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.

How does that go? April showers...

Here we are, once again. Snow. Still, we need the moisture. It's been bone dry here during our nice weather. I was just out looking over the garden. The little blue swills don't look happy at all. The hyacinths are just starting to bloom and are sitting there with a resigned expression. The yellow crocus have firmly closed up shop for the day. Some little blue and white flowers that I don't have a good photo of yet are looking very cranky. The main clump of hens and chicks is now buried. The tulips and daffodils are still growing taller every day. The roses haven't done anything. I can't see the white peony stalks.

Still, we need the moisture, and it's likely to soak into the ground. We haven't set up the rain barrels yet, though it would be nice to capture it. We're pretty sure there's going to be some nights where it's well below zero.

Work is quiet just now. I'm getting some time to think about my own projects, on my own time, at my own speed. Some of it is photo related projects that have been on hold a bit, and can now (well, sort of, damn you COVID) move forward.

But mainly I've been thinking about characters. The characters in the various things I'm writing, or working on writing, or editing, or just noodling, whatever you want to call it. Plus their relationships to the other characters, and the timeline of the whole darned thing. Just lately I've been musing some news that Les and Ceridwen got, and how it affects their relationship with Belinda, and what happens about then to Belinda's sister. None of it's written down yet, or even storyboarded, but the characters have been having fun trying different roles.

Like many other people we've been binging TV on Netflix lately. We've never watched much TV, though that's been changing. Some shows are really good. One example was the new Battlestar Galactica. I remembered the horrific 70's version, so full of promise, so badly executed. Even the science fiction fans were embarrassed about it. So when the new version came out, how good could it be? Except it was, and eventually we drank the kool-aid. We took to getting discs out of the library and eventually got a deal on the whole set. Seeing Katee Sackhoff in Big Bang Theory reminded me that I've been meaning to rewatch it.

Along the way we discovered other shows that tickled our fancy. Elementary and Sherlock both came along at about the same time. We turned out to be Elementary fans, and think the show got progressively better over the run, while Sherlock got progressively worse. Curtis was a huge Elementary fan and loved watching it with us, while other shows he would often amuse himself doing whatever cats do when their humans aren't around.

Lucifer was a happy chance. We watched the first one and got hooked. Silly and a bit over-wrought in places, but it was fun watching Tricia Helfer show up, and we're eagerly awaiting the last half of season 5.

We were scrolling through the Neflix suggestions the other night after watching a dreadful SF movie, and Grey's Anatomy came up. What the heck, we thought. We'd heard of it, and thought putting in 45 minutes before bed to scope out episode 1 was fine. You know how that turned out, since it seems everyone has watched at least some episodes of the show. Hooked. We just finished season 2. We're only 15 years behind the times, which is about par for the course for me on current trends. There are several hundred episodes for us to go, if we stay the course. This is beyond a weekend binge. We'll have to pace ourselves.

But what makes shows compelling, at least until they jump the shark? Yes, there's all the exciting action. Will that ambulance patient make it through the radical risky surgery to walk out of the hospital? Will Sherlock and Joan solve the murder? Will that rag tag band of humanity escape the Cylons and find a home?

But really, I think it's the characters. If you don't care what happens to the characters, you won't watch the show no matter how explosive the action. You'll put that book down and pick up another. You might not like a character, but for whatever reason you are emotionally invested. Maybe they remind you of you at a time in your life, and you want to see if they make the same changes you did. Maybe you're in love with McDreamy. Maybe something they say or do just hooks at your soul.

Writers would give non-vital organs to be able to reliably create characters that hook the audience like that. Just making someone quirky doesn't do it. A left handed albino tuba playing vet specializing in rhinoceroses might be quirky and memorable, but will it hook the audience? Probably not, because it will seem put on and fake. 

And once you have a great character, you need to introduce them to the reader/watcher. Reveal a bit, but not too much at once. Show the start of their relationships in a plausible way, but with some barrier or conflict. Like-ability is one fairly reliable way of hooking the audience. If a character is someone you could see yourself being friends with, you're more likely to keep watching. And yet some unlikable characters are so compelling. Many people love a good bad-boy or want to see them get their comeuppance.

 Is Grey's Anatomy realistic in terms of hospital behaviours? No. This is a drama series, not a medical procedural. I'm pretty sure that in any hospital, for almost all the time, the people are either too busy, or too tired, to be off shagging in obscure rooms. But it does make for interesting character development because shagging is more interesting than writing reports and doing lab tests. You want the audience asking themselves, will they or won't they? It's worked for 17 seasons. That's a huge testament to the skill of the writers and the actors.

Meanwhile, at the moment for us, we're waiting to see if McDreamy finds the stones to tell his wife the news. How Izzy copes. If George screws it up.

In the yesterday was so nice department, here's where a sound wall is going, soon, they say. You can just see the stakes in the ground where it will go. I'll probably visit this spot a bunch over the coming weeks to see how they're doing.

That was during a walk yesterday. 20+C. T shirt and shorts. Just to remind you, today it's snowing.

Of the Day

Driftwood

Landscape

New Zealand, of course, in one of the eco-sanctuaries. 

Front Bed

Flower

Face

The white peony is getting started

Spring is really on a tear here. It's been warm and sunny, and there's plants exploding out of the ground. I think the flower of the day is going to have to become a regular thing now. I started flowery Friday last year in late May, and was behind all summer. I might start earlier this year. 

This is the white peony just poking the first exploratory stalks out. Can't wait to see what it produces this year as it tries for Image of the Year.

There's hyacinths almost ready to bloom. But first a serendipity tree from New Zealand, in the Dunedin city gardens. This is one of the first photos from our 2020 trip.

I was out for a walk yesterday, hoping to visit Fish Creek on the opposite side from where I was last week. However, there is construction. They're building a large pad in the river underneath 22X. No idea why. I went elsewhere and parked, hoping to walk into that location but no, the path under the bridge is entirely closed. This is the view from just below where I parked. That drab half dead grass look is why landscapes are so difficult this time of year. At least one of my regular readers knows exactly where this was taken.

In a more technical note, the Feed Burner thingie. I've never understood it, but I'm pretty sure some of my readers get my blog through it. In any case, it's going away in July, if I understand a recent notice correctly. So if that's you, and you haven't already, you might want to sign up for my own email notification service. Send me your email, and you get prompt notification that a new blog is published, along with some idea of what you are getting into, and often some extra tidbits.

Of the Day

Driftwood

Flower

Front Bed

The firsts!

Fun stuff first. The garden is beginning to burst forth. We are worried about more winter, but the flowers don't seem to care. Maybe they figure they can deal with whatever comes along. I'm not sure I can. It's been a long winter and I'm sick of it. We've been having the sort of days where the number on the thermometer says it's warm out, maybe wearing a windbreaker jacket sort of weather. Except there's a raw wind that makes going for a walk kind of nasty.

The first first is several crocus are blooming in the front patio. It wasn't so long ago, (like a couple days) that specific spot had ambitions of being a glacier. Now we get this.

These little blue guys have typically been the first out, but they missed by a day.

Linda has got the green netting up to protect the tulips. Sometimes it makes getting flower shots tricky, but it's worth it. The tulips are so beautiful. Last year I got some wonderful photos and I'm hoping to do even better this year.

Another first was our first vaccine shot. A buddy told us about a pharmacy that got an unexpectedly large amount in, and was doing walk-in shots. We called to confirm and zoomed off. No muss, no fuss, easy peasy. Go get yours, if you haven't already.

Not that we're going to relax. The apparent ease of transmission with the new variants has us a bit spooked. It seems that the aerosols hang in the air even longer, and are more infectious. Next they'll be telling us that it can grow in the mucous fluids of our eyeballs, and rub your eyes then mouth, and bingo. Sick. I haven't seen anyone wearing a full face mask with the heavy duty filters, but I figure it's only a matter of time.

Maybe this is a bit of schadenfreude, but I laughed out loud when some of the UCP caucus published a letter complaining Kenney was doing the wrong things and cracking down too hard. They are pandering to their base, of course, which Kenney has been doing all along. But the base is wrong, and Kenney isn't actually stupid. He can see the trends and the projections for what will happen to hospital beds, or rather, the lack of them. Now he's trying to quell the rebellion, and like everything else, doing a half-assed job of it.

Whatever political ambitions he might have had are done, pending some extraordinary sequence of events. The rabid base thinks he has weenied out and won't vote for him again. Most of the rest of us look at his consistent series of mis-steps and lies and wouldn't vote to let him run a fruit cart.

The problem is that it's 2 years before we can vote him out, and that's a long time. He's done a lot of damage already, and will do more. With all the dirty tricks he pulled to get into office, it's a safe bet that anything goes will be the rule to continue to keep his snout in the trough, rather than go get a real job.

Of the Day

Driftwood

Front Garden

Here we go again

So Tuesday I found out that one of my co-workers has been exposed to COVID. He had been coming back from a fly-in worksite, and someone there has tested positive. He's self quarantining, and there's some concern he was exposed to one of the new variants. Our team is all working remotely, but he's shifted to another part of the project supporting a turnaround, and that means being on site. I don't know how this is going to affect the turnaround. It can't be good, that's all I'll say.

I was reading about how they've documented one case of a variant that came in from out of province, has led to 35 cases, including several in ICU and one has died. The variants are much more infectious, and pack as big or a bigger punch than the original. 

Yesterday the province just announced we are back to stage one restrictions again. All the hard work over the winter has been undone. I heard about it in our community association board meeting. Our MLA usually shows up and she shared the unhappy news. The only good news is that lots more vaccine is arriving, and as of today Linda and I are eligible to sign up. People have told me a variety of stories about the difficulties involved, ranging from days of busy signals, to walking in for something else, and getting the shot because someone didn't show. No idea how this will turn out for us, but it is our intention to get the shot.

The renewed restrictions might lead to lineups outside stores again, with some poor sod controlling entry. That can't be fun, especially here in Alberta, with some people holding strong opinions about their outsized sense of self-importance. Here and I was just getting used to going back to the library again. 

As a community association board we are trying to follow the guidelines as best we can, but there are a lot of grey areas. I get that it's hard to make province-wide rules, and there are always some who have at least some reason to consider themselves an exception to the rules for whatever reason. Yoga, for example, is included as a fitness activity, which it is. Except that it doesn't typically involve a lot of heavy breathing or sweat getting flung all around. It's easy to limit attendance. Linda's yoga instructor is reaching the end of her rope and might have to close the studio permanently. There's going to be a lot of that over the coming year.

We've been having great weather lately, with plants coming up everywhere in the beds. Linda is worried about more winter happening, since there isn't much that can be done to protect the plants from the overnight cold. The green netting is going on to protect the tulips from the marauding gangs of voracious bunnies.

I'm thinking I'll get my bike down from storage, pump up the tires, and go for a ride. We see lots of people out for a ride, while we're doing our daily walk. One of the many projects I was going to do over the COVID restrictions was to build a camera holding basket on the handlebars. Yeah, just like so many other projects, it didn't happen. Maybe during the new restrictions. (And if you believe that...)

This is what our daily walk usually looks like from my perspective. Recently we are doing about 7 Km a day, mostly up the 37 St bike path towards the reservoir. It's almost exactly 10 K up to 90th ave, over to Southland, and back again. Sometimes we go south to 130 Ave. There will be lots of sound wall construction happening over the next several months.

Of the Day

Driftwood

Front Garden Beds

Spring time in Alberta

Those that have lived here, or have been following the story over the years know that means it's snowing. Yesterday was shorts and T shirt weather. Linda got lots of lawn tidying done. I fired up the barbecue. (Bison burgers, if you're wondering.)

I was out for a walk and the highlight was catching a bird (crow or young raven) having a post-meal bath.

Lots of people were out on the bike path enjoying the day. I certainly loved the ramble along the river.

Today, just as we finished our walk to check out fallen down fences, it started snowing. It looks like this.

Tomorrow it's supposed to be nice again. I don't have to work, so I might pump up the bike tires and go for a ride.

Of the Day

Driftwood

Front Garden beds, with a serendipity shot first.

A new feature. I'm going to try to take a really similar shot every day, or nearly so. I haven't put a stake in the ground to ensure I'm in exactly the same spot every time. The camera angle might vary, and the lighting certainly will. But those interested in the progress of the front beds might want to follow along.

March Image of the Month

This has been a tough choice. The first half of the month was really busy and I didn't get out as much as I would have liked. The best photos I took were on a client shoot, and thus not really in the running for image of the month. I guess that's the way to have it though. 

The other was a photo shoot where the photographer generously let me tag along. I got some very nice B roll shot of my new buddy, the makeup artist who I'd love to use on some of my own shoots, doing her thing, and some of the model as well. She was beautiful, was beautifully made up, we had great light in a lovely setting, so how could the photos not be great? Except, someone paid for that shoot, and I don't feel right about sharing those photos. I did one on instagram and tagged the make up artist, the photographer, and the videographer.

What's left doesn't leave me a lot of choice. As I write this, there is still Tuesday and Wednesday to get that image of the month. Hmmm. I was out for one of the days, and got some nice shots, but the best part of the day was chatting with a photo-buddy I haven't seen for a while. Still, there's a couple of new shots for you.

Second Runner up

I'm still fascinated by plants. Not just the pretty blooms that most people shoot, but everything right from poking out of the ground, to decaying back into the ground.

First Runner up

This is Ally from Savage Makeup working on the model. I think its a great illustration of how eyes make or break the portrait.

Image of the Month

Somehow, I keep coming back to this one. Yeah, I know. A back alley. Garbage containers. BUT! Icy ripply reflections. Nice light.