Christmas 2015

It has been a few years since I featured the Riverwalk on our card photo, so it felt right to go back there for something new.
Last year, clued in by some nice shots from a member of my camera club, I got some pics that almost made the cut. This is a fairly new section of the San Antonio Riverwalk behind the old and re-purposed Pearl Beer brewery.
On a "scouting mission" I pulled out the camera and tripod anyway, and shot some tests in the area.
One view was better than last year's stuff so we went back 4 days later.
There was a construction crane in the frame, and on our return it was pivoted into a horrible position--so we were out of luck on what I originally wanted.

Trying to stay positive we walked around a bit, hoping that inspiration or good luck would strike.
On our way back to the car, I re-saw a scene that I liked from the previous visit, but had immediately written off as impossible. But it looked SO good, I let my heart overrule my brain.

You can only get this photo from a stairway landing that doesn't have enough room for my tripod.
And there is foliage encroaching from the top and left sides.
Plus a bright light on the right/top just out of frame.
Move the camera more than 2" in any direction, and it all falls apart.
A real prick of a shot, especially at the long exposure times needed.
Anyone walking across the attached steel footbridge will vibrate the crap out of it, leading to a blurry mess.
I had my tripod's legs folded down straight, and then held it in the corner of the guardrail.

We knew we had it as soon as I asked Sylvia to climb back up the stairs and just look at the scene from the landing. After 3 exposures we went to Mama Margie's for dinner.

Watching my new ted2 DVD. Hilarious!
Shot with my phone using the new selfie stick.
Yes, it sounds crazy for a "serious" photographer to even consider such a thing, but I foresee many situations where it'll be exactly what I need. Sometimes "toys" are just what you need, both for fun and a re-thinking of the way things can be done.


My wish for 2016's Christmas card photo is that I get it in the next couple of weeks, to take some of the pressure off.
Merry Christmas.
Happy New Year.
Thanks for visiting.  

Two Views

When we got off the gondola at the observation deck before heading up to one of the ski lodges higher on Heavenly (for some reason this mountain always goes by the one-word) I grabbed this look back down at the western half of S. Lake Tahoe:

From the top we have clouds, snowy mountains, tall trees, then water + civilization which was a ritzy neighborhood and attached marina.
Quite by accident the next day I wandered into that 'hood and marina and found a delicious nature preserve, which would be the brown grass with reddish foliage right below.
In the arrowhead-shaped field there's a prominant tree, and if you're a little OCD like me that green spot jumps right out at you.
(At the time I noticed none of this--just living in the moment and only editing/blogging pictures that enhanced whatever narrative struck me when my companions started drifting off).

Going through what I shot, my visit to the nature preserve has some of my favorites.
Here's one--a look back in the other direction:


Turns out it was a small stand of pines instead of a single, but then it's hard to tell from 5 miles away.
You can see one of Heavenly's lower ski trails on the far left--in the first photo I was probably on the edge of the frame and 1200 feet higher.
It's funny that while I was enjoying the low clouds, cold temps, and sporadic ground fog, my girls were above the murk stashing their coats in lockers and skiing in the warm sun--and yet none of us could see the lake!





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Anyone remember "NetBooks"?
Those small and cheap laptops with reduced specs were all the rage for about 18 months, and I was sure it was a brilliant solution for travellers who wanted to update their MySpace and check email.
Then came tablets and serious smartphones, a flood of apps, and finally Facebook's desire to stuff your RAM to the brim and encourage your processor to heat up enough to make Cup O Soup.

Glad I decided on a laptop.

Exploring

The girls all decided to ski today, and I decided I needed some alone time to poke around.
As usual, I picked a direction and followed my inner voice that says "Turn here".

Before too long I found myself pulling into a marina looking for a place to turn around, and that place was the parking lot for a nature preserve!
Score.

On the walk out I shot infrared with the F828:








It was a wetlands reclamation project, and I didn't recognize most of the species of plants, so that was really cool.
On the way back to our rental car (a Chevy Tahoe, of course) I switched to shooting color with the Alpha 200:






There are two guys fishing this pond that I tried to hide with bushes, but you can Waldo one of them. They were drunk at 11am and singing silly songs until one noticed me and told his buddy "That guy's taking pictures of us" like he was pissed. I just kept walking, glad that they were now quiet.


It got interesting when it started looking like the ground was smoking. Man, the weather here changes constantly and quickly even on the ground, let alone up on the mountains. Love it.
These pics were all from 11am to noon, and you couldn't see the lake from 100 yds--I was bundled up. At 9am the girls rode the gondola above the clouds and it was clear and hot.




Here's some other stuff from later in the day.





Tomorrow we finally get to sleep late!
Hopefully taking a boat tour of the lake for more photo ops.
If not I'll find something else worth shooting on our last day in Tahoe.



PS: These new slot machines don't make any sense at all.
I would have tried gambling with a cup full of quarters, a big handle you pull, and spinning wheels, but these things are dumb.

Treason Clouds

Fleeting vs "permanent", does solid envy gas?
Both reach ever higher within their unforgiving earthly limits.

Shape-shifting clouds celebrate their variety,
While branches and leaves can be heard dancing in the wind on moonless nights.

Personally, I'm a sucker for trees 'n' clouds.
Shapes and details that'll never be the same twice, especially in combination.
The old "No 2 snowflakes are ever alike" thing is a cute factoid because we can't see it without the help of science.
Clouds and trees have more patience than me but can't hold a candle to rocks, who gladly accept their dirt-bound fate.





Had a good scare today when I came home from the grocery store and found my PC deader than the LA Laker's chances at seeing the playoffs.
Power supply had failed completely, but what did it take down with it?
BAD things can happen.

I've kept a new unit on hand for many years because I actually listen to my PC guru, and it was a quick replacement job.
All is good--zero lost data or functionality.

But the cooling fan on this power supply is the loudest I've ever heard in my life!
It BLOWS
Like a box fan on high in the same room, drowning out the TV.
Changing the indoor weather.
Moving clouds and branches around.

Made It!

After an agonizing morning spent on the foggy backroads, we were finally in familiar territory, although with 20 years worth of changes.

A convenience store on the last corner was a bit of a shock, so it was comforting to see that the driveway we were looking for was the same as it had been all our lives:



Likewise the house that holds so many memories:




It was a great visit--I only wish we could have stayed longer.
Got to visit with our aunt and three of the cousins on Thanksgiving day and part of Friday, along with new (to us) extended family. You can see how happy we were just being there:





The crops and cows and chickens are long gone since there aren't as many mouths to feed these days, but evidence remains:



When we were kids, this barbed wire was loosely wrapped around a much smaller tree:
It marked the end of the homestead, and the beginning of the wilderness where only us kids bothered to venture.
Lean-to campouts, the springs and the caves, running with the dogs, swinging on vines, being immersed in nature and family...it was our playground.

Brush Pickup + Morons

Having a broken doorbell is a Godsend during the weeks leading up to free city brush pickup! I barely notice the treetrimmers hustling for work.

The notice for brush pickup came about 3 days before one from the automated trash truck driver complaining about my branches hanging over the street and getting in their way, so I got to work on the problem I didn't need to be told that we had.

A few months ago we got an extension ladder on deep discount, and that was pretty much the budget for new yard tools--I'm still using my Stanley carpenter's hand-saw to rip through big limbs. (Bow saws are great, but this sucker is still pretty quick and comfy). A small chainsaw is next.

After dropping a few big chunks of the other tree it was time to tackle the king-daddy one seen below. The trunk is rotten 3/4s of the way through, but waiting for it to fall on it's own wasn't an option because it extended more than halfway across our street.

I set the ladder, walked inside for a cool drink, and came outside to find that my neighbor's landscapers had parked their truck in exactly the wrong place:

Break Time!

I knew from experience (at 9am every-other Wednesday) that they are over-staffed and therefore quick, and I like this particular neighbor, so felt it was best to retreat for a siesta.

The sawing took about two minutes before the tell-tale creaking and cracking started so I put my ankles into it, and also got ready to jump in case there was going to be any kick-back action like the previous tree that almost knocked me off the ladder from fifteen feet up.

And that's when I heard The Moron.

Some dumbass in a small SUV came roaring up the street just as this HUGE section of tree started falling slowly down onto the road. They swerved and almost hit someone else's truck to keep from getting crushed when my rotten ash picked-up a lot of speed at the end.

What gets me is that the way our 'hood is designed the is zero reason to drive up our street if you don't live here or are visiting. This idiot didn't stop anywhere, from one end to the other.

Imagine their story: "I was just cutting through, and a falling tree almost killed my dumb ass!"

Yessir! Woulda messed-up that pretty new car something fierce, inside and out.

Walking Around Boerne

On Sunday we traveled up IH10 a bit to Boerne, which brought back memories of the time I damaged Sylvia's Dad's truck using the rear end of a deer at 4am.
First, we went to Market Days in the town square to look at the same kind of stuff that can be found at the Market Days in Leon Valley or any other small town that wants to end up losing money on a noble idea.
And to try our best at avoiding mud. (I was coughing a lot, because at 3am that morning I was loading the band's trailer in the cold cold rain).
Syl bought some blueberry/habanero and other similar jams from a vendor who it turns out also sells at Artisan's Alley here in town.
Enough of the complaints--let's walk the main street and poke around some shops!

Closed
Closed
Closed
Hey...nope--too Alamo Heights-ish.
Cross the street.
Closed
Closed
Stop to take a picture up a tree:
This was fun because other shoppers(?) had to look up too and couldn't figure out what was so important that I needed a picture.
Made you look!


We started finding a few antique stores that were open, and the fun began.
I soon found the big brother to our Pyrex salsa containers, at a very low price due to inconsequential chips in the lid. SOLD!

I almost bought a publicity print of Don Knotts as Barney Fife, but the signature didn't seem right to me. It would have looked great next to my autographed print of Julie Newmar in her CatWoman outfit.

Found some great ViewMaster discs from the '60s and '70s, like the moon landing, and would have gone back for them had I managed to locate the ViewMaster viewer itself instead of just a non-stereo-vision screen projector.
After teaching myself how to make 3-D photos a few years ago, I soon found that nobody I know is able to view them correctly without lots of effort (not gonna happen) or lots of expensive equipment (also not gonna happen).
However, I do know how to make my own ViewMaster discs.
Someday...

Later, I spotted this great old Chevy pickup hiding between some buildings:
It was very cool.



After the New Year's Eve show in Kerrville, our singer forgot her jacket.
Because I'm sweet, I brought it back to SA instead of trading it to a 9-tooth pig farmer for some chops.
But since I'm also a bit of a dick, at our next show last Friday I dragged a ladder onto the stage and hung it up as high as I could.

Still haven't found out how she got it down, but whoever helped her is on my list.

Walker Ranch Park

One of my very favorite parks, but it has been discovered by everyone else.
Fortunately, the majority use the main entrance on West Ave--even parking on the grass and any other place where they can fit.
Sheep.
I use the "secret" lot at the end of Rhapsody, where there's always a few open parking spaces.

I have to time my photos carefully to keep a half-dozen random strangers out of them.

The zig-zag footbridge over Salado Creek has been the subject of some popular photos of mine, but this is the first time I used it solely as a high vantage point.
Timing is important again because people walking across (make that kids bouncing across) can set up a wicked vibration that'll ruin photos taken at longer shutter speeds like these.

Pure luck here.
Didn't have time to think or compose, and I really like it.


As always, if I post a photo in black & white it was taken with my Sony F828. This camera has a filter on the lens which blocks nearly all visible light, and is set to record only the infrared spectrum.
This is where the bright foliage and dark skies come from.
Now that using the F828 is as close to second-nature as shooting with my dead F717 was, expect to see more IR work from me.
Especially now that spring has arrived and the drought is over.



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