Scattered Thoughts . . .

I had a few relatively "good" days so I tackled a small art project over the past two days.  I decided to shoot some photos of my HO scale Dreyfuss Hudson steam locomotive which then, as usual, morphed into a larger project.   This distinctive steam locomotive was perhaps the most famous locomotive of the New York Central Railroad, specifically, of 20th Century Limited passenger service fame.  This was considered the fastest passenger train service between New York City and Chicago back in the 1940s.  The route ran up the Hudson River then traveled westward along the Great Lakes.  Today, this route is named the Lake Shore Limited, a route Sheila and I have traveled quite a few times.  Unfortunately, the Lake Shore Limited is not nearly as glamorous as the 20th Century Limited once was but it is nice to retrace this historic route nevertheless.  The Lake Shore Limited can be referred to as many things but glamorous is definitely not one of them. I've always been most inte

I added another snapshot of a bird in our backyard to this year's collection of bird photos...  well, this bird is really in our neighbor's yard on his Frisbee Golf basket, not our backyard.  I did shoot this photo from our backyard though.  This is another photo from my initial test photos that I shot about a week or two ago but I just got around to editing it.   This was really a test of the autofocus system while using a new lens adapter but I feel the need to point out the negatives and positives of this image as a whole. I could have used a bit more light on my sparrow's face.  The sun was high and behind the bird so that was a problem.  I'm not too fond of the bird being perched on a Frisbee Golf basket either.  I would have preferred it being perched on a tree branch.  Plus, this sparrow is looking out of the frame which forces the viewer to wonder what he is looking at...  not a good thing.  You want your subject looking into the frame, typically anyway.  There

B etween typical lousy springtime weather and continued daily struggles with Long-COVID problems, I've been trying to find things to accomplish around the house.   I'm still having more difficulty than usual with breathing problems.  I'm always feeling like I'm trying to clear thick, nasty phlegm from my lungs.  Actually, I am still clearing this thick, nasty phlegm from my lungs (dark nasty stuff) but it is difficult to move this thick stuff and it seems to continue to replenish itself even after I clear some out.  So, this makes breathing difficult which also causes extra fatigue.   Another lingering problem is inflamed joints.  This isn't nearly as bad as it was from January through March but it is still worth mentioning.  As exhausted as I am, the pain continues to keep me up at night and keep me more uncomfortable than usual almost all the time.  I'm always dealing with pain due to my extensive spinal injuries as well as the bone and joint pain due to my sy

W hile Lukey and Kenzie were staying with us this week, we did a little bit of painting.  Sheila and I have been wanting to do this with them for quite a while so it was great that we finally had some time to do this with them. This was supposed to be a lesson in watercolors but we chose to use the kids' new set of acrylic paints instead.  Honestly, I didn't feel like digging out the watercolors and the acrylics were already sitting on the kitchen table so we painted with acrylics.  I needed to adapt my lesson due to the last minute change in paints and because I haven't used acrylics for artistic painting in decades.  So, I demonstrated each step before having them do it.  This would allow me to adapt my plan as necessary.  That being said, this also seemed to introduce some unnecessary confusion.  If I had been more concise without adapting, what I was attempting to teach would have been more effectively communicated.   On the previous day, the kids "just painted&quo

I t wasn't raining this morning so I wandered outside to do a little bit of photography testing.  I am in the process of testing a new lens adapter to be used, mostly, for wildlife photography so I stepped outside for a short while this morning to see if I could find any birds or squirrels to capture in photos.  I'd even settle for a neighborhood cat but I couldn't find anything. After sitting crouched down low to the ground and perfectly still for about ten minutes, I was thinking I wouldn't see anything and that I might be wasting my time.  The birds that I did happen to hear were off to the east too far away from me to see.  After a few more minutes I decided to very slowly and quietly wander around the yard in search of something to shoot.   A couple of chickadees flitted quickly from one tree to another about 50 feet over my head so that was a good sign.  At least I saw a couple of tiny birds so now I was wondering if maybe I had spooked all the birds when I first

T here are certain brands that I refuse to buy, support, speak kindly of, or even use.  Sometimes, however, a reason related to practicality arises and I am stuck having to give in and purchase one of these brands simply because no other options exist.  As such, I'm stuck with three old Canon EF-mount lenses yet Canon is one of those brands you will not find me supporting in any way.  Don't get me wrong, they were great in the Canon AE-1 Programmable days but I'm not liking their options in the digital world.  Actually, I find their digital cameras very uncomfortable to use, even painful.  I also find their color rendering and tonal qualities to be quite bland but, admittedly, that is more of a personal preference. I had purchased these three lenses on the used market back when I first purchased my Sony cameras.  The Sony E-mount system was very young at the time so very few lenses were available in their new E-mount.  One of the great things about this Sony E-mount is that

A bout a week before the eclipse, I brought the telescope I had planned to use for imaging outside to make sure everything was working together as it should.  I mainly wanted to check the new telescope mount with automatic GPS tracking but I figured I'd might as well put everything all together to test them.  The new mount worked just fine and that is where my attention was but it turns out that I had also found an unexpected problem.  I was getting a reflection of the sun in the lower left quadrant of the image which you can see in the animated GIF below.  While I was outside testing the mount, everything seemed to be working just fine but after bringing everything back indoors and uploading the photos and videos to my desktop computer, I noticed this odd reflection on my monitor.  I knew I had to correct that before the day of the eclipse. When I brought everything outside again for a second test, I found that the easiest way to eliminate this reflection was to tilt my solar filt

O kay, this is the blog entry I've been anticipating for the past month or two.  This was more than likely my last total solar eclipse so I wanted to make sure I document it as best as I can.   I've seen one or two other solar eclipses but not the way we viewed this one.  The next one in our area won't occur for another 30 years so, being realistic, it is highly unlikely I'll be around to see that one especially considering my health.  We got to see this one though and we even got to share this with our two oldest grandchildren, Lukey and Kenzie.  We always enjoy our time with Lukey and Kenzie but sharing this event with them made for an even more memorable experience.   Another thing that made this eclipse special is that we had good weather for it even though it was April in Waterbury.  We are usually socked in under clouds with precipitation falling from the sky from November through April so we got incredibly lucky for this event. ___________________________________