Rambles

Talk about measuring success in small packages, I finally got out in a boat with a camera a couple of times and I’m calling that a success. Well, in a way it is and doubly so. I not only managed to finally get out on the water again but I took a camera along and actually used it.

An evening on the lake.

Of course the first day out, the timing was occasioned by friends visiting who brought their own canoe and were determined to go for a paddle, we had some great bird sightings (eagle, merganzers, black ducks and loons) and I had the wrong lens on the camera and no camera bag with an option. I got some interesting shots, but not the kind I was wishing I could have gotten. The eagle was in the middle of a meal and sat quite patiently, but there’s only so close you can get without upsetting things and an 85mm lens just won’t do it.

A troop of mergansers all in a bunch.

Just out of reach with the 85mm.

Preening Black Ducks.

So the next day, when I went out with the lens I had wished I had on the previous day, the pickings were much slimmer—though not absent. But here’s hoping it’s the beginning of a more photographically prolific period.

Getting in closer to the Black Ducks.

Ducklings that got so close they were inside the minimum focusing distance of the lens.

Burdette

The big project of the past month or so has been completed. “The Imaginary Invalid” opened on Wednesday night to a sold-out house. What a great way to open. The next two nights were smaller audiences, but they didn’t let their size diminish response. The show is off to a great start and promises to be a lot of fun for both cast and audience for the rest of Pendragon’s season.

Right after that show got opened, the focus at the theater shifted to preparations for one of the big special events of the 30^th Anniversary celebration. We did one read-thru and one sorta blocking rehearsal for one staged reading of “The Royal Family” by Kaufman and Ferber. The cast was made up of former company members reaching back through Pendragon’s entire 30 year history. It was a lot of fun and proved to be a great way to celebrate. It got a lot of us on stage with others we had never had the pleasure of playing with before.

Here's most of the reunion cast of Pendragon's Royal Family.

Now, with any luck, I’ll be able to put my photographer’s hat back on and get crackin with making some new images. I think I remember sort of how that camera thingy works. No photography, no paddling and no biking for way too long. Time to change all of that.

Burdette

Things have been very busy lately, but not busy with taking pictures. I am in the midst, actually nearing the end, of directing a show at good old Pendragon Theater. The title of the show is The Imaginary Invalid (a grand old chestnut written by the French playwright Molière in 1673). We’re working with a delightful adaptation by Constance Congdon and are having a lot of fun with it.

But it is a lot of work, so I haven’t been out and about with a camera in-hand much latley at all. The best I have been able to manage are some PR shots I took the other night at rehearsal.

Beline and Argan in Invalid.

Angelique and Cleante (the young lovers, of course).

Angelique and Beline (her overbearing stepmother).

The show opens at Pendragon on the 14^th of July. So if you’re in the area, come by and check it out. It will be running through the summer and right into the fall.

At the moment, Fall sounds very good. We, along with pretty much all of the east coast of the US of A, are in the grips of a significant heat wave. Happily, one of the best air conditioned places in the area is the theater. It’s made rehearsals quite refreshing. The box referred to above is actually the theater. Usually when you’re in the midst of a rehearsal period, you occasionally glance out the door and wish you were outside and able to enjoy the summer weather, especially after a north country winter. But right now, with the heat, being inside the box ain’t so bad. See you at the play. Production photos will be getting posted in my Theater section some time soon.

Burdette

I’m at Great Camp Sagamore conducting my Photoshop Workshop (see the Workshop page), but I have to mention the nice little nature lesson we got to observe the other day. I was coming down the driveway after taking the dog for his mid-morning constitutional when I noticed something unusual at the end of the walkway—the dog noticed it to. I was concerned that he might try to attack it or at least rush forward to check it out. Neither of which would have been good—for the dog.

It was a large, dark lump with legs. It was a very respectably sized snapping turtle. A snapping turtle mama who was in the process of inspecting our yard for a place to deposit her eggs.

This is the Snapper by the walkway.

Here's a close-up of her "smiling" face. Similar to what I had on my home page last week.

This was about 9:00. She spent the next six or seven hours navigating slowly around the yard before she finally found a place that suited her. She seemed to be extremely discriminating about finding just the right place. But who can blame her? She was just being a conscientious mommy and wanting the very best for her future progeny. I’m not sure she found it, but what do I know about good places to plant turtle eggs? The dog, by the way, seemed to have known instinctively that this was one moving object (slow moving as it was) that he didn’t want to mess with and prudently kept his distance.

Either digging or planting, not sure which--hard to tell.

She eventually settled on a spot, and set about the deliberate and painstaking task of digging a hole and laying her eggs. It was a slow-motion operation, but ultimately a successful one. After she lumbered off toward the water, we were able to mark and protect the spot and now we are in “wait” mode to see what will emerge later this fall.

Burdette

A couple of weeks ago, returning from a little outing in my kayak, with camera of course, I set the waterproof bag containing the camera (not being a complete fool—he says optimistically) on a low bench while I put the boat away. While I was distracted by the boat, something apparently shifted in the camera bag and it fell off the bench. I heard the “clunk” and feeling my stomach do the same thing rushed to the bag. I immediately took the camera out and turned it on. It worked! Relieved, I put it back in the bag and went on about my business.

It wasn’t until a couple of day later that I had occasion to use the camera again. It was one of my early Monday morning sessions—4:30 am and mostly dark. I got the camera all set up on the tripod and got set to take my first picture. It was dark, but not as dark as the camera seemed to think it was. In order to get any image at all, I was having to open the shutter for more than 20 seconds! That was when I realized that the lens aperture was frozen at f/95. In other words, the camera survived the fall, but the lens hadn’t. I managed to get the shots I needed that morning, but it was a long, slow process. The lens that had been on the camera when it fell was the 18mm – 135mm kit lens that come with the D300 and it seems to be toast. So, time for a new lens, since none of my other lenses can handle the wider end of the spectrum on the 300’s APS sensor.

Getting a new lens can be almost as much fun, and as complicated, as getting a new camera—And, I might add, almost as expensive. I decided to not just replace the kit lens, but to do an upgrade while I was at it. After much searching (Thanks, Internet) and no small amount of angst, I decided to go with Nikon’s 16mm-85mm VR lens. It’s my first VR (vibration reduction) lens and so far I like it a lot. The VR feature helps to make up for the smaller apertures the lens has. To go with a similar lens with a larger aperture, like 2.8 or something, would have doubled the cost and I wasn’t quite in the mood for THAT much of an upgrade.

So here are some of the early pics with the new lens. It has a pretty decent macro capability which means I’m able to get in a lot closer than the old lens without having to change out to a dedicated macro lens. Good feature since I do like shooting up close and personal.

One of the first shots with the new lens.

Does well in close too.

Testing the VR feature, it’s very obvious that I’ve been able to get some nice sharp images (it seems to be a good sharp lens anyway) at slow shutter speeds. No question, it’s my new “standard” lens and it’s working.

And sharp. Even hand-held at slow shutter speeds.

Burdette

Tempus Fugit. Actually, “tomorrow” is already two days ago. (You would need to read the previous post to make any sense at all of this opening.) But I did get out early on Monday morning to finish off my Monday Mornings in May series. And boy are May mornings early! I was out with camera in-hand, well on-tripod in fact (morning light can be pretty dim – who knew?), by 4:30 am. Pheeeeuuuww! Final sample in series below.

Morning, May 31, 2010

So that took care of the project. It completed, by definition, the final event of the project. “Monday mornings in May” is a pretty definite timeframe. Defining a project that is so date specific can be a real boon. It automatically sets a couple of the most important parameters of a project. Sometimes knowing, or deciding, when to begin and especially when or how to end a project can be a challenge. Working on a project with built-in time limitations removes that part of the problem. And, since the project began with a clear idea of its finished form, all that remains is to print the combined images and mount and frame it. Another benefit of this particular project was that it was a good reminder of the fact that projects can be small and relatively unambitious and still be worthwhile. To borrow a phrase, it pays to “just do it.”

The image above was shot as the sun was rising and as you can see the air was quite clear. One of the interesting things about that particular morning was how quickly things changed. Here is a picture taken just a couple of hours later – with very different air quality.

Smoky sky.

Smoke from large forest fires burning in the Canadian province of Quebec just to our north blew in and by mid-morning the more distant mountain range was completely obscured and the not-so-distant shoreline was barely visible. Another reminder of how quickly things change and how fleeting any given moment can be. Tempus does indeed fugit.

Burdette

I keep telling myself that I need to come up with projects, photographic projects, to assign myself to keep me thinking about and working with images – especially new images. I find that the “coming up with” part of the equation is not really all that difficult – I have dozens of project ideas sitting in notebooks and in computer “note” files waiting to be set in motion. The real difficulty is the “setting in motion” part.

It’s that inability, or simple unwillingness, to overcome the inertia of NOT doing and getting off my duff and out of my comfort zone for awhile and DOING it. You know how it is. There’s always other things that are more pressing, the timing’s not quite right, the weather’s too hot too cold too wet too dry too sunny too cloudy too whatever, or….. (fill in the blank).

Recently, a little over a month ago, I came up a project (two projects actually, but only one has taken off yet) that was pretty date specific so I really had to fit it into a definite time span. I’ve been doing a series of one scene on consecutive Mondays in the month of May. It’s gotten me up and out on four consecutive Mondays (one more to go) with camera in-hand ready to do some shooting. It’s been great, but I had forgotten how early the sun rises in the merry month of May. Waaayy early. Here are some samples.

Morning, May 3, 2010.

Morning, May 10, 2010.

Morning, May 17, 2010.

Morning, May 24, 2010.

Wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Burdette

Time to get the workshop front and center. This is a shameless piece of self-promotion. In just a bit less than one month, I’m going to be conducting a workshop at Great Camp Sagamore designed to get new-comers up and running in Photoshop. It’s a tremendous opportunity to get concentrated instruction on a great program in a fantastic setting. Photoshop, the undisputed leader in image editing programs, unfortunately comes with a pretty steep learning curve. The goal of this workshop is to provide hands-on instruction designed to guide participants through the daunting web of menus and tools that can stand between being frustrated by the program or being able to take advantage of it’s editing power.

Main Lodge and dining hall at Sagamore.

Looking down the porch of the Main Lodge.

And what a setting to do it in! Great Camp Sagamore is one of the few remaining Adirondack great camps still available for programs open to the general public. Check out the Sagamore web site to see what a special place it is. This is a four-day workshop entirely focused on Photoshop. Room and board at Great Camp Sagamore are part of the package and Sagamore offers some outstanding photo ops.

One of many marvelous corners.

One important caveat is that students do need to provide their own computers. Laptops, of course, are easier to handle and transport, but a desktop computer could be utilized as they can be set-up in the classroom and left throughout the workshop. Prior knowledge of or experience with the Photoshop program is not necessary, but it will be assumed that students come with a reasonable grounding in basic computer operations and a familiarity with file management procedures.

Last snowfall of the season-hopefully.

You could participate in this workshop even if you don’t have Photoshop on your computer. The teaching environment for the class will be Photoshop Elements. Elements is a consumer oriented version of the full Photoshop program. While it is nearly identical in the implementation of Photoshop’s basic features, it is considerably more accessible and affordable. If you don’t have it, thirty-day free trials of Elements will be available at the workshop.

Another boring Merlin update- Merlin and the stick.

To maximize student/teacher interaction, class size is being kept small. But there are still a few spaces available. Contact Sagamore for registration information to be a part of this great experience and take your photo processing skills to the next level.

Burdette

OK, OK. We’ve been back from our western trip for weeks already. It’s time to wrap it up and move on. So, here are the final images snagged on that trip. These are shots taken in the general vicinity of Boise, ID where we were genially guided by a wonderful Physical Therapist who also happens to be my niece—Thanks Amy.

Balanced Rock, near Twin Falls.

Section of Shoshone Falls.

Snake River bridge at Twin Falls.

Along the Payette River.

Early beach goers on the shore of Lake Payette.

Now that that’s out of the way, it’s time to look ahead. Toward the end of June I’ll be conducting a workshop on Photoshop at the ever delightful Great Camp Sagamore. In order to permit lots of teacher-student interaction, the class size is strictly limited. But there are a few places still available, so if you have, or know anyone who has, any interest in getting some great hands-on instruction in the basics of Photoshop and spending five days at one of the premiere Great Camps of the Adirondacks, here’s a terrific opportunity. You can click on the links above to be directed to pages with more information about the workshop.

Burdette

Nothing much to say about these. They pretty much speak for themselves – picture worth …. etc.

Columbia River Gorge from old scenic highway.

From Portland we headed east up the Columbia River Gorge. It took us three hours to go 35 miles–too many waterfalls. After that we made better time but would have been slowed more than we were if Mt. Hood hadn’t been cloaked in clouds. Spent the night in Bend and had a wonderful dinner at Typhoon, the town’s Thai restaurant.

Multnomah Falls- big, high and popular.

Near Warm Springs on Rte. 26 saw one of the most intense rainbows ever.

Also along Rte.26, the next day, a tree full of shoes.

Like I said, SHOES.

The next day we followed Hwy 26 east until we picked up IH84 for the final leg into Boise.

Enough with the pictures already! More on Boise later.

Burdette