Summer Memories
As seen yesterday in a small pond at Reedy Creek Park. Still basking in the glow of this fantastic autumn weather and colors that we are having.
Nov 182007
Nov 172007
Forest fire
Nope! Not that kind! It’s just something that I like to do every once in a while when I’m in an area that’s pretty safe, as in, no other cars or pedestrians. I let down the window, set my camera on a slow shutter speed, like in this picture, 1/10 of second at f/8, point the camera out of the window, usually at some trees, and see what I come up with. I’ve had some pretty interesting, IMHO, pictures appear. Most of the times, though, I get a lot of stuff to delete! 
Here, I was driving about 5 to 10 MPH. I have done it as fast as 20 MPH, but what I’ve come to learn is that the foreground plants and trees, disappear completely in a blur, leaving the middle and backgrounds somewhat in focus.
Oh well, just a little bit of fun. Sometime later, I’ll talk about my cool new toy: Singh-Ray Vari-ND filter. Very cool!!! I have to get to a waterfall or stream so that I can get some nice pictures to accompany the text. I tried it yesterday afternoon and was able to get shutter speeds as low as 8 seconds at ISO 100 and f/8 during high noon! Talk about useful!!! So, for now, I’ll just tease you with that information.
Nov 162007
Click for larger image
I’ve had my Wacom Intuos 3 tablet for about a year, perhaps more, and this is the first time that I’ve thought of writing about it, not because I don’t find it useful, but because it is so unobtrusive and part of my routine that I don’t think about it.
I have seen some fantastic artwork come out of this pad, not from me, but from others who know there way around Photoshop. For me, it’s a great tool that allows me to do fine detail work to a picture much easier than using a mouse. Sure, in most cases, you could probably accomplish the same thing with a mouse, but it would take a lot of time, effort, and patience, which I don’t have a lot of.
The particular model that I own was formally called The Drawing Pad, now it is the Intuos3 6×8. It is, according to Wacom, their most popular tablet. The main advantages to using a pen instead of a mouse are that:
- The pen has 1,024 pressure levels. The harder that you press, the more ‘paint’ is applied.
- The pen understands tilt. It’s like writing with a normal pen. If you tilt it in the side, the line gets wider. If you use it straight up, the line is more narrow. If you tilt it to the side quite a bit, you get almost a smear.
Of course, your photo application has to understand these instructions, and CS2, has a full compliment of pressure/tilt sensitive tools. One of the most handy that I’ve found is the ability to apply different amounts of masking, etc. to an area in very fine amounts by varying the pressure on my pen. It beats the heck out of continually changing the opacity slider!
In the above photo (click to see the larger version), I wanted to bring out the glow of the small tree at the bottom. When I took the picture, that’s the way it looked to me, so that’s the way that I wanted it to look on the screen. So, using a technique that Julie, of See The Details, shared with me, I added a new levels layer, changed the mode to screen to lighten everything up, then inverted the mask to take away the effect, then I used the pen to selectively paint the mask away at certain points. If you’ll notice, all of the yellows underneath the tree have been highlighted, as well as the small tree itself. This was a delicate operation requiring the use of the pen to touch a leaf here and there and to highlight leaves in between tree trunks, etc.
This type of thing also works really well for giving depth to mountain scenes, etc. It’s very similar to burning and dodging, but with a lot greater control. So, now that I’m using the pen and pad, I think that I’ll learn more about how the human eye perceives depth so that I can change my pictures a bit to make them have greater depth.
Christmas is coming up, so maybe you might want to add one to your list.
Nov 152007
Ineffable
That words says it all. It says what I cannot express; There is some ineffable quality in this particular fall. I have no idea if it has to do with the autumn itself, or perhaps all of the reading that I’ve been doing. Perhaps it has something to do with my ability to stay present for longer periods of time. Perhaps it has to do with the drought that we had. I don’t know. It just seems … special somehow.
I find it hard to drive because I am so absorbed in all that is around me. Oh well, better not to try to explain it as it will only become more and more muddled.
whimsical
That’s the only word that came to my mind for this picture. Yesterday morning, when I saw this scene, I looked at this tree showing off its vibrant colors in the early morning light; however, splendid as it was, all that I could think of was a clown! Maybe because of the gay colors. It made me laugh. Go figure!
Lastly, I found a great place to park my car!
Nov 142007
Filling the frame is overrated!
…The item, which appeared on the front page [of the Los Angeles Times], concerned an episode that occurred at a Monterey Park, California, football game. What had happened was that four persons had to leave their seats during the game because of severe nausea and dizziness. Questioning on the spot by school officials established the fact that the ill persons had consumed soft drinks from a dispensing machine under the stands. Syrup had been mixed with water out of the local piping system. Was the culprit the syrup or the water? In the latter case, had copper sulfate from the pipes infiltrated the water? If the former, had bacteriological organisms contaminated the syrup?
The football stadium lacked loudspeaker facilities. The cheerleaders were therefore directed to make a public announcement requesting that no one consume any soft drinks from the beverage-dispensing machines until the precise cause of the sudden illness affecting several persons could be ascertained.
The immediate effect of the announcement was that the stadium became an arena of fainting and retching people. One hundred and ninety-one persons had to be hospitalized. Local ambulances and private cars plied back and forth between the stadium and five hospitals in the area. emergency-room physicians reported that the symptoms of food poisoning were genuine. No one knows how many persons at the game went to their own physicians.
Laboratory analysis showed there was nothing wrong with the water or the syrup. This fact no doubt figured in the subsequent and sudden improvement of all those who had become ill during the game.(22)
The incident was admittedly not a systematic experiment conducted by trained researchers, but it qualifies as one of those cases where common sense is sufficient to rule out chance or coincidence.
Placebos have their drawbacks. In addition to their capacity to work destructively, placebos almost necessarily involve an element of self-deceit, or at least some degree of ignorance. They all work via false beliefs.
I’ve started reading another book, The Tao of Daily Life by Derek Lin. In it he has Tao related readings for morning, at work, with family, and evening. This morning’s reading concerned the above story. I was able to find it in an article having to do with the placebo effect of drugs. After reading Derek’s chapter, The Monk and the Spider, I was impressed with the power of the mind to affect the body based on its beliefs, whether positive or negative.
I’ve already come to the realization that the source of all of my problems is in my mind, or illusory, but this adds another dimension to contemplate. I’ve always found the placebo effect interesting. Science has come up with all types of ways to test drugs, blind, double-blind tests, etc, to be sure that they work, instead of people ‘believing’ that they work. Interesting. When people start to believe that the drugs are working, in some cases, they actually get the desired effect! Why not approach it from the other way? Find out a consistent way for the mind to heal the body without medicine. I guess that’s the basis of Eastern medicine, which is not nearly so aggressive and doesn’t seek to destroy the body while ‘healing’ it.
I’m at the tip of the iceberg, I think. We have some awesome abilities, but we always seem to be caught up in our minds …
About the pictures: These are from a short walk in the park this morning.
Nov 132007
Northern Flicker
Well, this is my first shot of a woodpecker. After hunting around the web for a bit, the best that I can tell is that this is a Northern Flicker, though I’m not entirely sure. If anyone is entirely sure, please let me know so that I can correct it!
There’s a huge, dead tree just behind the neighbor’s yard and apparently, this guy likes it up there. I hear hammering nearly every morning, but hadn’t spotted one. Today, he finally showed himself; actually, I finally waited enough to see him! As you can see, the bluebirds like it up there as well!
Perhaps this tree is his home because, from what I’ve read, they prefer to eat ants, fruits, and seeds. They use their beaks to dig into the ground to get ants and prefer to forage on the ground. I’ll have to keep an eye out on this particular tree, now.
Nov 122007
A friend who stopped by on Veteran’s Day
As we remember those that have served, have fallen, and those that continue to serve our military, let us also remember:
The one who uses the Tao to advise the ruler
Does not control the world using soldiers
Such methods tend to be returned (violence begets violence)The place where troops camp
Thistles and thorns grow (negativity)
Following the great army, there must an inauspicious yearA good commander achieves results, then stops
And does not dare to reach for domination
Achieves results, but doesn’t brag
Achieves results, but doesn’t flaunt their victory
Achieves results but is not arrogant
Achieves results, but only out of necessity
Achieves results but doesn’t dominateThings become strong, but then get old
This is contrary to the Tao
That which is contrary to the Tao, soon ends.
I thought that passage 30 of the Tao was appropriate for today. My take in this passage is that Taoist are not pacifist. They will fight, but only when absolutely necessary. In other words, when there is no way out. They will fight with zeal and only apply enough pressure to end the battle victoriously. They will never start a fight. Having one, they will never flaunt that win, nor celebrate the victory. Further, a Taoist knows that, like Martin Luther King Jr. said, violence begets violence. The only thing that we get by initiating violence, is violence in return, years and years and years … nothing but thistles grow (hatred). Only when the branch of peace is extended, do things start to improve. Something that we could learn.
So, for me, a big, powerful, conquering military is nothing to be proud of, yet I fully support those who serve, voluntarily, for our country. A special note to Laurie: I’m very glad that your son is home safe and sound!!!
Hopefully, one day we can transcend our ‘disease’, our taste for violence, and the belief that violence actually changes anything for the better. We need only look at the news, newspaper, and movies to see that we’ve got it bad.
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