Author: -N-

A Look Out the Window

This past week has been filled with family in from Wisconsin and Colorado.  Last weekend was a big gathering of the clans, on the only rain-filled day in months, so we all crowded into the house, unable to spill outside to the patios.  People who have not met made contact, and others who have not seen one another in years caught up.  It has been a wonderful time, and what I really liked the most was how much everyone liked everyone else.  We will be winding up all this family stuff this next weekend, and then it is unknown when we will all meet up again.  I like the idea of renting a big house, in Hawaii or in northern Wisconsin, and bringing in family from all over the place – others like the idea, too, so we can all see each other again.  We aren’t getting any younger . . . and the little ones are growing up way too fast.

This morning is very quiet, with only the birds being heard through the open window.  Sunrise was brilliant sky and pink clouds.  These are the texture of my mornings here in the studio, as I drink coffee and ponder what to do during the course of the day.  As I am spring break, my days are not at all structured with the need to get out the door on time to make it to class, to spend the 5 minutes it takes for the ancient work computer to boot, put my lunch away, and listen to any phone messages which may have come in.  It is this quiet that means so much to me as it is time to reflect on what is going on.  I also daydream of retirement and the fact that my life will be more my own as it declines . . . .

There is value in little moments.  I am not at all sure where I am at when it comes to painting or knitting or photography right now.  I don’t know if I really care.  Aimlessness has its own value because it allows for exploration without the need to accomplish.  There are lesson plans to write, things to read, and so on, and while they will get done, I don’t want to do them now.  Rather, I want to savor the morning and its little things and allow my mind to roam where it will.

Lallygagging

Spring break, and various family members have left Wisconsin and Colorado and traveled to SoCal to enjoy our unusually chilly weather – 42 F!  It’s been party time, catch up time, fun time.  Here and there, some time to do other things, time to get out, veg out, eat out, cook and play.  Tonight, Josh has class . . . and I am home alone!

I’ve gotten so used to being warm that 42 F seems pretty cold, but it really isn’t.  And it is not especially damp.  It is kind of like going into the pool – toe first, then slow immersion, or just that shocking dive into the deep end.  Once outside, though, I am just fine!  So, today, with time alone, I went out to the local botanical gardens, camera and tripod in hand.  Flowers and trees in bloom, bunnies running around, and lizards basking in the sun.  I met local people, and people from Canada and Japan.  Nice way to spend a morning.

Tonight . . . I could learn a few things, like read a book on some technical element of Photoshop, but what I really want to do is pull out a brush and paper . . .

Explosion!

My computer blew up!  Well, not quite, but it sure got itself fried.  The main CPU went.  I went shopping.  Just now getting everything settled in where I want it.  Played a bit while things installed themselves, and in between tweaking the new beast.

 

Discernment

Well . . . I think I am past the point where every picture I take has to be trotted out and uploaded.  Yesterday the Photo Troupe went out to the beach behind the Ventura Marina, late in the afternoon (3:30 pm to be specific), parked itself at a jetty, and got to work.  I took gobs of photos, but only a few were any good, or worth editing.  Some pictures I edited in different ways, from subtle color movement, to dramatic HDR, and finally black and white.  My main focus was composition of ocean and rocks; for the birds, I just ran around chasing them with a long lens.

My first attempts at really long exposures on water, using an ND10 filter, ended with my camera toppling into the sand – luckily not the ocean! – and getting a lot of sand on the filter.  The filter was saved, set aside, gently brushed off, and cleaned with lens cleaner.  However, the one picture I did get, while not particularly dramatic in contrast with the roughness of the rocks and the smoothness of the sea, was worth saving.  The lens I used was the Tokina 11-16mm, which is wonderful for taking dramatic shots – but hard to use with refinement, simply because it is so wide.

One thing I totally forgot was I can change my iso settings on the Nikon!  It does a really good jobs at high iso, so as the sun went down, I pushed the iso from the 100 I used earlier in the day, to 1600 toward sunset, and using a Tamron 70-300mm lens at that – but it was a grrr moment that made me remember that, when all my pictures were horribly dark.

Although I live in Southern California, the coast is damp and chilly, oftentimes very windy.  The salt air clings to everything, and I end up feeling sticky and damp, even if I am not.  All of us were shivery, with fingers capable of doing very little.  Luckily, there is a rather nice cafe that serves excellent hot chocolate, so we ended up there before returning to our lives elsewhere.