Category: Blitherings

Hiking: Happy Camp Canyon

Weed

My friend Rashelle and I have made a pact, which, for now, I expect we will be able to keep: Go hiking every Sunday morning! Last week we went up through a bit of Wildwood, here in Thousand Oaks, and this morning we went to Happy Camp Canyon, located in the Santa Monica Mountains outside of Moorpark, California.

Eucalyptus TreesPPro_HDR 1

Getting there we got lost, ending up in a canyon on the other side of the hills.  There we found avocado groves, a road in bad repair, and old eucalyptus trees for windbreaks.  We figured out we were in the wrong area when we asked a gentleman, who very kindly gave us better directions than the ones I had copied.

Road 1bHappy Camp Canyon is very flat, which makes for easy hiking.  The scenery is fading a bit from the flowering we had after our few rains, but still lovely.  The hills are amazingly golden and green, with sunflowers and yucca and mustard dotting the fields and hills.  A few oak trees dot the landscape, along with tobacco bush and other native plants.  Birds were all over, and in the quiet, unafraid to sing or fly from tree to bush.

Oak Tree 2

Morning walks outdoors, amongst the flora and fauna of California, beats the pavement of suburbia.  End this with some coffee and nosh at a good coffee shop, and Sunday is a great day!

The Glass Aerie – My Romps in Photoland

Through the Weeds

For the past year and a half, I have had another blog, minimalist in nature, with just a picture now and again that I post for whatever reason. I haven’t mentioned it here, but now, I have decided to do so. You can find a link to it on the above “pages” bar. Take a look, let me know what you think. Photography is now a part of my creative life, so I think it should be posted here – along with whatever else I decide to do.

No Color Here

 

Morning Flower, Color

Putzing around with a lot of my images, taken over the years, and all in color, I am looking for ones that I think might look work in black and white. I am looking, analyzing texture and lighting, and then making a conversion to black and white. Mostly I fail.

What I am trying to do is to train my eyes to be able to visualize a picture in black and white before I take it. Given our world is filled with color, I find this especially hard to do. Awhile ago someone told me that people who are color blind in one area or another make great black and white photographers because they do not have the ability to see all the normal range. While I don’t know if this is true or not, I do know that “seeing” in black and white is very difficult for me!

When I first looked at this color picture, it immediately stood out. The original exposure was very dark – underexposed to the point that only the bright white light of the flower stood out. I increased its exposure in LR and saw that it had potential because of the contrast in light and dark. Leaf textures and fine hairs on stems and buds also caught my eye.

Morning Flower

 

I popped it into Silver Efex, and scanned through it. Finally I chose the preset I liked best, and went to work a bit. I increase fine texture, used control points, and then returned to LR for final vignetting and detail enhancement. Last steps were in CS6 for some spot removal and a signature. The end result is not too bad, in my opinion.

Janome Coverpro 1000 CPX

Do I really need another new toy?  I guess so, cuz I bought it.  And I got a good deal on it from my favorite sewing machine store, too.  It really pays off to support your local businesses, and it feels good, too.

Anyhow, the video . . . it shows the model prior to the CPX, the CP.  I am not quite sure why the CP was discontinued – I think I read it had some feed issues.  The reason the video is posted here is to show some of the attachments and how to use them.  I like information like that.  I am watching the video before I play with the machine, and probably others, too, to learn what it can do.  Then, sit down and read the manual, and get around to playing.