Scattered Thoughts . . .

Tomorrow's the day!  The train show begins tomorrow for us and five other families joining us. On Saturday morning, the train show will begin for another 50,000-60,000 people.  It should be a great weekend. Sheila and Adam are busy packing. (I have time to pack in the morning.) This evening we picked up our beer, drinks, and snacks for the weekend.  I know I'll be ready to crack open one of those beers when we arrive tomorrow evening.   Right now I'm feeling halfway decent.  Let's hope that carries through the entire weekend.  I will be posting a few photos from this year's show next week.  In the meantime, here are a few more photos from past shows....

"Hmmm..." I've been revisiting older photos lately. Here are another two images from this past September. Mackenzie was wide awake but Lukas was sleeping soundly on his little fold-out Disney futon. The room was quiet and Kenzie had all the toys to herself but it was clear that she wasn't too comfortable with playing alone.  You could see her thinking and imagine her saying to herself, "Hmmmm... how can I wake him up without getting in trouble..." I shot these two photographs with one of my older Olympus camera bodies. Although it is an older body, it is one of my favorites. This camera's sensor is what makes it special. The sensor was produced by Kodak in better times for this corporation which is no longer in the digital camera business. (They have licensed out their name to other smaller companies to produce cameras in the Kodak name. The once photographic giant now only produces paper and printers.) Kodak's sensors are known for producing...

Well, the train show weekend is now upon us. We will be leaving for the show before long. Our bed is covered in photography gear and other stuff I hope to remember to pack for the long weekend. What a mess... I've been very fatigued for the past three or four weeks and the past few days haven't been much different. Lately I've been experiencing a fairly good day but then my health crashes and I am feeling quite lousy very quickly, again. I'm hoping that the weekend is a good one for me.   It is bad enough that my health often ruins my own plans but this is compounded by knowing that my health often instantly changes plans for Sheila and Adam and anyone else tagging along with us. Last year, the train show was one of those times.... By the time lunchtime arrived on Saturday of the show last year, my health was beginning to crash. My legs were getting very heavy and not cooperating, my back was killing me, I was weak... I knew I needed food and medications. Missing ...

Once again, I find myself digging through old photos on my hard drives hoping to find some decent photos. Lately I find myself focusing on improving my people photos and portraits so I've been studying my older shots to see how I can improve. Of course, I also study portraits of photographers I find interesting and then try to figure out how to get my work to improve in the direction toward the things I find interesting in portraits I like. This evolution comes easy for some and more difficult for others. Backgrounds are exceptionally important in portraiture. By "backgrounds", I am not necessarily talking about a cloth backdrop.  I simply mean what can be seen in the background of each of my images. Trying to shoot in a location which has few background distractions can be difficult, especially when shooting in your home. My home has a LOT of background distraction which ruin shots. Outdoors is a better place to shoot... giving yourself more distance between your subj...

Every now and then, for one reason or another, I go digging into one of my hard drives looking for a photo I may have overlooked. Tonight was one of those nights where I found myself a bit frustrated with the direction the world of photography is headed so I decided to go digging into one of my hard drives with the hope of distracting myself and finding something more pleasing. What I found tonight is a photo of Lukas which I had overlooked when I first shot it. This is a photo from our backyard last May. Lukas and Mackenzie were playing on the kayaks at sunset... the sun setting behind and to Lukas' left... so the image has that warm golden glow of sunset... all-in-all, not a bad photo.   It could be better, but it is worthy of being in print and hanging on the wall, I think.   Anyway, this was my little distraction for tonight and I thought I should share the photo.  Now it is time for some much needed sleep!    

We are now in the homestretch leading to our train show weekend in Springfield, Massachusetts.  I know everyone in our house is looking forward to it.  Frank stopped by yesterday and it is obvious he is looking forward to the train show too.   My health has been 'iffy', at best. I've been having good days and bad days.  Mostly, however, I have been very fatigued. I'm still recovering from a very busy month of December so resting this week is exceptionally important. I need to carefully watch my energy level this week.  I need to rest as much as possible and keep from over-doing it at any time this week. I need to watch my diet very closely this week. I also need to start taking extra medications later in the week. If I become lackadaisical with any of these things, my health will definitely be poor this weekend so I need to keep a close eye on all of these factors during this homestretch. Adding some extra medications to my four-times-a-day dosages h...