Project 365 - Day 40

Simplicity.

First a photo from today's walk.  This came out quite a bit better than I had expected.  I have shot this 'tunnel of trees' before, as I like the way it looks to my eye, and at this time of year, the sun comes through the trees.  Today was quite overcast, and I wasn't sure the sun was going to be bright enough to make this look like the magical glow that I saw, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Uncertain of how the above photo was going to come out, and having had a day trying to distill complicated analysis into a mostly understandable methods section for a paper I'm working on, I was craving some simplicity.

Enter my new-to-me Kodak Tourist camera.  Not only is this camera a cool addition to my collection of old, inexpensive cameras I've purchased off eBay (a little patience and you can get some amazing old cameras!), but it is quite special because it came with the original box and manual. I'll have more photos of the camera and the box, but the manual was the selling point for me, and it helped me find some simplicity.

For comparison, here's the manual for my Panasonic 27-270mm camera, and the manual for the Kodak Tourist.  All the numbered parts for the Panasonic, and, well, not so much for the Kodak,

Ignore that this manual is in Spanish - it was was the first one I grabbed.

And the 3 (count 'em, three!) parts on the front of the camera.

Admittedly, there was another diagram that had a few more parts explained, but really, that's it.

You'd think the back of the camera actually did something, but no. This is the guide to help you figure out the appropriate aperture for your shutter speed, (or vice versa) based on the light conditions, with the options of 'bright sun', 'hazy sun', or 'cloudy' and you subject is either 'dark' or 'average'.  (I'm not even going to speculate on that.)

The explanation they give you in the manual is actually quite helpful, and there is another page (I'll shoot it tomorrow) that give you a visualization of what the various aperture settings are.  You probably wouldn't become Ansel Adams from the manual (although I'll let you know if that happens once I read the manual), but it seems to give the average person who bought this camera enough information to try out their first roll (or several) of film and then have the anticipated excitement of seeing what the developed photos look like.  I do like that the 'basic setting' for an average subject in bright sunlight is f/11 with a shutter speed of 1/50th of a second. (I'm not sure I can hold the camera steady at that slow a shutter speed!)

And for reference, here's the back of the Panasonic.  Just a wee bit more complicated.

I am not certain that the Kodak actually works, which makes the Panasonic a bit more useful, but I LOVE the manual with the Kodak. And the camera itself is beautiful.  But you'll see more of that later.

Project 365 - Day 39

Some random photos from the walk and a break when I was working today.

Pre-dawn

Sunrise

Alpenglow (or probably sun) on the hillside.

The sun wasn't quite high enough up in the sky to get the sun on the snow through the trees/

Fri-toes!

Not the best executed forehead smooch.

Project 365 - Day 38

A few photos from this morning's walk.

This young-ish moose just has some burrs on his/her coat (much like what Daisy and Lucy-Fur collect when they escape the yard and run up the hill).

I liked the shadow.

I liked this shadow, too, but the one above is cleaner.

Gary asked me about the sun coming through the trees and if I thought it would make a cool photo. I have tried getting this photo many times, and I'm still not happy with it.  (Here I was so focused on trying to get the sun on the snow coming through the trees that I didn't notice that that I had cut off the top of the trees.)  I still like the idea, and I'm sure I'll keep coming back to this - as we move closer to Spring and the sun gets a bit higher in the sky, it will be interesting to see what it looks like.)

And, a yoga photo, as I was trying to figure out how I could position the phone so I could get photos of a couple of different things:

1) stuff on the ground

Getting closer

2) wider angle photos

I don't know if I can get the phone farther away from me.  Might be time to start looking into remote shutter releases for my little camera.

It would be nice if I didn't cut off parts of my appendages.  (And yes, I wear pretty much the same thing for yoga every day.)

Project 365 - Day 37

A beautiful day!

Today was a beautiful day for walking the dogs.  We got a bunch of snow this week, and it's starting to look a bit more like winter.  Finally!

Snow, blue skies and sun on the aspen branches.

With the new snow there were a number of backcountry skiers heading out to "earn their turns" (hike up to ski down). The avalanche danger is quite high right now, but the area accessible from our neighborhood is, apparently, safer than other areas.

This would have been better if the guy wasn't looking back, but since I hadn't asked permission to take their photos (no one is identifiable, so it's okay), I couldn't ask him to pose!

The start of a long hike for these skiers!

Of course, the girls also had a grand time in the yard. Lucy got very close to retrieving the frisbee stuck in the snow, but turned back within inches of grabbing it. Go figure!

Daisy on the other hand, got the frisbee and then had no interest in chasing it...

So Lucy-Fur pounced on the frisbee and brought it back while Daisy investigated the new temporary fencing (with the new snow, the top of the fence looks more accessible to her, so she was looking for escape routes)....

I like the light in this one.

Oh, and Lucy helped me with yoga today....

"Mom, if you are looking for inner peace, you'll find it through feeding us breakfast. Because we won't stop bugging you until you feed us."

Project 365 - Day 36

Not a lot of photos today; winter has finally arrived, and the Donner Party had to be outfitted for its trek into the wilds.  And I was tired, and was thinking about work, so not much caught my eye.

But I'm still impressed with our snowplows - big things that move at a good clip, and make sure that the Donner Party can make it home without having to snack on anyone.

As I mentioned, I was tired today; it's been a very busy work week, and when I finished this afternoon and saw my co-worker had already called it quits for the day, I felt that her energy level mirrored my own almost exactly.  Gotta love co-workers who encourage a Friday-afternoon snooze!

Project 365 - Day 35

Snow!  Okay, it's Utah, and it's Winter so no shocker about the snow.  But the whole goal of this project is to really see things, and not just let the world come in through my eyes and bounce back out again.

I was watching the snow blowing around in the light this morning, and I didn't realize that I had the camera on a slow shutter speed.  So, these photos came as a nifty surprise!  (And that's what happens when I take photos at 5am, and I'm not really paying attention.)

1/60 of a second

1/100 of a second

Very cool!

I didn't see anything that really caught my eye on the walk until we started heading down the hill and I saw something on Daisy's head.  It looked like a ginormous snowflake, but I didn't think it could be - it was windy, and I didn't see how anything other than graupel .  But, we stopped, and there was this ginormous, perfect snowflake on Daisy's head.  I had the Olympus camera (it was snowing, and neither of the Panasonics is weather-sealed, so they shouldn't be taken out in inclement weather), and it doesn't have the greatest macro setting (or if it does, I couldn't figure it out).

So trust me when I say that this snowflake was perfect, even if I wasn't able to photograph it very well. And seeing things doesn't always mean that they have to be photographed.  But this came out better than I had expected.

Ginormous, perfect snowflake!

My attempt to crop in and sharpen it a bit.

So, for a day where I didn't have high expectations, it was a great day!

Project 365 - Day 34

Crazy dogs.

In snow.

Our dog walk started off as windy, but within 15 minutes, the world came to an end as it started dumping snow (I though the snow was supposed to come in later). And then I had a very busy work day with a late meeting, but I did get some time to enjoy the dogs enjoying the snow!

Always such a happy girl!

Yeah, she looks nuts....

INCOMING!!!

And as these things happen in snow, there was much bitey-face.

But, I'm thinking we might need the phone number for an exorcist. These two are a bit scary.  Or maybe they are just doing their virtual dental exams.  It's hard to tell.

A busy, crazy day, but spending time with the kids, especially when it snows, makes me happy!

Project 365 - Day 33

A little of this, a little of that.

My on-going attempt to get yoga photos.  (I don't have room to put a mirror anywhere, so they only way I can actually see what I'm doing is to attempt to get some photos.)  This didn't really come out the way I wanted, but I didn't have time to play around with getting more photos.

Complete with helping dog.

A self-portrait in the time of COVID.

Yep, totally rocking the look.

And a few photos from today's walk.

270mm of zoom only gets us so close to the moose.

A morning snack.

I think the one that's looking at me was giving the girls the stink-eye.

Interesting sky; another storm is coming in.

Project 365 - Day 32

New to me camera!  (That's the only thing that is new about it!)

I had a very busy work day, so I only got a few photos of my new toy.  It seems like it might actually work, but the view finder is a bit hazy - I'm not sure if the lens is good or not - and I'm not really up for going down the film rabbit hole with a 1950s camera.  At least not yet.  But the shutter works, the film winding/rewinding dials still work, as do the aperture and shutter speed adjustments.

But I think it just looks cool!