Scattered Thoughts . . .

I think I can safely say that everyone enjoyed themselves at the Amherst Railway Society Train Show this year. Of everyone in the group, I probably had the most problems and even I enjoyed myself. I've been quietly recovering at home this week.  My week has involved sleeping, showering and cooking meals for myself and dinners for Sheila and Adam.  I'm still not 'myself' but I am slowly recovering. This will be a tougher recovery than usual because I had such serious health issues over our long weekend. We arrived at the hotel Friday evening and we gathered in the bar/lounge of the hotel for dinner and a few drinks. That was a nice little party and I do believe everyone had a lot of fun!   Later in the evening, shortly after going to bed, I had some sudden health issues related to my mast cell disease, Systemic Mastocytosis.  I'm not going to get into the disgusting details, but I will say it was not pleasant and it kept me awake most of the night.  Needles

Tomorrow's the day!  The train show begins tomorrow for us and five other families joining us. On Saturday morning, the train show will begin for another 50,000-60,000 people.  It should be a great weekend. Sheila and Adam are busy packing. (I have time to pack in the morning.) This evening we picked up our beer, drinks, and snacks for the weekend.  I know I'll be ready to crack open one of those beers when we arrive tomorrow evening.   Right now I'm feeling halfway decent.  Let's hope that carries through the entire weekend.  I will be posting a few photos from this year's show next week.  In the meantime, here are a few more photos from past shows....

"Hmmm..." I've been revisiting older photos lately. Here are another two images from this past September. Mackenzie was wide awake but Lukas was sleeping soundly on his little fold-out Disney futon. The room was quiet and Kenzie had all the toys to herself but it was clear that she wasn't too comfortable with playing alone.  You could see her thinking and imagine her saying to herself, "Hmmmm... how can I wake him up without getting in trouble..." I shot these two photographs with one of my older Olympus camera bodies. Although it is an older body, it is one of my favorites. This camera's sensor is what makes it special. The sensor was produced by Kodak in better times for this corporation which is no longer in the digital camera business. (They have licensed out their name to other smaller companies to produce cameras in the Kodak name. The once photographic giant now only produces paper and printers.) Kodak's sensors are known for producing

Well, the train show weekend is now upon us. We will be leaving for the show before long. Our bed is covered in photography gear and other stuff I hope to remember to pack for the long weekend. What a mess... I've been very fatigued for the past three or four weeks and the past few days haven't been much different. Lately I've been experiencing a fairly good day but then my health crashes and I am feeling quite lousy very quickly, again. I'm hoping that the weekend is a good one for me.   It is bad enough that my health often ruins my own plans but this is compounded by knowing that my health often instantly changes plans for Sheila and Adam and anyone else tagging along with us. Last year, the train show was one of those times.... By the time lunchtime arrived on Saturday of the show last year, my health was beginning to crash. My legs were getting very heavy and not cooperating, my back was killing me, I was weak... I knew I needed food and medications. Missing

Once again, I find myself digging through old photos on my hard drives hoping to find some decent photos. Lately I find myself focusing on improving my people photos and portraits so I've been studying my older shots to see how I can improve. Of course, I also study portraits of photographers I find interesting and then try to figure out how to get my work to improve in the direction toward the things I find interesting in portraits I like. This evolution comes easy for some and more difficult for others. Backgrounds are exceptionally important in portraiture. By "backgrounds", I am not necessarily talking about a cloth backdrop.  I simply mean what can be seen in the background of each of my images. Trying to shoot in a location which has few background distractions can be difficult, especially when shooting in your home. My home has a LOT of background distraction which ruin shots. Outdoors is a better place to shoot... giving yourself more distance between your subj

Every now and then, for one reason or another, I go digging into one of my hard drives looking for a photo I may have overlooked. Tonight was one of those nights where I found myself a bit frustrated with the direction the world of photography is headed so I decided to go digging into one of my hard drives with the hope of distracting myself and finding something more pleasing. What I found tonight is a photo of Lukas which I had overlooked when I first shot it. This is a photo from our backyard last May. Lukas and Mackenzie were playing on the kayaks at sunset... the sun setting behind and to Lukas' left... so the image has that warm golden glow of sunset... all-in-all, not a bad photo.   It could be better, but it is worthy of being in print and hanging on the wall, I think.   Anyway, this was my little distraction for tonight and I thought I should share the photo.  Now it is time for some much needed sleep!    

We are now in the homestretch leading to our train show weekend in Springfield, Massachusetts.  I know everyone in our house is looking forward to it.  Frank stopped by yesterday and it is obvious he is looking forward to the train show too.   My health has been 'iffy', at best. I've been having good days and bad days.  Mostly, however, I have been very fatigued. I'm still recovering from a very busy month of December so resting this week is exceptionally important. I need to carefully watch my energy level this week.  I need to rest as much as possible and keep from over-doing it at any time this week. I need to watch my diet very closely this week. I also need to start taking extra medications later in the week. If I become lackadaisical with any of these things, my health will definitely be poor this weekend so I need to keep a close eye on all of these factors during this homestretch. Adding some extra medications to my four-times-a-day dosages helps me

As most of you already know, I enjoy sailing.  Of course, I enjoy just about all boating, but sailing is a lot of fun on my fast, little Minifish sailboat. Not only is it a lot of fun, but my little Minifish has some history to it... my history. It holds many memories and stories.  I was a young teenager when I received this boat so it holds a lot of memories and stories.  Putting aside the history of this particular boat, sailing can be fast, wet, and heart-pounding exhilarating which is always a plus for enjoying an activity! It should come as no surprise then that ice boat sailing has always intrigued me. Ice boats are sleek and fast...  and, I suspect, very cold!  With the speed and all that wind whipping across a frozen lake on a cold winter's day, I imagine the cold could be brutal.  These little 'boats' gliding across the ice seem to move much faster than a sailboat can in water.  All that friction and drag of the water really slows a boat down considerably.  This

The left side of the photo is what my LCD monitor showed... the right side is what it looked like printed. I recently decided to have some of my photos and artwork printed by a professional lab.  The quality of prints from these pro labs just cannot be matched on your home printer.  Additionally, the quality of these prints and their durability/longevity far surpasses those cheapo prints from local kiosks like at Walmart or online economy prints like at Snapfish.  There is just no comparison in quality.   I should also point out that printing photos or artwork on your own printer is exceedingly expensive when compared to having prints professionally printed. The cost of ink is very high. The cost of quality paper is very high. And, to be honest, a Professional Lab will actually print photos at a level of quality that is just not possible on any home printer. Regardless of where you have your photos printed, you must ensure your computer monitor (or your camera if the photos

Systemic Mastocytosis patients are very sensitive (for lack of a better term) to many foods.  In particular, foods which are high in histamine are very dangerous for those of us with this illness. Foods high in nitrates and other preservatives are dangerous for us as well.    Typically, frozen foods aren't too bad for us if they were flash frozen without preservatives.  For example, frozen vegetables are really just flash frozen cut vegetables...  nothing wrong with that, right?  Well, nothing is wrong as long as the frozen foods are handled properly. Now, let's move on to frozen prepared foods such as frozen meals, frozen dishes, frozen ravioli, frozen chicken, etc...  These prepared foods start off bad for us (Systemic Mastocytosis patients) because they are high in preservatives.  These preservatives are known to cause sudden mast cell degranulation which, in turn, causes anaphylaxis.   As if that is not bad enough... Now, if these frozen meals are handled properly w