Puffin
Nothing is so valuable as something that took a lot to accomplish. I was on my 4th try. The other attempts to photograph the puffins had been utter failure. Ok! I was in the bird blind until they dragged me out. Things were not perfect. I had forgotten my big telephoto lens at home. All was not lost. One can always make do. I did. It was memorable. It was my one and only time.
Fish platter
Night dive! This was the moment when I realized that diving in the dark dark ocean with sharks somewhere about was not so scary as the result of obtaining a worthy night image. This was the moment that opened my mind to the concept. “Fish on a platter” I was hooked and enjoyed and sought night dives whenever I could.
5 star
This next few days are about 5 star pics. They are in my catalog going back years. How did we get to 5 star? My picking method varies enough that there are plenty of worthy pics that aren’t labeled 5 but should be. Here are some that have 5 stars and to me are memorable. I start with a fish and a bird. It’s rare and for me, nearly never, that I was there at the exact moment to see the catch. Not so good for the fish, I suppose. But I was glad to have gotten the shot.
Point that finger
By the time this post is published it will be nearly four months gone by. Darn! They just get cuter. We live so far apart I will hardly get to see Noa. Someone (Colleen) was right – she’s always right. And, ever dutiful, I acknowledge that she is (definitely) the better half.
“She will get cuter. And, you will miss her more!”
A little bit different
We were having a solitary Thanksgiving. No travel, no family, no friends. I broke the rule and invited my brother. Then, with the dismal news, and the heightened risks, we felt compelled to follow good practice and refrain. So, no one will join our dinner but our seven cats. I wish a peaceful healthy Thanksgiving to all. On a lighter note, it appears that Jules once weighed less than our celebration turkey. Go figure! That is at least worth a smile.
Scared
I was in the closet. Don’t ask. We have a window in a closet. Would that make it a room? The window faces northwest in the direction of the Comet Neowise that was in the news. A challenge. I don’t do astrophotography. I still don’t. The weather was cloudy on most nights. Hey! It was the steamy hot part of summer. Nada! Nothing! Nuthin’! I never knew for sure if I was looking in the correct part of the sky. Urban light pollution was abundant. The effort was a miserable failure. Scary? I was in the closet and couldn’t hear Colleen calling. She nearly had a heart attack looking for me. Sorry. I came out of the closet with moon shots. (poor choice of words? Don’t ask.) Discovery?! There is a man in the moon. I have seen him. The ancients were right. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ with it.
Bit players
“Until late last week, most Americans who aren’t regular consumers of right-wing talk radio and cable news probably had not heard of Sidney Powell, an appellate lawyer from Texas who joined President Trump’s legal team earlier this month as it undertook a fruitless pursuit to prove that fraud cost him the election.
Ms. Powell burst into national attention on Thursday, when she appeared alongside Rudolph W. Giuliani, who is leading the president’s legal efforts, at a surreal news conference where she made claims that strained credulity, even for a presidential campaign that has repeatedly lowered the bar. In a matter of minutes, Ms. Powell blamed Cuba, Venezuela, the Clinton Foundation, the billionaire George Soros and Antifa, a loosely defined left-wing movement, for somehow making votes for Mr. Trump disappear.”
“Yes, she doesn’t work with them at all. It’s just a coincidence that during Giuliani’s two-hour press conference, she was onstage the entire time. It’s a simple mix-up. They invited Sidney Powell, but they meant to invite Sidney Powell Total Landscaping.” — STEPHEN COLBERT
“And if you thought Rudy was bonkers, this lady is crazier than a cereal mascot.” — SETH MEYERS
“Yeah, she got kicked off Trump’s legal team for being too crazy. That’s like getting kicked off of ‘Real Housewives’ for being too crazy.” — JIMMY FALLON
“Here’s how big of an embarrassment she was to the Trump team: The guy who held a press conference next to a sex shop, and last week had hair dye running down his face and who wears loafers that look like clown shoes — that guy? Still on the team.” — JAMES CORDEN
“Seriously, you know how nuts you have to be when Rudy Giuliani’s head starts leaking and you’re the one who gets fired?” — JIMMY FALLON
“Man, you’ve got to be pretty crazy if Rudy Giuliani thinks you’re a liability: ‘Sorry, Ms. Powell, but you’re a loose cannon. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m late for a press conference where I say Joe Biden is the Hamburglar.’” — SETH MEYERS
Attempted oppression – crushed. Now, you try to trash the place before you leave. It’s easy to follow. Petulant cry baby. You (trump) are about as relevant as tits on a bull. bye don!
I can do it again
Jen’s garden philosophy is “sparse” but “showy.” Her specimens cry out of a garden catalog unlike the chaos that reigned in my garden. Each flower occupies a center of attention while it blooms akin to Japanese zen. Same picture, four times, different flower, one handed – I had the beer in the other hand.
And once more (twice now), seven cats, three sets of twins and Elle. I made up for it with two shots of Elle. I like even numbers. It wasn’t roll call. Can you even tell them (twins) apart? Same photographed cat twice? I have seven dishes to feed them wet food. And there is a cat for each bowl. The twins eat isolated in the bedroom to prevent them cruising the other bowls. The vet observed Nutley was a little too plush/f’ass (fat ass). F’ass? Balme Covid, everybody – you know who (shhhh) – gained weight? (I’ll pay for that last statement.) No names, please!! I’ve been done in by most excellent cheesecake. And yes, it was contagious – the darn cheesecake, no matter how small the slice.
So many subjects…
… not enough time. Two guys decided to make a spectacle of themselves as much as play golf. Hmmm, they are only a letter away – as(s). Meanwhile, Colleen went into the garden and made a cut flower arrangement. Ok! Successful! Wow! Really, I am being complimentary. I am less destructive and would not (couldn’t bear to) ordinarily cut them myself. She’s got a good eye. Cue, the applause.
Alternate reality
“For more than a week, a plain-spoken former federal prosecutor named Sidney Powell made the rounds on right-wing talk radio and cable news, facing little pushback as she laid out a conspiracy theory that Venezuela, Cuba and other “communist” interests had used a secret algorithm to hack into voting machines and steal millions of votes from President Trump.
She spoke mostly uninterrupted for nearly 20 minutes on Monday on the “Rush Limbaugh Show,” the No. 1 program on talk radio. Hosts like Mark Levin, who has the fourth-largest talk radio audience, and Lou Dobbs of Fox Business praised her patriotism and courage.
So it came as most unwelcome news to the president’s defenders when Tucker Carlson, host of an 8 p.m. Fox News show and a confidant of Mr. Trump, dissected Ms. Powell’s claims as unreliable and unproven.
“What Powell was describing would amount to the single greatest crime in American history,” Mr. Carlson said on Thursday night, his voice ringing with incredulity in a 10-minute monologue at the top of his show. “Millions of votes stolen in a day. Democracy destroyed. The end of our centuries-old system of government.” But, he said, when he invited Ms. Powell on his show to share her evidence, she became “angry and told us to stop contacting her.”
The response was immediate, and hostile. The president’s allies in conservative media and their legions of devoted Trump fans quickly closed ranks behind Ms. Powell and her case on behalf of the president, accusing the Fox host of betrayal.”
I gotta say that we are testing the definition of truth. Certain truths are unassailable. 75 million voted you out of office. You lost by 5 million votes. A couple, a thousand, a few thousands of votes might be wrong. Nice try, but no cigar. Your clowns can only entertain and embarrass the office further. Obviously, you wish to hang on to power like a petulant toddler with poop in your pants. You are a LOSER! SAD!! We can finally say, “YOU’RE FIRED!!!”
Detail
We’re beyond just another pretty flower. I have been striving to get detail – close-up of the inner anatomy of flowers. For some flowers it’s not an easy task. The angle and the light conspire to obscure the target. Bees have it easy. But it’s not so for me and my camera. And then, you get it! Serendipitous? No, skill. Ha ha! It’s more like 50% close your eyes and shoot, and, 50% skill. Eh? Let me tell you that it took all summer to get to the point where I got these shots.
Pan(dem)ic
I am a firm proponent for cameras. After all, right tool, right situation. Soup should not be eaten with an iPhone for a spoon. Alas, I am shoveling shit against the tide. Digital camera sales are 10% what they were in 2010. Aha! Everyone has one. The system is full! Nope! Not hardly, it’s more like everyone uses an iPhone as their prime camera. Can you really squeeze all that power down from my trusty digital camera into the little itty bitty iPhone? Uhhhh… no! But that doesn’t stop most of the world from using iPhone. My lament, a lone voice among so many iPhones. I suppose you can drive either a Hyundai or a Porsche. You choose. The camera fallout: fewer cameras to choose from. It’s not so bad. Hardline phones have evolved into mobile communicators. We see the world through two eyes. There’s no telephoto zoom on my eyeballs. Check the fine detail in the flowers. iPhone would have a hard time matching my camera. Easy or hard, it’s a choice. I shall not let a podiatrist do my brain surgery.
Send in the clown
He’s ‘Dyeing’ Up There
Rudy Giuliani held a news conference on Thursday during which he continued to support the president’s baseless assertion that the election had been fraudulent and appeared to drip sweat and hair dye.
“Remind me, is it a good sign when your lawyer starts melting?” Stephen Colbert joked on Thursday.
“And it seems like the press conference was getting a little hot, because partway through his presentation, Rudy sweat so much that his hair dye started running down his face. Either that, or he had so much to drink he was sweating merlot.” — STEPHEN COLBERT
“Looks like Rudy got a bad batch of ‘Just for Henchmen.’” — STEPHEN COLBERT
“Wow, nothing screams ‘confident lawyer’ like a guy standing in front of everyone dripping in sweat.” — JIMMY FALLON
“You know your legal strategy is [expletive] up when even your hair starts crying about it.” — TREVOR NOAH
“It was going down both cheeks. This dude was growing a chin strap beard in real time.” — TREVOR NOAH
You can’t make this shit up. He charges a legal fee of $20,000 a day and can’t afford a proper hairdresser. It sure helps your presidential bid to have a clown for legal representation. But then again, the faithful did not see him melting on stage. Yeah, stage, as in reality show – farce. I’m about done looking at orange make-up too …
“I mean, Trump always said that he had leakers in his administration, but I didn’t know it was this bad.” — TREVOR NOAH
“Later, they had to clean Rudy off like a sea gull in those commercials for Dawn dish soap.” — JIMMY FALLON
“His face looks like what happens when you wring out a rag at Jiffy Lube.” — JIMMY FALLON
“But this is good — Rudy dried himself off by standing in front of a leaf blower from Four Seasons Total Landscaping.” — JIMMY FALLON
Cat count
We call it “cat count.” Seven cats, sometimes I’m not entirely sure they are all safe. So, we do a visual roll call – “cat count.” I’ve been trying to get a sequence of seven shots. Eh? Seven cats? (see yesterday’s post) They were all primed and ready, just sitting around the living room. I got ‘em! It’s not portraiture but more like inventory – three sets of twins and then Elle. Ordinarily, the cats are quite independent and never in the same room together.
75 million…
… voted to kick your ass out of the White House. Leave. You are embarrassing yourself as a clinging weak old man. I suggest you leave the country ahead of the indictments that are sure to follow your crimes. LOSER! Cheating is not an option. You already did that once. NOT again. There are no “do-overs.” You lost and will forever be a loser.
Shaming
My posts reach the converted – the believers. It’s a shame. What do the rest of the people not understand? You have lived with fact and truth. You make up your own mind and use common sense. Or, are you just a lemming? The upper midwest has covid and it’s a killer. They had ample warning: now – dire warning. Nope! Just go about business and ignore the facts. Healthcare resources are overwhelmed. That is a fact. The number of infected and the number of deaths is stupefying. Unbelievable! IT’S HIGH!!! What superlative would catch your attention?… if you even knew what the word meant? This is gonna get a whole lot worse. I, shall heed my own warning. Ignore me at your own peril. Fauci got it right.
Spooked
We, that is I and the cats, were out on the deck. Some noise? A stampede. They all charged to the door. Ok! Colleen opened the door and in! they went. Hey! I herded cats! It’s something that we all learned together. I can round them up. Really!
People are dying…
The hospitals are at capacity. They simply have no space. NO SPACE! – no room at the inn…. so you die because you can’t get care. And NOW! they declare an emergency. I have no sympathy for stupid. North Dakota has a record number of deaths at a rate greater than any country in the WORLD. And South Dakota is number 3 in death rate. You gotta be pretty bad to not be paying attention to fact and science. Yes, the earth is flat. That will not kill you. Idiot? Yes, our republican politicians followed the fearless leader who led them to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge. There is no excuse for stupid. And it’s sad so many people followed you – and are dead for your stupid. SAD!
Storm’s coming
I just glanced up to see this fast-moving storm coming from the west. No doubt. We got the rain a few minutes later. No need for a weather warning or a weather report. We got the expected driving rain in sheets. Dramatic! Yes, it was. I’ve been trying to get a night star shot of the passing comet. Not on this night.
it’s called MAGA math
“Now it doesn’t look like a million people, but keep in mind a lot of those guys are wearing camouflage.” — JAMES CORDEN
“I mean, if this is how his aides do math, it’s no wonder Trump thinks he won the election.” — JAMES CORDEN
“So the administration ends as it began, lying about crowd size. They’ve come full circle. That’s just basic geo-MAGA.” — STEPHEN COLBERT
“Look, whether it was thousands or a million, the important thing is that the White House is still encouraging people to gather in large groups without masks right now.” — JAMES CORDEN
I guess this will further inflame my loser republican friends – …. acquaintances… former buddies. But…. ya gotta call it. HE TWEETED: I WON THE ELECTION followed the next day by: i won the election….. followed by: l o s e r 😦 What’s it all mean?? Are you going like the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz…. much like youself – a bitter angry ugly old woman…. who’d give witches a bad name.
First outing
The last place we dined was the first place we dined again. Thai. Bubble tea. Funny. Colleen got coffee flavor. So? coffee flavored bubble tea?! It’s got giant black balls of tapioca. Our first one (bubble tea) in this restaurant. Good! We were at one table. The only other occupants were at a table up front. We were distanced by about 100 feet. Not bad. We felt safe enough. Symmetry. I like symmetry and we just happened to eat last and first. – Last time March and now first outing again July. Nice!
Osprey – two
Look closely. The second head is peeking just under the right wing on the left. Ha ha, your other right, it’s the left of the picture. I stopped short, backed up, and drew angry gestures from passing bikers who had to swerve around my car parked on the grass at the roadside. Hey! I got the shot.
The face of stupid
Refuse to wear a mask, go out into a crowd without a mask, mingle, party – it’s a recipe for disaster. Memory? How about if you remember back to March, 2020. That would be merely 8 months ago?
10 million people infected, 200,000+ dead, 1000 newly dead per day, and 140,000 new cases per day. AND – the numbers are all rising.
You don’t believe you can get it, or, that you are bulletproof? In Las Vegas, the house always wins…. Your odds are good because 99% of people survive…. unless you are the “dead” one.
In the ocean the shark eats from the school of fish. For all the rest things are fine… except for the one he ate. Yeah, stupid…. I do not recommend being the fish that got “ate.”
Presently, politics and $$$ drive the map and the mandates. Common sense? Dead is dead. No one knows: if PT Barnum said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” Who cares? It’s the “sense” that counts.
Follow this idiot? I don’t think so. My momma didn’t raise no dumb chillins.
Butterfly
It’s technically a butterfly and not a moth by the definition; I will not elaborate. I just got great detail. No complaints. It just flew into my camera view and landed on the butterfly bush. No kidding. It’s called a butterfly bush. Thank you. It works! – the bush.
photobackstory 