Vladimir Nabokov once wrote that literature and butterflies are two of the sweetest passions in life, and I am inclined to agree. There are few things that I enjoy capturing quite as much as the bright colors and patterns of a butterfly.
Taken with the E-P5, as I was regrettably without my Nikon and macro lens. From the Butterflies and Blooms feature at the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco.
Several months ago, a mysterious cat began visiting our yard, much to Molly’s dismay. We were initially worried the cat might have escaped from a nearby house, but its collar and pudgy belly suggested otherwise.
We’ve seen the cat (who we affectionately call Voldemort) traipsing along our fence on a near-nightly basis since then and we’ve also seen it (I call it she, John calls it he) around other areas of the apartment building. Voldemort has become a regular part of the backyard wildlife, which also includes squirrels, a family of raccoons, and a skunk.
Last night was business as usual, or so we thought. We heard Voldemort outside but when we peeked out the window, we were in for a major surprise…
Suddenly, there were two identical silver bengal cats walking along the fence. WHAT.
Apparently, someone in the neighborhood has two lovely cats that roam the wilderness of Sunnyvale and despite seeing them separately dozens of times, we had never seen them together to know that there were multiples.
Mind blown.
I received my Olympus E-P5 last week, and coming from a Nikon D7000, I had no idea how to setup a lot of the functions, namely the WiFi connection that would allow my camera to connect to my iPhone. Since I couldn’t find decent instructions online (the manual is woefully lacking) I thought I’d write up a quick tutorial in case anyone else has issues connecting the E-P5 to an iPhone.
1. Download the Olympus Image Share app from the App Store. It is universal and can be installed on an iPhone or an iPad.
2. Turn on the camera. Tap the WiFi button on the top left of the screen or navigate to Menu –> PlayBack Menu –> Connection to Smartphone. Either of these options will bring up a screen with a QR code that says “Private Connection.”
3. Open the Olympus Image Share app on the iPhone. Tap the small camera icon on the bottom and choose “Easy Setup.” On this screen, tap scan.
4. Hold the phone’s camera to the QR code on the screen of the E-P5. The phone needs to be fairly close to the screen to read the code (approximately 1.5 inches), and it will take a few seconds for it to register.
5. After scanning the code, the iPhone will display a screen that shows the SSID and the password from the camera. At this point, tap Install, which will open the settings menu of your phone. Tap Install again and then Install Now to install the WiFi profile.
6. Once the profile has been installed, the Olympus Image Share app will be reopened automatically. Exit out of the app by pressing the home screen and go back to the settings menu.
7. Go to the top menu of Settings and select WiFi, which will allow a WiFi network to be selected. Choose the E-P5 network and connect to it.
8. Make sure the E-P5 is still in the private connection mode with the QR code displayed. There should be a green WiFi icon with a “1” next to it in the upper left corner of the display, which indicates a connection.
9. At this point, go back to the Olympus Image Share app, which should now display a blue camera icon at the bottom, which means the camera is connected to the iPhone. From this point, geotagging information can be added, the remote control function can be accessed, and images can be uploaded from the camera to the phone.
10. When the camera is turned off or WiFi mode is exited, your phone will automatically end the connection. To reconnect, turn on the camera and tap the WiFi button. The QR code screen will come up, but it does not need to be scanned in again. From here on only step 7 needs to be repeated. Go to the Settings app, access WiFi, and reselect the EP-5 network each time photos need to be uploaded from the camera to the phone.
John and I are always looking for fun things to do on the weekends since I’m cooped up at home for work during the week, so I was super excited when one of his friends gave us the fantastic idea to go berry picking.
There are a few pick-your-own fruit places in the bay area, but we decided on one that’s somewhere in between Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay. It advertised ollalieberries, which are a complicated cross between various combinations of raspberries and blackberries. I managed to get carsick on top of already being sick (forgot the ginger and it’s 1.5 hours along a windy road) but berry picking was a unique (hot, sweaty, dusty, fun) experience.
We picked $3.00 worth of ollalieberries and blackberries, which ended up being maybe 1.5 pints worth? Plenty for us. I wanted some tayberries too, but we didn’t end up finding them. I’m not sure why, but there were hardly any signs to direct people where to go, which thoroughly irritated my inner organizational freak.
We also stopped by to pick strawberries, but since they aren’t quite in season we just checked out the field and then bought some.
Afterwards we went to downtown Santa Cruz, and I’m not going to lie, that was easily my favorite part of the day. Shade! Shops! Food! Ice cream! We drove by an amazing beach filled with kite surfers along the way, which made me homesick for San Diego. Visiting the beach doesn’t seem like much of a thing in the bay area, so I’m a huge fan of Santa Cruz.
Sometimes the pictures that the iPhone takes amaze me. I didn’t have my big camera so I only had my phone, and while I got some decent pictures, I’m definitely taking a better camera next time. It really was that blue.
Animal Crossing is one of my favorite games of all time. I’ve played every version that’s existed, and when I heard about New Leaf, I had to get a Nintendo 3DS XL just for the occasion. There’s no other game that can draw me in quite like Animal Crossing, thanks to its adorable design and persistent but ever-changing game world.
That 3DS XL has been one of my best purchases, as I am now thoroughly addicted to New Leaf. I’ll always love the older versions of Animal Crossing, but New Leaf adds so many new elements that it is by far the best version yet. The cuteness is off the charts!
Sitting on benches is one of the adorable new things villagers will do.
I love some of the random conversations. I want a giant misshapen pancake too, Lobo.
Here’s my candy house:
And a small tour. I’ve always collected the fruit items in Animal Crossing. New Leaf has old favorites plus a lot of new items.
The polka-dot room:
The pink fairy tale room:
Not pictured are a pink and purple room and a mermaid room. I maxed out the Happy Home Academy at 150,000 points and then moved on to the Fairytale theme challenge, which I also finished with 1.1 million points. Unfortunately the only reward for finishing all of the Happy Home Academy goals is a pure gold house exterior. I’ll stick with candy.
Starbucks run? Yes, takeout coffee has invaded Animal Crossing too.
A few more shots of my town. And outfit changes. The outfits in New Leaf are amazing, with the addition of dresses, socks, shoes, skirts, shorts, and pants.
Fishing in a ballerina outfit, just one of the many activities you can take part in.
The best part is that I’ve only seen a portion of what’s available, as new experiences and items are unlocked all year long. <3 Animal Crossing!
