The Clouds Rolled In and the Light Went Out

When we were sitting in the enjoying our coffee (and donuts) after Sue's jab (which I was just told is a jag in Scotland, which for some reason pleases me to now end) we spotted the sun highlight cattails over yonder between the trees. It looked good, and since I had my camera in the car, I decided to amble over.

However, as soon as I exited the car, clouds covered the sky or at least the portion over the reeds. You can see the gloom in Sue's phone photo as I headed over. The patch to which I am referring is just to the right of my hat. It is plain to see that they were no longer exactly bathed in light. Sigh.

I got over there and waited and waited. Oh, I probably didn't wait all that long, but as I kept eying the sky, the return of Miss Sunshine did not exactly seem imminent, and I wasn't in a mood to wait for a  long time. I might have persisted longer, but it was also cool and miserably windy, and I am nothing if not a wimp.

The sun did peek out a bit, briefly, but not in the way that we had seen it in the car. I took a photo and brightened it in post to give the general idea, but it is not the same as what we had seen.

COVID Birthday and Jab

We did manage to have a little time with Danica on Sunday. We Sue set up a table at the front of the garage where we could put her meagre but good swag and then step way back. We were well beyond the usual 6', so I think we kept in the spirit of no gatherings of multiple households. Besides, we kept the meeting, such as it was, very brief.

She opened her gift, earrings with diamonds, very small diamonds, and they were soon on their way.

I endeavoured to make a garage photo taken at a distance as nice as possible

It was something, and something is better than nothing. Eh?

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Yesterday, Sue received her own very fine gift: her COVID jab.

Going In: The Excitement Mounts

The Jab and the Reaction

Post Jab Celebratory Coffee

Happy Birthday to the Poor Chicken

Once when Danica was younger, Sue told Danica that I wasn't feeling well. Danica replied, "Aw, the poor chicken."

Now I must say likewise to her on this her 14th birthday. The Poor Chicken.

Last year, she entered her teenage years, and that should have been a momentous birthday. But no! We were in the first lockdown, and she couldn't see her friends. We did manage a small get-together in our garage on a rather nippy day, but let's face it, parents and grandparents are not are not quite the same as peer friends who are very important in a teen's life. It's just the way it is, and we remain loved, so it is okay.

You know the rest. School is shut down again, as is everything that can reasonably be shut down. We are no longer to meet with other households, even if we keep outside and to a maximum of five people as before. So, we won't even be having a garage 'party' this year.

I was able to scrounge enough photos from the few visits that we had during this past year, mainly when COVID took a little break during the summer. We had a sleepover and a visit or two, and did a few little photoshoots. As the kids get older and we see them much less than we used to anyway, and there are fewer photo ops, but they really dropped off last year due to COVID.

But there is still a collage.

And there is a card.

Front (and Back)

Unfortunately, neither the 'garage' nor 'celebrate with' parts still apply.

We couldn't wish for a nicer granddaughter and do feel badly for what she is missing this year. I love this kid to bits.

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Before I end this post, and as an afterthought, here are a few photos from previous birthdays.

In 2014, a princess showed up for the party.

In 2016, we kept her out of school and took her into the city to visit her mother who took us out for a Chinese lunch.

The girl loves tacos. In 2018, she had a taco-shaped cake.

 It was a more standard cake in 2019, but it was pretty rich.

And finally . .  . last year in the garage. I didn't consider then that this year would be even more restrictive.

To Contrast or not to Contrast

Yesterday, one blog friend noticed that my truck in the rock photo was lacking contrast. Indeed, she was correct. Somehow, I posted a somewhat earlier iteration than my final version.  I have reposted it below and the intended one below that, so you can see the difference. The darks are a bit darker and some of the lighter grays on the truck have been boosted just a tad. Good eye, Mage.

Generally speaking, it is best that b&w photos have a good tonal range although there are exceptions. Some of the minimalist winter photos that I posted a while back were not at all contrasty. It is also true to some degree in this woodland photo taken from the same year as the above pictures. There is not too much deep black in the scene.

Meanwhile, permit me to wrench you back to the present with the colour photo that I made of Lacey, just yesterday. I was sitting in my living room chair and she in hers, and quite frankly, I just snapped if you will permit a little dad/grandad humour.

She does not look best pleased, does she?

Revisiting Older Photos from Another April

It has been rainy for a few days, and since I also feel restricted by lockdown, I have taken to re-editing old photos. Mainly, since this is April, I have been opening April files from other years. I found significant local flooding just two years ago, which I put in our local FB as a reminder, but I didn't reprocess them. Then, I came to a folder from way back in 2015. We were at the cottage with our in-laws. The ladies went out for the day, so my brother-in-law and I hit the rural roads with our cameras.

On a very rural road at the far end of a property, we saw a truck embedded in the Precambrian rock. There is also a bicycle on a ledge (look to the left) and a tricycle below at ground level along with some Christmas decorations. The original photo was vertical and covered a lot more area from bottom to top. I cropped deeply and converted to b&w. In this case, I think monochrome allowed me to emphasize the textures better.

Later along the same road, I took this detail photo of a rusty latch on an old shed. In the new edit, I opted to render the background boards to b&w but left the colour in the latch, I also cropped this one but not nearly so much. I had the latch more centered in the original but cropped a bit off the top and right to get it into this offset position which I find more pleasing.

Finally, for today anyway, I converted a photo of a disused Community Centre into b&w and also cropped some from the left as there were just more trees over there, and I wanted to bring greater focus to the building.  I love the result. Oh . . .  I almost forgot to mention that I swapped the sky which was just a solid blue in the original version. I just wanted a little more interest up there. I had almost forgotten that I had done this.

Not so very long ago, I had no inkling that I would become so interested in b&w photography, but I have been finding that I can often push the editing more than I can in colour and focus , and at least sometimes draw greater attention to where I want it to go. I have been enjoying the process.

All three of these photos have been cropped in the re-editing: the first one of the truck in the rock especially. I like to think that these six years later my vision in-camera has improved and that I would now take photos that would require less cropping afterward. However, although one can sometimes crop in camera, it is less natural and takes extra steps because the camera defaults to a traditional 4x6 format, like you see in postcards.

We both took many images that day, and I most certainly liked a lot of them and how I edited them six years ago, and I see no need to re-edit them. But going back to then from now, gave me a different perspective on some of them.

Largely for my own benefit, here are a few links to blog posts from back then. Both of these posts centered on photos of a single piece of heavy machinery that we came across elsewhere on the same road.

Working the Scene and Working the Darkroom

I was really surprised to discover that I made a slideshow of the machinery photos and actually went as far as including a soundtrack: The Champion in a Slideshow. 

Old and New Again

With nothing else to post today, I remembered that I had this photo in the queue: an old pic of town hall composited into the modern scene.

The river view has changed a lot. All of those buildings below and to the left are long gone. The right side was also quite industrial at one point.

I have previously posted two other old and new photos here and here.

I would be fine with not having a post for a day or even longer, but I have been meaning to post this for quite some time. 

AC Revises His Post

I had some semi serious pandemic stuff in this post, but I have revised twice in a major way and eliminated that completely because I am weary of it all. I am sure that there will be more to write, and likely sooner than later, but for now, let us ignore Jake Tapper's slamming of our country in favour of a wee bit of humour. 

First, I stumbled across this ↓ juxtaposition of two consecutive posts on my FB stream. For a brief moment, I read them as one and wondered: What the heck?! Did the poster find a giraffe costume, the letter K, or what? Call it a giraffe gaff on my part, for I didn't notice the word, visa, at first. I do tend to skim and miss things.

Shortly thereafter and just a few posts down from the giraffe, this tickled my funny bone.

This was on the morning, when Lacey was insistent that I arise at 5:30 after a short night by continually headbutting me and gently gnawing on my arm. I got up and hand-fed her kibble, which is our usual morning ritual. Then, the imp went off for a nap while I was left sitting in a bit of a stupor.

So here is a cat post although Lacey is a feline who does not do boxes. She is not normal, I tells yiz.

For my final attempt at humour, I offer this graphic to fully explain how to recognize Canada Geese.

I wish y'all a fine Thursday.