I said bird "feeder" not "bird" feeder. I need to be careful in how Iemphasize My words.  When I put out my bird feeder in the back yard the idea was to feed the birds bird seed.  Apparently this young Osprey (I think) has decided that I meant "bird" feeder and the bird feeder was meant to feed him.  He has taken several small birds from my backyard.  This is the first time I have seen one up close and personal.  He is maybe 15 feet from my window.  He lives high atop a power pole about 1.2 mile from my house in Glenwood on the Honeybee Golf Course.  He seriously needs to join his buddies in going south for the winter (see the last picture).

http://www.geneallen.com Come and see ALL the Homes for Sale in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, as well as the rest of Hampton Roads. This site is updated daily with new real estate listings, pictures and other information vital to your home search.

I was reading a Debi Boucher blog on boekeh and wanted to see if I gotz boekeh.  I have a bridge camera, the Panasonic DMC FZ 18 which gives me a lot of manual control but I usually go auto.  I took my camera on my walk with me this morning and went to my favorite canal in Glenwood.  It just happened to have the only blooming flower I had seen in days.  The first picture is at f8 and you can see the flower is in focus and the background is at a soft focus.

I took the second picture at f 3.6 and the flower is in focus but you can't see anything of the background.  I think the first picture has the boekeh if I have the definition correct.

http://www.geneallen.com Come and see ALL the Homes for Sale in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, as well as the rest of Hampton Roads. This site is updated daily with new real estate listings, pictures and other information vital to your home search.

I usually don't do protraits and hardly ever inside however my wife said her dad was coming down and we needed a portrait of our granddaughter for him.  The granddaughter was here so I said ok.  It was raining and not much good light inside so I brought out the onboad flash, to flat and to much shadow.  So I took out a slave flash and put it on the floor.  Same thing.  My wife was sitting next to me and so was the halloween candy dish.  I told her to empty it out and put it over the slave flash.  I put an old clear film canister over the onboard flash and hoped for the best.  The picture was perfect.  The camera compensated for all the different light sources to make quite a nice portrait.  I will show you later the final product.

http://www.geneallen.com Come and see ALL the Homes for Sale in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, as well as the rest of Hampton Roads. This site is updated daily with new real estate listings, pictures and other information vital to your home search.

The Homebuyer Tax Credit has extended and expanded for Virginia Beach residents.  It has been extended to include current homeowners.  The following are features of the new bill:

•·Deadline for current credit is November 30, 2009.

•·Deadline for new and improved credit is April 30, 2010, as long as the home is under contract by that date; deal must close within 60 days.

•·Eligibility and amount of new credit:

•-$8,000 for first-time homebuyers (those who have not owned a home in the last three years).

•-Up to $6,500 credit for homeowners who have lived in the home they are selling, or have sold, as a

principal residence for five consecutive years in the past eight.

 •·Buyers with income exceeding $125,000 for single and $225,000 for married couples are not eligible. 

•·Homes valued at more than $800,000 are also ineligible.

The pool of eligible buyers will increase and the program will be in place through the first half of 2010. 

IF YOU THOUGHT THAT WINTER TIME WAS A SLOW TIME OF YEAR TO LIST YOUR HOME YOU MAY BE IN THE WRONG BALLPARK THIS YEAR.  IF YOU ARE ON THE FENCE ABOUT LISTING YOUR HOME AND HAVING IT SOLD, NOW IS THE TIME TO GET OFF THE FENCE AND GIVE ME A CALL!!!  DON'T LET THE BUYERS BUY YOUR NEIGHBORS HOUSE. 

  http://www.geneallen.com Come and see ALL the Homes for Sale in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, as well as the rest of Hampton Roads. This site is updated daily with new real estate listings, pictures and other information vital to your home search.

The Homebuyer Tax Credit has extended and expanded for Suffolk residents.  It has been extended to include current homeowners.  The following are features of the new bill:

•·Deadline for current credit is November 30, 2009.

•·Deadline for new and improved credit is April 30, 2010, as long as the home is under contract by that date; deal must close within 60 days.

•·Eligibility and amount of new credit:

•-$8,000 for first-time homebuyers (those who have not owned a home in the last three years).

•-Up to $6,500 credit for homeowners who have lived in the home they are selling, or have sold, as a

principal residence for five consecutive years in the past eight.

•·Buyers with income exceeding $125,000 for single and $225,000 for married couples are not eligible. 

•·Homes valued at more than $800,000 are also ineligible.

The pool of eligible buyers will increase and the program will be in place through the first half of 2010.  This is a very positive event for home buying and the Real Estate industry!

http://www.geneallen.com Come and see ALL the Homes for Sale in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, as well as the rest of Hampton Roads. This site is updated daily with new real estate listings, pictures and other information vital to your home search.

The Homebuyer Tax Credit has extended and expanded for Chesapeake residents.  It has been extended to include current homeowners.  The following are features of the new bill:

•·Deadline for current credit is November 30, 2009.

•·Deadline for new and improved credit is April 30, 2010, as long as the home is under contract by that date; deal must close within 60 days.

•·Eligibility and amount of new credit:

•-$8,000 for first-time homebuyers (those who have not owned a home in the last three years).

•-Up to $6,500 credit for homeowners who have lived in the home they are selling, or have sold, as a

principal residence for five consecutive years in the past eight.

•·Buyers with income exceeding $125,000 for single and $225,000 for married couples are not eligible. 

•·Homes valued at more than $800,000 are also ineligible.

The pool of eligible buyers will increase and the program will be in place through the first half of 2010.  This is a very positive event for home buying and the Real Estate industry!

http://www.geneallen.com Come and see ALL the Homes for Sale in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, as well as the rest of Hampton Roads. This site is updated daily with new real estate listings, pictures and other information vital to your home search.

The Homebuyer Tax Credit has extended and expanded for Portsmouth residents.  It has been extended to include current homeowners.  The following are features of the new bill:

•·Deadline for current credit is November 30, 2009.

•·Deadline for new and improved credit is April 30, 2010, as long as the home is under contract by that date; deal must close within 60 days.

•·Eligibility and amount of new credit:

•-$8,000 for first-time homebuyers (those who have not owned a home in the last three years).

•-Up to $6,500 credit for homeowners who have lived in the home they are selling, or have sold, as a

principal residence for five consecutive years in the past eight.

•·Buyers with income exceeding $125,000 for single and $225,000 for married couples are not eligible. 

•·Homes valued at more than $800,000 are also ineligible.

The pool of eligible buyers will increase and the program will be in place through the first half of 2010.  This is a very positive event for home buying and the Real Estate industry!

http://www.geneallen.com Come and see ALL the Homes for Sale in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, as well as the rest of Hampton Roads. This site is updated daily with new real estate listings, pictures and other information vital to your home search.

Its' a camera and a projector in one.  Billed to be the first camera with a built in projector, the Nikon Coolpix S1000pj is a technical wonder.  Its' a 12 MB with an ISO rating of 80-6400 and a lens that goes from 28mm to 140mm.  The technology comes from the projector.  Put the camera on a stand, aim it at a white surface no more then two feet away and there you go.  Sharing your pictures or VIDEO with your clients.  When you are done, put it in your pocket and away you go.

Think of the possibilties.  You could put your presentation on there and play it or pictures of homes you have listed, there are unlimited uses for this camera in real estate. 

http://www.geneallen.com Come and see ALL the Homes for Sale in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, as well as the rest of Hampton Roads. This site is updated daily with new real estate listings, pictures and other information vital to your home search.

Its' a camera and a projector in one.  Billed to be the first camera with a built in projector, the Nikon Coolpix S1000pj is a technical wonder.  Its' a 12 MB with an ISO rating of 80-6400 and a lens that goes from 28mm to 140mm.  The technology comes from the projector.  Put the camera on a stand, aim it at a white surface no more then two feet away and there you go.  Sharing your pictures or VIDEO with your clients.  When you are done, put it in your pocket and away you go.

Think of the possibilties.  You could put your presentation on there and play it or pictures of homes you have listed, there are unlimited uses for this camera in real estate. 

http://www.geneallen.com Come and see ALL the Homes for Sale in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, as well as the rest of Hampton Roads. This site is updated daily with new real estate listings, pictures and other information vital to your home search.

The Virginia Beach School districts maintenance division will soon break wind.  They are building a new facility on Harper's Road that will feature four wind turbines.  This will be a $20 million dollar 84,000 sq ft facility that will house the offices of the transportation personnel and buses.  The facility will be called the Pupil Transportation Facility.

In addition to the wind turbines, the building will be naturally lighted and cooled, have a geotherma/solar heating and a grass covered roof.  In addition to all the new green stuff, there will be updated and modern equipment for the maintenance personal. 

http://www.geneallen.com Come and see ALL the Homes for Sale in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, as well as the rest of Hampton Roads. This site is updated daily with new real estate listings, pictures and other information vital to your home search.