A New Day

 

Isn’t it funny how a change in attitude and/or purging negativity can bring an incredibly bright outlook the next day?

  I was looking over my previous posts and they seem to be a dark confessional of sorts and that wasn’t my intent.  I thought I’d do a quick happy post, rambling as it may be, for an insight to the more positive aspects of my mind.  :D

My cats’ attempt to overthrow my regime this morning was foiled successfully.   They ended up battling for dominance for the best perch on the cat tree and defending said dwelling against the canine assault.

 

  

The dog didn’t destroy anything, but I did have to stop him from chewing on a doorway corner in the hall. I’m going to pretend I didn’t see the small fluffs of carpet spread around the area. :/

I was worried last night that I’d wake up to a dusting of snow per the forecast I saw before bed last night.  I was really happy to see green (ish) grass and sun!  Only a few clouds in the sky.  I think I’m going to take Mariah down to feed the geese for some ‘us’ time.  Seeds of Ink may or may not join us. She’s been a prisoner to the shade for a week or so and it’s time to break her out.  

And wouldn’t you know it that as I’m ready to take a few shots to emphasize the actions of my critters the camera goes on the fritz. The bright side is that it’s the inexpensive point and shoot that was a clearance display that got for $25. RIP Sony Cybershot.  Now if I could only find my Lumix…..

The Nikon is much harder to carry around all the time-I’m kind of obsessive and have to have at least two lenses with me.  And speaking of lenses, my dad gave me two BIG ones a couple of years ago and I’ve yet to work with them.

My current lenses are the auto focus ones while the older ones are manual.  They do fit the camera body but one lens is really long and heavy and I’m afraid to stress the camera body without any extra support.  I need to take the plunge and learn to use the manual focus.  Time to check out some YouTube tutorials I guess. Until then for the remainder of this post I shall recycle old photos because I can’t have a post without visuals. It just feels wrong to me.

Someone also suggested that I pick up a solid Cannon in the future if possible because it’s nice having both.   I inherited a manual Cannon a few years ago from my uncle and want to use it to-I really like shooting 35mm.  I have to wonder how much longer there will even be physical film available.

***Any suggestions for photography education resources are most appreciated.  Inexpensive is fine, free is even better-at least I’m honest about it.***

I’ve decided that along with my new attitude I will be cleaning out a lot of clutter from my environment.  I am a collector of books, oriental décor, and rocks.  Getting rid of any of them feels like I’m losing something important, but the reality is that I’d like to keep the best of the best and only the favorites. Don’t get me wrong-we aren’t talking an episode of ‘Hoarders’ but my garage is full and my bookshelves overflowing.




Not my actual house but you get the idea

 
I also need to purge several electronic items-a couple of old laptops, a bazillion cords, an extra stereo (or two), and you get the idea.   My goal is to eliminate my need for the garage-I already rent a carport which is directly in front of my house, and if I work it just right, I should be able to keep my camping stuff in a spare closet I’m going to give it the old college try anyway.

 With the influx of sun, the call of spring is strong. My garden schedule is already a month behind due to winter deciding we needed snow after all.  Gah. We have a short growing season as it is.  I went ahead and started a few seeds-peppers, tomatoes, squash, c cantaloupe, and a few herbs.  Will see how they do.  I really do like growing things myself.

 

The community garden I belong to is going to allow kids to plant a mix of flowers and edibles in their plots which will make it look pretty neat.   I generally plant certain flowers for pest control and it does brighten things up. 

I plan to grow my herbs in containers at home this year because I like stepping outside and clipping what I need.   Usually I do a big showy and bright flower garden out front, but last year the new owners of the complex started to pull the juniper (awful stuff) from the landscape so I didn’t do my regular thing and lose any hard work I would have done. I get kind of particular about my flowers so I did containers. 

Turns out they didn’t get to mine but will this season, so no big show again this year. (I miss it. I truly do because it smells really nice too.)  I will let Mariah scatter some flower seeds and just see what comes up. I’m going to do something different with the containers-make combination pots or something. I love sitting on my back patio, small as it may be, on a warm night with an adult beverage and enjoying the ambience. 

I’ve taken mercy on the kitchen table and have a plastic shelf set up for my seedlings.  The kids really protested when I took up 60% of the table rather than the 20% I’d promised.  When green fever kicks in, it really takes over.

  

And in other news….

Books...

I haven’t read much during my murky funk, but a favorite author of mine recommended a story that looked interesting so I took the plunge.  I’m reading “The Girl of Fireand Thorns” by Rae Carson. I’m only a couple of chapters in but I already like it. I don’t have enough read time in to share a more in-depth view.

I was stressing on the eyeball thing and in a twist of irony another one of my favorite authors, Jennifer Armentrout has been given an eyeball diagnosis of her own.  In this case, it’s not a great one and my thoughts are with her as she takes her own journey.

Music...

I’ve been enjoying some new music by Minnasia-they have a new EP out, 'World of No Errors', and its FREE! You can get your copy here. The EP has a more unpolished, gritty feel and I like the way it turned out. My favorite track on the  EP is ‘Ice Burns’-it gives me great feels.  You can follow them on Facebook and Twitter as well.

   I discovered a new artist via an acquaintance’s Tweet earlier this week.   His name is Toumas Kasselgaurd Easton. I made some small talk (you know me) and he seems like a nice guy.  He’s a keyboardist and his first official music video ‘Daydreaming’ can be seen here. He's got a Facebook and Twitter too.

And with that I shall leave you to start my day-I want to go get in some sun time and will the few clouds that have crept across the sky away.

Wishing you a great day!

Until next time,

Robyn

 

~Post Script~

We had a wonderful time down at the lake-the sun was warm and there were a bunch of people feeding the birds that the bread could have filled a bakery.  It made for very happy geese, ducks, and of course, sea gulls.

 

 

 

Near Misses

*.* Cracked Lens *.*

When I decide to shoot a subject, I generally have something specific in mind.  I get really frustrated when I know I've got 2,000 photos to go through, and I do go through every single one. Sometimes I can be so focused that I nearly miss out on some equally wonderful shots that were randomly captured during one of my quests.

I'm such an amateur.   But I'm enjoying every minute of it!

 

 

This is an example of the glass-like quality I tried to capture.

 

Two of my favorite near misses:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These were taken on the Oregon Coast between Depoe Bay and Lincoln City. Shot with the Nikon.

 

I shoot with a Nikon D3100 most of the time and occasionally with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH20.  Obviously the Lumix doesn't come close to the quality achieved with the Nikon. The problem I have with the Lumix is the 'white cloud' effect.  It turns out that there is a defect within the camera, but it's out of warranty so here I am; that being said, it shoots decently enough in low light settings, as I found

 out at a recent rock concert.

 

Purchasing a DSLR opened up a whole new world for me-FINALLY-I've been able to achieve the results that I see in my head.  I've had it just over a year, and it's hands down one of the best purchases I've ever made. Some times I have twitchy fingers so I immediately invested in a good tripod.  I was disappointed with the fact that there is no auto time lapse feature built in.

 

Now that I've had a bit of time to experiment with both the zoom and standard lenses I'm ready to add to the mix.  I recently purchased a remote shutter release that has both wireless and wired options.  I picked up a basic  magnification filter set (because I'm not comfortable dropping $200 on a macro lens if I won't use it, lol.)  I also picked up a basic filter kit that has the polarizing, UV, and Florescent pieces. 

 

There are several tutorials online, including how to clean the lenses.  I'm taking mine to a shop because there was some smudging from a raindrop on the main internal mirror and I (very gently) tried to clean it with the simple kit that I already had. 

 

Note to self: Don't touch anything internal without watching a tutorial

 

So I'm comfortable with the quality of the pics that have come out so far.  I seem to be much better at still shots versus  motion.  I hope to change that as I begin the next step-learning what all the numbers, letters, and settings mean.

 

One of the main reasons I chose a Nikon over Cannon had to do with lens compatibility.  Nikon's lenses are all interchangeable...back to the 60s if you look hard enough. the new lenses are generally set up with the auto focus platforms.  That's where the learning curve gets more difficult for me. It just so happens that a relative knew about the lens compatibility and gave me a 12"zoom and a 10"zoom.  Sure enough they fit.  But holy cow was I in for a surprise when I started trying to adjust focus, etc.  So now it's time to start some homework.

 

One thing I would love to get the opportunity to do is to do some band photography.  I need to get in touch of some friends who play around town and see if they will let me come and torture them shoot a few shows.

 

For today, the future is looking bright.

 

Robyn  :)

 

 

Lincoln City Sunset

Shot with my Lumix.