It has been a very slow weekend from a photography perspective. I have been sick since Thursday and with the snowstorm on Saturday, I haven’t gotten out to shoot at all. So I may have to pull from the archives for something to post to the blog this week. But before I do that, let [...]]]>

It has been a very slow weekend from a photography perspective. I have been sick since Thursday and with the snowstorm on Saturday, I haven’t gotten out to shoot at all. So I may have to pull from the archives for something to post to the blog this week. But before I do that, let me indulge in a little bit of creative silliness. I did spend a few minutes out in the backyard yesterday and I happened to have my iPhone tucked away in my pocket. So in the few minutes that I was out there, I did end up making a few images.

When I got back into the house just a few minutes later, I dumped them on to the iMac and started to play around with processing using the Nik Complete suite of plug-ins for Photoshop. Here’s what I came up with.

This image is of three Maine Harbor Bell wind chimes that we have hanging from the corner of the garage. Processing was with Nik Dfine for noise reduction; Nik Viveza for brightness, contrast, structure; Nik Silver Efex Pro for the conversion to black and white and the antique sepia look; and finally just a touch of Sharpener Pro.

It’s not the Mona Lisa but it was fun to create.

Say hello to “Frick and Frack”, the Razorbills twins. That’s Frick on the left.

And this guy was just “The Sentry” keeping an eye on all the goings on around the island. 

And of course, the Razorbill Symphony needs it’s own “Conductor”.

These images were also made on our visit to Machias Seal Island off the coast of [...]]]>

Say hello to “Frick and Frack”, the Razorbills twins. That’s Frick on the left.

And this guy was just “The Sentry” keeping an eye on all the goings on around the island. 

And of course, the Razorbill Symphony needs it’s own “Conductor”.

These images were also made on our visit to Machias Seal Island off the coast of Maine back two weeks ago now. My how time flies! Once again, the trip was made with Bold Coast Tours out of Cutler, Maine which is a two hour drive from our vacation base in Bar Harbor. This was our second trip with Bold Coast. Captain Andy does a great job of not just getting us to the island but also providing all the background information needed. The man knows his birds. 

Like the Puffin images below, these were made with my Canon 50D and 300mm f/2.8L IS lens, handheld. 

If you have ever tried to shoot black and white birds or anything black and white for that matter, you know the challenges they present. Expose for the black and the whites are overexposed. Expose for the white and the blacks are underexposed. Getting the proper balance can be really difficult. Trying to pull out the dark eye from the dark head seemed to require exposing more for the dark areas (blacks) which left the white just a tad hot. I tried to correct the hot spots as best I could in post-processing.

Hope you enjoy the images.

Now that my wife and I have both hit 60 years of age, we are finding ourselves obsessing about time. Obviously the number of [...]]]> Since I started this blog back in early January, I have been posting images on a daily basis. Only once did I post without an image. So that makes this the second.

Now that my wife and I have both hit 60 years of age, we are finding ourselves obsessing about time. Obviously the number of years behind us far outnumber the number of years ahead of us. We feel compelled to view each moment as precious. And maybe, just maybe, that has made us selfish when it comes our time. There is so much that we still want to do and it feels like time is just slipping away.

Right now I am feeling somewhat overwhelmed by demands on my time that I seem to have little control over. Always present are the demands from my job in health care marketing. Add to that the demands from an elderly parent which were there before the broken hip and are only multiplied now. Add to that the demands from a sick cat (one of five) who needs to be cared for here at home. Then there are my own problems – back and hip pain that keep me awake at night and make doing the things I love (outdoor photography, hiking, birding) so difficult. I have still been doing them but at times the pain is so sharp that getting down on the ground and back up is very difficult. And every step is with pain. I was just to the doctor for that and now I have to find time for x-rays, MRIs, physical therapy and what not. 

And with all that going on, we are racing toward our long planned and much needed vacation. We have vacationed in Maine over the past 10 years. This year we are booked for two weeks in Bar Harbor/Acadia National Park and it is coming up soon. Too soon for someone with a mother in rehab, a sick cat and back and hip pain of my own. We have had arrangements made for months. We will take a trip to Machias Seal island to photograph Puffins, Razorbills and Murres. We will participate in the Acadia Birding Festival. I will be making images of wildflowers, wildlife, land- and seascapes with sunrises and sunsets. And we plan to hike. 

As I said, it is a much needed vacation. But rather than looking forward to it, I can’t look past the immediate future and decisions on what needs to be done at work, with my mother, with the cat and with my back. As the days tick down, I am looking for answers and they are slow in coming.

In the meantime, I don’t even have time to get out and take a few pictures. The hour I stole that resulted in the last two entries (Star of Bethlehem and Wild Geraniums) has been all I could free up in the past week or so. And I don’t know when I will get more time. 

I got a new toy yesterday. I had an old Canon Rebel XT that was in excellent condition but no longer being used. So I sent it off to a company called Life Pixel to have it converted into an infrared camera. It just came back yesterday and I don’t know when I’ll have a chance to try it out. 

At times like this I reflect back on a series of conversations with my mother over a period of many years. So many times I told her that I wanted to do this or do that and she would say to me “What’s the hurry? You have your whole life ahead of you.” Then one day I said that I was wanting to do something and the answer changed to “Well you better do it now. You don’t know what the future holds.”

And that’s where I am. I have so many things that I want to do and I feel that I have lost control of that precious commodity – time.

If you have read this far – thanks! I just felt the need to write down some of what has been going on in my head. Hopefully it will have a cathartic effect.

And when I get a chance, I will post a shot of my set-up for those of you who have asked.

First, I did not like the one image per page feature where the viewer had to click through for each successive image. With this template, you can scroll [...]]]> Same images, different template. I just wasn’t happy with a couple features (or lack there of) with the template I had been using (Monotone – the photoblog template).

First, I did not like the one image per page feature where the viewer had to click through for each successive image. With this template, you can scroll down the page and see multiple posts (10 per page). I feel this makes it easier to get a feel for a body of work.

Second, I did not like the background color changing to match each individual image. Sometimes it looked OK. Other times, I felt the background really distracted from the image. My preference would be a black background but if I can’t have that, white will do.

Third, I did not like the fact that the old template did not offer widgets and the viewer had to go hunt for past images, etc. This template puts it all right there on the page with you. That will make it much easier to find the images that I refer back to. For example, the image immediately preceding this note (“Razorbill on Machias Seal Island”) refers back to an earlier post (“Puffins on Machias Seal Island”). It will be much easier to find that earlier post with this template. 

If you have visited my blog previously, let me know what you think of the change.

Thanks.