Life in the Bristolwood

 These are pictures I took as I drove to Vine Valley on Monday evening. Mark thinks this first photo looks “eerie”, but to me, I thought it speaks volumes of the Majesty of God and the beauty of His creation! When I was a youngster, my mom told me that when the sun streaks down through the clouds like it does in this picture, it is God gathering up souls to Heaven.

I did say that the road leading to Vine Valley was rather winding….

Ya think? (might be better rephrased “deadly end”!)

I really liked the way this one turned out of two fishermen on the lake…

I parked the truck near a garage that had a For Sale sign in front of it.  This was along the road and perched up high above the lake. I really like the way the pines and the boat trailer (in the foreground) add just a little “rustic” feel to this photo.

This little community doesn’t have stores or anything like that, but it is just such a pretty little place to visit….almost magical!

Last evening, the kids went to the youth group that they have been attending lately.  I dropped them off and then decided to remain in the area instead of running to Canandaigua.  Mark stayed home, as he had been out earlier in the day and needed to rest a little.

I decided since no one was with me to distract me or whine about my activities, I would try out a little comparison.

I drove three more miles to the little community called Vine Valley.  Vine Valley is nestled into a valley (of course) with a long road that snakes its way back and forth. The scenery is beautiful, particularly this time of the year when grass seems almost to emit an unnatural green “glow”. I must admit that it was hard to drive along this quiet country road as I wanted to stop every few feet and photograph everything!

The first two photos are taken of the welcome sign:

And the next two photos are of the beautiful and picturesque little Vine Valley Church.

I am going to allow you to take a look at these photos and give me your guess as to which photos were taken with the Nikon D-SLR (D-80) and which were taken with the (less than $300) Panasonic DMC-TZ5.  The photos were taken one after the other and I tried to keep them as close as I could to one another.

I must admit that I am pretty happy with the performance of the little point-and-shoot camera that is much less weighty than the heavier Nikon. Believe me, the Panasonic will not dismiss my Nikon, as I love that camera so much, but I can think of many applications where the Panasonic will certainly allow me the freedom to take some photos where the heavy camera bag of the Nikon would be prohibitive.