Dave wrote: Hi Jim, Here are some pictures for the blog. The last batch I sent was of Ruby-crowned Kinglets. I mentioned that we had another species of Kinglet the Golden-crowned. Well here is a shot of a Golden-crowned Kinglet that showed up in my yard. Also some Bluejays with colored leaves. Dave
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I am studying Premier Pro – I tried to write a visual story. I wanted to tell you what bad things may happen if you hassle wildlife with your drone. Learning to make good story videos will take me months – maybe years!
I found I needed to get the video file down to 100 MB. YIKES. Had to cut a lot out and still try to tell the story! I will show you my first attempt:
I have tremendous respect for folks like our own Doug Jensen when he gets to display his videos on CBS’s Sunday morning show.
AS YOU SWING THROUGH LIFE -Study every day, try to learn new things, even if it takes you months or years to learn.
DAVE WROTE: Hi Jim, Here are some pictures for the blog. Ruby-crowned Kinglets. We have 2 species of Kinglets in the US the Ruby-crowned and the Golden-crowned. They are very small and very active birds. They come thru my area in the spring and fall. Here are a few shots. Dave
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I stood by various tents at the art show – eavesdropping on potential customers. Without exception, they talked of how it would fit the room and the message they saw in the art. Hanging in their home it would tell of their hobbies, their family, their interest in wildlife, boating, etc – to them it was a way of saying something they wanted to say to folks entering their room.
That inspired me to do the unthinkable. Take a photo of a piece of art, use PhotoShop to change it to tell MY stories – send MY message thru art. I did not feel comfortable sneaking a photo of art hanging in a booth, so I ask Gloria if I could do the unthinkable to one of her’s. She said sure, “Here is one I have been practicing on”. THANK YOU GLORIA!” I made 5 images showing MY message. First, Gloria’s original:
Gloria’s Original she allowed me to use.My first message is, “In our wonderful country of America, by disagreeing we vote our belief’s and that way we find the best best!”Second – I not sure of the message – maybe it is saying – “As much as I try to avoid large cities, NYC is beautiful to see and great to try to experience how life is for those who enjoy living there”Number 3, Being on a sail boat in the sun-set is a good way to join friends at the end of the day – it is like being on an Island where every one knows your name.Four is showing that first year of retirement where Mrs. and Mr. enjoy their life together with a round of golf every day.Number five was inspired by the story on CBS Sunday Morning show today (Oct 8) about the American Exchange Project (AEP). These two birds live different lives but it looks like they may be talking. AEP suggests by having graduated students, soon to be our leaders, spend a week in the world of other graduates world’s they will have less division because they will better know and understand each other. It made me a big believer in the goals of the AEP. I wanted to tell you that through this piece of art I created.AS YOU SWING THROUGH LIFE – find a passion like the passion Dave demonstrates for our wildlife and our environment. Then tell YOUR story through photos and art.
Animals have been a major part of my life – even now that I have given up all my farm land, I have tons of photos of my domestic and wildlife animals friends. I have been thinking how to title their photos – here are a couple of my attempts:
DRUMMOND ISLANDTGOTGOAS YOU SWING THROUGH LIFE – Each day, stop long enough to watch an animal. Little things like ants are wildlife and they can be fun to watch too.
DAVE WROTE: Hi Jim, I know I haven’t sent you any pictures in a while. It has been pretty dead here in upstate NY. The decline in the bird population is ongoing at an exponential rate. The fall migration is almost non existent. I have been doing this for 65 plus years. I have birding journals going back 50 plus years. Here are few shots a Cedar Waxwing, a fall Bay-breasted Warbler. Two young buck deer behind our house. Strangest of all a young moose about 10 miles north of Rome, NY. We don’t normally have moose in our area. Dave
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My wife says in my old age I should go find a safe hobby: – “Not like those hobbies you had when you were young – boats, wind-surfers, motorcycles, airplanes, horses” So, I am going back to learn more about photography with Remote Controlled Airplanes, Drones, and Adobe Artificial Photography:
A drone can be sort of strange looking thing – like this old bug of mine!Watch out – they are everywhere spying on you!They have many good applications though – like finding your lost ring or a missing F35 fighter jet.Those pesty drones are every where, just like mosquito’s – I showed this photo to a friend and he immediately started swatting his own face.I these days of Artificial Intelligence – It hard to tell what is real and what is only fake – Drones can find cities filled with tiny people out in the lake behind my house. Well, only if you believe in gremlins and elves. – It is almost Halloween, you know.Be careful walking on Harmony Lane at night. This drone is getting scary AI (Artificial Instructions) from a resident on that street.AS YOU SWING THROUGH LIFE -Learn to enjoy the new world of AI (Artificial images) – Just laugh at them.
If I were a professional photographer, I am sure I would set up my photo shoot and I would know what I was shooting. But, I am not a professional, I am an obsessed iphone snapshot photographer. If I see something that makes me smile, or say “WOW”, or makes me wish you were here to see it with me, I grab the phone out of my pocket and snap a photo.
Often, when I look at the photos next morning, I see things I never expected to see. Sometimes I see only the the thing I want to show you but the photograph is terrible. Composition is poor, focus is terrible, color and tone just don’t do it.
I have included a couple of each of those kinds of photo. Another one of my photograph hobbies is to start with a photo and create, with Photoshop, an abstract art image. I included two of those also:
I wish you were here to see this – bunny was hiding from me. He did not know I could see him behind the chair.Wish you were riding the Nature Trail with me. This racoon was hiding and I would have loved to point that out to you. (This was behind one of the houses, before the bridge, as you travel from Windsong on the Nature Trail)At breakfast this guy – raccoon – was sitting outside my window.When I went out he ran up the tree and hid – Here is what I wanted to show you. He thought he was hiding but he forgot he had a tail. It made me laugh.
I was shooting these flowers – I liked the composition of the stem, going from lower left to upper right, between the flowers. I did not know that the bee was going to get in the way until I looked at the photo.I was snapping that squirrel in the tree – it was nervous and constantly looking over it’s shoulder – Could not figure out why it was doing that until I noticed Ivy’s ears (Ivy is my daughter’s dog) sticking up behind the wall!There is a Lady bug hiding in this bouquet of flowers. I actually used PhotoShop to put it there.I used the previous bouquet as a starter for this abstract. I did not like it too much ’cause it looked sort of angry – and I love happy. Oh do you see several birds?So I used the angry abstract as the base for this happier abstract – I love it!AS YOU SWING THROUGH LIFE -Snap those photos that male you smile – then share them.
The way I live, I enjoy trying new hobbies and learning new things. These last months have been interesting. I have been studying the evolution of us – Homosapiens.
Some researchers have a theory that somewhere around 30,000 years ago we, by pure chance, had a segment of our brain DNA mutated. Pre-mutation we had a language, we could tell those around us there is a tiger down by the river. But if we wanted to organize to go attack it with clubs we could not do that. We could only communicate about tangible things and an organization is intangible.
Our original brain was not geared to think about an intangible organization. It could not think about a group with a leader to get us convinced that we should follow him/her to attack the tiger. Post-mutation we were able to talk about intangible things like feelings, organizations, and inequalities where a member was a leader – someone special. Post-mutation we could even believe in intangible spirits – thus religion was started.
In summary, things that did not exist began to control our lives. Good control if we made spirits happy but watch out if you angered the spirits. Kings even started to exist – Bring me the best food and carry me on a litter and I will keep the spirits happy. The world changed. The Homosapiens could now live in groups with government and religion’s rulings. Some researchers believe that new ability to organize is how Homosapiens were able to drive all others to extinction.
Even the art changed due to the mutilation. The paintings on the cave’s walls started to go beyond figures of horses and bulls – they showed surreal abstract art of spirits like human bodies with animal heads and visa versa.
Oh, what does that have to do with you and me? My studying new things about our evolution lead me to study cave drawings and energized me to experience PhotoShop to create, each day, at least one abstract-surreal art piece which I must show you. That is what it has to do with us and the way I live:
An example of modern art that sold for millions of dollars – Oh my, we sure can see the intangible unreal now days.and another modern abstract artNow here is some cave art where the animals look real and tangible.But here they started to believe in spirits – animal heads on human bodies. Current researchers gave that kind of art a name, “Therianthropes” – Look it up in the dictionary or be modern and go to google!My iphone is really in the old days, Pre-DNA mutation – it only creates things that are real and tangible.But I began to help that old phone along – to get modern and create the unrealI even added Therianthropes – the spirits are happy with our evolutionWell I went all the way – maybe I can sell it for millionsFor realAs my mutilated brain saw itAS YOU SWING THROUGH LIFE -Try to appreciate modern art – and find new things to study and experience each day – It is a fun way to live.
Please read the next paragraphs and learn how to have compassion, not worry, and be happy .
I like to do “street” photography. I roam the streets of NYC and secretly snap photos of people doing what people do in NYC.
In my last post, I showed you where I got caught photographing a person on the street. He/she was searching through garbage. I was photographing her and the garbage because the garbage was blocking the driveway. By the driveway was a “NO PARKING” sign. The sign was saying do not block the driveway by parking there but it said nothing about blocking the driveway with garbage. I found that funny so I whipped out my iphone camera.
The person searching the garbage caught me, gave me the finger, and “Mooned” me. In addition, this morning I read about a street photographer in Melbourne, Australia getting caught doing street photography. The person that caught him attacked the photographer and beat him up.
I do not want these two instances to scare me away from street photography so I said to myself – “Why not continue photographing on the street but pick safe subjects. Flowers won’t get mad at you for photographing them!” – or will they?
Another thing I read this morning was, “A Harvard study found that decorating with a fresh bouquet of flowers led study participants to feel more compassion for others, experience less worry and anxiety, and develop fewer feelings of depression.” They found in other studies that bright colored abstract paintings on the wall had similar effects.
So, my mind said WOW, go do a new kind of street photography. Use colorful flowers as you subject. If they catch you photographing them they won’t beat you up & you can look at the photos and have compassion, not worry, and l be happy. With PhotoShop you can even turn them into bright paintings.
Here are a few photos of my new kind of street photography:
In these “Street Photos” of flowers I practices two key things: Composition and bright flower colors.I liked the color and composition here.These flowers made me have compassion, a stressless moment, and happiness. Remember I am working on color and composition.The thousands of hotels I have been in as I traveled around the world for IBM had colorful abstract art in their lobby’s. Here are two paintings on the wall of the Hilton Hotel in Windber Pa. where I stayed a month ago. They are not flowers but they have good color and composition.I used the previous photo of roses as my base and painted this piece of colorful abstract art. If you know of a hotel that wants it, they can have it! I made two more.My best location for flower photography is not on the street but at the front door of our grocery store, Publix, – that is the cut flower section of the store.I could not help myself – using the last flower photo, I created another bright colorful abstract. Remember, if you have one of these on your wall, studies show you will feel more compassion for others, experience less worry and anxiety, and develop fewer feelings of depression.I had lots of time to play with my flowers today. The left at the grocery store, on right in my head. You can look at Flowers and paintings at the same time!Hey, I feel safe doing this new kind of street photography – it is fun and no plants shouted at me, or gave me the finger or Mooned me – So, I had to make my own aggressive flower with Photoshop. This poor wilted Christmas Plant shouted “GET OUT OF HERE.” It pointed a finger at me but did not Moon me!AS YOU SWING THROUGH LIFE – Smell the roses, so to speak – I mean when you go to the grocery store – if you do not want to spend $’s on cut flowers, stop and snap a photo with your phone. It is free, the flowers will not complain and the store manage told me :”ENJOY”
Around the age of 3 we we begin to draw. Whether you were born in Stuttgart, Paris, Hooversville, Drummond Island, or even New Jersey(HaHa) you begin to tell your story with crayon and paper using the universal language of art images.
One of my early images told how much I would rather be out the door with bike, trees to climb and the flowers than practicing the piano. .
As we become more global I think art will play a bigger role in signage.
I selected a few here to show you my sense of humor relative to signs, and to show you that sometimes you still need a specific language knowledge to understand the sign because it has words on it.
I know it is wheelchair accessible, its number is 2750, and it has a NY Metro Authority license plate. But the red sign in the middle requires a NYC language knowledge I do not have.If you had a bad day, join the family at cocktail time for a few drinks – Actually the sign is to invite you to apply for a job at their company. But, it struck me as a funny sign.Now here is a food wagon near Central Park. I have no idea what the message on the lower left panel is saying? (The fingers and the grapes and the big “A” above the hand) – Maybe to understand it you need a young New Yorker’s language knowledge that I do not have.Here in NYC where folks from around the world gather these food wagons are universal – But, wait! – What is HALAL FOOD ? and there is that “A” again – I am sure it is only my lack of knowledge of young New Yorker’s that made it a mystery to me? I did look up Halal, so now I know what it is.If you mouth is big enough to fit around these sandwiches the menu is clear – Can you imagine eating any of them – especially that upper right runny-egg sandwich. They need a picture of the bib you should wear. Anyway, even if I did not know english I could order by pointing.My favorite spot on the Island -The TeePee Ice Cream hut. – Sitting in my truck eating an Ice Cream cone, I see in the window under the “ORDER HERE” sign, a sign that says “Speak up, its loud in here”. – Made me laugh even if it did not use art.it made me laughThis store is a speciality store! How in the world did they pick only those three items to sell – made me laugh.What is a finely tuned residents? On second thought, I do live in a finely tuned residence. How about your residence – Is it finely tuned?This is one frame from a video I took to show how incomplete this sign is. “NO PARKING” worked but where is the sign that says “NO DUMPING GARBAGE”? It made me laugh. Oh, I got caught taking the video. YIPES, notice (on the next frame) the clear message sent by the one that caught me.When she/he caught me photographing, they gave me first a middle finger then a moon! – a clear message to get the h… out of there and quit photographing – I did just that! But, take notice, the person walking by ignored the whole thing – they were busy on the phone sending messages about something else.This Jewish Deli has a sense of humor but you need to know the language. CHALLAH=HOLLER (Well sort of)I laughed a lot at this – It has several attention getting messages – I really like the one that says “Free Lunch tomorrow” Yep, Somebody got the message – I did not.Back to my Island, I assume this marks Blain Bailey’s sugar camp. I looked it up in the dictionary. BALIWICK is a person’s area of skill, authority, or work. (Can also be spelled Baileywick) – Local folks have the knowledge that Blaine is one of the Bailey family members.I found these on the wall of a NYC art college – Art pictures are a universal language used in the many many advertisements you see sandwiched between segments of the evening news on TV. The students are studying how to use art to send their messages. In this case her message is “Guns are bad.” In a future evening news programs, her art message may be that Buick Sedans are good or she may be promoting a Lawyer’s office that can help you sue the insurance company over an accident you had with the Buick. All told with art pictures flashed on the screen.AS YOU SWING THROUGH LIFE -always go sign shopping. It is a great pass time. And, when you see an advertisement remember an artist studied a long time to learn to send you a message using the universal language of art in the sign.
I have been traveling for a month and a half. In the old days, I would invite you over for a drink, pull out the slide projector, take the pictures off the wall, and make you sit for a couple hours watching my slides.
In these new days, I will use this blog and I will not know if you doze off and snore. But, I do plan to post often. Here is the first posting:
A bike trip on Drummond Island took me past this tourist spot with 2 very large chairs.At a tourist spot you can always find someone to take a photograph of you being a tourist.As I bike I always look for mushrooms – don’t you?And, even when traveling, I have to play with PhotoShop.This has no PhotoShop – I included it here because that little reddish mushroom pushing up in the middle caught my attention. In previous posts you saw I was watching the other mushrooms mature each day.I like watching flowers mature also.Today, this flower got me to thinkin’ Ice Cream – so, I had to bike on over to theTasteFreeze store in Madison NJ and purchase a cone of vanilla soft twist.But back in Southern Michigan at a beautiful campground sort of like TGO, near Lake Michigan, my son, Jim, and I enjoyed biking the rail trails for many miles..In NYC the biking is interesting as you pass “Old Men” playing checkers in the park – their view though is of neighbors homes – on an acre I estimate there are the home’s of at least 2,000 people.On Northern Michigan I bike past my home that I sold 2 years ago – I estimate on those 3 acres there are 2 people and one horse in the corral.I do not always bike – I do have a four wheel vehicle.I find one Islander’s bailiwick. You do know what a bailiwick is – if not sure – look it up.In that bailiwick I find an old sugar mill – ? or was it moonshine?Wonder why the Jeep was left behind? Do you think the revenuers had anything to do with it?AS YOU SWING THROUGH LIFE – Fear not – In this new world, you do not have to doze through my trip phots – just go to another HTTP
Dave wrote: Hi Jim, What’s new in your world ? Summer is flying by as it always does. Here are some pictures of Ruby throated Hummingbirds for the blog. Hummers are fun to shoot as they can be very active coming to the feeder. They are very aggressive and fight non stop. Dave
I replyed: Hey Dave, I am still on the road, so to speak. After a circle rout from Florida, to NYC, to Southern Appalachian Mountian’s in PA, to Drummond Island Mich, to South Haven to bike and spend time with Jim and Sue at their campground, to Morristown NJ to spend a time in Morristown with my Daughter. Here we hike, bike, and I play on my computer with my photos and the stories I want them to tell. I posted a dozen or so of my photos below your Humming bird photos – Oh, what did I mean by “Patterns on the road”? You will have to look at the photos I posted to get that answer.
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NOW FOR PATTERNS ON THE ROAD:
As I was leaving Florida, the sky did it to me – It ingrained “pattern” into my brain.Right off the bat, NYC, showed me patterns of their sky, and of course the pattern of cars traveling down the road, and the pattern of utility poles lining the way.I soon traded all that traffic for the bicycle path near Heather’s home – Oh my, my brain sees patterns every where – the signs actually form a pattern – BUT, I sure hope TGO does not need to put up so many signs at the entrance to their nature trail.The trail is beautiful, lots of wildlife, ponds, big trees, smooth road surface, enough hills to add exercise to my daily trips – I just peddle past the signs. Northern woods foliage always makes a pattern as you ride by.Lily Pads form a pattern in a pond – I see a FROG – Heather loves toads and frogs.Not really a pattern photo but, can you find the frog – I brightened his eyes to help you locate him/her/they?Back on the bike/nature trail – mushrooms are a pattern.Oh my, look what happened to the mushrooms a couple days later.Snow Balls – What a pretty patternAt the end of the trail the neighbor put a pretty pattern around the mailboxAnd in the NJ nature, these little guys build their home making a beautiful pattern – no paint needed.As I said Heather loves toads and frogs – and this one seems to match the pavement.Oh my – made this mystery pattern up just for you – can you guess what it is – is it a bug, poop, nature of some sort? – it is – I will show you on the next photo.Lots of deer on the NJ bike trail with a pattern on their nose.AS YOU SWING THROUGH LIFE – take your cell phone with you, snap a dozen shots, and show us the story they tell – hope you enjoyed my photo “Pattern” story.
