STILL CATCHIN' UP--

Here are two more pics in a short series of photos taken while we enjoyed our first beach-side, sunrise of our journey south.  I liked this composition with the palm tree dwarfing the human elements of the photo and the rising sun just peeking over the horizon and claiming center stage--even though it is some 93 million miles from Earth and actually rose about 8 minutes before it became visible to us.

It takes that long for light to travel those 93 million miles at 186,000 miles per second.

That's Bill and Terri and Sue on Tybee Island, GA.

The lower photo was done just a bit later as we were exploring the beach beneath the Tybee Island Pier. 
Note how the color temperature of the sunlight has shifted to the cooler range of the spectrum in that short length of its morning ascension.

I was going to correct the sloped horizon of the sea but did not because I found the competing angularity between the piers and the horizon pleasurable.

A LITTLE CATCHIN' UP--

Son Brian helps hitch the camper the day after Christmas in preparation for our departure to FL on the 27th of December.  Just days before that my laptop computer failed so we headed off on our snow-birding adventure without the main tool necessary to publish the blog.  Hence our absence of stories for most of January.

We left the laptop with our computer doctor's store the morning of our departure.  Later we learned it was dead on arrival, and we placed a long-distance order for its replacement.  That was shipped to us in the latter part of January but it arrived with two serious flaws; 1) it could not operate my card reader which is my tool of choice for downloading photos, and 2) my email program would not play nicely with my email service.

The first flaw stopped blog publication cold and today we are limping along with a patch-work fix until a permanent solution is found.

We like to think the above photo clearly shows the wisdom of our choice to head for warmer weather.  It turns out that was indeed a good choice since the northeast has been pummeled with polar assaults since.

We also like to think the following photo supports our choice to head south:

It was taken a couple days later on Tybee Island Georgia as the sunrise sprinkled warmth across the Atlantic and a passing sea bird seemed to salute our arrival.  We were grateful for both.  That is my lady, Sue Brooks on the right with square dancing friends from Mansfield, Terri Garafolo and Bill Moore who hosted us for several days in their condo located between this marvelous scene and Savannah.

We square danced with them to celebrate the New Year with a Savannah area dance club then continued our journey south New Year's Day; stopping for a lunch visit with daughter TJ and family in Jacksonville, FL and arriving in the Vero Beach area later that evening, where...

...we had the good fortune to bunk with Bellville friends Dick and Jan Shafer for a delightful and much welcomed evening, sparing us the burden of setting up the camper in the dark while fairly exhausted from a 1,200 mile trip.

The camper has behaved nicely--except: the potty needed replaced, the GFI electric outlet in the bathroom failed and our little ceramic heater required a quick replacement before last night's somewhat chilly 40 degree temperature.

Regardless, the weather has been comparably terrific and we have been warmly received in this owner occupied, aging mobile home park with RV facilities and have been blessed with marvelous new friendships that have put a delightful polish on this, our first-ever, snow-birding experience.

Please stay tuned.

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR--
The belated variety

"Hi" from the land of sunshine, palm trees, and warm (mostly) sub-tropical breezes.  Just before we headed south my laptop computer failed.  Consequently, I ended up in Florida without a convenient means to process photos or publish to the blog.

I am working via email with my friends at KOSI in Mansfield to assemble a replacement PC and ship it to me.  When that arrives and I manage to wrap my aging brain around its boatload of new software I hope to get back into the blogging business.

Consequently, I am bouncing between a public PC and Sue's laptop.

We pulled our 28' 5th wheel style camper down here and will be staying in it in the Vero Beach area.  On the way down we spent several days with Johnny Appleseed square dancing friends Terri Garafolo and Bill Moore at their digs in Savannah, GA where we really enjoyed visiting that city's marvelous, historic sights--and, we square danced into the new year with them.  Ahhhh.

Our second visit along the way was with daughter TJ and family in Jacksonville.  Ahhhh.

On our first night here we stayed with Bellville friends Dick and Jan Shafer who winter here as well.  After a 1,200 mile trip that was a blessing and allowed us to set up the camper after a good night's rest.  Ahhhh.

Now we are established in a 55+ owner occupied mobile home park with spaces available for transient RVs such as ours.  We have been immersed in the park's activities and made to feel very much welcome.

This morning we were part of the crew undoing Christmas decorations in the clubhouse.  As I was lying on the floor wrestling with the Christmas tree holder, new friends were rattling my cage about their getting even for my winning the major pot (a bag of pennies) in the weekly card game a couple of nights previously.

I felt awful about those winnings then came back a night or so later and won $5 in a bingo game.

It may be awhile before I untangle myself from this new reputation.

Please stay tuned....      

FAVORITE PICTURES of the YEAR, Part 2

Square dancing and hiking friends ponder a cave-like formation in the Hocking Hills State Park.  The photo was done at 1/5sec., f/4 at ISO 400.  I was leaning against a rock formation and carefully braced the camera to avoid any camera movement.

This Canada Lilly wildflower was photographed from a low camera angle while back lighting amplified the detail in the flower's translucency.  Careful exposure measurement for the highlight area dramatically underexposed the background woods rendering it black.

My friend and fellow photographer Dave Richardson works on his composition of the interior of a cabin at Schoenbrun Village while I work on mine.  Lighting came from the open door behind him and exposure was measured from the whitewashed walls leaving the shadows happen as they chose.  Flash was supressed to avoid damaging the pleasurable effect of the available light.

Reflections near the gun's muzzle reveal the picture was composed with the pistol laying on a piece of glass which was perching on two chair seats.  The brass color comes from 100 rounds of 9mm ammo laying on a black cloth in the lower background.  Lighting was provided by two daylight color temperature, spiral bulbs in reflectors.

There is timeless artistry in the work of this copper craftsman at the Picking Brass Company in Bucyrus.  A shutter speed of 1/25th of a second was sufficient to maintain sharpness in this hand-held image but allowed motion to be revealed in the action of the wooden hammer.  The concave wooden mold is a relic from the 20th century, or perhaps, from the century before that.

This view peeks from high atop the waterfall at Ash Cave in the Hocking Hills State Park.  Clicking on the image should enlarge it sufficiently to show the creatures in the center background actually are humans enjoying their view from a much lower angle.

The Piatt castles near Bellfontaine are in a state of slow deterioration as you can plainly see in the crumpled wall covering in front of Sue.  This photo also clearly exhibits the difference in color temperature between daylight (left) and that from the oil lantern in the right half of the image.  The camera's automatic white balance mode was used but it is impossible to color correct a variation of this magnitude. 

Square dancing friend Sue Magnet grimaces playfully for the camera as she makes exaggerated selections at an Amish-area winery near the site of our weekend of dancing over Labor Day.  Husband Homer was one of the featured callers at this delightful event.  Her spontaneity and warm memories of a marvelous weekend earned this photo a place in this year's selection. 

and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Lots of the magic of Photoshop, photo editing software, boosted this relatively routine image of a summer fireworks display into the realm of artful abstraction.  Thank you for enjoying my modest effort in this two part photo album.  

MERRY CHRISTMAS--

May the warm and fuzzy feelings

of Christmas be with you

throughout the year!

    --Terry

FAVORITE PICTURES OF THE YEAR--

Part 1



Two hikers pause under the sparkling winter sun along the river in the Mohican State Forest.  The scene is where the trail bends south toward Big Lyons Falls--one of my favorite hiking venues in the area.

The muzzle blast of a Glock 9mm pistol was a lucky surprise of good timing in this picture of Roberta Karger qualifying for her Ohio concealed carry license under the watchful guidance of an NRA instructor.  Camera data:  1/13th sec, f/4, ISO 400.  Nice depth of focus largely due to 17 mm, wide angle lens.

Nancy and Mark Meinzer flank my lady Sue Brooks in Conkle's Hollow of the Hocking Hills State Park during a February hike.  Like our lead picture above, backlighting nearly always adds some visual drama to a photograph.

The east cellblock of the Ohio State Reformatory shivers in the blowing snow following a dinner theater event there last winter.  The exposure was done manually, 1/13th sec., f/4 at ISO 400 while bracing the camera against the roof of the truck to help the camera's image stabilization system minimize camera shake.

A pair of Wood Ducks frolic on the roof of one of my bird feeders.  Both were able to secure their footing sufficiently to lean down and snack on the grain in the lower tray.  The picture was done through a window at approximately 20 feet with a 200mm lens.

This nesting Bald Eagle was photographed using my 1,300mm focal length telescope as the camera's lens.  The telescope was supported on a very, heavy duty tripod and the shot was made at 1/250th of a second with a calculated aperature of f/10, ISO 400.  The camera was in the back of my pick-up truck to achieve a good viewing angle at a distance of about 100 yards.

This toad was photographed with the assistance of two, Mini Maglite flashlights laying to the sides as he enjoyed a warm spring evening beside my pond.  The exposure was 1/60th sec., f/4 at ISO 400.  The lens was at 40 mm and focused at mimimun distance.

A dogwood blossom presents interesting geometry under the sun's backlighting.  The shallow depth of focus was achieved by using a 200mm lens. 1/500th sec., f/5.6, ISO 250.  The gray background comes from the out-of-focus, pond's surface.

This small icicle was explored with a Canon, 100mm f/2.8 macro lens.  The exposure was 1/250th sec., f/4.5 at ISO 400.  A macro lens is a specialtiy lens designed to focus at very close distances with up to life size magnification of the image.  The blue coloring was added with Adobe Photoshop Elements v4 software.

_______________

This series of photos will continue December 31st.

Testing, testing....

ONE, TWO, THREE, testing--

I shot this image recently as I was finishing the final work-up on the laptop to insure it is ready to assume primary duty in blog publishing (and other miscellaneous stuff) on the FL snowbirding adventure soon to commence.

So far, so good. I think.

BTW there is stuff in the blog queue through New Year's Eve. That should publish itself in normal fashion. Meanwhile, we hope to arrive in Savannah for a visit over New Year's then head on down to Vero Beach where we will establish ourselves for a winter visit.

Somewhere along the way we will produce new material as our travel moves along. When? Can't say. But, we will try to maintain a schedule of publication that is as normal as can be expected--of aging, retired folks, on vacation.

Translation: We'll see you after January 1--when we see you. Please stay tuned.