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Today at the pump

The Sole Prop's Sister?




   


Under here.

January 13, 2010

A Little Tired
Wednesday. I did go to see another movie at the Grand Lake theater last night, catching the 4:00 PM show as I did with two others this week, walking back home with the D3S mounted with a 50mm F 1.4 lens in hand this time and taking similar pictures to the ones I'd taken with the D2X and D3. This one was interesting in that the lighting in the bottom photograph makes the cyclist much clearer than I could see at the time I took the picture. Yes, there was a guy on a bike, but my eyes couldn't make out even half what the camera could (shooting at ISO 12,800). That's rather amazing, at least to me. I'll do more of them I'm thinking. These are just half hearted stabs in the night, something more thoughtful is required.

Let's see, up early after going to bed early, so a good night's sleep, waking up two or three times to turn over and relieve stress on the side I was sleeping on. I wonder about this, waking up to turn over, but I do, it lasts a couple of minutes and then I'm again back under. Half my nights, maybe. The other half the body seems to be able to turn on its own or, for whatever reason, the one side I'm sleeping on doesn't become cramped and there's no need. Growing old is instructive. Still, breakfast finished, the papers finished, a run to the grocery store completed, the day ahead.

I have to admit the attitude has improved this last week. I go on and on here about this and about that, but overall life moves forward and I scurry about doing things of interest. I talk about taking pictures and such and taking pictures retains its fascination. Or allure. Fascination implies a younger man's effort and my “effort”, albeit real, isn't, well, overly stressful or tiring.

My framing project, long talked about, appears to be coming together. The equipment is now in place and I've made a selection of prints to run off and prepare for framing this week. And next week. This is good. It could well take me another six months to complete the project, I'm hip to the fact I'm mostly talk, but once they're done, repeating the process is straightforward. Well, often straightforward. I don't worry too much about a project getting strung out as I do eventually get them done. Doodle-dee-dumb.

All this happy talk. I'm not sure I trust a word of it.

Later. Another walk by the lake, heading over to the sanctuary buildings to see if I could find something more exotic than the Mallards and Seagulls I was seeing, but with no success. The same goose I'd photographed Monday was still there in the fenced area looking for eats, but no sign of the Egyptian goose or any similarly colorful characters. Still, a marginally better photograph perhaps than the one I took Monday, so we'll say success.

A photograph of a guy sitting on a bench, my standard lone man or woman looking off into the distance. I like them, but they've become a one note song anymore. Another experiment shooting another bench with three men sitting on it framed by a tree trunk, nothing special, but the mind continuing in similar circles. A photograph of an empty bench pretty much in the same category. A repeat of my earlier walk, a repeat of the pictures, the eye in a rut even if the attitude is good. So, the day progresses, the rain has stopped, the sun is out, maybe something more later.

Later still. Back from a much longer walk: a bus downtown, a quick trip through the City Center and then over to the Chinese Cultural Center for a green tea ice cream cone, the one thing that seemed to interest my appetite. A walk then back toward Broadway thinking “do I want to catch the next bus?” and deciding no, I wanted to walk, attempting a cute dog picture as I passed the local brewery pub. This amble devolved into a walk back to the apartment, a photo or two along the way, most of them not very good, but trying, looking, keeping a photographer's faith in luck and Digital Kismet, augmented by a bag of sea salt potato chips picked up at a local Seven-Eleven look alike. That didn't make sense? Well, I'm a little tired.


 
The photograph was taken at the Mochi Ceremony at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum with a Nikon D3S mounted with a 70 - 200mm f 2.8 Nikkor VR II lens at f 2.8 at 1/50th second, ISO 4000.

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