Close Meditations of a Visual Kind

Today will be the three selected specific to the theme, "Nature".

( Morning on Milford Sound (Rivendell) )
Two alternate titles for this piece, which I usually do much closer to a square crop (or, actually, full-frame). Because there is a boat along one edge, I've cropped in on that side for this 'show' theme. Still works well, and I will perhaps move to the current crop for any future printing/display. Time of day for the photo is ten-ish. I'm recalling that our tour boat served lunch, so departed close to that time, however without digging through old notes won't specify that. More idle thoughts related later in the post.

( Ferns, Hagley Park Botanical Garden, Chch New Zealand )
I put this one in both for the irony and the location. Irony, because there is nothing in this photo showing Man yet the location, Hagley Park Botanical Garden is in the heart of Christchurch and in fact not far from downtown. Location I would hope just now to be obvious; Christchurch, Chch, where the people are still experiencing aftershocks to the big earthquake of a couple weeks ago, and those 'aftershocks' measuring as fairly intense earthquakes in their own right. I spent perhaps nine days in Chch, most of them sequential, and I feel a very strong affinity for the people and their place.

( Chrysalis )
This is right here on teh Ranch. For me, one of the fun parts in this photo is doing something that boggles the minds of a lot of current photographers. One of the big 'advantages' of digital photography is that memory cards (storage, essentially the equivalent of 'film') now are such most people may record hundreds of images before filling the card - even if they are using the highest quality largest file size settings. Anyone who shoots film knows that film comes with a finite, smaller number of images per roll. In 35mm for example, rolls come 20, 24, and 36 frames. In 120mm (my medium-format) and specifically the format my cameras shoot, 12 images per roll. Not hundreds.

I've a compact flash card which I purchased with the very first digital point-and-shoot camera I bought. The card which came with the camera was 32Mb. This card was 96Mb, significantly larger. Later I purchased even larger cards. Currently in the D70s I generally use 1Gb cards and get around 150 images. Periodically I load that 96Mb card into the D70s. I get 17 photographs. Only Seventeen.

The exercise reminds me that every image counts. Practice making them all good.

On the trip to New Zealand, and actually around that time period overall, I recorded some pertinent data about each image when I made it. Some of it could be recorded once for each roll, and specifics only per frame. Digital cameras make this much easier, as the camera will record much of this date in each picture file: Shutter speed, F-stop, Lens, Exposure Speed (ISO), if the internal camera clock is set correctly, Date/Time of exposure. While I'm quite sure that notebook is around here somewhere, I've not seen it for a long time now. So I don't have the specific time of day on these images from New Zealand any longer. Just the memory that the two photos were made during the mornings of their respective days, and not the particular hour and minute.

There is some value, betimes, in knowing that much detail. Other times, it isn't all that important.

Yesterday at Hospital was Stay Late. This one is the longest I've been hit with so far since many years back. Essentially, I worked a 'double' with eight hours extra on top of the usual eight hour shift I work. Tonight I work Nights, one of my weekend commitments. I expect I'll be taking a nap this afternoon.

( Here's Pic'o'Day! Antlionville! )

Today we get a connection, after a brief bit of bollocksville.

On Saturday, I moved and cleaned out one of three igloo-shaped dog houses we own. I moved the one Houdini mostly hasn't been using (as Indoor Dog, he hasn't been spending much time outdoors except in the company of his Humans) since it is actually the cleanest of the three just now. After a couple weeks of nearly continuous rain, both Smudge and Squrrl need some house-cleaning done.

Smudge specifically; I'd noticed he wasn't as active as usual, put it down to the rain, then paused one evening while feeding him. Leaned in closer and listened to his breathing, and heard... crackles. Checked him out a bit more intensely to find pale gums and tongue as well. And, he didn't eat as much as usual either.

Now, following some antibiotics, and some of Herself's patented Rice & LiverBits (liver bits supplied by a couple of the Ranch stock), plus a clean house located closer to the current batch of Dirty Yard Birds (chickens), and Smudge both looks and sounds better.

I digress.

So the bit of sand in this photo came out of Houdini's house. About 45 x 30 cm in size, dumped out in the afternoon on Saturday. Sunday morning walking out to feed teh Ranch stock, I stopped before stepping into the sand patch because... well, go look at the photo.

Unless you are an ant (aunts are fine, not ants). You might not want to look if you're an ant.

( Cut today for whomping Big File Size Not Dialup Friendly and possible squickingness for reptilephobes )

Read this if you are a reptile phobe... while walking about the south 4 of the home compound of our Ranch today (heading back to the House for fluids & a short break on the fencing) Herself spotted this shedding, from an indigo. Actually, we'd spotted a live indigo as well, who once zie realised we'd spotted them departed down a gopher tortoise hole which was right handy nearby. That one, however, did not leave this shedding as it is only about a metre long and not quite 3 cm diameter yet, a youngster.

I've lined alongside the shedding in the photo to help you trace it. Click the photo itself if you've a mind to, takes you to Flickr. But this is the large size here and probably easier to see it.

In other news, we've finished stringing the barbed wire along the top of the fence dividing Cow Pasture from Home Compound. This will perhaps dissuade bovines from wandering over to this side and disrupting Herself's garden. On the other hand, if it does not, there will be more beef in the freezer.

Each year for the past three, I've been invited to the Washington State Council of Perioperative Nurses, a state group of my professional association. I nearly always try to build some photography time into these trips; this is a series of shots from that trip. This first one is of one of those handy 'informational' map-signs the park services put up. "You Are Here."

Remember, click on the thumbnail for the larger versions...


I left my hotel after breakfast and doing some organizing from previous day's business & photos, and drove to the west looking for lunch and photo-ops. Following lunch, I found this small state park; this is the view across the Sound.


Pretty much only myself wandered the park that day. One fellow walked his dog along the shoreline, and another couple came and sat in their car. There's an area for camping back away from the beach, and some folk were there. Otherwise... could well be off in the wilderness.


Strolling along the gravel/sand wasn't so bad, but crambling along the rocks became interesting.


However, turning to the south, toward Tacoma, it became pretty obvious this location isn't off in the wilderness after all, but in an area fairly well populated.

Why the note now? Oh, just wanting to get some work up on the Internet Place.