Honoring Dad

Last Light, First Light
Last Light, First Light

Dad died in the August 2000.  He always had a camera handy, most of time he would spend an entire year shooting a roll of 36. Mostly he took pictures of his friends, family and the occasional flower or home grown tomato.

When he died, I finished up the roll taking snapshots of the flowers that arrived to note his passing. (Actually, a good bottle of booze would have been a better way to note his passing.)

When I had the pictures processed at the local K-Mart, I was stunned to find this image. It was taken from the carport of our family home in the slums of  northwest El Paso.  It would have been sunrise. And, since the leaves are off the trees, most likely in the late winter.

Playing with a new blog theme. And, working on deleting – or rather shredding and tossing – as many of paper files as possible. And where ever possible, anything that I want to save – PDF-ing  and then shred/toss.

Bee and Cone Flower

It didn’t rain today. Maybe I can stop working on the ark. The big event of the day was lounging around the pool.

And, taking pictures of bees over at the Nature Conservancy. Panasonic L1 with cheap-ass Oly macro lens.

The bee is number 6 of 30 in the 30Squares series.

From FilmTime

Another rainy day. Decided to see what Lightroom would do for old snapshots. These are from North Dakota – summer of 1997, I think. Click on them for the big version.

Really impressed with Lightroom. It is silky smooth. Might even be worth 200 bucks.

In addition to WordPress and NextGen Gallery, now my iPod wants to be updated. Apple wants $10 for the upgrade. But, it doesn’t seem to be worth it to me. So, the iPod upgrade is being  ignored.

The Desk

Rain today – just played around with a picture I took of the top of my desk. My real desk top, not the computer one.

In my volunteer job, I am a paper wrangler. We are buried under mountains of paper. So, as of this afternoon I vowed to “Go Less-Paper” at home. I am already pretty paperless – but, little scraps of paper do pile up. Well, that is why I  have a scanner. And a shredder. And a trash can.

Construction

Don’t you just hate it when your commute to the office is interrupted by path construction?

This was not the best image of the day. Got more magnolias to play with. My route to work is infested with magnolias. But, I wanted to test out Lightroom doing something other than flowers.

Still resisting upgrading my version of WordPress and NextGen Gallery.  Why do I resist upgrading free software, whilst being so willing to upgrade cameras and iPods at the first hint of “new improved”?

Construction is today’s Square. 3 of 30.

You know you are old when…

You know you are old when the articles in a paper about caring for your elders is no longer targeted at you. And, when you realize that your totally vigorous companion of the last quarter century is only five or six years away from REALLY OLD. We humans are good at denial. We make plans about where to go to college. Where to send our kids to pre-school. Anybody seriously planning on where to go when we do end up “sitting in the corner and drooling” – to quote the Senior George Bush. Maybe it is time to get on the wait list for a good assisted living place. Is “good assisted living place” like “jumbo shrimp” or “military intelligence”?

Enough of these thoughts – time to go to volunteer work. Not as exciting a jumping out of an airplane strapped to a studly paratrooper. But, it beats contemplating adult diapers.

Magnolia

Went to see the doctor again today. Things are still out of order and require adjusting. But, hey, I am still here and I have a month before I have to go back.

Magnolia is today’s Square. 2 of 30.

Na Kaimalei

Yesterday, I did not take in the nude bike race, but rather the Hawaiian Cultural Festival at the Indian Museum.

Decided to take Lightroom for a 30 day test drive. Since it is a $200 chunk of not-Unix software – it has got to prove its worth. So, to that end, I am starting a 30 Squares in 30 Days photography project. Each day a new – square – photo. Processed with Lightroom.

And just for comparing. This is the version of the same image that I did using PhotoShop Elements earlier this morning. It really doesn’t seem to be worth $200 for the difference. But, have 29 more days to play.

Always Check First…

Always check to see if  it is “gay pride” weekend before you get on public transit. Otherwise, you’ll end up like I did this afternoon. Thinking “where did all these people come from?”. If I had only known… I would not have missed the “nude bike ride” among other events.

Oh yes, there were also about 35 kids on a school trip in my car in addition to 5 swarthy men speaking some unknown language each carrying a 12 kilo bag of what I sure was hoping was rice. One of the men kept blocking the door open at each station. Maybe he was afraid of the pierced lesbians who were next to him.

And, somewhere under the Potomac River the subway stopped. It was time to fire off a prayer to the Metro Goddess.

But, a nice young man gave me a seat.

No photos. Do you really think I would whip out a camera in the middle of all that?

morning in the cemetery

Took the day off from the volunteer job. Took the day off from vigorous exercise, excessive technology and just about everything else. Also took the day off from the big brick camera and used the little one with an IR filter. Infrared seems very suitable for grave yards. And a fine grave yard it is too. Columbia Gardens Cemetery – check it out if your want a nice walk.

WordPress keeps trying to get me to install the “new improved” version. And the photo gallery thing that I haven’t figured out completely also wants me to “upgrade”. Next rainy day – I’ll get around to it. Maybe.

Notes to old people: Infrared is very flattering to aging skin. And Carlton’s converter boxed analog TV’s are working.

what the duck?

ducks
ducks

Walking home from (volunteer) work today, I almost stepped on these ducks. It seems that neither of us was paying attention to where we were going. Real question is why were the ducks on the sidewalk? Guess they are tired of having wet feet, too.

rained out – wimped out?

Canadian Army Band
Canadian Army Band

Went to Fort McNair to see the Canadian Army Band tonight. But, the concert was call due to rain. Wouldn’t want to get those fuzzy hats wet. I got to see them marching back to their bus.

And, it didn’t actually rain. They just thought it might rain.

Whatever happens is what I planned. Then I went marching back to the subway.