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.
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…
Film
When I switched to digital cameras Jules complained. She liked slides better. She was uncanny in her ability to tell the difference between film and digital. Nowadays…?
I watched the Oscars the other night. And, it occurred to me? what are they shooting – film or digital. It turns out very few film makers are shooting film. Oh! They call it movies. But the term is not specific and digital or film whatever may be does not have to be specified. Ha! Digital. Digital video has taken over. It never occurred to me. James Bond looks the same either way, just different actors.
Me? I was converted to digital for the simple reason of $. Digital was so much less $ and so much less work to go from camera to computer file. The telephone had an operator who connected you to your party. Now it’s all smart phone. Dave stores 100k images in the cloud. I grew up and clouds were for rain. Gee!
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…
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…
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.”
Roadside
ADHD? Me? Ha!! I can’t sit still in a moving car?? Me? Camera in hand and ready for action… there’s lots to see. America, ain’t it beautiful? Sometimes I think you can guess the politics of folks from the roadside show. Careful for the rocks you turn over.
Signs
Context. It gives me orientation of location without going to the database. It amazes me that I can take so many pictures and not have a keeper among them. Oh sure there are some nice ones. You delete? Go ahead. I don’t. Memory is cheap. All that clutter? It’s the price I pay. Looking back this is the reason Lightroom gives you rating stars. And my “0” stars are still there to be puzzled over. What was I thinking? Why did I take that shot? And why did I not get a better one?
Mixed memories
Old slides. On her 40th (b’day), I took lisa to London. It was a grand gesture. I had recently left my group medical practice to go on my own. It was a scary time. And about that time we were in Disney as the slides indicate. Apparently, I was mad at the mother in law – a sweet lady who had done nothing to deserve… lisa had always had issues (Freudian). Lila was traveling with Ann who took the picture explaining the group shot of the family in London. Confused? Me too.
Aside from the horse guards, the London bus is pretty assuredly a London tip off. An aside – Dave carried around a pig, a stuffed pig, everywhere we went on that trip. He spoke to the pig. I never did figure that one out. And he has never mentioned nor told me what was in his head. I never saw the pig again when we returned. I am puzzled to this day over the fact that my usual generosity was absent and we did not share a single meal with Lila or Ann when we met in London. It was a most strange encounter of the family kind.
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