A Surprising Gathering

We were very surprised by the plethora of vehicles in the parking lot when we drove by the arena on Friday afternoon. For some reason the sign tickles me, but it does explain a large crowd in a small town on a rainy, Friday afternoon.

 

A Week in Spring

Spring is about changing weather: nice days, rainy days, warm days, cold days. These two photos were taken close to the same spot about a week apart. That's yours truly one week ago in his bicycle jacket above, and that's what it looked like yesterday, below. Yesterday's photo, taken through the car window in the rain shows a tree whose base is totally flooded. They must have let a little extra water over some dam somewhere. Both were take with Cuppa's Elph although, yes, I did have Mistress Rebel with me, and I did take some of my own pics.

A True Anvilcoud

... or is it an Anvilcloud Cloud Cloud?

After seeing this type of Word Cloud on several blogs, I decided to give it a try. If you go to Snapshirts, you can have them do one for your blog. Of course, they'd like to sell you a T-shirt or some such, but I chose to capture the image before we got as far as giving up names and email addresses. Just make sure to save it with a .jpg extension to make life easier.

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As I age, I have more and more in common with drunks.

I get stiff in joints.

 

My Rebel Ways

... or Porting the Camera

Well, I finally fell off my wallet and did it. I purchased my SLR Digital Rebel camera, about two years ago, but we have have an on-again off-again relationship, Mistress Rebel and I. While I haven't been seriously contemplating a divorce, I have recently been considering taking a second mistress. You see, Cuppa's little camera, a Canon Elph, is very compact, easily ported, and takes pretty good pictures. Mistress Rebel, on the other hand, is not only big but it is an SLR which really requires extra attachments, like a telephoto lens, if you're going to make it really work for you. So, you see, I have been thinking of buying a second camera, smaller than the Mistress but with a little more juice than Cuppa's Elph.

You see, because of her girth, I have, all too frequently, chosen to leave Mistress Rebel at home and use the Elph. But when I considered getting another camera, I realized that it would be of a similar ilk to the Elph (hmm ... I like that ... ilk to Elph). And why, pray tell, would we want two point-and-shoot cameras? Well, I would want a new camera for the reasons outlined above, of course, but there's a fly in that particular ointment — the Elph's photos, while not too shabby at all, simply do not have to crispness and resolution of the SLR.

By yesterday I had sorted my feeble brain through this dilemma and decided to purchase a very portable and convenient camera bag. It is really quite an engineering feat: a sling pouch that can very, very easily, be shifted from back to front (see the two photos above). Once I shift it to the front, I can grab my camera with facility. The photo to the left shows how well-designed this little beauty is. See all of the lenses and do-dads that can be stored? When I open the case to take a picture, I look straight down to the camera (not quite the view in the photo). I can easily grab the Mistress (oooh la la), shoot the picture, place her (gently and lovingly, of course) back into her niche, and sling the pouch to the back for easy carrying. It's really a very nifty contraption.

It's made by Lowepro, and, yes, it did set me back a little more than a hundred smackers. But after under-utilizing my camera, somewhat, for two years and then dithering about what to do for the last several months, I think I have made the right decision. You see, Cuppa and I are going to make a little trip to the Arizona and the Grand Canyon in a few weeks, and I quite look forward to having my camera much more accessible than it has been. I imagine that there will still be times when I opt to just use the Elph, but porting Mistress Rebel will certainly be much, much easier.

 

Today's Flowers

... and possibly the final crocus pictures for this year.

The above version is more or less the original photo with some desatruating of the yellow and some saturating and brightening of the purple.

Below, is the same photo but cropped and with some filters applied.

 

Crocus Untouched

I'm sure that you'll see another crocus photo or two before I'm done with this theme.

The unusual thing about this photo is that I have done no post-processing whatsoever. At the least, I generally add a bit of contrast or saturation, but I couldn't find the right keys to improve this one.

 

The Hours

There's no garden to speak of in our new digs, but we stopped at Butterfly's yesterday to visit her and her crocuses (and The Boy, of course). It was an absolutely gorgeous day after an absolutely gorgeous week. We could have been doing other things, but the days of the crocus are numbered and fleeting, and I think we did a good thing to appreciate them for a while. We of numbered hours do well to appreciate the beauty of those hours.

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I have added a Flickr Badge of my Spring Flower set to the sidebar. You can click to have a better look if you wish.