G

“G” key in Lightroom defaults to “grid” pattern in the Library. In any window on the Mac pressing the “g” key defaults to the file with that name. ??? Ok,, the name of this file is “IMG_0004.” So? Why? Why does it default to this image? It turns out to be the first image on my Canon G7X – ever. So? Dunno. Meanwhile I hit “g” when I meant to go to the image of Quinn that Jules took of us. Either way the image either image makes me smile. I’m sure glad that first image on the Canon G7X was a selfie. Happy! You bet! And I bet you don’t care much about my story of the “G” key.

In this instance I was unhappy with Quinn’s expression or of mine. So, I composited the two of us to get a good pose and smile on us both. ?? Photoshop, of course. I am shameless. I am not too good nor subtle about it. You might not notice unless I pointed it out. So?

See

When Lisa was still married to me, she was obsessed with equality among our kids. I guess she still is…. As for instance, she would count the gifts in their Xmas stockings to be sure the number was equal – as though they would count in comparison to one another. Oh brother! Or, oh sister! Ha ha. I suppose her sense of humor has not improved either. Oops!

So, big sister, the cute one, are there others? Follow me?!

Focus, smile, it’s infectious contagious – it makes me smile too. It ain’t perfect. Who cares? You get the idea. I’m happy. I’m happy! So many meanings. Am I being clear? Is the picture good? Illustrative? Breakfast anyone?

Little mermaid PJ’s. New! Ha ha. She’s never even seen the movie. Her mother (Jules) grew up with it and has seen it a thousand times. As soon as the package appeared, our “grand” opened it and donned the PJ’s. Good choice grandpa. Shhh, Colleen picked them. (I’m not entirely sure she (Colleen) has seen the movie either. Gee, I need improvement in pronoun clarity….

See? Question, statement, exclamation?

Almost

You take a picture of your granddaughter and it’s precious by definition. Period.

I shot a lot of images – nearly 2000 – this day. Yeah, nuts! Meanwhile, I have learned a lot from shooting my cats. Call it practice for the big important things – the grandkids.

Move your lens in front of her eyes. A straight on angle makes it appear she is looking at you directly. You move. She doesn’t. You get more successful shots. Focus! The auto focus does the trick if it is told to focus on the eyes. The camera does not always automatically know.

Focus. The child is looking directly into the lens. It’s a start. Smile?! Cute!

Missing

All that’s missing? The spider. Early morning mist in my garden revealed this spider web. It is not geometrically perfect. Ha ha. But then the water droplets reveal a rare sight to my lens. Focus is hard. I usually tweak manual focus to get better detail of the drops. I’d have liked a bug or the spider. Sometimes you can’t always get what you want.

Close

Covered in pollen this bee landed on my hand as I was on my morning photo tour of the garden. Ok! Shoot me! And I did. The bee lingered long enough for me to get this shot. No complaint. It flew off.

The pollen makes this image striking. Focus is critical. Macro has very limited depth of field. Everything needs to be focused for this image to work. Under the circumstances I am usually in manual focus. Auto focus is hit and miss.

Memory test

A single shot – remember? Well, it was a few related shots nearby in my catalog. Location? Winterthur. I remembered. We have been there too many times for me to remember the year. Like any tourist I dutifully took a picture of Colleen with the colorful background of the blooming azaleas. Ha ha. I never shoot just one image. Colleen? She is used to multiple exposures and is a good sport about it. I never try to coax a particular pose. But we do interact. It shows. That’s important.

Dawn

Early morning light is tricky for the camera. It tends to overexpose for the trees in shadow. And the camera has trouble finding focus in the clouds without a hard edge for contrast. Set the focus point in the tree edge and point the camera into the sky for getting the sky to be a little underexposed. The result is ok. The subtle color makes the shot. The sharp tree border makes things crisp. It works.

Green

Green is a favorite color for Jules. Now, I know. But it seems I did not know when she had this green kale smoothie. I had not seen her since she moved to California. She’s more health conscious than I realized. When she ordered this drink it was not too appetizing to my eye. It looked more like medicine. Nope, not for me!

Shooting in a dim restaurant is a challenge. Hold still (camera). Don’t shake. Ha! Better lighting would have helped. Of course! But I was just grabbing a shot of the drink for posterity and this post.

It flew

…into my picture. I was on my morning cruise of the flower garden…. The butterfly flew in and then away. I got a few shots. Lucky. The butterflies are not too prone to posing for me. Thank you. it was a gift I appreciated.

Not much to say. Focus, zoom, compose a shot. There is not much time or opportunity to set anything up. You are either ready or not. Focus is the key. I try to get the head in focus. If the antenna are sharply focused the shot will succeed.

Cooking

It’s not lessons. Food is eaten with the eyes – too! Ripe red tomato? An eggplant waiting to go? It looks more like a tomato. Eggplant! Good! I peeled it. Heresy?  Sliced, breaded, fried up in olive oil. Add marinara, basil, and mozzarella. Bake till the cheese melts and is golden. Fresh basil over mozzarella over tomato, add balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper to taste. A feast!! Sorry. No picture. The preview is enough. Fresh produce will inspire you to great things. It is the best eggplant parm I have ever made!

How do you stage produce? Light is important. Best side up. Staging. You need to place the product in a flattering pose. There is not much fun to placing a tomato. But the stove grate provided a simple backdrop and the meaning is clear. It worked for me.