Treasures

Treasures come in many forms.

If you've been reading this blog for long, you know that we're (slowly) wading through fifty plus years of our lives.  So much of what we find makes us scratch our heads, but then there are those things that strike a chord so deep that the resonance is practically physical.

I thought this was gone forever.

This is the very first picture I ever took that made me think that photography could be something other than a series of snapshots.

We had spent a few days down in Pacific Grove to view the annual migration of the Monarch butterflies.  It was early morning and this beautiful little red headed girl was there with her family.  Suddenly, this butterfly landed right on her shoulder.  She suffered a moment of indecision.

Move?

Brush it off?

In the end, she just waited for a moment and it flitted away.

In those days, I was shooting film and had no idea if I'd gotten the shot or not.

When shooting film I think it's safe to say less than 2% of my shots ever came out, so I was really excited when this came back from the developers.

It's the shot I always remember.

Can you imagine how happy I was to finally see it after all these years.

I wonder what ever happened to that little red headed girl?

Light

I spend a good amount of time 

in the back of the rig.

It's technically the bedroom, 

but to me, it's my den.

Depending on where we're parked, 

the view changes by the minute.  

Today, I looked up 

and saw this beautiful pattern.  

I tried to play with the settings 

to get a better shot, 

but in just a few minutes, 

it was gone.

Just a couple of memory shots.

ANOTHER iPad App

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Sorry, I just can't help myself . . .

This one is called Mosaic Creator and it is way cool. Especially when you consider it only costs $.99!

It offers a lot of options in a small package. First, you pick any image from your photo album that you want to convert into a photo mosaic. Then you can pick a size for the mosaic tiles (anywhere from 16 to 150 pixels). Then, you decide if you want to use the same tiles over and over (or use every picture in your album without a lot of repeating). Finally, you decide whether you want all the photos to maintain their original coloring, or if the software can change the album image colors to suit the selected image.

Even though you only have three options, they open up endless possibilities.

I'm including too many (again), but I'm having such a good time . . .

Remember the panorama I posted of the Golden Gate Bay?
Here's a mosaic using the original photo colors.

Here it is allowing the app to change the mosaic colors
to suit the image.

Flamingos, using app selected colors and larger tiles.
This shot allowed unlimited re-use of the tiles.

Smaller tiles, no repeating,
but using colors to suit the original image.

Sunrise at Monument Valley.

More Monument Valley.

This is the very first one I did.
The blocks are a bit too large,
but still, I kind of like it.

It even works on black and whites.

I made the squares really tiny on this one.
The original picture wasn't all that clear,
but I think the mosaic is kind of cool

All these images are clickable for larger images.
That said, when you zoom in,
some of the original images are kind of pixelly.
This isn't as much of an issue with the original size,
but when I reduced them for posting online,
it became more noticeable.

Still, I really like this app and will be using it a lot.

Geneology

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The internet is an amazing thing.

In researching family history, we've recently discovered that my Terry and Russ (of Russ and Donna fame) are actually twin brothers who were separated at birth.

After making this miraculous discovery, we spent a btt of time together. Watching the long lost brothers get to know each other was a wonderful thing.

While looking at old family photos , we found that both had followed a similar path

At one time,
both have worked the carny circuit
as Swami fortunetellers

Unfortunately
falling under the spell of a some bad varmints,
they both suffered a short stint in the pokey.

But you know what?
Good genes will out.
Once their debt to society was paid,
they both went on to become
respectable members of their communities.

Then one day,
I got a call from someone
who had visited my website,
asking about our 30 foot twin Lazy Daze.
We talked for a spell,
then I spoke with his wife a while.
I remember telling Terry
how much I liked them
and how I hoped they would get a Lazy Daze
and maybe we would keep in touch.

And they did.
And we did.
And the rest is history.

Ain't the internet grand?

Memories . . .

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In looking through my hummingbird pictures yesterday, it started me looking through a lot of my old shots.

Wow, memories are visceral . . .

In no particular order, here's where my thoughts have been today.

Dulcie, New Mexico

Monument Valley

Quail Hollow Ranch

My Desk

the Backyard

Sweet Isidro

the first picture I ever took
with my iPhone 4s

Capitola

This is one of those "memory" blogs,
more for me than the rest of you.

That's it for today . . .

Visions of Light

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I love photography, and I love movies

I find I can watch a film time and again, each time discovering something fresh and each time, enjoying it for a different reason.

But it's only lately that I've realized that a big part of what I love about movies is the photography.

It struck me the other day that they were originally called moving pictures. Movies because they are pictures that move. Elemental I know, but still a connection I hadn't really made .

Photography is so integral to film that I think we often take it for granted. But nothing is so basic to the craft of movie making as photography.

With all of this on my mind, I recently viewed an exceptional documentary called Visions of Light. Compiled by the American Film Institute, it features interviews and commentary by noted DPs (Directors of Photography).

It's an enlightening piece of film.

They talk about photography and the history and art of movie making, starting back in the day when movies were made by one single person holding a camera. How in the early days, all cameras were hand held, allowing photographers to capture images that hold up one over hundred years later. Look at some of the scenes in the early silents and you'll see what I mean.

Then, with the advent of sound, movies became immobile, which changed the look of so many movies, but photographers continued to innovate.

I was particularly taken with the talk of "seeing" in black and white as opposed to color. Long time readers may remember I went through a serious black and white phase while we were staying at Ghost Ranch, and I often find myself leaning in that direction.

We got Visions of Light from our local library and I can recommend this documentary 100%. If you love movies or photography, or if you just want an afternoons entertainment, check it out.

Ongoing Lessons-2 of 3

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Okay, I'm posting these
so we can remember
what a great time we had last night,
but be warned,
these are poor shots.

The boats were beautiful,

and the company superb.

But gosh, it was cold!

This was one of my favorite boats.

Yeah, I know, not too sharp.
Let's call it my artistic vision.

Or not . . .

This is the best shot of the night,
but it's nothing to brag about.

A bit better
(but this ship was at anchor).

This is what I mean when I say
I cannot hold a camera steady.

As we were leaving the harbor, I was complaining to Terry about my crappy shots. I was really discouraged.

He reminded me that years ago, we were at Disneyland and wanted to take pictures of the Main Street Electrical Parade (something we had never gotten good shots of). We took our (film) camera in to the Camera Shop on Main Street and the fellow very kindly sold us 1000 film and set our camera to something (but we don't remember what). Whatever he did, for the first time we got great night shots.

Remembering this, Terry mentioned that he had set his camera to ISO 800.

As I said before, I never mess with the settings in my camera, because I really don't understand them.

But this got me thinking . . .

Since we were heading out the the wharf for some nice warm soup, I decided to try a few settings myself.

I looked in my camera manual (which I keep in PDF form on my iPhone and my iPad) and saw where I could adjust the ISO setting and put it at 1600.

Not really understanding exactly what the correlation was, I also changed the shutter speed to 250.

Then, as we waited for our soup, I started taking pictures. The restaurant is glass on three sides, dim fluorescent lights inside and lots of ambient light outside, street lights, neon signs, etc.

And interesting things started to happen. Even though the light was dim and indirect, my pictures were fairly good. We ate our soup, then went out on the wharf and shot some pictures of the boardwalk across the dark water. And they weren't half bad.

So very slowly, the relationship between how the digital sensor deals with light (which is what ISO stands for in the digital world, I think) and the speed of the shutter have started to make a bit of sense.

I haven't had time to work on the pictures, but I will in the next posting.

Just so you know, I'm writing this all out here so I can reference it. Hopefully by the time I'm done working this out, I'll be able to use it when I go out and shoot pictures!

Ongoing Lessons - Number 1 of 3

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The More I Learn the Less I Know

WOW, what a day! My mind is spinning and I can either write or work on pictures, but I have so many thoughts I choose to write.

Tonight was the annual Yacht lighting ceremony down at the Santa Cruz harbor. I'm not very good with nighttime shooting, so this was a perfect chance to bone up before we go out and try to see some Christmas Lights.

Have I mentioned before that I really don't know one end of the camera from the other? Focal Point? ISO? DoF, f-stops you name it and I don't understand it.

I usually shoot in 3 burst exposure mode (now there, doesn't that make me sound like I know what I'm talking about? Dream on). All I really know is how to set it up in the camera so that it will give me three shots every time I press the button. One will be lighter, one will be darker and one will be somewhere in between. Why? I don't know (or care) it just gives me an idea of what is possible with each shot.

But now that I'm using a point and shoot-ish kind of camera again, it has things like Snow, Fireworks, Candlelight, Beach, that kind of stuff. Now I may not know all my camera terminology, but these terms I understand.

When we went down to the harbor the other night, I shot using the Fireworks setting. Out of the various "scene" choices, it gave me the best results.

So tonight, I decided to try shooting in the dark using different presets.

But I get ahead of myself

We arrived at the harbor
sometime around 4:00.
While we were scouting out a viewing area,
we realized this guy
was about twenty feet away.

Remember you can click on any image
for a larger version.

Was he in the least bit concerned
that a couple of hundred crazy people
were hanging out in his front yard?

Not a bit.

I'm including this shot
because I've never gotten a picture of a bird
from this angle before!

And what would a day at the beach
be like without a pelican?

Or two?

This was shot from where we finally landed
to watch the yachts
as they come out
in all their Christmas finery.

I couldn't resist one more shot of the moon.

And what's this?
Some new kind of bird?
Possibly a small flock
of the elusive Smiling Bunny Bird?

Nope, that's the fine people we met while waiting for the boats. We had a great time getting to know each other, and if I remembered their names, I'd mention it here. . .

Let's hope they get in touch by email.

Now about the yachts . . .

Everyone saw my nifty new camera and decided they wouldn't shoot at all, because I so obviously knew what I was doing.

That was their first mistake . . .

What would drive three such seemingly sane people to make this choice?

I surely don't know and wish the burden hadn't fallen to me, because I failed miserably. I tried Night Shooting. I tried Fireworks. I tried Candle Light, I tried Sports, I even broke down and shot on Automatic!

But you know what? Those darn boats won't stay still for a picture!

I got some shots, but I'm not pleased at all. That said, tomorrow, I'll post a few as "memory shots". Memory shots are those that serve as reminders of good times. And reminders that we always have more to learn. And reminders that I really need to take a photography class.

But that's for tomorrow.

And about those lessons? That's for tomorrow too. Or maybe the next day.

Just a teaser though . . .

Tonight, after forty plus years taking pictures (seriously for the last seven or so) I think one more bit of photo jargon finally found the proper receptacle in my brain.

I'll talk about the great revelation
in the next day or so.

But now, it's off to bed.

Sleep Well.