Mystic Journey

We went to San Diego again, driving through the mountains and hilly lands to the south of us in Utah.

Fog floated above the mountain ranges, creating pencil sketches out of scenes that are vibrantly green shaded in spring.

The first day of driving is always calm and relaxing in every season.

This time was no different.
We talked a little about everything, and nothing, quietly as we took in the scenery.

The surreal fog layers muted us along with the mountains.

How can something as unsubstantial as fog hide something as substantial as a mountain range?

One who had never driven this way before might believe the area was flatland.

Little farm buildings and trees stood like cut out figures in fields.

Field watering systems stood idle in the damp cold.

I have seen the Scottish moors in winter.

They had their charms.
As do the lands of my own place on earth.

Our car carried us swiftly on clear highway roads where thankfully the fog did not linger.

We were thankful for the day's safe journey and for the privilege of seeing views that will never be repeated just so.
 

Kinda missing this.

Conflicted: That would be me.
I am in San Diego amidst sunshine and palm trees; meanwhile a billion snowflakes like these are falling unappreciated in Salt Lake.
Sigh.

Can't be in two places at once.
:-/

House Bound: Four Discussion Items for a Cold Winter's Day.

Freezing rain has kept me housebound the past two days.

This means I have had a few extra moments to ponder and mull, research and react, and enjoy a bit of millinery too.

First up:
After doing a little research, I am excited that I will be wearing this hat again!
I have a matching emerald green long shawl collar wool dress coat; I haven't worn them in ages because somehow emerald green just seemed, oh, I don't know, just kinda not right.

 

After some spur of the moment research, my thinking about emerald green has changed.

Are you up to speed with Pantone's announcement about the color for 2013?

I wasn't until two days ago.

I did know that two years ago Pantone named a color called Honeysuckle for the color of the year, which was a coral pink punch color.

Last year it was an aqua shade...

I really didn't expect them to name EMERALD to be the color for 2013.

How could I have missed guessing that Emerald would be making a comeback in our color choices?

Now if you were old enough to buy furniture back sometime around in 1985-1995 I am almost willing to bet that you probably indulged in a sofa with some emerald or hunter green colors, probably mixed with a deep wine red or burgundy, or perhaps a deep royal blue.

There's a reason why I can make this guess.

As it turns out, color choices rotate in ten year cycles, usually beginning the shift about mid decade.

The cycles go from:

Subdued/Pastel

to

Saturated/jewel tones

to

Earth tones/Neutrals.

From 2003 to 2013 we have been trending towards neutrals and earth tones.

Think granite counter tops, coffee brown woods, or birch, or steel greys, with accents of nature tones of aqua or natural greens, or wheat golds.

I posted about the history of color cycles before HERE,
The pastel pink, yellow and baby blues of the 1950-60's
The saturated pop "hot" lime/pink/orange colors of the 1960-70s,
The earthy harvest gold/avocado/copper/macrame earth tones of the 1970-80s,
The pastel dusty blues and mauves pastels of the 1980-90s,
 The jeweled hunter/burgundy/navys of the 1990s-2000,
The neutral earth tones of mossy/cream/coffee black earth tones of 2000-2010
Then we drifted quickly though a pastel aqua/greys/light blues the past three years.
Now, in a speeded up cycle, we are just starting to see the first hints of back to jewel tones.
Emerald green will now be showing up everywhere.
Paint a wall emerald green?
Carry an emerald green purse?
Wear an emerald green blouse?
Buy an emerald green accent pillow?
Now is the time!
At first I was a bit disappointed that the color that will be "out there" was emerald green since it was a been there-done that color for me.
But after looking at photo examples of emerald green in home decoration and wardrobe accessories, I have emotionally bought in.
Again.

It is quite a daring hat...
(And I should have used a diffuser on the flash to avoid that heavy back shadow...a piece of tissue wetted and stuck to the flash usually will do the trick...)

Maybe I will wait a bit until the emerald thing really gets going before re-debuting it in public?

Our library has definitely gone pastel...

As has our master bedroom.
The trouble is...I don't like the cameo pink color.
I wasn't sure of it when I first painted it four years ago when I was trying to fit into the the Mid Century modern vibe.

The past three years have seen a lot of paint chips taped to the walls.

After flirting with painting the walls a deep brown, or a celery green I have finally decided what color I am going to go with:
SW Dover White.
A basic creamy white.
How...uh...not daring.
Not jewel toned.
(Although I do think one friend's nearly emerald green guest room with periwinkle accents is awesome...hi Ellen!)
Big paint project coming up soon.

A passing note:  Are primroses showing up in your supermarkets now?
Ours all have potted primroses in all sorts of colors, two for $5.
I am stocking up...they are such a cheery little inside plant.
After the blooms fade I stick them outside and later plant them in the garden where they seem to come back and bloom nearly year around.
Such a deal!

Last discussion point:
How often do you read booklets or instruction guides that come with things?
My tripod came with just a hang tag with a few specifications listed.
I was hoping for a guide book of some sort but no, all there was was the hang tag.
Yesterday, being house bound, I took a moment to read what little the hang tag had to say.

This line stopped me dead in my tracks:
The tripod had a Removable platform for reverse mounting for copy and micro photography.
Huh???
No additional information was included.
I went on line to the Sunpack website; no additional information was there about how to reverse a  mounting.
Eventually I saw a picture of a tripod set up in a reverse platform mount; it looked something like this:
 

Whoa!
Game changer!!!
I consulted with the ever patient engineering minded Mr. B. and he soon configured my new tripod in a reverse mount position.

I could get within an inch or less of the ground!
(or in this case, our living room carpeting...)

The camera was now upside down.
The display screen was right side up though.
I got a mirror to slide under the camera to help me see the dials for the various camera settings.
Moments later I was taking macro shots on manual, with longer time exposures that require tripod steadiness.
I am so glad for once I actually read the materials that came with a purchase!
My Christmas tree stand McGyver project will still be used for fast shooting.
But I am sure that this tripod function will get its use too for macro work with flowers and ground items come later in this year.
Long post.
Hope you found something here that made it worthwhile to read!

Tricks, Tips and a McGyver for photographers

A friend shares tips and tricks that makes one's life easier or better, right?
I am no expert on photography, but I am happy to share the few dibs and dabs that I have learned along the way with my bloggy friends...so here goes my tips and tricks and McGyver post!

My camera came with a lens that would only do so much in terms of close up work.
Macro lens cost a lot more than I was game to pony up at first.
Ditto for wide angle lens or extra long focus lens.
But...I have Yankee blood in me.
Where there is a will, I find there is almost always a way, and a cheap one at that.
For me the way was purchasing screw on magnifying lens.

I got them on ebay but most camera stores carry these things.
The cost for each lens is somewhere between $10 to $40 or there about.
Are they a perfect solution?
Certainly not professional grade.
But...
They are for putzing around and learning a bit and actually getting some fine micro macro shots of flowers and snowflakes and such.
The outer edges of the photo tends to be a bit wonky, but one always crops down to get a good macro shot anyway so who cares?
And sometimes the wonky add to the photo's artistic composition!
I also leave these lens outdoors at night so they are good and cold and at the ready for any wayward snowflake that happens during the night.  I get up in the morning and check to see what flakes might have shown up.

My second tip:
How I store my camera chips.
I never erase my chips except for clearly blurry shots.
Chips are so reasonably priced now; I can get a thousand shots on a 16 gig chip that costs under $20.
I found these handy little storage units at my camera store.
I write a beginning and ending date on each chip, plus a word or two about special subjects like Swiss trip.
Then I write a more detailed list on a small sticky note which I put inside the case with the chip.
Then I write the same details on the outside of the case.
The triplicate documentation helps make sure the right chip is in the right case.

A close-up of how it works.
Right now I have four cases, each case holds ten chips.
I have them slipped into a semi water proof zippered case where they can be easily grabbed if I ever need to evacuate quickly.
I do put my edited pictures on Picasa web albums too.
And I back up our computer and at one time had a secondary external back up drive for my photos which two years later did not wish to communicate with our new computer.
Grrrr...
That misfortune cinched it for me.
I keep all my chips, with my photos in an unedited state, after the chips are full.

Now this is my McGyver project.
Two days ago I was photographing the surface hoar out on the snowpiles out front, down on my knees and trying to use manual settings.
It was impossible.
I couldn't hold the camera steady that close to the ground unless I was shooting straight into the ground.
This irked me.
Bernie had gifted me with a tripod with legs that would spread flat on the ground.
That should have solved the problem except for two things:
The working around the spread legs is tricky.
The leg of the tripod snapped off the other day.
(I bought a new tripod that I like much better than the old one but it doesn't go flat.)
Two days ago was when I realized I needed something to address the on the ground shooting issues.
One day ago THIS popped up in a photo tip website; called a Ground Pod, it was a dish shaped items with a tripod head mounted in the middle.
Seemed like the perfect solution, except the price and shipping time!
Then there was an article which suggested something similar could be made using a frying pan with the handle removed, and a drill.
Bernie said he could make the frying pan version...when that would happen wasn't a detail that was easily pinned down.
I was antsy...I wanted something that would work right now, as in this very instant!
So I mulled and mulled my dilemma.
I wanted to be able to get low and steady ASAP.
Mull...mull....mull...

 

Then it hit me:
Our Christmas tree stand just might work!
Sure enough, it was just the ticket for now.
I used sticky notes on the end of the screws to avoiding scratching my camera; I will add felt stick on pads as soon as I can.
The stand is pretty light weight, the screws are big enough to be easy to move while wearing mittens and I think I can add styrofoam blocks or bean bags in the middle if I want to raise the camera up higher.
Totally works for now.
It would/will be great to have a frying pan version using the broken tripod's head so I could have more flexibility but for now, I can just spin the entire stand if I need to.
Low tech works for me!
So...those are my tips and tricks.
How about you?
Any thing you might be willing to share?

Reflecting

Just kicking back a bit today and looking back on some photos from when I lived in Houston. Rain often fell by the bucketful and left puddles everywhere. This puddle reflected the trees and colorless sky overhead and also three fallen leaves that had become ensnared by a spider's web as they tumbled.
Houston had special beauty too.
I am so glad I took lots of photos during the years that I was there.

The Snowpile's Secret

The snow piles from two weeks ago have a shaggy appearance now.
Surface hoar is building crystal structures which sparkles in the sunlight.
Up close, on my knees, I can see the structures if I place myself within four inches of the icy layers.

 

 

Not quite as elegant as the river surface hoar, but the color is more interesting.
Arctic ice blues and aquas can be seen the deeper one looks into the snow/frost. 

We stride by the white mounds on our way to pick up the newspaper in the morning, the mail in the afternoon, or when we are heading out on some errand.

From our living room the mounds are just white lumpy shapes.

Who is enjoying the snow pile's secret art?
I guess you are...now.

Red Butte and Ft. Douglas: A Saturday Walkabout

Still so cold here; thankfully I am one of those people who doesn't mind the cold at all.
Saturday afternoon I shrugged into my knee  length down jacket, shouldered up my camera back pack, slung my tripod case over my shoulder and headed out to Red Butte Garden.
The downspout chains by the entrance looked like they had been overwhelmed lately.

As usual in cold weather, I had the garden all to myself.
In the Children's Garden area I enjoyed seeing wild life track in an area that in summer is more likely to carry  the tracks of the wild life that is commonly called "kids".
(Not the goat type.  The two legged kind.)

See where the bird landed then hopped to get a drink?
So cool...

The area had lots of extremely nervous birds flitting to three bird feeders.

This sweet thing was the least nervous of the group.

Even so you can tell he is keeping an eye on me.

"I think that is enough pictures for now Lady.  Move along...move along...."

Chickadees are the biggest Nervous Nellies; they land, grab a seed and are off again in the time it takes to just lift a camera to my face.

By comparison, the shrub jays were downright resigned to my company.

This one was kind of middling: he pecked around on the ground for a bit.

Winter Storm Gandolf's dozens of inches of snow is just beginning to sag off of things.
I still wonder how bird toes are not frost bitten in winter; the snow is pretty icy by now.

Shrub jay:  What a beauty!

I can't blame the birds for being "flighty" (har!)
The bare branches don't provide much in the way of a place to hide out.

Now doesn't this look exactly like the tree has gone and bought itself a nice white fur collared wrap to stay warm this winter?
Quite stylish, no?

Red pods against white snow:  Gorgeous.

Etched trees over head: gorgeous.

Frozen streams:  Oh yeah.
Gorgeous.

How about a frozen waterfall?
With animal tracks?
(There should be a "Like" button to push up in the air upon seeing such things.)

I once read a book about planning a winter garden.
There was great emphasis given to the importance of selecting colorful bark/branch color when selecting plants that will be bare in winter.
The above picture is a great example of the wisdom of such forethought.

 

I probably shouldn't have said I had the garden to myself.
While I didn't see anyone else as I walked about, clearly I was not the only one who has been enjoying walking in the snowy winter garden.

Deer trails left proof that the deer don't only hang around my neighborhood.
They must have a pass to Red Butte Garden, just like me.

Colorful bark: Now that's what I'm talking about!

More sagging snow, with a waxing moon above.

Doesn't the snow clumps in the tree look like birds?
The sunset was beautiful.

As so often happens on Saturday, I wanted to share what I was doing with Gail.
While the sun set, I sat in the car, gave her a call and we got in our weekly catch up chat.

We both enjoy getting out and enjoy having adventures large and small.
We both bemoan how difficult it is to find a friend to go adventuring with.
We ask women we meet at work, or in church, or neighbors to come along for walks or hikes or a trip to the movies.
Usually we are declined, or given a "maybe later"...
No one ever seems to think of asking us back.
I can kind of understand why maybe some women would want to avoid noodling around with me.
(Refraining from affirming my many drawbacks here...)
But Gail?
Totally don't get it.

OK...putting away the sad violin now.
One of the nicest things about a heavy snowstorm is the way it makes the area mountains solid white, which turns the most wonderful shades of apricot and periwinkle blue at sunset.
Alpenglow I think is what that is called.
I need to spend a serious evening photographing the mountains glowing in the sunset colors while the snow is still so deep. 

Red Butte Garden is just above an area that used to be a military fort called Fort Douglas.
The fort was established back in the 1860s and is still in use as an Army reserve training center.
There are lots of cute Victorian houses that used to be officer family quarters and such.
And there is a very quiet cemetery there too.

I had never seen the cemetery in deep snow before.

It looked so different than it does in the summer  when it is all grassy green beneath shady trees, or in the fall when the ground is littered with colorful leaves.
The cemetery was still being used until recently...and perhaps it still is used for contemporary burials.
The second row in from the front, the second from the left:
Infant
March 27 1967
Son of....
A soldier's wife bore a child that died before he was named.
Sad, even this many years later.

Does look some how cozy and peaceful, doesn't it?

How many are awaiting a Resurrection dawn?

If the snow hadn't been above my knees and I wasn't in snow boots, I would have loved to have poked around a bit more.

I once read a book where the question was posed:
Which time of day suits a cemetery best: sunset or sunrise?
The first thought was sunset; the end of a life.
But actually...it is sunrise that suits it best, if one believes the grave is just a pause before the dawning of a new day.

See?
This is why I need a buddy to go along with me on these jaunts.
We could discuss these sorts of questions as we went along.
(And that is perhaps exactly why I do wind up being alone on my jaunts.)

Ft. Douglas is surrounded by the University of Utah; this is one of the resident halls with icicles that are reaching record breaking lengths.

 

There isn't a building to be found anywhere on the grounds that is not similarly sporting an icicle fringe.
The guy walking along was quite wise to steer clear of walking beneath those eaves.
I've lived in Salt Lake for four years now and I still have areas that are just minutes from my house that need exploring.
Ft. Douglas and the University of Utah grounds are one of those areas.
I think this quick pass through was a good beginning, don't you?