If you want to see some pictures and video of what’s happening in California, search for “Peter DaSilva” on FB. He’s a professional photog, and while the subject is devastating, his pictures are, well, words escape me since you can’t call a photo of destruction “amazing”, or “beautiful” - not sure what word would be appropriate here. … [Read more...]
Not shooting pics of Lailah
August 7, 2018 By
Let it be known that GranPaBrian spent a short period of time with the little girl on Friday evening, AND then all afternoon on Saturday, AND did not take out his cell phone to take any pics of her. He also didn’t bring a camera with him either. Enjoying the life of Lailah without a camera in my hands is something totally foreign to me - what a concept. What.is.the.world.coming.to? [in case you … [Read more...]
Haircuts and selfies
August 7, 2018 By
The great thing about “new hair cut” selfies, you can always “forget” to take a “before” pic of how bad your hair looked before the new cut. 😱🙄😉🤓 … [Read more...]
Loring Park Art Festival – part 2
July 29, 2018 By
As posted earlier today, we went to the Loring Park Art Festival yesterday. These are the two photographs I picked up. The photograph of Lake Calhoun looking toward the MPLS downtown skyline is truly awesome, and was the first one that caught my eye by this particular photographer. Its 10x14, with a 3” mat surrounding it, meaning I’m going to have to get a 16x20 frame for it. I know exactly where … [Read more...]
iPad camera roll vs albums – not
December 27, 2016 By
A geek post regarding Apple devices - you might not understand if you don't have an "i-xxx" device. A month or ago, I looked at all the photos on the iPad (copied from my phone) and decided to finally organize them (more than a few thousand taken over the last few years) into "albums", in order to reduce the size of my "camera roll". This also includes any screen shots or pics I've downloaded … [Read more...]
Good photographer turns into average photographer
July 30, 2016 By
UGH. I used to be such a "good" photographer when I was much younger and/or when I had better eyesight. I rely too much on the camera to focus for me these days and/or to set the exposure for me. … [Read more...]
Photography and Fireworks
July 4, 2016 By
The problem with shooting 280 fireworks photos (in the space of thirty minutes), is trying to figure out which are the "truly great" and which are only "good", the easy part will be throwing out the junky ones. Some of the "good" ones look "artsy-fartsy", and while I like them, i don't think others would agree. Going to try to review them and post only the top 10 percent - we'll see how that goes. … [Read more...]
Photos and Film
May 12, 2016 By
Before i started working on the stuff i have to do today, i wanted to share the following: I have four "rolls of film", sitting on my desk, they're been sitting around for about ten years now (at least). And, two more rolls with the film leader sticking out - i can't tell whether those two rolls were never used, OR, if I (partially) used them but didn't rewind the leader in "all the way" in order … [Read more...]
Jeremy Cowart – photographer – video
February 18, 2016 By
Jeremy Cowart I have to admit, when my friend Kathy Pretty Kaczmarek shared this just now, I was going to scroll right past it. But, for some reason, I felt a little bit "compelled" to see what it was about. I'm very glad I did. It is a long (25 mins) video. So, if you don't have time to view it now, "save" it and came back to it when you do have some free time. Set aside 25 quiet minutes in … [Read more...]
Vivian Maier – unknown (but now famous) photographer
December 29, 2015 By
It's just freaking how my mind works. A FB friend of mine "liked" a Christmas photo of Marlo Thomas, her husband Phil Donahue, and their family. I'd thought I had heard a rumor about Mr. Donahue's health, so I decided to read his biographical article on Wikipedia. Fortunately, there was no mention of any health problems, and I truly hope he is well. While reading his Wikipedia article, there is … [Read more...]
Completely Mirrorless Camera Photog Now
October 3, 2015 By
FYI, fellow FB photographer friends: Over the summer and as of this past week, I've slowly gotten rid (via trade-in or selling) all of my DSLR camera equipment, and am now a bona fide "Mirrorless Camera ONLY" photographer (now having had my Mirrorless for the past 16 months). While I do not (yet) have the same quantity/style of lenses, I anticipate, over the next several years, the lens stable … [Read more...]
Photography and Lailah – the Dilemma
September 20, 2015 By
You know, for the most part, I have a pretty good life... BUT it just SUCKS BIG TIME when I attend a little girl's soccer practice / game and I have this pretty nice camera, and a pretty good "long/zoom" lens, allowing me to take some really awesome pictures, and upon coming home, and downloading them to the PC, you find you've taken 300+ pictures of her in a bit less than an hour, and it is so … [Read more...]
My website, viewing my SmugMug pics & a 3rd party plug-in
August 16, 2015 By
Beware: this is a long and boring technical blog posting - if you're into using wordpress for blogging and also do photo sharing on your wordpress website, you might be 5% interested in this post - otherwise, you'll probably just think this is just another loony tunes post by yours truly, and should probably skip reading it. wink emoticon About a year ago, I moved from using FLICKR to SmugMug as … [Read more...]
Black and White photos of Lailah
August 6, 2015 By
There is a reason why I don't edit my photos that I take. It takes a LOT of time and mental effort - there are just TOO MANY choices of things to do - like adding special effects, lighting, exposure, contrast, etc. If anything, I may - like I recently did for my recent b-day pics - just crop them. THAT I can easily do - no problem - no OCD choice issues there. However, I just heard about a … [Read more...]
New photo frame for Lailah’s pictures
August 5, 2015 By
You know you have it bad, when you start thinking about ditching the 34" x 42" (butt ugly) framed Kadinsky print (which you've now have had for a dozen or so yrs) above the LR couch, and replacing it with a similar sized (42" or 46"?) flat panel tv (from the bedroom), thereby replacing the awfully smaller 15" photo frame on the end table, with the end result of being able to display a (new) almost … [Read more...]
Bird’s eye Video of Detroit and my thoughts
August 5, 2015 By
Great and interesting video - great background music - much too short. Bird's eye view of Detroit (opens in new window) Sorry to see the beginning parts: drives home the point that certain (industrial & residential) areas are still like a former war zone. Enjoyed the middle/ending portions a lot better with "hope" of development/revival coming. You don't usually get to see this stuff (from … [Read more...]
Daughter Elyse and her “new” camera
July 25, 2015 By
Ah, and one last thing. I loaned my Sony Mirrorless camera to Elyse after she came out here in early June. She's never been into photography (or so she told me), until we went to downtown MPLS together, and she shot a few pictures (300 of them, to be "exact"). So, she's had the camera for almost 6-7 weeks now, and she went on a sightseeing trip with a friend for a few days, and ended up taking … [Read more...]
Various thoughts about cameras, photography
July 20, 2015 By
I have four "cameras" (my trusty Canon DSLR, the "newer" Sony Mirrorless, a Sony P&S (that fits in my pants pocket) and, of course, like everyone else, my cell phone). All of them have the now (pretty much) standard LCD screen that you can't see a frigging thing on when you are outdoors in bright sunlight. The first two do have a separate eye viewfinder but I've been leaving the DSLR home … [Read more...]
