Lights, camera, action; fun with ‘wiggly photography’… part 2…

Posted on January 2, 2019 by pouringmyartout

a 1

Well, I am not going to go into the whole story of how I came to take these photos, or what these are photos of. I did all that in part 1. But I will say that the picture above is one of the better ones I took, after I had gotten better at the wiggling part.

a 2

That one is sort of cool.

a 3

But moving the camera in interesting ways while the shutter is open takes some practice.

a 4

You can’t just go up and down.

a 5

And you can’t just go side to side.

a 6

It is a little better if you go side to side with a little up and down mixed in.

a 7

But you only have a very brief moment to move the camera before the shutter shuts again.

a 8

I tried to do the same thing with some city lights in the distance.

a 9

Good wiggling, but not as much color as the Christmas lights.

a 10

And they seemed to be the right distance away. I think, if I keep trying this, I will find the perfect lights, the correct distance away, with lots of colors, and the right level of darkness with the best lens on the camera and my wiggling perfected.

a 11

I did take my mom up to the top of the mountain overlooking the San Francisco Bay last night, to watch the sunset. I have photos of that, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself. I also tried a few more of these wiggly shots. That is the lights of Oakland in the distance, with the bay beyond them.

a 12

Not bad, but I hope some of them turned out a little better than that. We will see, in the next post in this series.

 

 

Posted in Everything Else | Tagged , , , , | 12 Comments

Lights, camera, action; fun with ‘wiggly photography’… part 1…

Posted on January 1, 2019 by pouringmyartout

a 1

It started off, like most of my ideas do, as an accident with some lucky happenstance thrown in. I thought I was done with the Christmas photography, but I was getting ready to take a picture of a nice sunset from my mom’s front balcony here in the Bay Area… you know… like I do… when I noticed the reflection of the tree lights in the front window.

a 2

I was trying to capture the tree, the reflections, and the sunset… but it was impossible to focus on all of them at once.

a 3

I played around with the idea for a while. I was hoping to get a photo where the reflected lights looks like stars in the sky.

a 4

And while some of these are fairly nice shots…

a 5

They never really captured what I was going for.

a 6

But I still think there is a good idea in there someplace, I just need better happenstances.

a 7

Well, by the time I got done playing around, the sunset was gone. So I decided to take a picture or two of some lights way up the street. Well, as any photographer can tell you, night photography is a challenge. Without a flash, the shutter has to stay open longer. And without a tripod, that means that ‘camera shake’ comes into play.

a 8

Either it was really windy, or I was shaking from the cold. But when I downloaded these images a short while later, I decided that I liked them. “So what,” I heard the crack squirrels that live inside my head say, “is stopping you from taking some pictures of lights while you wiggle the camera around on purpose?” Hey, sometimes those crazy little varmints are useful to have around.a 9

So I tried it on the tree. The first one isn’t that good. It just looks out of focus. “Not enough wiggling”, the squirrels assured me.

a 10

And they were right. A Christmas tree turned into a magical light show. Also, when I keep them busy, they don’t chew on the wiring up there.

a 11

What about the garlands hanging on the tops of the windows?

a 12

Interesting, but I like the faraway lights better.

a 13

What about the wild apple tree down on the street below?

a 14

The white lights are too plain.

a 15

And I was still refining my wiggling technique.

a 16

And that was when I decided to focus… HA!… on the lights up the street for a few more tries. And that will lead us into the next post in this series. See ya!

 

Posted in Everything Else | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

What the heck is that?; A micro-photography guessing game… part 2…

Posted on December 31, 2018 by pouringmyartout

I am going to put up a few more pictures I took with my new digital microscope. Try to guess what they are of. I will have a photo of what I was examining down below the post. If you enjoy this series, join me later for: ‘Does this look malignant to you?; A micro-photography self-examination medical guessing game’ where I show you pictures of my moles and other bodily growths, and ask if you think I should be worried…

HINT- These are all natural things, not man-made.

Also, I took more than one image of some of the objects.

Come on, answer in the comments. Take a wild guess. Play the game. And no peeking at the answer!

1.

a 1

2.

a 2

3.

a 3

4.

a 4

5.

a 5

6.

a 6

7.a 7

8.

a 8

9.

a 9

10.

a 10

11.

a 11

12.

a 12

13.

a 13

14.

a 14

15.

a 15

16.

a 16

17.

a 17

18.

a 18

19.

a 19

Okay, are you ready to see what those things are?

Are you excited?

Are you thinking of cheating by scrolling down to look?

v

v

v

v

v

v

v

v

v

The answers you have been waiting for…

v

v

v

v

v

v

Are just ahead… or below, as the case may be…

v

v

v

v

v

Here we go…

a 20

Just out of curiosity, did anybody even notice that the last picture way up there was a photo I took of an airplane’s contrail with my telephoto lens?

Posted in Everything Else | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

And now, the mandatory post of flower pictures in my mom’s garden…

Posted on December 31, 2018 by pouringmyartout

a 1

I always do these posts when I visit my mom in the Bay Area.

a 2

I love that steep garden, where I played as a small child.

a 3

And the view of San Francisco and the bay, seen over the roof from the top level of the yard.

a 4

The yard does look a little different.

a 5

When my three brothers and I were young, there were a lot more forts back there. And underground hiding places, and tunnels, and random holes, and army men scattered about.

a 6

Uh… that one is almost sexual, I just noticed.

a 7

This is supposed to be a family-friendly blog.

a 8

None of that plant porn here, oh no.

a 9

Then again, as my 95-year-old mother says: ‘Nature in the wild is seldom mild’!

a 10

The weather has been very nice… especially for the Bay Area in December.

a 12

It has been t-shirt weather in the middle of the day, something which doesn’t always happen here, even in the middle of summer.

a 13

Okay, I am going to get my new Christmas toy… the digital microscope… and make you guess what I am taking super-close-up images of. Come on, play the game. Nobody even tried to guess on the first post.

a 14

Maybe some things from this post will make it into the next post. HINT!

 

Posted in flowers, My travels | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Yes, that is a nice photo of the Golden Gate Bridge, but this post also has cute dogs and my lovely daughter in it…

Posted on December 30, 2018 by pouringmyartout

a 1 a

A view of the Golden Gate, across the waters of the San Francisco Bay.

a 1

And my sweet, smart and kind younger daughter, Mollie.

a 2

And that is Winston, a very nice dog that Mollie and I met. Because we were at a dog park… by the bay.

a 3

Winston was a good dog.

a 4

San Francisco. That is the view you want while you are petting numerous dogs.

a 5

Just sayin’.

a 6

Mollie is with us… here, and back in San Diego… for a whole month, on break from her college pre-med courses. Hey, I said she was smart.

a 7

She is also a little silly. I wonder where she gets that from?

a 8

But nobody who ever met Mollie didn’t like her. Is that good English? Maybe not. But it is true.

a 9

A cute puppy that I didn’t even get to pet. He was too busy running around. Hey, you can’t pet them all. Believe me… I have tried it.

a 10

And I really wanted to meet that one.

a 11

And one last shot of my new friend Oso, with the awesome ice-blue eyes.

Posted in dogs and other animals, My travels, Stories of my life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

What the heck is that?; A micro-photography guessing game… part 1…

Posted on December 30, 2018 by pouringmyartout

I am going to put up a few pictures I took with my new digital microscope. Try to guess what they are of. I will have the answers at the bottom, and photos of what I was examining. If you enjoy this series, join me later for: ‘Does this look malignant to you?; A micro-photography self-examination medical guessing game’ where I show you pictures of my moles and other bodily growths, and ask if you think I should be worried…

HINT- These are all natural things, not man-made.

1.

a 1

2.

a 2

3.

a 3

4.

a 4

5.

a 5

6.

a 6

7.

a 7

8.

a 9

9.

a 10

HEY!

No looking ahead at the answers…

…ooo000ooo…

9090909090909090909090

()()()()()()()()()()()())()()()()()(()()()))()()(

…………………………………………………..

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

““““~~~~~~~~~~““““~~~~~~~~

Even if you did cheat…

so did I…

One thing from above isn’t in the pictures below…

and there is more than one image of one object up above…

HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously… does this mole look funny to you???

And now…

the answers:

a 11

a 12

 

Posted in Everything Else | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Just more pictures of Christmas time in the Bay Area… and dogs…

Posted on December 30, 2018 by pouringmyartout

a 1

Sometimes… often for me… you just meet a dog and fall in love. It was like that with Oso. He belongs to a nice couple that my daughter Mollie and I ran into down at the dog park by the bay. He had awesome eyes and a sweet personality.

a 2

And very soft fur… you know… in case you were wondering.

a 3

Every time I come from San Diego to the Bay Area to visit my mom, I end up at the dog park at least once. I miss my dogs after a day or two.

a 4

Yeah, that’s right… I cheat on my dogs with other people’s dogs.

a 5

That is how I roll.

a 6

I like dogs… and horses… and babies.

a 7

Why is my 95-year-old mother out on her front balcony?

a 8

It is the goodbye ritual. There she is, hugging Jason, my son-in-law, after hugging Jessica, my older daughter.

a 9

Just as a side note, this year, I hung some really big ornaments on the back of my mom’s tree, so people out on the street could see them. Ha!

a 10

Anyway, mom watches from the deck as whoever is leaving gets in the car. This time, my younger daughter, Mollie, and I were dropping her sister and brother-in-law at the train station.

a 11

That is a pretty good picture of my mom.

a 12

But after we dropped them off, we went to the dog park by the San Francisco Bay!!!

Posted in dogs and other animals, My travels, Stories of my life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A city by the bay, and a daughter by the bay, and some dogs by the bay, and some birds in the bay… part 1…

Posted on December 29, 2018 by pouringmyartout

a 1 a

My younger daughter, Mollie, and I went down to that dog park by the bay yesterday. You know I do that when I miss my dogs back in San Diego. I cheat on them with other dogs.

a 1

It was a lovely day, and the view of San Francisco was phenomenal.

a 2

A cormorant, looking for dinner.

a 3

I couldn’t help taking a few photos of the water birds.

a 4

Is that a Coot?

a 5

I will just show these to my mom, and she will tell me what they all are.

a 6

She is that good with birds.

a 7

But this week isn’t all about birds.

a 8

It is about being in the Bay Area for Christmas.

a 9

Back in the place where I grew up.

a 10

Back in the place that I love the most.

a 11

With the people I love the most.

a 12

And dogs… it is always about dogs. This is Oso. I have more photos of him for later posts. He had the most awesome eyes, and he loved to be petted.

See you soon.

Posted in dogs and other animals, My travels | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Some birds, and me and a dog…

Posted on December 28, 2018 by pouringmyartout

a 1

A Golden Crowned Sparrow.

a 2

I have a few pictures of them.

a 3

I say ‘them’… these were taken over two days, and I assume it isn’t all the same bird.

a 4

But I could be wrong.

a 5

But that is a pretty good shot of his golden crown.

a 6

I will now intersperse some pictures of a turkey vulture, who, technically isn’t in my mom’s garden, so much as he is flying far above it. So he doesn’t count for the game my mom and I play where I take photos of birds in her yard and we look at them together.

a 7

Once again, at the age of 95, she can’t see the birds as well as she used to.

a 8

So she loves these zoomed-in shots.

a 9

I crop away all of the photo except for the bird in each one.

a 10

It is just a thing we do.

a 11

Bird watching in the digital age.

a 12

High tech bird watching.

a 13

A hungry Towhee.

a 14

And an adorable Titmouse.

a 15

And just a couple more photos, taken by one of my daughters, at my friend’s house.

a 16

Dutch, the chocolate lab, snuggling with me while gnawing on his bone. He lay down on my arm.

 

Posted in dogs and other animals, Pictures of me | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Scrub Jay…

Posted on December 28, 2018 by pouringmyartout

a 1

Some random pictures of a Scrub Jay, taken in my mom’s garden in the San Francisco Bay Area.

a 2

I mean, these probably aren’t all the same Scrub Jay.

a 3

There are more than one visiting the feeder. I have seen at least two at the same time.

a 4

I figured that identifying them by species would do… unless we want to name them…. then, I suppose, we would have to identify them as individuals.

a 5

That one looks like an Irving to me.

a 6

But anyway…

a 7

Okay, I know, it is overexposed and not in good focus, but I love that picture. I tried to correct it in Photoshop. I couldn’t get it any better than that. But look at his feet! He is doing Ballet, or River Dancing… or skipping… or something. I think I caught him at the moment he was taking flight, but he hasn’t put his wings out yet, and it just cracks me up.

a 8

Lunch time.

a 9

Okay, see you soon for… whatever I do next.

Posted in dogs and other animals | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment