Flame On!

2015/08/262015/08/26 ruminator

Sunsets are good. They are almost always good. But, some are better than others. Last night at Younger Grandson’s football practice, I was watching him work through drills and play practice. I noticed the sunbeams through a gap in the clouds and pointed them out to Daughter and Older Grandson.

I then withdrew the Leica from its pouch and made a few captures. One of my personal goals is to make one decent image every day. I have not been doing this in any disciplined manner. If I aspire to be a photographer (of any sort), then I must continue working on my craft. Part of that is the technical — doing the technical part correctly. Part of it is artistic — finding the composition, the light, and the subject that speaks to my Muse. Part of it is discipline — getting out every day to find something to capture, even if it’s something as commonplace as a sunset.

When I reviewed my captures this morning, this one made me think of the Fantastic Four’s Johnny — “Flame On!”

Backlit Iris, Alturas, California

2015/08/242015/08/23 ruminator

On my first loop from Carson City, I spent a night in Alturas, California. I believe I wrote a bit about that part of my journey some months ago. In any event, I noticed this iris was strongly backlit and it was striking against the darker background. So, I paused my play with the Girl and made the capture. It’s one of my favorite images from that trip and a great memory of the place.

Angelica

2015/08/212015/08/16 ruminator

A few weeks ago, Jimmy and I elected to drive to Java Jungle in downtown Reno. Arttown was still going on and we had not been out and about much. Jimmy was working a lot and so was I. So, our social time had been limited to passings-by now and again. It was time and it was good to be out.

It was too warm for coffee, so I elected to have an iced tea, black of course. I got there a bit before Jimmy and had the Girl sitting next to me on the bench, watching the world go by. I noticed three squids (motorcycle riders who are/think-they-are racers) BS’ing at another table. They were telling war stories of various kinds.

Jimmy showed up, got his coffee, and sat down. We were chatting and people-watching when a beautiful young woman walked along the sidewalk outside the Java Jungle seating area.

“Get your camera ready…” Jimmy said, “I saw her up the street a bit ago.

“She’s gorgeous… and I only have the normal lens on my camera.”

The squids called out to her — not the catcall I expected, but asked her “Do you want a ride?” She gave them this stunning big smile and her demeanor was of the naive.

“I have no pants,” she said, and I immediately recognized that she was not a native English speaker.

“What’s that accent?” I asked Jimmy.

“Balkans.”

“It sounds like Ukrainian or Belorussian to me.”

The squids continued to talk her up and she clearly wanted a ride. There was a spare helmet and jacket and they found her some gloves, but no pants. So, she tucked her skirt under her butt when she climbed aboard.

“I hope he doesn’t scare her,” I looked at Jimmy.

“He probably will…” was Jimmy’s dry reply.

“She seems a bit naive to me,” I looked at Jimmy.

“She’s not,” he replied, “It’s part of the European woman package. They have a deep sense of who they are and they present themselves well.”

I watched her ride off with the motorcyclist. He appeared to be taking it easy on her — he made an easy turn onto the street and didn’t goose the bike on the takeoff. They were gone a few minutes and then returned. Jimmy was shooting away, having a zoom on his camera. I just watched. Her friend/handler arrived and they sat down. Then she came over to our table.

“You shoot a lot of pictures,” she said.

“It’s street photography,” I chimed in.

“What is ‘street photography?'” she asked. So we explained about the fun of wandering about looking for interesting things, people, and actions.

“Where are you from? Belarus?”

“Lithuania,” she smiled. Jimmy grinned and introduced me as ‘Dr. Dave,’ as he always does.

“Did he scare you,” I asked.

“A little,” she smiled, “but not too bad.”

Sometime during the conversation, one of us mentioned how beautiful she was. “All the girls are pretty in Lithuania,” she responded.

I have no idea whether that is true or not. But, Angelica has much more than just good looks. She has poise, intelligence, and carries herself with confidence and a kind of innocence. It was a pleasure to meet her and the capture is one of my favorites.

Jimmy asked for her email address to send her some of the captures. I looked over to her friend/handler and said “I bet this happens quite a lot.” He looked back at me, shrugged, and grinned.

I enjoy these chance encounters. When I remember to get an informal portrait, they are even better. I MUST learn to ask for the shot when I have these conversations with people I meet. I don’t know what it is about me that prevents me from asking. But I have to get over that.

The Crystal Mine

2015/08/072015/08/03 ruminator

On that same trip toward Verdi Peak (which we never made), we stopped at the Crystal Mine to play around looking for “points.” The mine was active in World War II, when it supplied crystal for radiocommunications. It’s still possible to find whole crystals, but it’s more difficult now than it used to be because everyone wants to find them.

The Girl had a blast hunting around, although I think her feet were a bit sore from the sharp quartz. There was quartz (and many other minerals) everywhere! I wish I had a mineralogy field book along because I still enjoy mineral identification. It’s been too many years since my geology laboratory.

I found a point fragment that was quite pretty. I also found quite a bit of galena and some fairly thin sheets of quartz that I liked.

One of the best parts was playing around with the camera. I contrast of white quartz, blue sky, and puffy white clouds caught my eye. So, I caught the image.

Routt National Forest

2015/07/242024/07/24 ruminator

The Girl and I left Denver on Friday, 3 July 2015 headed for western Nevada. I had some personal business there that needed my attention and I wanted to retrieve some things from my storage unit. Plus, it was just time for me to get out of Denver.

Older Son and DiL live on Capitol Hill in Denver. It’s a busy place and deep in the city. So, it has all the noise, commotion, and energy of a city. Although the place where Older Son and DiL live is fairly quiet, and the window A/C units we installed while I was there provided quite a bit of white noise, I could still feel that city-energy. After a couple of weeks, I just needed to be out of that.

I originally intended to stay in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. But I was unable to reserve lodging there so elected to go on a bit farther west and stayed in Craig, Colorado. Craig is not a small town at all; but it isn’t a city and the vibe there was calm, orderly, and a slower pace of life. But, I’m ahead of my story.

I left Denver and drove north on I-25 to Fort Collins, where I turned west on CO 14 — the Poudre Highway. Heading up into the foothills was quite busy as many folks were headed for the mountains (and I learned later, Steamboat Springs). Although I stopped for a couple of geocaches, I felt uncomfortable with all the traffic and eventually blew off searching for more hides. I elected to relax, enjoy the drive, and enjoy the river.

We stopped several times along the way to enjoy the warm mountain air (we also drove with the windows down and the A/C off), stretch legs, and make a capture or two. There was no reason to hurry as my mileage for the day was less than 300 miles.

When we arrived at Steamboat Springs, Jumping Jehosaphat! The town was crazy-busy with folks there for the 4th of July celebration. It was no wonder that no lodging was available. In any event, I was thankful that there was no lodging available as I would have simply traded the Denver energy for Steamboat energy. That would not have been a good thing.

So we drove on, thankfully.

About an hour later we arrived at Craig, Colorado. It was bustling, but the vibe was much calmer and my intuition told me that this was a good thing. Our motel was on the west side of town (missed it the first time), so we pulled in and walked into the office. The manager was there, remembered my telephone call, and checked me after consultation with an Asian woman (his wife?) about which unit would be best.

“That one too hot!” she exclaimed to two of his suggestions. “Put them in 18,” she said. So he did.

I backed into my parking spot so I could unload a few things from the 4Runner. I opened the door and looked around. The room was large, definitely old-school, and fine. I tossed the spread on the floor and brought in a few things. The Girl and I mounted back up (man it was hot) and drove to Walmart to reprovision for a couple of days. At the Walmart, we bumped into the manager who greeted us, “At Walmart already?” I laughed and bought a couple of salads, some fruit (bananas good!), and a six-pack of Coronas to celebrate our survival to date. Then we returned to our room.

I elected to boil a couple of eggs for my chef’s salad. It was my first use of the Pathfinder canteen stove I bought and my Trangia burner. I elected to sit outside my room because I was uncomfortable with the combustion products of the methylated spirits used in the Trangia. The wind gave me a little trouble and the simmer ring of the Trangia is, as the Brits say, “fiddly.” But I got my eggs boiled and learned a bit about using the stove and the process was relaxing (along with a Corona). The addition of the egg made the salad much better.

The Girl nibbled kibbles while I ate my salad and surfed the TV a bit. Yep… I still have little use for TV.

We rose early on the 4th and drove into town to find some food and coffee. We stopped at the local CoC and I found a self-guided tour of the area north of town in Routt National Forest. So we drove back to our motel, gathered up a few things to take along (camera, lenses, fruit, water) and headed out. Along the way, I found a big grassy area at the local middle school (out of session), so the Girl and I had a big play, refueled, and headed out on an adventure.

Once off the state highway, the route was all gravel road. We stopped to look for a couple of geocaches, but I lost phone signal and had not planned ahead, so there wasn’t much of that.

What there was, however, was a nice climb up to 5,000–6,000 feet and the commensurate cooling. The sun was pretty, there was a little breeze, and the temperature was wonderful!

As we drove along, I noticed a bluff of columnar basalt. I stopped the 4Runner, got the Girl out, collected my camera, put on my boots, and we started up the hill. After just a few steps, a big mule deer jumped up, snorted at us, and bounced over the ridge. I didn’t have enough lens to capture him, but the capture is in my memory and will always be.

After a few minutes of hiking up the hill, I puttered around the bluff while the Girl did her thing. I have a few more captures that I still need to process.

The remainder of the drive was interesting, especially the Bear Ears (a pair of mountain tops). It was a good way to spend the Fourth of July — much better than hanging out in town. We were both tired and hungry when we got back to the motel. So, we ate, drank, and then cuddled before it was time to go to sleep. The fireworks bothered the Girl some and she stayed close to me. But she settled down after a bit and only stirred again for the finale.

It was a good day.

East from Austin, Nevada

2015/07/232015/07/23 ruminator1 Comment

A few weeks ago (seems like ages now) I left Ely, Nevada on my way “home” to western Nevada. The Girl and I were not in a particular hurry. Although there was work to do (both the paying and non-paying kinds), there was little reason to rush and I spent much of my life rushing from one point to another, from one responsibility to another, and I’m just tired of all that rushing and pressure.

My new philosophy is to stop when I feel like it, look around, see what God offers, accept that with gratitude, and make the capture, enjoy the moment, or whatever response is called for at that point in time. Perhaps another statement would be “Embrace Uncertainty.” That has been my direction for this year.

Let me explain. At the beginning of this year I spent some time reflecting on the events of the last several years. There were trials and there were great times between 2011 and 2015. My future, though, was uncertain.

Over a period of a few weeks, a common theme emerged from my regular reading — “Embrace Uncertainty.”

Life is inherently uncertain. In our arrogance we believe we can plan years into the future. (Said planning has value, but one must remember that plans can and will change in response to outside influence.) I had arrived at a point where I did not know what was next. I thought my engagement might last long enough for me to reach full retirement age.

“No!” was the resounding answer from the universe. “That’s not the plan.”

Therefore, here I am. I have a vague notion of what I will do next. I will finish this report and a couple small projects. Then, I will go see Daughter and her family. After that I don’t know.

And that leads me to the serendipity of the capture above. The Girl and I paused for a respite on our journey. I wanted to be out of the 4Runner and in the morning air. She wanted to do doggie-things. I had my camera. The long-distance rider passed by and I made the capture. I have the feeling that there will be many more of these opportunities, God willing.

Nevada, Missouri

2015/06/262015/06/23 ruminator

On our way back from Rolla to Denver, we stopped at the limit of Nevada, Missouri for a picture. In Missouri, Nevada is pronounced “Ne-va-duh” with a long a in the middle syllable, which would cause a native Nevadan to have a hissy fit. It is one of the amusing things about Missouri life that I appreciated.

Lost

2014/02/182025/02/18 ruminator

Here is a capture from morning walkies a few days ago. The snow was still on, although it was melting down here in the valley. One of the neighbors had put up a sign. The wind blew it over and the snow covered most of it. All that was exposed was this portion. For some reason, this caught my eye. The capture was made with the Nikon D300 and a micro-Nikkor 105mm f/4.

The Selfie

2014/02/172026/02/17 ruminator

It’s funny that making a self-portrait took on the coined work selfie sometime over the last few years. Photographers make self-portraits in a number of ways and have probably since photography began. Most of the time it requires a camera on a tripod or other self support that is fired remotely.

I used to use a bulb release that pushed a bit of air that activated a plunger to release the shutter. I’ve also used self-timers with my cameras. Now it’s more common to use a wireless remote because many cameras are equipped with wireless receivers. (My Sony NEX-5N has an infrared receiver, for example.) With a mobile phone front-facing camera it’s trivial.

Probably about 15-years ago, I made this capture with a Canon Elph APS film camera. I was riding the bike at 70 mph on my way home to Lubbock. The sun was setting. I stuck my hand in the tank bag, put the Canon’s lanyard around my wrist, turned it on, held it at arm’s length, and depressed the shutter. I took a couple of frames to be sure I got a decent capture.

This is one of my favorite self-portraits, or selfies. It was a fun capture near the end of a long day’s ride and something unique to my history. That’s a good thing.

Nobody’s Home

2014/02/162014/02/16 ruminator

On walkies the other afternoon the Girl I paused by this empty nest we see almost every day. I believe I had the Bausch & Lomb 100mm f/2.3 mounted on my D300. I probably used a stop of about f/5.6, which is a sweet spot for this lens.

Random Ruminations

Category: photography