Category: Prose

Cameras Are Dumb

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Looking to the sky
And seeing what I see
My heart wells up
The muses to please

I go grab my camera
And frame what I see
Release the shutter
And become so displeased

Finally! I made some time to get some moon frames and stuff.
I met a young fellow who was trying to make an image of the moon, handheld.
He was with his son and he was struggling. Eventually I offered some help, but by that time it was just too dark to make the piece without a tripod.
I did however introduce him to manual mode and graduated filters (for handheld work).
All of this reminds me of what I have believed since day one of “serious” photography making for me. Cameras are dumb, and the effort to make them right seems to be at the bottom of the list. They are nowhere near the amazingness of the human eye and we are strapped with fixing and manipulating the shortcomings of the ineptness of it all.
According to some reporting, the human eye can see some 21 stops of dynamic range. That is one of the reasons why we can look at the brightness value of a cloud, then look into shadow and see details in both. (The eye is also very fast in adjusting)
So in my mind, we can stop considering “more pixels” and start thinking about creating software/sensor systems that can SEE WHAT WE SEE.
Any camera company that could do that, would dominate for a few years…until the others catch up.

source: https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/news/if-your-eyes-were-cameras-what-would-the-specs-be

Case in point: The cover photo was exposed for the moon. The photo below was exposed for the stars (barley). Why don’t camera companies make the sensor/software systems see what we see? (Please no excuses, I know them already). Excuses do not solve problems.

That’s the moon.

Here is the fellow I met with his son. For handheld work, grad filters are a lot of fun.

Barnett Ranch Preserve, Ramona, CA

Sorry for the rant. I still love photography and all of its challenges.

Star Search

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Do stars come from chimneys?
Smoke bellowing blue.
Painting the night sky
Brilliant and true.

Ah, the milky way. Hidden in city light and revealed only in the dark night. Most tragically, not a candy bar.

New Neighbors

Homes and Houses

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A house is not necessarily a home.
Until voices and smells
Crying and laughing
Struggles and discovery
Make it so

(Draft started 3/30/22)
It’s been awhile since I’ve caught up on my WordPress reading/writing.
My wife Robin and I are moving to a new location.
After thirty-two years in the same location.
And, our daughter and her husband will be moving with us. (I know, don’t start a sentence with “and”).

What an utter disruption. All of the legality(s), buying, selling, upgrading, fixing, budgeting, signing, soon-to-be-light-construction is trying its best to kill my creative side. Through it all, I find the decompression of nature to be the finest balm. If I have a camera with me, even better.

When it came time to “stage” the house, I packed my main computer and have been using my laptop. I am grateful to have the laptop. It is very powerful. Old guy that I am, I prefer my PC. A nice big screen, a sure footed mouse, and no battery shenanigans. I wanted to go get it out of storage, but I haven’t been walking in several days and that comes first. After a brief search in the storage facility, I realized it’s behind a mass of boxes and stuff. Motivation won out and the PC is back in business.

I found a nesting hummingbird about a week ago at Mission Trails. I think I’ll go visit her today and forget about the floors, paint, counter tops, tree trimming,1% good faith down payment, caulking, electrical trim, new refrigerator, docu-sign, fix the gutters at the new place stuff (short list).

Update: I’ve returned several times to see the hummingbird and she’s a no-show.

Things will be different in the new location. Less light at night, less noise, fewer crowds. I’ve never lived that way. I’ve always lived near a freeway or main thoroughfare. The hum of the city and all its trappings will be something I go to and not live in. Hope we like it.

I am pretty sure I will not be visiting Mission Trails Regional Park as often as I do.
That story will need to wait. Too much emotion attached.

Photograph – multiple exposures- black phoebe – color manipulations and Polar Coordinates in PSE

Expended Energy

on By 5 Comments

Go to the gym.
That’s the encouragement
¿Making us better?

Life is full of advice. Eat this, don’t eat that. We are told what to do, what to think.
My advice, expend energy to make things and make things better.
Bulked up people are attractive maybe. Muscle that is created to look at is useless.
Hands that grow food, lift up a needy person, build a bird house, feed a child, have purpose beyond a self-aggrandizing role.
Being fit is important. There are many ways to get there that has more to do with creating and building up outside of ourselves.

The latest moral emergency(s) reminds us that for as far as we have come, we have much further to go.
I am numb from it all and believe nothing to be absolute. Propaganda is not unique, it is typical for all countries.
Since the advent of television, conflicts have been brought into our homes for dinner-time viewing. It creates wealth when we watch. So, I don’t. We will not see all conflicts. Many of them have been going on for some time, but lack of interest does not make it “worth” reporting.
Yes, there are still tyrants in power that will wield that power at the expense of human lives.
Yes, the victims need help. We should be concerned. We should care and help.
As per usual, many of us end up feeling helpless. No matter what we can do, it will affect very little.
That insufficiency is constant, and frustrates those of us who live in peace.

Sometimes the best we can do is grow food, lift up a needy person, build a bird house, feed a child, have purpose beyond a self-aggrandizing role.

Image; Composite of (2) Multiple Exposure Photographs “Conflict2” –
https://bluemarblephotography.smugmug.com/Composites/Birdscapes/i-rfX57Tr/A

The Challenge

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We look for them
Everywhere we walk
Everywhere we look
So strong is their pull
The ancients made them goddesses
Controlling our thoughts
Our actions
Not our own

One morning
Waking to the debris
Of imagination
Efforts of epic strength
Strewn about
Like butterflies
Or hummingbirds
Here and gone

NO MORE!
No more of this
Worthless endeavor.
A new morning dawns
And we step
Into that path
Of imagination
Hypnotized
Once again



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