Do what?!
I casually offered. They accepted. You learn new things every day. How about the cat tower? Hmmm… I had not thought about that nor had ever tried it. Cooperation? Hardly?!! Mike and Jen thought (innocently) they could hold all four cats for a single take. A single picture? They have seen Colleen’s pics. We did it with seven cats across the table. Easy! About 101 pictures later… They had great ideas and we improvised as we went along. Nut crackers, cat tower, oh my! Done! I’d do it again… no cats were harmed… a few scratches later…
Back up
Describe in a few words how you back up your photos –
Ha ha. Multiply redundant hard drives. I currently use five. Count ‘em, five! Hard drives fail. Cloud? Nope. It could go away tomorrow. It goes, you are outta luck. Database. Ya gotta keep a written record of where what is. Funny? Try Scotland, we were there when? Yes, you can search Scotland and find out “when” in a few seconds after typing in the key word. It’s not hard. It doesn’t take long. And I thank myself every day for keeping track of where my stuff is. And then, it still ain’t easy. Back your stuff up. All I did was search “copy a.” Look what I got!?
Going back
Sometimes you go back. Things don’t/didn’t change much. The lamppost of buoys is still there. The lighthouse has not gone away. I am still with the one I love. No, they did not open the Olsen House. The museum is open. The house is not? Go figure. Only a handful of folks visit the Olsen House. Plenty of folks wander the museum in Rockland without a mask in sight…. Going back. It’s never quite the same.
Symmetry
Close your eyes. I am about to dive between two tractor trailer trucks on the approach to the George Washington bridge. Pay attention. Drive carefully! Don’t drive distracted!
I like my pottery symmetrical too.
It wuz two different pictures. The models are the same. Same clothes, even!
No no, driving is not boring. Sometimes we see interesting things. The “dive” picture is mine (while driving). Colleen took the GW bridge from the passenger seat.
Matching
On occasion we wear matching clothes. It’s not intentional. For a while I would see matching Japanese tourists in NY. They wore the same T-shirts or whatever. It was oddly curious to see.
As you can readily see I can go both ways. It’s a joke not a gender insult or confusion. Otherwise, our museum antics would be considered schizophrenic. And hats? Why, of course!
One day
It depends on how you say it and where you put emphasis on the words. There are multiple meanings. Jane responded she liked the triplets. ?? dunno? Meanwhile, how much fun can you pack into one day?
We took the slow road up US 9 to get. Sometimes, it is about the journey and the scenery. One mansion and gardens, one farmer’s market, one museum, and dinner! Wonderful! Behind every great man is a woman – a great one! That’s what the tour guide said. Antics? Triplets?? Whatever! It doesn’t have to be good. It just has to be fun! And, so it was! Priceless!
Scheduled? No. Unplanned? We had a loose framework – tickets to Nemours and a dinner reservation at either end. In between we made up our own adventures. I love it when a plan works! I changed into khakis for dinner. You cannot see I am without shorts at dinner. Neat trick! Still, no socks.
Antics? Triplets? Photoshop for better or not gets us to an old trick which is amusing or not. Sometimes good and others not so. I just go with it. It fools some and not others. There was never any pretension of skill, only fun.
It’s easy
Family photo. I just call. The cats obediently line up. Click. Done.
This particular time Elle led us on a merry chase. She’s smart. And quick. We eventually caught her. No one gets to decline my invitation to be in the family photo. Yeah, yeah, it ain’t perfect. The lighting is the same – flash. And the camera is on a tripod. So, except for the position of the models it should all match up pretty well. In theory?! In reality it is never quite ideal. Multiple redundant shots are used to get acceptable poses. It is good enough to pass a casual test. Alas, this image portrays our family and changes that have occurred. It’s seven cats – count ‘em. Soon enough that number may change (increase). I am feeling lucky! No doubt I feel so very fortunate to have a wonderful family.
What’s fake? The straight line? Ha ha, no. Spice and Peas are next to one another. They are arch enemies. Wrong! Colleen has identified Peas next to Feather. Shhh… I cannot tell the kids apart. Birthdays? Don’t ask.
Sorry, I’m standing…
We go to museums. We have fun. The opportunity presents. I take advantage. We get something a little different. If this inspires you…. I don’t bother strangers. We pose one at a time and then the composite is done in post processing. Ok?! If not, sorry. It ain’t perfect. Does it matter? Too many questions. I smile each time I post these to the family. Some in the family may question my sanity. Since my head injury, I have not been in my right head. But, then again, I been doin’ this longer than that.
Disclaimer: No sisters were harmed in the making of these images.
Note: Rauschenberg did White panels in 1951, MOMA, worth $15 million in 2014. White paint on panels, imagine that!!?? He did black panels too. Whoa! Genius! The Emperor’s New Clothes, Hans Christian Andersen. I had to look it up….
I remember this one
I remember taking the pic of this flower. We – I was rushing along the pool edge to get to the other side… this would be a grab shot. I just fired off a couple frames and didn’t stop. Specifically, we were visiting Winterthur. A nice day, a very nice day was had by all. We did the garden tram tour. And, I made Colleen and Lee stand on the stairs for which Lee was reluctant – camera shy. I cut off their ankles. Did you notice? The pond view with three flowers had potential. Alas. It did not translate as anything special in the edit. Sometimes you win and sometimes you don’t. Hey! Ankles would’ve been better.
Merry Xmas
But, of course! From our family to you and yours, we wish you a safe and healthy holiday. It’s been another eventful year. We lost a cat – Patch. We gained two cats – Tillie and Peas. Peas was an afterthought. We mistakenly left Tillie’s sister behind at the pet store. My bad. You cannot replace a lost cat – for (darn) sure. …but we had an extra food bowl…. Now the table is full once more. Happy and merry to you all. We are both fortunate and happy to wish you all the best. YES, they all jumped up on the table and lined right up. Didn’t you realize? I herd cats!
Dinner for eight
Just fun. I did it with a tripod. I ran around and used a flash to get all seven of me on one picture. Sure. Right! I am pretty fast – at running around a table. For sure! It was fun. Colleen? Late for dinner, again. Ha! I can count. She would be number eight. If she’s late again, I shall still be beside myself.
Help
We usually do our selfies without assistance. That’s me, my modus operandi. I take a shot of Colleen. Then Colleen takes one of me in the same spot while I sit in the next chair over. It works well. A helpful wife urged her photographer husband to shoot the two of us. Oddly, I could not reciprocate. Ok! There was an old lady in black who was in the background in all the shots. That was a pain. I simply blotted her out. More work? Which method was better? Hey! We got a selfie. Do I need help? … more than you know.
Another try
Photoshop can do wonders. But, the real thing is easier, more reliable? A few posts back I was lazy and did not wait. I put in the reflection. This time around was an almost perfect day. It still required patience to let the ripples in the water settle. Nope, there is a limit to my patience. Colleen laughs. She’s a good sport about it all. She hates jumping around back and forth on the rocks. Meanwhile, tourists came and went without noticing the reflection. And, yes, this selfie required Photoshop.
Impatience
No one ever said I had an abundance of patience. Besides, it was just about to rain. My classic “must” photo at this lighthouse was not happening today – a reflection of the lighthouse in the tidal/rain pool. The tiny figure in the shot was headed down toward me with the same thought. I cheated. Photoshop. Eh? It’s not perfect – the manipulation. No patience today. Maybe tomorrow. We’ll be back. There is no excuse to be lazy. But, I have a/the ‘real’ shot somewhere. And, on another day, we will return and I will get the shot. … just not today.
Art – imagine that!
I can’t keep a straight face. I have a PIA sister in law – Diane – no names to protect the guilty. She likes to name drop all the museums and art she has seen. It’s a checklist for an insecure art wanna-be. Did I mention her name? Since she tried to “name drop” me, I have made it point to be irreverent in museums around the world. Ha ha, I been to places…. yeah, yeah, but my english aint so good. 😦 On this occasion, we were with the sisters. It seems no one in the family has much of a sense of humor. It’s more like horror – be PC! and proper! Me? Nah? Lee? She was pretty horrified to be in the middle. Colleen? Sigh. Yes, she’s married to me. Tolerance my dear, tolerance. Alas, Diane will never see this. Bruce, the brother/husband is in WPP. …oops! Does it look like anyone is having fun? Jane? Are you ignoring us?
A few
Way back in the beginning… back in 2011, I started this blog. It was free. Free is for me! I’m not selling anything. No $ either way, in either direction. Not true, I pay a fee for extra memory (on the site) nowadays. There are ads, a few, not my doing, not mine (ads). Essentially, free. Followers, a lot of commercial WordPress sites these days, fishing for business. Followers, a few, to whom I imparted the blog address. There are few enough followers who have found me from around the world. But indeed, there have been visitors from around the world. Ah, the power of the internet! I do not seek fame. I merely share thoughts and photos. I’m better than average and less than great. I am not the best in my family but better than most. My own kids have produced 5 star pics on their iPhones! It’s not common, so, the body of my work is technically better. But, then art was never about quantity. Quality can show up in a single image. Colleen’s kids – Emma has more photography experience. But, even Jess and Ian have shown that even a blind squirrel gets a nut once in a while. Even though I take great shots, it’s just not every day. But every day, I take shots.
Digital vs Photography
Digital is free. A memory card holds thousands of images. The cost per image is fractions of a penny. Film was costly. It cost money to buy film, develop negatives, and print a picture. You got 36 negatives per roll. If you were Ansel Adams you carried around a large view camera and a limited number of photographic plates. Each image was a process and they had better count because it was not like a machine gun; you could not just spray and shoot. I learned a while ago, that a motor drive will not get you the critical moment when you are shooting sports. There, actually, is skill involved. If you don’t appreciate this, then keep your finger on your iPhone shutter and blast away. A blind squirrel is said to get a nut sometimes. The majority of results do not respect the process and the images reflect the lack thereof in kind. Too complicated and don’t care, yes, in the universe of bad images, this is the majority. And, even I, admit to taking too many pictures these days. Press the shutter – I will edit or change things in Lightroom or Photoshop later. It is interesting to think upon the process. I am guilty. I fire away and defer the consequences to a later moment. Or, should I take a real picture? Less is more? Do you think about one good image? Or, is it, close your eyes, press the shutter and hope for the best? Black or white? I do a little of both. Experience, there is something to be said for having tools Ansel Adams never had. At the end of the day, did you have fun? For me, digital is my negative. I shot 26 images to meld into a single shot. Ansel would have worked his negative to get all the detail onto a single plate. Today, it’s called HDR. We are both working the problem with what we have in our tech arsenal.
Hidden gem
I’m scanning old slides. Mostly it’s sentimental – family shots. An aside – I thought I was a pretty good photographer. Boy! What experience teaches you about life!. My scanner does its job according to calculated algorithms. Sometimes good, sometimes not. I glanced at the preview just as it made an adjustment leaving the image washed out. I quickly processed the image rescuing my imagination. Under any other circumstance the potential of this slide would have been lost in a mass edit. Gee, I was not so bad as I feared.
Early Photoshop
Winslow Homer. There was an exhibition of his interaction with photography in the mid 1800’s. Mathew Brady took a picture, yes with a real camera and film, of Abraham Lincoln. And Homer adapted the image in his illustration of Lincoln. He embellished – he added a presidential background. And he did cosmetic surgery worthy of any Photoshop tech today. Homer filled in the hollow cheeks and sized Lincoln’s ears downward. It made for a much better illustration. It was circulated around the time of Lincoln’s inauguration. Did Lincoln mind? We have other presidents who are vain. I can think of one off the top of my head.
Nellie & Horse
History? History – looking back. This was among my first efforts at Photoshop experimentation. There are experts who are light years beyond my expertise. I simply removed the bars of the fence. It’s not too good. But it is enough to fool the viewer (mostly). I’m lazy. These days I don’t do too much image manipulation. Mostly, what comes out of the camera is what I use and post. I have gotten a bit better at preprocessing my image. But, one must know what can be done. It’s part of the toolbox. It’s way better to point and shoot. My laziness comes from my dread of time spent processing in Photoshop. Lightroom? I will ‘develop’ as long as it takes for my attention to wane… not long at all. But then again… everyone has to edit and cull.
Dawn Over Jeddah
This darn camera got the moon exposure pretty good. Well, I did a little Photoshop work here. The moon came from the next frame. I just hadn’t cropped as well. Slipping it in here, it’s exactly where the other moon was, but not quite so well exposed. Otherwise I’m not too much for post processing. Life is spinning way too fast these days.
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