Caturday 81: Lacey the Editor

I already posted today, but I found this buried in the queue, and it is Caturday after all.

Hey Lady! Watch your spelling!

That, my dear, is a comma splice.

Barn Again

I am coming right back at you with more barn photos. I'll begin with the final capture that I took on that day with Nick. The angular distortion is due to the effect from my wide angle lens. Frankly, I sometimes like wide angle distortion, and I like this photo. This last photo of the shoot was almost an afterthought. I was really done but Nick was still shooting, so I took another for something to do. Oddly enough, I think it may be my fave of the shoot.

As with some of the other photos, both yesterday and today, this was two-shot HDR merge in post processing: one exposure for the barn and a darker exposure to bring out some detail in the sky.

This is another Photoshop double exposure that I described doing yesterday, and it is almost the same as yesterdays' photo, but nothing is ever exactly the same.

While I converted many to mono, I kept this in colour. I like the bits of rusty red here and there.

Back to mono.

Finally, a true in-camera double exposure: a barn shot and a grass shot. The grass is a little too dominant over the barn, but the abstract is kind of interesting and fun. I probably could have achieved better results by doing it in Photoshop rather than in-camera, but it is also fun to see what the camera comes up with. I saw Nick’s version of this photo, or of a very similar one, and the overlying grass was not as dominant in his version. Different cameras behave in different ways. 

It was muddy on the farm and the light wasn’t special on this occasion, but perhaps we will return. I am thinking that it will be drier and warmer in another month, but, of course, there will be bugs by then. Sigh. 

Barnstorming with Nick

Nick had told me of a barn that he found. He had passed it one day when there were great clouds and light, but, unfortunately, he didn't have his camera. Then, I think he returned once later for a dawn shoot.

On Monday, he saw promising afternoon clouds and light locally, so he called me at almost the last minute, and we arrived at the barn around suppertime. As is the way with outdoor photography, by the time that we arrived at the location, we were not greeted by either great skies or great light, but we pulled out our gear and made photographs regardless.

Nick was introducing me to double exposure photography. I have dabbled a very little, but Nick has done quite bit of experimentation. Het set me up and told me what to do. For this initial image, I first photographed the barn and then I took a separate photo of the sky in another direction. 

As long as we put the camera into double exposure mode, it will blend the two images as it sees fit. This is the result, or close to it. I say, close to it, because it is not exactly SOOC (Straight Out Of the Camera) because one still does a little post processing. For one thing, I am pretty sure that I darkened the sky and lightened the barn a bit

 

The next photo was a similar setup at about the same time and place as above but using a different part of the sky for the second shot. However, I didn't care for the camera's blending. Fortunately, I had programmed the camera to save the two individual photos as well as the blended result, so I took the two individual photos and layered them myself in Photoshop. Therefore, it is a double exposure but done in Photoshop and not in camera. I also decided that I would convert to b&w. The result is a more traditional photo than the above, and I quite like it.

We moved closer to the barn where among other setups, I chose the angle, below. I will limit today's post to four photos, but I think that I can safely promise to post photos very soon. Or is that more of  threat than a promise? 

This next image was also from two exposures, but I didn't shift the camera this time. I just made a normal exposure for the barn, but then I made a darker one because the barn exposure had blanked the sky. 

In effect, this was an HDR image, for those who might know what that means. It was not done with HDR processing, however. Once again, a few might know what I mean by that.

Then, Nick had me do some more multiple exposure photography. Below, I took one shot of part of the barn and another just of the grass. Once again, I didn't love the blended result from the camera, so as above I combined the two images manually in Photoshop. I think it's an interesting outcome.

Whatever your opinion of these experiments, I found it really nice to be out there photographing with a friend and trying some new things, both in the field and also later at home on the computer.

I shall return to you soon with more photos from the shoot and will also, hopefully, also return to the barn at some point in nicer weather and at a nicer time of day.

On the Very Brown Trail

Some of you have noticed that I have been doing comment moderation for a couple of days because I was being spammed rather furiously. One morning I woke up to 84 spams. I dealt with the the spams and also reported Jessie, but there were soon a 50 more.

I hate moderating and have now returned to normal because, let's face it, the blogger spam trap captures almost all of the spam. If it misses a few, I can easily send them into the great beyond in another simple step. It's just that the hundreds from Jessie caused me to turn up the security temporarily and probably needlessly.

===========================

Chronologically, this post came before croci and snow storms, but those posts seemed that they should take precedence, so I take you back to the beginning of the week.

The options for our daily hobble have been greatly reduced for the past few months because the trail isn't cleared during winter and walking becomes too difficult, or at least it does for a pair of seniors. First there comes snow, and then melting and refreezing and resulting ice, and it goes on and on.

We become reduced to three main options: the bridge (trail), our neighbourhood, and downtown. Gone are Riverside Park, and the Riverwalk Trail, and even our local part for some of the time

There are two or three options for the Riverwalk Trail. On Monday, we drove to the arena and walked from there.

We chose to get back onto the trail because it was mighty windy — AGAIN! — and the trail is usually a bit sheltered. But you can see from the billowing of Sue's cape that we weren't able to escape the stiff breeze nearly as much as we would have liked.

The river beyond Sue is swollen but not as much as in some years. Although I recently have been taking whitewater photos, the volume has generally been a little less this year, despite us having endured a snowy winter.

The world is not terribly attractive in this brown phase when the snow is gone (although it did snow on the next day) but when the greening has not begun. Nevertheless, we and a very few other hardy souls made the most of it.

Perhaps, we will soon try Riverside Park as well. There is still a bit of flooding in there, but I expect that a good chunk of the park path is walkable or soon will be.

After the Lord Mayor's Show

Sue's grandad, when he was playing cribbage with his son who was also Sue's dad, often said, "After the Lord Mayor's show comes the garbage wagon." Of course, he would say this after he had been dealt a poor hand after a good one. He was being polite because I think the actual expression used a word other than garbage.

In our case, after the day of the croci, we had a most awful storm. We not only got inches of heavy, wet snow, but it was blowing a hoolie out there.

One thing about dense, wet snow is that it sticks to the trees, and it looks quite pretty. I took this from my den window shortly after arising.

The neighbour across the way was out there shovelling but the
driveway contractors did come by later.

We thought that we would brave the weather to get a few more snow-on-trees photos, but oh my dog! the wind was absolutely fierce. 

Because we have done this composition several times recently to measure the snow, Sue had me pose here once again. By the way, the core of the winter snow pile is still there underneath the new stuff.

We have a sign supporting the local Liberal candidate, but some have been vandalized.
The snow plow sign will be removed next week.

Sue still had her phone out, but mine was stuck in my pocket, so I suggested that she could take a photo of the neighbours' flag by the snowy tree.

Is there a metaphor here about standing strong and proud through the storms?

We walked south instead of the usual north which normally takes us to the park. I am sure that some of the trees in the park would have looked good in the snow, but south is a shorter to get a road and tree photo. The first one looks east along Lake Ave while  the second is kitty-corner to the first.

We soon turned tail and headed for home because the weather was downright miserable and nasty.

Two Near-Miracles

We confined our Monday walk to the local neighbourhood, which of course, takes us through the little park, the one with the pond. The pond was devoid of fowl except for a solitary duck, and, although we always take a look to see if there's a photo, there wasn't, and so we kept on walking to the boulders around which someone at sometime did some planting.

I know that there are crocus bulbs in there on the other side from the path, which in the photo is in the background beyond the boulder. Between the grass and the rocks there are plantings, and the tiny bits  of green that you see are croci.

I didn't expect to see any flowers yet, but there were four, and that is near-miracle #1, considering recent weather.

I know that I was being silly, but I had to do it, which of course, dirtied my clothes. The price we pay for our art.

Getting down was near-miracle ##2, and I suppose that you could say that getting back up might be near-miracle #3, but I am happy to call it just two near-miracles. By the way, that picture of the yellow crocus was blurry, but a one of the purple crocuses was better.

First, while Sue was shooting other purple croci, I decided that just the unflowered shoots held some interest for me. The wide angle phone lens makes the back boulders look like mountains.

Zooming in the the crocus shoots.

Once Sue, had finished with the purple croci, I shifted over and took my shot. With a little care plus a little post editing, I think the result from the phone is actually pretty good. And that might be considered another near-miracle, but I'll leave it at two because I don't want to be bothered changing the title.

Unfortunately, as I awake on this next morn, the poor wee things will be covered in snow, and there are many school bus cancellations or delays.

American Friends

Americans are so nice, at least those whom I have met and known, be it in real or cyber life, as in the blogosphere. They are pretty understanding about Canada as we read in this post from the Palmer Report from April 06 2025 that I leave with you, below. For me, the friendship isn't over on a personal level, but it sure has changed on the world stage.

 

Best friends go together like peas in a pod. Best friends are often the glue that holds one together; they can also act as healing balms to soothe, to encourage, and to love unconditionally. Best friends are for enjoying sunny times out and whispering confidences late at night. Best friends never judge you—they love you for who you are, and their adoration is evident in their daily actions and words.

And for a long time, that was exactly how it was between the United States and Canada. Their love for each other was evident—until Donald Trump snuffed out the light of love quicker than one could say, senile traitor. “Over.” A breakup has occurred, unraveling a friendship. Canada has announced that its friendship with us “is over.”

“It’s over.” A century and a half of love, friendship, and goodwill. The fault lies on the doorstep of a Putin-loving felon. Our friendship survived: The Great Depression. The Cold War. 9/11. But now — all goodwill has vanished. Prime Minister Mark Carney made this announcement, and I imagine he made it with sorrow: “We will need to ensure that Canada can succeed in a drastically different world.”

Yes, it IS different. Donald Trump has made it so. Can you blame Canada? Threats of annexation. Crippling tariffs. No wonder Canada is so upset. DONALD TRUMP CAUSED THIS BREAKUP. But there is cause for hope, I would like Canada to know that WE, the American people, still love them.

. . .

We think the world of them. And you know what, friends and readers? All breakups are not permanent. Sometimes, reconciliation can and does happen. That is what will happen here eventually. We will once again come together, a festival of lights and apologize—apologize to Canada—for the deranged senility and viral impudence of one man who tried to split us, but did not succeed.