Paul Lester Photo

In my previous post, I talked about giving the iPad a second chance to serve for photo processing. In one the comments, Tom Dillis mentioned his aversion to processing while on vacation:

When I’m traveling I want to enjoy the experience of travel, and sitting in a hotel room or cruise ship cabin processing photos is not my idea of fun. Heck, I don’t even like doing that at home! With memory cards so cheap these days I’ve got enough to last me for weeks at the rate I usually shoot. ~Tom Dillis

Personally, I love to spend time processing when I’m away from the crowd, or the day is done and I’ve taken a few, or perhaps a lot of photos. I like to sit in front of the computer and gaze at a few of them, get ideas for the next day, or perhaps just tweak them and write a blog post or two, or perhaps none.

There are times when I leave the camera behind, such as when going to the beach with the intent to get into the water; however, you can almost be sure that I’ve been out early in the morning, or am planning to be there in the evening.

What about you? Is there any time that you really want to be away from the camera or from processing, in general?

Lake Wylie
This morning it was foggy, or so I thought. It turned out to be very localized, or patchy, as they say. It looked much foggier towards the south, in the direction of my favorite local park, McDowell Nature Preserve. I figured that there would be lots of fog down there and that I could just have a good time walking through the woods, seeing foggy patches of moss, listening to mysterious, unseen birds in the distance.

On the way down South Tryon St, it got foggier and foggier. Perfect. About a mile away from the park, it got absolutely, positively crystal clear! Damn! Oh well, might as well keep going.

When I got to the park I could see some fog at a distance across the lake, but mostly everything was clear. Time to switch gears. I noticed that some of the trees still had a bit of color, the sun was coming up over the trees, and the lake was nearly as smooth as glass.

It wasn’t exactly what I had expected, or hoped for, but it was a nice little surprise. I still got a little fog in the background, though.

The brain

I’m sure that I’m not alone in this. You’re driving along, you see a shot that you want to take but you’re on the highway, in traffic, or somewhere without your camera? Then, when you finally find a place to stop, your perspective has changed or the shot is just simply not there anymore. A fleeting moment.

I was on the way home, probably about 10 minutes out. I noticed this cloud formation, knew pretty close to where it would be when I got home, and wanted to take a picture of it. I thought that it looked like a brain. Also, I liked the way that the setting sun highlighted part of the cloud.

How did I know where it would be with respect to my apartment? I’ve seen this cloud, in different formations, many times. It is from steam generated from the nuclear power plant just over the line in South Carolina, on Lake Wylie.

As I watched the cloud change position, relative to my position in the car as I meandered about following the road, I was careful to note that it was pretty much staying intact.

As soon as I got home, I ran in the house, grabbed the camera and Hobbs, and headed back outside to see if I could get a few shots. I was able to. I got there just in time, as I took about 10 pictures, the cloud started to break up as the sun sunk below the horizon. I’d made it just in time and that shot was no longer willing to wait for me to get into position.

As Hannibal, from The A-Team, used to say: I love it when a plan comes together! You youngins will probably not remember The A-Team! As B.A. Baracus would say: I pity the fool that don’t remember the A-Team. Grrrrrrrrr!

I’m not the only one
This is the last day of Daylight Savings Time. Tomorrow morning, sunrise will be at about 6:40 AM instead of 7:40 AM, sunset 5:25 PM instead of 6:25 PM. I really like this time of year, at least in the mornings, because now I don’t have to wait so late for the sun to come up. I can start my walks a bit earlier.

But, what’s even better is that the light is interesting most all of the day. The sun never makes it directly overhead, preferring to travel in a more southernly arc across the sky. For you scientists, I realize that the sun doesn’t move across the sky, but that the earth rotates and is tilted, but you get my meaning.

On these days, I can be outside most all day, get interesting shadows, and have the light fall within my sensor’s range to capture it. I also like frost! By 2:00 or 3:00, the sweet hours have hit and the light is great for most any type of shooting. Of course, the downside of it is that by 6:00 PM, it’s dark, but that could work too, if night photography is your thing.

The days will continue to march along, having less and less sunlight until we bottom out on December 21 with sunrise at 7:28 AM and sunset at 5:14 PM, then the march starts the other way. The cycle continues.

Both Hobbs and I like this time of year, the walking is much easier and, as for Hobbs, the napping places are not so hot. It’s good to let a sunbeam caress you while you slumber.