All posts by Tom Dills

Photography

Trying Something

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Vortex generator at the Miriam P. Brenner Children’s Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina

I just purchased a new tablet and am hoping to use it for some of our upcoming travel in lieu of a laptop. Of course that means figuring out how to get photos from my camera to the tablet, then getting them from my tablet to my blog. I’ve used Fuji’s mobile app before but it sucks, so my best choice is to use a card reader, which I had never tried on a tablet.

Earlier this week we visited Greensboro, NC with our son and grandson, visiting the Miriam P. Brenner Children’s Museum. I took a few photos there and along the way. 😉

Train arriving at the Greensboro Amtrak station in Greensboro, North Carolina

Since I don’t want to confuse my workflow too much, I want to be able to selectively choose photos from my memory card and only import the ones I want into Lightroom Mobile. That process worked great. One weird thing is that when I plugged the card and card reader in, my tablet set up a folder scheme as though it was going to back up files to my tablet. I’d rather not have it do that but haven’t figured out how to turn it off!

For fun I imported a few files on to my tablet, processed them on my tablet and let them upload to the cloud. I cheated a bit by outputting them from my computer, and my next step will be to refine the tablet outputting in order to do it from there. I’ve done that before and it’s not a big deal.

So far so good. 🙂

Sculpture outside the Miriam P. Brenner Children’s Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina
Travel

Biscuit Basin – Before The Explosion

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Sapphire Pool at Biscuit Basin, Yellowstone National Park

Imagine our surprise when we read that a “hydrothermal explosion” had occurred at Biscuit Basin in Yellowstone on July 23. We had visited just two months prior, and the news photos of the devastation were incredible. All of our tour guides had joked about how Yellowstone sits on a huge underground volcano, and “you never know….” It’s well known that violent eruptions can happen at any time, and sometimes they actually do. Yikes! Fortunately no one was injured, and damage appears to be mostly limited to the boardwalk. And of course the size and shapes of several of the pools were dramatically altered.

Biscuit Basin, Yellowstone National Park

Our visit was in an evening and the sky was overcast. As a result a lot of the colors are quite muted. But the various colors of the pools and the surrounding bacterial mats are quite evident.

Biscuit Basin, Yellowstone National Park
Jewel Geyser at Biscuit Basin, Yellowstone National Park
Bacterial mats add interesting colors and textures to hot pools and geysers. Biscuit Basin, Yellowstone National Park
Bacterial mats add interesting colors and textures to hot pools and geysers. Biscuit Basin, Yellowstone National Park
Bacterial mats add interesting colors and textures to hot pools and geysers. Biscuit Basin, Yellowstone National Park

And gnarly trees! 🙂

Biscuit Basin, Yellowstone National Park
Biscuit Basin, Yellowstone National Park
Travel

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River

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Yellowstone River from Inspiration Point. Yellowstone National Park

Kathy & I visited Grand Canyon twice during our visit to Yellowstone. The first time was on our own, and we got there before 8:00am to avoid the crowds. We use the term “Nooners” to describe the people who start showing up to tourist locations around the time we are leaving. Yes, I know there is another connotation for that word! 😉 In a place like Yellowstone the Nooners start showing up and filling the parking lots by around 10:00am, in some places even earlier.

Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River from Artist Point. Yellowstone National Park
Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River from Upper Falls View. Yellowstone National Park

The canyon and the waterfalls are spectacular in any light, and we managed to get quite a few photographs, especially on the north rim where you could really see the topography. One of the things I particularly liked about the north rim is the gnarly trees growing out of the rock cliffs. They made for interesting subject matter and I’ve included just a sample here.

Yellowstone River from Inspiration Point. Yellowstone National Park

As we were leaving the Artist Point area, someone asked me if I knew what time the rainbow happened. It must have been obvious from the look on my face that I didn’t know anything about a rainbow. Silly me – a failure of research!

Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River from Artist Point. Yellowstone National Park
Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River from Lookout Point. Yellowstone National Park
Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River from Artist Point. Yellowstone National Park

Fortunately, we returned the following day on a morning photography tour aboard one of the yellow buses. Our guide knew exactly when the rainbow would occur (about 9:40am, just in time for the Nooners! 🙂 ) and positioned us in the right spot. Not knowing when the peak color would be I made over 100 frames in order to end up with about 6. The one posted here is the only one I’ve processed so far but is typical of the others. Interestingly, the first day we visited was overcast, so we might not have seen the rainbow that day anyway!

Yellowstone River from Inspiration Point. Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone River from Inspiration Point. Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone River from Inspiration Point. Yellowstone National Park

Because it was a photography tour and not a Tom & Kathy journey, the tour only stayed long enough to capture the rainbow and didn’t travel the north rim at all. It was off to another photographic destination! I’m glad we saw the rainbow, but also glad to have visited the canyon on our own!

Random Thoughts

End Of An Era

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Hanging On. Feather stuck on the side of one of the locks. Soo Locks, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.

Well, the era actually ended long ago, but I recently made it official. I’ll explain.

Some of you know that many years ago I was a musician, playing the trombone. I started college as a music major before realizing that I wanted to earn a decent living, didn’t want to teach and wasn’t really good enough to make a career of performing. I even played in a Chicago/Earth Wind & Fire/Tower of Power type band for a while. One of our members went on to become a famous drummer, the rest of us got jobs. So I was good enough to have fun with it but that was about it.

Over the years, I lost touch with the playing side of music, and like many things – old cameras, golf clubs or cassette tapes, my trombones took up space in my attic or in my garage. Conveniently out of sight, and mostly out of mind.

A year or so ago I was thinking about the likelihood of ever playing the horns again, realized that was probably never going to happen, and started to think about what I could do with my old horns – I had three of them. Not knowing what kind of value they had, I figured that they were 50-ish year old instruments, probably worth little and thought about donating them to a local charity. The Charlotte Symphony, for example, has a program for providing instruments to needy kids to study music.

I started checking around and was amazed to discover that there is a healthy market for used, professional quality musical instruments. And unlike old cameras, golf clubs or cassette tapes, they are worth some real money. Not Stradivarius money, but pay-attention-to-me money.

I made inquiries through local colleges and got the name of a guy in Detroit, the bass trombonist for the Detroit Symphony who has a side gig of buying and selling used trombones. I contacted him, we worked out a plan, I had the horns reconditioned at a local music store and delivered them to him in Detroit on our recent trip. He had buyers for them before we got home! Done and done. Turns out they were a pretty good investment – who knew?!?  I don’t think I’ll be buying a new camera with the money (sorry, Jeff!) but I’ll see if I can find something suitable to do with my windfall.

A few days ago Kathy asked me if I was now a former trombonist. I told her that I was more like a reformed trombonist. Not much difference probably, but I understand the distinction!

Travel

You’ve Got Mail!

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Rural mailboxes near Lac La Belle on the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan

During our time in the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan, we took a day to explore the countryside and essentially circumnavigate the peninsula.

Rural mailboxes near Lac La Belle on the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan

We came across this line of mail boxes near Lac La Belle. It is certainly the most mail boxes I’ve seen in one place! We didn’t count them – feel free if you must! – but we estimated there to be about 20 in each section and 6 sections. I wonder how long it takes the letter carrier to stuff all those boxes?

Rural mailboxes near Lac La Belle on the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan
Travel

Falling For Falling Water

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Upper Tahquamenon Falls, Tahquamenon Falls State Park, Michigan

I started the most recent installment of my photographic journey chasing waterfalls in western North Carolina, and still enjoy checking out new-to-me waterfalls during our travels. We recently stopped by Tahquamenon Falls State Park in the U.P. of Michigan to see and photograph the Upper Falls.

Tahquamenon Falls is sometimes referred to as the “root beer falls” due to the amber color of the waters caused by tannins in the cedar swamps from which the river drains. The water really does take on the cast of root beer barrel candies!

Travel

Don’t Adjust Your Set….

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Piles of Taconite, a form of iron ore pellets used in the production of steel. Seen at the Algoma Steel Company plant located on the St. Marys River in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario Canada

Kathy & I are currently on a journey through cool, comfortable Michigan. We’ve visited a number of places so I’ll likely be posting images completely out of order as I get to them!

We recently visited Sault Sainte Marie, MI and did a boat cruise (never pass up a boat cruise!) on the Soo Locks. These piles of Taconite are used in the production of steel and were waiting alongside the Algona Steel Company on the St. Marys River. The black piles made me think of the opposite of something like White Sands, NM.