Tag: play

A Patch of Daffodils

This is a panorama shot with a very narrow DOF. The focal point could have been better, but it is the row of daffs in front of the trees. The third clump in the very front from the left is best in focus, but I probably could have focused on the blooms in the second clump. Oh well.

I probably took 60 or so images here, and got a really well-covered area. The point is to see the different layers of in and out of focus areas. The foreground is sort of in focus, then the daffodils, and then moving back, the trees become increasingly more blurred. Sometimes doing these big panoramas can produce exciting pictures – other times, rather meh to downright worthless.  If you enlarge the picture, you will be able to see the levels of focus more clearly.

The beauty of digital! So much can be thrown away, so much can be play, so much can be a learning experience that is cheap – film does not make this an economic adventure at all.

Toys

Today is a family get-together to celebrate a nephew’s second birthday.  Of course, there was the search to find the perfect toy for a kid.  One of our favorite stores is one that avoids the cluttery junk found in a lot of stores, where the majority seem to make electronic noise, and don’t do a whole lot else.  I would rather give toys that make a kid explore and interact and develop coordination and imagination and creativity.  If noise is to be generated, then let the kid make it – rhythmic patterns, high and low notes, bang and clang – by moving around and doing, not by pushing a button.  Yeah, so we got some noisemakers!  Child musical instruments and a hammer-the-peg set.  I’m happy!

Kids aren’t the only ones who need toys.  Adults do, too.  Adult toys are not inflatable dolls and items “discreetly shipped in brown wrappers for your privacy.”  Playtime is still essential for the mind, the heart, the soul.  Our toys are a bit different than those of the two-year-old, but interaction and imagination still matter.   Good books.  Building.  Figuring out how to make something so you don’t have to buy it.  Cooking.  Knitting.  Brewing.  Gardening.  Remodeling a house.  Court games with friends and family.  Art in all its varieties.  Just moving around, like hiking or running, or chopping wood.

Sitting on your butt and pushing a mouse around while you play a game by yourself is not conducive for the overall well-being of a person, and with all the kill-em games, I wonder about the moral content, for kids and adults.  There are no social skills involved with these activities, and studies do show that kids that play too much with a computer at an early age fail to develop interpersonal skills.  Adults whose online lives predominate often cannot function in the real world.

Give me some of inanimate objects, let me play, and I’ll make my own fun.  Go play. You might have some fun, too.