Counting our blessings

Counting our blessings

Wednesday December 23, 2020

After a lovely afternoon celebrating Christmas, I am reminding myself that there are so many things for which I should be grateful.  It has been a tough year in many ways for most people.  However, we have managed to stay healthy (at least so far).  We got the opportunity to bring our boat south to Florida, where the weather is a lot more moderate than in Massachusetts. The weather is going to cool down considerably over the next two days so today was the best for a meal outside.

To celebrate Christmas, we went around to Fran and Paul’s house.  Along with Susan and Clark. we enjoyed a BBQ of burgers with all the fixings.  We ate on the lanai at two separate tables so that the risk of virus would be reduced.  The delicious main course was followed by two kinds of dessert. I ate both Clark’s pecan cookies and a slice of key lime pie.  Yummy! Maybe there is a reason why I feel so lethargic...

It was lovely to chat and eat with friends and family.  The conversation ranged widely from virus technology to planetary conjunctions and from photography techniques to future travel ambitions.  Don’t you think it’s amazing the topics that are touched upon during an afternoon of conversation? Occasionally, I have tried to piece together how these topics were interconnected.  There’s no making sense of it after the fact.

Gloria

27 39.482 N, 80 22.215 W

After our lovely afternoon out I took a brief walk back along to the bridge to see if I could get any interesting the shots … including some abstract photos. The photos below were all created on camera and I’ll try and explain in each caption how the shot was taken. They were all taken with the camera / lens on a tripod using mirror-up and a cable release (to minimize movement when not wanted). They are edited to optimize brightness, contrast, highlights and shadows etc – but not overtly changed from the original.

Mike

Fran, Susan, Clark and Paul out on the lanai enjoying an excellent dinner (iPhone)

17 mm wide angle shot ~ 2 minute exposure at F16 with a flashlight helping to illuminate the darker left side of the bridge

180 mm telephoto shot 30s exposure F14

10s exposure at F16 whilst changing the focal length of the zoom lens

102mm telephoto, 6s at F13, in-camera double exposure with camera tilted ~ 30 degrees either side of horizontal

70mm telephoto, in camera  triple exposure - each at 5s, F16 - camera ~ +30 degrees, horizontal, -30 degrees.

Hard to believe this is the same subject - 200mm telephoto, 13s at F16 whilst rotating the camera and tripod through 180 degrees back and forward. The lens has a "collar" with a tripod bracket ... the collar allows rotation primarily so you can frame horizontal and vertical shots without adjusting the tripod head.

As above but 70mm telephoto, 8s at F20 - and most significantly, really after dark so the primary lighting comes from the bridge lights