Hanging out at the Fitness Club and other miscellany

Posted on December 3, 2007 by ruthek

I’m not going to complain about the weather in Pittsburgh. It’s better than all that snow they’re talking about in much of the country. But it wasn’t walking weather. I decided I have to spend more time at the "club." I went at 9:30 this morning and didn’t get home until almost noon–a good start. I used the bicycle, the treadmill and all those fancy machines. Are you bored yet? I am. But I will persist. Tai Chi tomorrow and possibly another exercise program they call Silver & Fit. I love these euphemisms.

I’ve uploaded more photos to the Flickr site. Still not happy with it, but I’ll persist with all the photos from Japan. Then I’ll rethink my use of it. I just don’t have enough control over how the photos appear.

I’m still musing over the fact that I got more visits to my Japan blog from my post on toilets than I got from the Post-Gazette article. Should I consider it blog power, or toilet power?

More photos on Flickr

Posted on November 27, 2007 by ruthek

Posted more photos on Flickr tonight: Koyasan, Hiroshima, Miyajima. This is one of my favorites from Miyajima.

Six or Seven Miles Today

Posted on November 21, 2007 by ruthek

I made up for my lack of exercise yesterday. This
morning as I prepared to walk with Phyllis I foolishly decided to leave
my camera at home. I almost always have it with me; it’s no bother to
carry it. But Monday when we walked there didn’t seem to be anything
interesting. I thought today would be the same. As soon as I went
around the corner I knew I had made a mistake. Then, all during the
walk we found wonderful images. I guess the light was better this
morning. It was very warm and much brighter. The sun actually appeared
this afternoon.

I decided to go back again; it wouldn’t look the same
next week when I got back from New York. First I had to do another
errand, then lunch. I had already walked about four miles; another
three wouldn’t hurt.

I began by walking around the corner to photograph this vine growing on a post.

I think it was better in the morning; probably had
more leaves. Then I got into the car and drove to Frick Park, not my
usual practice, but I didn’t want to be totally wiped out.

This is the beginning of my walk.

Most of the trees are bare, but a few really stand out.

Some things show up much better when there aren’t so many leaves.

Then again, some things are better hidden.
This massive house is barely noticeable in summer; now it looms
monstrously. One could wish for better zoning laws or enforcement.

This
morning I noticed a branch with some wonderful, delicate fungi. I continued walking almost to the end of the trail to find it.

I found this log with a beautiful growth on it. I wish I knew more about these things.

Here is one last tree to show you. I suspect it is the
last beautiful tree of this autumn. I wish I could make a portrait of
every tree.

Still working on Japan

Posted on November 19, 2007 by ruthek

I started uploading pictures to a Flickr account. My first group are from the tori no ichi celebration I went to in Tokyo. You can see it here.

The celebration is held to insure prosperity for businesses on
rooster days in November. Vendors at the temple sell bamboo rakes to
help rake in the money. When they make a substantial sale they clap and
chant. See video here.

I couldn’t resist

Posted on October 9, 2007 by ruthek

Here is the edited version, from Photoshop.

Learning about my camera

Posted on October 8, 2007 by ruthek

I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to learn everything about my little camera, in particular how to extend the tonal range it captures.
I haven’t been very happy with it: the highlights tend to get too white and shadows too black. They lack detail, even with some Photoshop doctoring. I now understand all of the settings on the camera. I don’t know if I’ll ever be entirely satisfied with it. In reality in this vertical picture the sun was a brilliant ball framed by the tree branches and the haze was not so heavy. The camera has compressed the highlights so there is little differentiation.

However, I’m not willing to burden myself with lots of equipment, and I can’t see to focus an SLR. I’ll stay with the point and shoot.

This morning I went out walking alone, again. Since I had been to Frick Park yesterday I just walked down Reynolds and over to Mellon Park.

It’s a shorter route so I didn’t get as much exercise, but the day was heating up quickly and I find this heat really debilitating. I took these pictures in Mellon Park.
The haze is accentuated in the pictures; it wasn’t quite that strong. I liked the play of light and shadow in an otherwise not very inspired landscape. I took the flower photo because I wanted to see whether I would get detail in the white blossom. The green is reasonable; the white is off the chart. I can probably fix it, but this is the unedited photo, taken without flash.

Walking in Frick Park

Posted on September 30, 2007 by ruthek

My walking partners haven’t been around all weekend. This morning I decided to walk by myself. The exercise isn’t as good; I tend to walk slower when I’m by myself. But I’m glad I went alone this morning. It was a beautiful day and I spent a lot of time photographing. Although the leaves haven’t fully turned yet, they’ve started to fall and you can see the approach of autumn.

I’m not entirely happy with my photographs. I spent a lot of time this afternoon trying to learn the controls on my camera. I want to get better results when I am in Japan.

Take a walk with me. The stretching tree is half-way in my walk. I use it to stretch out my calf muscles; less pain later. I usually turn around there, and retrace my steps. Today I took another trail–all uphill. It’s a beautiful trail and I wanted the extra exercise.

I haven’t been able to embed my slide show in this post, but you can see it here.

Looking for the little things

Posted on July 31, 2007 by ruthek

I went birding today with Carol, an enthusiastic birder. The lure, for me, was not the birds but the promise or wild flowers on a real prairie. Illinois may have had prairie at some time in the past, and a few years ago there was a campaign to preserve the last bit of prairie in the Chicago area, but I never saw it. Today was my big day: four of us drove out to Butler, PA to the Jennings Environmental Center, where we found both prairie and woodland trails and joined a group of experienced bird and nature watchers. There were no mountains and no broad vistas here. We began our walk on the prairie trails, so there were no beautiful stands of trees. I had to adjust my thinking and my point of view; to look at the little things. I wanted to photograph on this trip, to test how well my little digital camera would do.

As we started walking through the prairie the experts in our group identified bird calls, talked about the wild flowers and pointed out butterflies and caterpillars. We found a tiny plant, about a quarter inch across, called a scarlet cap, growing on a twig. On another branch we found this bird’s nest fungus.
Each of these little buttons was also no more than a quarter inch across. Tiny spores, less than a millimeter each, were the eggs inside the nest. You would be able to see them on the left edge of the photo if the focus was sharper. Although my camera is supposed to take close up pictures, I’m not entirely satisfied with the results. I have to try it again when I’m alone and can concentrate on what I’m doing. I’m learning about the camera, but I still don’t fully understand it.

Pictures from the walk are in the photo album labeled Jennings Prairie.

Just for fun

Posted on February 1, 2007 by ruthek

Computers age faster than people. Strange things were happening with my computer so I finally decided to get a new one. This time I got a Mac, and I’m really enjoying it, big screen, beautiful pictures, easy to see. One night I played around with the Photo Booth program and got these funny shots. Hope you enjoy!

Moonlighting

Posted on November 6, 2006 by ruthek

There was a full moon last night. During the early part of the evening it was overcast, but about 11 pm the clouds parted and the backyard was lit. Branches from the largely leafless tree on the right cast amazing shadows on the concrete apron of the garage.
I tried to photograph again. I can’t see what I am photographing, I just literally point the camera in different directions while holding my finger over the on/off button that is lit up when on, so it doesn’t reflect in the glass. I still have to put the pictures into Photoshop in order to see anything. Before Photoshopping (adjust contrast) they just look black.

100 Books Before I Die

Ruthe Karlin

Category Archives: Photographs