A Lack of Memory

Sometimes, it doesn't pay to get up early in the morning. Of course, I can't help it because that's when I wake up -- early, I mean. Today, as I write this, which is yesterday as you read it, is a case in point.

I decided that I might as well get up and have coffee at 4:30 because sleep had been iffy for an hour already. I'd had 5 or even 6 hours by then, and that is about it for me. I was able to take my time before going out with the camera because the sun wouldn't be up until after 6:30, so there wouldn't be much to photograph before 6.

I headed out with the thought of returning to the site of my recent photo of the farm and barn at sunrise with some different compositions in mind. I soon realized that there wouldn't be a good sunrise. The sky was turning a nice blue, however, and I thought of another barn on a different road. It's an event barn used for wedding receptions and so on. Well I guess that was the idea, but I think it mostly sits idle these days. Still it is fairly picturesque and is nicely lit.

That's the thing about blue hour photography in urban areas. You want the lights still on but the sky brightening from black to blue.

But the lights must have been on a timer, and they happened to go out as I was setting up the tripod.

Says I to self: Self You're here, so you might as well take the shots anyway.

If that's not enough, when I got home, I discovered that I hadn't put my memory card back in the camera after the previous shoot.

Speaking of memory cards, I think the one in my head needs to be reformatted because something or other in the file structure appears to have gotten corrupted.

So, I am presenting a few photos from last Sunday when I decided to check out the highway on the edge of town. If traffic were to be light on any morning, it would be Sunday. It was, and I got an empty highway photo with a gas station as the anchor point.

As blue hour gets later and later, the traffic will increase, even on Sundays. Actually, it is getting late for blue hour photos anyway because there are more people stirring and getting in the way. However, I may go back specifically for light trails. We shall see.

I turned around, looked east, and saw the beginning of sunrise.

I took one more photo of a motel sign with a no vacancy light, which I wouldn't have bothered with, except for the reflection.

The No Vacancy photo is actually two photos combined because the reflection was small and somewhat unclear in the main photo. So I took a second, closer photo and blended the two.

Now, back to the barn. I once took a pretty decent photo, so I will see if I can find it. It took some looking, but I found the photo that I took three years ago. I had just been passing by when I saw the clouds and had to stop. 

Today's/Yesterday's photos, had I had a memory card inserted, would have been from a different angle, more straight on. But the sky would have been cloudless and not as interesting,

And another thing . . .

When I got home, Sue noticed that my shirt was on inside out. Now, I could use the excuse that I got dressed in the dark, which would be true, but the greater truth is that I need more sleep. And a new internal memory card, as it were.