There is a bad moon rising...for a Total Eclipse of the Sun.
August 21, 2017, the day the sun was blocked, completely, by the moon. And for one minute and fifty-six seconds starting at 10:16 a.m., the earth, well that spot where we were at, grew dark. Day became night and we all collectively drew in our breaths and held it and then slowly exhaled at the majesty. The utter enormity of it all.
But we'll get to that in a minute. For now, let's explore Lincoln City, Oregon (or, as I say it - LCO) for a bit and the way I see it.
And I continue my love affair with the elusive, seductive and terrible bitch, Black and White. She calls me and I respond. I try and try but she teases me...letting me just get the hint of success and then leaving me flat.
Like this shot.
I was walking and saw this man a hundred, hundred and fifty yards behind me on 34th. I set the camera and swung around for a quick shot. The solitary figure on an empty street. I could see something in my head...maybe just the idea and not the picture...the theme.
There it is - as unartfully rendered as I am capable of. But you can see the crux of my picture, the unsolved question that it is.
My mind is working and I 'see' it but I can't convey it to others enough to move them. To cause them to feel/think/react to the picture.
The lonely road; the darkened houses; the anonymous figure striding along. I saw what I was looking for but I realize others may not be able to discern my visions.
Hahahaha, but I try.
And when I stray from my love affair with B&W, I usually go to patterns, shapes, forms, colors...the simple artistry in everyday life.
I get closer to what is floating along in my mind with these simple subjects. A lot closer than I do with that damn B&W.
I do, I do get a certain satisfaction from these. I enjoy being able to see them and barely capture them.
I'm looking forward to when I shoot these with the tripod.
I've taken to walking out on the bluff with a cup of coffee and my camera in the morning. Idle shooting. It's cathartic in a fashion, idle shooting. Just see, point and shoot. The simplest form of photography and one I enjoy tremendously. One of the foggy mornings we've had lately. Shooting east towards Jetty.
Carol and I went over to Taft High to help the new Music/Band Teacher (and our Scoutmaster) organize his classroom. In my life, I tend toward the "If you ain't early, you're late" school of time-keeping and so we were there with maybe 15 minutes to kill before Mike and Rebecca showed up.
I suggested we walk on over to the Spyglass Ridge Open Space and, as is my wont, I had a camera with me as we walked. To be specific, I had the Nikon P900. Since I didn't expect to see anything and we'd be gone for a short period of time, I neglected to bring the tripod with me.
Another one of the bitches that love to mark my life with unnecessary challenges, tribulations and obstacles is Karma. I say this to lead into my next shoot.
We walk over and as we near the opening to the Open Space, Carol spots a young Osprey on a branch fairly high up in a tree wonderfully posed with little to distract from him in the picture. It's a blooming setup, Mate!!
And I have no tripod...and the lens needs to reach out there, really reach out there to catch this beautiful bird. Ah, Karma, you truly are a heartless bitch. Nothing to do but shoot him hand-held.
Hand-held used to be the norm for me in every situation. But I'm getting better at shooting with a tripod; well, I should say, at using the tripod. But right now, at this instant, a tripod ain't happening and so I went with hand-held and hoped for the best.
And it almost worked. On some of the pictures they are subtly out-of-focus and a lost cause. On others, I was lucky.
You decide...
He was getting ready to fly. I could see this. He would be taking wing soon and I was hoping to catch some of it. I backed off him a bit to give me room to catch him and follow him. and I did for three or four frames. All blurred...all trash. All Crap.
But for a minute or so, I had a great opportunity. Honestly, I was afraid to move to a different angle or location because I worried as soon as I started, he would take off and the magic moment would be gone.
We did help to get things ready for the kids; did our share of moving files, desks and stands around to get the two rooms, the Band Room and the Choir Room organized enough for him so he felt comfortable and in enough control to start work this coming week.
We are fortunate to have four nesting sites for ospreys in LCO. The first, moving from south to north, is at Taft High on a light pole around the football field. The next one is on a light pole in the Mall parking lot. The third is on a light pole at Kirtsis Park and the fourth, and final one, is on a communication tower near the Grocery Outlet Store.
We spotted this osprey having dinner on a light pole across the field from the nest at the football field.
I talked a bit earlier about my attraction to the lines, shapes and patterns of simple things. This is the result of merging that with my love of the B&W Medium.
I was very pleasantly surprised by the whole picture. It really worked, hahaha, at least for me. This took a small bit of nudging with iPhoto, especially with the 'film noir' feature. I seriously like this picture. Finally.
My daughter, Michelle, has a love for lighthouses. Oh, she doesn't collect tchotchkes. No, she likes to visit, go see, lighthouses.
So, now, when I am out and about and see a lighthouse wherever it is represented, I think of her and her fun with them. And, sometimes, I even get a picture of whatever it is that brought her to mind.
Like this small porch flag. I saw it fluttering off the porch of one of the nearby homes and grabbed a backlit shot of it and sent it to Michelle. It's nice to be reminded of her and semi-fun to be on the look-out for 'lighthouse tchotchkes' around the neighborhood.
And Carol has been eager to get herself her own kite. She and a couple of women from the Dorchester House have taken to driving to D River State Park and flying their kites. Carol has borrowed my Sting Ray kite but wanted her own.
And so, on one of our walks, she finally found the 'Shark' kite she'd been wanting.
Now when she goes out with the girls, she can bring her shark with her for some fun. Remember, after all, LCO is THE Kite-Flying Capital of the World.
The easiest form of entertaining ourselves is to go for walks. After a while, the Ol' Neighborhood gets rather boring and so sometimes we head out from the Dorchester House and head downtown. And sometimes we even stop to eat along the way.
Like here. We stopped at The Grill, the restaurant that replaced Punky's downtown. I'm surprised, as I think about it now, that I didn't get any 'environment' shots. You know, the shots of the interior and exterior of the store or restaurant. The ones that give you a feel for where we were at.
At any rate, I didn't. Odd. Regardless, this new place specializes in Hot Dogs and so I got an urge to try one and...here we were.
Carol got herself an order of Fish 'N Chips.
They didn't look particularly inspiring to me but she said they were tasty, fresh, real and not soggy. All the components of a successful dish for her.
As for me, well, I had a Kraut Dog. It's there, honest!! It's just buried, literally, by all the relish. (Lesson Learned!! Specify HOW much relish I actually want on my Dogs!)
It was good enough and I felt I'd gotten my money's worth with the dog but I will definitely go with the bacon-wrapped dog next time...the House Specialty. The fries were good but I'm not a fan of large, chunky fries.
And I haven't been a big fan of taking a lot of pictures of flowers lately. I think I've done it too many times and it seems almost a given for me...and I do hate to be tiring and trite. I've been staying away from flowers for a bit.
But I had the little camera, my trusty Canon PowerShot SX170, the one I've had for nearly 9 years now. I had it while strolling around the 'Hood and came upon these. Mind you, I have drifted away from taking pictures of flowers but I still usually stop and admire them whenever I see them while walking.
At any rate, I took a few shots. These were particularly striking flowers...at the height of their beauty.
I took, really, a few desultory shots. You know the kind where I just sorta point and shoot. I even remember just holding the camera down at knee-level so I didn't have to bend or squat for a shot.
I could 'see' the pictures I wanted in my mind but wasn't making much of an effort to get them.
And, doggone it, when I got back there were several that I liked. That had, to me, some merit.
And this really irritates me!!
You see, I have become so sure of myself that whenever I shot flowers I'd get some good shots I'd gotten arrogant about it. I just assumed I'd strike some small portion of gold regardless of where, what and, most importantly, how I shot the flowers that I felt I was becoming a bit of a cliche. And I really resented the idea of that happening so I had, for a long while now, backed off taking flower pictures.
Then, to my chagrin, I took these and really liked the muted pastels; the dream-like quality of them: the gentleness of the colors and I hadn't even tried. (I think I'm afraid that if I really try, if I really work at taking quality pictures of the flowers the pictures will be boring and banal and I'll find that I'm no good.)
It's a pisser, I tell you. Afraid to really try and still tempted by the results of my half-ass shots. I wonder, I really do, how I got to this point.
Ah, well, c'est la vie.
And so that brings us to...The 2017 Solar Eclipse.
Oh, yeah!! The big day. Bottom line, I wasn't expecting much...it was just a natural event and everyone was making a big to-do about nothing.
But I was impressed, moved, awed, struck and gladdened by what I saw. It was fun. It was way more than I expected. It was also worth the effort. And, finally, I wish I had approached it with a bit more...expectations? I didn't really do anything to prepare other than get a pair of solar glasses and go outside. I missed an opportunity.
But I did think to make a kind of photo-journal of the day. As I am prone to do lately, I woke up early. I thought, "What the heck!?! Might as well go out and get an early morning
I was shooting hand-held and I knew the images would be less than optimum but, what the heck. It was that kinda day. And the streets, they were empty. I had expected, at least on this day, the day of the Solar Eclipse, to see more traffic as folks arrived early to stake out a good place to see the Eclipse. But, if anything, the streets were emptier than on a normal holiday.
A couple hours later I went out to see what the weather was shaping up...it didn't look promising.
And, in the spirit of the day (you know, kind of a screw-off sorta day), I took this picture celebrating how empty the streets were.
It was fun and so I decided to try it a second time with...
...FLASH!
Hahaha, was I confused when I first saw this!! My first thought was, "It wasn't snowing!!"
Then I figured it out. I had shot the second shot with a flash and the light had reflected off the moisture in the air and, ta-da!! It looked like it was snowing.
But it does give you an idea how heavy the fog was on this ONE day of the year when it would of been nice if the sun shined just a bit that morning.
You can see, somewhat, the front of my groovy Eclipse T-Shirt and here's the back. The reason I bought it. It lists just about every city along the path of totality. See which one is the first? Yeah, that's right!! Little Ol' Lincoln City.
Woo, Hoo!! From LCO across the Nation to Charleston, South Carolina, the Path of Totality!!
But as the sun got a bit higher in the sky, a bit near to its rendezvous with the Moon, the fog burned off and the day held promise. It looked like, at least to this Old Soldier, that it might be a pretty good day for viewing a Solar Eclipse.
Folks were gathering along the beach in anticipation to being among the select few who would be the first in the Nation to see, to experience, the 2017 Solar Eclipse.
Like every other person in LCO, I had over-prepared for THE BIG EVENT.
I'd bought a hundred feet of yellow rope so I could rope off the front of the house. I really rasseled with myself over this. You see, from all the hype and the fury preceding THE BIG EVENT, everyone believed we'd be swamped with people and cars. And, I think we can all admit, a lot of people bring a lot of asshats, jerks, SOBs and other assorted riff-raft.
Thought it'd be OK if someone parked in front of my place and then I thought about how there are folks who take advantage of the situation and, well, I just didn't want to deal with any of that BS. I've had people come to the door asking to use my rest room, use my water, and, on one occasion, I even had a guy walk in the front door. I finally figured I'd just keep it simple and say no.
So I set the trash cans out very early and then late Sunday afternoon I strung the rope across. I even bought a 'No Parking' sign...you can see it on the lower right side of this picture. Hahaha, I meant business. I totally expected the streets to be swamped with traffic and cars parked here, there and everywhere.
You can see from the pictures that the build-up hardly matched THE BIG DAY. The street was empty.
There were a few, though. Most of those were heading for the beach for THE BIG EVENT.
And we had some friends, the Raines' from Lincoln Beach, come up. Their part of the coast was still socked in so they headed up our way to experience the Solar Eclipse with their kids.
It was fun to have folks visit and I had plenty of room on the bluff.
Carol had come over early for breakfast and then to help me keep people out of the yard. Yeah, right. Nothing worked out the way most folks expected it to.
Here are Carol, April Fox and Hannah Raines and their kids. The day was looking pretty nice right about then. But sneak a look behind everybody...out there on the ocean. See the fog bank? Keep your eye on that.
Because it kept on a-coming. It was like a creepy Stephen King movie...the fog came on slowly, swallowing up all our hopes and dreams in its misty misery.
And no matter how much we cursed it, pleaded with it or cajoled it, it kept on a-coming.
And pretty soon it was moving through the neighborhood.
It made the sun a misty blur in the sky.
And the folks on the beach began to leave presumably for greener pastures where they'd be able to get a clear view of the eclipse.
Like rats leaving a sinking ship, the people cleared off the beach pretty quick.
Once the folks started moving they all pretty much cleared out within minutes.
Leaving just a hardy few including Carol and I.
The Raines' picked up stakes and headed to Plan C over by Devils Lake Rd.
The fog came in and the people went out.
I had honestly thought that the fog would burn off in time for the eclipse. I wuz wrong.
I had read and taken to heart all the warnings and admonitions about taking pictures of the sun. I had determined that I wouldn't risk damaging any of my cameras and so I didn't bother trying to do anything fancy with them. I snuck one shot of the sun through the layers of fog and got this picture.
The Moon was just about eclipsing the entire sun but from this picture you can't even tell the Moon is there.
The day began to darken...
And it moved slow enough that I was able to stand and gawk as much as I wanted and still be able to get an occasional shot of what was going on around me.
Some of the few, the very few, that stayed on the beach for THE BIG EVENT.
And then it happened!! Total totality!!
It was way cool!!
And I was able to take off my solar glasses and just look at it. Oh, yeah, the fog dulled the edges somewhat but I was still able to see the eclipse.
And then I realized, I could safely take pictures of the eclipse!!
DUH!!
Honestly, why hadn't I thought of this before!?! I had just assumed I wouldn't take any pics and I wasn't ready. So I shot these few hand-held. Oh, mind you, I stood and looked and just enjoyed the heck out of it but I did, because it was nearly two minutes long, have time to enjoy and snap off a few shots.
None of them any good.
Hahaha, but I got the general idea.
I should have had the camera on the tripod and already to shoot but I didn't think it through.
But, you know, I enjoyed the whole thing without worrying about the pictures.
The happy result of a long exposure and movement on my part. Kind of looks like it's streaking through the sky.
And then it was over.
It took just the merest edge of the sun, a scant sliver, to lighten up the day.
And the process was reversed. The moon kept on tracking from top right to lower left and we saw everything we'd already seen just in reverse.
And I'd pretty much filled my cup looking as it approached totality. I wasn't too interested in seeing the sun slowly emerge from behind the moon.
But it had been cool beans while it was happening.
Unbelievable.
And, doggone it, this was the scene of the crime later that day. Long after the fact the sun was bright in the sky, the fog banks were off over the ocean and the skies were clear.
WTH!!
Bad timing.
And, to continue my whining and griping, this week has been nothing but clear skies and nice weather. Bad timing, indeed.
I was walking back from the Dorchester House along 101 and happened to glance down 28th Street and saw the shadows and shapes running along the street.
I know this picture misses but there are some elements there that are intriguing. The thing is, even though it missed, I 'saw' it. I saw a picture possibility. That's a big deal for me. It's one of my themes, an almost B&W picture with small patterns. It fits; it's mine.
The deal is, as always, to get the mind's picture down so that others might be able to see it, too.
And this. I was interested in this...it looks like the bird is casting a shadow but that can't be. Maybe my cropping is off but there is something there. Once again, like the picture above, it is to get the mind's picture in a place where others can see it.
But this was interesting, N'est-ce pas.
And, here we go again.
I haven't shot any good 'road' pictures in quite a while. And I didn't break my streak with this one. But there was something there.
I'm still playing with the road theme. The idea of the road stretching off into the distance...from the known into the unknown, grips me. Maybe it's an "End of the road," thing. Maybe it's the possibilities. Maybe it's the perception that all roads must lead, have to lead, somewhere. Some final destination. I haven't figured it out yet but I do know I appreciate the artistry of the paved road reaching out towards infinity.
And in this one, and I admit I didn't see it until I was 'playing' with the picture in iPhoto, I was struck by the two opposites posed against each other. The dark side, there on the left...and the light side, on the right. I rendered this in B&W and was immediately struck by the contrasts working at each other.
Hahaha, well, I see it. It fit my mood which has been pretty devoid of greys this past while. Sometimes the world is, really, just Black and White. We all have our dark sides which pull and push against our light. Lately, for me, dark has been winning. Oh, I don't mean evil. No, honestly, dark just means the side of you you don't like. The side of you you try and keep hidden from the world. The sad, lonely, angry, disappointed, regretful, ugly side.
I think we all have them...it's a matter of admitting and recognizing them. Maybe that's the process of life.
Anyway, I saw this picture. I saw the choices you have in life and my first thought was, "You choose which side of the street you'll live on." And as I thought about it, I realized there was nothing there, in that road, to keep me from going from one side to the other.
I'm sure there's more here but that was what I grappled with when I saw it.
And, BAM!!
Pollyanna is back and I realize on either side of the street, depending on how much light you provide, you can find these.
Hahaha, I haven't messed with flowers a lot but I'm letting myself visit with them again. Still fussing about with my little Canon PowerShot SX170 which I've had now for maybe ten years. Nine for sure (I think).
And I almost lost it, well, I did lose it for a week. Left it in the band room after helping Mike get his rooms squared away for school.
Funny thing was I was regretting losing it that week because, really, it is an old and trusted companion. Always reliable and always giving me pictures way beyond my meager abilities. I was regretting its loss but I didn't make much of an effort to find it. Oh, I asked at two places I had been but I didn't really do much more. I was kind of like, "Oh, OK. It's gone." Like most of the good things I lost it.
But then, to put a happy end to this, it was just left behind in the band room.
And now it's back and taking semi-good pictures. I think I need to elevate my settings and get myself where I can see good things again. Then the pictures might be better.
But I'm back, sort of, to flowers. Hooah!!
See! The SX170 takes care of so many of my sins and gives me a semi-decent picture.
On this one I deliberately left the large space below the flower. I don't know as I look at it. Maybe some more cropping would help this picture. What do you think?
And apropos of nothing except I was once a Marine, I saw this representation of the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima. It's outside the Chinook Winds Casino.
The Casino does a lot to promote veterans and they'll be hosting, in September, the Celebration of Honor. It will be a week long event honoring those who have served.
Speaking of serving, I finally did it and joined Kiwanis.
And, immediately, I began to regret it. It's the fall-out from another unfortunate incident. That one keeps spilling over into other areas and it has, dammit, taken a bit of the fun out of Kiwanis for me.
Well, time to put on my Big-Boy Pants and move on, isn't it!?! Hahaha, no one wants to hear a bunch of whining.
But now I am no longer an FOK (Friend of Kiwanis). Now I'm a full-blown member of the band.
And the other things are Scouts. Getting ready for the Scouting For Food drive coming up in November.
Trying to do some good.
And that's it for this chapter. Keeping it real and passing the time while trying to do something good.
And the photography. Always that.
It's your choice, eh!?!
