Category: Blitherings

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.

Connections

There is nothing like good friends and family to keep one sane.  People who love you will take you with all your faults and warts.  There are people I love, and who love me.  However, though this love may seem boundless, it needs to also be respected – everyone has their limits, and when those limits are pushed too far, that love can end, and it can be painful to both sides.  The question occurs as to whether or not that love can be restored.

Years ago I once read that love grows out of pity.  While I did not, and still do not, like that idea, it does have a certain element of truth. Pity can induce compassion, which can lead to connection, which can lead to love.  Love, though, is quite intangible and hard to define.  And you can love someone, and not like them.  Or love them, and hate what they have done.  Somewhere, though, is that limit which, once lost, is hard or impossible to retrieve.

Trespasses occur everyday.  Manners help assuage the incursion.  But when is it okay to lay into someone?  When is it okay to tell someone off in no uncertain terms?  I think for most of us, it can be very difficult to do, but others seem to spend their lives simply telling people off.  Routinely vexatious people are to be avoided – but sometimes the ones you love are also vexatious, out of thoughtlessness, need, whatever.  And they need to be told . . .

Emergence from Winter

There is a beautiful botanical garden nearby.  Originally slated for a development, it was found to be unusable for housing.  The owner donated it to the city – so I am told.  What has happened since is just wonderful, and continues becoming more wonderful!  Not only does it continue to expand, adding different sections, but is always a work-in-progress, from volunteers, and from the changing of the seasons.

Yesterday, after reading and knitting for a few hours in the afternoon, I realized it was Saturday.  (I’ve been in a fog with a melt-down, jury duty, and catching up with things at work that didn’t get done during the two days I was gone.)  Suddenly, I just wanted to get out of the house, and go see some plants and take some pictures.  Of course, my favorite place to go is the gardens!

Spring cleaning has been done in the gardens – undergrowth pulled out and removed so new plants can grow.  I was not disappointed.  The matilija poppies are just beginning to emerge their new growth for spring.  Hummingbird sage is in full bloom.  Other salvia plants are sending out buds.  The redbud is in flower, with brilliant red and pink blossoms amongst heart-shaped leaves.  Bulbs, such as narcissus, are making themselves visible and easily found with their sweet fragrances.  Amaryllis, too, are emerging.  Bees are busy in the lavendar; fruit trees are beginning to renew their cycles.

The evenings, though lengthening, are still early.  Sunset is about 6:30 p.m.  The sun was lower in the sky, and tilting through the leaves and branches, backlighting everything from the west.  People like me were wandering around, just enjoying a stroll, taking pictures, enjoying an outing with family and friends.

This is the time of year when last year lingers in old leaves on trees, and fallen leaves providing nutrition for future growth.

Never ending . . .

Toy in the Morning

Hmmm.  Nothing like playing with software to keep one amused in the early morning!

Adobe has a filter called “pixel bender” for CS4, CS5, and CS5.5.  I expect they will have one for CS6 when it comes out.

I have been playing with the “Oil Paint” one, with maybe another thrown in by accident.  Kinda like the results.

Is this “art”?  Or not?

If you use it, reduce the picture in size.  My system crashed using full-sized 16 megapixel images; no problems when reduced to 1500 in Photoscape along the long edge.