Mailboxes, birds, books, trees, Scouts, flowers, sunsets, moon, plants and reindeer. Oh, and cold, too. That's the mix that's been my world lately. Carol's been under the weather and that has shut down a lot of mini-adventures. Plus, and I can't emphasize this enough, it has been, chilly, Willy!! Mas frio, y'all! And all these have combined to curtail my adventures. Severely.
And so, with one small exception, it's been a whole lotta nothing lately. Going on walks to get some exercise; volunteering and doing the things that need to be done - like mowing the doggone lawn!! That sucker was supposed to have stopped growing by now!! I'm liking the idea of using a hand-pushed mower but I'm really hating the idea of mowing the lawn with a hand-pushed lawnmower. Yeah, I know, Shut UP, Jack!!
The one exception in the quiet existence lately? A new camera. Yeah, I know. I need another camera like Hillary needs another scandal but, y'know, there it is. Hahaha, regardless, the deed is done, the die is cast...I got another camera. It's a Nikon. I don't know if you noticed what it was from the picture below.
Yeah, I jumped ship and went with the other guy this time. Hey, it has a lens that goes from 24mm all the way out to 2000mm...in optical!!! Not digital. It goes even farther in digital!! That's some seriously heavy zoom, y'all.
Really, I was, I think, looking for a challenge. A new way of being able to look at the world. Of being able to sit waaaaaay back and getting that up close and personal picture of...a bird...a whatever!! And I am enjoying the challenge of learning this new camera.
Can you tell I'm loving this new camera!?! Looking forward to using it...soon.
But let's get back to all that other stuff. Because it's the minutiae that makes up the collective point of my being me. Woo, woo!! I'm getting all heavy and stuff!!
Haha, not really. I'm just using my cameras to capture some of the passing scenes I'm privy to; that I enjoy. And so let's get along on down the road...
And, mailboxes. I've just been seeing mailboxes lately. Course, as I wander around LCO trying to get me some exercise, I'm seeing a lot of them. And I've been trying to figure out how I could shoot them; do a picture essay on them.
And so I've been shooting them. I'm not at all pleased with my pictures. They're pedestrian, uninspired. and lack a focus. But I'm getting used to them and learning. So, yeah, you'll see several mailboxes. If you got any ideas that you think I can use, something other than "Stop it!!" Let me know.
Oh, hey!! I got me a high speed tripod, too. I am determined to force myself to use it and allow it to open up some new doors for me. Well, maybe not exactly new. Maybe I should say it will allow me to do better what I have been doing hand-held. Hahaha, you get the picture. Hopefully, so will I.
Hahahaha, in a previous post I predicted I would forget the name of this highly photogenic plant...and, sure enough, I did. This sucker lends itself easily to someone who likes patterns and tones.
I had to go back through the preceding blogs to find where I had written about it before to gets its name...it's a flax plant.
Duh!!
Mailboxes...also lines and patterns. And a doggone elusive quality that I can feel but I can't yet see...clearly. I am still trolling for suggestions on this theme so feel free to 'drop me a line.' (Oh, I'm so funny at times that I make myself LOL!!)
What can I say? It's a flower.
Veni, vidi, iaculantur
(I came, I saw, I shot)
Aaaah, those pestiferous, pesky, pestilential and plaguey European Starlings. To give you an idea of how reviled these birds are, they are one of only three birds not protected by the U.S. Government. The other two? The House Sparrow and the pigeon.
But they cut a dashing figure in their winter wear, don't they?
I've been enjoying my walks lately. And I'm learning to keep my eyes on the tops of the trees. who knows what you'll see way up there. Like this guy, a small hawk or kestrel, silhouetted on the top of a tree. In the city. In a city neighborhood.
Haha, it still gives me a kick. It's something I don't expect to see in a residential neighborhood.
But this is something that you see often...that doggone starling again.
I've enjoyed looking up as I walk around the 'Hood. Course, I must be careful as, sometimes, when I look up I fall over. Yeah, it happens.
So, lately, we've been volunteering one day a week at the Friends of the Driftwood Library (FODL). It's been fun and easy. It's really just a matter of shelving books and, well, I can do that along with the best of them.
The other day I was asked if I would shoot some pictures for a brochure the FODL wants to put out and so, of course, I said I would. But, inside, I was already having reservations. I'm no photographer and certainly not one that can shoot for a brochure but...to the Bat Cave, Robin!! I thought I'd give it a go and see what happens.
And so I brought in my camera and started whacking away at it. Here's Lu Ann in the back room sorting through some of the many, many books we have that are donated to the FODL. I was surprised by the volume (hahahahaha!!! I am sooooo funny!) of books donated. So many, in fact, that the FODL culls through all their titles and readily donate, in turn, their extras and non-sellers to the Goodwill. Boxes of them!!
Amazing how selfless people, like Lu Ann here, can do so much and not cost much of anything.
I was terribly disappointed by the quality of the pictures I got my first time out.
Lessons learned - Check your settings each time before you begin shooting. I had the camera set to vivid and, evidently, that doesn't translate well when you also set the camera to shoot under fluorescent lights.
Duh.
D'oh!!
Here's Bron, an Audubon friend. She was looking for books to add to her brand new bookcases they just had installed.
See the color? Too warm...bleached a bit.
Argh!!!
We have so many books we put them on carts that we sow throughout the library. This one is getting better color...I shot it with the flash.
But, back to Jack's Famous Bloopers, there was this. Lu Ann selling books. The price is right here. It's just a $1 for almost all the books. In some rare occasions they'll raise the price of a book to $2 or more.
I was on the right track, mostly, except for the color
Oh, I made a general announcement to everyone in the library that I was shooting and if they didn't want to have their picture taken to let me know.
No one did.
Hahaha, Bron was giving me that "I'll get even with you for this, Jack!!" Even though I was getting the stink-eye, I still shot her.
And, that was the best of the best. Just terrible. Seriously bad. But I resolved to do a better job and so I went home and broke out the 'Net and did some research. Didn't learn much more than I already knew but, however, I was able to solidify my approach and how I was going to take the pictures.
And then I got a new camera. Woo,woo!!
I didn't get anything for my birthday and so I thought I'd treat myself. It was on a total whim...I had gone to the ShutterBug Camera Store to buy a tripod which I felt I might need for the photo shoot for the brochure and...somehow or the other I walked out with a new camera. The one you met earlier in this screed.
And since it was just one day past the full moon and the sky was clear, I went out on the bluff and, hand-held, got this shot of the waning moon. Kinda cool, eh!?!
And then, the next day, while sitting in my big easy chair, I got this shot of a House Finch visiting our feeder. Really reaches out there and pulls it in.
Now my challenge is to learn how to affect the final image so it is as sharp and clear as it can be. Here's where the tripod comes in. Hahaha, who knows!?! Maybe I'll finally get a seriously good picture.
We've had some spectacular sunsets recently. Here's one that Carol caught with her trusty cell phone camera. Not bad, eh!?! Amazing what these little cameras can do.
Nicely done, Carol Anne!!
And, so, several days later, I tried my own hand at getting some sunsets with my new camera.
It was, truly, a golden sunset over the Pacific.
Not one to pass up the chance to have some fun, I challenged my kids to a contest to see which city has the best sunsets!! There's me in LCO and then there are kids in Redwood City, CA; Kent, WA; South Jordan, UT; El Paso, TX; Brooklyn, NY; Leonardtown, MD; and, finally, tiny little Rexburg, ID, where my Granddaughter, Alexis, is going to college.
Knowing that my family is not very competitive, I didn't expect many to take up the gauntlet. (Hahahahaha, what a lie!! In my family, Trivial Pursuit is a contact sport!!).
Here's my entry.
Here's Amy and Kristi's entry from the Redwood City Branch.
And here's Matt and Michelle's entry from Leonardtown, over on the other coast.
Well, now it's getting interesting.
The things you see when you look. And the things you see when you look down!! Like these. I was out a-walkin' early one morning when we'd had a slight freeze and saw this interesting arrangement.
It is an amazing show that Mother Nature puts on for us on a daily basis. The trick is, of course, to be smart enough to take the time and look around for it.
That's me on a walk nowadays....lookin' up and lookin' down.
And I'm liking these shapes when I shoot birds on a wire and then play around with the B&W, etc.
I know. It is static but there is something there that, like with the mailboxes, keeps drawing me back. And, hey, it's my blog so...
Unum et unum sunt duo...Suus' logica
(One plus one equals two....It's logical)
My corny way of saying I'm going to do it my way regardless of how painful it is for you, my loyal reader.
Light, flowers, time and mood. And point of view. I'm liking this, shooting from behind the flower. This is a side you seldom see.
There they are again!! Those rascally mailboxes. I'm in the ball park I think with where I want to go. It's the form, the structure.
It's something...
Another walk. When I'm out, I've made it a habit to stop by the Surftides Motel. It's the one with the 60s Space Age building for their indoor swimming pool. They take some considerable pride in the appearance of their business and take care to always have some decorative plants growing.
And I always try and take advantage of them...like today.
Hahaha, I love my little SX170 camera. It is my favorite for shooting flowers. It really focuses well and so I stand back a bit and zoom in for these kinds of pictures. The only real problem I have is holding the camera steady when I'm zoomed out like this.
Hmmmmmm, a tripod maybe!?!
And the camera does all the real work. And then there's the little things I can do with my iPhoto feature on the Mac.
Mostly I just crop.
I went to a class where the professional photographer made the statement that he rarely, if ever, crops his pictures!! Meaning, of course, that he crops in the viewfinder!!
Ouch!! That comment has bugged me ever since. I couldn't survive without cropping. I would say that I crop nearly 99% of the pictures I take. One reason is I'm partial to the panoramic effect I can get by cropping out unnecessary sky in the background or boring carpet or floors in the foreground. Another reason is because it just makes my pictures look better. More interesting.
Better.
Well, as 'better' as they're going to get coming from me.
Here's another example of the camera doing all the heavy lifting. Same flower but just different distances when the pictures was taken...and the light is different and the effect is different. And, yeah, I cropped a little here.
Never crops!! My sweet patootie!! Hahaha, I crop!! A lot!!
Like this picture. This was how I was seeing it in my mind before I took the picture. I just wanted to get the pattern of the fence and so I cropped like a son-of-a-gun!!
Hahaha, be quiet!! I like it!!
I've walked by this particular house maybe a dozen times...or more. Never have I seen this large piece of carved driftwood hanging on the front side of the house. But, there it was. I was able to stand out on the side of the street and zoom in (I love the zoom as much as I love the wide-angle...and the macro focusing!!) on it. Oh, and I cropped...a wee bit.
Life is about cropping I think. It'd be nice if I were good enough to always frame my life pictures in the viewfinder but, life, by its very nature, is chaotic and unorganized. And, thus, it needs some cropping. Maybe crop out some poison people over here or crop out an unfortunate situation over there.
We're constantly cropping, really. And, so, I have resolved to crop the heck out of my pictures to get where I want to be.
What's that homily? Change your attitude and you change your life!! Just so. That's what I do.
You saw in a previous blog where we got the Christmas Tree Lot set up. I was impressed and pleased that the boys did the lion's share of the physical labor in setting up the lot. The leaders gave guidance and the boys did the grunt work. As it should be.
And they've done well. I think it'd be safe to say the profits are already over the $2,000 mark after just four days of sales.
I was there the first day and then a day after. I'm going to commit to two days a week and then be on stand-by should they need an adult to keep the lot open.
The first Friday I was there I was treated to an unusual sight. There were scores of Canada Geese flying overhead in disorganized circles...like swallows, really. I have never seen this and I had thought the geese would not behave like this.
They swooped in loose circles and kept it up for a good half-hour. It appeared they settled on the beach side of the houses across from the lot. Strange behavior. I have always thought of geese just flying straight from one lake/pond to another.
One of the boys lopping off the base of the tree so they can keep it fresh.
It got muy frio that Friday. Very COLD!!
Hahaha, I was reluctantly letting the fire die down so we could safely close up the lot. That last hour was...uncomfortable.
This little sucker, when attended to by Scouts, will heat up the entire tent, and I know this sounds odd, to the point of being uncomfortably hot.
But when it was dying down...the cold quickly moved in.
These are the good folks that are volunteering their parking lot for the Scouts. Unfortunately, this is the last year for us at this lot. The Pirate Coffee Company has been asked to leave when their lease runs out at the end of December.
Bummer.
Here's two of the friendly folk that serve up the hot coffee. And, honestly, it's one of the better coffees I've purchased. Better than McDonald's, anyway.
Bob signing up for duty at the Lot. That's the Camp Kitchen, it holds all the cocoa and marshmallows etc.
You never need worry about a fire dying out when there are Scouts around. That bad boy will be well-tended...and always blazing.
The Canada Geese eventually settled down on the beach side of those houses in the background. The houses line a short bluff leading down to the beach.
Here's Rich with a couple Scouts. He's the entrepreneur responsible for all the reindeer. He dropped by the first day we were setting up and offered to let us sell his reindeer. The Scouts will get a $1 for each one they sell.
The neat thing is that Rich has agreed to be the Merit Badge Counselor for both the Woodworking and Wood Carving Merit Badges. Hahaha, that's just the start...I can see the possibility of getting him to share his expertise in several other areas.
They've sold several each day. Really, they sorta sell themselves.
Taking care of business.
Rich brought some slats and told the boys how to cut them to make tree stands with them.
The Mexican Market across the street. What!?! It's the pattern, the repetition of the windows. Cheez, you act like you've never read a blog of mine.
Oh, and heavily edited. Heavily.
Hahaha, OK, so I was bored. Put me in a situation where I'm just standing around and I've got me a camera and...you gets what you gets.
I was appreciating that smoke coming out of the chimney. Not only for its warmth but for the fallsy campfire smell, too.
Ka-Ching!!!
Taking care of business!!
And them Scouts gotta eat. I didn't catch his name, but the man who owns the J.S. Coin Store dropped by and gave the boys money to buy themselves some pizza.
Amazing!!
And tasty!!
Those House Finches are becoming regulars at Chez Cafe de Seagrove.
And the sparrows. Always the sparrows.
Trying to see them in a B&W setting. Something to explore, n'es pas?
Getting back into the Mini after a light lunch I saw these guys on the side of the parking lot.
And, sometimes, they don't even have to be blooming.
Alright, I was really frustrated with my first foray into shooting the brochure for the FODL. Licking my wounds, I hit the delete button, a lot!! Then I started surfing the 'Net to see what I could do to help me improve.
First, I checked the settings. That really helps (Uh, duh!!) a lot.
Here's my second effort. I still dislike the color but it is truer than the first time I tried to shoot this. And I approached it differently. The first time I had not made any effort to 'pose' the folks in the library. This go-around, I was a bit more deliberate and focused (Hahaha, I am on a roll!!) with my shooting.
I did a little, very little really, posing. But I did take more time in selecting what I would shoot and how.
They were all aware I was shooting but I sorta asked them to just go about their business. When I needed to I would make a small suggestion. It was fun how many folks got in on this and allowed me to get their picture. I simply asked each person, explaining what it was for, before I took a shot. Only one asked not to be photographed.
I'm still not happy with the color. Not at all.
This is what they wanted, shots of people using the FODL.
And some folks even struck a pose and held it for me until I got my shot.
This is one of the neat benefits of volunteering there. You get to see all the books on display and for sale.
What a cool book!!
This guy was enjoying himself so much he kept laughing out loud. I finally caught one picture out of the 3 or 4 I took where he wasn't laughing.
I coerced the other volunteers to come out for a picture. My thought was just a standard ol' "Look at the birdie" kinda picture.
Not with these rascals. The two in the back were all for smiling for the camera but the others all struck a pose for this picture.
I like it.
But I wanted the group photo and got this.
Hahaha, crazy people.
And there it is.
Today I was running an errand and heard over the radio, 1400 AM KBCH, an interview with the Chaplain of the local American Legion, Post #97. He mentioned that they would be holding their monthly meeting at the Chinook Winds Hotel at 1200 today and so I thought I'd drop by and get hooked up with these folks here.
I went to it...my very first meeting of any American Legion Post of which I've been a member. Hahaha, I've always had other excuses to avoid them before.
While at the meeting, one of the guys asked me where I had lived in LA. When I replied in El Monte and La Puente, he said he grew up in that area and knew those cities.
Turns out he graduated from Arroyo High School in '60. Hahaha, small world!!
It may be small but it's good.
Life is good.
Hooah!!
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