Miscellaneous 11-14-21

I do have a hard time at guild meetings figuring out who is who.  Everyone does not wear a mask, but enough do that I need to really search my brain and the pictures in the directory to decide which person is in the picture I have taken.  They don't have any trouble with me because of the hat.  I didn't mean to take this image, but my phone does its own thing sometimes and reverts to selfie or even to video!  And sometimes I think I am taking one picture and find I have 20 on my phone.  I may revert to a camera.   You see the problem I have with the light from all the windows.

A few years ago I ate a hard boiled egg that was laid the day before and it was so delicious I have tried to find a nearby source for "home grown" eggs.  Then I heard chickens clucking in the back of a house in the neighborhood.  When I asked about them the fellow asked me if I wanted some!  Of course, I replied.  He gave me a plastic egg container and said to just leave it on his porch when I needed more.  This is my third dozen and they are so tasty.  He seems to have several different kinds of hens and they lay different colored eggs.  I have always been delighted with the lovely colors of Araucana eggs.The eggs are different sizes so they wouldn't do for baking, but I haven't baked anything in years.  I just eat them. 

I drove down to Oceanside on Thursday to see the exhibits at Oceanside Museum of Art, especially the lovely fabric sandhill cranes by Charlotte Bird, and had lunch at Rosewood Kitchen with my friend Beth.  The carbonara is different than I have had anywhere else, but it is delicious.  They have a patio on the sidewalk so the people watching is interesting.  The inside decor is ...  I don't know what the word would be... eclectic?  Here is a statue on a hand painted pedestal - the lady is wearing a huge human sized picture brimmed hat.  The second picture is the bathroom wall, but the painting continues across the ceiling and also inside the door.  In the dining room long stemmed roses hang from the ceiling, they have been dead for a very long time.   I am happy eating outside on the sidewalk patio!

This week I will take some pictures of quilts added to TCQC the last six months or so.  Then I will have something to post on Sundays. 

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Photo Failure 02-28-20

I was working to post pictures I took on the last trip up to San Juan Bautista and Pacific Grove when my phone started to just say "loading" on and on and on.  It won't stop.  So, I have no access to any pictures on my phone.  Hope it can self correct.  It is almost midnight, so I will just check it in the morning.   I tried to find some great almond blossom pictures from years ago, but since the demise of Picasa I can't find anything very easily.  But when I drove up and back on I-5 last week the almond trees were in their full glory.  By the time I drive up again in a couple weeks the blossoms will all be gone.  

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Gloria Hansen quilt from 2003 07-22-18

  Gloria Hansen is a well known photographer, quilter, web designer, and author.   This quilt was in an online auction and I think it is beautiful, despite the pink (which you may know I don't care for), but it is a lovely pink and easy on the eyes.  It is heavily quilt with the leaves quilted into the border.   Quilts using photographs were not all that common at the beginning of the 21st Century, but now there are any number of artists who use this technique.  And, of course, we now have digital printed fabric everywhere, so if you don't do your own photos you can buy yardage with digital images.  

"Pink Flowers II"  Gloria Hansen 2003    16"W x 17"L

Hand painted cotton fabrics, printed image, machine pieced, fused, machine quilted. 

Extending the outlines of the leaves adds depth to the center. 

Nice label with contacts and care instructions. 

Website:  http://www.gloriahansen.com/index.php

Blog:  http://www.gloriahansen.com/weblog/
Photography Blog: www.gloriahansenphotography.com    Fabulous pictures!

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Motel Decor 06-12-18

My friend Liz and I spent the last two nights at the Holiday Inn Express (HIE) in San Luis Obispo so that I could give a program about the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection to the members of the San Luis Obispo Quilters.  I find I get too tired to drive for 5-6 hours and then give an evening program.  So, we drove up on Sunday and home today (Tuesday).  I like to stay at HIE because I feel safe at their locations and I LOVE their cinnamon rolls (as do many other travelers).  Currently the San Luis Obispo location is being renovated and I'm not crazy about their new decor.  Here are some pictures from our room.  

Yes, the pictures cover the wall and extend up onto the ceiling. 

The subjects are varied - sports pictures seem to dominate. 

But "Amor"??  On the ceiling? 

These are also on the ceiling.  I found it somewhat disorienting to wake up staring at the ceiling which seemed to be a wall.  Not being used to pictures (or mirrors) on the ceiling I wasn't sure I was laying down or standing up! 

As you can see the pictures on the wall extend down almost to the floor. 

That orange cylinder is a dumb lamp which you have to turn on the bulbs on both sides of the light fixture in order to turn it off; rather annoying if someone is asleep and suddenly the light shines on their face.  

This decor is rather overwhelming when what I want in a motel room is a calm, restful aura to let me calm down before going to bed.  There are not many of these photos I would chose to hang myself, but I find that is general true in any motel/hotel.  They do chose ugly art and frequently disturbing carpeting  

These three hang on the side wall.  We think they are close ups of mechanical equipment. 

Be warned!

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Bird watching 11-27-12

I've been an occasional bird watcher since a was quite young.  In the 70's and 80's I was very active and only stopped my serious watching when I developed allergies and couldn't be outside during the times that certain trees, weeds and grasses were "active".  I still watch very casually and sometimes try to take pictures of birds.  This little sparrow swooped down to the fence post while I was parked along the road above Asilomar Beach in Pacific Grove, CA, last March.  I had rolled the window down to enjoy the rushing of the waves and the wonderfully clean air.  I took seven or eight pictures before he flipped his tail at me and flew away.  The last image is the best picture I have ever taken of a bird.  And it was taken with my Canon point-and-shoot camera.  Pretty awesome.

 

 

Song Sparrow at Asilomar Beach, Pacific Grove, CA  03-28-12

Home Again. 06-16-12

I don't know if it is Blogger or if it is a tired Del, but this is the third time I have typed in the text for this blog post!  I can never remember what I wrote previously, but it always seems like it was better!

I have pushed too hard the last few days - 481 miles Friday and 428 miles today - overstepping the boundary I set before I left on this trip, which was no more than 400 miles a day.  I had a nap after my arrival home a little before 4pm, but then was up to unload the car (not finished), do some laundry, and do e-mail catch up.  I need to go back to bed soon. 

I have saved some rejects from my point and shoot photos taken whilst driving.  Just to show how bad it can get when one doesn't look at the screen or through the view finder.  No touch up on these - just resized. 

 
The unfortunate white streak was on the windshield, not the mountain.

 
Too much reflection, not enough landscape.

On any road trip there are a few vehicle interior shots. 

And always some guard rails slipping quickly past. 

 
This looks like a double exposure, not possible with digital.  The red/yellow stripe is a reflection of my fabric camera cover, the right side of the photo is a rocky road cut.  I haven't a clue what anything else might be.

 
A blurred road cut...

 
And one that isn't blurry, but missing the top part.  Along with a blurry median barrier.

 
Another view of an absolutely filthy vehicle interior.  The outside is worse.

 
A composite shot of blurred landscape, guard rail, interior and the guy on my tail.

 
?????

Your guess is as good as mine!

I have quite a few pictures to post, especially those of the Ruth McDowell students work.  I'll get to them soon.  Right now - to bed.  My very own bed!

Monday Browsing 09-26-11

Well, I haven't actually been doing much browsing. But I have a few sites to suggest.

This one came from my friend Patty who seems to frequently come up with sites that have interesting photos. This one has pictures taken in the late 1930s and early 1940s using COLOR slide film. The pictures live at the Library of Congress. The detail is amazing, but what strikes me (and probably everyone who looks at them) is the color - my brain has a hard time accepting such images in color, since all the pictures I have seen from this era have always been in black & white.

http://extras.denverpost.com/archive/captured.asp

The B&W picture below is from 1941 or 1942 and shows my family in front of the house my dad was building.  The only colors I am sure of are the Douglas fir trees, the brown house in the background, the green Plymouth, Buddy (the brown dog on the left) and my uncle's dark blue sailor suit.

 

Ellery, my dad; Grandmother Ella, Grampa Wilce, Aunt Vernice, Uncle Gordan.  And, on the running board of the Plymouth, my (about) 3 year old self. 

 For further contrast check this site: 

http://vithefiddler.posterous.com/pictures-of-america-1935-1939

Memories of Montana 2005

In 2005 I was just making the transition from my well traveled SLR to a digital point-and-shoot. At the beginning I had my SLR photos transferred to discs and then loaded them into my computer.  That didn't last long, it was an awkward process, and I soon used my digital for all pictures, learning to download them directly from camera to computer.  It seemed an miraculous procedure then and it still amazes me when I consider how flawless the process works.   2005 was the summer I went to Kalispell, MT, to take a class with Ruth McDowell and fall in love with Kalispell.  I remembered it from a visit in the early 1970s as a complete cow town, so was delighted to find a growing city with better restaurants and lovely flower filled neighborhoods.  And saddened that so much of the agricultural and pasture land was cut up into "country lots" adorned with McMansions. 


The roof of this barn is more pink than red - guess they didn't buy non-fading roofing material.

Lots of old fashioned flowers and this house almost always had a sprinkler going.

The streaks in the foreground are caused by the early morning sun shining through tall trees.  One thing I didn't think to take a picture of were tomatoes in pots sitting in little red wagons so they could be moved into the sun throughout the day.  At least that is what I saw one man doing.  Yeah, save those trees.

Photo experiment & Rayna Gillman post 12-09-10

Yesterday I had lunch at a local eatery named Rutabegorz which is a holdover from the Hippie food of 1970. The original is in Fullerton, but there are also locations in Orange and Tustin (where I ate yesterday). The food is organic, big on veggies, huge salads, hearty soups and some 'funky' dishes, too. Anyway, I was sitting there with my latte in a Xmas mug, which I think is very cute (it is also very much like a design I did for a quilt about thirty years ago), and I tried a half dozen photos to see what I could do with the very busy background I would get. These two images are the two best, however, they are highly modified. I have found that I enjoy digital photography more and more - it is fun to take a not very great image and use the different functions of a photo program to improve it.

If you are a quiltmaker I hope you will take the time to read Rayna Gillman's Blog for today. She makes some very good points about exhibiting your work.
http://studio78notes.blogspot.com/2010/12/juried-vs-curated-or-invitational-shows.html

Flock of Parrots 12-07-10

There are a number of locations in SCalifornia that host flocks of parrots that began with just a few escaped caged birds. There are flocks in Arcadia, Palos Verdes, Long Beach, La Habra, Orange and, I suppose, many other places. I am most familiar with those that live in Orange. Some of the flocks are composed of a hundred birds, or more, I once counted fifty flying from one tasty area to another and have tried many times to photograph some in flight. But I am not much of a bird photographer. In the picture above are at least a dozen perching parrots hiding in foliage that is the same color as parrot feathers.

This photo is a cropped, enlarged part of the top photo.

This pair sat in this position for a very long time, but they were way up in the top of a tree and I use a point and shoot camera with limited telephoto capabilities.

This fellow was closer, but he kept playing peek-a-boo with me and this is the only photo that wasn't blurred. All of the towns I mentioned have older neighborhoods with lots of large fruit trees to provide food. They are especially fond of figs.

One of the quilts I purchased at the recent SAQA auction shows parrots in Palos Verdes. I'll show it on Sunday.

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I see the Moon..... 08-20-10

I've never had the right equipment to take pictures of the moon, but it hasn't stopped me from trying. I rather like this funky image of the moon and a planet/star (?) off to the right which was taken from my patio here in September 2005 - the lights to the right and the bottom are the street lights in the patio homes behind the house which are about 15 feet lower than the patio. Even an attempt to stabilize the camera against a post holding up the patio cover was not adequate.

Someone recently sent me these pictures by a man who has created pictures of the moon with a different outlook:

http://static.iftk.com.br/mt/2008/08/playing_with_the_moon_20_pics.html

This is the photographer: http://www.laurentlavender.com/galerie_nuit.html

Reality Photos 07-19-10

Members of Surfside Quilters Guild are having their individual pictures taken at the meetings to be included in a membership directory. I am not surprised at how many ladies resist having their picture taken, I do the same thing. Somehow, we never look as we think we should. Even though others look at our picture and instantly recognize us.

I think we take pictures of everyday things and are disappointed because they don't fit the image we had at the time we looked through the viewfinder. One of the joys of digital is being able to 'correct' the picture on the computer. Several hundred years into the future will viewers wonder that all our sunsets are perfect, the grass is greener, the sky more blue, and everything is aligned and squared up? Although I don't think a photo is as good as a drawing to help focus on what we are really seeing, I think that looking critically at pictures on my computer monitor is a good way to better see what I was looking at. The picture above is of a beautiful Long Beach sunset! Corky and I went to California Pizza Kitchen for takeout and waited an interminable time (and two phone calls) for curbside delivery. Meanwhile, the sun was going down behind us and reflecting in the restaurant window in front of us. Although I was seeing the sunset, I was also noticing all the reflections. Now, if I can only learn how to turn off the camera flash I will get a better shot next time.

Half of a Bar-B-Q chicken salad and a pear/Gorgonzola pizza. Yummy.

Pictures I Save. 07-12-10

Pictures on my computer are one of my treasures. I think back to my childhood when my sister and I visited our grandparents in Los Angeles (near Eagle Rock) and would take film to the corner drugstore to be developed. We didn't have much money, so we were careful to take only 'important' pictures. Of course, they were black/white and never quite measured up to what we expected. I have no idea what happened to most of them. I moved away from Portland, OR, just out of high school and took with me only what would fit in a suitcase, a train case and a hat box (yes, hats were important then). I suppose my sister has boxes of photos - she is worse than I am about keeping things forever.

Now I have thousands of pictures on Picasa storage and rarely go in to delete anything. Just like photos stored in boxes some have labels and some do not. One always thinks the names and places and dates will be there in our memory, but they fade away quickly as the years pass. Here are four pictures that I love to look at.

I have no idea where this was taken, I expect in the 'north woods', but it is a tribute to a woodcutter/stacker with a lovely imagination.

Of all the cat pictures that come across my computer threshold this is my favorite one. With the possible exception of "Max and the Pincushion" which is a video.
http://wwwbluemoonriver.blogspot.com/2009/08/max-and-pincushion.html

These little birdies may be Photoshopped, but I love them anyway.

This one always makes me smile. I took it near the Utah/Wyoming border while on a road trip in 2005. It is the "Vampire Truck"! I have seen other trucks decorated in this way since this one, guess the truckers are identifying with the vampire hype along with the teenagers.