My grandson!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Out! But not down!
Colors attracted me
I have a doctor appointment this afternoon; I'll be back whenever ...
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The doc's appointment went as I expected; more tests to come; they pretty well have my April planned for me. Phooey!
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Have a winsome Wednesday!
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Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Corel PaintShop Photo Pro revisited
Yes, the roof is that red!
Seeing as how Corel Corporation looked in on my blog to read what I said about their product Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3, I wll say a bit more. As for slowness, it could be due in part to me using Windows XP which is not optimized for multi-core processors. The program "should" be faster using Windows 7, but I cannot guarantee it. One problem is that when the main editor program is running and you need to use the Organizer to find a file, you are in effect running two editing programs because the organizer is capable of using some of the main editing tools. The part that isn't running in effect becomes what we old-timers call a tsr or terminate and stay resident program which is not active but is still using memory for quick access. You can find more of them in your Windows system tray. In order to try to cover all bases, there is another feature called "Express Lab" from which you can do simple editing tasks much like with Picasa or Picnik. Another feature is the "RAW" file importer and converter; I find it clunky and difficult to use so I still rely on my dependable and free Raw Therapee editor/converter. PsPP does have a decent HDR tool and I do not need anything more than it for my limited work in that area. Corel seems to be trying to cover all bases with one program, but is has resulted in a bloated work environment. But one thing for sure, when you are editing from the main window, there is not another program anywhere more easy to use and capable of performing professional work than is PaintShop Photo Pro. With this release, they should have left the word "Pro" out of the title and maybe called it "One Size Fits All". For me, it is a step backward, aggravating, and slow to have to switch between the editor and organizer. So far, PsPP has been pretty stable but it will sometimes lockup when it gets low on memory resources. Like it or not, I will make more comments about the program as I use it more. By the way, Corel included a free copy (Essentials) of their Corel Painter Photo 4 program; It is much fun to use as you watch it convert your photos to various painting styles from oil to illustration. I used it on yesterday's blog photo and I like it.
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A bit more about the ongoing priest-pedophile scandal. First, priests do not become child molesters; child molesters become priests ... and a lot of other professions. The main reason most cases of priests abusing children are not prosecuted in the US is due to the children's stories are not being told until they become adults, and in most instances the statute of limitations law protects the offenders. This law in effect says that as far as society is concerned, nothing happened. Why do the offended wait so long to tell their stories? For the first few years they fear the pedophiles, and later on, they fear the stigma. Also, many times when they do come forward with their "childish" tales, they are not believed or are convinced that it was their imagination. This last big scandal concerns the abuse of about 200 deaf boys in Wisconsin between the years of 1950 and 1975.
All I want to know is why the Catholic Church in the United States tries—and in many cases succeeds—in covering up or white-washing these crimes. Even the Pope is being accused of cover-up while he was a Cardinal. Documents claim to show that he stopped a church trial against the Wisconsin priest accused of the crimes because that priest told him he had repented.
Seems to me like two major things need to happen: The church must act to investigate and stop these crimes when they are reported, and the civil statute of limitations must be repealed on all sex crimes, particularly those involving defenseless children.
Again; I am not being anti-church. I am pro-child. These acts are crimes against people and against humanity and must be treated as such.
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Have a great Tuesday!
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Seeing as how Corel Corporation looked in on my blog to read what I said about their product Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3, I wll say a bit more. As for slowness, it could be due in part to me using Windows XP which is not optimized for multi-core processors. The program "should" be faster using Windows 7, but I cannot guarantee it. One problem is that when the main editor program is running and you need to use the Organizer to find a file, you are in effect running two editing programs because the organizer is capable of using some of the main editing tools. The part that isn't running in effect becomes what we old-timers call a tsr or terminate and stay resident program which is not active but is still using memory for quick access. You can find more of them in your Windows system tray. In order to try to cover all bases, there is another feature called "Express Lab" from which you can do simple editing tasks much like with Picasa or Picnik. Another feature is the "RAW" file importer and converter; I find it clunky and difficult to use so I still rely on my dependable and free Raw Therapee editor/converter. PsPP does have a decent HDR tool and I do not need anything more than it for my limited work in that area. Corel seems to be trying to cover all bases with one program, but is has resulted in a bloated work environment. But one thing for sure, when you are editing from the main window, there is not another program anywhere more easy to use and capable of performing professional work than is PaintShop Photo Pro. With this release, they should have left the word "Pro" out of the title and maybe called it "One Size Fits All". For me, it is a step backward, aggravating, and slow to have to switch between the editor and organizer. So far, PsPP has been pretty stable but it will sometimes lockup when it gets low on memory resources. Like it or not, I will make more comments about the program as I use it more. By the way, Corel included a free copy (Essentials) of their Corel Painter Photo 4 program; It is much fun to use as you watch it convert your photos to various painting styles from oil to illustration. I used it on yesterday's blog photo and I like it.
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A bit more about the ongoing priest-pedophile scandal. First, priests do not become child molesters; child molesters become priests ... and a lot of other professions. The main reason most cases of priests abusing children are not prosecuted in the US is due to the children's stories are not being told until they become adults, and in most instances the statute of limitations law protects the offenders. This law in effect says that as far as society is concerned, nothing happened. Why do the offended wait so long to tell their stories? For the first few years they fear the pedophiles, and later on, they fear the stigma. Also, many times when they do come forward with their "childish" tales, they are not believed or are convinced that it was their imagination. This last big scandal concerns the abuse of about 200 deaf boys in Wisconsin between the years of 1950 and 1975.
All I want to know is why the Catholic Church in the United States tries—and in many cases succeeds—in covering up or white-washing these crimes. Even the Pope is being accused of cover-up while he was a Cardinal. Documents claim to show that he stopped a church trial against the Wisconsin priest accused of the crimes because that priest told him he had repented.
Seems to me like two major things need to happen: The church must act to investigate and stop these crimes when they are reported, and the civil statute of limitations must be repealed on all sex crimes, particularly those involving defenseless children.
Again; I am not being anti-church. I am pro-child. These acts are crimes against people and against humanity and must be treated as such.
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Have a great Tuesday!
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Monday, March 29, 2010
Monday reflections
Both UT basketball teams were eliminated from the NCAA tournament over the weekend. The men at least made a decent showing, but the women seemed to take it for granted that they would win. Tradition doesn't count on the scoreboard.
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I suppose my friend Alice was a bit disappointed. She hails from Kentucky but has close family in West Virginia. The WV Mountaineers beat favored Kentucky, so now her WV kin has bragging rights for a full year. There is a history of all kinds of rivalries between the two states, and several times bullets have whizzed back and forth across the Ohio River as each side attempts to make a point.
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Beginning Wednesday, the weather is supposed to take a turn for the good just in time for April Fool's day on Thursday. I have placed my order for a nice weekend so we can do some serious picnicking. I hope Watauga Lake is at full pool and that there are plenty of sailboats on the water.
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I have an appointment with the heart surgeon on Wednesday and I dread to hear what he will have to say; being ill is such an inconvenience.
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The above photo has been rendered as an oil painting using Corel Photo Painter. I then loaded it into Paintshop Pro, created a new raster layer on top of it, copied the original photo into the layer at 70 percent opacity and merged them. I like the result.
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The weather today is not looking good for hanging the worshin' on the line to dry. Have a good wash day, anyway!
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Sunday, March 28, 2010
"Riding along in my automobile ..."
Humbly dedicated to the Tea Party
I took Carolyn to Fall Branch yesterday to clean the building and made a few photos from the parking lot while sitting in the Escape. I shot a white house with a bright red roof, and a freshly painted fire hydrant with a bright red top. I wanted to get a photo with both elements together, but I would have to have been on my belly to try it. Actually maybe not. I forgot about my Gorillapod. I could possibly have maneuvered the car to where I could have flexed the little tripod close to the ground and set the lens's f/stop to its smallest size. I may have been able to sit on the sill of the open car door and accomplish a decent photo ... but, I forgot I had the pod with me. I would recommend every serious photographer have one of these tripods; they are very flexible, lite in weight, and extremely usable when a ball-head is added. Jobi makes sizes for p&s cameras on up to heavy dslr's with big zoom lenses.
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Damn, I need to get these freaking taxes finished. It would be easier if I were getting a refund or just breaking even, but I fear the wrath of Obama when he finds out I under-paid the last half of 2009. He will not be able to make payments to China and Saudi Arabia on the Wall Street bailout loans. I got dem Gitmo Blues!☹
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Next weekend is supposed to be very nice with temps of 70F+ (21C+). Picnic time at Wilbur or Watauga Lake!
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This week is the high-holy week for many Christians, culminating with Easter Sunday. In the US, Easter has come to be the time when new spring fashions are sprung. Retailers from Wal-Mart to Christian Dior will be displaying their finest on bodies of ladies, gentlemen, and children everywhere as they go to church for prayer and to be seen. For many of these devout pilgrims, it will be the only day of the year that they attend services. Amen ...
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To celebrate the furtherment of gross stupidity, I offer the above photo to the Tea Party nuts and Republicans in general; a Cross and Old Glory on a White barn that is full of horse shit.
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Title lyrics by Chuck Berry.
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Have a great week, my friends!
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Damn, I need to get these freaking taxes finished. It would be easier if I were getting a refund or just breaking even, but I fear the wrath of Obama when he finds out I under-paid the last half of 2009. He will not be able to make payments to China and Saudi Arabia on the Wall Street bailout loans. I got dem Gitmo Blues!☹
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Next weekend is supposed to be very nice with temps of 70F+ (21C+). Picnic time at Wilbur or Watauga Lake!
----
This week is the high-holy week for many Christians, culminating with Easter Sunday. In the US, Easter has come to be the time when new spring fashions are sprung. Retailers from Wal-Mart to Christian Dior will be displaying their finest on bodies of ladies, gentlemen, and children everywhere as they go to church for prayer and to be seen. For many of these devout pilgrims, it will be the only day of the year that they attend services. Amen ...
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To celebrate the furtherment of gross stupidity, I offer the above photo to the Tea Party nuts and Republicans in general; a Cross and Old Glory on a White barn that is full of horse shit.
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Title lyrics by Chuck Berry.
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Have a great week, my friends!
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Friday, March 26, 2010
See the USA in your Chevrolet ...
What is it with Catholic priests and little boys? This latest scandal seems to be heading straight to the Pope's doorstep. Would not the right thing to do be to allow priests to have wives upon whom they can bestow their lust? Just like the Pope and every other male born of woman, they are men first and priests second; they were not brought into this world anointed but they were born with sex organs, curiosity, and then lust as they matured. Are the little boy's lives and mental well being worth wasting because of religious dogma? I am not being anti-Catholic; I am being pro child.
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I went for my shot and could not find a parking spot, so I drove on to the bank to make a deposit and from there to the post office. Because it was cold and rainy, I didn't take the Pentax with me but opted to carry the little Olympus. Carolyn had mentioned she saw a couple of old signs while she was out one evening. She said they were located where the city was demolishing an old tobacco warehouse that had later on become a Chevrolet dealership. I need to regress a bit. You may remember from a year or so ago I wrote about the annual festivities that used to go on when the new car models were introduced. One dealership—Faircloth Chevrolet—always had the best shows of country, hillbilly, and gospel music at those times and drew in a lot of folk to see the new cars. I think I mentioned that I remembered the 1959 model year goings-on very well. To my surprise, the signs Carolyn found were two old ads from the 1959 model year that had been painted on a brick wall. The wall was part of the old body shop; I know that because I had my 1966 Chevelle worked on there. The paint on the signs still looks fairly fresh because they were on an inside wall and until a week or so ago had never been introduced to the weather. I about peed on myself as the memories of those days came back to me as I stood and looked at the artwork. I fnally remembered why I was there and snapped off a few shots; those jewels will probably be gone forever by this time next week. They may not look like much to you, but to me, they are golden. I am going to upload them to Flickr and put them in appropriate groups. I eventually got my other shot.
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The Smoking Gun's Mug Shots of the Week!
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Have a great Saturday!
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I will be shot at high noon
I've taken a few days off from taxes, but I will resume this evening ... hopefully. I've never been as far behind on our taxes as I am this year. I still have a few more people to bring their stuff by, but like me, they won't file until the last minute. I applied for a mega-buck loan through a Chinese bank but was turned down. Serves me right for not shopping more at Wal-Mart.
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Saturday is supposed to be a decent day for shooting, but the Lady Vols play Baylor in early afternoon and I don't want to miss the game. The Tennessee women beat Baylor pretty easily in the first game of the season, but the Bears are much improved since then. Maybe I can get out later in the day for some photo attempts. Much of the stuff I like to shoot isn't quite ready for me as yet. Birds are not yet plentiful in several species, wildflowers are nowhere near peak, and deciduous trees are still mostly barren of leaves.
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My old squirrel friend Little One must have died; he had been eating peanuts from my fingers since just after his mother put him out into the world on his own. He was very old as squirrels go, and had become stiff and crippled from what I feel was arthritis. He was no longer swift enough to avoid the neighborhood cats and he hasn't been seen for a couple of weeks. Just another on a long list of good friends I have lost over the years. Cat owners whom allow their pets to run loose are not on my Christmas card list!
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After spending just a little bit of time on Megashot then going to Flickr, it is almost blinding. The white glare at the latter site is very annoying when trying to view photos. Yahoo needs to make Flickr more appealing instead of just sticking money in their pockets. Megashot is growing by a few members each day, and those new ones are telling more of their friends about the advantages of displaying photos there. I'm not spending a lot of time at either site, but Megashot is becoming much more photographically appealing. Flickr is still the place to be if you crave the social aspects, but Megashot will be a pretty good place for personal interactions, too. I cannot see myself purchasing another Flickr Pro account next year, but I will probably continue to post photos just to keep contact with some people I care about on the site until they move to Megashot. Let me put it this way; Flickr is fun because of the social interactions whereas Megashot is fun without them; it will be unbelievable when more people join and begin using it the same way they do Flickr.
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My Pentax will be two years old in a couple of weeks and their new K7 model is mighty appealing. The worst problem I can find with Pentax is they are not up to par with other camera brands when it comes to making good photos at high iso ranges; both Nikon and Canon kill Pentax in that department. The K7 is much improved with its cutting edge sensor, but it still has a ways to go. Another thing that bothers me is that Pentax is now owned by Hoya and I have no idea what their plans are for camera innovation. Hoya makes some great glass filters, but bringing the Pentax brand into the same everyday conversations that Canon and Nikon enjoy is a daunting task. We who use Pentax know our cameras are superior in most ways, but Nikon, Canon, and Sony spend the big advertising bucks.
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Sorry to be so boring lately, but there is just not a lot going on that I want to talk about. Mark again has me stirred up a bit about the Republicans; I hope they have a Tea Party around here for me to attend. That will be something to write about; if they allow me to have pencil and paper in my cell.
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Have a super shot day!
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Thursday, March 25, 2010
Photo stuff
Tiny wildflowers (weeds) in backyard
Overcast and threatening rain. I love Spring!
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Black and white cheat-sheet found at this nice web site and the pages have a lot of good stuff for non-pros. I think there is a fold-away light box in my future.
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I went into the backyard for an attempt at shooting some spring flowers but my inability to crawl around prevented me from catching any decent photos. Is not that I can't get on the ground; it is that I cannot get on my feet again unless I can find something with which to pull myself up. I did the best I could and guessed at the focus distance, held the camera as low as I could, clicked the shutter and hoped for the best. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Yesterday was a doesn't for the most part.
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I am trying the latest version Of Corel's Paintshop Pro which is now called Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3. It is supposed to be a much better experience, particularly for newer users wanting to step up from simple photo editors like Picasa and Picnik. It is supposed to be faster, easier, and more "fun" to use than the previous 12 versions. It supposedly sports better use of multi-core processors and not be as much of a memory hog as the past few versions. To make a long story shorter, Paintshop Pro began back in the early 1990's as a Windows shareware program; try it and if you like it send Jasc (the originators of the program) $39 and it was yours to keep. My first version was either Psp 3 or Psp 4 and it was an easy to use replacement for expensive and difficult to learn Adobe Photoshop. When Psp 9 appeared, Corel bought the program from Jasc. Corel has one product that it is famous for; Corel Draw. I still use an early 90's version of the program. The problem is, Corel has several programs they are infamous for. They bought WordPerfect which at the time was the most widely used word processor and office suite and soon changed it so much that it is now mostly a footnote in computer history. They did the same with one of the better Linux distros, and now have done the same with what used to be the best photo editor in the world, hands down. It beat Photoshop in just about every category. PsP 13 is a dog! Slow-slow-slow! It no longer has the ability to show its photo organizer on the main editing screen; now you have to click a special button and wait (in my case several seconds) for the editor to load in place of the editing screen, then do the same thing to get back to editing. It is very time consuming to get anything done and everything is much harder and slower to use. I had to disable the RAW editor so I could get something done before my funeral. Built-in editing features are much slower than in PsP 12, and the only thing I find that is faster is third-party scripts. Also the price has increased by $20, but it looks like sales are so bad that they are reducing it. I can get an upgrade for $60. My advice: Don't even think about it.
My pc has a three-core processor that is very fast and 4-gigs of ram plus a modern video card with 512K of on-board video memory.
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I'm glad that "American" companies like Google, Network Solutions, and Go Daddy have decided to stop being political pawns for the communist Chinese government.
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Have a Springy Thursday!
Overcast and threatening rain. I love Spring!
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Black and white cheat-sheet found at this nice web site and the pages have a lot of good stuff for non-pros. I think there is a fold-away light box in my future.
----
I went into the backyard for an attempt at shooting some spring flowers but my inability to crawl around prevented me from catching any decent photos. Is not that I can't get on the ground; it is that I cannot get on my feet again unless I can find something with which to pull myself up. I did the best I could and guessed at the focus distance, held the camera as low as I could, clicked the shutter and hoped for the best. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Yesterday was a doesn't for the most part.
----
I am trying the latest version Of Corel's Paintshop Pro which is now called Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3. It is supposed to be a much better experience, particularly for newer users wanting to step up from simple photo editors like Picasa and Picnik. It is supposed to be faster, easier, and more "fun" to use than the previous 12 versions. It supposedly sports better use of multi-core processors and not be as much of a memory hog as the past few versions. To make a long story shorter, Paintshop Pro began back in the early 1990's as a Windows shareware program; try it and if you like it send Jasc (the originators of the program) $39 and it was yours to keep. My first version was either Psp 3 or Psp 4 and it was an easy to use replacement for expensive and difficult to learn Adobe Photoshop. When Psp 9 appeared, Corel bought the program from Jasc. Corel has one product that it is famous for; Corel Draw. I still use an early 90's version of the program. The problem is, Corel has several programs they are infamous for. They bought WordPerfect which at the time was the most widely used word processor and office suite and soon changed it so much that it is now mostly a footnote in computer history. They did the same with one of the better Linux distros, and now have done the same with what used to be the best photo editor in the world, hands down. It beat Photoshop in just about every category. PsP 13 is a dog! Slow-slow-slow! It no longer has the ability to show its photo organizer on the main editing screen; now you have to click a special button and wait (in my case several seconds) for the editor to load in place of the editing screen, then do the same thing to get back to editing. It is very time consuming to get anything done and everything is much harder and slower to use. I had to disable the RAW editor so I could get something done before my funeral. Built-in editing features are much slower than in PsP 12, and the only thing I find that is faster is third-party scripts. Also the price has increased by $20, but it looks like sales are so bad that they are reducing it. I can get an upgrade for $60. My advice: Don't even think about it.
My pc has a three-core processor that is very fast and 4-gigs of ram plus a modern video card with 512K of on-board video memory.
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I'm glad that "American" companies like Google, Network Solutions, and Go Daddy have decided to stop being political pawns for the communist Chinese government.
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Have a Springy Thursday!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Blogging like a twit
Power to the people!
This morning I ...
... shooed a squirrel off a bird feeder. Drank a cup of coffee with three spoons sugar. Went to pee. Did the census report. Did the 941 tax report. Did the unemployment tax report. Shooed a squirrel off a bird feeder. Went to pee. Shooed a squirrel off a bird feeder. Ate a small bag of Spicy Nacho Doritos for breakfast. No email to answer; none to send. The squirrel won. Blogging Twitter-style. Whoops; got an email. False alarm; it was an ad ...
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I have a wonderful and eventful life, do I not?! The air is warming nicely, so I will most likely put on shorts for the first time this year and go to the porch for some serious sunning. I have to retrieve the cushion for the chaise lounger from the basement; I whined around about it but no one would fetch it for me. I am the Rodney Dangerfield of the family. I need to get some crap off the camera sensor; hope it will come off using the auto-clean vibrating thingy, but it generally just moves it around and I wind up using my Rocket blower to remove it.
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This video is part one of two planned tutorials which Cyrus made about the Megashot member's profile page. Cyrus is very good at this:
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Happy Wednesday!
This morning I ...
... shooed a squirrel off a bird feeder. Drank a cup of coffee with three spoons sugar. Went to pee. Did the census report. Did the 941 tax report. Did the unemployment tax report. Shooed a squirrel off a bird feeder. Went to pee. Shooed a squirrel off a bird feeder. Ate a small bag of Spicy Nacho Doritos for breakfast. No email to answer; none to send. The squirrel won. Blogging Twitter-style. Whoops; got an email. False alarm; it was an ad ...
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I have a wonderful and eventful life, do I not?! The air is warming nicely, so I will most likely put on shorts for the first time this year and go to the porch for some serious sunning. I have to retrieve the cushion for the chaise lounger from the basement; I whined around about it but no one would fetch it for me. I am the Rodney Dangerfield of the family. I need to get some crap off the camera sensor; hope it will come off using the auto-clean vibrating thingy, but it generally just moves it around and I wind up using my Rocket blower to remove it.
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This video is part one of two planned tutorials which Cyrus made about the Megashot member's profile page. Cyrus is very good at this:
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Happy Wednesday!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
No title
Thrift store fashions, Jonesborough Tenn.
I've been out and about this morning, so my blog will probably be brief today. Stifle your applause, please! We had snow all day yesterday, but it didn't stick. Today is to be warmer and the sky is becoming much lighter this afternoon. The grass is emerald green and red maple trees are in full bloom; typical spring. The flowering trees mean that we allergy victims will be paying extra attention to pollen because it can be debilitating. Hostas are pushing out of the ground in the flower beds, and early morning birds are singing their hearts out. Life looks very good!
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A note on yesterday's post: In their later years, my parents became quite the lovey-dovey pair, particularly after my dad suffered a series of heart attacks in the early 1970's. He had heart by-pass surgery in 1978 but could not stay away from McFastfood and cigarettes; he died from a massive and painful heart attack just a few days past his 65th birthday in 1986. My mom lived until January, 2002.
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Tuesday again?! Have a good one!
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I've been out and about this morning, so my blog will probably be brief today. Stifle your applause, please! We had snow all day yesterday, but it didn't stick. Today is to be warmer and the sky is becoming much lighter this afternoon. The grass is emerald green and red maple trees are in full bloom; typical spring. The flowering trees mean that we allergy victims will be paying extra attention to pollen because it can be debilitating. Hostas are pushing out of the ground in the flower beds, and early morning birds are singing their hearts out. Life looks very good!
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A note on yesterday's post: In their later years, my parents became quite the lovey-dovey pair, particularly after my dad suffered a series of heart attacks in the early 1970's. He had heart by-pass surgery in 1978 but could not stay away from McFastfood and cigarettes; he died from a massive and painful heart attack just a few days past his 65th birthday in 1986. My mom lived until January, 2002.
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Tuesday again?! Have a good one!
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Sunday, March 21, 2010
A bridge over troubled water ...
Covered Bridge on Doe River
Today I begin a journey back in time so as to bore you to no end. This first part is something I do not particularly want to delve into, but I feel I must if I am to ever have true sense of self. I was born on August 3, 1944 to an unwed mother. My name on my birth certificate was Kenneth Wayne Phillips as that was my mother's maiden name. In that day, being single and pregnant and living in the rural hills was a no-no by most community standards and mores; I and my mom were forever stigmatized by unforgiving people. For some reason, I never called my mother by any other name than her nickname of "Dot". I suppose I was never encouraged to do otherwise. Same with the man whom I've known as my dad all my life; "John". I called my grandmother "Mom" and my granddad "Pap" because that is what the other family members whom lived in the small farm house called them. I was probably just less than three years old when John swore in court in front of a judge that I was his son; I remember being present in that big, dark, and foreboding courtroom facing a man in a black robe whom I could barely see over the shiny woodwork. When I was born, John was off fighting a war in Europe but he was awol (away without leave) from training in Georgia when I iwas conceived. My mom always swore that John was my father, but I don't think John was quite as sure as she. My parents had some god-awful verbal fights when I was growing up, and they usually turned violent with John physically abusing my mom. Several times I overheard him accusing her of being with someone else when my little egg was fertilized. I know whom the other man was, but I never met him as he had moved away from the community by the time I became aware of him; I've seen his photograph and now have it in my possession. John and I were never close; the only times when I was little that he took me for an ice cream was after their fights and separations when he was trying to get back in good with Dot. That amounted to twice when I was a small, although it seems they were apart as much as they were together. I feared him. Neither he nor I had respect for each other until after I was grown, married, and had children of my own. He whipped me on the butt with his open hand only once when I was little, and was never abusive in any way toward me; just indifferent, and I suppose that hurt more than anything. As for whom I am, all I can say is that my nor my children's features favor John or anyone in his family. In fact, most of his family including my grandmother treated me as an outsider. Two exceptions were John's younger brothers Vernon and Buford; I was treated like family by them. Whom do I look like? I favor the folks on my mother's sides of the family as do my kids and grandkids. If there is anyone on my dad's side whom we do resemble, it may be Vernon, but just slightly. I still have an aunt whom may know one way or another if John is my father, but the hell of it is, I don't have the courage to ask. Or maybe I really don't want to know.
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I watched the Lady Vols play Saturday, and as soon as the game was over, I grabbed the Pentax and long lens and went to the porch for some sun and a photo which I knew was going to happen. Before going out, I blew the dust off the camera and out of the memory card slot; I didn't want anything to interfere with what was coming. I sat on the porch shirtless in the warm sun, tanning my nipples and awaiting the three Marine Corps FA-18 jet fighters I knew would fly directly over my house at low altitude. It was race weekend in Bristol, and the planes were bound to come during pre-race activities. As usual, the first time by was a sneak attack and I missed my opportunity, but for the second pass they made as they circled and headed east toward their base, I was ready. Wide open sky and a triangle of beautiful jets was approaching as I lifted the pre-set camera to my eye; all I had to do was frame them and click the shutter. I pushed the shutter about five times and nothing happened! The jets zoomed overhead as I was celebrating the ancestry of all things Pentax. Then I saw it; a little message on the screen saying "Memory card error". I had not fully set the card in its slot and the dslr has no buffer for such emergencies, so I missed the shot. Next race will be different!
If you ever learn anything from me about photography, I hope it is this iconic do and do not: Never make a photo of me, and always take a test photo before you are ready to do serious shooting.
----
It is rainy and chilly here on this wash day; not much to do but sit in and ponder the beauty of the tip of my nose. Have a good Monday!
Today I begin a journey back in time so as to bore you to no end. This first part is something I do not particularly want to delve into, but I feel I must if I am to ever have true sense of self. I was born on August 3, 1944 to an unwed mother. My name on my birth certificate was Kenneth Wayne Phillips as that was my mother's maiden name. In that day, being single and pregnant and living in the rural hills was a no-no by most community standards and mores; I and my mom were forever stigmatized by unforgiving people. For some reason, I never called my mother by any other name than her nickname of "Dot". I suppose I was never encouraged to do otherwise. Same with the man whom I've known as my dad all my life; "John". I called my grandmother "Mom" and my granddad "Pap" because that is what the other family members whom lived in the small farm house called them. I was probably just less than three years old when John swore in court in front of a judge that I was his son; I remember being present in that big, dark, and foreboding courtroom facing a man in a black robe whom I could barely see over the shiny woodwork. When I was born, John was off fighting a war in Europe but he was awol (away without leave) from training in Georgia when I iwas conceived. My mom always swore that John was my father, but I don't think John was quite as sure as she. My parents had some god-awful verbal fights when I was growing up, and they usually turned violent with John physically abusing my mom. Several times I overheard him accusing her of being with someone else when my little egg was fertilized. I know whom the other man was, but I never met him as he had moved away from the community by the time I became aware of him; I've seen his photograph and now have it in my possession. John and I were never close; the only times when I was little that he took me for an ice cream was after their fights and separations when he was trying to get back in good with Dot. That amounted to twice when I was a small, although it seems they were apart as much as they were together. I feared him. Neither he nor I had respect for each other until after I was grown, married, and had children of my own. He whipped me on the butt with his open hand only once when I was little, and was never abusive in any way toward me; just indifferent, and I suppose that hurt more than anything. As for whom I am, all I can say is that my nor my children's features favor John or anyone in his family. In fact, most of his family including my grandmother treated me as an outsider. Two exceptions were John's younger brothers Vernon and Buford; I was treated like family by them. Whom do I look like? I favor the folks on my mother's sides of the family as do my kids and grandkids. If there is anyone on my dad's side whom we do resemble, it may be Vernon, but just slightly. I still have an aunt whom may know one way or another if John is my father, but the hell of it is, I don't have the courage to ask. Or maybe I really don't want to know.
----
I watched the Lady Vols play Saturday, and as soon as the game was over, I grabbed the Pentax and long lens and went to the porch for some sun and a photo which I knew was going to happen. Before going out, I blew the dust off the camera and out of the memory card slot; I didn't want anything to interfere with what was coming. I sat on the porch shirtless in the warm sun, tanning my nipples and awaiting the three Marine Corps FA-18 jet fighters I knew would fly directly over my house at low altitude. It was race weekend in Bristol, and the planes were bound to come during pre-race activities. As usual, the first time by was a sneak attack and I missed my opportunity, but for the second pass they made as they circled and headed east toward their base, I was ready. Wide open sky and a triangle of beautiful jets was approaching as I lifted the pre-set camera to my eye; all I had to do was frame them and click the shutter. I pushed the shutter about five times and nothing happened! The jets zoomed overhead as I was celebrating the ancestry of all things Pentax. Then I saw it; a little message on the screen saying "Memory card error". I had not fully set the card in its slot and the dslr has no buffer for such emergencies, so I missed the shot. Next race will be different!
If you ever learn anything from me about photography, I hope it is this iconic do and do not: Never make a photo of me, and always take a test photo before you are ready to do serious shooting.
----
It is rainy and chilly here on this wash day; not much to do but sit in and ponder the beauty of the tip of my nose. Have a good Monday!
Pray and pay
Another Sunday, or as my uncle Vernon Anderson used to say, "pray and pay day". You can probably guess that I metamorphosed some of my religious philosophy from him. Vernon was quite a dude: a playboy, a rounder, a philosopher, a bigamist, and an all around fun loving and happy guy. He lived near his sister in the Chattanooga area for most of his life, and when we would visit on weekends when I was in my mid-teens, he would take me out on the town with him on Saturday nights. I learned a lot.
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I was planning to get out and do some shooting today, but it looks like rain is imminent. Chris is borrowing the Escape, and I would love to have Carolyn drive me around in the van. In it, I sit up high enough to see things I would normally miss, and having a driver means I get to look around for possibilities. If i don't go shooting, I will probably once more hit the income tax forms and maybe fill out the census thingy.
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Have a good Sunday!
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I was planning to get out and do some shooting today, but it looks like rain is imminent. Chris is borrowing the Escape, and I would love to have Carolyn drive me around in the van. In it, I sit up high enough to see things I would normally miss, and having a driver means I get to look around for possibilities. If i don't go shooting, I will probably once more hit the income tax forms and maybe fill out the census thingy.
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Have a good Sunday!
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Saturday, March 20, 2010
Satidy
As I was waiting to get my shot, the doctor came out to tell me that the blood platelet count she phoned me about was a false alarm ... for me. She had been looking at the wrong person's chart; another Ken's. I stopped by the park and made a few shots, but I had spring fever and my heart wasn't into the usually pleasurable task. There were a lot of people there, and a couple were flying kites. As soon as they saw me with the camera, they wound up their strings and left.
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Today I will probably watch the Lady Vols play in the NCAA tournament, and then sit in the sun for the remainder of the afternoon. I'm thinking of introducing my brain to most of a six-pack; soaking sun and suds at the same time. I may try to go out and shoot some photos between rain showers tomorrow.
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The Smoking Gun's Mug Shots of the Week!
I'm on page three this week and the guy on page 11 freaks me out!
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Have a non-superfluous Saturday!
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Today I will probably watch the Lady Vols play in the NCAA tournament, and then sit in the sun for the remainder of the afternoon. I'm thinking of introducing my brain to most of a six-pack; soaking sun and suds at the same time. I may try to go out and shoot some photos between rain showers tomorrow.
----
The Smoking Gun's Mug Shots of the Week!
I'm on page three this week and the guy on page 11 freaks me out!
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Have a non-superfluous Saturday!
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Friday, March 19, 2010
Feelin' groovy
Yesterday's western sky
April 2009
DandelionMy worst complaints about Flickr are its slowness and the arrogance of the administrators (Yahoo). Generally, photos load in a reasonable time except for the larger sizes. The thing that takes most time is on photos that already have a lot of comments, especially comments with group invites. You make your comment then wait many seconds before it registers and at times the site gets "hiccups" and the comment will not register. They were very arrogant by allowing videos on the site without consulting members, particularly their paying "Pro" members. Flickr was already becoming very slow, and the bandwiidth used by short movies made the problem much worse. Yahoo now has the means to upgrade its system, but so far is not doing so. Flickr is a cash cow for Yahoo, and they need to keep the milk flowing even if they have to spend some money to do so.
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Today is a ratty-assed shot day.
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Yesterday I was on the porch basking in
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Happy Friday!
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Thursday, March 18, 2010
Mega-sniping
E.T.?
Other than you-all and my humble self, I am finding there is nothing perfect in this web world. I like both Flickr and Megashot, but both have problems that should be addressed by the administrators. Megashot is an infant and is having growing pains as it is still in Beta testing stage and will probably remain so for a good while. The worse thing about the site is a lack of variety in photographic presentations and skills. A lot of the members are are professional "art" photographers and a lot of others are wannabe high-art photographers. They wear their Photoshop software as if were their clothing. I really cannot find out just what kind of photographer the site will cater to in the future, but right now some of us everyday shooters feel left out in the cold. There also many technical issues with the site which should be easily addressed and a few of them are very inconvenient. I've never been able to get the tagging system to work right, so I quit using it. There are also many complaints about people not commenting on other folk's photos and one thing under consideration is if you post a photo to the site, you must comment on at least two others. I don't like to be forced to do anything like this because there are so many variables among individuals and the way they want or need to use the site. Another thing is the Explore feature; it is one of the best things about Megashot, but sometimes I think I am the only one that uses it. Near every time I post a photo, I put it on Explore for other members to critique, and I always rate at least two photos that other people post while I am there. It seems odd that just about every photo I rate either makes photo of the day, photo of the week, photo of the month, or all time highest rated photo in its category. I must be in the minority when it comes to rating of photos.
Megashot isn't all bad; in fact it is so good in so many ways that I am sometimes awed by everything there. It is very customizable, but you have to be able to use some kind of software to do much of the customizing. It is very easy to do after you have done it once and is in fact one of the more fun things about the site. Another good thing about Megashot is its ease to access about everything there; it is a well designed site. I believe it or something similar in design will be the future of photo sharing and socializing on the web. I hope Megashot eventually fills the bill.
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If my brain is still working, tomorrow I will make a comment or six about Flickr.
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Have a tremendously wonderful Thursday!
----
Other than you-all and my humble self, I am finding there is nothing perfect in this web world. I like both Flickr and Megashot, but both have problems that should be addressed by the administrators. Megashot is an infant and is having growing pains as it is still in Beta testing stage and will probably remain so for a good while. The worse thing about the site is a lack of variety in photographic presentations and skills. A lot of the members are are professional "art" photographers and a lot of others are wannabe high-art photographers. They wear their Photoshop software as if were their clothing. I really cannot find out just what kind of photographer the site will cater to in the future, but right now some of us everyday shooters feel left out in the cold. There also many technical issues with the site which should be easily addressed and a few of them are very inconvenient. I've never been able to get the tagging system to work right, so I quit using it. There are also many complaints about people not commenting on other folk's photos and one thing under consideration is if you post a photo to the site, you must comment on at least two others. I don't like to be forced to do anything like this because there are so many variables among individuals and the way they want or need to use the site. Another thing is the Explore feature; it is one of the best things about Megashot, but sometimes I think I am the only one that uses it. Near every time I post a photo, I put it on Explore for other members to critique, and I always rate at least two photos that other people post while I am there. It seems odd that just about every photo I rate either makes photo of the day, photo of the week, photo of the month, or all time highest rated photo in its category. I must be in the minority when it comes to rating of photos.
Megashot isn't all bad; in fact it is so good in so many ways that I am sometimes awed by everything there. It is very customizable, but you have to be able to use some kind of software to do much of the customizing. It is very easy to do after you have done it once and is in fact one of the more fun things about the site. Another good thing about Megashot is its ease to access about everything there; it is a well designed site. I believe it or something similar in design will be the future of photo sharing and socializing on the web. I hope Megashot eventually fills the bill.
----
If my brain is still working, tomorrow I will make a comment or six about Flickr.
----
Have a tremendously wonderful Thursday!
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Wednesday, March 17, 2010
I'm Grumpy ... You can be Snow White
Hale's School neo Church neo
Community Center neo Ruritan Club
Why does the Associated Press jump on the Fox News bandwagon at the most critical moment in health care negotiations? It has long been known that the present proposed health care reform is a government give-away to insurers and in the long run will cost America more than it will gain under the proposed legislation. Cost of premiums will be held somewhat in check because the government is going to subsidize (give-away to) insurance companies. Who is caught in the middle? Middle-class America. Again. Overall, this health care overhaul will be a disaster as it now stands. Fox News is a mean-spirited organization with a Republican agenda, whereas the Associated Press has been one of Fox's "fall guys" for many years and accused by them as having liberal bias. Whichever way these two different news collecting organizations go about it, they are both saying that Obama will do anything to get health care "reform" legislation passed, even if it is detrimental to America. Does the president sound just like every other politician? Wake up, America!
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Carolyn has gone to hairdresser, something she does every week if she isn't sick. These places have made her nearly bald by their constant "teasing", tugging, and pulling at her scalp. She was warned of what the consequences could be, but like a moth to a candle flame she fulfills some kind of feminine instinct by ritual each Wednesday morning. Whom she is impressing with all this I do not know unless it is her own vanity. I've never liked her hair short, but she has worn it in the style of an old woman since at least the mid-seventies. This is a true story: When I was 42 and Carolyn was 40 years old, a bar buddy of mine—after seeing her for the first time—asked me if she was my mother. Yes, I did and still do tell her about it. Yes, I am sadistic.
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I renewed my Flickr "Pro" account for another year but I don't know why. I hardly use Flickr anymore and what I do there can be done with a regular account. I've been using Megashot more than Flickr to post photos, but I am beginning to believe I will never fit in there. It's very nature is scaring away most of the people whom I invite; they see all the "art" photography and think they will never be a part of that kind of community. The reason they see the art stuff is because it is what is displayed for them when they first arrive there. I am frustrated with it.
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I've been doing some group administrating for one of my contacts while she is taking a break from the computer. It is not a large group and doesn't require a lot of my time, but as usual, I get caught up in looking at photos and the next thing I know an hour or two has passed. It is one thing I like about Flickr that Megashot lacks; variance.
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If I haven't mentioned my allergies, well, here goes. My eyes have their normal early spring sore-eyed cat look; constant discharge, blurriness, sensitive to bright light, double vision, and the general lack of tear production due to the ever-present RA. So far today has not been as bad as the past three were, but I am again threatening to shut myself inside a dark room until the crap goes away. No one likes to be around me when I'm like this, and I surely do not like myself. I am grumpy with low tolerance for for anything, I have to constantly wipe my eyes with a wet cloth to remove the disgusting discharge, and I have to use a lot of artificial tears along with allergy pills that only half work, at best. To top it, I enjoy a constant sinus headache. Life id gud!
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Anyway, Happy St. Patrick's Wednesday!
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Community Center neo Ruritan Club
Why does the Associated Press jump on the Fox News bandwagon at the most critical moment in health care negotiations? It has long been known that the present proposed health care reform is a government give-away to insurers and in the long run will cost America more than it will gain under the proposed legislation. Cost of premiums will be held somewhat in check because the government is going to subsidize (give-away to) insurance companies. Who is caught in the middle? Middle-class America. Again. Overall, this health care overhaul will be a disaster as it now stands. Fox News is a mean-spirited organization with a Republican agenda, whereas the Associated Press has been one of Fox's "fall guys" for many years and accused by them as having liberal bias. Whichever way these two different news collecting organizations go about it, they are both saying that Obama will do anything to get health care "reform" legislation passed, even if it is detrimental to America. Does the president sound just like every other politician? Wake up, America!
----
Carolyn has gone to hairdresser, something she does every week if she isn't sick. These places have made her nearly bald by their constant "teasing", tugging, and pulling at her scalp. She was warned of what the consequences could be, but like a moth to a candle flame she fulfills some kind of feminine instinct by ritual each Wednesday morning. Whom she is impressing with all this I do not know unless it is her own vanity. I've never liked her hair short, but she has worn it in the style of an old woman since at least the mid-seventies. This is a true story: When I was 42 and Carolyn was 40 years old, a bar buddy of mine—after seeing her for the first time—asked me if she was my mother. Yes, I did and still do tell her about it. Yes, I am sadistic.
----
I renewed my Flickr "Pro" account for another year but I don't know why. I hardly use Flickr anymore and what I do there can be done with a regular account. I've been using Megashot more than Flickr to post photos, but I am beginning to believe I will never fit in there. It's very nature is scaring away most of the people whom I invite; they see all the "art" photography and think they will never be a part of that kind of community. The reason they see the art stuff is because it is what is displayed for them when they first arrive there. I am frustrated with it.
----
I've been doing some group administrating for one of my contacts while she is taking a break from the computer. It is not a large group and doesn't require a lot of my time, but as usual, I get caught up in looking at photos and the next thing I know an hour or two has passed. It is one thing I like about Flickr that Megashot lacks; variance.
----
If I haven't mentioned my allergies, well, here goes. My eyes have their normal early spring sore-eyed cat look; constant discharge, blurriness, sensitive to bright light, double vision, and the general lack of tear production due to the ever-present RA. So far today has not been as bad as the past three were, but I am again threatening to shut myself inside a dark room until the crap goes away. No one likes to be around me when I'm like this, and I surely do not like myself. I am grumpy with low tolerance for for anything, I have to constantly wipe my eyes with a wet cloth to remove the disgusting discharge, and I have to use a lot of artificial tears along with allergy pills that only half work, at best. To top it, I enjoy a constant sinus headache. Life id gud!
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Anyway, Happy St. Patrick's Wednesday!
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Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Shooting and shopping
Yesterday, I had to remove my photo editing program and reinstall it; Windows becomes corrupted so easily. It happens on occasion with Linux, but nowhere near like Microsoft products. MS is so interested in protecting their "intellectual property" that they seem to forget what the property is supposed to do.
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Photography for me has been much like a lot of my lifetime undertakings; basically one shot from the hip and then find something else of interest. I am mostly an opportunist; if I see something I like, I shoot it. I usually shoot it just like I first see it because that is how I first liked it. The above photo is one such; I was walking a woodland path and looked down and saw this scrubby-looking fellow digging in to the earth beneath the leaves. I put the camera to my eye and made one shot before he became hidden under the autumn beauty. I don't think I could have found a better shooting angle if I had tried. The light was not going to change much for the good as it was a hazy, late afternoon so I took a deep breath and fired my best shot. I got the results I wanted.
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I'm going to ride along in the van with Carolyn as she goes futon shopping today. I refuse to shop with her because she can never make up her mind. If she goes into the store alone, she will make a decision within a few minutes; if I go in with her, after a half-hour of not having a clue I get pissed and go back to the car. If I am with her, she has to look at everything in the store; everything. If I am waiting in the parking lot, she looks at only half. I do my shopping online.
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Speaking of online shopping, early in 2009 I purchased a Pentax 50mm f/1.4 "prime" lens from Amazon.com. I bought it for its light weight, the ability to use the focus ring even when the camera is on auto-focus, and it is great for low-light shots as I hate using anything above ISO 100 and I very much dislike using flash. I paid $195 for a lens which I knew at the time Pentax was in the process of discontinuing. It has always been the company's most popular lens, and now the demand is so high the price has risen to $393 and has been as much as $478. Used ones are selling at $325+ and I would love to have a neat profit, but I also love the little lens. Until my stomach growls loudly enough to force me to sell it, it will stay with me.
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Tuesday is the first day of waiting for the weekend. Have a good one!
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Monday, March 15, 2010
Sandstorm — Giza
Damn, I am having a heck of a time getting used to D.S.T. Yesterday morning I was in deep sleep until 10:00am and this morning it was 9:00am before I crawled out of the sack. I am naturally lazy, but I do like to be up and about by 8:00am. In warm weather, I am usually on the porch by 7:00am; the critters and and sunshine demand I be there. It is nice to be needed.
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Congress sucks and the president is a wimp.
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Yesterday was spent not doing taxes. Not mine; not anyone's. I did get somewhat caught up on Flickr and Mega Shot, and I looked at a lot of photos; it wasn't a bad day. Saturday coming is supposed to be decent as far as weather goes, so I will want to get out and about with the camera. We both need a good physical workout.
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Photo story: As you most likely know, I've never visited Egypt, much less laid eyes on a pyramid. The only camel I've ever seen was at a circus when I was a kid. The photo is a silhouette of the backside of the first church I ever attended; it still exists. I found an icon photo of a camel online and placed it in the shot; I then used some Paintshop Pro native filters and other plugins to create the illusion of an aged photo with blowing sand. I have an earlier version on Flickr, and this is one from Mega Shot. There is not a lot of my own work I really like, but I do like this little creation.
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May your bloomers come clean on this dreary wash day!
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Over-slept
“It's so lonely when you don't even know yourself.”
~Unknown
A rainy cold Sunday seems to fit my mood just fine. I am in the middle of preparing taxes and if it wasn't for the pleasure of bitching about doing them, I would hire them done. Sadistic pleasure? I had cold cereal for breakfast this morning, and that too melds with my aura of doom and gloom. Someone has to pay for wars and congressional salaries.
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The grass has greened quite a bit more since Friday; robins are giving earthworms a hard time and henbit is blooming in the side yard. Wild onions are everywhere, but I haven't seen a dandelion as yet on our lot; like taxes they are inevitable.
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The Lady Vols will host the the first two rounds of of NCAA Regional tournament games; they should go in as top seed in their bracket. This is the first time since 2005 they have been a host school. Pat's influence in the game, the fact that the women's Hall of Fame is in Knoxville, and the need for good public support in early games are probably the reasons UT was selected. No other team in women's college basketball has as much fan support and loyalty as do the Lady Volunteers. Tradition is very important in college sports and their bottom line. The NCAA needs money.
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I need to get on Flickr for awhile and do some photo viewing and commenting; same with Mega Shot. I am a person whom has nothing to do all day but cannot find enough time to do it.
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Be good to yourself today!
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~Unknown
A rainy cold Sunday seems to fit my mood just fine. I am in the middle of preparing taxes and if it wasn't for the pleasure of bitching about doing them, I would hire them done. Sadistic pleasure? I had cold cereal for breakfast this morning, and that too melds with my aura of doom and gloom. Someone has to pay for wars and congressional salaries.
----
The grass has greened quite a bit more since Friday; robins are giving earthworms a hard time and henbit is blooming in the side yard. Wild onions are everywhere, but I haven't seen a dandelion as yet on our lot; like taxes they are inevitable.
----
The Lady Vols will host the the first two rounds of of NCAA Regional tournament games; they should go in as top seed in their bracket. This is the first time since 2005 they have been a host school. Pat's influence in the game, the fact that the women's Hall of Fame is in Knoxville, and the need for good public support in early games are probably the reasons UT was selected. No other team in women's college basketball has as much fan support and loyalty as do the Lady Volunteers. Tradition is very important in college sports and their bottom line. The NCAA needs money.
----
I need to get on Flickr for awhile and do some photo viewing and commenting; same with Mega Shot. I am a person whom has nothing to do all day but cannot find enough time to do it.
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Be good to yourself today!
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Saturday, March 13, 2010
Alone again ... naturally
Bouquet in spring sunlight
The second Friday in March just seems not to be a good day for me.
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We had thunderstorms and some high wind gusts last evening after having temps near 70° for much of the day. I seldom wear a coat or jacket when I go get my shot, and for the first time in months I didn't feel the cold on my bare arms. Carolyn was out somewhere most of the day, so I stopped by the park after getting my fix and sat on a bench for awhile. The grass is turning green and the willows are covered with tiny leaves. Any day now the red maple trees will bloom, teasing the sinuses and tempering the glory of the season. St. Patrick's Day is Wednesday, and Mother Earth is putting on her finest greens to celebrate (or is it the other way around?); she doesn't much care about seasonal allergies. I carried my little Olympus camera with me but I just didn't feel much like making photos; actually there wasn't much to see anyway. One lone walker was out with her dog, and they were too far away to create a decent photo op.
Today is rainy and cool and there will be many such days before we make the final turn into summer-like weather. The "dogwood winter", "red bud winter", "blackberry winter", and one or two more "winters" will have to be endured before May brings her lovely smile. Even at that, we can still have frost and snow in the early days of that month. Don't forget that Daylight Saving Time begins tonight in the USA. What will you do with your extra hour of evening daylight?
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I hope next weekend is pretty weather-wise as I need some down-time in the mountains; just me, a stump to rest my back against, a notebook and pencil, and a paperback book to read; they all are my friends with whom I am comfortable. Even far back in the hills there is no absolute quiet even to my tinny old ears. Mother Nature is forever busy in springtime, trying to make sure there is balance in her world. I never carry or use an iPod or such; the music comes from within the souls of all living things; it is time for us to rejoice in her fresh harmonies. Just don't sit in bear poop.
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Somewhere in my grandmother's things is her hand-written recipe for root beer. As a small boy I would help her dig sassafras roots in spring and summer, and she would make some darn delicious tonic. I need to find the paper and see about grubbing some roots when the sap comes up.
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The Smoking Gun's Mug Shots of the Week!
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Have a wonderful Saturday!
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The second Friday in March just seems not to be a good day for me.
----
We had thunderstorms and some high wind gusts last evening after having temps near 70° for much of the day. I seldom wear a coat or jacket when I go get my shot, and for the first time in months I didn't feel the cold on my bare arms. Carolyn was out somewhere most of the day, so I stopped by the park after getting my fix and sat on a bench for awhile. The grass is turning green and the willows are covered with tiny leaves. Any day now the red maple trees will bloom, teasing the sinuses and tempering the glory of the season. St. Patrick's Day is Wednesday, and Mother Earth is putting on her finest greens to celebrate (or is it the other way around?); she doesn't much care about seasonal allergies. I carried my little Olympus camera with me but I just didn't feel much like making photos; actually there wasn't much to see anyway. One lone walker was out with her dog, and they were too far away to create a decent photo op.
Today is rainy and cool and there will be many such days before we make the final turn into summer-like weather. The "dogwood winter", "red bud winter", "blackberry winter", and one or two more "winters" will have to be endured before May brings her lovely smile. Even at that, we can still have frost and snow in the early days of that month. Don't forget that Daylight Saving Time begins tonight in the USA. What will you do with your extra hour of evening daylight?
----
I hope next weekend is pretty weather-wise as I need some down-time in the mountains; just me, a stump to rest my back against, a notebook and pencil, and a paperback book to read; they all are my friends with whom I am comfortable. Even far back in the hills there is no absolute quiet even to my tinny old ears. Mother Nature is forever busy in springtime, trying to make sure there is balance in her world. I never carry or use an iPod or such; the music comes from within the souls of all living things; it is time for us to rejoice in her fresh harmonies. Just don't sit in bear poop.
----
Somewhere in my grandmother's things is her hand-written recipe for root beer. As a small boy I would help her dig sassafras roots in spring and summer, and she would make some darn delicious tonic. I need to find the paper and see about grubbing some roots when the sap comes up.
----
The Smoking Gun's Mug Shots of the Week!
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Have a wonderful Saturday!
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Friday, March 12, 2010
The lion of spring was once a kitten
One of the most satisfying pieces of spring's puzzle is the way it eases into existence. Thursday of last week was like so much of the winter had been; cloudy and cold. Friday we awoke to sunny skies but the air was still chilly. Over the past weekend, the temperature moderated and on Monday and Tuesday, we were at shirtsleeve comfort for parts of the days. This morning the sky is clear and the air is still bearably mild, but rain and cooler temps are in store for the weekend with typical season changing winds due this evening. Soon, forsythia, azaleas, and tulips will blossom, quietly followed by iris (my favorite flower), red bud, dogwood, and pussy willow. The two latter shrubs are closely tied to springtime religious traditions with the dogwood signifying the cross of Jesus and the pussy willow branches being carried in place of of palm fronds on Palm Sunday in cool regions. See, I do know a little bit about religious history. Some of the older folk in these hills still boil red bud flowers, bark, and leaves for a tea or tonic and has been found to be high in antioxidants. A seasoning for opossum meat can be made from red bud bark. Yummy!
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I've taken time off from taxes to do photo editing on some flower shots I made near Easter last year. Most of them have been on Flickr and on this blog, but I have modified them a bit and am posting a few on Mega Shot. Some of them will be re-posted on Loose Laces.
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One of my photography philosophies: When you make a photo from what you see with your eyes, you have created a scene; when you make a photo from what you see with your heart, you have created a memory; when you make a photo using your eyes and heart, you have created art.
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It was on the second Friday in March two years ago when my heart problem finally put me out of circulation for awhile. I still count all of you and your caring as blessings ... thanks, y'all.
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Have a friendly Friday!
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Thursday, March 11, 2010
Special Ops
A while back I mentioned that my grandson was enlisting in the US Air Force. We found out yesterday he has been selected for Special Operations training when he finishes basic training. He will most likely be deployed to Afghanistan if he makes it through the training; less than 20 percent of the accepted candidates make it through the rigorous year-long ordeal. We are at once proud of him and at the same time we fear for his safety.
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Yesterday was another lovely, warmish day, but was mostly cloudy. I went out and checked the damage our shrubbery incurred from the heavy snowfalls, and it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Our Beckman's Arborvitae at the driveway will probably have to be replaced; it had just grown to mature size in the past couple of years. The huge forsythia that is one of my favorite photography targets is squished down and broken pretty badly. I will give it a chance to bloom this spring before I decide its fate; it has been at the end of the porch for nearly 15 years.
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Carolyn is threatening to cook. All I want is fried taters and onions and homemade biscuits. She is also threatening to give me a haircut. At least one of these two things will probably happen.
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A note concerning RAW shooting: RAW files are huge; the ones coming from my Pentax 10 mega-pixel camera are more than 16.5 mega-bytes, which means they can fill a memory card rather quickly and they can be slow to load to the pc. Another thing is that they have to be converted to JPG or similar format to be used on internet. The good thing about working with RAW images is that you use a good software program to fine adjust the pic before it is converted. I use a program called Raw Therapee to tweak and convert. It has many fine-tuning adjustments and a good vignetting correction tool which comes in handy with the lens I normally use. Another is that it will highlight the over exposed and under exposed areas of the photo, allowing for just enough fine tuning to make your shots the best possible. It is a free program and is not difficult to learn to use. It even has an automatic setting which will do most of the work for you if you like. Here is a Flickr group for Raw Therapee only images. Here is a link to the user's manual. Here is a link to the download page. I recommend using the RT v2.4.1 and then later on when the 3.0v is declared as stable, it should be much better than the 2.x versions.
The following is from the introduction in the user's manual:
What is RawTherapee?RawTherapee is a free RAW converter and digital photo processing software. It is available for Windows
and for Linux and is actively developed.
RawTherapee is used to adjust some of the most often changed parameters when optimizing digital
images. A normal user often just wants to adjust the white balance or brightness of a photo he took. Instead
of using a big and expensive image editor you could use a small and fast (specialized) tool like
RawTherapee.
More and more cameras also support RAW formats. RAW files usually offer higher color depth than
JPGs (JPG is limited to 8 Bit per color). So the adjustments are done with the high color depth and
then afterwards converted to or saved as JPGs. Thus you loose no picture detail in the JPG as you
would when changing the JPG itself.
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Have a thrilling Thursday!
Have a thrilling Thursday!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Best shots
Scene near the Nolichucky River
Megashot.net now has 130 members; most are coming from friend recommendations. Most people are showing their best stuff, but I keep chugging along with my snapshots. It is odd how photography has changed in the digital era; used to be you made your best shot and a lot of times those photos could be sold at street faires, etc. In modern times and unless you shoot in RAW format, the image is altered in some way from the time you click the shutter until it is almost immediately stored on a memory card. When the camera converts and compresses the image to JPG format, there are loses in picture quality, mainly with the degrading of highlights. Once a bright area is blown either in RAW or film or any other way, it cannot be recovered. JPG compression exacerbates the problem. I keep my dslr set on at least one-third stop underexposure and use as much as minus two stops under in certain conditions and I always shoot RAW. Most quality point-and-shoot cameras also have a RAW setting, with one notable exception: many Canon models do not. My S3 IS was a very good camera but it did not have a RAW setting. But wait! It did have a RAW setting but the marketing people at Canon decided not to activate it, figuring most of their users were people shooting the kid's birthday snaps and would not want to be bothered to learn how to shoot and convert RAW images. There is a safe hack available via googling and on Flickr forums that will activate the RAW setting and a few others Canon decided not to make readily usable. The hack is not installed in the camera firmware, but instead it is stored on the memory card with photos, therefore it does no harm to the camera software. I am not advising anyone to use the hack; just letting you know it is out there.
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Another trick for portraits; use a gray card. Professional portrait photographers who shoot under varying light conditions such as outdoors use an 18 percent gray card to set the exposure for their shots. The model or an assistant holds the card in in front of the face to be photographed, and the photographer sets his camera exposure to the light reflected from the gray card. The procedure works with b/w and color photos. The average Caucasian skin reflects 18 percent of the light that hits it, and gray is neutral in color. The cards (I recommend an 8"x10" (20cm x 25cm)) card and they can be purchased at camera stores and online. If you trust your printer, you can download the gray shade and print your own on white paper then paste it on a stiffer cardboard.
One thing I wish I had from back-when is a hand-held light meter. Today's cameras do a pretty good job of metering various points on the subject, but the dedicated light meter does much better. After you learn to use it, you can be assured that most of your shots will be as good as they can be when they come from the camera. Problem: they can cost as much as a good camera.
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Have a happy mid-week crisis!
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Megashot.net now has 130 members; most are coming from friend recommendations. Most people are showing their best stuff, but I keep chugging along with my snapshots. It is odd how photography has changed in the digital era; used to be you made your best shot and a lot of times those photos could be sold at street faires, etc. In modern times and unless you shoot in RAW format, the image is altered in some way from the time you click the shutter until it is almost immediately stored on a memory card. When the camera converts and compresses the image to JPG format, there are loses in picture quality, mainly with the degrading of highlights. Once a bright area is blown either in RAW or film or any other way, it cannot be recovered. JPG compression exacerbates the problem. I keep my dslr set on at least one-third stop underexposure and use as much as minus two stops under in certain conditions and I always shoot RAW. Most quality point-and-shoot cameras also have a RAW setting, with one notable exception: many Canon models do not. My S3 IS was a very good camera but it did not have a RAW setting. But wait! It did have a RAW setting but the marketing people at Canon decided not to activate it, figuring most of their users were people shooting the kid's birthday snaps and would not want to be bothered to learn how to shoot and convert RAW images. There is a safe hack available via googling and on Flickr forums that will activate the RAW setting and a few others Canon decided not to make readily usable. The hack is not installed in the camera firmware, but instead it is stored on the memory card with photos, therefore it does no harm to the camera software. I am not advising anyone to use the hack; just letting you know it is out there.
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Another trick for portraits; use a gray card. Professional portrait photographers who shoot under varying light conditions such as outdoors use an 18 percent gray card to set the exposure for their shots. The model or an assistant holds the card in in front of the face to be photographed, and the photographer sets his camera exposure to the light reflected from the gray card. The procedure works with b/w and color photos. The average Caucasian skin reflects 18 percent of the light that hits it, and gray is neutral in color. The cards (I recommend an 8"x10" (20cm x 25cm)) card and they can be purchased at camera stores and online. If you trust your printer, you can download the gray shade and print your own on white paper then paste it on a stiffer cardboard.
One thing I wish I had from back-when is a hand-held light meter. Today's cameras do a pretty good job of metering various points on the subject, but the dedicated light meter does much better. After you learn to use it, you can be assured that most of your shots will be as good as they can be when they come from the camera. Problem: they can cost as much as a good camera.
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Have a happy mid-week crisis!
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Tuesday, March 09, 2010
White-haired boy
We had a very decent day weather-wise yesterday. It was sunny nearly all day and the temps were approaching 68° (20°C), good enough that I sat on the porch for more than an hour with my shirt off while a gentle breeze quietly tugged at my gray chest hairs. I rolled my pants legs up as far as I could and stretched out in my chair like a blue-belly lizard, but the air became too fresh after awhile and I was forced to re-shirt. All-in-all, it was a wonderful afternoon. I should have been working on income taxes, but it is supposed to rain the remainder of the week and that kind of gloom is perfect for doing taxes. At least the temperatures are to stay mild until the weekend.
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I wonder why my head hair is white, my chest hair is gray, and my leg hair is still brown? You will have to use your imagination concerning the color of the hair in my arm pits! You thought I was going to say something else, didn't you? Naughty-naughty children!
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If anyone is planning to visit Cades Cove in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park this spring, be aware that the most important part for day trippers—the loop road—will be closed until May 21. It and other park roads have deteriorated to the point where the Forest Service is having to resurface and make repairs. Some advice: if and when you do decide to visit there, don't do it on weekends during warm weather; traffic can be bumper-to-bumper. If you go on weekdays, prepare to stay a few days and take in as much of the area as you can; there is nothing else like it in the world as you step back more than 200 years into colonial America.
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The above photo takes me back in time to 1962, and is of a tobacco curing barn on a large farm. Helping build the structure was the first job I ever had on public works. My main contribution was nailing on the ventilation pickets you see above the white front. I learned to curse in all of the Tongues of Babel* before that day was done as my fingers on my left hand were beaten to a pulp with my misdirected hammer blows. I dropped my hammer so many times and had to climb down to retrieve it and then climb back up that my legs were almost too sore to use the next morning, which thankfully was a Saturday and I didn't have to work. The rest of the crew enjoyed my misadventures to the nth degree, but I think my boss was ready to can me for not getting a lot done. The $1 per hour I was making was big money to a poor country boy. I figured I better get some kind of documentary photo of the place because it is coming into disrepair and the owners are not showing an inclination to fix it. The shot is "soft" because I was shooting through the Escape's windshield.
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Tuesday is one of those days who's sole purpose seems to be fill in between Monday and Friday. Never the less, we should make the best of it; have a great day!
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*Book of Genesis, Chapter 11, verses 1-9, Hebrew Bible.
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Monday, March 08, 2010
Wins and losses
Pee break on Clark's Creek
Sunday turned out to be a not so good day for photography; the light was jumping from muted sun to cloudy. I felt the downtown shooting would be best done in late morning or late afternoon full sunlight. We again rode some back roads and as usual, wound up in the mountains. Although the air temperature was mild, there was still lingering snow in the upper hills. I didn't get any good photos whatsoever, but the ones I did get will be on the blog this week. It was exciting just using the camera once again, and all but two of the shots I made were while sitting in the Escape. I had to stop for a pee break along Clark's Creek and made the above shot and another of a decrepit bracket mushroom which I like pretty well.
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The Lady Vols won he Southeastern Conference basketball tournament last evening with a victory over a good Kentucky team. They should get a number one seeding in the upcoming NCAA tournament.
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Mr Obama, why don't you just chuck the entire farce of medical care reform? You are making a big push for something that has been watered down, castrated, starved, and with so many enemas shoved up the bill's ass it looks nothing like your original proposal. You have failed to keep your promise of real reform in medial care, and the way it stands right now, no one but big business will benefit from its passage. Your best bet as president is repeat what your predecessor did; go somewhere and start a war ... after all, you are an American!
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May the Force be with you on this beautiful worsh day!
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Sunday turned out to be a not so good day for photography; the light was jumping from muted sun to cloudy. I felt the downtown shooting would be best done in late morning or late afternoon full sunlight. We again rode some back roads and as usual, wound up in the mountains. Although the air temperature was mild, there was still lingering snow in the upper hills. I didn't get any good photos whatsoever, but the ones I did get will be on the blog this week. It was exciting just using the camera once again, and all but two of the shots I made were while sitting in the Escape. I had to stop for a pee break along Clark's Creek and made the above shot and another of a decrepit bracket mushroom which I like pretty well.
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The Lady Vols won he Southeastern Conference basketball tournament last evening with a victory over a good Kentucky team. They should get a number one seeding in the upcoming NCAA tournament.
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Mr Obama, why don't you just chuck the entire farce of medical care reform? You are making a big push for something that has been watered down, castrated, starved, and with so many enemas shoved up the bill's ass it looks nothing like your original proposal. You have failed to keep your promise of real reform in medial care, and the way it stands right now, no one but big business will benefit from its passage. Your best bet as president is repeat what your predecessor did; go somewhere and start a war ... after all, you are an American!
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May the Force be with you on this beautiful worsh day!
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