Scattered Thoughts . . .

I was sifting through some of my photos from this past summer and came across a few worth writing about and sharing here. As I've written before, we have two new residents at Lake Groton disrupting life on the lake... a pair of Bald Eagles. I knew I wanted to capture a few decent photos of these birds in flight. Anyone can go to a zoo to shoot a photo of a Bald Eagle sitting on the limb of a tree so I wanted to test my photography skills by capturing a few decent photos of this pair of eagles in flight. This first one is a little bit unusual in that the Bald Eagle is in silhouette against a cloudy sky. The eagle is flying from the darkened clouds to the light and clearer sky. I like the light in this photo and I actually like that silhouette... This next shot is a photo of one of the Bald Eagles circling over my head while looking for some prey. All the wildlife on the lake becomes silent and goes into hiding whenever either of these two Bald Eagles is flying within a mil...

Most people simply buy manufactured train tracks to run their model trains. Some people will painstakingly build their model track just like building the real thing... railroad ties, rail, tie plates and spikes... and drive every single spike themselves. This option looks the best but it is a lot of tedious work. Some of us find some middle ground for various reasons. I'd prefer to be getting some work accomplished on the house outdoors but it is damp, wet and waterlogged out there so nothing is getting accomplished outdoors. Besides, since we are at the hospital every afternoon for Sheila's radiation treatment, there really is little time for any home renovations. By the time I set up all the tools, saw horses and materials, I would need to start cleaning up so we could eat lunch and then head to the hospital. Needless to say, I've been indoors for the past few months. Every fourth tie removed using a Dremel tool. I am currently indoors working on building a 12 fo...

Another lunch in the hospital cafe. Sheila has moved into a new stage of side effects. This new stage of side effects has appeared only about a week before she moves into a new stage of radiation treatment. More on the additional change in treatment another time because I want to write about the current issue... burning, peeling and itching. At this point in radiation treatment, Sheila's skin is showing some burns. She has already been showing signs of a "tan" for weeks and we have known that the tissue beneath the skin has been getting irritated but now she's getting into burn territory.  Sheila has been a little bit swollen since her surgery and the radiation isn't really allowing the swelling to go down. She had already been feeling "tender" in the tissue under the skin and that continues to slowly worsen. Sheila says it isn't bad but it is obvious by her guarded reactions to things that she does feel tender in various areas.  The other...

I'm always on the lookout for good quality lenses at low prices. I can and do find all sorts of manual focus lenses that meet this criteria but I rarely come across an autofocus lens that is both a "good quality" and available at a low price. Fortunately, Rokinon has started producing autofocus lenses for Sony E-mount cameras and these lenses seem to be of pretty good quality. I already own a Rokinon manual focus lens that I find is great for portraits... the 85mm f1.4. As you can see in the portrait of Sheila at right, it really renders beautiful portraits. It is sharp, has nice contrast and the bokeh is smooth. For portrait work, a manual focus lens is no problem since my subject is always static and I really like this Rokinon 85mm lens for this purpose. However, for family events and parties, an autofocus lens helps out considerably because my subjects are always in motion and rarely want to stand still while I take a few short seconds to focus manually. Addition...

I've always been an admirer of Thomas Jefferson and, as an engineering and architecture student, I've also always been an admirer of his home, Monticello, in Virginia.  We have many things in our home with a relationship to Thomas Jefferson and Monticello. Among these things is some glassware. The latest additions to our glassware are two matching tankards and I thought I would try to capture some decent photos of them. Shooting photographs of glassware (as well as jewelry) is difficult so I knew this would be a nice photography exercise in lighting. Getting light where you need it and where you want it while avoiding blinding reflections while, at the same time, keeping some reflections is crucial in effective glassware photography. I knew this would be a bit of a challenge since I have not attempted this type of photography in quite some time. I pulled out some flashes. I pulled out a constant studio light. I pulled out a remote flash trigger to mount on my came...