Vintage Twiggy

Posted by dkrashb on May 9, 2013

Miss Twiggy looking cozy in black and white

Well, it’s 12:48AM. I just finished working (although I took a break to go to an Audubon Society meeting for a couple of hours). Just for fun, I added up how many hours I’ve worked since Monday morning. I’ve worked 35 hours so far this week. I guess that’s not so bad. But, it looks like I have some longer days ahead of me and I’ll probably be working this weekend.

Miss Twiggy looking a bit like lemonade

Such is life.

But, in the interest of self-preservation, this is going to be a really short post.

I did a little experiment with Hipstamatic the other day. Our friend and his dog, Twiggy, joined us for dinner. Twiggy was lying on our sofa on top of the blanket we use to protect the sofa from the dogs. Twiggy and the blanket were an almost perfect match.

A more realistic coloring on Twiggy and Sofa, but still a bit yellow

I pulled out my iPhone and used Hipstamatic with the Jimmy lens (I think) and tried it with both the color and black and white tintype film.

I wanted to get Twiggy blending into the blanket in color, but for some reason the images all came out more yellow than they looked in real life. I did not adjust any of the images–these are how they came out of Hipstamatic.

Final black and white version–I didn’t notice how she holds her back feet until just now

Cove Lake

Posted by dkrashb on May 6, 2013

A nostalgic version of a fisherman sitting by the lake

For anyone who has gone boating on a lake, one of the more popular boating activities is referred to as “coving.” While coving sounds like something romantic two doves might do, coving can be among the most dangerous of activities that boaters undertake. It largely consists of bobbing around in the water with adult beverages and hoping that no one runs over you with their outboard motor when they decide to leave after bobbing around drinking large quantities of said adult beverages.

I knew of one person who lost a leg when one of those inebriated boat drivers failed to avoid running him over in spite of dozens of people screaming at him to stop. I was not there, but the story has soured the concept of coving for me.

A collection of clouds formed over the mountains in the distance in an otherwise clear blue sky

On the flip side, coves are also coveted by water skiers, especially early in the day for their calm water that can look like glass when there’s no traffic on the lake. Where there are water skiers and power boats, coves can be both exciting and dangerous.

Where there are no power boat, coves become a quiet area coveted for fishing. Cove Lake State Park appears to have no power boats, only row boats (although I didn’t see any boats on the water on my way home last week).

What is perhaps the most odd circumstance of Cove Lake is that in spite of the quiet, secluded solitude its name implies, it’s cradled in the nook of two major highways, one of which is I-75. When I got off the highway to check it out, I saw a lake from the freeway, but I assumed that was not Cove Lake. I was wrong. You can watch cars zooming by on an overpass from some parts of the park.

The row boats was patiently for someone to take them for a spin

Curiously, the proximity to the freeway doesn’t make the park any less peaceful. If there was noise from the freeway, I didn’t hear it. From the number of fisherman gathering in the parking lots, preparing for their evening fishing, I’d guess it has a healthy fish population.

Tisen and I didn’t stay long enough to see anyone catch a fish, but it seemed like the guys in the parking lot had the kind of equipment only serious fisherman own and made a regular habit out of fishing at this little lake.

As we made our way back to the car, a Canada Goose couple started honking their alarm to their young, who immediately started hustling toward the safety of water. I have read that geese who have never seen a canine will still respond with alarm to a canine-shaped animal, suggesting innate fears can be passed from one generation to the next. I don’t know if these geese had seen a dog before, but Tisen barely had time to decide whether he was interested in the geese or not and turn his gaze their way before they were all in the water. I’ve never seen goslings move faster!

One final shot of the lake as it continues its course around the bend and out of sight

Berea College

Posted by dkrashb on May 5, 2013

I believe this is a dorm–Hipstamatic tintype style

Berea and Berea College are an interesting place. I say “an” because it’s not clear to me that they’re separable. The founder of Berea College was also the founder of the town. It seems they grew up together.

Having done no research on the place besides having seen signs for Berea and stopped in their visitor’s center once when we needed to make a quick pit stop on the way home, I had only a few second-hand pieces of knowledge about the place to work from.

I was fascinated by this giant tree in front of the dorm

First, I knew there was an artisan community in the town. Second, I knew the college has a work-study program where the students are required to have a job and they get a portion of their tuition covered in exchange. Finally, I knew of a girl in my nephew’s class in Indianapolis who was attending Berea and studying opera singing–they apparently have a good music program and are affordable even for out-of-state students.

A more modern spin on the same dorm and tree

When Tisen and I took a short walk in Berea, we managed to see a couple of buildings on the Berea College campus. The buildings look much like buildings found on any college campus started in the late 1800’s. What surprised me was when we were across from the Boone Tavern, there was a sand sculpture on the lawn of a building I would guess was a dorm. The sand sculpture said two things that gave me pause.

Sand sculpture in lawn of the dorm

First, “interracial” appeared as one of the values of the college. I was rather shocked that in 2013, a liberal arts college felt the need to declare “interracial” as an important value to the college–are there any colleges that aren’t interracial in the US?

The second was, “Christian.” I had never heard that Berea was a Christian school. These two words caused me to do a little reading about Berea College online. As it turns out, while Berea identifies itself as Christian, it also believes that you don’t have to identify yourself as a Christian to further Christian ideals. As long as you accept the college’s mission, which includes doing work and doing it well, providing service to others, and promoting the notion that we’re all of “the same blood” whether we’re black, white, female, or male, you’re welcome to attend or work at the college. So, while the college is Christian, the students and faculty may or may not be.

I love the big old trees on older campuses

The fact that the college was conceived before the civil war explains why being interracial warrants comment in its mission. It was among the first interracial schools in Kentucky, but was stopped from being interracial for about 45 years when Kentucky law prohibited it. Berea College assisted with the creation of another school near Louisville to serve black students during that time and then re-integrated the school when the law was changed again in 1950. They have good reason to consider integration an important value of the school, even if it is 2013.

I thought “Sustrainable” was a clever name for a group training others on sustainability until I realized it was a mistake in this hand-created sign

Road Trip

Posted by dkrashb on April 28, 2013

Gina looking fierce in front of unwanted graffiti

Loading the car for a road trip used to be simple. It was a matter of throwing in a small bag with some clean underwear, a change of clothes, maybe some special face soap, and, of course, my purse. Now, it takes a whole lot more.

This would be a little more timeless without the sunglasses

There’s the additional wardrobe required for business meetings. This, of course, must be accompanied by additional baggage required for a laptop, a phone, a tablet, 3 chargers, headphones, business cards, and miscellaneous forms of paper.

Then there’s the additional wardrobe required for hanging out with friends and encountering a variety of social settings. Limiting myself to 2 pairs of shoes is quite a challenge.

This reminds me of the kinds of photos my grandparents used to take

But the mass of what I loaded into the car was photography equipment. It took two big bags of stuff plus my tripod–that’s without my umbrella stands. Had I brought Tisen with me, the volume of stuff would have doubled. Fortunately, my husband is taking care of Tisen for a few days and we’ll meet up later.

I managed to get the car loaded in one trip with my husband’s help.

I like driving. At least, I like it until miscellaneous body parts start going numb, my shoulders start burning, and I realize I’m clenching my jaw like I’m performing one of those rope tricks in a circus where a lady is spun and swung all over the place while she bites on a rope. Then, I would like a more comfortable seat and perhaps a massage.

I keep thinking I should make the drive at a leisurely pace, stopping to shoot interesting sights and exploring the area each time I stop. Unfortunately, I never have that kind of time to get from one place to another. This time, I opted to drive a few hours the night before I needed to arrive at my destination. Then, I stopped at a hotel for the night before driving the rest of the way. This divided the drive up nicely, allowing me to get a decent night’s sleep and also to miss rush hour traffic outside a major city in the morning. Had I not stopped, I would have needed to leave by 5AM to make sure I got to my meeting on time.

Gill and Gina looking strangely contemporary in this tintype-effect Hipstamatic shot

After doing my work stuff, I got to have some time to relax with my hosts, who we like to call Gina and Gill. It’s a beautiful sunny day for a change. Gina and Gill have the perfect porch for a sunny day. We ended up hanging out on said porch, enjoying the warmth and the breezes. I decided that the big front porch on their 100+ year old house was the perfect setting to pull out the Hipstamatic app and use the tintype film.

After taking a few shots of Gina and Gill on the front porch, Gina and I took a little walk where we found some unpleasant graffiti to shoot her in front of. I like the urban look.

Tuesday Night

Posted by dkrashb on April 27, 2013

Exactly how much stuff does it take for a road trip when I decide to take my DSLR?

Every Tuesday we eat the same thing. This is our way of simplifying. We have 3 nights a week when we always eat the same thing. Or, as close to the same thing as a given restaurant gets. It always surprises me how much variability there can be from one week to the next between the way a meal is made.

There are times I like surprises and then there are times I want my food to be utterly predictable. Food items like pizza should be predictable, in my opinion. I have never picked a favorite pizza joint on the basis of how frequently the way the pizza tastes changes. Yet, one of the things that probably keeps us from getting bored with our eating routine is that we cannot predict how the pizza will taste or how the sushi will be prepared from one week to the next.

This is especially true of the pizza. We usually eat Mellow Mushroom pizza having not found a mom and pop shop that we like yet. We like Mellow Mushroom pizza about half the time. The other half, it’s either over cooked, under cooked, or cold. I’ve always wanted to be a fly on the wall in the kitchen to figure out exactly what goes wrong half the time.

Food art at a nice restaurant on the road–a far cry from the sushi

Our Tuesday night choice is not pizza, however. It’s the Rice Boxx. This is a Chinese/Thai/Japanese place that has decent Chinese and sushi. I have found a couple of dishes I like, but I tire of them quickly. I have been ordering 1 shrimp tempura and 1 sweet potato roll every Tuesday night for months. The sushi is OK, but once again unpredictable. The thing that is predictable is that there will always be a surprise in the fortune cookies.

Sometimes it’s a missing fortune. Sometimes it’s a fortune that is a weather forecast instead of a fortune. Sometimes it’s the cookies themselves, which go from thicker to thiner styles and back again yet always come in the same wrapper.

On this particular Tuesday night, I was running around like a mad woman trying to pack for a road trip. I had decided at the last minute, after working late, to leave that night instead of the next morning so I could avoid hitting Knoxville during the morning rush hour. Pat went and picked up our food without me so I could finish packing.

I stopped running around like a mad woman long enough to sit down to eat when Pat returned. There was a new sushi chef and he made the sushi smaller and tighter, making it easier to get the pieces in my mouth without making a mess. When I finished my sushi, I opened up my fortune cookie, already smiling with anticipation as I tore open the wrapper.

Does this really count as a fortune?

This is what it said: “An alien of some sort will be appearing to your shortly.” I keep watching out for bright lights in the sky, but so far, nothing.

In Memory of Tiger

Posted by dkrashb on April 20, 2013

A comforting friend during a stressful time (Tisen at the vet with Tiger)

The Tyger

-William Blake

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Tiger can be partially seen at the far left

With great sadness, I write of the loss of Tiger. Tiger was one of our small, furry family members. Tiger was a good friend to Tisen. He patiently allowed Tisen to carry him around like a doll–never complaining or even struggling.

Sadly, Tiger disappeared about 3 days ago. He’d accompanied Tisen on a walk, hanging from Tisen’s mouth when last seen. He then disappeared somewhere in the park. Several searches failed to find Tiger; we’ve decided it’s time to acknowledge Tiger is gone for good.

Our Tiger didn’t have such a fearful symmetry–his long and floppy legs wouldn’t hold his weight, let alone allow him to spring unexpectedly upon prey. He didn’t strike fear in anyone’s heart. I suppose the silly expression undermined ferocity.

Tiger looks like he’s wearing a hat, but it’s really Duck behind him

Around here, Tiger wasn’t valued for his fierceness–he was valued for his squeak. He was a Tisen favorite. Unfortunately, Tisen got hot while carrying Tiger and set him down so he could pant. Mommy wasn’t paying attention and we’d made a lap around the park before it dawned on Mommy that someone was missing.

My favorite Tiger story is from about 6 months ago. I was walking through the park and Tisen had dropped Tiger on that day as well. I’d picked up Tiger and then run into a man with his dog. We exchanged greetings and dog information and then he went on his way.

In a recent family portrait, Tisen seemed to seek Tiger out

A few minutes later, Tisen decided he wanted to carry Tiger again. We walked along at a quick pace with Tisen proudly holding Tiger in his mouth. We caught up to the man and his dog in the process. When the man saw Tisen with Tiger, he burst out laughing and said, “Oh! That’s his tiger! I was wondering!” Proof that when I suspected people thought I suffered from a disorder that caused me to compulsively carry stuffed animals, I wasn’t being paranoid.

I will miss having people wonder why I am carrying a stuffed Tiger with me through the park. Tisen, however, seems to have moved on–he happily grabbed Hedge Hog when Tiger was no where to be found.

The first time Twiggy came to visit, she put Tiger in her pile

Mini Macro

Posted by dkrashb on April 19, 2013

This flower was about 1/2″ across in person–iPhone with macro lens attached

This morning, when my alarm went off at 5:15, I decided I didn’t want to get back into my full-blown exercise routine too quickly. After all, biking and rowing 3x in a week after several months off is a pretty strong start. I re-set the alarm for 7:00AM instead of going for my bike ride.

About as tight as I could get with my 100-400mm lens on my DSLR

When my alarm went off the second time, I was sound asleep and dreaming–it was as if 5 minutes had passed from the first alarm. I felt like I could have slept another 7 hours easily. But, this time I dragged myself out of bed.

The same flower as above shot with the iPhone with the macro lens attached

Since I need to try to bump up my bird count for the Birdathon and there was a storm yesterday, I took my binoculars and camera on Tisen’s walk. Bird migration often follows cold fronts moving in and sometimes birds literally blow into an area during high winds. However, when I got downstairs, I realized the temperature hadn’t actually dropped any. I prepared myself for disappointment.

Water droplets covered these tall grasses

Not a single bird I hadn’t been seeing for weeks presented itself. Tisen was disappointed, too. He wanted to turn around and go back inside immediately. Seems like he’s been nervous ever since the storm moved through last night, bringing lightening and thunder. It’s almost as if he thinks there is a causal effect between walking in the park and thunderstorms.

I couldn’t get far enough away from this violet to frame it properly with the macro attachment on the iPhone

As a result of the lack of birds, I decided to photograph the amazing beads of water on some grass. The problem with this decision was that I had my 100-400mm lens on my camera. The 100-400mm lens is not the lens I would choose for shooting subjects like water droplets. For starters, it has a minimum focusing distance of about 5 feet. That means I can’t shoot from closer than 5 feet away.

More water-covered grass

It’s kind of tough to get interesting shots of water beads from 5 feet away, even at 400mm. The second problem is that shooting at 400mm while hand-holding requires a really fast shutter speed. Especially since there was still quite a bit of wind. I managed to get a very fast shutter speed by setting a slightly higher ISO and opening the aperture all the way (the max is f/5.6 at 400mm). While I wouldn’t hang these on the wall, I do like that you can see the coating of water droplets on the blades of grass.

Brightly lit yellow flower shot with iPhone and macro attachment

This evening, I decided to try out my macro lens attachment on my iPhone to see how it compared. Interestingly, auto focus doesn’t work. In case you were wondering how you manually focus an iPhone, you moved the phone further and closer until you find the point where the image is sharp. This is much easier to achieve when Tisen isn’t pulling on the leash, determined to get back home. But, with a tripod, the iPhone might have done better than the 100-400mm lens did in some cases.

Tisen seems very happy to be at home

Web, Wings, and Walks

Posted by dkrashb on April 18, 2013

Spider web with buildings blurred in the background

I am not obsessed–no matter what my husband claims–with birding. I have only listened to my bird song recordings a few times this season. I have only ordered one new birding-related product (a new version of birding software that let’s you quiz yourself on recognizing birds by sight and/or sound). I have gone on no long-distance trips for the purpose of birding.

spider lace

I even walk outdoors without binoculars. This is a bit foolish–especially during the birdathon when every bird counts. I keep seeing birds I can’t identify without binoculars when I don’t have them on me. But, I often forget to grab the binocs when Tisen is in a particularly big hurry to get outside. Somehow it seems wrong to ask him to cross his legs any longer than necessary while I get myself organized.

Drops reflecting the buildings outside

Today I was determined to make an evening bird walk at a marsh. I haven’t been to this marsh before and I figured there was a good chance I’d pick up a few additional species before the Birdathon ends.

Single strand of water droplets

I took Tisen for a walk before I had to leave. We made it about ¼ of the way through the park when the first clap of thunder sounded. It wasn’t even a clap; it was more of a rumble. It was enough for Tisen–he did an about-face and started pulling on the leash to head back in. Because we lost Tiger during our lunchtime walk, I wanted to continue the walk and look for him. But Tisen wasn’t missing Tiger so much. I got him to turn around and take about 3 more steps, but when the next rumble of thunder came along, he was done. We ended up jogging back up the path from whence we came.

This spider literally ran into the center of the shot as I was shooting and then ran out again

As the sky opened up, lightening bolts struck left and right, and even hail started to bounce of the windowsills, I noticed a large spider web in the window was catching raindrops. I decided to experiment with shooting it for the few minutes I had before I needed to leave. While I had a little trouble because of the background, I got a few images I like.

The Standifer Gap Marsh

By the time I needed to leave, the rain and lightening had moved on. I headed down to the garage and headed out to the other side of town for the walk. Traffic was backed up and visibility was nil. I arrived at the marsh late and then wasn’t sure where the entrance was. No one else was there. Not a big surprise considering on this side of town it was still raining and lightening every few seconds.

I got out of the car and walked about 50 yards from the car and back–just long enough to add 2 birds to my birdathon list and take a few photos with the Camera! app–my iPhone safely protected in a waterproof case while my DSLR remained sheltered in the car.

More marsh

Tisen gives Daddy a bath

Riding at Sunrise

Posted by dkrashb on April 17, 2013

Sunrise reflected on Amnicola Marsh

5:15AM didn’t seem any later this morning than it did yesterday. Especially not after a bad night’s sleep–poor Tisen started itching again in the middle of the night. But, I managed once again to get myself out of bed. Then things went a bit South.

A sculpture lurking in the dim morning light

It’s like a time warp occurs in the morning. I can look at the clock at 5:20, do a task that normally takes 5 minutes, and suddenly, it will be 5:45. By the time I’d had a cup of coffee, gotten myself together, taken Tisen for a short walk, and gathered together all of the required accessories for an early morning bike ride, it was 6:40. Then, still adjusting to having my bike in the parking garage and having to take all steal-able accessories off every time I ride, it took nearly 20 more minutes from the time I walked out our door to the time I’d finished re-accessorized my bike, unlocked it, and filled the tires.

The train crossing in morning light

At long last, I headed up the River Walk. By the time I started riding, I felt foolish for bothering with the lights–it was light enough I no longer needed them. As I made my way back across the Walnut Street Bridge and East along the Tennessee River, two Great Blue Herons flew straight at each other as if they were playing a game of chicken (I wonder if they call it “heron”?) until one suddenly swooped downward in a graceful dive, leveling out just above the water.

A Great Blue Heron perched on the rail of the pier below the bridge

As I watched, my mouth dropped open just about the time I rode through a cloud of small gnat-like critters. I guess I was hungry, but it wasn’t quite the filling snack I had in mind. I have to say I preferred the mouth full of gnats over the eyeful of gnats I got simultaneously. I rinsed my mouth with water, shut it tight, and wiped as many bugs out of my eyes as possible.

The final stretch of the River Walk

I rode as hard and as fast as I dared on the river walk–it’s not really a route conducive to riding fast, in fact, one section is posted 3-5 miles per hour. I can’t imagine it’s physically possible to ride a bike 5 mph or less, but clearly the people who built the river walk weren’t cyclists.

Can you spot the Great Blue Heron on the rocky shore?

When I came up on the Amnicola Marsh, I had to stop. The sun was rising behind the marsh, reflected in the water. 3 Canada Geese were rendered into black swans, silhouettes against the brilliant light. Near the shore, a group of Coots stretched out their gangly legs and ran back into the water as I rolled to a stop.

After taking a few photos, I remounted and made my way up to the dam. A fisherman on the pier caught something big on his line as I was turning around to return home. I wonder if it was an old tire or a giant fish?

My boy waiting patiently at home for breakfast

Ready Rower

Posted by dkrashb on April 16, 2013

Waiting for me

5:15AM seemed a little extra early this morning when the twittering of my iPhone interrupted my dream. I awoke confused, unsure of whether it was really time to get up, having just fallen into a dream state a few minutes before the alarm went off.

I got up, turned off my annoying phone and then looked back over my shoulder at the warm bed I had just left behind. My dog remained curled on his bed on the floor, snoring softly through slightly curled lips. My husband seemed oblivious to the alarm, his own snores harmonizing with my dog’s–my husband forever the musician.

The rowing center bay glows like a fireplace

I slipped back under the covers for just a few minutes. I thought about rolling over and falling back into whatever dream I had been pulled from. But then, I remembered why I’d set the alarm for 5:15AM. It was because I was going to row for the first time since last fall!

The thought of entering the river all by myself in the dark after not having rowed for months set off a new alarm, awakening the rabble of butterflies in my stomach. With so much fluttering going on, there was no possibility of going back to sleep. I decided coffee was in order.

I managed to get myself caffeinated, dressed, and assembled enough to take Tisen (who had managed to get out of bed) for a quick walk around the park. Then, I was off.

A pedestrian bridge on the river walk reflected on the water

I stuffed my rowing equipment into my saddle bags and rolled my bike out of the garage. I carried it up the flight of steps to ground level, mounted, and rolled off into the dark feeling somewhat stoic, like I was about to face an enemy.

The quick 2 mile ride to the rowing center warmed up my legs and helped me relax. The rabble in my belly died as I pumped my way up the slope of the Walnut Street Bridge looking over the stillness of the river below. I reminded myself that it wasn’t that cold. The worst thing that could happen is I could get wet. I would make it back home slightly chilled, but no worse for wear.

Looking across the rests used for sculling boats to McClellan Island

I was the first rower of the morning. I turned on the lights and tried to find my favorite boat to no avail. I found another one and quickly learned I’d forgotten the art of carrying a rowing scull, but I managed to get it out safely.

I did everything out of order, but once I was seated in the scull and rowing, it was like I hadn’t missed a week. The rhythm of legs pushing while arms pull oars through water, bending arms, straightening arms, sliding slowing back up to the catch, listening to the oars in the oarlocks and watching the Great Blue Heron soar a foot above the water all to a slow count of 4–it’s hard to imagine a better way to start a day.

One thing I forgot after a 5-month hiatus–what these things are called

nomadicmainstream

Combining living on the road with a mainstream lifestyle

Tag Archives: iPhone Photography