On a constant quest to entertain myself. At least that's what I say to explain why I volunteer for this or for that. It's an easy way of saying I am not a bit altruistic. Hahaha, mostly it's me being selfish...again.
Oh, I recognize what I do benefits others. But, honest, I'm not the least bit altruistic. I am a rather selfish and self-centered fellow. That's why I look for things to do that are easy (I am colossally lazy, too) to do. They allow me to actually do something and that's what I'm looking for...something to get me out of the house.
And so I said yeah when Carol asked me to drop off several bags of books she'd collected to the Stuff-A-Bus event at the Mall.
One of the Kiwanis Kingpins coordinates the Backpack-For-Kids Charity here in LCO and, as part of that charity, they set up one day to Stuff-A-Bus. Folks can drop off school supplies, books, foodstuffs and so on to be given to the local schools.
And so I went over and picked the bags of books up at Carol's and then drove them over.
Hahaha, a quick drop-off of the books, a short stroll around the Mall and a satisfying stop in the ShutterBug Camera Store. Hooah!! My day was complete.
Playing with the camera functions and fiddling around with my continuing passion for Black and White, I got these shots doing what I do best, sitting on my favorite recliner.
Hahaha, honest!! I deleted a whole bunch of them. I just saved this one. I kinda like it. I shot it with the High Contrast feature on the Ol' Nikon P900. Blacks get deeper and whites get, well, whiter.
I really do love B&W. I just do. I think it gives most anything an 'artistic' air. Like this shot. It just seems more interesting. I don't think I'd have kept the same scene had it been shot in color. There's something, an honesty, that lurks below the obvious in a B&W picture. Stripped of all pretensions, you have to deal with the black and the white and all the grays in-between.
It makes me hungry to capture it.
And I keep trying. I was shooting using as many different settings, playing with the manual focus; trying the controls where you can set your f-stop or aperture. I was playing around.
In black and white.
And I liked this one. Look at the door knob. Kinda cool, eh? Next up is to meter with a 10% Gray Card and see what comes of it. Gotta set my own f-stop which means I gotta start thinking again (is that really possible? Feasible?) instead of just letting the mostly dependable automatic camera controls do their magic.
But I'm shooting. Now, if I were a True Artiste (I deliberately chose that spelling. Look it up and you might see why I did.), I would be able to 'sell' people on the idea that these pictures were real art.
I still contend a lot of modern art is simply presentation; the way the photo is framed and, equally important, the mind-set the viewer brings to it...the mind-set the Artiste gives to them in his sales pitch. Hahaha, some of the nonsense I've seen that passes itself off as art makes me wonder what in the hell they were thinking. But it's how you present.
And flowers. Summer is quickly running into Fall and so these shots will be rarer.
On the bright side, I will be able to shoot Autumn Foliage again. And with a tripod if I don't get too lazy. Like this...
...shot.
Hahaha, handheld with the little Canon SX170.
POW!!
And, again, I have that secret guilt. The one where I really see a potential but I'm hesitant to go back and really work at getting this shot...you know, the tripod, the big camera, the effort...because I afraid it won't be any better than this.
But this is a nice shot, isn't it? I think so.
Carol hauled me out of my cocoon for an Adventure!
Hahaha, we lived life on the edge by taking the local transportation from LCO down to the Fred Meyer and Walmart in Newport.
Not a lot of opportunities for pictures but it was fun to be a passenger on the drive. The scenery is fantastic...the people a bit less so.
Hahaha, it was different.
The little things that make a life. I've put up bird feeders in my front and back yard.
Looking out my bedroom window I was surprised to see this Blue Jay enjoying a snack. I tried a quick shot and you can see how successful I was.
Sometimes you just enjoy and take whatever you get, picture-wise. This was one of those times.
I don't get great sunrises here. No real scenery to frame a sunrise against or shoot across to. But sometimes you get something resembling a picture op.
The other morning with some mist making things interesting I tried this backlit shoot with the sun rising in the east. The scenery here is so pleasing. Just plenty of stuff to still see regardless of what man has done.
Continuing on the sunrise theme. Tried something a little grander.
The mornings are getting, unfortunately, a bit chillier.
I am dreading the return of Fall and Winter. Dreading the cold and the discomfort. Seems this Spring and Summer zoooooooomed by so quickly. And it felt like that last Winter dragged on and on and on.
I'm not looking forward to the cold.
Carol has had a one-room apartment for over a year. She finally got another place in the Dorchester House (DH). Yay for her!!
It's moving day. From the First Floor up to the Third!!
Someone was uber-happy!!
It was actually an easy move. The DH has several small carts to help the residents and we definitely used all of them to help us.
Had I been a younger man it would have been EZ-PZ but, while it wasn't difficult, by the end of the day this Old Man was pooped.
Definitely a better place up on the Third Floor.
Carol has an ocean view through the window on the left in this picture. She gets to see ALL the sunsets now. The two windows to the right in this picture look out at the fir tree and over to Hwy 101.
We were done.
My sentiments, exactly.
Kiwanis asked for some volunteers to help police Taft Beach and so we headed on down.
Hahaha, I have become so jaded about my easy access to the beaches around here. Sometimes I have to remind myself that this is a vacation spot...people pay Big Bucks to come here and see what I see all the time.
Duh!!
The tide was in and the seals were out...in the water. They were playing and splashing so we spent some time enjoying that.
That's Carol to the right.
Looking west from the pier at Mo's toward the mouth of the Bay.
"There he goes again!!"
My B&W mania strikes again. Part of the railing around the pier at Taft.
Angles and lines...again.
The seals were active today. Normally they're just slug-like blobs sitting on the beach across the inlet. Today they were out and about.
And, to my eye, having a lot of fun.
And splashing around in the water. I'll be quiet now as you figure out that I was getting the last shots of them splashing around. I was never quick enough to get them at the apex, always towards the end of their splash.
But I tried, oh how I tried.
I'm gonna end this. It's been nearly three weeks since I took these and I've got a pile of pictures ready for the next Chapter.
How can you see a life as empty when you get to do so many things? I think the approaching Winter is depressing me. I hadn't thought I'd have a problem with it being cold but I was truly miserable last winter and the thought of doing it all again has me down a bit.
Course, I do love to wallow in self-pity so there is that, too.
Regardless, working on this humble blog reminds me that things aren't as dire as I thought they were. Hahaha, I'm speaking just for me and not for you as you slog thought all these blogs.
Adventures, flowers, seals and moving. Keeping busy.
Life is good.
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