Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

My father loves pumpkin pie.  Check that. He loves his mother's recipe for pumpkin pie.  My sister used the more than 100 year old  recipe for his 90th birthday pie.

The headline of this post comes from one of my favorite birthday cards.  It's a simple, silly message but so true.

My father turned 90 yesterday.  He's had some health issues, but mostly he's a robust, mentally sharp 90-year-old who gets around like a man 20 years younger.

My mother turned to me yesterday at his party at my sister's house and said, "We've been married 60 years."   They are very lucky and blessed to have found each other.  We are lucky and blessed that they did as well.

There is great longevity on both sides of my family.   My father's brother died a few years ago at the age of 93.  My mother's parents were 95 and 97.   My daughter's great-grandmother on her father's side lived to be 97 too.

We gathered to celebrate the man whose life made our lives possible.   Birthdays really are good for you.

The buck stops here ... for a rest ... in my backyard

I told you how comfortable deer seem to be in my yard.  Case in point on this Sunday afternoon.

Deer are pretty majestic looking.  Especially the bucks.  This one just settled down in my backyard in the middle of a sunny Sunday to chill.

I opened my kitchen door to get a better shot at him.  With my camera of course.   He looked at me, but didn't budge.  I thought maybe he was hurt.  So I walked toward him and yelled "Shoo!"

He still didn't move.  So I hissed "Git!" 

"Man was in the forest.  Or backyard in suburbia.  Whatever."

He stood up and looked at me. Okay.  At least he wasn't hurt. But he wasn't too worried about me either.

We stayed like this for a moment.  Him looking at me.  Me saying dumb things like "Go will ya!"

The deer worry me.  They are so destructive but really beautiful.  I live on too busy of a street for this guy to be so comfortable out in the open in the middle of the day.

At least it was a nice photo op.

A walk in the park

Wildwood Metropark on a perfect early Sunday evening in October.

 

I think every photographer in the greater Toledo area was at Wildwood Metropark on Sunday in the late afternoon/early evening.  It was really a spectacular day but the colors aren't peak.  Yet anyway.

 

Mostly there were young women with camera gear and blankets and young families with young children.  It seemed they all  had the same idea that this was the perfect fall day to take family pictures or pictures of the kids.

 

I just went there to walk with my own kid who's all grown up now.   I just wanted to be outside.  I grabbed my camera just in case.   This picture was as we were walking to our car to go back home as the sun began its descent in the west for the day.   We ate low-carb pizza when we got home.  Perfect day really.

 

Mums' the word. And so is "yellow"

My back porch mums.

 

Yes, it's been awhile.  And while I have been taking pictures daily, either with my camera or cell phone,  none seem worthy of posting.

 

I subscribe to dPS which is Digital Photography School and it offers a weekly challenge.  This week it was simply "yellow."

 

Sometimes I need a creative spark.  Something to help my imagination.  This dPS challenge today did just that.

 

I used my 35mm f/1.8 lens which is a prime or fixed lens.   That means if I want to get a closer shot, I have to physically move closer to the subject.  Some describe it as the closest thing to the human eyeball.

 

I don't use it very often so it was fun to pull it out and focus on that one flower in the center with the reddish flower at the bottom right drawing your eye's attention too.

 

Eh, I dunno.  Still figuring all of this out. 

Super moon over Toledo

The super moon, blood moon, lunar eclipse.  The clouds parted at the perfect moment to see it.

I had a busy day yesterday but the daylong goal was to sit outside in my soccer mom chair and watch the lunar eclipse.

It was cloudy earlier in the evening and I thought perhaps we might not be able to see it.

I went outside around 9:45 p.m. and looked to the east.  There is was, behind the thin clouds.

As the eclipse progressed, the clouds thinned even more.

I looked at this picture at 9:52 p.m. and thought the tiny specks were dirt on my lens.

Turns out, they were stars.

I thought of all the people looking up at the moon the same time I was.  I also kept looking over my shoulder too as that deer family likes to come play in my backyard this time of night and I didn't want to surprise them and didn't want them to surprise me.

I said to myself that if I wasn't so lazy, I would get out my tripod and make it better.  I think I was more interested in the experience of actually seeing the moon and the eclipse than taking a picture of it.

This won't happen again for another 18 years,  I look forward to seeing it again.

The creative process

I love my Kindle.  Truly I do.  It's light and lighted.  Great for traveling or throwing in my purse for something to do while waiting for appointments.

But I find more and more, I still like the traditional book, the kind with real pages and a physical hardcover.

When I read that Elizabeth Gilbert was coming out with a new book, I immediately preordered it from Amazon.

It arrived this week and I am devouring it. 

I love her writing.  She's accessible, funny and whip smart.

And I also ordered the book on tape.  She narrates it.  On top of every thing else that's great about her, is her lovely voice.

I really like books on tape as well but sometimes, the voice of the author is so grating that I  must stop listening.   That is not the case here.  If you loved reading "Eat,Pray,Love", do yourself a favor and get it on Audible or iTunes.   Her lilting voice reading her own words about her own life bring so much more depth and meaning to her books.  At least I think so.

So that's my picture for this day.  A picture of a book.  On how to be creative.  Certainly not the most creative photo I've ever taken.  But as Elizabeth tells me, sometimes just doing something, just putting down something, will put you in the path of a creative spark. 

A work in progress

This is a picture of why I'm not taking that many pictures lately.

 

I am taking pictures every day.  But they are mostly of the work I'm doing on my foyer.   And the fact I'm painting my foyer means I don't have a lot of extra time to take pictures.  It's a process.  Owning a nearly 100-year-old house.  And trying to fulfill my goal of taking a picture a day.

 

My skills are getting better.  I am taking more pictures.  I'm learning more about my camera and how to tweak exposures in all different kinds of light.

 

I actually want to write a book about my house.  It'll include lots of before, during and after pictures like the one above. The many people who lived here lived fascinating lives.  Someone told me that a person who owns an old house, is merely a caretaker.   I'm taking a lot of care with this old gem.

 

 

Watching the sun come up over the rooftops

It's always a good day when I get to watch the sun rise.

I got up way too early today.  But the wonderful photographer Bryan Petersen says that the best light happens when most people are bed.  Or something like that.

Dusk and dawn he means.

The sun coming up reminded me of the Dan Fogelberg song "To The Morning:"

Watching the sun

Watching it come

Watching it come up over the roof tops

 

Cloudy and warm

Maybe a storm

You can never quite tell from the morning

 

And it's going to be a day

There is really no way to say no

To the morning

 

Yes it's going to be a day

There is really nothing left to say but

Come on morning

 

Sigh.  I loved Dan Fogelberg in college.  I bought all of his albums when I was in college.  But stopped after I graduated even though he continued to make music.  He died so young.  Only 56.  Of prostate cancer.   That made me sad.

 

I sang that song in my head when I took this picture this morning.  No matter what, it is going to be a morning.  And sometimes just being in the now and in the presence of a beautiful sunrise, no matter that there's rain in the forecast, is enough. 



The dog days are over

I love this shot for the depth of field and the muted colors:  grays and browns with that splash of red in the background.

 

As I said, I spent the weekend shooting action sports shots, but sometimes the cute and quiet moments are the ones I like a lot.

 

One of the players is holding the coach's dog.  Coach says the dog will never pose for pictures and often turns away when he sees a camera.  So I love how cute and comfortable the puppy looks in the player's arms.  And that their hair sort of matches.

 

I also spent a lot of time experimenting with shooting in manual.  That's a big deal for me.  I graduated from "auto" a while ago, but tend to rely on "aperture priority" which is what I used for this shot.  But I'm venturing into "manual" territory and finding some success there.  It's a brave new world.

Shining the light on my sensibilities as a photographer

Love the lights in Ottawa Hills.  Look so pretty at dusk.

 

I have been taking pictures.  Lots of them.  Thing is, they are boring and in my opinion unworthy of seeing the light of day.  Ergo, no posts lately.

 

I went to an outdoor sporting event this weekend and took hundreds of action shots.  I think I'm getting a handle on that.

 

I really feel I'm more of a photojournalist than an artistic, creative photographer.  I like to capture people in their environment or events as they happen.

 

Not a street photographer.  I don't have the nerve really.  But I love looking at street photography and sports photography and news photography.

 

So, maybe I'll go outside my comfort zone and think about something like that.

 

There are two women photographers who are wonderful in that regard.  One is the very famous Dorothea Lange.  She took the iconic photo of the migrant mother during the Dust Bowl days.  Great documentary about her on Amazon.

 

And then there's the newly discovered Vivian Maier.  She was a nanny in the 1905s who some now call one of the most talented street photographers of all time.   Nobody knew of her work until after she died.  The story is in the Oscar nominated documentary "Finding Vivian Maier."

 

While Dorothea Lange made a living from her photography and used her pictures to affect change, Vivian Maier showed very few people her work.  Perhaps she did it simply for the art.  Took the picture for the moment and that was enough.  It was simply the doing.

 

I think my sensibilities fall somewhere between the two. I like looking at my pictures and showing them off.  But sometimes, just the doing is enough.

Serena goes for history

It's not that great of a picture of an absolutely amazing event.

 

So last night, I realized I hadn't taken a picture yesterday.   As you know, my intention is to take a picture every day to exercise my photography skills.

 

This lacks anything artistic, from a photographic perspective.  But the mastery displayed on the court at the US Open last night and the history making potential of this tennis match is enormous.

 

I root for Serena when she plays.  I root for Venus when she plays.  I felt some empathy with their family last night.  Who can you possibly pick?  These are arguably, two of the greatest tennis players of all time. And they're American.  AND they're sisters.  Unprecedented in any other sport.

 

But I can't help but cheer on Serena's quest for history.  Team Serena.

 

BTW Albert Einstein's quote about insanity at the top of my TV has nothing to do with the event on the TV:  it's to help me not go crazy about stuff at work.

 

Kevin never labors; not even on Labor Day

You've met Miles.  Now meet Kevin.  Not much bothers him.

 

Kevin loves to plop down and chill virtually anywhere.  That is the glass coffee table.   He often gives me that look of "What??" 

 

Plus, HE'S SO FLUFFY!

 

Why you gotta be so crepuscular and all

The mama deer and two babies that live in my yard and eat my plants.  Without my permission.

 

Every year, a mother deer seems to decide that my house would be a great place to raise family.  My yard actually.

 

These three have been hanging around a lot lately.  Every day really.   They've gotten so comfortable eating my hosta and actually sleeping in my front yard, that they are completely unbothered when I yell "GO!  GET OUT!"

 

This morning, they were eating stuff in the front yard when I went out to get the morning paper.  I yelled "SHOO" but they just laughed and said "Woo!  We're really scared."

 

They weren't.  They just slowly moseyed away.

 

The photo is not in focus and I think the ISO is too high.  I'll keep trying to get it right.

 

BTW crepuscular means most active at dawn and dusk.  Deer are crepuscular.  I learned that in a documentary on Netflix about deer.  It's the only thing I remember from it.



Holmes out

13abc Sports Director Dave Holmes delivers his final Football Friday before leaving for a new chapter at a Columbus television station.

This was Dave Holmes' last Football Friday before leaving for his new job in Columbus.   Perfect opportunity for a cheap going-away present and chance to try to take pictures in trying lighting conditions.

You'd think the studio lighting would be easy, but clearly it wasn't for me.   Difficult for me to figure out the white balance and ISO.  Way too grainy for my tastes and not at all crisp.

So, no real correct exposures.  But a few exposures for Dave to put in his scrapbook.

See more on the "Photos" tab at the top.

Best of luck Dave.  We'll miss you.

Orange you glad I didn't post another picture of my cat

I think this is called a Red Ball Cactus.  My kitchen is orangey.  It sort of matches.

Here's today's offering.  Nothing fancy really.  I like the colors mostly.  My kitchen is sort of a rich terra cotta color so this cactus looks nice in it.  Plus it's hard to kill which is always a plus when it comes to me and plants.

I used my big Nikon 70-200mm at 105mm, f/2.8 for 1/15 sec. ISO at 800.   It's hard to get crisp low-light pictures with that lens so I sat at a chair at my kitchen counter and used my knee as a tripod.

The lens was refurbished and I bought it from the Nikon Store for a huge savings.   It's expensive and heavy (nearly 2 lbs.) but what they call "fast glass" for action shots.  I've had it nearly a year and it works perfectly. It was still very expensive even though it was refurbished, but I did save several hundred dollars.  So far, worth the risk.

You like me treadmill! You really like me!

My treadmill likes me better than any other machine I have.

What do you do when you find you have writer's block or photographer's block?  I exercise and hope it will free my mind. 

It didn't.

But as I'm running on my treadmill (OK, walking fast), I realized that of all the machines I have, my treadmill is the only one that tells me I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and yada yada yada.

Seriously.

Periodically when I look at it to see how fast and how far I've gone, a little bit of encouragement scrolls across the screen.

That message says "KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.  BELIEVE IN YOURSELF."

When I see that I wonder who decided to add that feature to this treadmill?  Did it have to go past some higher ups who decided "YOU CAN DO IT" was too derivative?  The boss tells the underling in charge of authoring the treadmill messages, "Use BELIEVE IN YOURSELF instead!  Our research shows people respond to that better than YOU CAN DO IT.  You see, people need belief and hope before they actually can do it.  So, change the program."

The defeated treadmill message writer went home and lamented that all his creative work was for naught.  The boss shot down his idea.  His wife left him because he was such a loser.  He lost what little creative spark he had for his job and left the treadmill company.  He found it very hard to believe in himself.

I imagine stuff like that when I see those messages. I usually shout back at the machine, "I DO believe in myself!"  The cats look at me funny. 

Anyway, that's today's picture.   Nothing fancy.   But all I got.

The fog comes in on little cat feet

This is Miles.  He's one of my two cats.  Kevin is the other. My daughter bought me a little desk sign that says "All you need is love ... and a cat."  Pretty much says it all.

 

I grew up with dogs.  But now I have cats.  I've always loved the way Carl Sandburg describes the fog, saying it "comes in on little cat feet."

Ogden Nash wrote "The trouble with a kitten is that eventually it becomes a cat."

Anyway, I like cats.  I really like MY cats.  But I am afraid I'll resort to just taking pictures of them when my creativity wanes over the course of the next year.  That may not be so bad though.   After all, all you need is love.  And cats.

My own 365 project

The butterfly we called Bob.  I've since learned it's likely a female Black Swallowtail based on the coloring. But she'll always be Bob to me.  (Photo: Diane Larson)

A few years ago, somebody on NPR described September by paraphrasing Ernest Hemmingway's quote about bankruptcy, saying it comes on "gradually, then suddenly."

Since my school days and then my daughter's school days, September has always felt like the new year.  The start of school.  The start of fall which is my favorite time of year.  I start more projects in September than at any other time.

I decided this would be when I start my 365 photography project.  All kinds of people are doing it.  I want to be part of the club.

I love to take pictures and want to force myself to hone my skills.  This time last year, I studied photojournalism at Owens Community College.  It helped.  But months went by without me even picking up my camera.  Life, you know.  Gets in the way of stuff.

So I'm beginning my own 365 project on September 1.  I intend to take a photo a day for the next year.  I probably won't post every day.  But I'll take a picture every day.  My hope is that it will force me to learn what I need to learn to enjoy my photography more.

I'm doing this mostly for me.  But I'm putting it out there, on this blog,  for tens of people to see.  The way I see it, it forces me to be a little more accountable to my intentions.

I took the picture above on the night before my daughter left for college.  It seemed symbolic that a butterfly who'd been gestating in a cocoon attached to the side of a potted plant on my patio, would come to life on the eve of such a big transformation:  My daughter going off to college and me coming home to my own empty cocoon.

My daughter named the butterfly Bob.  I don't know why.  Especially since I've learned that it's likely a female Black Swallowtail based on the coloring.

The thing about Bob is that she didn't fly away. She hung around.   She let me take lots of pictures of her.  So I lay down on the driveway with my old Nikon D40X and took that shot of Bob walking on by. Unfurling her wings.  Getting her land legs.  If that's a thing. 

I think it's a fitting inaugural photo for my 365 project.  May it inform my current transformation.