Getting Out of the House for a Bit
We had a very nice day the other day... sunny and in the low 80's... but I still wasn't feeling well enough to get anything accomplished on the house. It was a perfect day for mowing the lawn and getting some landscaping chores accomplished but I was not well enough for that either.
Sheila and I briefly discussed my overall health just this morning. I was telling her how I am feeling a bit like a prisoner in my own home after having such a long bout with consistently poor health. Since returning from the lake three months ago, the only times I have wandered away from our tiny home have been to pick up dinner at the grocery store in town, our trek to Shelburne Farms with the kids last weekend, and a couple of visits to Arvad's for a meal when I was feeling too miserable to even prepare a meal. This has left me feeling a bit anxious, bored and in need of a change in scenery.
We both agreed that we are due for a change in scenery. The weather is finally cooling down so my health should improve somewhat. My illness grips me in a death grip in consistently warm/hot weather so, theoretically, my health should be on an upswing right now.
Since I'm feeling a bit like a prisoner in my own home and still struggling with exceptionally poor health, instead of struggling with mowing the lawn or tackling some landscaping chores around the house when it was beautiful outside the other day, I decided to grab an old camera and head outdoors to see what I could find to photograph in the yard...
I have to admit, it felt good to wander around outdoors in the yard. It was sunny and warm, but not overly warm. The sun felt good... the damp grass felt good on my bare feet... there was a slightly cool breeze... it felt great to be out of the house.
Now... to find something to photograph...
The leaves are just beginning to change so that was the first thing I searched for... nothing of interest caught my eye, photographically speaking.
Some of the summertime plants are beginning to wilt, dry up, and die... I found a few things in good light in which to photograph but nothing really grabbed or left me feeling like "this is the shot". Then I headed toward our front wildflower garden because the sun was lighting that brightly.
Because the flowers were very brightly lit by the sun, I was able to use a very fast shutter speed while also closing the aperture a bit. This makes it very easy to turn everything else in the viewfinder which is less bright to almost complete darkness. I like this contrast and it makes subject isolation so much easier. Being able to use these types of settings leaves me with no cluttered and distracting backgrounds to contend with while providing nice light for my subject.
I quickly found a deep orange flower dancing in the breeze... its angle to the sun was just right... the sun was illuminating it much more brightly than everything surround it... as I changed some settings on my camera, I noticed a bee trying to land on that flower... This is the type of thing I was hoping to find!
I fired off a few quick shots as the bee was hovering around the flower and then a few more shots while the bee was walking around on the flower. This shot, above, is the best of the bunch.
Of course, playing around with bees when you already have a problem with idiopathic anaphylaxis due to Systemic Mastocytosis is not the brightest thing to do. I was able to easily keep my distance though... I was about ten feet away from the bee and flower when I shot this photo.
Not only was it nice to wander around outdoors for a little bit the other day, but it was nice to capture a few nice photographs too!
Sheila and I briefly discussed my overall health just this morning. I was telling her how I am feeling a bit like a prisoner in my own home after having such a long bout with consistently poor health. Since returning from the lake three months ago, the only times I have wandered away from our tiny home have been to pick up dinner at the grocery store in town, our trek to Shelburne Farms with the kids last weekend, and a couple of visits to Arvad's for a meal when I was feeling too miserable to even prepare a meal. This has left me feeling a bit anxious, bored and in need of a change in scenery.
We both agreed that we are due for a change in scenery. The weather is finally cooling down so my health should improve somewhat. My illness grips me in a death grip in consistently warm/hot weather so, theoretically, my health should be on an upswing right now.
Since I'm feeling a bit like a prisoner in my own home and still struggling with exceptionally poor health, instead of struggling with mowing the lawn or tackling some landscaping chores around the house when it was beautiful outside the other day, I decided to grab an old camera and head outdoors to see what I could find to photograph in the yard...
I have to admit, it felt good to wander around outdoors in the yard. It was sunny and warm, but not overly warm. The sun felt good... the damp grass felt good on my bare feet... there was a slightly cool breeze... it felt great to be out of the house.
Now... to find something to photograph...
The leaves are just beginning to change so that was the first thing I searched for... nothing of interest caught my eye, photographically speaking.
Some of the summertime plants are beginning to wilt, dry up, and die... I found a few things in good light in which to photograph but nothing really grabbed or left me feeling like "this is the shot". Then I headed toward our front wildflower garden because the sun was lighting that brightly.
Because the flowers were very brightly lit by the sun, I was able to use a very fast shutter speed while also closing the aperture a bit. This makes it very easy to turn everything else in the viewfinder which is less bright to almost complete darkness. I like this contrast and it makes subject isolation so much easier. Being able to use these types of settings leaves me with no cluttered and distracting backgrounds to contend with while providing nice light for my subject.
I quickly found a deep orange flower dancing in the breeze... its angle to the sun was just right... the sun was illuminating it much more brightly than everything surround it... as I changed some settings on my camera, I noticed a bee trying to land on that flower... This is the type of thing I was hoping to find!
I fired off a few quick shots as the bee was hovering around the flower and then a few more shots while the bee was walking around on the flower. This shot, above, is the best of the bunch.
Of course, playing around with bees when you already have a problem with idiopathic anaphylaxis due to Systemic Mastocytosis is not the brightest thing to do. I was able to easily keep my distance though... I was about ten feet away from the bee and flower when I shot this photo.
Not only was it nice to wander around outdoors for a little bit the other day, but it was nice to capture a few nice photographs too!
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