Monthly Archives: December 2013

Pondering the Mysteries of New Years

You know the whole New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day thing has always just confused me. I mean it follows Christmas. You know the season of good will and cheer and generosity and all that. Just loaded with gingerbread men and hot chocolate and decorations and snow and the whole bit. We go through all that then we open up our presents on Christmas and then you know what happens. Sure you do.

The kids all get whiny and “Is all that I got?” and their parents who got dragged out of their beds at 5 am are all tired and cranky. Somebody has got to leave the tree party to make breakfast and then start on the Christmas meal. You know something is wrong then.

And the next day many people load up all the stuff they got and return it. Me, I’ve never returned anything in my life if it fit, or if it was a short sleeve dress shirt and tie. I mean that is just so exhausting.

And then there is this tension about the Christmas tree and decorations. Gotta get rid of it, gotta get rid of it. You know what I mean. Suddenly we are sick of Christmas. It’s gotta go. Plus, we have to figure what to do about New Year’s Eve. Are we going to a party, where? Plus resolutions. I have never made a resolution in my life. I have carefully cultivated my bad habits most of life. Why would I get rid of them?

Researching the origins of New Years on the web gives a confusing story of changing calendars, conniving kings, evil emperors and other such stuff. The web is No Help!! Sorry Al Gore. You need to look into that. I mean since you invented the web and all.

Well, I’ve thought about it long and hard and I have the answer to what New Year’s is all about.

It’s a wake up call that is what it is. It is a cold water in the face or maybe for some of us a cold slap in the face. Or a shot of ice cold vodka or a jigger of hot sauce. It is time to wake up! What am I talking about?

I am talking about two things. First Christmas is like being a drugs. All that eggnog, and candy canes, and soft twinkling lights plus whipping out the credit card. It’s bad for your brain folks. It is like crack cocaine. New Year’s forces you to realize, wow, what did I do, how am I going to pay for all that crap I bought? How am I going to lose all this weight I gained?

Second thing is that oh wow, I’m another year older and nothing much has really changed. Not only am I older, I’m fatter, slower, balder, and a little dumber. Oh no, I need to get myself back into shape.

So there you go folks. New Year’s is a slap in the face to wake up! You get one last day off and then off to your cubicle you go. You got credit cards to pay off. You have just got to start eating right. Go ahead, take a break, watch some football. Enjoy it because you have a long hard cold winter ahead of you and a long time until Memorial Day. And for goodness sake get the tree and lights down as soon as you can!

Got it, enjoy!!

If you have made it this far, I wish you and your family and friends a Happy New Year!

Our World – Geocaching on Turkey Mountain

I have geocache named Rock City hidden deep on Turkey Mountain. The last person who looked for it reported that they couldn’t find it although they looked twice. I knew that somebody had probably “muggled” it. Geocacher lingo for stealing or vandalizing a cache.

So I made me another cache out of a Bismati rice jar and some camo duct tape.

Son and I packed it up and headed up to Turkey Mountain. You can see the finished cache container sitting on the sign to the left.

A mountain unicycler came on by. Ultra cool. I have seen unicyclers on the mountain before but they had poles. This guy just had pure balance.

We passed this thing. I told Logan that it is the skeleton of a the TurkeyMountasaurous dinosaur. He quit believing in his Dad’s stories a long time ago. Shows you how smart he is. Compared to me at least.

This is Rock City. It is quite the meeting place. Stay here long enough you will see runners, hikers, bicyclists, geoachers, and micro car enthusiasts all converge here. One of whom stole my cache. I hope they quit. Anyway I replaced it. Here is the story of when we planted the cache two years ago. I put recyclable cameras in the caches I plant nowadays and ask finders to take pictures of themselves. Here are some pictures of people who have found the cache.

Then for grins and giggles we went over to another cache to Tom’s Turkey Mountain Homestead to look for it, again. I have been here at least a half dozen times the last year looking for it. I spent about a half hour rooting around looking for it. It is a micro so it is very small. I didn’t find it this time either.

As we left I noticed that a nearby tree was laughing at me. I don’t blame him. Next time I might bring my axe and see how he laughs then. (Just kidding folks!)

On the way out we passed Pepsi lake. Oddly enough it has a bunch of old Pepsi truck bodies sitting on the dam. I have no idea why. It is also the site of another evil little microcache, What are These Doing Here. I found it finally last year kind of by accident.

We finished our little adventure tired and a little muddy but we had a great walk in the woods.

When was the last time you had a nice walk in the woods?

Our World Tuesday

InSPIREd Sunday – The Church of Saint Mary

(I love that big massive cross. Didn’t use to but it has grown on me. My various lomography cameras throw the guys at Walgreens off sometimes. I don’t know why these images are reversed.)

The Church of Saint Mary is a Catholic Church located just off Peoria in the Brookside area of Tulsa. It is close to the rec center where son has done his improv comedy workshops the last couple years or so. So I have scoured the park, the church grounds, and the surrounding neighborhood with my camera while he is in his class.

(I can’t wait for Spring when everything will be lush and green.)

The grounds of the church and associated school are quite extensive and well landscaped and has a lot of interesting things to see and photograph.

Of course my favorites are the statue of Saint Mary and the bas relief carved into the bricks of one of the the walls. I also like the massive concrete cross at the front of the church.

(Double exposure, fisheye. I’ve posted this before.)

Plus the school has a very colorful playground.

(I’ve posted this before. Note the shadow selfie.)

I’ve never got tired photographing it. I’ll probably be doing it for a couple more years.

Do you have an area that you return to many times to photograph?

InSPIREd Sunday

Pinhole Photography: Holga 135PC – First Roll

My MIL Nana gave me another film camera for Christmas, a Holga 135 PC. It doesn’t have a lens, it has a small hole (one fourth of a millimeter) where the lens is supposed to be. This is getting back to basics on photography. It has a manual shutter also. The shutter opens when you press the button and closes when you release it. This is because very little light gets through the pinhole and thus the shutter needs to be open for an extended time.

In bright sunlight you just open and close it as fast as you can. For shots in shade it may require up to 10 seconds. Inside shots can require a minute and a half.

(This is our dove nursery. We always get at least one dove nest here every year. Last summer I think we may have had three. Not all at the same time. We try and leave them alone and not stress them out.)

These cameras are known for making soft dreamy shots. Also, there is no focusing as it has a large depth of field.

The hard part is figuring how long to expose the film. A lot of chatter on the web about buying light meters and blah blah blah. Fortunately there is an app called PinholeMeter that I downloaded to my Ipod Touch. It uses the Touch’s camera along with the fstop and film speed to give you an exposure time. It worked great. Complicated light situations like the above are fun. I took readings on the rock wall, the shadowed glass, the wreath, the hedge, and the shadow. I got widely different exposure times so I used the wreath setting. As a result the rock got a little overexposed. It makes me appreciate all the ciphering that a digital camera does when it sets the aperture and exposure time.

(My tree shadowed on my neighbor’s wall. So you legal experts out there, who owns the shadow?)

All I need now is a “Take the Lens Cap Off” app. I took about ten shots before I realized that the lens cap was still on. Oh well.

(I love garden decorations. You don’t have to water them for one thing.)

I took the first roll of shots in and around the house just to test it and the app out a little bit. I am really pleased with the results.

(Neighbor’s willow tree. Pretty but I hate those long strings that fall in our yard. They don’t mulch very well when I mow the yard. They don’t rake up very well either.)

Of course this camera requires a tripod because of the exposure times. I am also going to get a cable release for the shutter. Anything to cut down movement of the camera is helpful.

(Old school red wheelbarrow. How do you store your wheelbarrow?)

These images were made with 400 speed film. I have now loaded it with some slower 100 speed film and will be taking it out and about a little bit.

(I see lots of opportunities for double exposures.)

I love my digital cameras but there is something about film that really gets me. The richer colors of film, the nostalgic look, I don’t know exactly what it is but I just love film. I know that film in general and pinhole cameras in particular are pains in the butt and the effort is worth it to me.

(Hey, how about a shadow selfie. Holding down the shutter.)

What did you get for Christmas? Tell us about it.

Christmas at our House

(Are there American boys that want something besides video games and cheat books for Christmas. A football maybe? He does like books though.)

Okay, I know Christmas is over, at least for some people. Me, I’m a twelve days of Christmas kind of guy. So you will have to put up with me about it. Christmas morning is pretty civilized. Logan has never been and up at 4 am kind of guy. Or not any more. He is not a tear into things kind of guy either. We open our gifts slowly so we can each see what other people got.

(Funny thing, nobody can read my handwriting either. The Contract Administrators at work make jokes and laugh about the way I write.)

Logan left Santa a couple of gingerbread cookies and a glass of wine the night before and so Santa wrote him a note. Don’t get all MADD on me!!!Santa has a designated driver. I had been telling Logan that he was “on the bubble” for a few days. Poor kid didn’t know what that meant. Apparently neither does Santa.

For my trouble I got a Lump of Coal. The good kind.

We’d been promising Logan underwear for Christmas for years and Santa finally came through. Notice Logan’s pajamas. He wore them all day long. Note the slippers on right side. That is Heather. She was wearing her Christmas pajamas and her silk scarves. You won’t find a picture on this post of her in her pajamas. I may not be very smart, but I’m not all that dumb either. Besides, I would never find anybody that puts up with my crap like she does. You will also note that you won’t find a shot of me wearing my Christmas pj’s either. Cuz I’m the photographer.

Ginger got a new hedgehog. She’s our neurotic little dog and she loves her hedgehogs. That is her therapy hedgehog.

And here is Mrs. Grinch, aka Chrissy out big grouchy Maine Coon. She doesn’t give a flip about Christmas. I wouldn’t try and move her off that throw either. If you want to keep your hand that is.

And here is Logan with LJ (“Logan Junior”) feeding him treats. LJ loves Christmas and is terrorized by Mrs. Grinch. Don’t feel bad LJ, I am also.

And here is me with my one Christmas shirt and my Dallas Cowboys stocking cap with my favorite gift from Heather for my office at work. Santa hasn’t visited the Cowboys since the 90’s. Dear Santa, I hope that you gave the Cowboys defense a clue and the Philedelphia Eagles the flu. Thanks. In case you are wondering why I am not smiling, that is my smile. No I wasn’t drunk either.

Here is Heather all cleaned up and her mother Nana. Ready to do battle with Christmas.

Heather got a new coffee machine. We have been nursing along our old one for quite a while an Nana couldn’t stand it anymore. We don’t like to replace things until they are worn out. The stuff we give to Goodwill or rummage sales is truly worn out.

Nana gave me a new Lomography camera. Sucker doesn’t even have a lens. It has a pinhole. I’ve been playing with it. You photography buffs, it has a f/175 aperture. This is going to be interesting. Some of the shots I want to take will requre exposure times of over a minute. I find out that Apple has an app that uses the camera as a light meter. You set the film speed and the fstop and it tells you the exposure time. And then you click it and it is a countdown timer. We’ll see how it works. Thing is I have to go through 36 exposures to see if gives me good results or not. Don’t hold your breath, it will take a while. I’ll have to use a tripod for almost all the shots.

I’ll have to get a cable release also to hold the shutter open. I’ve been reading about how one can open the shutter and then walk to a chair in front of the camera. Sit down and then get up to close the shutter. That kind of stuff really interests me.

And this is Rascal wanting to know where his stuff is. You may think its funny that we buy our pets gifts and treats at Christmas. Well its true, sorry. We had quite a zoo going on. Nana brought her dogs over so we had five total. Worse than little kids, in the door, out the door, and back in. Updating the Barkbook status constantly.

And here we are all ready for Christmas dinner!!

I hope that you had a great Christmas also.

Skywatch Friday – Pretty Blue Skies and then it gets Bad.

Here is a big ole artificial tree downtown next to a temporary ice rink. I wandered over there during lunch one day to check it out and decided to take a shot with my small Nikon point and shoot. Don’t ask my why I tilted it like that. I’d have to tell you that I felt like it and that may strike some people as being a little cheeky. So don’t ask. I do promise you that I hadn’t been drinking though. Note the shadow of the tree to the left. I’m telling you that for a reason, so take note of it, please.

So then I went to the other side of the tree and using one of my plastic film cameras, the Lomography La Sardina I took another pic. Note that the shadow of the tree is to the right. Got it?

So, then I thought, “What can I do with this tree?” So I went and stood in the shadow of the tree and took a picture of the tree with my film camera so that the sun was behind the tree. Then, without advancing the film, I turned turned the camera ninety degrees and took a pic of some ornamental grass nearby. So I got a double exposure of the grass on the tree.

Just what you always wanted right, a brown tree. Boy, I can tell you can’t wait until you see my next invention. You have to admit that the sky in the first pic was pretty.

Okay, well check the link below and check out some Skywatch Photographs posted by people who actually know what they are doing.

Skywatch Friday

Merry Christmas from the Bates Family: Alan, Heather, and Logan.

Christmas Eve

Well, the gingerbread men are baked and decorated.

And the cats are synchronizing their fireplace napping.

Christmas Eve is here.

I have two last errands to run and some wrapping to do.

Are you ready for Christmas?

Christmas with the “P” Setting on the Canon SX40 HS

(A little over the top on the lighting intensity but that is how I’m rolling with my P mode this days.)

My “big” camera is a Canon SX40HS Powershot. It is a nice point and shoot with a Superlens which combined with great low light capabilities makes for great concert photos and is “concert legal” because it is is small and doesn’t have the separable lens. The only time I’ve ever been interfered with is at a Sting concert last year at an Indian casino in Thackerville, OK and all the ushers were doing was waving their finger at me. I’d put the camera away for a little while and then resume when they got busy waving their finger at somebody else.

(I think ice and Christmas lights go well with the P mode.)

Anyways, the camera has been pretty much locked into the “A” for Automatic setting most of the time unless I used the low light option at a concert. I was using maybe 1% of the camera’s capabilities and I was okay with that.

The problem was that I was a little frustrated with several things. First off, taking pics inside under artificial light often gave everything a yellow cast and then taking pictures of things like Christmas lights didn’t turn out very satisfying. Also, taking of back lit objects led to dark shadows. I learned to live with all that. I don’t strive for perfection in my photos, I just forge on ahead and go with it.

(Heather and Rascal, with no yellow! And some detail on Rascal. He usually comes out as a black blob.)

But recently I’ve learned about the “P” setting on my camera and a whole new world has opened up. It’s got adjustments for everything that has been troubling me. It gets the yellow out of inside shots. It has ways of correcting the exposure on back lit objects. You can emphasize or deemphasize colors. I feel like I have a whole new camera!

(Nana, the world’s great MIL and Fiona.)

Sure, I read the manual a little bit but the fastest way to learn this stuff is via Youtube videos. My favorite are those made by an English lady who goes by “Snapdragon.” Here is her 5 minute video on the “P” mode.

I just love her voice. I understood her perfectly on this video. On some of her other videos I had to replay certain sections and I still had no idea what she was saying. Is their an English to Okie hack out there so I can get a translation?

So, I’ve been playing around with it. The bear shot above would have been almost impossible before I used the P setting. Now, I’ve learned how to get the camera to using the right exposure.

This is the kind of shots I was getting before learning the P setting.

I love inside shots without the yellowish tint.

And how to make colors pop out. Don’t be yakking at me about how I’m altering the pic to something unnatural. How about I just agree with you and we end the discussion! Sorry to be so blunt. I’m not much of a purist on the whole SOOC thing. I’ve learned on some of Snapdragons other videos on how to edit pics in camera. Given all the things that can be done to photos both during the exposure and afterward I don’t think that SOOC has a whole lot of meaning any more.

And I achieved, in a modest way, something that is almost impossible in a point and shoot. A little bit of bokeh. I know, I said a little bit. Snapdragon has over thirty videos on the camera and I’ve gone through a half dozen of them and will be looking at more. I don’t know if she covers other cameras or not but I bet you that whatever camera you have there are videos for it by somebody. Probably not with her hot English accent but you know, you can’t get everything you want in this world.

What’s next? She has videos on how to install and use “CHKD” on the camera. That stands for “Canon Hack Development Kit” and is something totally not sanctioned by Canon. It is internal software on the camera that enables one to shoot in RAW format and do all sorts of other wonderful things that typically can only be done on the “grown up” cameras. I am taking some time off over the holidays and I’ll be trying to install and use this mode. I just hope that I don’t turn my camera into a fancy paperweight.

So are using the full capabilities of your camera or is there a whole lot in there that mystifies you? I think with my new found skills on the P setting, I’ve gone from using 1% of the camera’s capabilities to about 2%. I still have a long ways to go and about two dozen videos.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday featuring Lights, Babies, and Other Merriment

Lights

Heather added some lights to our display this year. I think lights and snow really go together well.

Tree

Who can’t like a pink flamingo Christmas tree like this one a the Philbrook Festival of the Trees from, ah, oh, a couple years ago. Sorry.

Big

Devon Energy in Oklahoma has the perfect ornament for the grounds of their billion dollar headquarters. You don’t find too many ornaments with signs asking that you don’t climb on them.

Makes You Feel Merry

This is from Logan’s first Christmas, years ago. He’s been busting moves ever since. Who can’t be merry when a baby is involved?