9-11-08 - A day of reflection

The past several years, I've used September 11 as a day of personal reflection. I specifically plan not to do anything in particular, but instead spend the day outdoors, peacefully thinking about what's happening in my life.

Doesn't matter what the weather is - I still go off on my day's journey, never knowing what the day will bring. It's my clear-thinking time, with no limitations - and considering how 9-11 initially started, it's definitely an opposite to all the violence and pain that sad day brought to so many thousands and thousands of people.

Today started with a lobster roll at my favorite carry-out shack. It wasn't cheap at $16, but it was packed full of just lobster, no fillers, and it was on a perfectly grilled Nissen bun. I meant to take a photo of it for stock, but was so hungry I forgot about it until it was three-quarters eaten, which definitely wouldn't have made for a good photo.

Then I wandered the shoreline, heading for one of my favorite think-places. ( I have several of them.) The first photo is of the Rachel Carson tidal pool down in Chamberlain, a regular haunt for this author many years ago, and named after her in 1970 .

This tidal pool is so peaceful, especially if you're lucky enough to be the only one there. I avoid it on weekends when the tourists are there, also in the early summer when school groups use it for their field trips just before school lets out.

Other times, there's usually only one or two folks there. One day I sat there for hours, watching the tide roll in, hunting for sea glass, loving the solitude, getting a really sore butt from sitting on rock.

Today the skies were gorgeous, the temps perfect at 70 degrees. There was a guy in a wet suit trying to scuba dive just beyond the pool, but he kept slipping on the seaweed and rocks. I finally gave up trying to shoot him, as every time I had him in focus he fell down again. I was beginning to feel guilty, like I was jinxing him.

The second shot is a few miles away, near New Harbor, off a backroad the locals use to get to a small bay of ocean, granite ledge and trees. Another great place with few people - today there were just a couple of artists, painting.

Don't know if I came to any magical conclusions today. But it was good for my head, and I came home feeling calm, serene, quietly content.

Good Walking

As part of my progress after my stroke, I've been walking. Nothing really strenous - it's more "feel-good" for my head than anything else.

Recently I ran across a book in my library about foraging for wild mushrooms. Fall in New England is an excellent time to 'shroom hunt, so I decided to take a walk off the beaten path.

Since I still have some walking issues with stability, I've only been walking on flat, paved surfaces. The call of the 'shroom was strong, though, and I headed towards a nearby forest preserve.

It was late afternoon, making for lots of shadows on the trail. That meant I had to be extra careful not to trip on the many tree roots and rocks found about every 3 feet down the trail.

The good news was that this trail was marked 'easy'. The bad news is that there was no mention of the rock walls one has to climb over, or the boggy areas you cross using open, 12-inch wide walkways (no railings, thank you).

Managed the short rock wall - very carefully.

The planks across the boggy areas were a bit more challenging, since they are only 12 inches wide. There's no railings. And the damned thing wasn't straight either, and was more than 100 feet in length. To me, it looked like an extra-long balance beam, just waiting for me to fall off and land in six inches of mucky bog.

But, again going slowly, I did it. My balance held and I walked the length of that plank path without falling in.

Wandered the first half of the trail for about an hour, took my time, didn't fall once!! It was great to get out in fresh air, talk to the birds, and search for mushrooms. Found several different kinds, but not the edible ones I was looking for. Still, I had a wonderful time, and now feel much more confident about my slow but sure walking.

And there's still mushrooms waiting out there for me!

Audri and Jim Lanford's 7 Photography Questions - Interviews with Top Photographers

Not too long ago, I stumbled across the site 7 Photography Questions with Audri and Jim Lanford. This free site offers all sorts of digital photography information, and especially, tips and ideas from recognized photographers.

They cover many different topics - lighting, nature, pets (some good stuff on dogs), children, fashion, just to name a few - and they have a new one coming up on shooting kids at holiday parties.

I've listened to several of their podcasts, and have picked up some good tips.

They offer a free email sign-up, and they're pretty regular with their offerings - I usually get a few a week. Some I can use, some I'm not so interested in, but I scan them all, since it's good info. Best of all, they don't spam you - no advertising is included in their emails.

Take a look - there's bound to be something useful to you!

Talk-Micro

For those who enjoy selling photography on micro-stock websites, there's a really good forum to share ideas and information on a site called Talk Micro.

The site is TalkMicro. It's a place where photogs can say what they think, get good input from those who have been there, and can learn all sorts of great techniques.

You don't have to sign up as a member, although you'll be glad you did. Joining TalkMicro is free, and allows you to directly participate in the forms. Take a peek!

The Blue Angels Let Me Down!!!

Something's missing in this photo.

It sounded like such a wonderful opportunity. Local tv news stations reported that the Blue Angels Navy flying team had come into Maine a few days early before their scheduled show this weekend at Brunswick Naval Station, and would be doing a special fly-by near three different Maine lighthouses.

It isn't everyday one has the chance to shoot the magnificent Blue Angels low flying past the most historic lighthouse in Maine. The Pemaquid Lighthouse is so important to Maine history that it is featured on the new Maine quarters.

So I headed down to the lighthouse, a 30 mile trip, even got there a bit early so I could pick a favorite spot. A hundred people were there, but it's a big place and there was plenty of room. The estimated time of arrival was 10:30 - 11:30 am, not particularly great for lighting, but beggars can't be choosers, so I just waited and played with various settings.

And waited. And waited. Several hundred more people showed up. Families, tourist, dogs (with owners in tow), seniors, mothers with babies, people in wheelchairs, just about every kind of human you can imagine had arrived. I found that it was not only getting really crowded, but that I needed to stand in one place to reserve the spot for my shot; I even moved a couple feet in various directions, otherwise my spot would be filled with a zillion people. After all, a free Blue Angels show was a really big deal for rural Maine, even if would be a 30 second show.

Of course, I had no way of knowing if the Blue Angels would be flying by the lighthouse at the specific angle I needed to get the shot. But I'd carefully chosen a place that covered the lighthouse up close yet still allowed a lot of sky, and then kept my fingers crossed.

After two hours, still no Blue Angels. The officially designated hour had come and gone, and all those people were still patiently waiting. Toddlers were tired and whiny, dogs were having spats, and people were becoming grumpy and unfriendly. Finally, a man with a megaphone came out of the lighthouse's guardhouse, and politely announced that the Blue Angels would not be coming, something about a fuel issue. (And then he quickly ducked back into the guardhouse, probably anticipating things being thrown at him . . . )

A few boos and hisses, plus a lot of very disappointed commentary - and then everyone rushed for their cars. The weather was beautiful, and if the Angels weren't coming, they knew they all had other places to be.

So now I have a whole lot of test pix of the lighthouse, but no Blue Angels.

Dear Angels - you let me (and hundreds of fans) down!!!!

Chasing a Five Year Old

This is Shannon, my friends Miriam and Dan's granddaughter. She is so adorable, she makes your heart melt.

She's wise far beyond her years. Talking with her is like talking with an adult - her speech is impeccable, and her language skills are amazing. She's quite serious in her discussions. She's definitely not your typical five year old.

Except in one category - she has non-stop energy. This kid never slows down. I chased her around the black berry patch the other day with my camera, hoping to get some good photos. She ran me around that patch four times!

She's so fast, I had a difficult time keeping up with her. She's not particularly good on focusing on a single task, normal for a five year old, so it was a challenge to keep up with her as she picked a berry here, then moved 10 feet to pick "better" berries, then backed up three feet because she had missed two "really big berries!"

So much for camera focus. I changed to Plan B - hope that she's distracted enough by berry picking that she'd stay in one spot for more than 2 seconds. She was very aware of the camera, and kept attempting to pose, which didn't work at all.

Of course, all this continual motion kept me hopping around. I was trying to focus and adjust for lighting, as she just did her normal five year old stuff. It wasn't too long before I realized I was probably only going to get a few good shots - if I was lucky.

And that's exactly how it turned out - I have lots of blurs (she moves SO fast!), and plenty of other unusable shots. Out of more than 50 shots, there might be five that are acceptable.

But we sure had fun picking berries . . .

Photo of the Day from Dreamstime - August 13, 2008

From my Dreamstime portfolio - garlic, garlic, garlic fresh at the local farmer's market.

Had a Great Time at Acadia National Park, Maine

We spent two days up in Acadia National Park, near Bar Harbor, Maine. Even though the weather wasn't good, we still enjoyed it - instead of a beautiful bright-and-sunny Chamber of Commerce day, we had rain and mist the whole time we were there - and we loved it.

It didn't stop the crowds. People were everywhere, crawling up and down the granite ledges at the shoreline, packing the visitor centers, bicycling up the long winding road to the top of Mt. Cadillac. (Wonder how many of them wished they had never started that bike tour?? It's a really long windy road with a very steep incline; many of the bikers we saw were in their 50s and showing some serious stress.)

We spent a few hours the first day just before dark up on Mt. Cadillac. No pretty sunset for us - just clouds and mist. It didn't matter - we had a great time. We returned the next day to the mountain and then a spin around the park. The photo above is from half-way up Cadillac during the middle of the day, and shows Eagle Lake with a mist in the mountains above. It was beautiful, despite the inclement weather.

That's Tom on the right, with camera and tripod, mugging for me. We spent quite a bit of time shooting, but the results were less than spectacular. In fact, few photos turned out acceptably, but it didn't matter - we still had a wonderful time.

We even did the dumb tourist thing and after dinner spent the evening in Bar Harbor. The town was packed, even though it was after 9 pm. The stores count on tourists for their sales, and all of them were open until 11 pm every night. We skipped most of the kitschy-merchandise shops - Bar Harbor tee shirts, refrigerator magnets and other cutesy stuff was everywhere, typical of a tourist town.

But there were several interesting art galleries open late, and we wandered through a few. One was a photography gallery owned by a woman who was just getting into the business, using her older Pentax film camera as her only camera. Her inventory was primarily local material - scenery, wildlife, etc - which was simply matted. Her prices were quite reasonable, running from $15 for a matted 5x7 to $25 for an 8x10. She also offered larger framed art photos at higher prices.

She sure had to sell a lot of photos to cover her overhead - rent in Bar Harbor is extremely expensive. And then there's insurance, employees, utilities, etc. Unfortunately, there were few customers in her shop, which was down a side street and not easily visible from the main street. She also had serious competition by other photographers' galleries just around the corner. Her business plan definitely needed some tweaking.

We were surprised she hadn't yet moved into digital photography, but she explained that she'd been using her Pentax for a long time and had a lot of investment in her lenses. She was hoping to buy a digital Pentax soon, planning to match it to her lenses.

We didn't last in Bar Harbor long - it was so commercial, and way too crowded. Fun experience for a very short period of time (we stayed the length of time it took to eat an ice cream cone!), but not a place we'd go back to soon. Acadia was the place for us, and we spent the majority of our time wandering both the shoreline and the mountains, sucking in good salt air and enjoying the mist. We even picked wild blueberries on Mt. Cadillac!

Acadia National Park

Today we're running up to Acadia National Park on Mt. Desert Island, Maine. This will be the third attempt within the last 6 weeks - the first time the trip I'd planned with a friend didn't happen because I had a stroke, and the second time I'd hoped to go up with Tom when he came up to Maine to take care of me after my stroke, but I just wasn't quite up to it yet.

This time I'm feeling good enough to go, so Tom and I are just going for a short overnight trip. The weather isn't cooperating - it's rainy and cool - but I don't care. Acadia is a beautiful place to be in all kinds of weather, and I'm going with my best friend - what could be better than that??? :) b

Photo of the Day - August 1, 2008

This is the Pemaquid Point Lighthouse, in the little lobster fishing town of New Harbor, Maine.

Standing on a huge granite ledge above the edge of the ocean, the lighthouse is a working light with a more-than-hundred-year-old Fresnell lens that can be seen for miles. Inside the adjoining building is a lobster fishermen's museum, a wonderful place to learn about the life of a working professional lobsterman.

This photo (and other Maine photos) can be purchased from my portfolio on Dreamstime - go ahead and take a look!