nathanguitars

January 17, 2016 · 9:30 pm

Distracted

I hate this commuting

We live in a strange age. The middle class is dissolving like snowmen in April. Our new government was elected on a promise to borrow huge sums that will be spent on infrastructure, as a way to get the economy going. This weekend I read in the paper about what the major cities hope to build, and most of it seems to be focused on mass transit. Great, but I ask you this; the workers are going to get more transit so they can travel to their jobs from further and further away, but is their pay going up? We know the answer to that. Give the workers more transit; it will distract them from the fact that their standard of living is declining, and their commuting time is increasing.

I hope they haven’t sold out the latest Stones farewell tour yet

Some cities are hoping to build new arenas and indoor stadiums with the money. Who can afford to go to the insanely expensive events that will happen there? I never attend concerts or sports events anymore, can’t afford it. I saw the Rolling Stones for $12 back in the day. It was fun, although they sucked on stage even then. NHL hockey tickets were $5 for standing room when I was at university. I watched the Montreal Canadiens battle the Chicago Blackhawks for the Stanley Cup, for five bucks!! Today a cup of pop costs more than that. The Canadiens moved from the Forum, one of the best arenas in the world, to a new arena which has hardly more seats. Why? Because they could build private boxes for wealthy business clients, boxes that sell for astronomical sums, which they need to pay the players their insane salaries. But in the end who pays? The fans, of course, through the nose. But not me. I don’t even watch anymore. I can’t stand all the damned advertising that’s plastered all over the boards and even on the ice. It distracts me from the game.

five seconds and I’m out of here

I heard a story from an elementary school teacher the other day. She can’t teach her class because the students are unable to pay attention for more than five seconds. Meanwhile, every one in the world will soon have a smartphone. Great, but if the ultimate result is kids who can’t think straight, thanks a lot Steve Jobs… I’m sure you never thought that far ahead, and I really don’t blame you, but now what? I was told a similar story about writing skills at universities – kids can’t write anymore. But no one fails either. The professors are intimidated by the power of the students. Everyone loses here however. There are too many distractions for students to pay attention and learn. Maybe they see what’s waiting for them when they get out of school?

I forgot what I was saying

But I have distractions too, like fooling around with pictures. But if you’re supposed to be doing your homework, you better quit looking at this right now and get back to work!

undistractable

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Filed under Animal psychology, Birds, Photography

Tagged as distraction

January 14, 2016 · 7:15 pm

a day in the life of a blog

Some days I just want to make some marks with a typewriter, if only to justify the collection. Typing is like therapy in a strange way, you press the keys and a physical reaction occurs, leaving you with a mark on paper. It is a feedback loop of sorts, direct, simple, immediate. And it has the added benefit of being quite capable of creating something you can read, criticize, laugh at, enjoy, loath and keep for along long time (almost forever). Typing is like Polaroid photography! My old Professor of Architectural History wrote a book in which he proposed a number of different analogies as ways to interpret the history of architecture. Polaroids didn’t come into that, but had they done so I’m sure my father would have understood; he was a big Polaroid fan and had a number of Polaroid cameras, starting with the original, and ending with the SX 70. His pictures, which were many, were all of what I mention here; laughable, pitifully bad sometimes, yet a reminder of a day or an event that would last and last. Unfortunately all those photos seem to have vanished! So much for posterity. But still, the possibility exists, and that itself makes Polaroids, and typewritten pages different from other ways of recording moments in time…

A blog is like typing and like Polaroids, is it not? You can just sit down and post something, and there it is as a record of a moment in time. How long it might endure is anyone’s guess however. But I do have a shoe box full of the typewritten bits I’ve posted here over the past years, should some future person wish to read them and be amused, or bored..

SOME PHOTOS, C/W THOUGHTS:

colourful, good bokeh

matching warm greys

how does a neck bend that way?

common, yet noble Robin, your beak is crusty with dirt

cormorant in the last light of day, what are you looking at?

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Filed under Animal psychology, Birds, Photography, Poetry, Typewriters

Tagged as polaroid photography, typewriter analogy

January 11, 2016 · 12:39 pm

City Life

8.30am at 7-11

Long ago, in the era of film, it was fun to shoot street scenes. They only thing that curtailed my shooting then was the cost of film, processing, and printing; among other things, like the need to attend school, etc. We always shot in black and white too, as colour was much too expensive, besides which black and white was the medium on the street beat, and could be developed and printed in a home darkroom without an enormous investment in equipment. Digital has changed all that, mostly for the better, with the exception of the tendency to want to buy a new camera every few years. My Minolta SRT 101 lasted 25 years, and was every bit as good as the finest cameras money could buy. Not so today.
Nevertheless, my present DLSR is certainly good enough, even if it is already technically obsolete. This morning I had an hour to kill while getting some work done on the car, so I brought the camera along and wandered around the downtown core. I converted these images to black and white, because I feel that they have more impact when you remove colour as a consideration; it’s all about subject matter. That is the point of street photography. I tried not to shoot photos of people right up front and in their faces, because I’ve never felt comfortable doing that. Today in fact I shot a picture of one fellow who passed me on the sidewalk and heard the click of the very noisy shutter of my Pentax K50. He stopped and turned to ask me if I’d taken his picture. Since I had a photograph of only his back I replied I had not, hoping he would drop the subject, but he didn’t. He told me to show him that I hadn’t taken his picture. I told him there was nothing to see, and walked away. He then called me an f-ing goof. Some street people are known to suffer from paranoia, so I guess he was one of them. I will not use the picture of his back in any case.

setting up at a cafe

bet he's unemployed

blasters

heading to work

church that still is one

intense concentration on a piece of paper

someone likes pigeons

the pigeon roost

spare change?

trash bin alley

flashback

PS: last day for the free ebook!

2 Comments

Filed under Cameras, Street photography

Tagged as bw photographs, morning, street photography, victoria bc

January 10, 2016 · 6:49 pm

Sunny Today, Rain Tomorrow

the fastest animal on earth

Winter is the season of extreme moods. Rain on a summer day can never be as miserable as the grey gloom of winter. Today was one of those winter days we treasure – sunny and all blue skies. I felt like I couldn’t get enough sunshine. The birds responded with displays of beauty too, and I was lucky to get some good pictures. The Pileated Woodpecker was hard at work on the tall stump again, although he refused to come around to the sunny side of the tree. I caught a pair of Stellar’s Jays in a bush right in front of us, and a pair of Ravens high up in an oak, well lit by the sun. On the water I watched ducks for a while, hoping some of the Mergansers would come a little closer. Unlike the Mallards which make their year round home here, these Mergansers come infrequently, and I suppose they aren’t quite as comfortable around humans as the Mallards are. They have this reflex to stop and turn away at a distance of about 15 yards. I came home and hung about doing things like starting a loaf of bread, but always with an eye out the window, with a feeling that the beautiful sunshine was going to waste. So at 4 pm I grabbed my camera again and went back down to the lake to enjoy the last of the sun. I caught a Song Sparrow in the golden light, amongst a crowd of others hanging around some feeders. Then I spotted something far away, coming across the sky and heading for the top of one of the tall firs, about 40 or 50 yards away. It was impossible to recognize at a distance but with the 500mm lens I saw it better, although it was still a mere blip on the screen. I took some pictures and stood there waiting for about 10 minutes with my finger on the trigger, hoping to catch it in flight. When it finally took off my reflexes were just too slow, or my camera was, but in any case all I caught was air. It was another Peregrine Falcon, not exactly rare but then again not a common sight hereabouts. They are distinguished by their Elvis sideburns, although to be fair, falcons had them first. Not every day you see the fastest animal on earth. They dive at 250 km/hr (155 mph).

Analog Moonshot

A SLIDE RULE

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Filed under Photography, Poetry, Technology, Thrift shop finds

Tagged as accuracy, precision, slide rule

January 8, 2016 · 6:51 pm

Meaning & Existence

1-Photograph (122)

Today was 50% off at local Sal Army stores. It was also my birthday. After having my right leg adjusted in the morning by my physio, I felt great! Does existence get any more meaningful than this? Suffice to say that it gets even better, because after my haul of half priced treasures I baked a pear upside down cake and filled, yes filled the frig with beer for tonight’s party. I will no doubt brag about how I found a 2016 Classic Car Calendar for 25 cents (it’s hanging on the wall now – this month features the original Corvette) in with the LP’s. The only thing to top that was two packs of Uniball pen refills, 4 in all, for 50 cents. Not to forget a classic LP on the Vocalion label; Manny Albam and his Jazz Greats, playing hits from West Side Story. The surface was very noisy but a good wet coat of record cleaner helped. Wetting the playing surface of old scratchy LP’s reduces the crackles significantly.

If you prefer birds, here are a few pics from yesterday:

And before you go – just another reminder about the free ebook giveaway! My novel is free for a couple more days. Just a few clicks away….

Above we have a Stellar’s Jay, an Angry Sparrow, a Common Merganser, and yet another Pileated Woodpecker. Just in the past few days these big Woody’s seem to have invaded the woods nearby. There were two of them on this tree.

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Filed under Birds, LP's, Photography, Thrift shop finds

Tagged as birds, birthdays, LP, thrift stores, west side story

January 7, 2016 · 9:16 am

Free Book Today!

My novel, The Game of Hearts, is available for free downloading starting today, for the next five days.

The Game of Hearts was written on an actual typewriter!

Lucky Streak

Last night I won $84 on my 6/49 loto ticket. So I purchased another one. I know that statistics prove that lucky streaks are random occurrences, but maybe I’m having randomly occurring luck. It certainly seems to be that way with the birds recently. I’ve seen three bald eagles in the past five days, another one just today around noon. It seems to have taken up residence in a local tall tree.

resident eagle

Another bird that is quite literally trying to take up residence is a Pileated Woodpecker. I heard its tapping and then saw it low down on a rotten tree trunk, right beside the trail, excavating a huge hole. I had the camera set up at f32/400th of a second, which was a mistake, because the auto ISO function set the ISO so high the image was very noisy. I’m trying to improve my image sharpness, but this was over doing things. I also took some video of the woodpecker, but it wasn’t in focus.

Pileated Woodpecker

Crossing the floating bridge I was treated to a show of herons and ducks. One heron was preening itself as several Mergansers cruised by. One Merganser then flew right in front of me but the photo was out of focus, sadly. However, I did catch another heron as it swooped by.

heron and merganser

heron in flight

Yesterday, close to home I spotted a Cedar Waxwing.

Cedar Waxwing

Now to spread the good fortune around I will be promoting my novel The Game of Hearts, by giving away the Kindle ebook free for the next five days, starting tomorrow, January 7th.

Just go to the Kindle website listed at the top of this page and you will find it there.

postscript:

I returned to the tree 2 hours after I first saw the Pileated Woodpecker to try my luck again. This time I set the camera on a tripod and waited. Sure enough after a few minutes the woodpecker returned with a series of squawks, and began digging out the tree. It was on the opposite side of the first hole however, and the sun was right behind it. I had to move the camera into the shadow of another tree, which obstructed my view somewhat, but the results were much improved. While I was waiting for the woodpecker a wren arrived to check out the excavation.

too much lens flare!

pecking the other side of tree

wren checking out the digs

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Filed under Birds

Tagged as bald eagle, cedar waxwing, great blue heron, merganser, pileated woodpecker

January 3, 2016 · 12:09 pm

Winter Birds

During the last weeks we’ve had a lot of sunshine here, which makes for good lighting when it comes to photographing birds. I’m trying to be diligent and not venture out into nature sans camera with telephoto lens affixed. My reward has been a few good bird sightings. We made a special trip last week to seek birds in the farmland nearby, but had no luck. So we went down to the beach that faces east to the mainland and were treated to an excellent view of Mt. Baker in Washington.

Mt. Baker, Washington

Back at the lake we watched some ducks slip sliding around on a frozen section. Parts of the ice were so thing the ducks kept falling through, which was hilarious.

Ducks on ice

We’ve seen plenty of raptors lately, including one Red Tailed Hawk that had just captured its lunch – a rat. I only noticed the rat when I downloaded the pictures.

Red Tailed Hawk

I was too busy snapping to notice the tail of the rat!

a closer view of the rat

We were treated to a perfect view of a Bald Eagle one day last week, sitting in a tree right beside the path. It’s very rare to get so close to one of these; they usually sit at the top of much taller trees, generally evergreens, too.

Bald Eagle

A Cooper’s Hawk showed up, too. Sometimes I have a hard time discerning the Cooper’s from the Red Tailed.

Cooper’s Hawk

More birds here, somewhat easier to identify:

Song Sparrow

Red Wing Blackbird

Glaucous Winged Gull

Spotted Towhee

Northern Flicker

2 Comments

Filed under Birds, Photography

Tagged as bald eagle, cooper's hawk, ducks on ice, glaucous winged gull, Mt. Baker, northern flicker, red tailed hawk, red wing blackbird, song sparrow, spotted towhee, Winter

December 23, 2015 · 9:31 am

What the Mouse Heard

I sent my latest novel in for a proof. The story is about a scientist who discovers a drug that will cross the blood brain barrier. Not to give away too much, it involves a mouse, travel, poker, India, Hong Kong, and Tibet. The cover: