January 7, 2010

I almost forgot to post a photo today. Here' something random I took off my hard drive. I believe this was a building across the street from a turn off on Rte. 1A going from Hampton to Portsmouth. It may be Rye, NH.

January 6, 2010

I don't have a photo to post tonight that's new but here's one I may not have posted. I decided to hook up the old computer as well as the new and try to adapt to the new one as I wean myself off the old. I used to see the world in black and white and now it appears that I'm noticing shades of grey. It certainly reduces my stress.

Anyways. Here's the photo. This was taken at Johnson's Sugar House in Orange. They serve a nice breakfast and sell Maple Syrup.

January 5, 2010

Today I finally hooked up my new computer. It has much more RAM so I should be able to edit in photoshop a lot faster and without many glitches. Today I had a fairly good day. I met with a client this morning to discuss selling his land and then made some home baked beans. Along with that I tried a new recipe that I was going to make at Christmas time but never got around to it. It's called Steamed pudding and has applies, nuts, dates, and spices. It came out pretty well.

I can't edit tonight so can't give you my best shot of the dessert but here goes. Tomorrow I will be loading Photoshop CS3 and my other photo editing software. New computers can be a real pain in the neck.

January 4, 2010

Not much new to say today. I was sad when I woke up at 5 a.m. thinking about my pending divorce (January 19th). I have to meet with my husband on Monday the 11th to discuss finalities and I'm not sure how I will react. I will probably cry because I don't have an attorney. I never like unhappy endings.

On a lighter note, I'll post a happy photo here to end the day. Well, maybe not happy but hopeful for the future. Trees are interesting. They are all old looking and bare and gloomy in the winter and then in the spring they sprout new leaves and are beautiful throughout the summer. In the fall they make a grand exit with their foliage, the bright reds and oranges. Then they hide out for the winter yet again preparing to surprise us all in the spring. Perhaps thats the way my life will be. Just a little gloomy now but surprising in the spring!

January 3, 2010

Today I'm rearranging my desktop to accomodate all my peripherals. I have an Epson 2480 Photo Scanner, an Epson Printer, a Canon 9900 printer (for the nice shots), a Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 to scan negatives and slides, my DSL modem, telephone, speakers, Viewsonic monitor, 2 external hard drives, a Wacom Drawing Tablet, an external mini drive, an external floppy disk drive (does anyone use those any more?), and a desk lamp. All the cables drive me nuts so I'm going to go to Radio Shack today to see if they have some sort of clamps to keep them all tied together and neat. Oh yeah, and I have to make room for both computers, the old and the new. I wonder if I can hook them both together? Hmm.

I went to North Adams last week and on the way, along Rte. 2 (The Mohawk Trail), I noticed a small gift shop with a very large colorful indian out front. He must have been 20 feet tall. I passed by but the light was so good I had to turn around and take several shots. Here's one of them. Remember if you pass by something you think would make a good photo, turn around. It's worth it.

January 2, 2010

Today I slept late and the phone rang at about 8:20 a.m. I didn't pick up but just stayed in bed until then, the doorbell rang. Now I knew I had to get up. Fortunately, it was my friend Norm plowing my parking lot since it snowed about 5 inches this morning. I happily spent the morning snowblowing and shoveling and feel good about getting a little exercise. One New Years Resolution is to lose 10, 15, maybe 20 pounds. Depends on how motivated I get. After watching "The Biggest Loser" last night I realized what a wimp I am when it comes to diet discipline. These people who have lost 100 pounds are amazing. I complain about not being able to lose 10. Time for some attitude adjustment.

Now to discuss photography... I posted this photo on line last night but wanted to post it here and explain what it is. In Turners Falls, Massachusetts near the Hallmark Gallery (formerly the Hallmark Museum of Contemporary Photography) if you drive down a side street from the main street there is a little outside display of childrens artwork. There were several LP records afixed to a frame and so I took a few shots. I've posted both the original (smaller size) and the HDR Photomatrix version which is obviously a photoshop plug in. I used the trial version to see if I liked it. What do you think?

New Years Day, January 1st, 2010

Its New Years Day 2010. I promised to "try" to post a new photo here every day for the next 365 days at least. The photo above was taken at the Gardner Municipal Golf Course the day after the ice storm of 2008. Perhaps I was crazy to go out to photograph but I didn't think I'd ever have a chance to see this type of scenery in our area ever again. As I was driving down Park Street I started to have my doubts with all the power lines down and trees in the middle of the street. But my little Toyota Corolla maneuvered through the debris and I was able to get many fine shots. The saddest thing to see was the destruction of all the trees along the side of the road on Green Street next to the golf course. Mother Nature certainly gave me some interesting shots that day. Although the house was cold, the power was off and we had to learn how to start a fire in the woodstove, I know that God provided me with images that will last a lifetime. I expect I will have many more opportunities to capture interesting images in the future.