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July 24, 2004
Rainy Day in Leavenworth
It has rained all day long today. Everyone has been staying inside, except for those absolutely necessary visits that the dogs have to take outside. John has mostly flown planes attacking bad guys with his flight simulators. He also vacuumed the kitchen floor for me (yes, we have horrible carpeting in the kitchen, but the vinyl underneath is worse, and replacing the flooring is not yet on the top of our very long list of things to do to this house).
Andy has played with his Play Station 2, watched TV movies and helped me with hauling the never-ending pile of laundry that we have accumulated up and down the stairs.
There are only three humans in this family, and we have way too many clothes, towels, sheets and other washable items. Of course, the main reason that our sheets, pillowcases and bedspreads have to be washed so often is that we have 7 cats and 3 dogs, many of whom want to sleep with us (under the covers if possible) at night.
Wish dogs and cats had opposable thumbs. Maybe they could hang up the laundry for me!
Andy, our college aged son, home for the summer, is bored to death. The rain just finally let up, and he is taking Shadow, our biggest and oldest dog, out for a walk. He doesn't yet know that when he returns, he needs to take Whiskey, our middle-sized and middle-aged dog out for a walk. Houdini (the youngest canine) is acting like a cat and is wrapped around John's shoulders as he flies his WWII plane over an unidentified river. The graphics on these flight Sims are really unbelievable.
I am saving 213 pictures from the past couple of weeks to my hard drive. I'm only up to picture #67. I will be sharing more of these pictures with you than you ever wanted to see, but it will make me feel like my life is worth living (kidding, really, kidding!).
I do not have much in the way of photographic talent, but I truly love playing with the camera and using different settings - what are they - f-stops, aperture settings, etc. When I was in Pennsylvania last week, I took about 20 pictures of the same thing - I just changed the settings for each one, so I could see what happens.
Once upon a time, I fancied myself a photographer - back before Andy was born, and I had a lovely Minolta 35mm SLR camera. Seemed like I had more time back then, and I did take some nice pictures - but I can do so much more with a digital SLR camera using software.
Oh, golly, I'm rambling, aren't I? I'll download more pictures, then I'll upload them with stories.
I saw a pretty reddish colored thing in the pond, and I just walked out there and I'm pleased to report that one of the 1/2 price water lilies I bought at Lowes last month has bloomed, I'll take a picture and post it shortly. Well, at least once all those pictures have downloaded.
In case I have never said anything to you all, it is really quite a thrill that anyone would want to read what I have to say, and I truly appreciate you all. Thanks!
Posted by Beth at July 24, 2004 4:08 PM
Comments
My father was a professional photographer, and taught skills to other photographers. He was a firm believer in "bracketing a shot". By this he meant taking one photo at the setting either side of the one the light meter said to take. In your case, useing a wide array of settings gives you an even greater chance of catching the perfect shot. The thing to do is to maintain notes, so you know what parameters worked best in each situation.
Posted by: triticale at July 24, 2004 11:21 PM
Ah, Triticale - what is so cool about our new camera is that it keeps records of the settings - I download a picture, and if I look at the properties before I crop it or anything, it gives me the aperture settings, film speed setting, etc - even though there is no film!
Posted by: Beth Donovan at July 25, 2004 5:13 AM