Coyote Hills, California

A stunning drive adorned with flowers on both sides, swamps with ducks and other birds, hills with walks lined with fennel and other herbs and the slopes dotted with flowers and the occasional squirrel. With a view to the bay from the top, Coyote hills is a picnicker's paradise. It is a short drive from Fremont, CA that you should not miss.

The hills are also frequented by radio-controlled airplane enthusiasts as it provides clear vistas unhindered by trees or other obstructions. If you are a tired urban-dweller looking for a nice quiet place to spend an afternoon without the guilt of a wallet-busting high-calorie experience, this is your perfect poison.

Photographic opportunities are aplenty with stunning views on all sides and lots of flowers and other interesting details for the macro enthusiast. The place has got a rich history too - the oldest settlement in the park running back 2400 years!

With so much of vegetation and changes in weather, you can bet that the scene changes every now and then. This is one of those evergreen places that you want to go again and again. Lazing around cannot be more fulfilling.

We had a fantastic picnic the end of last winter. The kids had a blast collecting wild flowers and trying to spot squirrels. My son was interested in the RC planes and kept following a few of them all the time. There were quite a few families having a great time just walking and soaking up the sun.

Take plenty of water when you visit the place. Burning a few calories cannot be more blissful.

Fiddling with a cheap point-and-shoot

The quest for the ultimate tool to capture lasting and haunting images is an unending journey. Living in Doha is a blessing when it comes to the amount of time one has available that can be spent in the pursuit of different hobbies, granted the hobbies are practicable within the limitations of this small country. The souqs of Doha is where the soul of this city resides, particularly Souq Waqif - more on that in a later post. Today I want to write about a cheap Agfa digital point-and-shoot and a Vivitar from a bygone era.

One of my frequent haunts is a lesser-known discount store called 'Al Mushiri'. This is the only place in Qatar where you can buy good Swiss cutlery by Wenger as well as the new GXR camera systems from Ricoh. They also sell some obsolete Minolta stuff at throwaway prices. When I saw the collection of old Minolta manual SLR lenses and the cheap point-and-shoot cameras, I got an idea to rip one of these cameras and replace the cheap plastic lens with a real SLR lens - my own ultra-cheap SLR. At the price these were sold, experimenting was well within budget. I spent $25 for the equipment.

The above photo is that of my son. This image was shot with an Agfa Sensor 505 with the lens replaced with a Vivitar 50mm F/2. The adaptation involved a weekend spent modeling a plastic tube to hold the lens at the right distance from the sensor and muffling it with a dark cloth to prevent light leak.

The lens is absolutely fantastic. Very soft in nature with good bokeh or background blur. The plastic lens of the camera had a IR filter. I was unable to get an IR filter to fit the Vivitar lens - it probably wouldn't have been work the cost anyway. So the image has a slight red cast, which I thought adds to the retro effect.

After a while, the lens adapter promptly broke. One of these days I am planning to rip the Agfa completely and use the innards to build a hand-made one.

Cheers.