Running on Empty

Lately I've been so tired that I haven't done much exploring. Consequently, I couldn’t come up with a satisfying photo for Black and White Weekend. I wound up with this shadow shot, turning it and cropping so there’s a diagonal to add a sense of movement.

This was just a snapshot I took to illustrate my complaint that the deck was too hot for bare feet. The planks are newly painted, and the sun was very bright that day. 

Doctors haven’t been too helpful in explaining my fatigue, but tests continue to show that my protein and sodium levels are low. I’m supposed to take sodium pills, but they upset my stomach, So I’ve tried to increase my dietary salt, plus sodium bicarbonate in place of Tums. 

I still go to physical therapy to try to improve steadiness and strength, but it leaves me exhausted for a day or two. I keep trying because I really want to be able to walk farther. 

Theme Day: The Subject is Sky

When I first learned that the City Daily Photo theme for June 1st is “Sky,” I thought, “Oh that’s easy!” But then I realized that I have already used my dramatic sky shots for the weekly Skywatch linkup. I made an effort to get some more sky pictures today, but they weren’t very interesting. 

I decided to post this picture from Saturday, taken at Dickey Ridge in Shenandoah National Park. Shooting into the sun is generally considered a no-no in photography, but I do it all the time. Shade the lens to protect your eyes and electronics. I usually just stand in the shade.

These folks were members of a family, apparently from the Middle East. Others were doing prayers behind me on prayer rugs, but I did not intrude by taking pictures of them. A mountain top is an inspiring place to say prayers.

Later, one of the young men asked what breed of dog was Charlie. I told him beagle, and he smiled and said “Nice!”

Last Night’s Moon

On our final dog walk yesterday, I watched the moon come out from behind the clouds. I took two pictures with my cell phone, steadying it on a mailbox while holding Charlie's leash in the other hand. Realizing it was too dark, I tried to change the mode, but Charlie was out of patience and pulled me along. I'm afraid I left a footprint in the mud next to the curb.

Both pictures came out pixelated. Still, I like the mysterious look of the sky.

I made an attempt at improving the second shot using a filter, but it wasn’t a success. Then I noticed that my app was trying to identify a “bird.” Oh, good grief! That’s the moon, Siri, not a snowy owl!

Double Mural, Purple Barn

White Oak Lavender Farm, Part Two 

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I went to the Lavender Farm to see the new mural. It covers the back of a barn plus an extension. I found it impossible to get the entire thing in one photo. I tried a panorama shot, and then flattened it using AI. Even then, there was a portion on the adjacent wall that I could not get in the frame because there was a butterfly house that I had to step around. Also, there were buttresses painted with lavender plants.

Monday Murals

The artwork is by Real Creative Studio in Harrisonburg. Speaking of artists, I saw some at work painting “en plein air.”

Another structure had flowers painted on the wall. 

There was even more to see and photograph, but it will have to wait until another day. Stay tuned!

Charlie and Rhododendrons

Yesterday afternoon I took Charlie to the park in Edinburg. After a short walk, I wanted to take pictures of the rhododendrons near the pool.  Charlie became focused on something under the branches and as soon as I got a picture composed, he pulled on the leash.

After a few failed attempts, I was able to get decent pictures of the pink blossoms. 

Then a butterfly showed up! Again I struggled to get a clear photo, but between the dog pulling on his leash and the screen on the iPhone being overly sensitive, I failed and the butterfly flew off.  (It seems like the phone switches modes if I so much as breathe!)

Then the tiger swallowtail returned. I pointed the phone at it and accidentally switched on “portrait” mode. That’s why the picture has a black background. I could’ve modified it in editing, but I decided to keep it.

By the time I corrected the setting on my phone, but butterfly disappeared again.

As you can see, some of the leaves look stressed. This could be from the prolonged drought or from the sudden frost, or both. 

When I reviewed the pictures, I saw a blue abstract that I did not recognize. It must have been taken as I pulled the phone out out of my pocket. My pants have a knit pattern in these colors. They’re some of my favorite colors so I didn’t delete the picture.

Killdeer and Robins

 Shenandoah County, VA

My dog was with me when I took this picture of a bird by the North Fork. I used my cell phone at zoom setting, holding a leash in my other hand. The picture came out slightly blurred so I tried to fix it using the Picsart app.The filter is called Indie2.

My iPhone identified this as a killdeer, and that appears to be correct. I think this is the first time I’ve captured a recognizable picture of a killdeer. They don’t come to my yard, but they do hang out by the river.

American Robins are a common bird in Virginia. This week I photographed one with Great North Mountain in the background,  and another one in my neighbor’s driveway

Fruit and Patterns

The City Daily Photo theme for May 1st is "Fruit." I took a picture of apples in a grocery store, but I hoped to find something more interesting.

 I stopped at a produce stand today, but they just had some melons and one other fruit. I don’t have any fresh fruit at home because I can’t eat raw fruit without my gums swelling, and my tongue feeling sore. I can eat certain cooked fruits, and my standby is applesauce. That’s definitely not photogenic.

I looked around my kitchen and found some canned cherries. I opened them, but they were dull-colored and mushy. I ate some with dinner. 

I did notice that a pan full of water caught a reflection of the window blinds. I shook it lightly and created patterns.

Portrait Mode at Lanterns to Liberty

Front Royal, VA

As part of the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence, a living history event was held yesterday. I did not stay for the evening events which included a ride by “Paul Revere,” but I took plenty of photos during the afternoon. These are pictures that I took using my iPhone’s “Portrait” mode. You need to be fairly close to the subject to use that mode, but people wearing costumes are usually willing to pose. 

I dialed in the solid background because the real background was distracting and clearly not 18th century.

I plan to share regular snapshots of the event later.

Missed the Selfie, Caught the Curves.

This first picture is the result of a mistake. I wanted to get a photo for the Weekend Reflection challenge, so when I spotted a reflection of myself, I snapped a picture. Oops, my head was cut off in this shot! I liked the curves sp I cropped it drastically.

I took a second picture from a few steps back and got the selfie. The funny thing is, I like the first image better. It looks quite graceful for a truck wheel!

Grackle Visits the Feeder

These are stills from a video that was automatically recorded by my Birdfy device. There are unfortunate glare spots because the sun was shining on the lens, including a round orange spot that makes it look like it has a red breast like a robin. I can’t avoid placing the camera where it gets sunstruck because the only direction that never gets direct sun is north, and that would be looking toward my neighbor’s window. 

This bird has character! The long beak and bright eyes give it a cartoonish look, so I found it worth the trouble to make still pictures from the video. Actually, this isn’t difficult once I download it. I just stop it where I want and tell Siri to make a screen shot, which I crop and save.

Speaking of Siri, she failed at identifying the bird when it faced downward, guessing that it was a beetle or a bear!

Arnold Newman Exhibit

Museum of the Shenandoah Valley

Yesterday I went to Winchester to see a new photography exhibit of work by Arnold Newman. He was one of the great portrait photographers of the 20th century. 

The images are wonderful. After viewing so many, I could recognize techniques that he used repeatedly: dramatic lighting, posing a subject to show their work or personal life, using architectural features to build a composition, and cropping carefully. 

While I was at the museum, I also took pictures of indoor lighting for a local photo group challenge.

At the end of the day, I picked up Charlie from daycare at the veterinary. He still can’t stand to be by himself very long. Here’s a picture that I took outside the building. The shadow on the fence caught my eye.

Reflection Intruding

I was taking a picture through a window and the sky was behind me.

This image reminds me of a double exposure.Years ago, I traveled to Florida to take a short course taught by Jerry Uelsmann, master of the double exposure. He did amazing things with photo manipulation, long before digital photography was invented.

Birds in Trees, Birds on Feeder

Years ago, I went on a guided nature walk in Huntley Meadows. It was late winter, so the colors of the warmer seasons were not there to delight us. Our guide told us to look up at the trees in the winter. With the leaves gone, we could easily see birds and squirrels, and also the buds of leaves that would be coming out in spring.

I have remembered that, and found that bare trees can look especially nice at sunrise or sunset.

These pictures were not taken on the same day, but I took them both while I was walking Charlie. I think it’s the same tree.

The Birdfy camera continues to take automatic pictures of birds. Here we see a junco.

Photographer’s Home and Studio

Little Washington, VA

Last weekend was the annual Rappahannock Studio Tour. I never have time to visit all the art studios because they are spread out over a wide area, and some are in homes located on winding mountain roads. This time I only went to the main gallery in the town of Washington and two studios. 

Deborah had volunteered to watch Charlie and Frank was not feeling well enough to take a day trip, so I went by myself. It takes over an hour to get there, even longer for me because I stopped to take pictures of the fall foliage. Usually, I don’t visit the photographers’ studios because I am pretty well steeped in photography already, and I don’t like to miss the paintings. 

There were a couple of photographs in the main gallery that stopped me in my tracks, so I decided to see more by that photographer, Charles Tompkins. His education includes classes at the Ansel Adams Yosemite Workshop, and it shows in his work. He has mastered tonality and lighting. Although I have taken a ton of photo classes, I never had the budget for fancy equipment or the motivation to work long hours by myself, although I certainly spent a lot of time making prints with other students in classes. I did work in two portrait studios, but I didn’t earn enough to pay the bills that way.

The other exhibit I chose to visit was north of Flint Hill on a narrow country road that had me wondering if I had accidentally turned onto an old logging road or a cow path! But that’s part of the fun of a studio tour, seeing new places that you would never venture into without a destination.

I would have loved to visit some of the artists that I’ve seen in the past and purchased paintings from, but I wanted to get home before dark, and also pick up Charlie before he wore out his welcome. He loves going to Deborah‘s and playing with her dog, but sometimes he gets anxious and that can be tiresome.

A Bird and a Deer

October is a few weeks earlier than the time that I usually start feeding birds. I decided to put out a handful of black thistle seed (nyjer seed) because it can take a week or so for the birds to discover the feeders. Today I checked the feeder camera app and saw that one bird has found it.

It appears to be a female house finch. The male is much more colorful, and I hope to see him soon. 

The camera takes videos, and I saved these images by holding down the progress bar and saying, “Siri, make a screen shot.”  I cropped these and increased the contrast. 

There were two short videos showing that a deer came by one morning. I live in town, but not far from what I consider the edge of town. There’s a farm a few blocks from my house, but the forest is much farther away.

Glass Hummingbirds

Today's theme for City Daily Photo is "Glass," but today is also Wild Bird Wednesday. For this challenge, I decided to use a glass bird. I couldn’t get a bright picture of it in the bedroom window where it usually hangs, so I brought it outdoors.

I also considered using my hummingbird window hanging. It looks like stained glass, but it’s actually a glass panel decorated with special material. I read that you produce one like this using acrylic paint mixed with a simple glue for thickness.

My other theme day idea also involved hummingbirds. These are my glass hummingbird feeders.

I haven’t seen any hummingbirds since before the rain on Saturday. The last pictures of them taken by the bird cam was snapped six days ago. I suspect our local ruby-throated hummingbirds have gone south, but I’m leaving a feeder up in case other hummingbirds stop by while migrating from farther north.

My Birdfy device is not designed for hummingbirds; it is intended to hold seeds. I added a shallow hummingbird feeder to the seed tray. 

Best of luck to all the birds who are traveling this month. It is October, so cold weather is on the way.