Categories
Photography

The rose is pretty. The photo is pretty. I don’t need 34 pretty photos of the same pretty rose.

Subtle antique peach rose, barely starting to unfurl, against a back drop of dark green/blue leaves.

I finished recovering posts for Burningbird and now it’s on to my second major task:

Cleaning out my photo collection.

As the title notes, the subject may be pretty, and the photo may be pretty, but I don’t really need 34 almost identical photos of the same rose.

I started out with over 100,000 photos from over the years. I’ve managed to cull out the absolute worst photos and now I’m at a little more than 47,000 photos. My goal is to delete 350 or more photos a day.

I hit a different album every day so I don’t get too overwhelmed by too many of the same type of photos. I set my mind to expect to see nothing but bad photos—making it mentally easy to delete. It’s only when I just can’t let a photo go that I know this one I’ll keep. If it doesn’t hurt to delete the photo…why keep it?

We all like photos for different reasons. For me, I have to feel something from it. If I’m not emotionally invested in the photo, it’s not a keeper. So, every fuzzy, motion-blurred photo from my one and only cross-country train trip I kept. Yet another pretty rose photo? Piffle.

I want that rose photo to say something to me. It doesn’t have to speak to others, but it has to speak to me.

Oh, I’m not silly stupid. I have a back up of the original 100,000…just in case. But I suspect I can really get my photos down to 5000 or less and not lose anything worth saving. It’s hard, though.

After all, it’s a pretty rose. And they’re pretty photos. And too many say, “Hi.”

Categories
Photography

Out of this world…Pics

I posted a selection of my off-world photos on Facebook and thought I’d post here, too. After all, these pages could use a little color.

Most of the moon and solar photos were taken with a Nikon P900, a camera that is pure delight to use. I used a special filter for the solar shots to keep my camera, and my eye, from getting fried.

The eclipse photos were from the total eclipse in 2017 when I was living in St. Louis. Note that one points out a coronal ejection that was happening at the time of totality.

And the fuzzy orange photo is of Mars, taken with a fairly inexpensive telescope.

Half Moon

Sun and spots


Eclipse

solar eclipse partial

eclipse almost complete

 

coronal ejection

Tower and moon

Tower Moon

Tower Moon 1
 

Mars

Mars

Categories
Photography

It Snowed Little Yellow Flowers

The most difficult aspect of moving to Savannah (other than moving during a pandemic) is getting used to the weather.

You expect the hot and humid summers. But it’s the lack of clearly defined seasons that feels a bit off.

The Savannah temperature is mild in the winter. When it falls below freezing at night, it always warms to above during the day. There are times when you can go about in t-shirts and shorts, even close to Christmas. I had both roses and azaleas blooming late into December.

Pink Azalea bud
Christmas blooming azalea

Because there is no harsh winter, the spring doesn’t pop up like it does in more northern climates. Fall is a gradual process of browning, and Spring seems to be a gradual process of unbrowning.

That is, until you see the Carolina Jessamine bloom. You go for a walk one day and suddenly you see it everywhere: delicate, beautiful tulip-shaped flowers covering every tree and bush. It’s like Christmas, but in Spring: every tree is dotted with bright yellow flowers.

Jessamine vine
Carolina Jessamine vine

During the night when it rained and the wind blew, it snowed bright yellow pollen and little yellow flowers.

Jessamine flowers scattered on the ground
Fallen Jessamine flowers
Categories
Critters Photography

No Worries

two chimps in a tree

Categories
Photography

My first “zoom” set with Nikon Coolpix 900

Thanks to a little quick action, I was able to snag one of the extremely rare Nikon Coolpix P900.

I have a couple of Nikon DSLRs, but I was attracted to the concept of one camera for all purposes. Changing lens in the field gets tedious, and I’ve missed photos because I have the wrong lens on my camera.

I’ll have a more detailed review later, but I wanted to post my own set of “zoom” photos. These are from my backyard.

leaves in a distant tree from my deck

closer to the bunch of leaves

closer to the bunch

When I zoomed in, I was in for a surprise:

there's a bug on one of the leaves