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I look and don’t see.

There are times more often than I prefer to recall when I look and not see. I will have two cameras set up with different lenses just to be ready for any distance. With a long range zoom lens in each camera what am I looking at? Why of course anything more than 1/2 mile in the distance. After all isn’t all of the good stuff over there? I remember fishing as a youngster thinking if I could only…

i use the Vultures as props.

There’s a number of Vultures flying around the slough, it seems nothing bothers them. Not the wind, smoke or cloudy skies, they just deep on keeping on. I take a lot of images of them the keeper ratio is a bit less fair to me; it’s around .5% one keeper per 200 is about my average. One reason is they are normally flying very high against a light colored sky. When that composition is set up it is…

It’s been five days since I wrote for this blog, I wrote a few extra on my other one. I just sort of ramble through this one, it’s not difficult to conjure up what to write about. I make a lot of photographic mistakes so there is something in reach all of the time. I haven’t gone out doors in several days, I am very sensitive to wood smoke. I wear a mask when I’m in it, in fact I use my 3M 1/2…

editing in the smoke.

Due to the atmospheric conditions (smoke) I spent another day indoors studying photographic stuff. I really need to get down to my Worm Farm to make sure they are still on track; I’ve been neglecting it for 2 months. I continued on my goal to master Photoshop; I have discovered another issue. That’s not a surprise because that’s what learning is all about isn’t it? The Heron hangs out on this…

I’m fiddling with mid day photography again, actually low light which takes place three times a day; twice when the skies are clear. I’m messing around with the white balance, again or still however one may look at it. It began at dusk I increased the ISO, shutter speed and opened the aperture. I then set the white balance to underexpose by one degree. That was a mistake everything was pitch…

Grounded by Mother Nature.

Mother Nature has me stuck in the house and in quarantine again. I don’t mind the mask, keeping distance or the vaccines and booster. But this staying indoors is enough to drive me up a tree. We’re smoked in again, I’ll drag out my good old EM half mask and sit next to the air purifier. I’m on the last segment of the photography course I am taking. It has hit on items that are new to me and I…

still learning after all these years.

Aim, Focus, Click, seems easy enough depending if there is a subject to take a picture of. When there isn’t it’s time to catch up on a bit of studying. I have completed the first photography course, going right on to the second. The first was Nature which is a natural for me, the second is Landscapes which I take few of. There is always plenty to learn as photography is concerned. It’s mostly…

about california; a wall of words worth reading.

When faced with so much reality it’s hard to ignore the repercussions that join us in our world. I’m talking about the farmers caused drought, the wind and the wild fires. The epi-center for each one is the Island I live on, it’s in the middle of all of it. Any one of these topics have filled many long winded reports, speeches and yes books. I am a conservationist, a conservative Democrat, yes…

it’s working; kind of.

I’m saving a lot of memory with my switch to taking RAW images exclusively. I spent yesterday morning and twice today on the Levee capturing images of any thing that walked, swam or flew past. I concentrated on the composition to be just right before taking the image. It will take a lot of practice, but I have a fairly good handle on taking good pictures of the medium size and large birds in…

taking all raw photos.

I bought a photography course; actually two for $35. Most of them are relatively inexpensive and I have been searching for one over the past week or so. It is all part of my plan which includes the purchase of my camera one year ago almost to the day. The first phase after taking recipe of the camera was to study it for one year to learn every aspect of it. I feel that’s been accomplished…

Opportunity knocks; the door creaks open.

I’ve neglected this blog for the past few days, last week I had a medical emergency and spent a day in the hospital. I’m Ok, merely an old guy with less than optimal health. I spent the past week taking it easy and reviewing my photo galleries, listening to audio books and I signed up for a photography course. I used the reflection photos on my other blog, featuring them which I don’t recall…

I’m am high risk as far as the C-19 virus is concerned. I don’t mind the mask, I had the vaccine and we are ordering all of our groceries on line. An almost daily delivery from UPS mostly ordered from Amazon, we know the routine now we’ll settle in again. Otter 25 The photograph of the Otter was taken last fall there was no wind and a lot of activity on the slough. I’m still using the 70D to…

I haven’t been using the 70D Canon one of my son-in-laws is interested in selling because he didn’t give me the battery charger. It finally was handed me yesterday and I charged the battery; I used it this morning. That model is known for its good photograph quality and more for its low light abilities which is what I’m interested in. The Squirrel is this years brood, it was born during the…

I had a good opportunity to mess around with my camera settings again. The sky was overcast, actually not dark but quite dim at daybreak. I first set the camera at ISO 100 with a shutter speed of 80. I had mixed results, the first two were taken of an Egret across the water. Image one was blurred which I blamed on myself, I am not that steady handed even when using a tri-pod. I have a habit of…

i take pictures for my blogs.

A lady walked by while I was on the Levee this evening after I wrote a short story for submission in a site I was directed to by one of our daughters. I don’t like publishing them so I requested it not be made public but copy it to a few people I listed. First I am a writer, not a photographer I was caught up with my first blog 5 or so years ago. I found using ones own pictures is an important…

Wild fires are burning as I write this blog in 13 locations throughout the state. They are in every section of the state from San Diego to the Oregon border. We are experiencing no smoke up to today but that can easily change with the weather conditions and how close they are to us. It’s too early yet to hope for rain, it won’t be here until October at the earliest; maybe not at all. If the…

editing still or again?

I spent two hours outside this morning with no opportunities to take any pictures. It’s to be expected because I’ve been sleeping in due to being in a severe Arthritic flair. I took the opportunity to go back into editing on Lightroom Classic. After working on it for a few hours I began to think about how long I should spend on each photo. I worked through most of my Canadian Goose gallery of…