Packed
Never a dull moment around hereabouts.
Dawn broke with nary a cloud in the sky. Clouds and eventually rain ensued. I am on eclipse watch. Two days until the partial eclipse. I hope to photograph it. By the time this post publishes it will be history. I wonder how it went – the eclipse – and wheter I was successful in getting photos?
Flowers, deer, daffodils… they punctuated the day. Cats – always. Spooky? Tillie has an eye colored like the solar eclipse sun in my camera. Close out the day in a blues concert.
I was up way past bedtime. Coffee. Chemicals help.
It goes without saying that I spent the day with Colleen. And… we were busy all the day long. Rain rain, go away… come again another day…
$64,000 question?
Game show 1955 to 1958. Ha! I was too young to watch or appreciate it…
The number? 64,000? It is an approximation of the images I have shot since September 2023. I switched external backup drives. This is the number on the drive now. 64,000 images in about six months. It amounts to about 1800 rolls of 36 exposure film. Remember film?
On average I shot maybe 100 rolls per year. You do the math.
First and last – Maine and Ohio. I shoot a lot of pictures these days. Worthy? Worthwhile? Memorable? Memory?
I shoot enough that I come across stored images like long lost friends all the time. I rate shots casually in Lightroom – zero to four stars. The outstanding shotts get three stars. I have 4000 three star shots. Ok!?
Meanwhile, just wondering… and yes, I have a filing system that tracks pictures by the day, location, subject, and persons. Organization is a key. You cannot go back and do it from the start. I have kept this up for a very long time. Favorites? The list is ever growing larger.
A very nice day indeed!
Laid back. St Pat’s day. Nice day after the early morning downpour. And 70 degrees. Lunch out. Guinness! Corned beef and cabbage. Green! We wore green. But, of course. The flowers are starting to bloom. Color! Photo ops! The perfect weather made it mandatory to go for a walk. Trap Pond state park. We have never been there. I did not want to go. Colleen… she rules. It was lovely! …an unexpected photo op. We will return someday to picnic in the shade. My plant app will not identify the pink clover (??). “Spring green” Colleen’s favorite color – on St Pat’s day no less!!
Yes! It was a very nice day!
Weekend
Weekend in Ohio. Three shows. Cinderella. Her sister was in the pit orchestra.
Into the Woods
We saw all three shows. Great! Clare! Sophia! Proud grandparents!
I got to shoot all three performances. It was a challenge. Of course! I won’t go into the technical challenges except to say that I overcame them on the fly. I do not shoot video. We never look at them. But… I did shoot video of one song. What to say?! There is a lot of talent in the household and I wish the kids all the success in their performance futures!
Hometown
I was born in NYC and raised in WV. I lived in 9 places by the time I was eighteen years old. I joked that dad was a bank robber. Colleen has lived in many places. We met up in Elkins, West Virginia a town of 6000 that was 8000 people when we lived there. The schools are still there? Elementary school is an apartment house. Junior high school is still in service. The high school is gone. Whither? My previous home in Elkins still stands proud.
We returned recently. Jane still lives there. The 50+ HS reunion is this summer. It is indeed interesting to return to the scene. Nostalgic? How life has a way of circling back. This was our beginning. Change!? For sure! We are different in ways we could never have imagined. Happy?! But, of course! Together! It is very much good to be back to visit. Yes, just visiting.
Over 60
Suddenly single! It was complicated…
No! I was never “happier” being a single. Headline? Anything for a headline?! A defensive posture for the lonely?
The exact thought I had at the moment I realized I was single again… back in 2014… was I would like to find someone to hold hands with and enjoy a peaceful sunset holding hands.
I guess I was never single. I always sought the comfort of a loving relationship. I was very fortunate…. And I am happy now. I had never before that known the wonderful feeling of a cat who hugged me. Colleen brought three cats.
Happy?! All that and more! Everyone has a different measure of serenity. I would not trade for anything else than where I am at this very moment. I wish it would last and last…
What’s on your phone?
As far back as 2012 we have pics on our phones that just linger on and on. Way way back. Largely ignored, I had the occasion to back up the phones and there was everything. A lot of nonsense pictures. Obviously, the phone is not my primary camera. Colleen uses her phone on rare occasion.
Arches National Park. Spam?! There was a time … so long ago… we had only four cats. A selfie, but of course! And, a memory of my time in Jeddah, apparently a happy ending (operation) success.
So much more, so many more pictures, to mine… for another day.
Looks easy
Old. Retired. Bored with nothing to do… except demonstrate…
Photo op?! Laying floor? Easy to shoot. Not so easy to install!
It’s click lock. Easy! Nope! It ain’t! There are gaps. The click don’t lock.
Ha! You get plenty sore. And there are a lot of cuts with power tools to make it fit around corners and doors. Look! Wood register! No, I did not make that.
Fun? Boredom? Well, we needed a new toilet. Can you install one crooked to the room? Yes! Corrected. Yes, too.
Photo worthy? Photo op? it depends upon your point of view. I was tired and proud of the work. The rug will cover gaps… shhhh, maybe Colleen won’t notice… too much.
Glass half full
Optimism!
Nay! Glass half empty. I got sisters in law who believe… Caution! It runs on Colleen’s side of the family.
Cockeyed optimist? … unrealistic. Lately I am consumed by age and decline. My mood has been low… astrologically low as I put it. Step by step, forward, ever forward. It is not so hard to remind myself each day that there is something great to be thankful for. The glass as ever – remains half full!!
Old is new again
This was my first DSLR camera. I shot a lot of images before upgrading to the Nikon D200 in 2007.
Clunky! Chunky. It seems so old compared to the features and shooting capability of the Sony A6700 – latest and greatest. Images? …a work in progress.
My initial images… well the original D70 has been misplaced. Amazon… delivered a used body that was “sticky.” Really!? Returned, reordered, and the new (old) body works well enough. The images are soft. Max ISO is 1600. Shooting indoors on a gray winter day is a challenge for exposure and focus. Learning curve!
It will take a bit of time to adjust to shooting with so few bells and whistles as I have become accustomed to. I was so proud of this camera for a few years. No more slide film. I was ushered into the digital age and look back in fascination at how things evolved. No you cannot go back. Knowing what I know and the capability of up to date digital camera features, I feel hampered as I try to get a decent image from a camera I once thought was so special.
We met in the third grade. We sat in desks just like these. I remember sitting in the back of the classroom. We were together in the same class till sixth grade. I sent Colleen a letter (yes, with a stamp) sometime around 2008? She responded but we lost touch once again until…
May 22, 2014
Colleen: As Marty has probably told you, we were talking the other day and your name came up. I told him what I knew of you from the last time we communicated, and gave him your e-mail, hoping it was current. You came only imagine my surprise when he told me you were practicing medicine in Saudi Arabia! One of the last countries I could imagine being in, so now I am exceedingly curious (or read nosy if you prefer).
Why? How? How long?, and anything else you care to tell (or nothing if you like better).
May 21, 2014
From Marty Martin: Colleen and I were talking earlier this week. She mentioned your name and…
Nothing is lost. An email search came up “zero!!” for any email from Colleen at that time in 2014. I never throw anything away! Ha!! Search in an alternate way…
“Nosy” She had me at “nosy!” The rest is history.
Was it but just one day?!? Marty emailed one day. The email was in the trash as I noticed Elkins in the header. I know I hinted heavily and desperately with a flurry of email exchange to get Marty to email Colleen and have her to respond to me. She had cut me off in 2008 and I was not going to send her an email first.
Gee! The things you can find when you go looking?! She came to visit in a whirlwind tour of NYC right as I was planning to move away from NY forever. Maine followed. Colleen had always wanted to visit Maine. NY – nightlife, Indian powwow, West Indian day parade… bright lights and people. It was quite a contrast to WV where life is definitely different from NY.
Yellow sheep, Scotland – different again. Travel. Adventure. Fun. Laughter. …favorite lighthouse? Wyeth? … all fond memories now.
An aside: my digital photography is so different now. Too. Better? I think so. Better camera? Or, better photographer?
This email exchange came on the heels of my first iPhone. David made me get it on my birthday less than a month before. It became the electronic tether for Colleen and I from Saudi to WV.
Oh! oops!
Quickly! Substitute! I need a new post!
I made the same post for two consecutive days. Yesterday and…today – not any more.
Scotland. I happen to be editing Scotland pics:
Sheep rescue. A lamb got out of the enclosure and was loose next to the road. Colleen made me stop the car and she got out and rescued the poor lamb. Happy ending. Its mama was reunited and everyone was happy once more.
Heilan coo – need I say any more about an iconic Scottish symbol?
Castle: another day, another castle….
Puffins: high on a cliff hillside… Colleen hates heights… the things she will do for me! Dots on the water! Just dots! Oh boy… another failed puffin outing. No! Nay! The puffins flock to human proximity. Their enemies the black back gulls are afraid of humans. Who are the puffins more afraid of? … they’d rather be close to humans! That was so good for us!!
Weaving – Dovecot Studio, Edinburgh: Colleen wove the one on the left. Turn it upside down – she wove a field of heather and field of rapeseed with the sun and blue sky. I see it! What skill and imagination… all executed in a few hours’ time. Me? I was happy with some bold color.
Before I knew you
Colleen, in an alternate reality we would have been married more than fifty years. I wish…
Stonehenge, before restriction, I don’t think they let you walk right up to it these days. Sheep?! I guess I had an affinity…. Pigeons, oft referred to as flying squirrels… we have so much trouble with squirrels at our bird feeder right now! Wild and crazy? Don’t ask why? And especially don’t ask where our pants went to? Do I mention that my good buddy went home from the national meeting with a stomach ache and was gone (pancreas) two weeks later?
BC? AC? – After Colleen? Definitely better!
I love my wife
Frank Sinatra sang the song…I have loved before. Some days I do not know if I am coming or going. Sunrise? Sunset?
I work at it. I am trying. Trying to keep it all going. And … a handful in every sense.
Worry? Worry! Yes. I am holding as tight as I can, thankful for every moment together, knowing that we will part someday, and dreading it. As Frank sang, “I love my wife.”
New camera old I
Canon G3 4/16/2003 birthday gift
No, it was not exactly my birthday. We were a slight bit late in celebrating.
A gift! I had attended the Camera expo at the Javits convention center some time ago. They displayed a (Kodak??) digital camera costing over $10k. Too much $$$ for me! But the research was continuing furiously… Notoriously, I am hard to shop for and to get a gift. I had a credit card and there was little to prevent me… Lisa hit upon the Canon G3. Brilliant! This was a nice camera with plenty of potential. But it could not replace the big glass lens of my Nikon SLR. So I would muddle along clinging to my slide film for at least another year. And then Nikon introduced a DSLR body. The rests, as they say, is history. A real game changer for me!
A poor workman
…blames his tools.
I’m experimenting with old camera gear. Canon G3, Canon G12, Nikon D200….
Comparatively my new mirrorless up to date wonders seem so much easier to use. Did my old gear get obsolete so fast? Well, I suppose twenty year old gear is pretty ancient by comparison to what advances have occurred in digital camera technology.
Eh? The LCD screen has gotten better. Focus is better. Zoom is better. Ergonomically, the new cameras seem so sleek. Biased? Am I just used to the new gear that the old camera seems so clunky?
I got a lotta good digital images in my catalog. And before that I have a lot of slides. Did I get old? Are things easier nowadays? Cameras have indeed changed. Did I change too? Who can really know? I only know that my new mirrorless gear makes things so much easier to get the image I seek.
We’ve been…
together… a long time. Symbolically, since the third grade. We were separated by time and distance 50 years.
Found and reunited… together once more. Now.
Long story short, it has been a wild ride these past few years. The ultimatum came when Colleen refused to attend the 50th high school reunion unless we were married. Ha!
What a good idea! I only wish we had been married fifty years. Good? There was this old novel (from high school) – the title escapes me – where the wife was perfect; the marriage was perfect. I am that lucky husband.
Retro
Old cameras? Old cameras! Film?! Not that far back. But I go … I went back to the first digital camera I used with regularity. Hmmm? Where is my Nikon D70? Too much gear. And besides, unless you are a nut, you probably don’t care much. In fact I daresay you probably are using your iPhone. iPhone represents the bulk of the photos taken now. Digital camera is but a small slice. How about 92+% of all pics taken are smartphone. Me? Less than 1%. Much less!
My argument – the glass lens of a dinky phone is no match for real glass of a camera telephoto lens. Sensor size compared to film compared to the dinky sensor of the smart phone? A camera has a much bigger sensor. No doubt!
Pictured is my first Canon G3 circa 2003. Film? My Nikon lineage goes back to the Nikon Ftn. The latest greatest Nikon D200 and D610. I know. I know. Who cares? Small point and shoot? Mirrorless?
Ok. Ok. I admit I am a camera nut. I still have big lenses – big glass! And last year I shot more than 130k images. That would have been a large $$$ expense in film and developing. Instead I now sport a 512gb memory card that takes thousands of images for pennies.
Film, digital, iPhone – gee, the choices! I realize there is a difference between Ford, Porsche, and Tesla. Do you want to get where you are going? Or do you want to look good getting there?
My kids don’t use a camera other than smart phone. Colleen looks good in selfies with me. Our grandkids? Our friends? I would be hard pressed to say when I last saw anyone holding a camera in hand. Ha! I’m an antique!
Post Christmas
After Christmas we hit the Christmas sales. Sale? Sale in an antique store? Well, yes, sort of. We found a ring cushion. ? Eh? … for wedding ceremony. We did not buy it the first time around, so, back we went. It was a mission to acquire it for Jen’s grandson and wife to be. Other things sprang up and were snagged along the way too. It is the season of silly politics. I daresay the last place I expected a fashion show….
Hometown
If there is a common point of reference for Colleen and me, it would be Elkins, West Virginia. Pop: 6800. Small town?
Colleen and I both went to the same elementary school – First Ward (now apartments). And, we went to the same Junior High School. She says we were “tracked.” Smart kids were put in smart kids classes. That is not allowed now. Smart and dumb are alike – except they are not. Fair?
We rented when we first moved there and later built a house that eventually sold for $25.5k. Today’s homes when I last bought were upwards of $500k. Economy of scale? Gas was 30cents a gallon. Nowadays it is $3.
Buildings stand. We got old. It was homecoming. We took the sisters out to lunch. The local pizza joint makes pizza comparable to a New York “slice!” Ummm… I discovered that Jane does not eat Italian and barely knows what a “slice” is except to say, “Pizza Hut.” Does she? I do believe she tries everything only to be done in one bite. I should take here to the garden center for seeds. She eats like a bird. Jane? … I won’t tell you which one. Ha!
What I can tell you is that brick lasts for decades. The population of the town shrank. Capacity in the schools has not changed much. And, my old house is still there. My old room was the size of a large closet….
Hightlight reel
Chaos!
I have a lot of images scattered across multiple external drives. I have Lightroom catalogs holding 500k images – two! … that adds up to one million. … and slides are more.
I had the innocent idea of doing a highlight image for the past five years. Ha ha! Ok! I have folders with select images – mainly those that got posted in the past. Following me? Alas the select image folders are scattered too. But! Found! … sort of.
By now, I know Colleen is laughing in bewilderment. Am I compulsive?
Naturally, I end up with family pictures. Why not?
Under any other circumstance the highlight pictures would involve real subjects and real pictures?! I giggle. (Yes, I do too!) I could throw in travel, cats, flowers, and lighthouses. But what was the best thing to happen in the past five years? Marriage, cats, and love. Unbeatable!
Currently
…confusing perhaps, because I compose posts in advance of publishing them. I am currently about a month and a half ahead.
Therefore, it is old news to hear that we recently lost a beloved cat. He was an integral part of the family and missed sorely. It has been dark. Our thoughts – mine – have been much about mortality. Life is short.
This paused me to think on my own and whether I had done good overall. I report that there was good and bad. On the whole, it was mostly good. I have been responsible to help others live by the surgeries I did. (Some contest this thought.)
I am content to know that I saved lives that were perhaps guided by God’s hand on mine. Or as someone once said 99% perspiration and 1% genius. Yes, there were days when even I could scratch my head and wonder, “I did that?!!
In my current state of thought I am satisfied that I did good and changed many lives for the better. I saved people (because of my skills) many, who would otherwise not be here.
I am indeed thankful for how life played out to allow me to train and be a neurosurgeon once upon a time. The loss of my beloved cat leaves me pondering how little I can do but to think on how wonderous a life can be so precious.
I also think upon the odds that a poor kid could rise academically from West Virginia to be trained at a top program in New York just by being in the right place at the right moment and becoming a neurosurgeon who would do so much for others. I call it luck and am reminded, “Luck be a lady tonight!”
Seven cats … and counting. … one loving wife!
Unintended consequence
The iPod touch has a camera and I took 2000+ pictures with it. Eh!?? Wow! …starting around 2012.
Nothing special. But the pictures spanned my time in Saudi as a working neurosurgeon. There were plenty of medical pictures – mostly pathology and x-ray pictures. Then there were some shots of people.
Representative:
A. Brain tumor surgery. Yes, a tumor removed. Successfully. Success! Someone had the presence of mind to shoot the critical moment of removal.
B. Kids. My kids visited me in Saudi. Once. Dave learned to scuba dive. We dove together for the first and only time.
C. Auspicious. 4/14/14. Birthday dinner. Mine. Lisa and Dave were there. Dave took the shot. Soon after Lisa and I were split. I was in touch with Colleen via email about a month later (purely chance!). Dave made me (yes, he insisted) get an iPhone. The rest as they say is history!
What a ten years it has been!
NPO
In medical orders “NPO” is nothing per oral – no eating or drinking usually pertaining to preparation for surgery.
NPO in photography can mean no photo op! (The letters fit.)
Ha!
I have been to the Ag Museum before. I have refused to return. There is no photo op in old tractors. Right??!
Xmas. The Xmas Farmer’s Day. Craft demonstrations and programs…. It was a blast! Shhh! Don’t tell Colleen.
The blacksmith made an iron hook and gifted it to Colleen. Merry Christmas! We knew the weaver. Shave and a haircut – two bits. Ha ha. Great song line when we were kids.
Photo ops? You bet. It was very productive and entertaining. I came away with a new and different perspective.
photobackstory 