Just thinking about looking at my pictures from last night had David Bowie in my head all day. As with most of the music of my youth I can sing the song but have no clue in the world who sang it, I looked it up.
It really was a no brainer. Friday night at Krate, with live music, this time from the 70s and 80s. Music and dancing for photo ops, plus the timing would include the sunset, and even if a storm blew in there would always be the food. I opted for the same thing I got last time, a frozen sangria and the Southwest egg rolls from Blush.
See the nice blurred background? I can thank my new ‘nifty 50’ lens for that. It was the only lens I brought to force myself to use it. And this was probably the only picture I took that really took advantage of it’s capabilities. The class we are currently taking requires homework. I thought I might get portraits at this event, but I couldn’t very well ask this adorable little cutie and her mom to move somewhere else, somewhere without a trash can front and center in the picture. I took a lot of pictures of her, but they never moved to a better location.A lot of cropping got me to this image. I loved the position of her feet.These little girls presented the same problems. So cute though.Dad walked this little guy right in front of me, Cropped this one like crazy too, but it’s a portrait anyhow.But this is supposed to be about dancing, and this lady was dancing even before everyone was invited to dance. I had to walk around her to find a better background than the cars in the parking lot.This couple deservedly won the dance contest.But this lady and her granddaughter (?) stole the show for me. I wish she had on the red shoes that the song calls for, but a red bow in her hair will have to do.How sweet is that little girl? She was surrounded by people so my ability to get a photo was limited. I don’t know that I saw those eyes until I checked the shots in the camera. I think grannie might have embarrassed her a bit.The sunset was blooming nicely.Lots of sky to see.
It was quite a drive from where we stayed in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, to Acadia National Park. We chose to do it on the second full day we were there, and it was a bit disappointing to find so much fog in the scenery once we got there. I waited until we were home to process this particular picture in the computer since Lightroom mobile doesn’t allow for processing HDR. Or I haven’t found it yet. I don’t like the resulting picture as much as I thought I would, so I tried it in black and white and liked it better. But that could just be my mood lately.
I also liked it better when I saw the world in black and white. Right or wrong. The news, the political ads, the ugliness out there feels like an invading army to me. I seem to have misplaced my rosy glasses…
I found myself to be more affected by the trip to Gettysburg than I expected to be. Those beautiful preserved landscapes got to me. Looking much like they would have in 1863, it was impossible to imagine the scene as troops met in that peaceful looking place, and so many of them died there.
Fields and fences, beautiful now, as I’m sure they were then. The town was there, and quiet farms, and then the armies came.The hills, the high ground, sought after by both sides.I hope you can read this account of the day. I usually zoom in on the signage, but in this place I wanted the landscape to show also.I used this picture in a previous post, but it does bring the lesson home.What would it be like to charge up a hill in the face of canon fire?Another account of battle.The caption on the eternal flame reads, ‘Peace Eternal in a Nation United.’Another landscape that I found so pretty, but the monument is in addition to what it may have looked like at the time.Just as the battle came to the people who settled this land back then, the townspeople now go about their business among armies of tourists who come to remember.
We attended a screening of the movie Casablanca the other day at the Tampa Theater. We did this last August also, but this time the scene depicting the German army occupying Paris stood out to me. Another war, people helpless in the face of armies, and with much different weapons. And then my mind went to the war in the Ukraine, and I’m stunned to think that people are again, or should I say still, experiencing the horrors of war.
The gal from Audubon who rode along with us on our Puffin adventure acted like a bit of a cheerleader. She gave us a talk about their history in Maine as we were cruising to Egg Rock Island, and warned us that it was possible that we might not see them at all. No guarantees. She told us about their habits, how hard it is for them to become airborne, and that we might see them ‘running on the surface of the water’ until those flapping wings took over. So I blame her for the fact that 463 photos of the 1344 that I took on vacation were taken on that cruise. We first came across just a few, but they were close to the boat and in the sun. They might have been the only ones we saw, so I started shooting and pretty much didn’t stop.
Remember the Puffins were bouncing with the surf, and so was the boat, which was another reason to just keep shooting. I wasn’t expecting so many shots to be reasonably sharp.The groups we saw later were more Puffins but further from the boat.I carefully checked all my pictures looking for interactions between them, which was a bit tedious, but as far as activity goes this was about it.But we did see them fly, and probably wouldn’t have appreciated that as much without the Audubon gal telling us that they flap their wings 400 beats/minute to become airborne. I said it before but I just have to repeat it. She said to think of them as “pudgy, slow-moving, hummingbirds.”Look at the little guy in front, what a graceful little thing he is, LOL.
If I ever see a cute little stuffed animal Puffin I know I’ll have to adopt it…
Rocks and sailboats and beautiful harbors. Is it any wonder that I can’t look at a photo and have a clue which day and/or place it was taken. But I can check my Lightroom data and know which day on the calendar it was taken, but remembering where we went on that day is sometimes hard. My friend was the one who noticed the Puffin cruise and signed us up, but he also wanted to see the Pemaquid Point Lighthouse after we had lunch. This sounded like a fine idea to me…
I have one camera and one all-purpose lens, so I hopped out of the car and took this picture while he was still putting together the camera/lens combination he wanted to use. Maybe I have the perfect set up for myself, the fewer decisions I have to make the better. But I do think about newer, ‘better’, equipment now and then, so I’ll never say never.I couldn’t resist posting this picture because I liked seeing the horizon line through the window.Pemaquid is open and you are allowed to climb to the top, but we didn’t attempt that. We did go into the fisherman museum next door.I loved that stained glass window.There was more to see there than just the lighthouse. I loved the view, but unlike other people there I resisted the urge to walk out onto the rocks. Especially since the signage cautioned that occasional larger waves are possible, and they might sweep people off the rocks.Maybe these people didn’t have cameras to protect since they weren’t worried about that occasional wave.
I leaned forward off the couch, curious to check the transom over the front door. It was a few minutes past eight and I wondered if the sunset had been pretty. The color I saw sent me out the door to check further, and I found this.
Lots of color! I headed up the street for a better view of the sky to my right.That’s when I was struck by the face looking up at the color. I continued to rush up the street, hoping to get to the end of the street where I expect to see more open sky.But I was too late. The color was fading and my face was melting away. Maybe I should set an alarm to remind me to look for the sunset a little earlier.
The pretty sky last night made me decide to head out the door to see if the sunrise would also be nice, and it was. So the feature photo was this morning’s sunrise, as is the one below. Right outside the door…
A Snowbird's Life Through the Lens 