For Memorial Day I went down to Tennessee to spend time with my parents. My has gotten into Greene County history and doing posts on Down Home Greeneville on Facebook with a short historical write up about each. While I was there I took her around to make photos. Needless to say I made more than a few of my own.
Then I got home with my camera chips and realized I’d not loaded up all the photos from our trip last July to Williamsburg Virginia and the Norfolk area. I know I’m not done with the cruise pictures. Oh and winter – there’s been a really hard winter in there with shots of it, snow sculptures and such. Any way it turns out I have a few thousand pictures to upload. Okay maybe not multiple thousands but definitely over a thousand. So hold on to your hat for a few photo posts as real life time permits. There will be….
July of last year the trip to the beach, Williamsburg, and Mike’s Navy graduation (that I didn’t get to see due to flight booking, my agent ahem named Mike booked my flight before the ceremony not after)….
Mike enjoying a dessert while on vacation – Oct in OrlandoLife is a beach when on vacation in Virginia in July.The brutal winter here had us all thinking of the tropics.Yes I actually have over 400 photos from Williamsburg.Oh you know there were pet pictures.Holidays in Tennessee.Did I mention it was a nasty winter here? It was and we did all we could to make the best of it. Ice sculpture contests and such.Of course more beading and craft sales…Going about Greene Count Tennessee making pictures with Mom.Yep and more on the cruise adventures.
So over the last three days I caught up on my uploading to Flickr. Yes over 1800 photos uploaded. Raw just off the camera no adjustments images. I’ll improve a few for future posts – maybe if time permits.
Also for my birthday I got a droid tablet (no Apple stuff for this girl) so now I can easily take stacks of comics with me to read. Expect that sometime there will be catch up on those too.
In the meantime you have been warned – photos are coming. Be prepared.
Woman with Camera from the George Eastman House on Flickr The Commons. There are no known copyright restrictions.
If you have followed or browsed my blog you know I like to take pictures. This is partly because I have no talent to draw something, but I can take a picture of it.
I’ve been doing photography for years. It all started when my parents built a darkroom in the basement for printing black and white photographs. I became my high school’s photographer.
Over the years I’ve dabbled in and out of it but honestly it took the digital age for me to really enjoy it. In those intervening decades from basement darkroom to paintshop I developed a few things I like in a camera. I actually developed two types of cameras I like to use.
Praktica Super TL2 by Cezar Popescu from Flickr The Commons with no known copyright restrictions. This camera looks very much like the first SLR I used and learned about photography using.
The first one is the SLR with fully adjustable settings – I can do what I want with this one. I like the feel of focusing, playing with depth of field, using sensitivity (ISO used to be ASA) and aperture to get the effect I want, and controlling shutter speed. All these are factors in creating the image I want to capture the moment. The digital SLR I have I saved for it over a year with discretionary income. I love it. It’s what I take with me when I go out to shoot photos most of the time. Alas here is where the WOE comes in – The battery for it no longer holds a charge. **SIGH** Yes I know get a new one. I will I promise and soon! But plate full thing and even though I enjoy it – it is winter with below zero temperatures so there’s no rush as I’m not going out to make pictures any time soon. Heck I’m not going out unless I HAVE to do so.
Second the compact but versatile point and shoot. It only takes one day of wagging around a big SLR at a theme park to wish for a small light camera you can tuck into your pocket. (Yes, yes I know phones have good cameras today but I don’t like them – more on that next. ) Except I don’t want to give up some adjust ability. So I look for ones with settings – Image stabilization is a must on these. First off the viewfinder has all but disappeared from point and shoots. This takes away a very stable body position for making pictures. Yes holding a camera to you face to look through that tiny hole had a purpose – it brought your arms in and braced them against your head and possibly your body thus giving the photographer a more stable stance / less shake. Sadly it is now only the pervue of the upper end models not ones you want to take on the roller coaster at Universal. Also if I’m going to spend that much I want an SLR where I look out the actual lens rather than an above the lens where there is the issue of parallax distortion. BUT for snapshots and fun photos that’s not a concern. Bonus is that in an affordable model I can get the same quality as far as megapixels and processor speed as I have in my SLR. Also they have enough body weight to help with stabilization and give this old photographer a sense of the shot I’m taking. Also the weight of the body suppresses the camera’s susceptibility to shake from the photographer’s natural breathing which would start to show up at 30th of a second or so for me on these (more sturdy SLRs it’s a bit slower – psst lean on a wall with camera to the face to help with this when at slow speeds). So it’s photos for quick fun where the camera thinks and I just point and shoot.
Now for another tale of WOE – my point and shoot after years of faithful service has given up the ghost. It turns one zooms then makes various chirping and tweeting sounds and dies. It is the fourth one I have literally worn out. BUT not to fret a new one is ordered on Christmas gift money (Thanks Mom & Dad, still supporting my photography habit after all these years) and will be delivered soon. If the snow storm doesn’t delay it.
Finally my take on cameras on phones – Okay in a pinch. I don’t like how they feel in the hand – too light too subject to photographer shake from even natural breathing. Also adjustments on the screen so again more prone to unwanted movement. Finally no viewfinder only LED screen that when you get in sunlight turns black – also a downfall of the newer point and shoots. This as become the most frequent reason I have my SLR with me and set on automatic – I can see through the viewfinder in bright light. So for me the lack of knobs/buttons, the screen issue, and the extreme light weight of it are all reasons I shun using it except in a pinch. It’ll do and the processor speed/megapixel quality has improved greatly – yet to this old dog it still doesn’t FEEL like a camera.
So for now I’m reduced to the phone which means I do little to no photography this holiday season. But soon – yes soon – I’ll have a new camera to play with in my spare time that is currently used to sit – stare into space while eating bon-bons. Yeah like I got LOTS of that time – pfft.
Until next time which will hopefully be sooner rather than later!
This is the final post from my visit to the Cherokee National Forest. This photos are actually not in the forest but of roads and properties just outside the forest. One is an abandoned farm that is for sale. There was proof that it was once loved with the irises and other decorative flowers still coming up in the weeds.
This view does capture images of my growing up – a country road, a barn off to the side, and mountains rising in the background.Followed the lane on up the mountain toward the edge of the park.Waited on a wild turkey family to cross the road. DIdn’t get the camera fast enough to get the little chicks.This is the abandoned home we found it was for sale with the acreage.It had been a working farm at one time.Gate to the side yard.The one car garage on the road – couldn’t you just see a 1930s truck parked in there.Then it was time to head off the mountain. The view down the road toward town from the garage.
Here’s a few photos of beautiful flowers in the Cherokee National Forest. Enjoy!
A Rose tells the story of an abandoned house once being a beloved home with a tended yard.Queen Anne’s Lace – now a wildflower was brought to the new world as a garden flower. As a kid I enjoyed cutting one putting it in water with food coloring watching the bloom change colors as it took up the water.Wild miniature daises.Not sure what this is… locust I think very sweet smelling and on a tree.More of this unknown…
Next photo post – the abandoned homestead that was for sale as a Preferred Property just on edge of the National Forest.
Last week when I was in Tennessee for the Hicks Family Reunion I also did some research for the book that is my current project. It is set in my home town of Greeneville and is an urban fantasy type with a rural setting. I wanted to refresh my memory of the Cherokee National Forest where it is in Greene county. I have an important event to set there. After we picked up the key for the hall where the reunion was to be held Mom and I drove back through the forest. Here are some pictures of that drive.
Road to the National Forest. Loved the sky!French Broad RiverBlack Bear Proof Trash CansProtected forestOld stone drinking fountain. I remember these from my childhood trips.Picnic areaCobblestone bridge to picnic area from main roadCreek the cobblestone bridge went over.Hwy 107 Houston Valley Road in Greene County TN inside the Cherokee National Forest.As we were leaving a storm was rolling in.The storm coming over a ridge
There will be two more posts from this trip – mountain flowers and areas just outside the National Forest. Until Next Time!
Back on May 26th Mike and I were looking for something to do. You know he HAS to get out and DO something if it isn’t snowy on the weekend. So after seeing in the paper that there were boat races on Lake Andrea in Pleasant Prairie we were off to see what it was about.
It was about small boats that sound like lawn mowers doing laps on a very small lake not far from our house. Really there were heats, different levels, and such. Interesting but as the sun started to set the day was getting cool we headed home. Here’s a few shots of the day.
We weren’t the only ones out for the day. Here come three boats on the turn…As you can see they didn’t leave their opponents in the dust but rather in the mist!With the races on Froggy wasn’t renting any boats that day.Here’s a shot of mechanics working on some of the middle class boats.There where the green flag is in the photo was the starting line. They used flags like in car racing. If a boat broke down there would be a caution flag. Winner got the checkered flag.Safety crew was out in wave runners. They’d tend boats that stalled or broke down. They’d also act like tow trucks of the water.Sure it was a cool day. I had the hood up on my hoodie (take that Geraldo Rivera I rehabilitated the hoodie for middle-aged moms!) but this spectator was a bit excessiveAs you can see Mike wore a polar fleece but bundling wasn’t necessary for us.
As always there’s more on my Flickr account – clicking on any of the images will take you there. Feel free to snoop around over there as much as you want.
I’ve always liked cemeteries. No, not for the macabre reasons. I them for lots of reasons.
I like them because they are peaceful and scenic. If you want a place to go and be left to your thoughts, a cemetery is the place. Honestly even in a big city it’s quiet and people leave you alone. I’m not advocating being unsafe here like going to dangerous areas alone or at night in areas not well lit. But to sit quietly and think without shouts of people playing and such. A nice cemetery is the place to go.
They are great places to learn photography due to textures, colors, distances, shapes, etc. You can learn a lot about composition of shots. You can learn about depth of field and focus. You can work on macro and distance compositions. You can gain different textures to see how it effects the shots and mood of the prints. It’s where I went to learn how to use a SLR before there was any automatic settings at all – everything was manual and I used film.
Notice how the same shot changes in mood given the exposure type.Notice how the same shot changes in mood given the exposure type.
Cemeteries are an excellent place to learn history of an area. Without a guide you can wander a cemetery looking at death dates to pick up times of hardship in a community. You can see bad winters, epidemics, and armed conflicts. You can see about when the earliest people came to the area by the dates on the oldest graves. You can know a lot about cultural influences by the monuments and methods of burial. If you know your symbols of tombs and general symbology of the predominate culture (in the old US cemeteries that’s predominately European) you can learn about the people – their hopes, dreams, fears, and loyalties.
If you are into genealogy you can learn a lot about families. Often on the tombs you’ll get marriages, children, and such. You can see how say this family merged with that one with several marriages over a century. You can also watch family names die out as a generation of only girls marry off to other names. Sometimes you can see immigration patters as places of birth or death are noted if they aren’t where the plot is located. You can find information about military service that will lead to military records and more finds.
This time of year there are many cemetery tours. Some offer tales of the spooky and some offer history, I enjoy both types. Recently Mike and I went on two of these tours that were history centered. The photos here came from those walks. I’ll be doing posts to tell what I learned on the walks but first I thought October was the perfect time share a post in the praise of cemeteries beyond a place to store the dead.
Let me explain without getting to personal – I’m having some minor medical issues, nothing too serious but needs tending. I’ve been working through the appointments to have a procedure that’s the first step to address some of the issue. Let me tell you getting insurance, doctors of various disciplines, hospital departments, and our schedule to all work together is a big job. Finally I’ve got the schedule date then to back schedule all the pre-op stuff… that was completed yesterday. It’s takes about as much planning as the D-Day invasion!
Also planning a week long genealogy research trip to Tennessee and Alabama. On the way dropping Mike off at his parents and picking up my mother. Which means I have to hire care for the felines and canine family members, make arrangements for garden care, and all that stuff. Also helping Aaron get settled in while dealing with his house being robbed. I’m still keeping up with my class and writing while preparing for craft fair season.
With all that, everyday life, and generally feeling icky because I need to get that procedure – I’ve fallen a bit behind. I think I should be caught up shortly now that I’m not spending eternity on the phone or in a waiting room. I have a list of topics I want to write about: Pricing jewelry, story of Miss Mo my kitty, photo post of military museum tour, photo post of the golden pyramid house, completed comic book arcs, and a few more topics. So there’s a preview of what’s to come as soon as I’m not so far behind that I have to look up to see my own tushie.
In the meantime enjoy the serene beauty of yet another rose from our visit to Leu Gardens in Orlando last October.
Yesterday I went to Simmons Island here in Kenosha. I went to the Pike River Rendezvous. It is a historic reenactment of life in the late 1700s and early 1800s in this area. It is open and free to the public. The reenactors like to share their stories, history, goods, and services. There was a battle with pirates on the shores of Lake Michigan.
I’d like to thank all the participants that were nice enough to allow me to photograph them and their things. So many were gracious to allow it and look forward to seeing themselves there. If you stop by please say hi. I’m sorry but I lost my notes on who is who. I would so like to give you credit for being such a gracious host/hostess.
Oh one nice thing for me is I got to drive the Mustang. Mike had taken the car to the airport to go on his long weekend of active duty. Aaron had taken the truck to go to work so I got to take the lady out for a drive. I didn’t put the top down because there was a prediction of storms rolling in about 11am or so. Don’t worry honey I was careful and even parallel parked her just fine.
A few weeks ago Mike and I took the Secret Gardens tour of Kenosha. Mike enjoyed gardening ideas. I enjoyed the photo opportunities. Despite the drought the gardens were lovely. I’m sure the owners put in a lot of hard work and watering expense to make them ready for the event. Sit back and enjoy this colorful photo post.
Mary Louise Eklund 