Travels and adventures...

You know, when I think of going on a trip, I think first, I think, of which cameras to take.  I know, that is a lot of thinking and other thoughts do cross my mind.  On a recent trip to England and Wales, I thought I would take lots of photos and take lots of photos on film.  That just didn't happen.  Most of the trip was in a car, and the roads in rural Wales (that is kind of redundent) are simply not conducive to pulling over and taking a photos.  I wanted and planned for my previous experience as a Country Today photographer, but what I ended up with were snapshots.

Snapshots are fine, I guess but these ended up to be pretty pictures without conveying any real sense of place.  That is fine--I was more looking for experiences than picture to put on a wall and experiences were certainly had.  Driving an SUV on very narrow curvy roads may have been an experience that shaved a few years off my life.  I think I said some very bad words on several occasions.  The weather was good, at least for October in the United Kingdom.  Company was great and no one was left at a rest area or sent to the Ruislips, to either East or West Ruislip.  The beer was as usual fantastic.  My camera monger in Portobello had a camera that I wanted and could afford, and accommodations were great, except for way too many stairs!  It was verdant (green, too!) and vibrant and the sheep and dogs were cute and photographically cooperative.  Without a doubt a very good trip.

The serious work of finding work with a steady paycheck continues and is ramping up.  I interviewed this week so I have at least a 12.5% chance of that turning out positively.  Those are decent odds, I hope.  It is easier to focus and settle down on task in part because of necessity but also because of the weather.  Single digits with a wind chill so it feels like December, but we still haven't had much measurable snow.  We will see what adventures the new season will bring.

It has seemed longer than it's been

I suppose that three weeks since my last blog isn't that long, but it seems that it has been longer.  Maybe because so many things seem to happening at once.  Days are shorter, temperatures are different, flowers and leaves are changing, among other changes.  Heck, it is so different that even I am a year older.  Yep, another trip around the sun for me.  Hey, it takes longer with a walker!  I suppose that I am more viral than virile, but all in all, life is not too bad.  And no, there isn't a walker in my life.  I am waiting until I find some tennis balls before I roll that bad boy out!

In between posts was the Minnesota State fair.  Labeled by some as "America's Get Together" it is an impressive even.  The fair saw near record attendance this year though on the day of my attendance I was almost alone as only 225,000 of my friends were there.  Food was eaten, food was spilled upon myself, and miles were walked, so it was all pretty fun.

I tried to explain to someone  about how many hours I have spent in fairgrounds but she was unimpressed.  Until I told her that I did milking contests and once even beat Alice in Dairyland!  The media horde also used to watch hours of cow judging and got to know some of the key traits of the cows and steers but also of the judges.  Bets were made and won on the best udders and presentation of them, as well as the shoulders and shanks and other bits of other things.  Yep, a Ph.D. and an education by Arnie Hoffman and the Country Today!  Trends of course change, even in cow judging.  In the past, some judges wanted totally smooth cows, but it seems this year they want cows with slight mohawks near their tails.  Who knew?   I will have to talk to my barber about that.  Of course anything that enhances cow butts is a good thing--why do I find cow butts photogenic?  Probably we shouldn't even go there...

Today was a beautiful day for a walk with great light.  My neighborhood is great for days like this and I love how the light can change from minute to minute.  I think I can thank the changing seasons for both the light and the changing flora.  There are still a few splashes of color but soon color will only be seen in fallen leaves.

A nice night for a walk...

I took advantage of one of the great days in Minnesota to walk around my neighborhood lake,  Lake Harriet.  It was, as one one person said, one of the six or seven days of the year that make it worth living in Minnesota.  I expect the next day in September.  Maybe it seemed so nice because of the awful weather news in the rest of the country.  51 inches of rain since Friday?  No appreciable rain since May?  We have a screwed up country, weather-wise.  I am just glad that there isn't any global warming. 

I jest, but Houston and the rest of Texas is breaking my heart.  The images are searing and the suffering is real.  My donations are on the way, but how do you ever fill that bucket of need?  I am heartened by the real sense of cooperation and community that appears in times like this.  There is not a red or blue state when the state is really just very very wet--I can only hope that this small spark of unity might continue.

My walk was nice--it is about a 4.5 mile jaunt so that is good for me.  At this time of the day there are LOTS of people on the paths and also lots of puppies.  I got to pet some of them.  The puppies, at least.  The people are, well, sleek.  And then there is me....  I have been called a very many things but never, never, have I been called sleek.  Lots of tennis tans and ripples from running and other things.  Then there was me, in a 20 year old tee-shirt and jeans instead of spandex.  I wore "running" shoes only because they were blue and matched my eyes!  But there was room for older pudgy people, too, and it is a very nice walk.

The pictures are pretty blah,  A good camera but apparently not that great of a lens.  I am road testing lenses because of an upcoming trip.  Yep, following my standard, "I am not working so let's go to Europe" financial plan, I have a trip planned in October with a friend to the hinterlands of England.  Poor financial sense but a great thing to look forward to.  But not with this lens.  Sigh.  I only have about 9 other lenses to choose from.  What to do, what to do?

Dew bejeweled and heron tongues...

I was able to visit the local heron rookery and flower depository in scenic Golden Valley this past weekend and got to photograph a plethora of visual treats.  My friend was persuaded to get up early for this adventure and we definitely enjoyed the time and coffee and muffins made it even better.  Dew still bejeweled the flowers and, gasp, Helen the Heron graced us with her queenly presence!

Someday I will take a macro lens with me, but these flowers were taken with the simple Canon zoom on a Canon 7d Mk2 for all those geeks and gear heads out there.  The heron photos were takem with the same camera but with a Leitz Telyt 560mm F 5.6, though you probably knew that just by looking at these shots.  They are surprisingly sharp for a 50 year old lens.  It was well worth schlepping the 12 pound lens to the pond, and Helen cooperated beautiful, flying nearer to me just for her close-up.  These are cropped pretty tight, but I think that you can see her beauty and charm.  That lens seems to be a 830mm lens on that Canon so it appears about 18 times closer than our "normal" view.  Kind of fun.  And who knew herons had tongues?  Or eyelids that slid from the side to protect them from the water when they fished?  Helen is amazing!  Double click to make them bigger!

Tattered

Tattered,  I like that word and it seems fitting in lots of ways.  I went with my friend to her neighborhood bird/flower sanctuary this past weekend to stalk the mighty herons of Golden Valley but I came up dry on that quest.  They were probably doing heron things in some other first ring metro suburb.  There were several markets and hmm.,,did the Twins play at home?  One never knows with those wily and shy birds.  And yes, that is how you spell wily.  It is different than that stupid dog and bird, the chaser and chase-ee.

The flowers, however, were out it all their tattered splendor.  It is still in the 70s and 80s around here so it does still seem like summer, and the calendar does give us another six weeks or so of the season  but it is waning.  Flowers are fading and are more concerned about their seeds than their brightly-colored petals.  Cone flowers are among my favorite flowers but they are more cones than flowers at this point in the summer.  I am not sure of all the rest of the flowers but they caught my eye for one reason or another.  Remember--they all get bigger--just click on the photo.

This camera also caught my eye.  An 1908 Kodak Premo Pony No 7.  In general I have little interest in Kodak cameras as they are too numerous to be all that interesting.  The older ones like this, though, are just stunning.  It cost more than $125 in  1908 when the average salary was $400-600.00.  A dentist might make $1,500.  It is all rich leather mahogany, and shiny chrome and it works like the day it was sold.  Since it is so "un-tattered" it is for sale on Ebay with a hope that it will go to a good home.

Me?  Well, I am a little tattered. Work of late was not fun and I guess the operative word is "was."  New adventures, right?  There has to be at least one or two windmills to tilt or wrongs to right within 40 or so miles, right?  Right?  I am looking now but if you see any that you think I might be interested in, let me know.