April 2020 – A Snowbird's Life Through the Lens

a second look, facing facts, learning, live and learn, old dogs new tricks, on closer examination, perseverance, photography, reality check, technology

Delete, delete, delete…

April 30, 2020April 29, 2020 naturecoastimagesblog

You know what? Yesterday I said that my technology issues weren’t because of anything I did or didn’t do. I said that because I had been attending an online photo class with my group and our leader said that some of us are using computers that just don’t have enough power to work well in Lightroom. It wan’t the first time he talked about us beginners and our approach to photography, and I always feel like he’s been looking over my shoulder because he has a knack for bringing up something that’s had me tearing my hair out.

But in this case at least the issue was me being a bonehead. I bought my desktop computer because of the storage issues I was having with my laptop. I needed to preserve my laptop so that I would have it to use while I traveled. And I did buy an external hard drove for the computer, but it was a challenge to figure out how to get the photos to be stored on the external drive. So in the meantime I proceeded to go out and take pictures and let them live on my brand new computer hard drive, and I didn’t give it a second thought because 1T of storage would never get used up. Right? Wrong.

All of which explains why I’m sitting here going through the thousands of pictures that are taking up space on my hard drive, and deleting them. One by one. And coming across a few I liked here and there, but hundreds of them are just junk that I won’t ever miss and didn’t know they were there in the first place. Hundreds of pictures of dolphin fins, taken just in case you could catch a fabulous picture of one leaping out of the water. Which, of course, never happened. Delete, delete, delete…

These are from the Dunedin marina, and the feature photo is a hawk who happened to pose for me in my former backyard on a day with perfect light.

losing battles, losing it, on closer examination, perseverance, photography, sunrise, technology, Uncategorized

Technology…

April 29, 2020 naturecoastimagesblog

Apparently I have reached my limit. Or my computer has. While I have over 250 gigabytes of storage left on this computer, and that’s ridiculously more than the entire hard drive of computers I’ve owned not all that long ago, it’s not enough for my computer to sum up the energy to edit photos in Lightroom. I get the endlessly twirling pinwheel as it tries to perform the function I chose while developing a photo, and then the computer just shuts down. I don’t think it’s going to be an easy fix, and it’s not something I did or failed to do. No, it’s that the complexity of the editing software is more than my computer can handle. So I may be among the missing as I figure out if there is any fix other than buying a more powerful computer. And the really sad news is that my laptop is in the exact same shape. Built in obsolescence. I feel like that applies to me too…

Seeing One-foot Fred was the high point of this day, and then reality set it…

a second look, adventure, birds, blessings, Florida wildlife, home, learning, life, life goes on, making memories, memories, nature, nesting, perseverance, photography

Back in the backyard…

April 28, 2020 naturecoastimagesblog

I wasn’t literally back in the backyard, I was revisiting a photo shoot from two years ago. That was the second year that I watched this Sandhill Cranes couple raise a family right under my nose. I knew from experience that this would be the one day that those parents would keep the babies right there, close to the nest. I had been shocked the year before when they had marched the two day old chicks off the nest and disappeared and didn’t return until late afternoon. I took 415 pictures that day, which I have now culled down to 22 photos. My first photo was taken at 1:45 in the afternoon, and between the harsh light and the fact that the babies were in grass that was taller than they were, even the new zoom lens I had bought couldn’t get much of a picture. But still I kept shooting. My last picture was taken at 5 PM, and by then the light was much nicer and the parents had taken the babies to the edge of the water where they were more visible. And that’s when they all swam to the nest, which was on a small island in the center of the lake.

Also on the lake that day was the ever-present little blue heron, and a tri-colored heron.

I think I remember that this was a Pied-billed Grebe. This was one of the many different birds that dropped in for a visit, and then I didn’t see them again. The wildlife I saw from my backyard is what drove me back to my interest in photography. And what a blessing that has become for me, bringing me new friends and adventures. I’m happy to re-visit these photos while I wait to see what adventures are still to com.

a second look, finding my way, friends, growing old, healing, home, life goes on, live and learn, loneliness, memories, second chances

Home again…

April 27, 2020April 26, 2020 naturecoastimagesblog

If you grew up in my hometown with me then you recognize this place. Fifty years ago I desperately wanted to get away from home, and when I met a nice guy who was in the Navy and would would ‘take me away,’ it was too much to resist. But in the back of my mind I thought that I would somehow live there again some day, but I never did. I had no idea how much I had blown up my life by leaving. The friends and relatives that might have been part of my daily life weren’t there. As I lived those days and years I didn’t think anything was missing, I was happy, it’s only now that I am looking back at it and wondering. Because now that I am alone, and for almost the first time in my adult life, I see what I missed. And I found I really needed to reconnect to those places and people from my past. I needed to go back to square one, so to speak, in order to figure out where to go from here.

They say you can never go home again. And in truth when I was out driving in my hometown with my old friend he would ask me if I recognized where I was, and I hardly ever did. Places change. But when it comes to DW Field’s Park it hasn’t changed a bit. And that’s comforting to me. And people? They change too. But some of them treasure their own memories of the past, and lucky for me I was part of their memories also. This is the place I call up in my memory at the mention of the word home. And I, for one, really can go home again.

a second look, changing times, following the rules, leap of faith, life goes on, losing battles, losing it, on closer examination, perseverance, photography, reality check, unintended consequences

Feeling frazzled?

April 25, 2020April 24, 2020 naturecoastimagesblog

Haven’t had a haircut in a while?

Or a color?Are the kids driving you nuts?

And what about a pedicure?

And forget about teeth whitening. And while you are at it save your money on braces.

You can skip the eye take up too.

Leave those golden slippers in the closet, you’re not going anywhere.

Because social distancing is the order of the day.

We are all in this together. But we can all hope that when this national nightmare is over we will be back to our gorgeous selves in no time. Well, kinda gorgeous.

'scene' along the way, a second look, following the rules, go with the flow, home, life goes on, moments, nature, perseverance, photography, Rise and shine, sunrise

iPhone sunrise…

April 24, 2020April 23, 2020 naturecoastimagesblog

I like it better when you go out for photos and there are a couple of vantage points from which you might shoot a nice picture. And this bridge does seem to provide a couple of angles most of the time, but not the other day when I was there bright and early. There only seemed to be one direction to shoot to capture the color in the sky and water. I had missed a pretty sunrise two days in a row just before this lovely morning. Somehow lately it seems easier to just decide to forget it and stay home. I can pat myself on the back for being a responsible citizen, but really it’s sheer laziness. And, let’s face it, my social distancing is still intact on this bridge, at least, no, especially for the sunrise. All except for a biker or two who will zip past me from behind with no warning at all. I hope I never step back from the railing at just the wrong moment one day.

I knew that I’d like the iPhone photos of this sunrise, but when I’m there and holding the phone in my hands I worry about dropping it into the water. I bought a rubber lanyard for it so that I could hang it around my neck when I go kayaking, which is almost never. But it would also be good to use when I’m out taking photos. But the problem is the heavy duty Otter box case I bought for it after my several iPhone disasters in the last couple of years. I can’t get the lanyard over the case. It would work perfectly if I took the phone out of the case, but that presents it’s own set of dilemmas. Seems like it’s always something.

I made a stop at Walmart just as they opened after this sunrise. And on the way home I happened to be behind this truck at the light, and I kept trying to figure out something that those words on the back window might really be saying besides Low Life, but I’m pretty sure that’s what that says. That’s part of one of Charley’s more colorful phrases he was known to use regularly in normal daily conversation. What mystifies me is why a person would want to announce that to the world. Guess I’ll never know.