Scattered Thoughts . . .

Windows 10 screenshot... the Start menu opened. For the past few months, Microsoft has been nagging me by way of popup notices on my computers to upgrade my Windows 8.1 Operating System to Windows 10. I've been holding off downloading this incredibly huge (file size) upgrade in the hope that Microsoft would iron out all the little quirks, kinks and bugs. In the meantime, I would have to tolerate the constant barrage of nagging prompts from Microsoft. I chat with a lot of photographers from around the world everyday and more and more of them have upgraded to Windows 10 lately. The general consensus was that the upgrade was relatively painless and there were no problems with any software and much of the hardware issues have been ironed out by now. This was the news I was waiting for so I decided to upgrade my laptop first and see how it performs. In Microsoft's defense, the biggest problem up until lately was that third party software and hardware developers were dragging

Near the end of our stay at the lake house this summer, my health took a major nosedive after a physically demanding incident on the water ( can be read here ). Pushing my body since developing Systemic Mastocytosis  always results in failed and deteriorating health and this incident was no exception   (even for a short spurt of only two minutes, like this time) .  For about four months, my health has been deteriorating more and more each day. Breathing capacity was limited and breathing has been difficult, at best, due to inflammation in my lungs. Along with this inflammation was some fluid buildup. I felt as though I was drowning and suffocating.  My energy level plummeted. I don't have much energy to begin with so any loss of energy is significant. For example, even on the best of days since developing Systemic Mastocytosis, I am only about 40-50% of my physical self as I once was when I was healthy. Plus, for a more accurate assessment, we should add the intense chronic pai

The prints arrived packaged beautifully and safely... I recently ordered some prints of my photography and one print of a piece of art I created. I always order my prints through professional printing services because I prefer a very high quality and this last order was no exception. This order arrived just yesterday and I wanted to make a few positive comments about this latest print job. The first thing I should mention is that this order arrived packaged beautifully and safely. It actually took me twenty minutes to unwrap all the prints! I ordered a finished product which I have never ordered before... a product called 'Mini Mounts'. These are 5"x7" prints (Kodak, if I remember correctly) mounted on a fiberboard/wood backing. This backing is painted black with beveled edges for a beautiful finished look. As you can see in the photos below, these prints really look great. I also ordered one of my pieces of artwork printed on an 8"x12" canvas. Th

I was working on refining some of my photography skills and techniques tonight and came across two photos from a year ago. Whenever I practice some new techniques, I always go searching through my hard drives to find some images with which to practice. The two photos below caught my eye for tonight's session. These are two images which slipped through the cracks last November and have been sitting quietly, in relative obscurity, on one of my hard drives all this time. A few photos slipping through the cracks every now and then should come as no surprise since I have shot about 10,000 in just the past year! I can't keep track of all of my photos nor is it possible for me to show even a quarter of them. Needless to say, some really nice images slip through the cracks and never get shown. Anyway, here are two images... one of Kenzie and one of Lukey... both being a bit animated and showing some attitude...