I have again accepted a leadership position in the TGO Photo Club, after a 2 year rest.But, it is so much fun to help the wonderful members of that organization practice their sport – photography.
Technically we are in such a wonderful time. Look at Donald Wyllie’s photos of the local airshow. (Click on the TGO Photo Club link in the left hand column).His skill and the equipment he uses show us views of the planes in action that our naked eyes and our floating minds could not see. I love the action he captured.
Photo by Donald Wyllie
Not quite like Donalds equipment he used to get the great shots of the planes in action, but, today we can do so much with the cell phone camera.
One of my thrust in the Photo Club will be to get everyone who has a cell phone to become photographers – to share their daily experiences and inspirations with their friends – pull that cell phone out of your pocket and snap life – share your thoughts and emotions with friends.In our mobile lives we need to stay connected somehow and the cell phone helps us do that – You know it does because you see that device next to the ears of people everywhere – But, do not forget the camera adds an other dimension to the connectivity that talking can not brings to our lives – That aspect is “showing and seeing”.
I have 10,603 cell phone photos stored on my icloud – somewhere up in the sky. I enjoy the outdoors a lot. Did you realize that half of what you see when you are outdoors is sky. I scanned a few of my recent cellphone photos – made me smile and I wanted to share them with someone –I choose you, my blog readers, to see a few of the clouds my phone stored in the iCloud – just a snap of my life as I look to the sky each day – enjoy:
In case you wonder what this is, it is the sky reflected in the glass top table in our screened-in porch where we have lunch each day.Down the street walking – beautiful sky – and see one half of what I see is sky.Wind shaped contrailWhat do you call a rainbow cloud that is not bowed?I can not look at a cloud without seeing an image – often I see fish eating fishMaybe the sky is more than 50% of what I see when outdoorsOr when biking with HeatherOr when watching Heather watch the Alligator swim by our back doorof course you can use the Cellphone to capture other images – this interesting shaped bird poop on the wallor to remember what kind of egg whites I am to purchase at the grocery storeor to remember where I parked the carOr to marvel at this big rattle snake too chicken to cross the sky reflected in the little ditch – he turned around and headed back toward meOh my, as you swing through life go outdoors and study the top half of your view.
A friend of mine sent me two photos of “white stuff” and an “owl” from Drummond Island, Michigan. They were taken by Terri Dudun Hartman – on the farm where my horse Perla lived.
I do not have a Florida owl photo to show you right now but I do have some Florida “white stuff” to show you.
But first, click on the TGO Photo Club page to see Bill White’s animals in Wisconsin’s white stuff and Dave Cesari’s Florida Screech Owls – Wonderful photos!
Drummond Island zero degree white stuffFlorida 80 degree white stuffOh my, as you swing through life and if you are in Florida, smile – and if you are on Drummond, smile – You know what, smile wherever you are!
Linda Somers is featured on the TGO Photo Club Page – but first read, below, what I have to say about the club. Yes, my intent is to brag about our Club.
The Club invites you to join them and enjoy a wonderful group of people. We meet at the Nature Center on the first and third Friday at 1:00 pm. Ed Swan (321-269-3682) leads the meetings and organizes the agenda to accommodate a wide variety of interests in photography.
Read on – I’ll tell you of some of those interests:
You all know one of my hobbies is to take a photograph and use PhotoShop to change that photograph.
Using my iPhone, I took this photo in Havana, Cuba this summer. It is a Street Dancer performing for us tourists – I wanted to have you, the viewer, focus on the warm smiling face and her eyes. And I wanted to practice playing with monochrome in PhotoShop.So I changed the original iPhone photo using PhotoShop. Do you think I succeeded in getting you to focus on the warm smile and bright eyes.?
Lets look at more interests of TGO Photo Club members:
Photographer Dave Cesari, whom I really like and respect, says “If you do it right the first time you do not need to change it!” – Dave does get it right each time and post often on the clubs website – I love his works and his comment.
But say I, “By playing around with photoShop and attending club meetings, my mind is better trained on how to get the shot I want – It trains my mind to take a better photo in the first place.”
Another photographer, Nancy Presant, says, “I really enjoy our club.” Why? Because she gets to take club members on field trips to enjoy shooting photos in zoos, wildlife sanctuaries, on boat trips, and many others locations – I think she and some members enjoy the social aspects of photography.
Here is a candid shot – members deciding which phots to hang on which wall of the Manor porch. – Six walls, 50 photos and video/slide shows. Members brought in 50 photographs last Thursday. Photo hanging day was like a party. So, you see, we have fun often, not only on Nancy’s field trips.
Some of our members enjoy taking photos of wildlife. Every day you can find them photographing TGO wildlife at the nature trail bridge. Then, on a daily basis, they post their photos on the Nature Center’s Facebook page.
Some members want to learn to better use their cell phone camera to snap photos of their Florida home and send photos back to their family up north – maybe to rub in our warm weather a little:
Linda Somers could send this cell phone photo to her family up north saying …”I love seeing beautiful color – not that white stuff… Love You”
We, also, take great pride in hanging photos on the walls of TGO.
Check out the walls of our library – It is a one member show, by Jim Dick.
How about the back-porch of the Manor. Almost 50 brand new photographs by many members. Susan Hubbard, also, maintains a motion triggered video panel on one of the walls with dozens of member’s photos.
Here is an over-view of all six walls – There will be a big reception party on March 2. Come enjoy conversations with the photographers.
Do you know that the CSA office wall holds 10 photos by the club members:
Go see the wall in the CSA office. It is much better than my iPhone photo of the wall.
The Manor Lobby is decorated with 3 large photos by member, Doug Jensen.
The Manor Lobby is beautiful.
Hope I was able to show you what a great club the TGO Photo Club is and why I am so proud to be a member of it.
Join us in the Nature Center at our Friday meetings. Bring your ideas and your photos to share – anything from simple iPhone photos to precision photos from professional cameras – all are welcome.
If you would like to show us your photo techniques – Ed will find a spot in our Friday meetings for you to give us your insight. That is how it is – we learn from each other.
Note: the website in the Happenings is incorrect. The correct address is jimsdaily.wordpress.com Linda Somers is the featured photographer there today.
See you at our Manor Porch reception on March 2. Come meet the photographers.
Oh my, as you swing through life – swing by one of our meetings – see you there.
Oh my, I know it is a phone – it used to have a crank on it and it hung on the wall.
Oh my again – I just realized it is not a phone – it is a camera! and it is with me almost all the time. You would have to be a real photo enthusiast to carry a 200-500 mm lens with you all the time.
I want you to use you phone camera a lot – send me photos to share on these web sites as Dave Cesari does (He does not use the iPhone for the ones I post) but you sure can.
Click on the TGO Photo Club Photos to see 5 of his wonderful Spoonbills photos then come back here.
MY iPHONE MAGIC:
I’ll show you an Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake I saw on the Nature Trail, and antique car I saw on Drummond Island, and a freighter heading north to the Soo Locks to enter Lake Superior, and dancer in the streets of Havana, Cuba – all taken with my phone camera because I had it with me.
Close to 5 feet long I think. What a great shot for a gadget that is a telephoneHow many rattles – more than 14 – that does not mean 14 years old, it means he or she shed their skin 14 times – we humans shed a flake of skin at a time but the Easter Diamondback does it all at once – most likely more than once per year. I got in pretty close for this one – not near the fang end!Not quit so close – I always respect the fang end of poisons snakes – with a telephoto camera lens I could have zoomed in. Still, that phone camera did great job without a big zoom lens.
Now I’ll show you some Monochrome with the iPhone – Monochrome is always harder to isolate your subject but I think the iPhone allowed me to do OK?
Drummond Island antique car convention 2018The James R Barker heading north for Lake Superior on St Mary’s RiverHavana Cuba – 2018 Street Dancer performing for us tourists.Oh my, as you swing through life – be sure to carry your phone with you – record what you want to share – and send me a photo to post as Dave Cesari does!
Go look at Dave’s photos of the Snail Kite – The best after years of photographing them, says he – Click TGO Photo Club pages to the left.
_______________HERE IS MY SUCCESS and HAPPINESS THOUGHTS_________________
I was not sure of the relationship of happiness and success. So, I went to the internet to find out!
The internet was not a lot of help – but after pondering the question a bit I know that I see happiness in the face of those that succeed – but maybe if we ponder we will discover there is more to it than that – so let’s start pondering by looking at yesterday.
Yesterday, 110 people attended Gloria’s reception in our community’s restaurant, the Blue Heron. 110 is twice the number she expected. She is still floating on cloud nine after that much success.Gloria organized and promoted the reception to honor the 20 artists that created 50 pieces of art for her gallery that decorate the walls of the Blue Heron restaurant.
Gloria superimposed on the Reception room ready for guests – Does her face show the spark of happiness that sparks success!
The reception was two hours long. The air was electric – every artist felt the sparks that success puts into the air. I know they were thinking: “WOW, all of these people paid to come and visit with me and see my art – WOW!”
Yesterday, Dave Cesari – a dedicated experienced photographer of birds – wrote this to me – “I’ve shot (photographed) Snail Kites on and off for years but I think these are the best I’ve ever shot.” Does that sound like success? WOW
Just one beautiful successful shot (photograph)
I know Dave enjoys his passion for bird photography – and his success at it makes him smile.
I know Gloria enjoys her passion for art and her passion to help others find joy in her interests – and her success makes her smile.
So, say I, maybe I really do know the answer to this question – “Happiness is a result of success?”
But, I did say there may be more too it. You see, after I pondered it, I think I got it backward – I now think “Success is the result of happiness” – If you are happy doing what you do, you will succeed.
Gloria pursues your passion – the thing she loves to do – That is why she is successful.
Dave pursues the Snail Kites for years – a thing he loves to do, and that is success.
So I went to the internet again and looked for quotes about happiness and success and I found these three:
“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” byPele
Happiness lies in the thrill of creative effort and doing what you love to do. by Franklin D. Roosevelt
The real secret of success is enthusiasm – doing what you love to do. by Walter Chrysler.
So, do your own pondering, make your own quote, and tune what you do accordingly.
Oh my, I love playing with PhotoShop & I love putting the result here for you to see – so I guess I am successful:
Cuba – Old Cars & Two National BirdsCuba – Cigar & Rum & two National BirdsA TGO morning – two singing birdsOn the TGO Nature Trail – two eyes looking at youA fallen palm tree on the TGO Nature Trail – and a Valentine for youQuote by Jim Brubaker: “Oh my, as you swing through life, be happy by doing what you like & you will never work a day in your life – and you will have a life of success.”
Before you read my “Fake News” story, look at Dave’s owl photos on the TGO Photo Club page. He wrote to tell me how pleased he was with the photos.
____________HERE IS MY STORY – HONEST____________________
What is truth?I do not know, do you know what is true?I saw 128 actors advertising stuff on TV this morning.Did actor number 37 really feel the pain I saw on his face. Was what I saw the truth?
One advertisement said something to the effect that “These are real people, not actors” I guess actors are just fake people? Is that the truth?
My mom was a real christian lady. I remember she, had pictures of Jesus on the wall, maybe even one on black velvet, also one as a book mark, and one as the second page of her Bible. Jesus looked a little different in each image. Was only one image true?
I found, in my research, that the oldest known portrait of Jesus, was dated about 235: “It shows him as a beardless young man of authoritative and dignified bearing. He is depicted as being dressed in the style of a young philosopher, with close-cropped hair and wearing a tunic and pallium – signs of good breeding in Greco-Roman society.”Of course no photographs of Jesus were ever taken. We have to accept the artist’s rendering because the first photographs were made in the 1800’s.Too bad, ’cause you can always believe the camera – right?
The rising sun: I focused on the sky – my i-phone camera’s computer said: “Oh my, lots of light, I must snap lens quickly”The rising sun: I focused on dark foreground – my i-phone camera’s computer said: “Oh my, It is very dark, I must hold lens open a little longer.”
Which image is true? Do you get a different emotion from each?
In my research I found this: “Happening-truth is an objective factual account of events as recorded in the mind of a human at the time of the event with biases and a reason to influence the reader.Story-truth is a subjective reflection of a person’s thoughts and feelings about the same event when retelling that story.Since both are told by humans with biases, thoughts, and feelings, I see no difference between happening-truth and story-truth except the timing. Are they both true or are they each shaded by the teller’s biases, thoughts, and feelings and, thus, not quite true?
So, that is why I conclude all stories of news are somewhat fake.So study carefully each story you read, hear, tell or snap a photo of. Identify what you think is true and ponder what might not be quite true.
Oh my, would you please study the photos below and tell me if it is true that I enjoy playing around with PhotoShop:
Oh my, I somehow I thought of this when I studied the darker of the two photos above.I often sit and ponder clouds in the sky and me as the young boy on the farmWhat in the world makes my mind show you such twisted newsThis is not a fake photo – at least I did not touch it with PhotoShop. I have seen, in our lawn, many wild animals – deer, gators, eagles, sand hill cranes, snakes, and yes, even wild turkeys. But I never had this happen before. This turkey followed me into the garage. I think someone is feeding them and he thought he might get lunchSpeaking of lunch – how about Breakfast? – several real photos put together and painted with a PhotoShop brush.Oh my, as you swing through the news remember a little of it may be fake – but then so are most things we enjoy – even two photos of the same rising sun
Dave Cesari and his wife spend hours outdoors enjoying nature every day – I know, because I encounter them most days. The photographs he sends to me to post here are beyond description. We are so fortunate to have these photographs by Dave. Be sure to click on the TGO Photo Clubs page and see the beauty of nature that Dave puts before your eyes.
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Ten or so cell phone photos from my hours outdoors each day
First, a paragraph on the Tree Swallow from Wikipedia:
An aerial insectivore, the tree swallow forages both alone and
Tree Swallow in flight
in groups of hundreds, eating mostly insects.
Molluscs, spiders, and fruit are also found in the diet. The nestlings, like the adult, primarily eat insects, fed to it by both the male and the female. This swallow is vulnerable to to parasites, but, when on nestlings, these do little damage.
Tree Swallow
In the US, the Tree Swallow is protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, and in Canada by the Migratory Birds Convention Act. This swallow is negatively affected by human activities, such as the clearing of forests; acidified lakes can force a breeding tree swallow to go long distances to find calcium-rich food items to feed to its chicks.
END OF TREE SWALLOW STORY………………………………
OK kids, here is the reason for this page in my blog. I want to encourage you to:1. Get out there and enjoy nature by hiking or biking the parks around you – at least two hours every day. 2. Take your quality camera (as Dave does) or your cell phone camera (as I do) and use it to record the nature you saw and enjoyed. 3. Send me some photos to post.
Here are just a few of my cell phone photos that I took while on my daily hours in nature around my home:
From my porch – It is not spots on my lens, it is not a swarm of bees, it is a swarm of Tree Swallows – feeding in groups of hundreds.I found this Pygmy rattlesnake on our community’s Nature Trail – glad I had my cell phone with me.Study the beautiful pattern and color in his headYou can always study clouds
With a little PhotoShop you can always see things in the clouds – you might have to study them for a while. I wonder what these two are discussing?This water hole just right size for this guy – and he claims it as his very own.Next day I found him in water hole – See the floating pine cone. It is almost the same size as his head & sort of looks like his head. Fun to find things like this. (I did not put the cone there)Turtles are always fun to find – Looks like a cave painting on his side. I wonder how it got there. – maybe an injury?Moooooo!He almost had to chase these three wild turkeys off with his walking stick – Somebody must be feeding them ’cause they will follow you around as you hike.Yesterday, when I returned from a bike ride, all three wild turkeys were in my front lawn. – Guess what, they followed me up the driveway and one came right into my garage.Just looking around – until he saw the roasting pan on the shelf “Yipes”, said he!
Wonder what they are discussing? Maybe the Government shutdown?Oh my, as you swing through nature – record some of it on your camera or cell phone and text me a photo every day!
When it is time to eat, alligators are neither hunters nor gatherers. They are lurkers. They wait for something edible to swim or walk nearby and they lunge at it with incredible speed. Using their tails, alligators can push themselves up to 5 feet out of the water to snag small animals in low-hanging tree branches.
Dave Cesari posted three Green Heron photos and two photos of a Gator having lunch on the TGO Photo Club’s page – click on it in the left column.
Alligators will eat almost anything they can capture — fish, turtles, frogs, birds, small mammals, and sometimes even larger mammals like deer. Alligators capture all of these creatures by lurking in the water.
When it gets cold in the winter, alligators slow down. Below 70 degrees F or so they stop feeding, and when it gets much colder, alligators dig out a den in the bank of a pond or river and go dormant until it warms up again.
I inserted a turtle near by – just for fun
Alligators were nearly hunted to extinction in the 1950s and 1960s. Once they were protected from hunting, however, they were able to recover quickly because of their unique breeding behaviors.
Alligators breed in the spring. The female then builds a nest of mud and vegetation that is about three feet (1 meter) high and 6 feet (2 meters) in diameter. She lays 30 to 50 eggs and buries them in the rotting vegetation. The eggs are white, hard and slightly bigger than a large chicken egg.
I love to explain to friends what I see in the clouds every time I look to the sky
The nest provides heat — it is like a big compost pile and heats up naturally because of the decomposing vegetation. The alligator eggs respond to the temperature. If the temperature is in the low 80s F, the hatchlings will be female. If the temperature is in the low 90s F, they are male. For temperatures in between, the resulting hatchlings are mixture of males and females.
The mother protects the nest from predators, such as racoons, while the eggs are incubating.
There are always animals in the sky
When the eggs hatch about 40 days later, the hatchlings make a noise and the mother digs them out of the nest. The hatchlings and mother will stay near the nest, and the mother will protect the hatchlings if they get into trouble and cry out. This protective behavior is very rare in modern reptiles, but it is thought to be common in certain dinosaur species.
Oh my, on the upswing – what fun to look to the sky & see what is there – try it as you you swing through on the next “puffy” cloud day
I used this site to get most of the above information: https://animals.howstuffworks.com/reptiles/alligator5.htm
Hey, click on the Photo Club in the left hand column – then come back to see this page.
Dave Cesari is a wonderful photographer who loves to study nature. Could you get as many great photos of birds doing bird things – like having lunch – as Dave does? I know I can not.
These latest photos of his prompted me to go to the web to learn of the Snakehead fish. Some of what I found: “Over the past decade, the waterways of southern Florida have experienced an invasion of the species known as the bullseye snakehead. Native to Southeast Asia, these fish were brought here by accident through Asian markets that were selling live specimens for food and medicinal purposes. They breathe air with gills, which allows them to migrate short distances over land. ……….”
……………Now my story…………….
No, I am not going to write about change brought on through a New Year’s resolution.
Rather, I am motivated to tell you I had a New Year’s iPhone conversation with my sister – for over an hour. I said these two words. “Hello” and Goodbye” Ha, Ha
So, you know I got a lot of information about many members of my family that I have not seen for years. Wow, how they (and I) have changed over the years – but to me the biggest change that I saw about the family was the change brought on by technology – ease of travel, ease of seeing the world thru TV, mobility to work in different parts of the world and return home to work awhile, and then move again – always staying in touch with family members – Staying in touch using the iPhone – Not like when I grew up.
Bottom line is, I love my iPhone – Not just to talk to my sister and other family members while riding my bike in the sunshine of Florida while they are doing such things as spreading salt on their sidewalk to melt the ice, but because the iPhone is really an image communication device”:
I could tell her of the beautiful sunrise we had – or I could txt her this photo to show her – “image communication”I could even show her the morning we had a cold snap – Ha Ha of 50 degreesI texted this to my daughter to thank her for the book she sent me for Christmas.I was on my motorcycle the other day – heading home from the grocery store – had to stop and snap, with my iPhone, the shot of the dog in the sky – my son loves motorcycles – so guess who got this photo?While on a hike, I snapped the photo of this deer.Did you see the deer – this my help you find itI like to txt family and friends while on my bike – I took this to tell them of the 100’s of birds I was looking at. Not a quality photo – but I think better than just texting “I see hundreds of birds”Glad the fence is between me on my bike and this gator. I texted it to my daughter – better than just saying “I see a gator”Oh my, what a great change technology has offered us – as you swing through life, make sure you do your “human socialization” with your family using iPhone photos – we must do that ’cause technology changed us from “human socialization” with family living next door.
But be sure to look at the TGO Photo Club Page and at the older post of this page if you have not seen them.
