Thank GOD Fireworks Don't Happen Every Day!

"Above all, life for a photographer cannot be a matter of indifference."

~Robert Frank

 

I like the quote I chose for today's post. I think it fits my life as a progressive, and my life as a photographer. It fits a lot of decisions I make when it comes to actually clicking the shutter. Most of the time I prefer pure instinct, but in order to get better at what I try to accomplish with the camera, I have to schedule myself to practice with settings and light. Light! Oy... light can be your best friend, and just when you think you understand each other, the odd natural filter like a cloud or a flock of geese soaring over can change how you think about everything. Photographing fireworks is a lot like constantly trying to make a good impression. You have to get it right the first time, because there is NO forgiveness available.

 

Photographing anything in San Francisco, especially outdoors, comes with a unique challenge. In a word... angles. San Francisco is a love story, built on a million or so earthquakes. I swear, there are NO even angles remaining in the city. Nothing seems to really line up. My meter can read that I, and my camera, are perched equally straight on a hill, STRAIGHT, or even on a perfectly mostly flat surface and yet nope, some off angle is hiding somewhere, waiting for me to come along. Invariably there will be something out of whack! To the right. To the left. Something. I want and need to do more work with hills this year. Hills facing up and hills facing looking down. Stairs to. There are so many stairs in San Francisco... all of them present some challenges for the amateur photographer.

But challenges are good! I am thankful that I continue to be challenged by something I love so much!

I have not, and will not cease growing as a person, as long as I have photography to challenge me. And what's great about that is that as I adjust how I feel about lighting, I think I remain a little more open minded about the other challenges that haunt my brain. The ones that don't have much to do with photography. It all works out at the end of the day, and if for some reason I can't find the correct angle or lighting moment, or manage to screw in the right light bulb, there is always new opportunities the next day to get it all right!

My two great loves. Photography and Progressive Politics. 

Thank GOD fireworks don't happen every day!

Mood: Happy... but the head cold continues.

And Now... Boston with "More Than A Feeling"



~Me :)

And Now... HEEERRRES NORMAL!

"A vacation is what you take, when you can no longer take what you have been taking."

~Earl Wilson

I remember lamenting to one of my *48 or so therapists, that I just wanted to feel normal. He replied that..."doing something normal, will make you feel normal."

Duh.

He was right.

My photo-blogging project A Photo A Day For 6 Months is finished. The national election is finished. My vacation is finished. My vegetable garden is finished. My rose garden isn't finished, but it is being put to bed for the rest of fall and winter, so in effect it's finished.

It's all finished.

But I am just getting started!

I had a good time with the cameras the last few months. I am beginning to understand what makes the Fuji camera tick, and I am always stunned by the photos the Kodak takes. There are a ton of events coming up soon, from the continuing burst of color the autumn leaves are displaying around here, to the preps being done for Thanksgiving, to Black Friday and all it's craziness, to the December holidays! I am looking forward to all of it. It seems that there isn't any interest in the APAD or the MPS, which is fine, I get it, but I think I am going to keep blogging for myself. It feels amazing to be like my old self again, too amazing to stop, so I am loading up the cameras into the new blue car, and I am going to see what happens. Life will happen I hope. We'll see. It's not like there isn't something in the Bay Area to find and discover.

I love it here.

And I will get right on that, just as soon as Alan comes back with my car! LOL. Leave it to his job to call him up to Sacramento, the very first day he is back to work! He will be in Sacramento for two days, and it only made sense that he took the new car that gets the better gas mileage. Sigh. But actually, it's all good. The weatherman says it's going to rain, rain and rain a little more, with strong possibilities of a nice thunderstorm or two, and snow on the lower peaks. Great. Snow. Why does it only snow when he works? That's some sense of humor Mother Nature has! LOL.

Well, with any luck it will snow here in the hills! If it does, me and the cats will go tobogganing in the back yard. That should make quite the picture, don't you think?

:)

*I didn't have 48 therapists at once, that was a lifetime total. The particular therapist I mentioned was around therapist number 43.

:)

Stay Tuned!

~Me :)

Coit Tower
October 23rd, 2012
San Francisco, Ca
Afternoon