Those Phone Cameras After All
Well, I have posted before that I rarely use my phone to take photographs. And it’s still true! I rarely use the camera on my phone for taking photos with the exception of taking photos of Roby. Yes, I do take photos of him with my cameras, but it’s much harder to get candid photos of him with those since it’s either in my apartment or on the patio.
And, I have mentioned that I haven’t been able to get out much to take photos with my camera[s], and that is still true. Right now, with this oppressive heat we’ve been experiencing I just can’t get out to take photos, and it’s bugging me. One of the places I really want to get back to is Cedar Hill State Park. I used to live in Cedar Hill and I went to the park quite often; it’s a great place to go and I had a State Park pass so I could go as often as I wanted.
However, I have been taking photos with my phone. I admit, it has come in handy for a few photos, and that would be flowers. Flowers. Flowers in grocery stores! I mean, have you ever noticed them? Some of those arrangements are really cool and the flowers are awesome! Honestly, I used to go in and pass by them never even giving them a second glance. And then one day I stopped to look at some of the flowers and I was blown away, so much so I just had to take some photos. Out came my phone. Granted, not all came out the way I wanted, and some didn’t come out at all. But, I have gotten some really great photos.
So, I will admit, using a cell phone can be used to get some great photos. As I told my therapist once, never say never because it will come back to haunt you!
Posted in Nature and tagged flowers, phone camera, phones by Jason with 2 comments.
The Star Spangled Banner
We see it every day, the flag of our country. It’s displayed in yards across America, at schools, the Post Office, government buildings, hospitals, cemeteries, and other establishments. And it is always displayed at the White House and our military bases at home and around the world. It’s just there; it’s become a part of us, our every day life. But we probably notice it most often when the President orders the flags around the country to be flown at half staff, meaning half-way up [or down] the flag pole. And you will notice, too, that the flag is the background of this blog, a photograph that I took while visiting a National Cemetery.
We don’t know exactly who designed the first flag, although many historians think it was New Jersey Congressman Francis Hopkinson and sewn by Betsy Ross.1 We do know that it had thirteen stripes, alternating red and white, and thirteen white stars on a blue background; the stars signifying the new 13 states which before had been colonies. And the rest is history, as they say.
So, where did the song “The Star Spangled Banner” come from? It is from a poem that Francis Scott Key wrote in 1814 [the War of 1812], although its original title was “Defence of Fort M’Henry”, when seeing the flag still flying at dawn after a night of the British bombarding Fort McHenry. The poem was so popular that within a week it was suggested the words be sung to the tune of “Anacreon in Heaven”2, a popular song at the time and then becoming known as “The Star Spangled Banner”. In 1931 it was adopted as the national anthem of the United States of America3, 117 years after Francis Scott Key wrote the poem.
Over the course of history our flag has undergone many changes as the national flag, but always with thirteen stripes, and then white stars on a blue background. On August 3, 1949 President Harry S. Truman declared June 14th to be National Flag Day4.
But, as we all know, this is one of the hardest songs for the majority of us to sing. Those high notes….oh, those HIGH notes! Many people have suggested an alternative, any alternative, to The Star Spangled Banner, but would it evoke the same emotions as The Star Spangled Banner? I think not. Even if we can’t sing it, we become just a bit more proud of our country when we hear it, maybe even becoming a bit choked up and teary-eyed. The song and the flag together just symbolize to us the best free country in the world and, as in the founding of this country, we will defend that flag, along with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and the freedoms it gives to us, until the end.
For me, probably the most definitive rendition of The Star Spangled Banner is when Whitney Houston sang a pre-recorded version of it in 1991, backed by the Florida Orchestra, for Super Bowl XXV. [Yes, she apparently did lip-sync it! but it’s still incredible!] While this is my choice, I’m sure that you will have your own favorite version, one that you might lip-sync to – just as I tend to do!
Yes, I know this has nothing to do with photography, but then, this is my blog and it doesn’t always have to deal with a camera and a subject. ? Unless, of course, you really enjoy taking photos of our flag!
“O! say can you see by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming?
And the Rockets’ red glare, the Bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our Flag was still there;
O! say does that star-spangled Banner yet wave,
O’er the Land of the free and the home of the brave?“
And forever in peace may it wave.
1
https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibition/long-may-it-wave-the-evolution-of-the-american-flag/francis-hopkinsons-claim
2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star-Spangled_Banner
3
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/03/star-spangled-banner-becomes-us-national-anthem-march-3-1931-432140
4
https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/proclamations/2841/flag-day-1949
Posted in Holidays, Personal Thoughts, Reflections by Jason with no comments yet.
Soaring Above Sights
In my last post I mentioned my friend Peter and his nature photos. I have been in awe of his abilities for a while now, and I’m also jealous of his equipment, but I’m not nearly as good as Peter is, so even with equipment like that I most likely wouldn’t get the excellent photos that he does. Plus, he just lives in one of the greatest areas of the country for getting the kind of photos that he does. I have watched him grow over the last year or so in his abilities and I have to say that I am proud of him for moving beyond what was comfortable for him and trying new things. And he’s doing great with it! So, I have added Peter’s Instagram account to my list of links you can find on the right side of this blog. I just feel the need to share his wonderful photos with more people.
In a recent conversation we had I mentioned to him another option he might be able to use to get his photos out there to the public and to be able to maybe sell some. jAlbum is terrific software to build online photo albums and can be used for personal use or for commercial use. I have used jAlbum in the past and have found it to be incredibly easy to build beautiful albums to show friends or potential buyers.
I rarely recommend any kind of software here but I thought this would be worth the mention, especially if you wanted to show off photos to family and friends because you’re given 10 GB of space for a Premium Account if you don’t have a website that you can use. And if you chose the Super Account you get a whopping 300 GB of space – no need for a domain, just good old space for sharing your photos! Premium, Power, or Super, you can’t beat the price anywhere for software that is this easy to use; within a few minutes you can be ready to upload your photo album for your family and friends to see.
FWIW, I do not get any kind of compensation for any recommendations.
So, check out my friend Peter’s Instagram page and enjoy the many photos of eagles and owls and other birds that he has posted there. You will be happy that you did. And maybe even a bit jealous!
Posted in Personal Thoughts by Jason with no comments yet.
Where did the time go?
Boy, I just realized how long ago it had been since I posted anything. Time sure gets past you when you’re busy.
There’s not been any major happening in my life. I have taken some photos, but nothing very spectacular and a lot of them I haven’t even taken the time to upload them to my laptop. And I have been using both my cameras for photos, so there is quite a few there. And really, I haven’t even taken the time to review them. That’s pretty sad, you know?
I did get a chance to spend two weeks in Florida at the end of April and the beginning of May. Most of that time, however, was spent visiting friends and my other two dogs. Our wee little Lexie Starbright has been ill for a while now with renal failure, but she is somehow managing to hang on and when she sees me she just perks up like there was nothing wrong with her. I guess it’s that “daddy” thing. I did take quite a few photos of her, but those are on my phone and I haven’t transferred them to my laptop yet [sound familiar?]. I also got photos of Sasha Bean, but again, on my phone. Those I do review often. I haven’t gotten the chance to see much of them over the years, but I love them so very much. I know both are getting to the age where time is limited and they will have to cross the Rainbow Bridge. For pet owners, that is a mixed feeling day; you know they are no longer suffering, but it is hard to let them go. And it will be very hard saying goodbye to them from a distance.
BUT….it is Summer time! Time for photo buffs to get outside and take those photos! Right now, though, here in Texas, not such a good time to do that because of the excessive heat we’ve been having the last few days. However, it won’t last and we’ll just go back to our regular hot days – the ones we complain about and wish we had cooler weather until we GET that cooler weather! But there’s still lots to take photos of regardless. Grab those cameras, or your cell phone, and snap away at the kids swimming in the pool [and maybe the dog in the pool with them!], or those flowers with the bees zipping from one to another, or maybe you can try to snap a humminbird getting a drink of nectar. I say try because it isn’t the easiest to do even for a professional photographer! My friend Peter lives in Idaho and a year ago he was taking macro photos of insects which were stunning to say the least. But then, with the encouragement from a friend, and a new lens for his camera, he moved on to our nation’s bird, the eagle, and he got some really spectacular photos! Lately, he’s been capturing owls, and let me tell you, I am j e a l o u s! Now I’m trying to get him to put a book together of some of his photos. We’ll see!
So, look around and see what there is to see, even if it’s buildings, or cars new and old, flags, signs, whatever is around you. I once took a photo of signs in my neighborhood that were a bit strange. When you first turned into the subdivision you were greeted with a sign that said Speed Limit 30 MPH, which in itself was really funny because the distance from turning in to the subdivision to the stop sign was about 30 feet. And then there was a sign about children playing, or something like that because there was an elementary school across the street along with a baseball diamond. THAT sign was across the street from the stop sign. Take photos like that and have fun with them.
The whole purpose though IS to have fun. If it’s not fun, obviously don’t do it!
In the meantime, here is a photo of my little guy Roby just before we left the dog park, one of his favorite places to go. It was taken just a couple of months ago. I hope that you enjoy it!
Roby Lincoln
A good job dog – who steals socks!
Posted in Personal Thoughts, Pets, Reflections by Jason with no comments yet.
Genealogy
We always tend to think of our photography as just taking photos of our kids, friends, landscapes, water sports, other sports, etc, but there is one area of photography that most people don’t think about. That is in the field of genealogy. Now, if you’re interested in genealogy you know that you cannot post your living relatives’ names or photos online; this is for security reasons. You can, however, post photos of your deceased relatives along with their name and birth and death date. And, you can post online their headstone.
One of the biggest helps to genealogists are grave sites and cemeteries. Lots of people have taken their cameras and headed out to cemeteries and kindly photographed the headstones of the people buried there. They then upload them to this fantastic website, Find a Grave. Find a Grave has helped millions of people find their long lost deceased relatives, which has helped connect them to other relatives, basically “filling in” their own history. I am one of those people.
I had a sister born five years before myself who died at four months old. I didn’t know anything about her until I was in my early teens and I was upset that I had not been told about her. She was born with spina bifida and hydrocephalus, and there wasn’t a facility in our area able to take care of her, so my parents made the very difficult decision to send her across state where they took care of her for around 2 – 3 months and at the time she died. I have an older sister that told me that she only knew that she was buried somewhere across the state. [I can’t imagine my parents not bringing her home for burial, but they didn’t.] My older sister was only 2 at the time so she didn’t know a lot of the history, and I never really pursued the whole reason with my parents at the time I found out about her. It was a subject that just wasn’t discussed, most likely because of the pain my parents understandably felt.
But, over the years I felt so incomplete because I knew about my sister, but had no closure. Before Find a Grave I did a lot of searching online when genealogy sites started popping up, but there wasn’t any information about my sister. In 2013 I had major back surgery to fuse my spine and have rods and pins put on either side and in my hips; I was born with kyphoscoliois and with a partial C1. I spent four months in the hospital and rehab learning to walk again and how to take care of myself with my new limitations. And then….
In December 2014 I decided to check Find a Grave. Mind you, I had been to that website many times but looking for other relatives, but not my sister; and I did find quite a number of relatives burial sites. I put my sister’s name in their search engine along with the state I knew where she was buried. To my shock and to my surprise there was her headstone! But her first name was entered incorrectly, and I could understand why – the lettering on the stone did make it look the way it was entered. I contacted the photographer/person who uploaded the information and they kindly edited the information. But, I couldn’t believe it! I found my sister! I cried and I weeped and cried some more. For me, my family was now complete because of the woman that went out and took photos of a cemetery. And just in the last few days I was able to find her death certificate at Ancestry, making my information on her completed.
So, after this long discussion and personal information, you can see how your camera can be useful in other ways. Even if you’re not a genealogist, you can help other people by taking photos of headstones, especially if you have a relatively unknown cemetery in your town.
Posted in Personal Thoughts, Reflections and tagged Five a Grave, genealogy by Jason with no comments yet.
Guess What It Is!
I know there are a lot of you out there that have subscribed and get my posts via email when I post them, but everyone is very quiet and never gives me any feed back. So, I’m trying this little game. I am posting this photo and asking you to respond [nicely] in the comment section what you think it might be. I will be leaving this open for a while in hopes that more than one person [who knows] will respond. Good luck!
s
Well, I left this up for a while hoping that someone besides myself would respond, but I guess I was wrong. With 1362 subscribers, I would think that someone would take a guess.
At any rate, this is a cropped area of a mushroom. It looks kind of sinister, while also looking like some part of anatomy. So, here is the whole mushroom.
You can tell just where I cropped the first image. Sometimes doing that can produce the most interesting images.
Posted in Guess What?! by Jason with 1 comment.
Remembering Lily
Lily. LilyCatherine. LilyCat. Kennel Cop.
Our little Independent dog born on the 4th of July.
Little Lily came to us as a rehome. We said we would find a new home for her, but we decided she would stay with us and be part of our family. I’m glad we did.
This cute, funny, charming little Yorkiepoo had a way of wrapping herself around your heart before you knew what was happening. Oh, how she loved to play “escape artist” and she was very good at it, too! And when she managed to escape she was so proud of herself she danced around in circles egging you on to chase her. You see, Lily had a very bad case of separation anxiety. It didn’t matter if you were standing on the other side of a gate and she could see you. Oh no! She wanted to be on the same side of the gate you were on. And there was one style of gate she figured out how to climb and get across. She was smart! The first night we had her we put her in a crate at bedtime, but she wasn’t having any of it, and next thing we knew she was up on the bed dancing around! Back into the crate little one. Nope! Didn’t take but 30 seconds and she was out again! The third time, though, was too much of a charm and darling Lily got her foot stuck in the door and I almost had to break her foot to get it out. After that Lily slept on the bed with the rest of the crew. And let me tell you, if she ever got out the front door it was next to impossible to catch her – she was quick on those little four feet!
As charming and sweet and lovable as she was, she also could swear a sailor down to a whimpering mess at her toes. I don’t know where she picked up that language, but boy could she swear! And she would tell you off in no uncertain terms, too. She would swear until she spit, sometimes. Honestly!
All Lily wanted was to be loved. And she was definitely loved by everyone she met. That was the charming side of her. It was hard to not love her; the moment you saw her, you were hooked. But she was really conservative with her kisses, unless she wanted something. Of course, she would never tell you what she wanted, so you would have to guess. It was her game! I guessed a lot! I figured out her favorite treat was teeny Greenies. Perfect sized for her little mouth. She had a prominent underbite but she could chew things with the best of them!
I have to say that sleeping with her, once we were on our own, was a hit and miss thing. I kept a bed pillow next to me where she would sleep sometimes, but it was always special to wake up and find her little head resting on my shoulder and hearing her little “congested” snoring sound in my ear. Those were the times I hated having to get up because I didn’t want to ruin that special moment with her.
In the beginning we used to take “chair naps” where she would lay on a pillow on my lap for a couple of hours. And oh, how I heard about it when I would put another dog on my lap for one of those naps. After a while I got to where I would just hold one in my arms while the other slept on the pillow. It beat the cussing out!
As much as she liked to escape, she did not like going for walks. I hate to say, but I called her “slow as a slug”. It wasn’t that she wanted to take in all of the smells. Nope! She just didn’t want to go for a walk, either by herself, with Bentley, or with Bentley and a friend. Those walks were basically “carries”. She loved being out, just not out on a leash going for a walk. The best part of a walk with her was her getting back home. But, she did like one thing being outside …..sunbathing. And she really loved doing that, even in the heat of the Summer. I could be melting, but she was just happy sitting in the sunshine – until Daddy nearly would faint.
Kennel Kop. The vet learned early on that Lily was an escape artist and had to take extra measures to block her cage door so that she couldn’t open it. Nothing like looking around and finding a little Yorkie at your feet when you were sure she was in a cage a minute ago! I never saw it for myself, but the vet’s told me that Lily would “direct traffic” so to speak when she was there. It was probably more like demanding that she be paid attention to and wanted petting. Oh, she could be annoying, but heartwarming at the same time. It was hard to ignore her! She wasn’t tiny, she was small, but she had a very large presence in everyone’s life.
Shortly before Bentley crossed the Rainbow Bridge Lily was diagnosed with diabetes, and that meant that she had to have shots of insulin. Oh lucky me, because I tend to feel faint around needles. It did not get any easier for me giving her the shots, either. It had to be done, but it was not easy, even using the pen. Eventually I had to go to using syringes for her, but that was hard on both of us. She took it like the trooper she was, though. Especially since she knew a treat would follow. God bless her, she always held so still for me, making it just a wee bit better for both of us.
But, after Bentley crossed, a little bit of Lily went with him. Because I wanted to spend some time alone with him, Lily was at the vet at the time he crashed and had to be put down [remember, he had lymphoma of the spleen]. After he was gone we brought her in to smell him so that she would know he was gone. She was 12 at the time. And for her it was a slow decline afterward. So, while she had diabetes, her thyroid also decided to give up, so we added medication for that. And six months after Bentley left, her eyesight began to go, a result of cataracts, but she wasn’t a candidate for surgery, so over time she she became nearly blind as well.
I knew she was lonely, so six months after Bentley’s crossing I started looking for another dog, mostly as a companion for her, but for me as well. I thought I had found a Schnauzer at a rescue group and Lily felt very comfortable around him, even laying next to him while his foster mother and I talked. It wasn’t to be, though, I suppose because I live in an apartment. I felt so sorry for her because she had never got close to another dog like she did with him. So, I kept looking, and several months later Roby fell into my lap.
I think that getting a puppy wasn’t a good thing for her, but it was a very good thing for me. Roby, like any puppy, wanted so much to play with her, and I think she would have loved to have played with him if she could have seen him, but he was more of a burden to her instead. Even with two days a week at the “vet spa”, she just couldn’t really cope with him and I couldn’t get him to stop pulling her ears and tugging her around like a mop. Lily finally decided it was time to go find Bentley.
So, a year ago, our precious little Yorkipoo that looked like a Yorkie crossed the Rainbow Bridge leaving behind lots of tears and broken hearts. Oh, I have missed her so. I still look for her, and tear up when I think of her or see photos I took of her. A little dog that was bigger than life that only wanted to be loved. And I love her still.
Posted in Personal Thoughts, Perspectives, Pets, Reflections by Jason with no comments yet.
Links
Over on the right I have some links, a few which are very important to me. One of those is Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. For a few years I volunteered at Tri-City Animal Shelter & Adoption Center and one of the neat things I got to do was take injured birds out to Rogers. What a fantastic place this is! I was almost always greeted by the most beautiful peacock which always seemed like he was making sure I was okay to enter.
I cannot begin to tell you how valuable Rogers has been in rehabilitating injured birds of all kinds; some are able to be released back into their environment, but others are fortunate to have Rogers to call home. All of the caretakers there are volunteers, those who love birds and wish to see them go back to their environment if able. But Rogers isn’t just a rehab center; it also opens its doors as an environmental educational facility. Students and their families visit their Outdoor Learning Center to observe and learn how to conserve our environment, and also to learn about how Rogers is involved in this extremely important endeavor.
Rogers is a “501c3 non-profit wildlife organization whose purpose is to provide care and rehabilitation to injured, sick and orphaned birds with the goal of returning them to their natural environment.” They do not receive any funding from federal, state or local governments but rely solely on private funding and donations. If you read the website, you’ll see how many birds they have taken care of – 40,000 birds in the last decade alone. That is a heck of a lot of birds to take care of, folks.
Why am I bringing this up when it has nothing to do with photography? Well, as I said in the beginning, Rogers is just one of those places that has a special place in my heart. Saving wild birds and the environment, and teaching others how to get interested and involved is important. Our wildlife is disappearing at alarming rates, and some just adapt which makes people angry, but we have to remember, we are the ones destroying their habitat giving them very little choice how to live, or where to live.
No one has asked me to do this, but I feel it is about time I spoke up for a place not a lot of people in North Texas know exist. And so, I am asking if you are able to donate, even $1 to this necessary operation, please do so by clicking on the How to Help tab on their web page. There are several ways to help them out, be it with a money donation or with supplies. Every little bit will help them.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and if you find an injured wild animal, don’t let it suffer needlessly when it could be helped. Contact your state’s wildlife authority and report where you saw the animal.
Jason
Posted in Uncategorized by Jason with no comments yet.
All Righty, Then
It’s Summer, oh yes indeedy, it is Summer! And Texas, like many other parts of the country is under fire. No, not by idiots running around gunning innocent people down. Literally under fire. Parts of West Texas and closer to Dallas have been besieged by raging wildfires sparked by many different ways, but many started by our intense heat and drought. Last week in Dallas we saw three days in a row with temperatures of 109° and we’re in 50+ days without rain. It’s hot. Searing hot. Land that hasn’t seen significant rainfall has grasses that have turned from luscious green to brittle brown. Dust devils have whisked up leaving us in fascination because they look like tornadoes yet spawn under non-rainy skies. But, we are suffering as much as our Western neighbors. Lake Mead is drying up, something no one really could have thought would happen, leaving those that have depended on that water source to wonder when will they see relief. The Great Salt Lake, too, is drying up.
Amid all this “wonderfulness”, gas prices have shot up. For me, it’s yet another round of stay-at-home because I can’t afford gas to go anywhere except for those places that are necessary. And between the heat and gas prices, who wants to go anywhere anyway? Last year I got a membership to the Dallas Arboretum. I haven’t used it at all. My bad. But, a bunch of physical health problems rather curbed my activities, and that place was once of them. So, in hopes for a better year, I will renew my membership when it comes due. I need to take photos! I miss taking photos! And no, I have no desire in this heat to travel to the areas under fire to take photos, especially with these gas prices!
Posted in Uncategorized by Jason with no comments yet.
Where Did The Moon Go?
Sunday night, I had my camera all ready to go. I was excited about getting to see this lunar eclipse and maybe, just maybe I might get some good photos. Battery was all charged and everything. And then….the clouds rolled in. Nice thick storm clouds. Bleh. Well, okay, we need rain badly here, so I guess I’ll just have to wait for the next eclipse. Except that we didn’t get any rain. Oh no….not us! The storms stayed just a bit North of here, one city up; they had nice lightning and thunder and rain. All we got were some very very minor sprinkles that lasted, uhm, 1/2 second, and that was it! ? But, do you think the clouds would go away? Not on your life! So, no, I didn’t get to see the eclipse, and my little nifty camera and tripod did not get to see the dark of night sky with a gorgeous blood red moon hanging in it, either. ::: sigh :::
HOWEVER, a friend of mine in North Central Florida was able to get a few photos, as she was fighting the clouds, too. [I’m jealous, you know!] She sent me three and I asked her if I could post them here and she kindly gave her consent.
Posted in Nature, Uncategorized by Jason with no comments yet.