are Chevys. The Ford is a 95, the oldest of the fleet. We work them pretty hard. I work at a steel fabricating shop and we haul some pretty heavy stuff all over Northwestern Ontario. I did have a problem with the 95 Ford once. I had a flat tire. Sorry, but I can't hold back any longer. GM is crap. There is constantly issues with them. Build quality is terrible. On half of the Chevs you need a screw driver or a crow bar to open the tail gate. The heater fans on most of them squeal like a cat that's been left for dead on the side of the road. That is if you can turn the heater on. The knobs are stripped on a few of them. There's a couple of broken plastic door handles. It's always nice entering the truck from the passenger side. Last month my partner and I had to drive about 800 km's in -50 temps in a 2004 GM. I was driving. He was freezing in the passenger seat and I was sweating in the drivers seat. I mentioned this to the boss when we got back and he said that his 3 month old GM does that too. Nice!!! I can go on and on. I do a lot of work at a mine north of here. I talked to one one the mechanics up there a while back. He's a Chevy freak, but admits that the Fords on the mine site kick the crap out of the Chevys. And you can bet that they're worked pretty hard up there. So, if you want a nice pretty truck to drive around town with, a Chev will do. If you want a truck to do some work, buy a Ford. I have no opinion on Dodge as I haven't even been in one as far as I can remember. I drive a 96 Ford F-150 4x4. It hasn't been in the shop for anything in years. Turn the key and it starts. Put in in drive and away I go...

Davis and Mepps. I'm using a Sony H1. But the new Sony H9 has me excited. My H1 is less than a year old, but it might be time for an upgrade.

Nauti, if you aren't ready to step up to a DSLR, check this out. Digitals are getting very close to DSLR's. The specs on this camera are amazing. CLICK HERE

Those shots remind me of my first attempts back in the same time era Cliff. But I was using a 2.4 mp Fuji back then. I don't think people realize how difficult it is to photograph the moon. You really have to take control of your camera and make it do what you want it to do, rather than letting the camera decide what's best.

You are absolutely right Brian. Shutter priority would have been a better choice considering the circumstances. But my both my aperture and shutter speed settings are controlled by the same dial. And it would only work intermittently at best last night. Since there are only 10 aperture settings compared to 46 shutter speed settings, I thought that I might have more luck changing a small range of aperture settings rather than a large range of shutter speed settings, if in fact I could change anything at all. I really would have liked to use full manual of course. Maybe next time. I think that there's another lunar eclipse in August. My camera shouldn't freeze up then. Here's a moon shot that I took last summer when I first bought my camera shooting full manual.

The conditions were just perfect here for viewing the eclipse last night. There wasn't a cloud in the sky all day. And the bonus was that from Thunder Bay, you'd be watching the eclipse over Lake Superior. Sis and I headed out about an hour and a half before the scheduled 6:40 pm start time to get a few sunset shots of the area that we chose to view the event. It was only a 5 minute drive from home. 4 or 5 inches of fresh snow on Friday sweetened the anticipation. Here's a few shots taken while the sun was still up and/or setting. The sun was now fully set. But where was the moon? It was well past the local 6:40 pm local starting time. We were puzzled to say the least. It wasn't until a few minutes after 7 that we could finally see it. By this time the total eclipse was over and we only noticed it because of a small thin crescent that was now lit up by the sun. It was still an awesome sight. The shaded part was a coppery, brownish orange color. Time to get to work with the camera. Big problems now. I guess that my camera had been out in the cold too long and I was unable to make critical adjustments such as shutter speed and aperture settings. The camera just wouldn't respond. So I was forced to take my shots in a semi automatic mode. Aperture priority for you camera guys. This setting overexposed my shots much more than I would have liked. Anyways, here's about the best that I got. Finally, here's a shot that Sis got showing the moon over the "Sleeping Giant", a local landmark that is a symbol of Thunder Bay.

Awesome report Andrew. Looks like you had a fun day.

You guys are too kind. It was only a for fun contest that takes place monthly on my photography forum. I only posted my result because it was a fishing photo. Thanks again guys. Anyways, some of you wanted to see the winning photo for the month. So, here it is. Remember, it isn't a fishing site. It's a great photo.

I did get some shots off tonight Joey. But nothing spectacular as far as I know. I went out about an hour before the eclipse was supposed to start and took a bunch of photos while the sun was setting. I got some nice shots then. When the moon finally appeared, my camera wouldn't function properly. I couldn't make any manual adjustments. I was forced to use settings that I wasn't comfortable with. I guess that it was exposed to the cold for too long. It was darn cold here with the wind chill. I might have a couple of decent shots. I'll do some post processing in the morning and post my results.

Oasis is awesome. I watch it daily.

Hey, thanks everyone. I guess what makes this special for me is the fact that the good people at this particular web site have a passion for photography and their pictures are showing their other hobbies. For me, fishing is my passion and the photography is my hobby. There are some very good photographers that belong to this site. It's kinda like an OFC for photography.

LOL Roy. Actually the moon is very difficult to photograph. The high contrast between the moon itself and the black background make for a difficult shoot. But it will still be somewhat light here when the eclipse takes place. And I don't expect the moon to be as bright as it normally is when it is lit up by the sun. So I'm being optimistic here. The entire event only lasts 20 minutes. I'll be off in an hour or so.

Nice and clear here today. I'll be out with the camera starting at 6:40 tonight, attempting to photograph the moon over Lake Superior. Wish me luck..

It was just for fun, but I was thrilled to get second place in a photo contest hosted by a photography web site that I frequent. The theme was "Other Hobbies". So I entered a photo that I took last fall when Spiel and TEP were here. In the photo are TEP, Sis and my friend Joe out for an early morning troll. It's nice to be recognized by your peers. Here's the original. And the award that I won.

More HERE

What a great gift. Thanks to all the donaters and to the guys that did the leg work.

I know what you're saying Cliff. Borders can be a hand full and are most happy when working. I have two of them and I live in a typical urban household. I have a fenced back yard where the dogs can do whatever they want. But they are very adaptable. My two year old (who is the aunt of the new pup ) will not stay outdoors without us. She's basically a house dog and she became that way with no special training. She doesn't run around the house like she's on steroids. She sleeps a lot. Our oldest will stay outside practically all day long. She lays around. She barks to the dog down the street. She chases the odd bird out of the yard. And she loves children. Our friends three year old son loves coming to visit Sarah. They have a riot in the yard. He can lay right on top of her with all of his weight and Sarah won't bat an eye. Like any dog, Borders have instincts. They are also very trainable. Training must start at a young age. Sis raised her family with Borders around her children from the time they were born until they left the nest. Never had a problem with any of her numerous dogs around the kids. Also, my friend that is taking the dog has owned a Border before when he was a young child. That's why he wants another one. We'll see how it goes I suppose. And no Wayne. Both eyes are brown. It's just the red, I mean green eye from the camera flash.

Well it seems that a good friend of mine has taken a liking to Sis and I's Border Collies. He keeps hinting that he wants one, and Sis keeps on insisting that she'll get him one. The other day she phoned to tell him that she has located one in Fort Frances and she'd drive there to pick it up for him if he wanted it. After a brief chat with his wife, he agreed to take it. Sis made the trek to Fort Frances and back today and came home with an adorable 11 week old female. She's a pure bred, but without papers. She will spend the night with us and I'll surprise him with it tomorrow (he doesn't know that Sis picked her up already) when I make my weekly stop at my friends body shop for some Nascar talk and a few pops. My buddy has 4 young children that will be thrilled with her. Here's a couple of shots that I just took of her. And Sis just finished giving her a quick bath.

Never been there Lew. Thanks for the hands on look.

Some nice work there Rippinlips. I hope that the story has a happy ending. I'm also a big fan of Raptors. They are such beautiful animals. Here's a close up of a Red Tail that I took last summer at our local zoo.

LOL Doug... Good stuff. My list includes Nibsey Russell and Tony Bennett, as well as many world class athletes when I used to attend our local sports celebrity dinner. Some names that come to mind are Dave Winfield, Pat Gillick and Dave Stewart of Blue Jays fame, Gordie Howe, Dan Fouts, Jake Lamota, Brent Musberger, Doug and Darren Flutie, Dennis Hull.... and many many more. I attended for about 15 years and they had 3 top level athletes per year, so you can imagine. Once in the early 90's I ran into a table of Blue Jays in a restaurant in Minneapolis. They included Garth Orge, Gillick, Rance Mullinicks and Tom Henke. I had a brief chat with them at their table. This was right after a Twins/Jays game that I attended. I also partied with Brian Adams several times. He used to play here quite often before he became really big and he took a liking to my circle of friends and used to hang out with us after the bar closed.

Sis and I were out with the cameras trying out some new filters this morning. Then I watched the race. I kicked butt in the OFC fantasy racing pool and I won $300.00 in my local pool today. That's why I wasn't around. T'was a nice day.

Wonderful!!

Better hurry. They're going fast.

A minor problem here too. It seems that I have to log in twice many times. If my computer has been left on, I only have to log in once, but when I reboot, I have to log in two times before I'm officially logged in. Not a big deal, but since we're on the subject...