The Time Sink

A big week? Yep, as a matter of fact it is: this is the last week of the school year for the boys. ...and the last week of 'freedom' for Shelley. Well, maybe not, considering she has to help out at or help chaperone at least two parties this week. ...and we have another awards ceremony to attend tonight. ...and the boys are probably out early on Friday. So yeah, maybe not much freedom at all...

...and as for me? Well, things have been just a little bit out of hand at work the last week or so. I'm hoping for only a mild level of distraction to allow me to get caught up and get my desk in shape before vacations and such come along.

Okay, that's one awards ceremony over and one more today. ...and then a couple of parties and maybe a real party (conversation with adults while the kids swim) later in the week...

In the meantime we've been enjoying a bit of a respite from our 100 degree weather; it's been in the eighties or even the seventies the past few days. That's flat strange for June, but we're not arguing; it gives Shelley more freedom to operate and makes blading easier for me.

Just chilling this evening, waiting for the next step in a couple of things...

Jason asked, "What was your lighting on the most recent pic? It looks too warm to be a flash, but then it doesn't look like it has too much direct sunlight either."

He was speaking of the poppy shot from Thursday, and I came back to him with,

"That poppy shot was taken at almost high noon under a tree's canopy. The poppy's stem was laying on the log border of a raised garden bed at the neighbor's. The lighting was from just to the left of 'directly overhead' with the tree's leaves acting as limited 'pass through' for the sun's rays.

Essentially I was shooting in shade and timing the wind to move the tree's leaves enough to give me a 'highlight spot' effect. I took about eight shots with that one being the one I liked best. Processing only required some 'unsharp mask' work in PhotoShop Elements"

...and that is the type of shot I speak of in Random Thoughts over on Views: the bit of sunlight falling on the flower caught my eye and I settled in for the expected wait for the sun and the wind and the poppy and my shutter to all sync up to translate what I was seeing into something I could put up on the blog. ...and while it doesn't always work out, in that case it did.

...and for the photo geeks in the crowd: f:3.5 at 1/100th with aperture priority and an ISO rating of 100. The focal length was 50.80mm (translating to 200mm in 35mm film) with the macro setting invoked and the flash suppressed. (...and yes, Jenn, I know I said I'd do this more often; I'll try to remember...)

...and it's the end of the school year for the district the boys attend. As of 1230 today we'll have a high schooler and a sixth grader in the household. ...and if you knew me 'back when' you'd be as shocked as I am when I think of it <g>.

So Summer is now here, and way too close to the solstice to my way of thinking. I mean, we'll have this weekend to get ready for the Father's Day get together (we started last weekend) and then only one more to get ready to hit the coast for our July 4th vacation. No wonder Shelley and I are wandering around with shell-shocked looks on our faces some days!

Well, it's the weekend and I'd better get a post or two up and head to bed: I have some barbecuing to get with in just a few hours and I'll be trying out my own rub on a couple of the pieces this time around.

I had a whole list of things I planned to do today, but it appears I did a little too much yesterday. ...and the body is trying its best to tell the mind to just chill a bit and take it easy.

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"Any sufficiently advanced technology is
indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clarke, "Technology and the Future"

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