Now about this second childhood.....

One hears a lot of talk these days about aging. You know, the boomers are going to take a pass on getting old. (Yawn goes here).

Boomers will take a pass alright. A pass to the six foot by four foot no windows condo in the ground just like everyone else.

Personally, I think aging and second childhood are wonderful. My aunt sent around a quiz asking if you remember things from the past like black and white TV and table manners and gratitude. I do. And I love my aunt. She is my only surviving aunt so I can say now that she always was my favorite.

But the tone of the email was one of nostaligia. I don't have nostalgia for the past. If I had to go back and relive my childhood, and leave what I have now...I'd take the big trip to the cemetery instead. I have worked all my life to be financially independent and able to pursue my passions which are photography, painting and writing. When I was young, the technology sucked. Things are much better today. I don't have to spend hours in a wet darkroom. And I finally taught myself how to draw.

I reflect fondly on my childhood, but only to say, "Thank God that's gone!"
I guess I'm one of the lucky ones to be delighted to live in the present.

Roses are red today

 

  

Roses in colour

I made another set of rose pictures today.  They are quickly maturing and the once nascent blooms are in late middle age.  Soon they will be dark and bent around the edges.  Then they will gracefully fall apart.

Feeling colourfully photographic

 

  

 

Shit eh!  I went out shooting in colour today because I was readiing works from Eggleston and a number of other colour photogs.  I wanted to feel modern so I cranked up the spectrum.

I find colour interesting but I really prefer painting in colour and photographing in monotone.

Still, one has to get out of one's comfort zone if only to get a fresh perspective on one's self.

Sleeping children, sleeping dogs et cetera

Isn't sleep funny? Infants seem to need it. Dogs seem to use it as an altenrative state of consciousness (like some people I know in boring meetings, concerts, sermons, family visits. They do it with eyes wide open.)

Sleep can refresh, terrify, end too soon as in getting up to pee several times in the night. It can go on too long, as in: Holy sh!t. I slept in. I'm LATE!

Sleep is mysterious. We know almost nothing about it. Oh sure, we know REM sleep and a few other things. We know synapses do stuff. But we really don't know much.


As Shakespeare said, to sleep perchance to dream. Dreams are part of sleep. We fix things up, we sort things out. We have NIGHTMARES!

Death is the big sleep. (I'm not going to go there)

We know we can feel like death walking if we get sleep deprived.

And finally, "There's nothing like a good night's sleep!"

New floors and hard core photogs

 

  

 

Alright.  This post is for hard core photographers.  Read on if you like, but be prepared for possible boredom.

We refinished part of a floor over the weekend.  We lifted old tiles sanded down the pine floor to match the old one.  We then varnished the new floor.

I decided to share some of the photos with family.  I shot one of the pictures with a small sensor Canon G10 and the other with a large sensor full frame Sony 25 megapixel camera.  Can you tell which is which?  I thought the Sony would have a huge advantage in dynamic range and that the window in the two bottom photos would be recovered in the Sony and totally lost in the Canon.  NOT! as Borat might say.  The windows both hold very well.  The cameras both have IS.  The Sony shot at 1/30th of a second and the Canon 1/10, both hand held!  Both lenses are 28mm equivalents.  Hint hint.  The small sensor has greater depth of focus.

Michael Reichmann at Luminous Landscape did a similar exercise several months ago with the Canon G10 and found interesting results with a landscape scene.

Of course resolution is one of the key differences.  The Canon G10 just can't match the Sony under all circumstances every time.  But I find the highlight and dynamic range question one more amazing accomplishment with a small sensor.

It rained on the new roses

The other day we enjoyed two cut roses in a rose bowl on the table in front of the large north window. This particular bush is like a fire engine reaching for the sky. Rain poured and left them covered in super-dew.

They are most intensely red and extrmely large. They are almost too large for roses and so have an aspect of bravado and excess. But they are beautiful and narcotic perfume for noses.

They make it easy to stop and smell the roses as they are nearly eye level.

More from the parade.....