Flowery Friday 1

Last year I got so far behind on flower photos, and knowing many of my readers like to know what's going on in the garden, I started doing a weekly catchup of flower photos that hadn't yet made the blog. I'm thinking I'll do much the same this year.

There's not a lot of rules to let you know what to expect. Generally it's flowers from our garden that haven't been blogged for whatever reason. They'll be in date order, oldest to newest, and might be quite  behind the times, depending entirely on how many photos I take vs how many get blogged. There's no rule about how many get posted, but generally it will be all up to whatever date seems appropriate. I probably won't tell you what they are. Beyond a few that I know, like rose, lily, tulip, daffodil, peony, it's all Latin to me. That might mean only a few photos, or it might mean many. You'll just have to wait and see.

This has been a long break in blogging by my standards, nearly a week. I've been thinking. I'm pretty sure that aside from the possibility of a few hours here or there between now and the end of June to wrap things up in a neat bow and hand them off, I'm done paid work in oil and gas. I might get paid for photo or writing projects, but I'm not out pounding the pavement looking for 'work' in those areas. Just my own projects, for my own amusement, and whatever money happens is a happy surprise.

I've had lots of breaks between contracts, of course. Every contractor does. But most of the time you're hustling for the next contract. Well, except for me over the last several years. I haven't looked for work since May 2012. In fact, potential employers have tracked me down, once even when I was in New Zealand. It's flattering. But this one is coming to a close, and there's an air of finality about it that's hard to describe. Before, I'd said I was done, but left the door open for something interesting. Now, just on the walk today, I was thinking, 'what would it take to make me accept a contract?' 

It would have to be something pretty special. I don't enjoy the work as much as I used to. My financial advisor tells me I don't need to be doing it for the money. Excel has become an anger inducing experience, and let's not even talk about Word, or (gasp) MS Access. With COVID I don't even get the pleasure of seeing actual people, and no idea when that will change. Even then, I'm not going to miss the commute, though going downtown made it very convenient to keep a Repsol membership to swim. 

I've been making lists for a while, but it's coming time to dive into the actually nitty gritty and start getting them done. COVID permitting, of course. Don't get me started on Alberta being the worst jurisdiction in North America for infection, and right up there with the other bad boys of the world. Kenney is to blame, trying to pander to his idiot base.

So, a happier topic. Flowers, starting April 12, going to April 20.

Of the Day

Driftwood

Celina

April Image of the Month

This was a difficult month for photography. Near the beginning of the month I was still feeling kind of run down from the work contract. Plus, spring in general is a tough season in Calgary. You never know what's going to happen with the weather. Nothing is green yet, just winter guck. There's still patches of snow and ice amidst the mud, and this isn't the pretty snow either. There isn't much real colour anywhere, unless you get lucky with a sunrise or sunset. 

So yeah, today's choice for Image of the Month is driven by that hit of colour.

Runner up

Image of the Month

Something about that yellow, and the water drops are just doing it for me. I've been a bit colour starved this month.

The garden art

The garden is emerging from winter. The daffodils are out now. Some of the roses are putting out new buds. The famous Dread Alberta Rose by the garage is leading the way, like usual.

The garden art has been installed for another year, though some of it lives outdoors year round, and shows up in other photos, so not a surprise there.

Of the Day

Driftwood

Celina

Flower

Artsy

The bees are back

Regular readers know that I like to photograph bees. It's quite a challenge with a regular lens, and gets harder as the magnification goes up. These are the first shots of the year, and it's pretty obvious I'm out of practice. Stay tuned, there will be more, especially once the mint plant gets going. The bees love that, and that purple shows up so well on camera.

We try to have a bee friendly garden, so it's nice to see them out. We worry there isn't much for them to feed on so early in the year. The hyacinths are just about the only blooms on the go just now. A couple of daffodils are just about ready to burst out. They're a little tougher to photograph now as Linda has had to put the green netting on to protect the tulips from the rabbits and deer.

Of the Day

Driftwood

Same chunk as here, but different composition. I think I had been intending to merge them into a wider image, and either I forgot, or it didn't work out.

And in fact, because I'm almost retired again, I went back and tried. Here you are. Several panorama merges that hadn't worked out then, now do since I put more memory in the computer.

Celina, another of the recent series of her writhing in the sun.

Flower

Artsy, not a shell.

Sunday morning blither

More snow. Enough of that. The little yellow crocuses are closed up shop waiting for nicer days, and Linda is looking over the front beds, encouraging the plants to hang in there.

It's kind of funny. Weird almost. We've both had our first AZ shots two weeks ago. We aren't sure when the second shot will happen. Supposedly we are mostly protected against the virus, but we're behaving like we have not been vaccinated, just in case. 

More and more people here are getting vaccinated, but it seems like I hear about more and more cases. We are deep into a third wave here, with the number of new cases still above the 7 day moving average, and most of them are the new variants. We are somewhat more worried about catching it now than we were a year ago. Other than our house, the only indoor spaces for us these days involves shopping for food.

A year ago! I don't think anyone dreamed we would still be here now. And yet, here we are, and there are still people denying that COVID is a serious problem. More than a dozen Alberta politicians are publicly denouncing the various measures as being too harsh, while the science suggests that the measures are about half-way to adequate and implemented too late. Nobody knows how big the anti-vaxx problem is going to be going forward, but anecdotal evidence suggests they will ensure the virus survives and continues to mutate.

The current TV binge is still Grey's Anatomy. We just finished season 4 and going strong. With the library closed there is no new supply of books. I've been doing some comfort food reading of Georgette Heyer's regency romances. That might sound strange, but she's an awesome writer.

In a little while I'll head downstairs to bottle another wine kit. Next week I'm off to Red Deer for the remaining kits in our order. I've been playing with lighting, glass, and the kit boxes, but have not yet achieved a satisfactory result. This is merely one of the ideas.

Of the Day

Driftwood

Celina, from several photos taken the other day as she writhed in the sun. But first a serendipity from 2018.

Once again

Here we are again, another round of summer, winter, and kind of spring. Day before yesterday was warm enough to go hiking in K Country wearing a light sweatshirt and traction aids. Yesterday was warm enough to barbecue both lunch and supper, though we didn't actually eat out on the patio. It was warm enough that we could have, but the patio furniture is still covered in winter guck and needs to be pressure washed. Today it's snowing off and on, with a raw wind making it not nice at all to be outside.

The hike with Sean was fun, though I didn't take all that many photos. The footing was treacherous enough to make following the creek rule a good idea. What's that rule, you ask? Wading through the creek in search of photos are two completely separate activities. One wades, or one looks for or takes photos. Never both at the same time, unless you want to find out how waterproof your camera is. I'll have to go back there when the weather is nicer, even though it's a popular spot, and likely to be overrun with bike riders.

Sean had some problems with his traction aids along the way. At one point I hung out at a picnic table while he backtracked a bit to find one that somehow fell off his boot. For a time there was complete silence. No human made noises. No wind in the trees. No birds. It was lovely.

So far the flowers in the front beds seem to be hanging in there. 

One of the newest flowers, blooming in between snowfalls. It doesn't look so happy this morning.

Construction has started on the sound wall beside the new highway. I feel for the people living along the berm. The next couple months are going to be noise and dust, just as the weather is getting nice. They've been living with construction for several years now. It must seem endless. I'll be taking photos from this vantage point over the next little while.

In binging news, we finished off season 3 of Grey's Anatomy. We cheered at how the wedding scene ended. The main show writer seems to be working from the rule 'what's the worst thing that could happen to this character?' So far we've been thoroughly entertained.

Of the Day

Driftwood

And because it's such a crappy day out, I wanted a reminder of the sunny warmth of New Zealand. 

Flower

Celina

Front Bed

From the 19th.

Answering some questions

 I'd been pointed to the Sara Harley's blog a while ago. She is several steps ahead of me, photographically speaking, and I've found it interesting to follow along. In her most recent blog she answered some reader questions, and I commented, and she asked how I'd respond to those same questions. Fair enough. Here goes.

Question 1: Silence, music, podcast, or something else when you create / work?

Mostly, I'm a silence kind of guy, especially if it's something I need to concentrate on. About the only exception is if I'm doing a block of photo editing where the photos are all similar, or are in groups of similarity, like event photos. They will be seen on social media and are not expected to be fine art. I'll do lens corrections (unless it's really dark or high ISO), and the Lightroom auto button. That gets me most of the way there, then each photo will get cropped, and settings tweaked. Any big problems will get fixed, but like I said, it's not fine art where every pixel has to be perfect. For this, some classic rock that I'm familiar with will give me the drive. One of my favourite tracks for this is Sina's cover version of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly. It's long, so fewer repeats, and has an amazing groove.  Or CCR's cover of Heard it Through the Grapevine. I've never got the podcasting love. 

Question 2: What's your favorite part of the process as you create / write?

For writing, the favourite part is asking my characters to explore a particular scene I've had some ideas about. Or maybe they had the ideas and kicked them up to me. I love noodling it around, trying different versions, and writing it out in my head. Figuring out where the scene goes, and how it ties in with other scenes is an intellectual challenge. Getting the exact sequence of words is fun. I really like the rush that comes when a big block of text actually gets written.

Photographically, I love getting out with my camera. Sometimes I'll take one specific lens and I'll typically only 'see' shots I can get with that lens. I've usually got a pretty good idea of what I'm looking for. Other times I might have a couple lenses, and I'll be looking for interesting compositions. I'll swap lenses as necessary. 

Event shooting is fun, and I miss it. Figuring out where to be for a race is straightforward, but the timing has to be razor sharp. Doing the community events is fun, especially trying to anticipate where the action will be and getting out in front of it. I've often had one eye looking through the viewfinder to shoot, while using the other eye to look for the next shot. 

The actual editing in Lightroom is ok. Some people can play forever, going down an endless rabbit hole of edits. I'm more get it done because most are what I think of as social media quality. Some are much nicer photos, and if I was going to print them, or someone wanted to buy it to print, I'd make another pass through the editing and look really carefully.

Question 3: Where do you do your craft, and what's that space like?

The writing happens on a laptop wherever I happen to be sitting in the house or out on the patio. The photo editing computer (a big iMac a few years old now) is in a room with a north facing window. Reflections are sometimes a problem. It sits on an IKEA desk that is usually quite messy.

Question 4: How do you choose who to follow? (Blogs, Instagram, Facebook, etc.)

I'm trying to cut back on Facebook time. I follow a particular photo group, and if I can see that some specific people have posted, I'll look at them. I try not to scroll down through the feed, since there's too many sponsored posts and that annoys me. I have to personally know someone now before friending them.

Instagram is the main social media if I've met up with another photographer. It's safe to exchange Instagram accounts, and this gives you a sense of what they're like as a photographer. This is how I keep track of a few people I've met in New Zealand. I'll follow someone if their photos are interesting. My problem is that it's a crappy way to display photos, and most of the people don't seem to be interested in looking at good photos. A cute photo will get more likes than a quality portrait. Colour more than black and white. I talked to one well known photographer about this, and he said he knew perfectly well how to take photos that would get lots of Instagram likes, and it bored him to tears. I follow some performers and would love to collaborate on a project with them. Once COVID is a memory I'll do up some proposals.

For blogs I'll put almost anyone on a blog evaluation list, and I'll check in on it pretty regularly. Someone that posts at least somewhat regularly, and is interesting will make it to my blog roll. Periodically I'll prune the bottom of the blog roll. I figure if someone hasn't blogged in a long time, they've moved on to other things. I'd like to follow more blogs, but it's getting harder to find good non-commercial blogs that interest me. 

Question 5: Why do you write and post on your blog?   

And that is the $64 million dollar question! This started as a fitness/triathlon blog, with occasional rants and commentary, and over the last several years it became more of a photography blog. Sort of. I don't follow the blogging 'rules'. It used to be that every morning there would be at least several blogs to read, sometimes a dozen. There were lots of comments. Some of the comment threads went from one blogger to another's blog, and maybe to another. Now, blogging seems to be dying. 

I won't say I've got writer's block when it comes to blogging, but I'm finding it harder to find the text for a blog. There's lots of photos, especially if you're a fan of driftwood or flowers, but I think there needs to be more than just a bunch of photos for a blog. The work contract has sucked up a lot of energy over the last year, but I'm on the home stretch. I can feel the battery recharging, and maybe once I get started on my projects I'll feel more creative energy for the blog.

Mostly I write for me. I like writing. Blogging is an easy way to display photos and chat about what I'm up to. Sometimes writing a blog is how I find out what I think of a particular issue. My readership is small, but loyal, and the comments are fun. I'll be doing it for a while yet, I think.

Linda strolling another New Zealand beach. I did lots of thinking on the beach, and can't wait to go back.

Of the Day

Driftwood

Flower

Artsy x2 because serendipity.