On a roll
I’m faced with a dilemma. Post while we are on vacation. Or, wait until our return. There will be a lot of imagery I would have posted but waited patiently until our return.
Scotland – wrong side of the road. You can see I am in the driver’s seat from a different perspective. Well, I am jumping the proverbial gun. We are there – 2019. Harris Tweed was the word(s). No doubt our luggage will have souvenirs. We’d have a sheep if Colleen could figure out how to get it thru customs.
I wuz here… B.C.
Slides. I wuz here before digital. Before Colleen. .. but never like it before and not since. Confused?
Hey a different view. I would go find the image of Colleen and I … it would take a while. But I was here once. Little did I know how my life would change when I came back.
Before selfie
What did we do before selfie? Who took this shot? Four of us. We were not traveling in a group of five. I would guess some passerby did the shot? But I am recicent to put my camera in someone else’s hands. But in the face of no other explanation this is the explanation. The group shot of family in front of some picturesque scene is an obligatory vacation picture. It’s interesting to find them among my early slides.
Happy day
A long time ago.. in Florida… ha ha. We were there. Do I remember this garden? Oh boy! There are a lot of things the brain forgets. No matter. It’s Eric’s birthday again. He does not read this blog….probably does not know (or forgot) about it. Nonetheless, happy birthday.
Deja vu
Colleen keeps asking me if I have been to… and yes, I was afforded the luck of being in a lot of places. But one time or another, you realize that you have never seen a place until I see it thru her eyes. It’s the same and very different all at the same moment. Perhaps it was all a dream as though I am awakened and starting to live now. Where was I and where have I been? Living in this moment has been wise and perhaps the bast ever. I think I shall hold tightly to Colleen.
Changes
The world has changed. Colleen hates change in general. So I ask her to give me her iPhone, give it up. Nope. Would I have ever imagined that Kodak film would be no more. When I traveled on vacation, I would take 40 rolls of slide film… and never shoot it all. Ha ha. Digital is pretty much free. I shoot and shoot. Thousands of images… tens of thousands.
Oh boy. Travel is so different. I am also blessed to travel with Colleen now. We do see things differently and so fresh! There are a lot of regrets that go unsaid. And I have a lot of wish I could have… Who knew I would see the changing of the guards but never again? As things turned out, I am good with that. Digital photography affords me so many more options. Travel companion – priceless!
Early early slides
Early on, it took a while to realize that a filing system was necessary to organize my photography collection. What a good idea! I began a database on index cards before I knew what a database was about. My negatives were in wax paper sleeves. And eventually, my slides were stored in boxes, and, later in drawers. Nowadays, the database is on my Mac. The slides and digital photos are on my computer hard drives. Simple!?
So the early slides were scattered all over the place early on. I eventually collected them together and put them in some semblance of order. But as with most things I discovered a method and file system on my own. It was not perfected until much later, hence, the utter confusion over what was first?
Naomi, first girlfriend, we traveled to London. It was an early trip and the start of organization. It was not the first picture or slide. But this is early slide work.
Don’t be there
…there, when the tide comes in. I have always wanted to see the high tide where the change is the greatest. People surf into town on the high tide. How high? You can gauge by my pictures. We were there. Fun? …a dream come true.
Easy
Easy! I was thinking of the yellow sheep we saw in a field. GIGO – garbage in garbage out. Lucky for me I put in the search term into my database and it tooks seconds to find them sheep again. Ok! I love it when science works!
The sheep? We don’t know to this day why they were bright yellow. I even made a puzzle from the picture. Yes a jigsaw puzzle! Ha ha! Big joke on all of us. The answer is straightforward and simple. Right?!
I peeked
34k, 45k, 56k, 88k, 73k, 102k, 88k – 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Yearly digital image count
So my catalogs are jumbled or the files are in places… I dare not think about. There is logic to the madness. Right!?
On average I got snapshots just like anyone else has. Some travel shots. Group shots. Cats! But 100k images in one year? 273 shots per day? Whew! Nuts! I guess I am a nut job. I gotta ask.. how many folks are smiling, how many are looking when I ask them to smile…?
So few?
500k images from 2016 and only 12k in we are in Scotland. What happened the past few years? I shoot a lot. To answer would take more effort than I am willing to invest. I got ways to track this down.
Funny, I don’t wear wool much. I don’t eat lamb much either. And, I never gave a thought to how thread/yarn was made on a machine. Nowadays I pay a lot of attention. It amazes me at what can be done by machine and how much more efficient it be from doing it by hand. It’s a hobby right? Productive? Worth doing it some more? I would not know. I photograph. Colleen spins and weaves. We collaborate. I take her to Scotland. There have been a lot of pictures since these were taken.
AHA! I knew it would come to me… eventually. The two star pics were open and in around 12k were the Scotland picks. It makes sense. I was not too worried about culling my two star images. Mystery solved. No more work for me to do.
Hates to fly
By the time this posts I hope that we are enjoying our first week in Scotland. The last was canceled for Covid. We are just now getting back into the world and traveling it once more.
Nothing helps like a whiskey sample. Unfortunately the samples were available at the other end after we landed. They patrol BWI on bicycles. No nonstop to Scotland, we landed in London and got our bearings. It was an eventful month filled with memories that lasted. I hope this trip is equally adventuresome.
Have we?
My writing comes in waves… of inspiration. Really? Am I inspired? Or do I just have lots of thoughts and stories to tell?
Scotland. Did we eat here? Nice play on words. I don’t think we ate there. But? We did eat in a Thai place in Inverness… was this it? Sheep, especially black faced ones are notoriously hard to image. Any backlighting kills detail in the face. Forget focusing on the eyes. The moon? You cannot shoot the moon on “auto” settings. The auto ISO will overexpose the bright moon every time. All manual, I don’t do it often. Clouds?! Made it more interesting? The Scots say takeaway not takeout.
mistakes wer made
Lightroom puts things into a catalog as you choose. I chose to put digital and slides in different catalogs. I always wondered if the numbr of images would overwhelm the catalog amd make it too slow.
Digital was divided. I have about a million digital images. I’m not bragging. Everytime I think I am over done someone is right there to top me.
One digital has about everything from 2003 to 2016. Except the catalog is corrupted. There are 2022 images in it. How? What? When? I do not know how things got mixed up. My current 2016 to present looks fine.
Confusion reigns. But it is all cataloged. I can find thngs. So far so good. Argh!! We have been together too long! No selfie! Sorry my love.
Color
Black and white was easy. You could develop your own film. It was less expensive. I always felt like I was on a budget. Color slide seduced me. The image was fully contained in a small cardboard frame and they stored easily enough for me to have a collection.
The color seduced me. I eventually came to store more than 100k slides in multiple drawers most of which were custom built furniture.
Once I went over to digital cameras there was no need for Black and White. Art! It is good for art. I was about image and color and too busy to pause to make art. I was doing candids and events. I was documenting my world. And my world was in color. Ha ha. We are both wearing white… but…
Looking back
Wow! I was another person. Different from today, better, it would be a hard call to make. But I did evolve. My photography has changed so much. I shot a lot of vertical slides – vertical image, upright vs horizontal. My horizontal preference is 99% now because it fits my computer screen without too much empty space on the side. Dumb! Composition is what it should be. Or not! My exposures and my focus were for the birds. Literally! What the…! I did have Nikon cameras and it did autofocus – not to very well and not very often. Available lighting kept me to one ISO and it was way too slow – the film. For the time I shot a lot of slide film. I did not shoot enough. And I did not get many memorable “keepers” at all. Who was i? What was I to become? Who did I become? At every point in time I was arrogant to believe I was perfect. I put myself in the best position with the best equipment. Little did I understand technique. Self taught, I regret that my kids were my grand experiment.
Looking back, I got some memories. I’d do it all differently now. No backs! Yeah. I been in the Louvre. Have you?
I spoke to Dave. His iPhone pics are in the cloud. … about 5000 critical keepers, about 100k images. He has traveled! And?! I have seen a small sample. Nice! Cloud? Not for me. I fear that the cloud could just disappear… poof, eh? sorry? I use redundant external hard drives…. that way they are lost forever in a fire or flood. Can you win? Today was a nostalgic look back to when the kids were little and I was not as smart. Perhaps i will never be…
Spring trip
Time, distance, money. How do you juggle the variables? We drove 500 miles to get a free haircut…
Spring was early and the Bradford pears were in bloom. Pink flowering trees… and the ride home was a white knuckle ride thru a slushy wintery mix. Colleen didn’t know whether to scream or take the wheel. Me? I had two hands on the wheel. When that happens you know it’s a serious weather day.
The microscope? Colleen and I had parallel lives. We orbited in the same solar system. We were in the same classroom from 3rd grade to 6th. … the same Junior High School… the same parties… same dance group… and so on and on. We also both had a Gilbert microscope. It cost about $25 in the early ‘60’s. New! Now, an antique? It was $35 without much of the bling that accompanied the new set. It was a sorry product being sold way over cost and value. The same microscope! We both had one! It warms the heart! I later got a real one for med school. It was a requirement. We bought it special on a trip to Hong Kong. A Leica! Everyone else had a Nikon. Somehow, I felt I should have had a Nikon too. Keeping up with the Joneses? Colleen remembers her microscope fondly. I still have that Leica, somewhere… I just wanna know… how is it that I did not know Colleen and remember her fondly until so many years later…. if I had but one regret…
Who remembers?
No! ya dumb bunny.
Who sticks their head into the barrel of a big cannon?
It’s rhetorical. And, why did I photograph it? Humor? Not! Is it? Was it? is it now?
Laugh.
What is down the barrel of a cannon?
Everyone had a look. I think there must be some greater ethical question here. Eh? Colleen?
Scrambled
Quick! A substitution. Colleen thinks it poor taste to “diss” Jane. Delete post. Make up a new one. Ok!
I’m not nuts. I am not a nut. I am….
I have been a surgeon. And yet I am squeamish breaking down a lobster. Imagine! Me? Really?! Yup. No fun! You start by pulling off its head!!
They happened to catch a large tuna the same day we were there. We saw it. I was a brain surgeon. Guts have no appeal for me. Yeah, and brains do? Nuts
Meanwhile, a substitution so as not to “diss” Jane. Colleen doesn’t love eating lobster but will force herself if I do the dissection. Great! If you got my deleted post, ignore the “dis.” I meant no harm. Honest.
Along the way
I’m an outsider looking in… I do not miss it… at all!
It’s a long trip to NYC from where I am now. We don’t come this way frequently. There is plenty to see and do. I just do not relish the crowds and traffic. Waiting has no appeal. Jockeying for position in traffic is no fun. Walking into a crowded restaurant is yuck. I admit there are more choices and plenty of more interesting places to visit in NYC.
Overall? … been there done that. Ah! Colleen would and does love every visit we make. It’s still wonderment to her. Sort of. She has claustrophobia about people and jammed traffic. It does seem that bridges are a dominant feature of our travels.
Hmmm… April fool’s, and, it happens that it is Lisa’s birthday. No greeting or well wishes, i just had to punch in the date to schedule this post…
Cherry blossom time
Hold the press! I’m inserting an additional post today, breaking my usual rule for one-a-day. Timing. We did the cherry blossoms yesterday. It was a gloomy, dreary, rainy day until it cleared and became sunny and 84 degrees. We took pictures. Lots. We did four museums. Ambitious itinerary. We saw the sights. A quintessential shot? Too many opportunities, too little time. Close up, wide angle, monument, selfie… oh my! The choices?! Throw in a pretender – weeping cherry. We did it all yesterday…
Inside
I’ve never been inside. Guild meeting, John Dickinson plantation. Colleen cajoled and put my true love to the test demanding I attend and spin with her. So, she did not demand… but it was the same as a command! Ha! A coven! Tour groups come through and are fascinated with the process. Ho hum? To me, yes. They were fascinated. Colleen was thrilled… I was there, too. Donna brought an E-spinner, battery operated spinning wheel. It almost seems heretical in an old historic plantation….
Mining
I’m mining the catalog. When you think about it I have quite a memory bank of experiences. I have seen much. There are many stories that will never be told. Too little time. Not enough interest. Resigned? Philosophical?
There are many wishes left behind. There were many roads not taken. There were roads I wish… And for all of that I have no, well, a few regrets. But few. I have seen and photographed much. And the road is still stretching before me.
First last
I got a catalog. It has 500k images. That is a lot? I rate images and at least 133k have a 2 star rating or higher. The first and last are represented. It has been a journey. Quite the journey. Life changing?! I daresay there is much to come. It amazes me. I have been fortunate. Life has a way of moving in strange and mysterious ways. All true.
Right now I am in a good place. Best ever. It is like a dream you do not want to awake from. The beginning of this catalog was but a mere couple decades back.
Did I mention to you… “I love my wife.”
photobackstory 