Some night shots of Mini Dee

Well I finally got to take the new camera out for a test spin for some night shots. Most were just experimental shots to test the functions and features of the camera so most I trashed on the spot. Being night shots, the challenge was to have the shutter speed be very slow to allow the limited light expose the picts. The problem was staying still for longer that a second and not having wall the picts come out blurry. Here are a couple of the better ones, using the full manual settings on the camera for the best output. I realized that the flash was not adequate to full light up the car so I usually just turned the flash off for all night shots and let the shutter stay open to get the right exposure.

In hind sight to control the light burst of the xenon headlights, I probably should have just had the daytime running lights on instead. The xenons seemed to be a little overpowering. I will try that next time. At the time these picts were shot, I was already pretty dark outside, so its surprising how bright the sky developed.

I hope to get some more general lighting conditions a little later

DanC

Mini Dee's Battle Scar

Post deleted due to privacy issues. Sorry.

A big milestone

As of about 15 minutes, it has been exactly one year since katie (my first offical girlfriend) and I officially started going out. Although the exact date we started hanging out is unknown(i think we started taking breaks together in december2003), one year ago today was the day we first kissed and assumed the roles of a couple. I still can't believe she hasn't gotten bored with me yet. I'm sure I will give her a proper introduction later, but she is currently away at school, studying hard I'm sure.

happy one year, katie
DanC

Just bought my first digital camera!

In an effort to hopefully maintain this blog on a semi regular basis, I have went ahead and bought my very first didgital camera. This Kodak dx7440 should prove a useful little camera to take picts with. I'm no expert but for the price it will serve its need quite well. So far, having taken just one picture, I would say that it is extremely easy to use and with my mac it is very easy to download. I will certainly express any opinions of the general use after i get a few more miles out of it.

And I have been meaning to take my own picts of Mini Dee for the longest time now. The one previously posted here was a pict my girlfriend took that i had to ask for. Here's to many more oppertunities for take more picts... but i should read through the manual first to make the most of it.

DanC

an introduction of sorts

I just wanted to introduce everyone to mini dee. She was born in mid march and I took delivery in mid april of this year. So far she's been great. Its the first year (2005) that Cooper S were offered with an automatic tranny with paddle shifters on the steering wheel. Hope you like her. She says hi!
DanC

birth of dcmini blog

Today marks the birth of dcmini. Hi all! My name is Dan Contreras. I plan on trying to keep this as current as possible but everyone knows that this could eat up a great deal of time. So I won't kid myself, I won't try to follow a daily entry, or even a weekly one. I will try to enter something when i have something relevant to say, and probably mini cooper related...

so here we go... post one done

enjoy
DanC