Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category
Since today is Sunday and a day of rest for many of you, I thought a few miscellaneous items and a little humor might be the thing to do. It’s a late Summer’s day on a holiday weekend that begins to prepare us for what’s coming, SNOW.
My better-half and I are looking forward to the upcoming Fryeburg Fair which we attend every year. It’s a huge gathering of every farmer and their livestock from across the country. This year will be the first visit for her new grandson and she can’t wait to drag his little butt there to look at the pigs. As I’ve mentioned previously my better-half has something of a pig fetish. We’ll spend between eight and ten hours eating terribly unhealthy food, walking miles and miles through huge crowds, and attending the Pig Scramble and Woodsman contests. I know it sounds a little lame but it really isn’t. It’s one of the few things we both enjoy a great deal.
We’re also looking forward to taking hundreds of photographs of the Fall season whose beauty never ceases to amaze. Actually Fall has slowly over the years become my favorite time of the year. We’ll have the harvest season, Fall foliage, and many small local fairs to visit on most weekends. You can say what you want but small local fairs are the best. It will again be a great time for our family and friends.
My first item today is a joke I stumbled on recently. It is laugh-out-loud funny and I hope you enjoy it.
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In 1986, Mkele Mbembe was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Northwestern University.
On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Mbembe approached it very carefully.
He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant’s foot and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as he could, Mbembe worked the wood out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot.
The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments. Mbembe stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away.
Mbembe never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.
Twenty years later, Mbembe was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Mbembe and his son Tapu were standing.
The large bull elephant stared at Mbembe, lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man. Remembering the encounter in 1986, Mbembe couldn’t help wondering if this was the same elephant.
Mbembe summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Mbembe’ s legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly .
Probably wasn’t the same elephant.
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I would also like to take a few minutes to thank these new followers to this blog. I include their links as well and I hope you give their blogs a look-see and enjoy reading them as much as I do. Thanks to them all.
Eric Carlson, Karen Ellis, dmmd1983, L-Jay Health, What Happens to Us, mr688475, growupproper, mychangeviews, Nate Ollie, adoptingjames, Rein, jasminekeclipse, projectlighttolife, Gabriel Lucatero.
HAVE A GREAT LABOR DAY WEEKEND
Today turned into a real adventure quite by accident. The sun was shining and I had no plans of any kind for a change. My only chore was to deliver my better-half to work and to pick her up later in the afternoon. I suppose I could have just worked around the house or even cut the grass but I wanted something a little more interesting.
I purchased a new Nikon SLR two weeks ago and I really needed to spend a little time learning how to use it. I packed up my camera and the rest of my equipment and made my way to the marshland located along the coast. I arrived there in short order and made my preparations to enter the swamp. I was there primarily to photograph dragonflies but I had a small problem. If I doused myself in Off then the dragonflies were sure not to come near me but if I didn’t use the Off I was sure to be eaten alive by thousands of mosquitos. I used a moderate amount of the spray, picked up my camera and monopod and trekked into the swamps.
Photographing insects requires the use of a macro lens that then requires the use of a monopod to steady the camera to get that perfectly clear shot. I have to say it sounds much easier than it actually is. I sat crouched in that damn swamp for two hours because I’ve been told that patience is always necessary for any photographer. It was close to eighty-five degrees with no breeze of any kind. I began to sweat like I’d just run the Boston marathon. Unfortunately bugs just love sweaty humans to buzz around and bother and then to sting when they’re swatted away. It became quite difficult to sit quietly while surrounded by a few hundred of my newest friends. Photography Tip #1: Use as much bug spray as you can. Take a damn bath in it if you must.
I managed between bites to take a number of shots but even the dragonflies were being difficult. Due to my constant swatting of bugs I was apparently scaring them off as well. Everything was just freaking perfect. Oh yeah, did I mention there are also snakes in that swamp. As I squatted there I must have seen six or seven slithering in the waters around me. Photography Tip #2: Never wear sneakers when working in a swamp, it bothers the snakes.
I lasted as long as I could and actually was able to take a few dozen pictures and a few of them appear to be pretty good. I’m really happy with the new camera and I’m sure we’ll have a long and happy relationship together. It felt good to get out in the wild for a bit but it will probably take a few days for all of these bug bites to heal. I can’t wait to get these photo’s onto my computer later so I can really see if there as good as I think they are.
All in all it was a fun day and I look forward to many more just like it before the snow flies. The downside to any really good day is returning to reality which always kind of sucks. I’ll pick up my better-half in a few minutes and then head home for dinner and a quiet night.
It’s time for a regular journal entry to help me to catch up on things as the summer moves along. The heat wave has finally broken and we’re having a few intermittent rain showers on some really beautiful and sunny days. For the past few days we’ve had family visitors from Rhode Island who needed a little Maine getaway to clear their heads and breath some clean fresh air.
The guests arrived late yesterday evening after a bout with car problems. It’s funny (or not) how and when batteries decide to die. It’s never in your driveway but always on the road, miles from anywhere, and raining. We were up chatting and catching up until 2am and and slept in the next morning since it was lightly raining. It gave us a chance to shop for a new battery and install it before the rain ended. That evening we decided a visit to the Old Orchard Beach amusement park was in order and we had a great time.
The rain stopped and the tourists and visitors were out in large numbers enjoying the cool evening air. We hit the arcades for a few games and after blowing ten bucks throwing bean bags at balloons I won an ugly green stuffed animal. My better-half was thrilled and I’ll probably be seeing that stupid thing for the rest of my life. She bonded with it immediately and gave it a cutsy name before we even returned home. Our group rode a few rides , took lots of photo’s, and had a really fun evening.
We were in bed at a reasonable hour in anticipation of an early start in the morning. We visited a local church fair the next day. It’s one we attend annually and really enjoy. My better-half loves the flea market and I’m there for the excellent french fries and hot sausage sandwiches. They have a huge tent filled with books at dirt cheap prices and I’m usually able to buy enough books to get me through the winter.
Our visitors left after a few hours to return home to Rhode Island. The better-half and I stayed a while longer after running into a few old friends. She loves the raffles and spent the last hour sitting at a table and filling out raffle tickets. The worst thing to happen last year was that she won one of the small raffles. Now she’s hooked and thinks she’s going o win every year. It’s all for a good cause though but I just wish she’d win something I could use.
All in all a good couple of days as we start our march towards the Fall season. I love the fact that there’s sure to be a small community fair almost every weekend from now until late October. Lots of fairs and lots of fun.
Time for a journal entry and to play a little catch-up with what’s happening in my boring life. First things first; it’s freaking hot, second; it’s freaking humid, and thirdly; I’m freaking sweating my ass off. There, I don’t feel any cooler or any better but it just felt good to bitch at someone other than my better-half. She’s has that “I’m going to kill you if you whine about the heat just one more time”, look in her eyes. Truthfully she can be a little scary when provoked.
I decided to live in Maine for a number of reasons. I dislike hot weather and I thought by moving here I could escape the worst of it. Well that dream ended this year. I might as well be living in Florida, Arizona, or even freaking Death Valley. I think it’s time for the better-half and me to consider moving north a few hundred miles where it’s a bit cooler. The downside to that is we’d be living in Canada. That’s almost as bad as living where it’s too hot. In my humble opinion Canada sucks both politically and personally. That should piss a few people off but I don’t really care, it’s to hot to give a damn.
I started out a few days ago to get into the woods to try out my new 24.5 megapixel Nikon camera. I lasted about as long as it took me to drive to the area. I would have looked silly with my camera and other equipment pulling a little red wagon behind me filled with bottles of water. Just too effing hot.
The all knowing and all seeing weather forecasters are predicting a break in the heat sometime before I die. I try never to believe them because they seem to be more wrong than right. We had a short period last night of actual real wind. I went out on the deck to enjoy the breeze and found out something else entirely. Black flies apparently love a cool breeze too. Between them and the mosquitos I was screwed. I retreated back into the gigantic oven we call our home and turned on every ceiling fan I could find. It was like trying to watch TV while sitting on an airport runway.
So I’ve bitched and complained as much as I care to about the weather. It’s time to return to my life and the birthday party due to start in an hour. I’m doing all the cooking on a nice hot grill. I just can’t get a break.
Before I go I’d like to thank the new followers of this blog. I hope you others visit their sites and enjoy their blogs as much as I do. Thank you all:
Cooper1505, Joanna, Three Wise Guys Podcast, Jimmy Benton, All Most Relevant, Lampsonirvine, Marcela Cava Balsa, tedgaming, Political Connection,
urbanwallart, Pinkopolis, ikeiaconis, sexytoyworld, Chris Martin, Matthew Richards, Julian Sherman, dcardiff, Spinnos Manolis, gardenofyvonne, Frankie Leone, Mazhar, painting13, A Southern Butterbean in Maine, loveanddatingforsingles, Jack Media, Big Blogger of Knowledge, zma752,
James Curnow, and Your Daily Phil.
Well, today was the Fourth and for a change the weather was absolutely perfect. Ninety degrees with a slight breeze along the shore to keep things just cool enough. We made our way to the town of Old Orchid Beach late in the morning and found the place already jammed with tourists. The beach was packed with thousands of people and if the car license plates we saw were accurate most of Massachusetts and Quebec had moved in for the holiday weekend.
The local business people decided to start early gouging as many visitors as possible with a new and higher parking lot charge, $25.00 for the day. Since last year the cost was between $10.00 and $15.00 we decided to find a parking spot in town on the street and to feed the parking meters. A huge pain in the ass but at the end of the day we saved about $15.00. Luckily we found a spot only two blocks from the beach so our walk wasn’t too bad.
We dropped our blanket under the Pier out of the sun and started snapping pictures in between trips into the water to cool off. We’ve been coming here for years and it was as crowded as we’ve ever seen it. After an hour or so we decided a meal or snack was in order. We trekked back to the car and did a quick strip tease on the street to change out our wet clothes. Thankfully the foot traffic in the area was light so my better-half’s rear half didn’t scare anyone too badly.
We ended up sitting on the shaded deck of the Surf 6 Club for a few refreshing drinks and a nosh of onion rings and chicken fingers. We met a few visiting tourists and were able to chat and have a great time. The band started playing at eleven am and were pretty good. They were playing not only for the customers of the club but for the hundreds of people nearby on the beach.
The OOB Pier extends out into the ocean for at lease three hundred yards and is covered with small shops and eating establishments. We worked our way to the end of the Pier for a a quick drink at the “Pier” bar and to take a few more photos of the beach goers from a different angle. The place was packed with tourists and everyone seemed to be enjoying the atmosphere and the dozens of bikini wearing female customers. We stayed only a half hour because we had to go and to feed the parking meter.
Next was the better-half’s favorite thing, shopping. We started hitting the shops to look through the tons of touristy junk with really unbelievably high prices. She was forced by her shopping addiction to make a few purchases and then we were off to the Arcade. She kicked my ass playing Air Hockey and followed her victory with a little Skee-Ball. We then strolled over to the amusement park.
We agreed that the cost for tickets on the rides was ridiculous so we took lots of photographs and just walked around enjoying the atmosphere. We hit a few more of the smaller shops in town as we made our way back to the car. The nicest part of these visits is that we live only seven or eight miles away and we returned home in short order.
Lounging on our deck and enjoying the cool breeze and a cooler drink was a perfect ending to a great day. The better-half just couldn’t stop herself from peppering the yard with firecrackers and Roman Candles. That was her extremely loud way to celebrate the country’s birthday. I was also pleased to see so many of the people in town and at the beach wearing red, white, and blue swim suits, head ware, t-shirts, and beach equipment. The meaning of the holiday wasn’t lost on most of us and that was nice to see.
We both hope your day was as nice as ours. Happy Birthday America!
It’s been a few weeks since I slipped back into journal mode but with the summer beginning I thought I should catch up a little. It’s been raining off and on for more than a week forcing us to be house-bound once again. With all of this rain the garden is flourishing and beginning to look like my own personal jungle.
The summer plans are once again being readjusted due to family obligations by my better-half. What I initially thought would be a quiet summer is slowly slipping away. I shouldn’t be all that surprised since it happens more often than not.
I spent more than a little time yesterday attempting to get my chores in order. If you garden you don’t need to be told just how important maintaining a compost pile is. Unfortunately that magic doesn’t just happen. It must be maintained just like anything else and this week I took steps to do just that. There’s nothing as much fun as standing ankle deep in compost and turning the pile. My compost consists primarily of grass clipping left to rot. The smell is unforgettable and the larger the pile becomes the worse the smell. With the over abundance of rain the amount of clippings being saved is huge. I no longer have a compost pile but a compost mountain. What a dirty but necessary job.
My cucumber wine is progressing nicely. The aroma is rather nice but I haven’t tasted it yet. It needs to progress a little further into the process because it would only taste like yeast at this stage. My better-half finally put up a batch of blueberry wine which we’re both looking forward to drinking. It seems that almost anything made with blueberries always tastes wonderful. The blueberries also make almost anything they’re mixed with taste even better. This Fall should be very productive for jams and jellies with the rain making for fat and luscious berries.
With the Fourth of July approaching we’re planning a couple of beach days. The weather looks as if it will be cooperating for a change so we’ll really be able to enjoy ourselves. The better-half is insisting we make a short visit to our local amusement park to enjoy a few rides and a visit to a small kiosk that specializes in Chinese chicken wings. She has a serious addiction to wings that hasn’t lessened over the years. Just recently we made a trek to our favorite spot in Portland for outstanding chicken wings. The Great Lost Bear is known for it’s hot wings and believe me they are unbelievable. Their super hot version will almost certainly kill you but I guarantee you’ll die happy with a smile on your face.
Now that the heaviest rain storms are over and things are drying out I’ll be able to get into the woods for some head-clearing alone time. My camera and lenses have been cleaned to within an inch of their lives and are ready for some heavy use. I can’t wait.
So, we’ll celebrate the countries birthday this coming week as well as the life, death, and times of Thomas Jefferson. I’m pretty sure if he were here he wouldn’t be celebrating all that much but that just my humble opinion. I’ll get back to my normal postings soon enough and I’m looking forward to an interesting summer. I hope you are as well.
Today was all about relaxing. My better-half and I decided to just take the day, go where we please, relax a little, and we did just that. We had a great breakfast at home and then headed for the coast to snap some pictures. As expected traffic was heavier than usual with the influx of tourist beginning to increase. The summer season is almost upon us.
Our first stop was the Portland Head Light which is a light house on a point of land at the entry to Portland harbor. This is a favorite spot for tourists from all over the country if the license plates we saw today were any indication. My luck much be changing because just as we drove past the main entrance someone pulled out and left me the best damn parking spot you can get. We took plenty of pictures, spent some time in the gift shop, and then near the water watching the boats come and go. It’s a very relaxing place and the adjacent park was filled with kids and parents flying kits, throwing Frisbees, and playing ball. It was very nice.
We then left the park and drove through the suburbs of Portland and headed northwest out of the city. We drove at least a hundred miles in a large circle covering a large portion of southern Maine. We stopped to shop in a number of antique shops because I was hot to buy something today. Unfortunately for me my better-half was not. We saw many really cool things but ended up buying nothing at all. I found a working Dictaphone circa 1865 with a number of wax cylinders still intact and workable. It was in beautiful condition and I had a hard time walking away from it. For $150.00 it could have been all mine. It still may be mine. My better-half returns to wok tomorrow which may force me drive back to that shop and make the purchase anyway. Should I or shouldn’t I? I’ll know tomorrow when I get out of bed.
We had a great day together and it gave us a chance to reconnect after a few weeks of her hectic work schedule. We antiqued a little and then stopped along the road to see some lambs and take their pictures. I also got some great shots of my better-half chasing a flock of turkeys through a farmers field trying to snap pictures while running. It was really funny and I’ve got it all on my camera to be used later to embarrass her. Life is good.
We returned home tired but relaxed. She’s back to work tomorrow where the stress will start working on her all over again. Since this was my official Fathers Day celebration I was happy as I could be. Steaks on the grill later, a nice glass of wine or two, and hopefully a restful nights sleep afterwards. If you get my drift.
I’ve been having some fun with lists for the last week but I think it’s time to step back into journal mode to update a few personal things. With this continuing rain we’ve been having the garden has really taken off. Last year when I planted my first rhubarb plant after three months it was approximately one foot high and I was really concerned that it wouldn’t make it through the winter. As of yesterday that stupid plant is now over six feet high and going strong. It looks like I’ll harvest enough seeds from it to plant a few more places around the property. You just can’t have too much of that wonderful stuff around since this years current price is hovering around $3.80 a pound. That s just highway robbery in my view so the more I grow the better.
Last weekend I spent a portion of Saturday doing the ceiling fan shuffle. I installed a new sleeker model fan with a light kit in our bedroom and a matching fan without a light kit into the room I spent all winter remodeling. The remodeled room is almost ninety percent furnished with nothing left to do except put a organizer system into the closet. It looks freaking fabulous. I then took the old fan from our bedroom and installed conveniently into my man cave directly above my computer desk. That will make for a nice cool blogging summer.
Tonight we were invited to my better-half’s daughter’s home for shish kabobs on the grill. With the school year almost over she’s preparing for her first summer vacation with the new baby. After teaching everyone else’s kids all year, she can now spend some quality time with her son. I see a lot of beach time in his immediate future which he will probably love. We were able to catch up on things a little and enjoyed the meal and conversation immensely. We made an early night of it and returned home with full bellies and smiles on our faces. It was a very nice visit.
We’re do for what looks like two or three more days of rain which is always badly needed to keep the garden healthy. That should give me enough time to continue work on a project I started more than a year ago. I’ve been working off and on a somewhat strange abstract bust of my better-half and I’m finally making some real progress on it since the room remodel was completed. I recently finished the hair which was a tedious job and within a month I should have this project finally completed.
We’re having a really great start to the Spring and Summer and plans are already taking shape for a long weekend to the wilds of northern Maine to get into the woods and take as many pictures as necessary to fill every memory card we have.
We also have an obligatory two day trip to visit her family in Rhode Island which should be fun too. This could actually turn into a rather nice summer barring any unplanned catastrophes. We plan on enjoying it as much as we possibly can before the next long winter begins. I might even be talked into a night at the amusement park in Old Orchard Beach. You’re never too old to jump on a ride or two and have a little fun.
Enjoy your summer.
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