Tag Archives: Charlotte

Photo Project: Life In Color

Phase 2: Day 16 – Life In Color

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Evening light from the patio

Yeah, it’s more transmission towers, but this time from a slightly different perspective.

We have about a 100 degree view from our patio, but most of the view is taken up with houses and other foreground clutter.  These towers make for an interesting foreground silhouette, since I don’t have any palm trees. 😉

The night before last, we were sitting on the porch watching the sunset, and I said, “I should get my camera.”  But I didn’t and the color got nice.  Last night, I said, “I should get my camera.”  And I did.  The color was actually a bit better than the night before, so I chose correctly. 🙂  This shows the advantage of having a long lens – 128mm with my 55-200.  I thought about giving the new IBIS a test, but opted for the stability of my tripod.

Photo Project: Life In Color

Phase 2: Day 15 – Life In Color

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Shopping carts escaped from Walmart

Are you tired of looking at abandoned shopping carts yet?  There is an ample supply, and my other choice was more photos of transmission towers, so there you go.  Tomorrow may be transmission towers again!  I need to get out of the neighborhood.  Soon, I suspect.

I spent yesterday afternoon fiddling with menus and settings and taking photos of the ceiling fan on our porch.  It’s interesting what things can be controlled on these cameras, although I’m not sure what they all do or why I would need them.  I’m trying to figure out some of the custom settings but am discovering why I seldom bother – they are fussy and frustrating to figure out and it is getting in the way of taking pictures.  I’m going to keep trying, though.  Because I suspect that there is value in using them that I won’t recognize until I’ve used them.  Duh.

Today I’m working with the camera profiles in Lightroom to see what they will do.  Fuji added a bunch of new profiles to their cameras over the last 5 years or so, and I need to catch up!  There are 4 new black & white settings and a number of color/film emulations to figure out.  I try not to use the same settings all the time, but I do like to have a common starting point.  In order to know what to use I need to know (1) what I like, and (2) what they all do.  So, the homework continues!

Photo Project: Life In Color

Phase 2: Day 13 – Life In Color

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Delivery of building supplies to the new storage center under construction

The summertime heat and humidity have finally arrived.  It’s typical here in the south, but we do the “thermometer dance” in the spring between heat and A/C, then BAM! it’s summer.  We’ve been taking our walks early.  Well, early for Kathy. 😉  That gives us a chance to get home before our shoes start melting into the pavement!

The Big Brown Truck is bringing me a special package today.  I’ll write about it tomorrow. 🙂

Photo Project: Life In Color

Phase 2: Day 12 – Life In Color

Hanging basket in the neighborhood

It was nice to get out yesterday and do something besides buy groceries.  I’m still getting used to the breeze on my neck and around my ears from my haircut, but it feels good!

We drove through uptown Charlotte on our way home yesterday, and it was interesting to see the number of cars parked along the street, even though there weren’t many people around.  There was a lot of construction going on, as there always is there.  It’s probably good to get it done at a time when they won’t muck up traffic, although they will still manage to muck up traffic even when people start returning to the office.  Assuming they ever do!

Word is that Trumpty Dumpty has decided that he’s going to take his toys and go to someone else’s sandbox to have his lovefest.  I don’t care one way or the other, but I know that a lot of businesses are/were hoping to gain back some of their lost revenue from all the convention goers.

One good thing about having the convention wherever they have it is that locking all those goofballs up in one place for a week may insure that a lot of them aren’t around to vote in November.  That’s cruel I know, but when ego replaces good sense you get what you get.

Photo Project: Life In Color

Phase 2 Day 11 – Life In Color

Flowers in the neighborhood

“One of the difficulties of being alive today is that everything is absurd but fewer and fewer things are funny.” Alexandra Petri in“Nothing Is Wrong and Here Is Why”

We’re getting our hair cut today!  I know it may seem selfish to some to be so excited about something so trivial, but it’s a big friggin’ deal to us!  I’m proud to have a full head of hair at almost 62 years old, but this rag mop is getting out of hand!

Just another small step toward normalcy.  We’re happy for every little thing these days.

Photo Project: Life In Color

Phase 2: Day 10 – Life In Color

Pool reflections

From the Useless Statistics Department:  We drove our car a grand total of 42 miles during the month of May.  Yikes!  We did finally buy gas for the first time since March in order to use up some of our Fuelpoints, but only needed 7.5 gallons.  But I got it for only $6 so it was still a deal.  I suspect we’ll be doing a little more driving in June.  At least I hope so…I’ll have more Fuelpoints to use! 🙂

Photo Project: Life In Color

Phase 2: Day 8 – Life In Color

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We Got Ladders

One of the things I’ve been impressed with during this corona-crisis is the resilience of people and what they have done during this time.  No, most of us haven’t learned to speak Italian or Spanish, but many people have found interesting things to do.  Some of my neighbors are rediscovering old hobbies or dusting off cookbooks and getting reacquainted with their kitchens.  Monte was writing the other day about replacing the coffee shop routine with visits to the countryside in the early morning or late evening.  Earl and Cedric have been revisiting old photographs – sometimes finding lost photos filed in the wrong folder! – and reworking them to make new art.

Of course there are downsides, but I try to not dwell on those.

Photo Project: Life In Color

Phase 2: Day 7 – Life In Color

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Life In Color – Flowers in the Neighborhood

We learned yesterday that our libraries will reopen on June 1, albeit with very limited services including only allowing one person at a time in the building.  That’s OK with me, as right now I just want to return two physical books that I’ve had since February.  All of my other reading has been on my Kindle.  It will be nice to get the books off our living room table!

Photo Project: Life In Color

Phase 2 Day 6 – Life in Color

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Life In Color: Pool Shadows

Kathy & I haven’t been frequent pool-goers in any of the neighborhoods we’ve lived.  But this year we had decided we were going to use the one in our current neighborhood more.  Of course it has not yet reopened for the season so we walk past it every day.  Some kind of hoopla between the HOA board, the pool company and attorneys.  But it gives some of the neighbors something new to talk about! 😉

This week Kathy & I pulled the plug on our October cruise and cleared the travel slate completely.  We’re planning a trip to the beach, thinking that renting and living in a condo down there for a week will give us a similar insulation from others to living at home while providing a change of scenery.  We need a change of scenery.

We’re hoping that things loosen up a bit across the country in June and July and are hoping to bag a few more states.  Unfortunately the ones we still need are in the far corners of the country.  But fortunately most of the states are wide-open spaces, so as long as we can get gas, get food and sleep, we might be able to put together a nice drive without a lot of people-ing.