Month: March 2016
rDay Three-Hundred-Fifty-Five: Some Experiments
First, we try to determine the smallest chunk of an original that can be carved out and still yield a usable image. Here was a medium-range shot of the kitchen, with Kim at work, cropped to just under 5% (yes, I did the math) of the full sized original, with a little color/tint play as well.
Next, I have been practicing a new trick for focus that Corbin taught me. In the case of Charlie, I forgot that I was handholding at 1/10 second — but maybe Ivi would still like to see it.
rDay Three-Hundred-Fifty-Five: Pi Day
rDay Three-Hundred-Fifty-Four: A Slight Misadventure
As I was taking a shower, I thought I faintly heard the phone. Turned out that Kim was requesting a rescue mission after she and Charlie had become “lost” (my term) somewhere in a canyon in the mountains north of town. As we maintained communications while I drove through the fog and mist in the general direction, she suggested that she thought she could generally make her way to the valley beyond, perhaps intersecting with me somewhere around Mt. Glen Road. Her final call before I sighted them, however, warned that she was accompanied by a strange dog that had refused to abandon them. When I spotted them up a narrow side lane, I approached and as the passenger door was opened the alien beast bounded past Kim and Charlie and leaped inside the pickup cab atop me. We were unable to extract the animal. So we bundled in together, all of us, two humans, two dogs, and proceeded to drive — while wrestling with a large, strong dog that interfered with steering and shifting and even forward vision — a few miles around to the other side of the mountain where Kim had left her vehicle. Only when we all exited the pickup, did the animal do the same. Eventually, we were able to leave the stranger at his origin and head back home.
rDay Three-Hundred-Fifty-Three
Last night, we watched a Van Gogh documentary and I went to bed thinking about his use of shades of yellow. So when I awoke, I jumped up to join Kim on her early a.m. Charles walk (instead of just rolling over for another hour as usual), thinking that I might be able to catch some crazy yellow/golden sunrise action and do double duty by testing an unorthodox lens/camera combination. So we headed for Gangloff Park, where I made some nondescript test shots while Kim & Charlie explored the landscape and ventured into adjacent Pioneer Park as well.
But, being the old curmudgeon I am, I tend to prefer black & white …
Later on today, we took surprise delivery of a package from my old and marvelous photog partner, Bill (remember him?) — two ancient, pre-digital-era manual lenses that proved capable of being bolted up to my new camera body. In my eagerness to try these things, I started with a nearly 50-year-old macro lens and shot handheld, bypassing any judicious and warranted use of a tripod. And I was obliged to use totally manual control over shutter speed, aperture and focus (that last one is the real challenge!). But here are some early results …
rDay Three-Hundred-Fifty-Two
Sun barely visible, if at all, today …
Langer’s
Lately we’ve been watching a food/travel series on Netflix called “I’ll Have What Phil’s Having”. (We missed, ignored, actually, the series when it debuted on PBS in 2015.) In the Los Angeles episode that we saw last night, host and comedy writer Phil Rosenthal visited what he regarded as the source of the best pastrami on rye on the planet — Langer’s.
You may remember that an earlier post recalled my very first day in Los Angeles, when I blundered upon Langer’s. From then on, it became a favorite. Sometimes, a few of us in the downtown GAO office would try to manage a long lunch so we could drive there for a sandwich. Surprisingly, Kim does not remember the place; it seems unlikely that I never took her there during our early days, but we did live in Hollywood and the west side then and tended to frequent delis like Canter’s in that territory …
rDay Three-Hundred-Forty-Nine
rDay Three-Hundred-Forty-Eight
Meandering around downtown today, starting through the EOU campus, then walking from Willow, across the railroad tracks, up Adams as far as EONI, then home.
Downton Abbey wasn’t the only institution to have its finale on March 6. So did Golden Harvest. After 27 years, the owners are retiring. Walking by today, I was invited in to look at fixtures and equipment and stuff being sold off. One of my favorite spots for business lunches, Golden Harvest was cited a while back by OregonLive (website of The Oregonian) for “Oregon’s best Chinese food”. Was an award winner, to quote the GH people themselves:
We were awarded the Union County’s Best Asian food in La Grande for 2012 and the best Family Dining in 2011. We were also awarded the Top 100 Specialty Award in 2010 for the United States. We consistently score a 100 on our health inspection.
Remember the newly-opened Orange Rhino Bakery & Coffee Shop from rDay 335? Dropped in to have a little look today …
Finally, back home where Charlie brushes up on the finer points of Nikon photography.
rDay Three-Hundred-Forty-Six
Mid-morning walk under cloudy skies to the other side of the tracks …