Scattered Thoughts . . .

A s I've mentioned a few times in this blog previously, Sheila has been practicing her figure skating in an effort to be as prepared as possible for our trip to Manhattan with Lukey and Kenzie.  Until a couple of months ago, she hadn't skated in decades so she knew she needed to get on skates again before we were at Rockefeller Center and Bryant Park.  Lukey and Kenzie want to skate as much as Sheila has wanted to skate at these two popular rinks so this has been the plan since we started talking about a Christmas trip to Manhattan with the kids quite a few years ago. We've been heading to a couple of different rinks a couple of times a week so Sheila can practice.  Sometimes Sheila skates with Kenzie before Kenzie's skating lessons but most times she is out there alone while I practice my video and photography skills.    Sheila has improved quite a bit over the past few weeks but she is now done practicing.   She took a bad fall the other night and has been left badly

I n preparation of ice skating with Lukey and Kenzie at Rockefeller Center and Bryant Park in about a month, Sheila purchased a new pair of figure skates.   We went to an ice rink on Sunday for Sheila's first practice session in about two decades or so.  She did fairly well during that first session.  She was a bit stiff-legged but she did well.  During that first session, she noticed that one of her skates wasn't sharpened properly so we had them sharpened again today at lunchtime.  This evening, we headed to the rink again so Sheila could practice. She was doing very well this evening and it was obvious she was feeling more comfortable on skates.  She was making more progress than in her first session, that is, until she had a bit of a slow motion fall.  While trying to ease her fall to the ice, she did something to her right leg.  Her right leg sort of twisted and collapsed under her. As she limped off the ice, it was pretty obvious that she could barely walk on it so I drov

I was feeling "okay" this morning (which means not all that well but not terribly lousy) so I pulled out a camera and opened the living room window to see if I could find something to photograph.   I didn't feel like wandering outside.  I wasn't feeling well enough to go wandering around outside and it was still a little chilly this morning anyway so I didn't have much of a desire to head outside.  Also, it is a bit muddy out there too.  I could live without the mud and chilliness so I stayed indoors and just opened our living room window to shoot some photos from the comfort of indoors. I used a few different lenses, getting a feel for each lens (I'm a bit out of practice after the long pandemic) but the lens I used for this photo was my lens with the longest focal length.  I shot this one at 600mm...  handheld without the steadiness of a tripod.  The older I get, the more difficult holding a camera steady gets. The robin in this photo was in our spruce tree,

I'm still waiting to get in to see my doctor (appointment is tomorrow) so I was still just hanging around doing nothing but hoping to find something to do. As I was boiling an egg for breakfast, I noticed a Nuthatch outside our kitchen window... "Hmmmm... I haven't seen these guys since last year!"  I quickly decided that I'd grab a camera and a lens and try to capture a few photos.   Last week when doing the same, I grabbed my smallest camera and longest lens. Since my smallest camera was plugged-in to recharge its battery this morning, I decided to use my larger Sony camera body. Once again, I grabbed my longest lens. I haven't really used this combo yet so this would be a good test while giving me an opportunity to practice on these jumpy fast moving birds.  None of these birds outside our kitchen window ever sit still for longer than about three seconds so you need to be quick if you want to capture a crisp photo. This morning was no different. It

I've really been struggling with attaining video quality that meets my own standards. Contrary to what most people may think, although there are some similarities between photography and videography, there are very significant differences. I'm pretty good with photography but videography is something I would like to learn to do just as well. I've had to learn about file formats, frames per second, how shutter speed affects video and is not nearly as flexible as in photography, and how to find correct exposure when locking down frames per second and that shutter speed. I've learned that there is vastly less flexibility in attaining correct exposure in video when compared to photography.  I've had to learn about post-production editing and that will always be an on-going process. I actually like this part of the video process but I could definitely use a new Quadro graphics card to help make things flow more smoothly throughout this process. (It's on my wish

If you want to do something well, you must put in the time and effort. However, it can't just be 'putting in time'. This time and effort must also be effective time. There must be effective practice as opposed to ineffective practice which reinforces poor techniques.  If you are simply going through the motions like treading water to keep your head above the water, you are probably only participating (halfheartedly participating) in ineffective practice. Ineffective practice is a complete waste of time and energy and, oftentimes, only results in picking up poor techniques and bad habits. I don't know about you, but I do not like wasting my time and effort. Considering my lack of energy because of my poor health, this is even more important to me today than ever before. When you mindlessly go through the motions, lacking true effort, you are wasting your time and energy. This is not for me! Lately, I've been focusing on photography techniques (no pun intend