The Dakotas and points west.
Starting mid-September through mid-October, we spent 29 days traveling the country. Some probably consider us crazy to choose to travel during a 100-year pandemic. Trust me, neither of us wants to be sick, and at our tender years, we are more likely to have severe complications should we happen to contract Covid-19. So we were careful. For this post, I will share some of our thoughts on staying safe while traveling in these trying times. Continue reading
Fargo, North Dakota.
Going through some family images, I ran across an image of my brothers who served in the Navy. I am not a US Navy veteran, or an Armed Services veteran of any kind, but most of my brothers served in one branch or another. Two of them, and a brother-in-law and his brother all served on the USS Rochester, CA-124), an Oregon City-class heavy cruiser. When I went looking for images of the ship, I found plenty. I found a lot of history on the ship as well. Commissioned in 1946, she served in Europe, then the Pacific, eventually taking an active part in Korean War operations. It was during those Korean conflict years that my brothers served on her. Continue reading
Orange Twirl
Fargo, North Dakota.
As I am working on this post, it’s late April. We’ve been back in Fargo for nine days and we are honoring the North Dakota Governor’s mandate that snowbirds spend two weeks in quarantine. So far, we are fine here, but going a bit batty from watching TV and doing puzzles. Our bright spot of the day is the online exercise classes we’ve found to keep us at least a little bit active. But I digress from my digression… Continue reading
Fargo, North Dakota.
So this week’s feature can be called “Untravel Tuesday.” While COVID-19 is up ticking through much of the country, it has been trending downward in North Dakota. One of the things I missed most over the last few months is daily attendance at the fitness center for my cardio and weight classes. The center I regularly use in Fargo is Total Balance. They offer physical therapy as well as a workout area and exercise classes. I’ve been a member since 2008. Though their physical therapists have been available by appointment, until recently, the center was closed to members. The instructors, however, like many around the country are offering online classes. Now that they’ve re-opened, class sizes are severely restricted with online first-come, first-served signup. In conjunction, they are broadcast via Facebook Live for those who prefer to continue to workout from home. Continue reading
In April 2016, I accepted the volunteer position of Wing Commander for North Dakota Wing Civil Air Patrol. In support of that position, I was provided a cell phone that would provide my staff and our organization’s partners a way to contact me directly. That phone is a Samsung S7 that, by the end of my four-year term, was on its last legs. My own personal phone, a Samsung S6 was little used but beginning to show its age on battery life, even though it was off much of the last four years. Besides, as a reward for my hard work in CAP, I wanted to upgrade to a better phone once my term ended. My wife had acquired a Samsung S9 and its camera system is much improved over both the S6 and S7. My original plan was to probably go with the S10 in April when my term expired. Continue reading
This week, a friend in the Blog-o-sphere who writes under the pen name of RulesOfLogic weighs in on photography along with a couple of comments on his favorite topic, automobiles. I discovered his blog several months ago and have enjoyed reading his take on classic automobiles. As an aficionado of classic cars, I usually have a comment or two about his posts (though mine is definitely not an “expert opinion.”) You can read his blog, “Disaffected Musings” here.
Without further ado, I present RulesOfLogic.
No, the post title is not the setup for a punchline like in this commercial, which may be my favorite ever. (“Ah one, ah ta-hoo, ah three. [Crunch] three.”) Even though I am a numbers nerd with OCD, I would not want to be guilty of “Breaking A Butterfly Upon A Wheel” to use Pope’s famous line. Continue reading
San Diego, California.
OK, so I’m not a portrait photographer and I don’t claim to be. Turns out Luminar 4 might just make me a portrait photographer that could make me happy with my work… if I can get the camera to focus on the eyes. I scoured my gallery of images to find snapshots that I could somehow justify in the name of portraiture. I didn’t find any. But I did find some images that were captured at a wedding in San Diego some years ago. The snapshots I found included an of my sister and an in-law, and, a solo image of my wife. The opening image features my sister, Veronica (we call her Babe), and my nephew’s wife Edwina. Continue reading
Buckeye, Arizona.
I am writing this as my wife and I self-isolate in our winter place. A couple more weeks and we will venture back to our home in Fargo. With less travel on my schedule, last month I shared some of my work flow using Luminar 4. This week, we take a peek at the Creative section. As with my earlier post, this is not a full review, I am just sharing some of the tools that I use. I don’t find myself using anywhere close to the full capacity of the program, preferring instead to keep my images all with a similar “look and feel.” This month, I get a little more creative for those times when I want to do something “special.”
December 31, 2019.
In the late 1990’s, my wife Lynn, daughter Carrie, and I departed Miami for an Eastern Caribbean cruise. It was our first. We enjoyed it, but times being what they were, it would be 2007 before we would make our second cruise. Since then, it’s become our favorite way of vacationing. In the next 16 years, we’ve visited the Caribbean islands twice, Hawaii, Fanning Island (Tabuaeran), went through the Panama Canal twice, and as the photo above implies, we departed Seattle for Alaska (you can tell by the tiny Space Needle in the far right background of this image captured on the Norwegian Pearl.) Continue reading
As I’ve branched out in photography from landscape to other types of photography, I’ve added new, more versatile tools to my camera bag. In late 2016, I made my biggest photo investment in a new camera body, the Nikon D500. Reviewers at the time heralded its capabilities in action and wildlife photography. In my nearly two years of ownership, I haven’t taken the opportunity to focus much on either genre, but I have at least taken advantage of the camera’s power in these areas. If you’re looking for a review here, you’ll be disappointed. My only purpose here is to share some images I’ve considered successful and probably not likely to be duplicated with my other cameras. Continue reading
