Most Commented Photography Blogs (166)

I have spent the last 15 minutes dashing around causing harmless mischief on several threads, yet no one will take a blind bit of notice.

Do I have to get nasty?

Today we are going to be looking at growing old, and how to avoid doing it with dignity.

People often ask me how I get away with behaving so immaturely at my age. Well the answer is simple; I refuse to compromise. Sometimes the temptation to conform to accepted standards can be very hard to resist, but we have to overcome our reluctance to cross that threshold. As with most skills, practice is the key.

The next time you are walking through a park and get an urge to climb a tree, don’t let your inhibitions win. First, make sure there are people around to witness it. If not, wait until there are, and then just do it; climb the tree. Try to choose a tree that offers some possibility of being climbed, as falling to the ground in front of an audience without suffering sever embarrassment is beyond the scope of the beginner.

There it is; as simple as that. Just practice climbing trees in public places until it becomes second nature not to give a thought to what onlookers might be thinking of you. And remember; your objective is not to become good at climbing trees, but simply not to mind being seen doing it.

Next week we will be discussing ways to assess how likely someone you might want to insult is able to run faster than you can, and the strategies that can be employed to slow them down. Don’t miss it, this is something you will need to know.

For quite a long time I have had an intuitive feeling that there is no such thing as time. Yet I can’t even say that without recruiting the concept of time to help me in the denial of its own existence. My intuition tells me that what we call the past, the present and the future, all exist simultaneously and perpetually. Every object and every event that ever was, is or will be, just is, constantly. But how we experience that as the linear process we call time is a complete mystery to me.

Do we each have one consciousness that steadily progresses through this strange, static landscape, experiencing it as the passing of time, while in reality it is only our consciousness that is passing? Well not really, because that would mean our consciousness would be travelling in time. Do we then have infinite consciounesses, each experiencing one unit of existence? If so, how are all these separate perceptions joined together to form our overall perception of now? And could there even possibly be such a thing as a unit of existence?

As I am writing this blog, am I also only just being born, while simultaneously experiencing my terminal heart attack? Am I still a single cell organism? None of this stacks up, something is going on. Do the scientists know the truth, but are keeping it secret? Does the government know what is going on, but not telling us? Do I have to turn to Youtube for answers?

Nobody knows, of course, and perhaps nobody ever will. Maybe the limits of our perception lock us into a subjectivity that is simply impossible to escape. Still, such matters are useful for occupying our minds while we lay in bed waiting to drift off to sleep, which I am probably doing at this very moment in some unit of existence or other.

... I have decided to treat myself to a new camera, a new DSLR camera to be more specific. My last DSLR camera bought around 18 years ago, a Fuji Finefix has outlived its usefulness and its time for an upgrade.

My sad little Fuji finepix is going to be retired:



After a great deal of research I have decided on a Nikon D500 (see image below)



I've read several reviews and it seems to be a perfect unit with many of the features of the Nikon D5 included without all the extra weight and expense.

Of course I will also equip myself with a set of AF-S DX Nikkor lenses up to 300mm zoom and a SB-5000 Speedlight flash as the D500 does not have a built-in flash unit.

Do we have any shutterbugs on the blogs that would like to comment or advise about my choice, for or against?


.....

Anybody intrested to have whatsapp chat ?
If so , please inbox me your contact details

Eligibility :

1-Must have more than 3 profile pics
2-have a good reliable cs Carrier.

or.... Hi. I'd love to have you over for dinner.

or... have some fun and add your own photo caption, if you like.

The beauty of nature........our glorious world.....

Here are 5 of the 12 photos that I presented last week in my photo club.
They loved them. Perhaps you might enjoy one of them too.
All were taken with my Canon T6i and a Sigma 50 to 500 mm lens.

The first 3 are somewhat difficult. They are of a flying hummingbird feeding from a flower.
They were at a huge garden, where there were literally thousands of flowers.
So, one has little idea as to when the bird would appear, or which flower the bird would feed from. In addition one needs to choose a very high shutter speed (these were taken at 1/3200 of a second) and thus a high ISO ( = 3200).







The next one was of a Monarch Butterfly.
However, while I was just about to press the shutter button, I noticed (something?)
out of the corner of my eye to the right of the butterfly.
So, I shifted the camera a bit to the right to include it in the picture.
I was very happy that the butterfly turned out very well and the other
tiny insect turned out well enough to at least get a look at it.
However, I still don't know what the heck that tiny insect is.



Lastly, I went to a jazz festival last month. Got right up front, center stage and met
a couple of the band leaders. One a female singer and the other one a terrific guitarist,
that I own several CDs of. His name is Mark Whitfield.

While I was taking photos, I sat right next to the guy the festival hired to take photos of the
event. I asked him if he was familiar with Mark Whitfield. He was not. I told him, that I had
never seen him in person, but I owned several of his CDs and that he is an excellent guitarist.

We both took hundreds of photos of each band. After Mark Winfield's band was done, the other photographer commented to me, "Man, he just gave us his all." I said, "Yeah. But the challenge with him, as I saw it, was that whenever he plays, he plays with his eyes closed." He responded with, "Well, I took a lot of photos of him. I'm sure I got several with his eyes open."

I then saw him go through all 84 photos he took of Mark, and not a single one had him with his eyes open. Because I noticed the challenge early on during his set, I got 11 photos of him with his eyes open. While I got plenty of his eyes closed while playing, I intentionally waited to the exact moment that he opened his eyes, to get several of those too, giving options for perhaps a CD cover. I did hand Mark my business card after the concert.

What the other photographer said next, made absolutely no sense. He said, "Well, we just looked at the JPEG photos. Some of the RAW ones probably have his eyes open."
I did not reply, because the RAW and the JPEG photos are exactly the same photos,
simultaneously stored onto the same memory card, except the way the image is stored is different.
I just let him 'save face' (pun intended).

Here's one of the photos of Mark, with his eyes & mouth open.



And here's a short little taste of some of his solo guitar work;

Today was a beautiful day! My son and I took a trip to Mabry Mills off the Parkway in Virginia and then drove the Parkway to Fancy Gap and home. I love days like this!




---- IMAGE REMOVED because photobucket.com no longer allows embedded images ----

---- IMAGE REMOVED because photobucket.com no longer allows embedded images ----

What could possibly go wrong ?

Or add your own caption(s) for the following photo;