Monday, November 7, 2011

Oyster Festival

This is the Oyster Festival parking lot,
far, far away from the actual event.

This weekend was the Urbanna Oyster Festival.  Although I really just wanted to lie on the couch all day long and do nothing, I forced myself to go. And I'm glad I did.

As you can see, it was a beautiful day, not too cold, and not too hot.


This was taken from the bridge at Urbanna Creek.




Just when you think you can't walk any more, they bombard you with fried food.  The guys above are from Mathews; their oysters are farm raised and their french fries are the real deal. Very, very tasty, especially when sprinkled with Old Bay.   Click here for a video which features them showing how to shuck an oyster.




If I ever win the lottery, I want to spend my days dressed up as a dancing oyster--but not just any dancing oyster, this dancing oyster.  A dancing oyster with a tooth and a very festive attitude.  This guy is my favorite part of the Oyster Festival parade.  Last year I danced with him.  This year, I was more subdued.


There were all sorts of characters out and about.
All sorts.
I mean  all sorts.





When I posted these clown pictures on Facebook, I was reminded how many people find clowns rather creepy.  I find them to be hilarious.  In fact, if I won that lottery and couldn't be that dancing oyster character, I might like being a clown.  Except I'm not sure about all the talking I'd have to do to kids and perfect strangers.  So, I'd probably be an introverted clown. And introverted clowns really are creepy.

OK, so never mind on the whole clown thing; I'll stick to the dancing oyster character.  Dancing, snaggle toothed oysters don't have to talk. They just dance.  I can handle that.

And now we come to the end of this brief glimpse into a very troubled mind the Urbanna Oyster Festival.

All in all, it was a great day.

p.s. I have a camera question for those of you who know how to do more than just change the batteries, which is my level of expertise.  I only shoot in Auto mode.  I never manually adjust anything or change any of the settings, because I don't know how.  All of a sudden here lately I've noticed that most of the shots I take on Auto mode come out way darker than they should given the lighting situation. (For example, that last picture and the one of my favorite oyster character were taken in full, bright light, but came out dark.)  

When I press the button to shoot a picture, a message comes up that says Auto ISO - 80. A Google search  said that number should ordinarily be about 100 (or higher).  Why would it be defaulting to 80 even in bright light and how do I fix it?  Help!

Have a great week.

12 comments:

deborah said...

So glad you had a great time at the Oyster Festival - fun just to people /oyster watch there!
I only know how to change the batteries, so I won't be much help with your camera problem:/

Meg McCormick said...

Wish I could help you with the camera; I don't even know where mine IS. I think my son took it... OF looks like it was super fun, as always!

Jamie said...

No clue about the camera... I'm sorry I missed OF... again. I was busy hosting my dad's 60th surprise birthday party. I was cooking lots of German food.

Maria_NJ said...

ouch!!! 20US for parking, where do they think they are Jerzee???

the festival looked like fun, yes, clowns can sometimes be creepy...can you say John Wayne Gacy...ewwww....

sorry CBW can't help with the camera question either...

have a wonderful week...

growing wild on waverly lane said...

I share your desire to be somebody else. Crab, clown, oyster, whatever.

We should build on that and have a regular opportunity to masquerade as someone else, other than Halloween.

Be thinking.

Jamie said...

I agree with CBMumma... perhaps the next blogfest needs to have a masquerade of some kind, and require the wearing of silly hats at all times.

Daryl said...

Tell me the camera make/model and I''l tell you how to change the ISO .. oh and I agree with both CBMumma and Jamie

If we do this for BlogFest .. anyone who doesnt have a hat or costume gets depized (WV).

thomas said...

Love oysters Rockefeller and I'm sure they have great ones. However, their sign is not spelled correctly, Rockefeller not Rockafeller. Maybe on purpose?

Sooska said...

what kind of camera do you have? do you still have the instruction book?

your ISO should typically be 100 or 400 under most ordinary conditions. 80 is generally for very bright conditions, or where there is a lot of glare from water, etc. ISO 100 is generally a good setting for most outdoor conditions. ISO 400 is for lower light conditions. Most cameras on AUTO take an average of the light the sensors receive from all sources.
You can test your camera by a rather easy method of "bracketing" your shots. Do a test by focusing on different areas of the same framed photo. First, aim at the water or sky. Then aim at the trees on the shoreline, orsome other darker spot. You should notice a difference in the values of your photos. Then aim at a middle value or between the brightest and darkest areas and see what it will look like. It is easy way to bracket and test if you aren't familiar with manual settings. Bracketing typically involves changing the f-stop.

I'd read your manual and see what buttons may have been pressed that may have changed a setting. It shoudl tell you the default settings for the AUTO feature. Other than that, maybe something happened to the camera.

Chesapeake Bay Woman said...

Yep, I think we do need to have a non-Halloween reason to escape via a costume...maybe Blog Fest would be a great opportunity for a masquerade or at a minimum a silly hat party. (Practically every gathering I have is a silly hat party, so this would hardly be something new.)

Regarding the camera, Daryl, thanks, but I think I've temporarily fixed it. Sooska - thanks for that info. I have figured out how to set it to the high setting on Auto, so we'll see how that goes. I am starting to wonder if something's wrong overall, though. It's burning through batteries way quicker than it should, and sometimes I get a lens error. If something happens to that camera, I don't know what I'll do. But that's a worry for another day...

Thomas-I noticed that too and thought it was funny.

Thanks to everyone for commenting. Happy Monday.

Country Girl said...

Looks like the camera problem resolved itself. In bright light, I shoot at 100 ISO (on the P setting) and adjust my white balance to bright sunlight. I use up to 1200 ISO inside, however. Yes, I think something is up with your camera. It shouldn't be eating up the battery power like that, either. Damn.

judi/Gmj said...

Oh yum.. that is so over said, but damn, I truly am drooling.