My last blog was back on April 7th. It has been a while and I figured since I don't really have any specific adventures to report on I'd just run a whole bunch of pictures together and comment on them in my witty and urbane way.
Since I have three cameras and they get stacked together so that, alphabetically, the shots taken with the Nikon P900 come first as they are labeled "DSCN" and then by the number. Next up are the Canon pictures. They come labeled as "IMG" and then their number. The deal here is that their numbers are not in sequence so pictures taken with one camera might be identified as "IMG.3244" and then other camera (I have two Canons...the SX60 and the SX520) would be "IMG.1478" and so, even though the second one was taken a month or two later than the first, it would be shown first.
All that was to say these pictures aren't in order. Mea culpa. I'm too lazy to put them in sequence and so here's my solution. Throw'em all in and let the audience (Hahahahahahaha, that was funny!!) figure it all out. Works for me!!
And so here we start, with me trying to learn something about the cameras I have. I understand them in the same way I understand cars. I put the key in, turn the ignition on, engage the gears, take the emergency brake off, apply slight pressure to the gas pedal, hope for the best and, Viola!! I am driving. That's the extent of my knowledge of automobile mechanics. My use of my cameras is pretty much the same operation. I turn the camera on, aim the lens, push gently on the shutter release and hope for the best and, Viola!! I have a picture!!
Trying to learn something, how to use the Nikon, I discovered how to set it to the B&W Mode. And I shot up around the immediate area of where I was, the easy chair. This was one of the results and I liked it. Just a random arrangement and probably too dark but it was interesting to me. A picture, as it were, of my casual and private life. The overshoes from the van were waiting to go back. The umbrellas hanging at the ready. Lots of jackets to wear. The new Scout Banner rolled up and waiting to get to the Troop. A casual life...certainly not one to impress anyone with.
Hahaha, patterns, shapes, lines, shades (hahaha, I got it!) and simplicity.
I deliberately took this shot of the shades in my front room. I thought it would be interesting in B&W and, yeah, for me, I was right. Interesting composition. I don't know if it would be better if I made it more contrasty, but I started...I am getting back into B&W and I'm looking forward to the challenge.
I've got soooooo many pictures of the Ospreys here in LCO. This guy is from the ball field and his family is the one I usually shoot cuz they're so easy to get to. I'm all about easy.
There's another set over by the Dollar Tree; a pair in the parking lot at the Mall and another on one of the light poles at the high school football field. But I usually shoot the ball park ospreys. Like this guy.
Boom, back to the Nikon!! A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I learned how to take a panoramic shot with the Nikon. Hooah!!
Course, today, on my walk, I couldn't remember how to do it but I'll check the manual again and someday I might be able to remember it.
Here's my living room shooting from the front door and going almost all the way around.
Here's the same place just started shooting a bit further to the left. The bins are Cub Scout stuff. Carol and I inventoried it for the Charter Organization. Now I gotta find a place other than my place to store them.
Leaving early, Carol noted I'd left the lawn chairs out overnight. she suggested this shot. Banks of clouds and my perch.
I discovered what happens if someone walks towards you while you're shooting a panorama. Little snippets of Carol as she was walking in the direction I was panning. Interesting point is when I mentioned it, she turned to her right, our left, and walked out of the way. Just turning like that, she disappeared from the scene. I'd already shot to the left and was panning right.
See!! I'm learned lots and lots.
Here's the shot I was going for sans Carol walking through it. The Food Court at the Farmer's Market over at the Culture Center.
It's just a bunch of free-wheeling entrepreneurs, as eclectic and esoteric as the goods they offer. Nothing that you need but they're there every weekend.
This is gonna be HUGE for LCO.
The town is gearing up for the mass of humanity expected for the Eclipse on August 21, 2017. They're even selling children's books about it!!
I've got four pair of glasses for the Eclipse. I'm set.
For Father's Day, Amy and Michelle got me this One-Of-A-Kind T-Shirt. It has all the names that I am variously known as.
Getting artsy-fartsy with the Nikon. Shooting in that B&W mode and trying to catch (create) some of the moodiness of the afternoon with a slight fog rolling in.
Bottom line, I'm having some fun and getting outside when I pick up a camera.
And I am seeing things. I'm getting to look at the world around me. First I take in the big picture, the scenic, then I start zeroing in, looking for the 'pictures within the picture'.
Then I decide, aim, shoot and see what happens.
But I do see. I do participate in what's happening around me. And, yeah, as odd and dull as it might be, I get to express myself. I guess, for want of a better term, you could say I am expressing my art. I don't know. I just know that I enjoy it.
And sometimes, sometimes I get that 'Happy Accident' and it is really fun.
Part of the balcony at the Dorchester House.
Moving to the right, I saw the chairs. Their color sets off everything else.
The deal was, Carol was taking fencing classes on the tennis court behind where she lives. I went along because I had nothing else to do and I had my camera. I got some pictures of her fencing and I got some time to wander around and see what I could see.
And this is it.
This fellow, Jim, teaches fencing at Willamette U. He and his wife keep a place at the Dorchester House year-round because his wife has severe allergies and living the the Valley during the Summer is dangerous for her. They spend the Summer months along the coast where she can feel comfortable.
To while the time away, he offered to teach fencing to the residents and Laurel and Carol took him up on it.
He's really patient and making a sincere effort to teach fencing to the girls.
And they're having a good time with lotsa laughing as they try to master the techniques and movements at their age. Hahahaha, it's not as easy as it once was.
I still have a thing for daisies, well, for flowers in general but I do particularly like them daisies. I must have been 25-30 feet away when I got this shot. I deliberately chose to step back and use the zoom because I wanted the background to be totally out of focus. This Nikon doesn't have an aperture big enough to really throw the background out of focus when shooting with a 'normal' lens so I improvised. Hahaha, I did learn something after 40+ years of shooting.
I really like the way my Canon SX60 and my Nikon P900 can reach out and grab a long shot with clarity. Like this one. This little white-crowned sparrow was around 75 feet away. I propped my arm up on the fence to steady the camera and reached out with the long lens of the Canon.
Pow!!
It's not a beauty but it is fun to 'get' this little speck on the outfield fence. Oh, I was down at the ball park checking in on the Ospreys that live there. This little sucker was a semi-Happy Accident.
I went for a walk on a rare sunny day along the East Devils Lake Road. There's an open valley with some wet lowlands that the road runs through. When it really rains parts of this road are covered with water that's how low it is.
There are loads of tall trees on the edges of the lowland and as I was walking along I saw a bunch of tree swallows flitting around between the trees and the telephone lines. I followed them and caught these two in a rare moment of inactivity. They aren't the most cooperative of subjects.
Look up!! Look down!! You never know what you're going to find. Again, love these zoom lenses. I'd never have been able to get close enough for a picture like this with a normal lens...ain't happening.
But I caught Evinrude and he's looking pretty dapper.
These two Mallard's have been visiting my bird feeders since the middle of May. Most every day they'll stop by to feed in the grass around the feeders. I've taken to deliberately spreading some feed out on the ground just for them.
Unfortunately, I haven't seen them the last two days. Well, it was fun for the month they were here. I enjoyed watching people walking by on Jetty stopping and pointing out the ducks to their kids. Hopefully they'll be back.
A Barn Swallow.
We'd stopped by to drop something off at Bob's place and this brassy looker was busy getting some mud for his nest. He was pretty much unconcerned with us.
And he stayed around long enough for me to use my lightening-quick reflexes and whip out the camera for a shot...about 20-25 seconds.
Slices of life.
Using the long lens, I was able to compress this picture and move the foreground subjects 'closer' to the background house. Hahaha, love me some long lenses.
An everyday scene here in LCO. People renting vacation homes walking down to the beach access for their day at the beach. Regardless of how cold it is they will...Go. To. The. Damn. Beach.
And they'll bring Fido with them.
I am so privileged to live here. This place, while a real city, has so much nature wrapped up in it. Carol and I have seen hawks hunting while we were sitting on the couch. Sitting on the same couch, we saw whale spouts. Deer feed at my bird feeders. Flickers, blue jays and hummingbirds. Like this guy. Hahaha, keen fun.
Drive in either direction and you're in the forest. Walk out the door and watch the waves come in and go out again. It's all here. We may not have a Walmart here nor a Carl's Jr but we've got so much else to entertain us.
Here we go again. I have a thing for shooting flax. It's cool.
There's one plant just around the corner on 33rd that I always shoot. Seriously, they can be very good.
Like this one. I try to get them in the afternoon when they're backlit by the sun. It adds another dimension to the pics.
And lately I've been 'seeing' grass. Again with the lines, angles, patterns and shades. All the usual suspects.
I've got to admit that modern life is something else. Here I am totally retired and just fooling around and taking a couple pictures here and there. I know I have my gripes but, seriously, this is pretty doggone good.
Unlike my pictures. I will get a good B&W picture. I will.
And I'll keep on trying. I saw this house number and thought it might be interesting. Can you see where I also found the lines, patterns and shades here? There's something here...I just haven't found it yet.
There's not too many places or ways to walk around LCO. Mind you, the City stretches for about 7 miles north to south. From west (the ocean) to east it may reach in a little less than a mile. In this stretch, we have around 8,000 permanent residents. It's not a large town.
I say that to remind you that when I go for a walk I usually go over the same ground again and again. Take this pig. Hahaha, I enjoy seeing him in his little esoteric garden on the side of a house. There's all kinds of things stuffed into this little 20x20 foot garden. My favorite is the pig. He's just a colorful and pleasant sight to see and so I stop by often.
When the sun's out, I try to get a shot with some light. He's a happy pig. And you'll see him again, later. Small town, I told you that.
Found these tulips wandering around the 'Hood. I do like me some tulips. The long neck with the burst of color at the end. They're cool.
Speaking of cool, here's my poor ol', beat-up Mini. It's been whacked in the back; smacked in the front and I've been responsible for a new left front fender.
And, yet, it keeps on a-tickin'. It runs like a charm and is as smooth and easy to ride as it was when I got it first some ten years ago last May. There are times I'd like to get a new ride but then I don't know that it would be as reliable as this one.
Plus, today, I filled it up. I got 10.3 gallons and drove 264 miles. That's some pretty awesome gas milage there, Buckos!! Pretty damn awesome!!
Some back-lit grass. I'm gonna get something out of these someday.
I wonder how it'd look blown up to a 20x36" picture. Something to hang on the wall. Maybe.
You see one and then, Bam, a couple days later you see another. I saw the tulips from the picture above and then was surprised to see these tulips a couple days later. I haven't seen tulips in several years and then, Bam, they're seemingly everywhere.
This was a nice composition.
I've talked about it before, how carrying a camera around helps me to 'see' where I am. Looking at the world, I can get myopic. The camera and its possibilities helps me, forces me, to see more. I look at the big scene and begin to evaluate it and then I look through it for the little pictures hidden here or there within it.
So one time I 'see' the whole pig and all the flowers...everything. Another time, same pig, I see just a part of it. From the large to the small. Seeing the whole picture and then finding the little parts of it that could be a picture on its own.
I just noticed the large orange flowers in the previous picture are gone and the two, small, piglets have arrived. Hahaha, the people that live there do some crazy things with their little treasure.
I also noted this late afternoon sun doesn't bring out the yellow as much. Or maybe I have two different cameras. Something washed the color out in this second pic. Hmmmmmmm...
Hahaha, there are times when I hate Black & White Photography. I want to get those rich shades they got back in the 40s and 50s. The deep blacks and the crisp whites.
And I get this motley grey.
Ugh.
But I'll keep on keeping on. Plus it is fun.
I was walking along The 101 and got this shot of all the stupid traffic on it. And it is gonna get so MUCH worse in the Summer time. I can't even imagine how bad it will be for the Eclipse.
It'll be...ridiculous!!
Getting there. No theme, just the tones randomly placed through the picture.
For the past six months at least, I've deliberately stayed away from flowers. I was feeling like that's all I ever did. Plus, it's so ridiculously easy...point, shoot. Point, shoot. Repeat to your heart's content. Seriously, I said this in one of my albums but it really is "like shooting nerds in a barrel."
It was becoming too doggone easy. Course, when you've got some great subjects, it ain't hard to get a good pic. For me there was very little thought going into them and I was feeling stale taking them again and again.
Plus it was winter and they weren't readily abundant.
But, lately, I've found that as they begin blooming around the town I am, once again, drawn to them. Same easiness but still I enjoy seeing them and capturing them. I just don't put all the ones I get onto my FaceBook albums. I realize people are easily tired by my pictures and don't want to bore them so they automatically pass over everything I post.
I can be a bit of a bore, you know.
But I'm back, much like the reluctant Spring, I'm back in little bits and pieces. I don't feel the enthusiasm I once did while picturing flowers. I am flatter and it shows in the pictures I'm taking.
There's still a lot there but I am not too successful in finding it. Course, I could actually put some effort into these attempts but, well, that would require, you know, work.
And the Hansen Gardens are still the primary source of flowers. Those and the ones down in front of the Surf Tides.
And some MORE backlit flax. Seriously, I think I might try and get one of these blown up.
It's just me. That's it. No other family or close friends (excluding Carol) for me to share with. So imagine my surprise when the coffee maker went belly up. What the...!?! I only used it two or three times a day.
Still, it isn't working. I tried to descale it. I looked for someone way to clean it so the water would flow again but, nothing. In the older days, I might take it to a repair shop...I can remember those being spotted around, especially for vacuum cleaners.
Not today. Now if it doesn't work then, Pow!! Off to the trash can it goes.
We've become so...wasteful.
But I am one of those...as soon as I decided that I wouldn't be able to make coffee in the old Keurig, I headed off to the Mall to buy a new one.
And I did. Hahaha, I'm enjoying my morning coffee way too much these days.
But I got it and it works and all is good in my little world once again. A life constricted.
Whup!! Here's some flowers from the Surf Tides. See what I mean? Just a point and shoot and let the camera do the work.
But these are a kick, aren't they? They're cool. If you want to know the divinity of The Lord you only need to look at the flowers.
Simply amazing.
In a life like mine, with little to commend it, you grab your chances for celebration, for rejoicing wherever you can. And I do.
Here I am celebrating several things. Thing #1 - the sky is blue and the day is relatively mild. After a particularly harsh (harsh in the sense that each day was the same endless row of grey skies, rain, temps in the low 40s) winter, a touch of blue was an absolute treat.
Plus
Thing #2 - I got a new Hoodie. The big deal is that this one has broken tradition with all my other Hoodies - which are unrelentingly blue, blue, blue (see picture above of me drinking coffee). Just blue. All Navy Blue.
But not this time!! This time I gots me a 'GREY' Hoodie.
I know, living life on the wild side, eh!?!
I am too coolio, yo!!
A little songbird. This fine fellow was perched on a fence catching some rays. I caught his image. Again, lovin' the zoom.
Playing with the B&W again, this time with the Nikon and I shot the front door. Just an interesting composure of blacks, grey and some white.
I do want to do B&W. I should only work in B&W for a week. See what happens. Something to consider.
Two of my kids, Michelle and Amy, got together and had this shirt made for me. It lists all the names I am called at family reunions.
Hahaha, it works for me!! I answer to all of them.
I got this picture published in The News Guard, the local newspaper.
They have a community section and, like Fox News used to do in Seattle, they run pictures from local photographers or picture-takers like me.
(Note the grey sky making up the background for this picture. It's been a long, long,
disturbingly long winter. Too damn long.)
The ball park Ospreys.
One of the drawbacks of the feeders and spreading seed around them on the grass are these greedy little beggars. They, and their evil spawn, spend most of the day scratching around under the feeders and, when the pickings are slim, they'll fly to the wooden feeder and try to tip it over to get the rest of the seed.
Feathered rats.
Carol remarked one day that the only hot dogs she liked were baseball ball park hot dogs.
The power of suggestion. Bam, in a karmic coup de grace, a package for two tickets to the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes magically appeared in a GroupOn e-mail I received.
Pow!! I jumped on it like a Valued Homeless guy on a five-dollar bill.
And so we found ourselves motoring to Keizer for the season opener against the Tri-City Dust Devils here at Volcanoes Stadium.
The Volcanoes are a short-season Class A farm team for the San Francisco Giants. It wasn't a bad looking stadium for this level.
With our package, two tickets, two caps and a $10 coupon for a local restaurant, we got the seats in the grandstands, aka "The Cheap Seats".
Who cares!?! Seriously, there is not a bad seat in this whole house. Not a one.
Here the team is getting ready to be introduced and then open with the National Anthem. You can see the Air Feces ROTC there on the right side.
And Carol and I with our nifty new Volcanoes caps.
Looking very good.
It was a great game and the Volcanoes won!!
Until they got to the 8th inning. Then the Dust Devils '(no relation to the tiny vacuum cleaners) bats came to life and they scored 8 runs and then added a couple more in the 9th to win 10-4.
What the...!?!
Well, life goes on, O-Bla-Di, O-Bla-Dah.
We still had the caps AND we got two pair of glasses with which to watch the upcoming eclipse with. That's a definite winner right there.
No adventure to chronicle here. Nothing but the ordinary and mostly mundane life of a unremarkable old man. A life told in pictures? But not pictures of him but of the 'pictures' he sees around him.
Well, more B&W is coming up. You've been warned.
Hahahaha, as if you could do anything about it.
Ciao, Bambino.
