Category Archives: Photography

A Little Passion

Posted by dkrashb on

Pat joined Tisen and I for a quick stroll around the park the other day.  As we made our way down the path, we spot a strange, tiny alien vessel parked along the sidewalk.  We paused.  We stared.  We tried to decide if we were in any danger.

Eventually, we decided it was, in fact, a flower.  Neither of us could recall having ever seen such a flower before–yet, there certainly wasn’t any evidence of this being a recent addition.

Since I only had a 15 minute break, we double-timed it around the park and I made it to my next conference call.  But the strange, alien-looking flower stuck in my mind.  I watched out the window as the clouds gathered into a charcoal grey mass and suddenly let loose with a series of lightening strikes that were close enough to make all the body hair I didn’t know I had stand on end.  I looked over at Tisen who, even more tired than I am, slept through the first few rumbles of thunder.

I went back to concentrating on work, glad Tisen wasn’t disturbed by the storm.  When I next noticed my surroundings, I moved my foot and discovered Tisen was tightly curled around it on the floor.  I’m not sure how long he was there before I noticed, but he was snoring again, his breath warming my ankle.

The thunder and lightening subsided after some of the craziest strikes I’ve ever seen.  I wished I’d had a chance to set up my camera and shoot a couple of really cool lightening bolts.  But, Tisen was definitely glad I was safe inside and out of harm’s way.  Or, perhaps that he had my feet to keep him safe.

By the time I decided I had to stop working, the sky was lightening as if the sun had decided to reverse direction.  The cloud cover turned brighter gray, the lightening and thunder stopped, and the torrential downpour let up completely.  I decided to not only get out my camera and put the macro lens on, but I also used my extension tubes for really close-up shooting.  I convinced Pat to join me and Tisen so I wouldn’t have to hold the dog while I was shooting.  I even grabbed my tripod, a mini-light reflector, and a plastic garbage bag I stuffed in my back pocket.  I felt like a real photographer.

Then, I went after those aliens.  They were drenched and a bit beaten by the weather, but the occasional rain drop still clung to their innards and petals.

Eventually, I googled until I found out this is the state flower of Tennessee, the Passionflower.  While that seems like the most perfect name for this flower to me, supposedly it’s also called a Maypop.  I didn’t see any in May, but maybe they were late bloomers this year?

Farm Fresh

Posted by dkrashb on

As I mentioned in a previous post, we managed to go for a hike this weekend.  This indirectly contributed to me being too tired to write a complete post for yesterday.  This is a bit of a string of events that I have managed to piece together through careful detective work.  Here are the relevant facts:  we went for a hike; there was poison ivy along the trail; we took 2 dogs; the dogs laid in our laps that evening; we both broke out with poison ivy reactions, the itching has been keeping me from sleeping well.

The lesson here is that taking dogs hiking leads to sleep deprivation.

Granted, Tisen is also itching like crazy even though he doesn’t react to poison ivy.  His itching is also causing my sleep deprivation.  We finally reached the point of giving him a low dose of steroids.  We’re giving him allergy shots, but it’s too soon to know if they’re going to work or not.  In the meantime, he is covered in sores from scratching and chewing at himself.

We all slept better last night between the steroids seeming to give Tisen some relief (I’m thinking about stealing a couple of doses for myself) and a friend introducing me to a lovely topical treatment that helps with the itch quite a bit, I made it through the night with only a few disruptions.

Now that we’ve cleared up the mystery as to why hiking and sleep deprivation are linked, let me explain where today’s images came from.  We belong to a CSA.  For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, it stands for Community Supported Agriculture.  Basically, you buy in at the beginning of the farming season for a set amount and then you get shares of the produce for the rest of that season.

It’s a way of sharing risk with the farmers and, in return, getting more local produce that’s grown using organic and sustainable practices for less money than if you had to buy it at the grocery store.  The down side is if there’s a bad season, you may end up getting less for your money.  So far, we’ve come out way, way ahead.

One of the things I love about our CSA is that we’re friends with the farmers and they let me walk around and take pictures when we pick up our box.  They are currently building a new greenhouse-like structure, so I thought I’d check out their progress.  However, when I walked back to the garden, I discovered all these wonderful flowers growing in an amazing jumble of beauty surrounding the farmed areas.

I was so enchanted by all the flowers, I forgot my husband and dog were waiting in a hot car for me until my husband shouted for me.  I missed having my macro lens with me, but having my 24-70mm lens on my camera forced me to think about new ways to shoot flowers, which was fun.

Sunday Sunset

Posted by dkrashb on

I was up too late last night, worked too long today, went to too late a meeting tonight, and am now too tired to write a blog post.  I could sit writing half asleep, but I think I will just let my photos communicate, at the literal level, the spectacular sunset we were treated to Sunday evening as well as at the symbolic level of exactly how I feel tonight.

Fire Tower

Posted by dkrashb on

Inside the Prentice Cooper Wildlife Management Area, along side the gravel road that leads to Snoopers Rock, there is a Ranger Station.  Like many ranger stations, it looks like someone’s home.  Unlike any other ranger station I’ve seen, in the grass-covered yard outside the house sits a tower.

The tower stretches impossibly high for it’s width.  Just looking up at the top from the ground makes me dizzy with the probability that it will topple over in a strong wind.  I am not the only one who thinks so–the national forestry service, or some such official organization, saw fit to tie the tower off to a post on one side, presumably to prevent such toppling.  It’s left to the viewer’s imagination as to why the wind blows from only one direction at least in the minds of the people who added this safety precaution.

There is a sign at the bottom of the tower.  It tells visitors that they may climb to the top of the tower at their own risk.  The first time we stopped to see this tower, I thought I might be brave enough to scale the steep and narrow wooden steps that lead some 70 feet straight into the air.  I was wrong.

Like a giant mouse trap baited with the promise of a spectacular view, the tower felt poised to spring the moment I set foot on the first step. The steps creaked and groaned their surprise at being asked to bear my weight. There was nothing about their rotted appearance that promised they would be strong enough.

I crept up one flight, and then two.  As I got higher, the structure seemed to sway more.  When the wind picked up momentarily, I felt like I was high on a tree branch swaying on a branch.  I have more faith in a tree supporting me than the tower.  By the time I made it up the third flight of steps, I was paralyzed with fear.  The vision of the entire tower imploding with me deep in its belly was too much for me.  I turned and made the even more frightening descent, learning how truly steep the steps are as I reached one foot downward in space, finding the faith that another step would be there as I shifted my weight past the point of no return and gratefully landed on solid wood.

This trip.  I did not attempt to climb more than half of the first flight of steps.  I went up just far enough to sit down on the steps, my back to them, and lay back so I could take some shots of the belly of the beast.  Even then, I could feel the entire tower swaying in the wind.

Dirty Laundry

Posted by dkrashb on

Every so often it becomes obvious that Tisen isn’t the only critter in the house who needs a bath.  His collection of toys often starts to look a little, well, crusty.  I guess if you were carried around in a slobbery dog’s mouth day after day, you might get a little crusty, too.

Poor Lamb has turned into the black sheep of the family–her once white-as-snow fleece has become charcoal gray.  Skunk shows stains less, but still had quite a coating of dried dog drool.

But what is the appropriate way to clean stuffed squeaky toys?  I opted for the gentle cycle in the washing machine.  I gathered up all the toys that were in the house (who knows how many more are lying abandoned in one of the cars) and tossed them all into the washing machine.

I even found one of Twiggy’s toys Tisen apparently stole from her the last time she stayed with us.  It’s a very clever skunk.  Instead of being stuffed, it has a velcro closure at one end that allows it to be opened so a plastic bottle can be inserted inside the skunk.  I don’t know what is so appealing about a plastic bottle to dogs, but most of them seem to love them.  Tisen loves this toy better than any of his own–I suspect it is because it belongs to Twiggy.

I removed the plastic bottle before adding Twiggy’s skunk to the wash.

The toys all came out of the gentle cycle in tact, but very wet.  We tried drying them on the delicate setting, but they were still wet after.  I then tried a medium heat setting.  Still wet.  Since it was a hot sunny day, I opted to spread them out on the edge of the balcony to see if that would help.

Tisen was a bit nervous about his family being spread out on the balcony.  He felt compelled to guard his flock.  He seems to have a strong herding instinct that becomes apparent whenever a stranger comes into the house.  Watching him sit and watch over his toys made me wonder if he didn’t end up with some Border Collie genes somewhere along the line.

Twiggy was less concerned about the welfare of Tisen’s collection (or even her own skunk).  She just enjoys the view from the balcony.

In the end, Tisen’s flock did dry–I flipped them once after a few hours like a bunch of cute, furry pancakes.  Twiggy’s clever skunk dried the fastest of them all.  They are all fluffy and soft now.  Many look new again.  Lamb, however, has only transitioned from charcoal gray to slightly lighter gray.  Perhaps next time I’ll try the “heavily soiled” cycle.

Snoopers Rock

Posted by dkrashb on

Having lamented missing most of the summer, I was happy when my husband asked if I wanted to go for a hike today.  As I was reminded yesterday, the summer isn’t over yet.  In spite of it being one of the more hot and humid days we’ve had in a while, I was anxious to get outside and spend some time in motion.

My husband and I have different ideas about hiking, however.  I want to go at least 5 miles and am willing to go much further if there’s something to see.  My husband, who is on his feet all day, prefers to pick very short, easy hikes.  We compromised by choosing a place that had 3 overlooks and parked in the middle so we could bail if it turned out to be longer or more difficult than expected.

We headed out to Prentice Cooper Wildlife Management Area, which runs along the Tennessee River Gorge.  It’s a beautiful area.  Even the drive to get there is inspiring.  We saw wild turkey and deer along the way.

The down side of the wildlife management area is the popularity of ATVs and hunting.  Fortunately, between the heat and a predicted thunderstorm that never came, there were only a handful of ATVers and we didn’t hear any gunshots.  Both make me nervous when we’re hiking with dogs.

Twiggy, visiting with us for the weekend, and Tisen were very enthusiastic when we got out of the car.  We headed down what was called Snoopers Rock Trail, but it was really a road.  We were passed by a jeep and later a Hyundai sedan, but we weren’t sorry we walked.

The view is fantastic from Snoopers Rock.  Of the views I’ve seen of the river gorge, this was the best–the rock is perched above a bend in the river, providing scenery in both directions.

Unfortunately, when we headed off to the second overlook, it wasn’t clear if we were on the right trail or not.  We hiked through the woods enjoying the shade and the tiny wildflowers along the trail, but the moisture in the air was gathering like a cloud around us as we walked and the mosquitos reminded us why we used to use insect repellant.

When we’d walked about as far as we thought it was supposed to be to the next overlook, we decided it was time to turn around.  The trek back was all uphill.  I was shocked by how hard I felt like I was working–it wasn’t that uphill.

It felt great to be in the woods and moving.  Even sweating felt good.  I feel more alive when I’m pushing my body, even if it’s only a little.  The mosquitos I could have done without.  But, after all, it is still summer.

Tisen and Twiggy were far less enthusiastic on the way back to the car.  I guess I’m not the only one who hasn’t been working out.

Missing Summer

Posted by dkrashb on

It dawned on me today that it’s August.  Kids are getting ready to go back to school just as I am noticing it’s summer.

This summer, I have spent sitting.  I’ve done a little math.  I figured I’ve spent an average of 80 hours a week sitting in front of a computer, 45 hour sleeping, 7 hours walking the dog(s), 1 hour doing yoga, 14 hours eating (mostly more sitting), 3 hours socializing (yet more sitting), 3 hours shooting, 4 hours working with birds, and the remaining 11 hours doing mundane tasks like getting ready in the morning, driving places, grocery shopping, dog washing, dog feeding, taking the dog to the vet, making coffee, and doing household chores.

That’s not exactly how I might have planned my summer.

I think back to the summers of my childhood when they seemed to stretch on forever.  I remember running around in the neighborhood with my friends playing whatever game we could come up with much of the day.  If I wouldn’t have been an avid reader, I probably would have spent the entire day outside.  When friends weren’t available, I took my books outside and read in our treehouse or in a make-shift tent made of blankets hung over our swing set.

There were chores and, when I was old enough, a job.  But my first job was mowing lawns–even that felt like a fun outdoor activity once I got started.  I used to love the smell of fresh cut grass and the look of a neatly trimmed lawn.  All of it spoke of summer to me.

It’s funny that we grow up thinking we will have summers forever.  Summers with less responsibility, fewer deadlines, and an open schedule.  Summers where the biggest worry is that we’ll be bored.  Do kids still have summers like that?  I miss them.

I miss the feeling of sleeping in on a weekday, rising to an empty house with a stocked fridge.  Meandering through the day without a single thing planned, required, or demanded.

I suppose the whole summer wasn’t like that.  There was a week of camp.  Days I had to do things.  But I looked forward to those days because the freedom of the unplanned days was sometimes overwhelming.

I entered this summer without acknowledging it.  I didn’t just spend it sitting; like walking past a lost penny, I didn’t pick it up to spend it at all.  I didn’t notice the longest day of the year.  I didn’t catch any fireflies.  I didn’t spend a single night gazing at the stars.  I didn’t take a moment to sit in the shade on a hot sunny day, feeling the breeze and thinking life is good.  It seems like a summer wasted.

Surprises

Posted by dkrashb on

AU0A2850

I am not an expert in flowers.  I know the occasional flower, but am often stumped by what a particular flower might be called.  I envy people who can pull out that information on a dime.  I can do that with a lot of birds, but in spite of how immobile plants are, they seem to fly right out of my brain.

But these flowers didn’t just stump me, I couldn’t remember having ever seen one before.  Perhaps I walked by too quickly and didn’t notice that it wasn’t just another Queen Anne’s lace.  But as I looked at these images more and more, I couldn’t come up with any memory of one.

Besides being surprised by the new flower in my life, I was also surprised when I went a little nuts playing with adjustments and pulled the curves feature in a direction that created much of the effect in this image.

AU0A2852

This is a “normally” post-processed version of the same image:

AU0A2852 - Version 2

As you can see, I was playing again.

Perhaps the biggest surprise today was when I was working away at my desk and a man hanging from a rock climbing rope appeared outside my 7th floor window.  I’d forgotten that the building’s windows were being cleaned until I was in the middle of a conference call and suddenly joined by this mysterious window ninja (that’s the name of the window cleaning company).

Had I not been in the middle of a conference call, I might have had the where-with-all to snap a quick shot of this guy hanging outside my window with my iPhone.  It didn’t occur to me to do anything but pretend the guy wasn’t there (once I got over my initial shock).

Tisen’s girlfriend is visiting for a few days.  She noticed the window ninja about 2 minutes after he appeared.  She immediately jumped up and started barking.  I’m confident Tisen would never have noticed him had it not been for this alarm–he’s so oblivious it’s almost funny.  However, he joined in the barking and I had a difficult time explaining to the folks on my call that I had a man hanging outside my window.  Fortunately, it was an informal and internal call with colleagues I know well.

It wasn’t the most exciting day, but there were quite a few surprises.

IMG_2709

Bright Beauties

Posted by dkrashb on

AU0A2847

As I look through my images from Sunday in the search for something to post today, I realize that I can’t remember going outside today.  My first conference call started early and I ran out of time to take Tisen on his morning walk.  My husband filled in for me on walking duty–I was happy to hand off given that it was pouring down rain.

My day remained jam-packed until 6:30PM when my husband came home and I looked up to realize I’d been sitting at my desk nearly non-stop for 10 ½ hours.

AU0A2845

That was when I actually did go outside.  Poor Tisen hadn’t had a mid-day break because I was too busy.  I took him out in a bit of a daze, having trouble focusing after having been looking 2 feet in front of me all day.  We did a quick lap around the smaller section of the park given that it was misting and threatening to break out into another honest downpour at any moment.

As I think back, I now remember that trek around the park.  The exercise class working out in the misting rain, the children up on the sledding hill, and running into a neighbor with a  tiny pomeranian puppy Tisen seems to be afraid of.   It was while I was talking to the neighbor that it dawned on me I hadn’t brushed my teeth.  I tried not to smile too much.

Appearing out of seemingly nowhere amongst what might be grass

Appearing out of seemingly nowhere amongst what might be grass

When we got back inside, I went back to work, trying to wrap up on a couple of items I hadn’t had time to finish.  But not for too long–one of my goals is to keep my work day to 10 hours unless it’s a dire emergency or pressing deadline.  I’ll get there some day.

Eventually, I turned to my photos.  It was the images of the yellow flowers whose name I once knew but now escapes me that caused me to wonder if I had been outside.  Doesn’t it seem like it would be hard to walk by such bright beauties without noticing?

The new snapgreatphotos.com model

The new snapgreatphotos.com model

 

Busy Bee

Posted by dkrashb on
The bee escapes Tisen and lands on a flower

The bee escapes Tisen and lands on a flower

A word of advice:  trying to get a good macro shot of a flying bee is best accomplished without a dog on a leash attached to your wrist.  Tisen is not always the best photographer’s dog.  Particularly not when it comes to bees.  He is not fond of bees.

At least he didn’t eat my subject.

I sometimes wonder if I have an unconscious desire to make achieving the image I have in my head as difficult as possible if not impossible.  After all, you really cannot expect to get a good shot of a bee on a flower with a macro lens while you’re standing in the park with a dog trying to chase said bee.

I have a tendency to disguise creating obstacles as efficiency–I was both getting some shooting in and walking my dog at the same time.  Realistically, my dog didn’t enjoy his walk half as much and I didn’t come close to getting the images I wanted.

Once out of Tisen's reach, he flitted from blossom to blossom

Once out of Tisen’s reach, he flitted from blossom to blossom

It may have even taken more total time because I was constantly getting tangled in the leash and having to convince my dog to stop for a while in the midst of biting flies and mosquitos.  Perhaps I need to re-think my approach to time saving.

On that note, in case you noticed my blog posts have gotten a lot shorter the past few days, it is because I have started a second blog that has a simple photography lesson each day for want-to-be photographers who are using iPhones (or other simple cameras) and who don’t want to know any of the technical details.  Check it out at snapgreatphotos.com if that’s you.

It’s a fun challenge to work out lessons that aren’t technical at all. But, since I only have a small amount of time in the evenings to work on blog posts, I’m finding it’s tough to keep up on both, especially since I’m getting used to the second one.

For my friends who read my blog during breakfast, it should be a lot easier to get to the end of my posts before you finish your cereal now!  🙂

By the way, for my readers who are Tisen fans, Tisen is my main model for my other blog, so you can get your fill of photos of him there.  But, since he is my favorite model, here’s an iPhone image just for you:

Tisen modeling for me on a breezier day with fewer bugs

Tisen modeling for me on a breezier day with fewer bugs