Finding Currents

Thursday, May 30, 2024

Daddy Robin perched on a post and watching me. The handsome fellow already had me following several careful, watchful “stops.” He was obscuring the destination for that tasty morsel in his beak. I had already been in the barn and seen Mama Bird sitting on unhatched eggs. The nest is solid and will keep their babies safe. I hope to be unobtrusive and also observe their family and activities. Both parents know my presence, and their staying put is a tickle.

Soon after snapping the header photo, I glanced upward, spotting another gift: a pair of Ravens utilizing air currents to soar and were highly visible under a white cloud. Capturing Ravens in their soaring activities has been one of my dreams. Here’s my earliest sighting.

I watched the pair using currents to gain altitude and then glide downward until they found another updraft. Occasionally, they came low before rising again. Finally, they were low enough and also beneath bright clouds, and my camera could capture more details.

Ravens use various air currents to conserve energy and stay aloft for long periods, scanning for food or traveling long distances during migration. I’ve observed Raven adults in the sky and training juveniles to use air currents. This seems too early in the season for a parent to be training a juvenile, plus that training usually is a group outing. This pair could have been young adults courting in the sky or playing and having fun.

Ravens don’t actually float on air currents but utilize them to soar. That means they use air currents to rise and gain altitude before gliding downward and finding another updraft. This energy-efficient flight method lets large birds cover vast distances with minimal effort. A group of Ravens in training is a spectacular sighting.

During my sky-spotting, I saw this very dim mid-afternoon moon. Capturing that moon with enough visibility forced me to manually focus my camera. I made the foreground trees a bit fuzzy in order to make the moon as clear as possible. This image encourages me to focus manually more often.

Dear Friends: These are thrilling spring signs; I’m anticipating more. Diana

Wide Range

Wednesday, May 29, 2024

My house on a hill offers lovely views of the Central Oregon Cascade Range. I took today’s header photo during pleasant weather; my long lens nicely captured the Broken Top and South Sister Mountains. Broken Top is an ancient-spent volcano; and some estimate that South Sister is bubbling away. Hopefully, the SS won’t become a Mount St. Helens. I pack in such thinking, loving my proximity to eye candy.

I have this beautiful day off from work. I’ll try to finish my chores before there’s too little daylight to take off with a horse and my dogs. At the very least, maybe I’ll horseback ride (without my dogs) on the local streets.

I will be interviewed tomorrow for a part-time job in the department store where I’m already employed. My potential new work would be selling fine jewelry. That’s up my alley because selling jewelry is in my DNA. My parents used to own and successfully operate a jewelry store.

I’m reminded now to order a book about gemstones. I want to learn more about their colors, shapes, and descriptions. Potentially, there’s a new world opening.

Dear Friends: Sky, mountains, stones, and feathers–nowadays, big in my world. Diana

A May Sky

Tuesday, May 28, 2024

The header image combines a nearly full moon with soft, downy feathers. It’s my early effort to evolve an abstract with the potential to become an evocative, memorable viewing experience.

At the beginning of May, my birthday month, and thinking about the upcoming day, I decided to gift myself something special, creative, and perhaps from my imagination. An easy way would be to photograph everyday objects. The resulting images could be edited, altered, and maybe combined.

That project forced me to look at everyday objects and “see them” differently. Besides focusing on an item’s unique appeal, my mind’s eye had to imagine its potential to offer more. That’s not how I usually approach images.

After examining everything my camera produced, I liked many images but wasn’t inspired to alter and combine any. What interested me was that my mind lingered on two images, particularly a filling moon and fluffy bird feathers. I don’t know why, but there they were, encouraging me to think about trying to work with them.

I had no creative vision, which was okay, for something can evolve by making an effort.

Dear Friends: I must avoid overthinking this and keep working on it. Diana

Good Energy

Monday, May 27, 2024

Memorial Day has arrived this year on the heels of my birthday. My special day improved more last evening, by the pièce de résistance of having dinner with my friends Susie and Julie. Today’s header is Susie’s capture of us, in the excellent Latin-style restaurant–Mexican martinis, fine food, and a joint farewell to this Birthday, my best of all.

Today is for getting back into gear and keeping my mood high. So far, so good.

I’ll add a little about those Robins nesting among my barn rafters. I think the larger bird is a female and that she’s “My Robin.” She is back in her birth area and about to hatch her first babies. A little research suggests all that makes sense.

When my baby Robin fledged enough to fly away, it seemed a very involving saga had ended too suddenly. I kept wondering if the bird might return, and read that wild birds may mature and return to their birth areas to nest and raise their young. I gathered that full maturity takes a couple of years and that the lead returning bird likely would be female.

Here’s a fact: my baby Robin flew away two years ago! Without questioning the accuracy of my memory or my recalled learning, I believe my little Robin was a female. And as another birthday gift, she’s returned to her birth area and sits on eggs in my barn.

Thank you, Susie, Julie, Robin Bird, distant good friends, and colleagues at work, for making this newest year start off special.

Dear Friends: Positive and negative energies are generated by the eye of the beholder. Diana

Birthday Girl

Sunday, May 26, 2024

I wasn’t expecting anything special on my birthday which was yesterday, so I didn’t mind having to work, although my scheduled hours were kind of crummy, from 5-9 p.m. Here’s what’s about my birthdays: I keep them quiet and don’t let them become big deals. This year, some sort of weirdness altered my attitude and perspective. I became involved in planning for my birthday. I wished for myself the gifts of thinking positively and playing creatively.

A couple of days ago, my friend Susie invited me to dinner on my birthday and also understood my reluctance to ditch work in these days of scarce workers. We agreed to wait for a time when I’m not working (and it’s this evening).

Susie is totally a “people person.” She texted me to have fun at work and be sure to tell everybody there that “It’s my birthday.” A sweet note, but I would ignore her suggestion and keep my birthday a private affair.

Somehow, this year is unlike other years. Before I was long in the store and to my surprise, I told nearby coworkers about my birthday. Before long, suddenly and surprisingly, over our radios came a message from Lisa, our store’s manager. She announced to everybody that it was my birthday and wished me a happy one. What a tickle! By golly, and yet again, Susie was on target (she’s usually right).

Now about me and working, I can be a pest. I do my job and enjoy it, but am an old-school employee who sometimes complains to the managers. Our store has a great management team (not something said lightly because I understand good management skills). Our store’s managers are experienced, know retail inside and out, openly encourage and care for everybody, and, most importantly, they are trustworthy.

I understand training and development and contribute to the store’s efforts by giving feedback to our managers. They usually nod and maybe also ignore my comments. I work hard at keeping potential comments to myself. Sometimes I do feel that I’ve been heard.

That’s a preamble to last evening’s biggest surprise. Lisa came to my station to share a piece she’d published days before on the company website:

See what I’m saying? Reading that blew me away. Finally, I am working in a dream environment. Here, it’s okay to speak up with opinions and ideas; here, the managers are viable members of their whole team; and here, long after finishing my professional career and for the first time, I am reporting to dream managers.

Change keeps happening and that’s so here and now. Lisa is moving on soon to start managing a larger Colorado store. We in the Bend store are unhappy that she’s leaving and also wishing her well. We will buckle down and adjust to whoever shows up to try filling Lisa’s big shoes.

Here’s what’s most important: Whether the store’s leadership change proves smooth or rocky, our managers who have reported to Lisa will still be present and make the “right things” happen. We in the ranks have confidence in their judgment and technical capabilities.

Dear Friends: Why is it that only now am I learning that birthdays can be great? Diana

Life Stories

Saturday, May 25, 2024

Finally, it’s that day—my birthday. Always, it’s an emotional mixed bag, but this time, it’s a little different somehow. Several anticipatory weeks have sent my brain rocking and rolling, but to my surprise, it settled into a favorable position that has offset the stresses of adjusting to aging.

My viewpoint began changing when I started thinking about actively practicing more appreciation of small things. It was easy and fun, lightened my mood, and made me revisit a wish to be more creative. I took a positive approach, promising to give myself birthday gifts for my creative efforts.

To that end, photography would serve. I love photography as a hobby and an art form. What’s most beautiful is that it’s readily available to everyone. I haven’t any special equipment and often snap randomly, later finding some of my captures fine and even artistic, images impressive, framable, and worth hanging.

In that upcoming self-gifting, I intended to practice seeing “ordinary things” differently, which is not easy for one not naturally gifted with an artist’s brain and eye. I found the experience of looking and trying to see differently similar to the experience of focusing on appreciating. All’s in the eye of the beholder.

I took many photographs and shared some of the finer ones in recent blogs. Meanwhile, I have saved my outcomes toward creating abstract images that may evoke imagination. Here they are, self-gifts on this birthday.

Toward my ends, I adopted a couple of random feathers, each differently attractive. One was fluffy, and the other had color. I focused on arranging natural objects to reflect a life choice or style.

These elements are particular, very personal choices. They are easily recognizable. Each has a unique and universal appeal, and separately or together, can evoke feelings, memories, and hopes in a viewer.

A transition now for notes about the header photo: By peering carefully into the Robin’s nest, you will see a sitting bird’s tail sticking up. Looking closely among the straw particles, you will see its head and its eye that’s looking back at you.

Dear Friends: All-natural art depicting modern homesteading on a small acreage. Diana

Special Day Fun

Friday, May 24, 2024

For a couple of weeks, as a birthday gift to myself, I’ve been outside capturing images creatively and hoping to zero in on whatever seems special. I also wished for my photos to reflect summer’s coming locally, as we’ve long waited for its light and warmth.

These header photos are of my horses and make me happy. They are full sisters: Rosie is the big sister, and Sunni is the baby. Both captures were distant to include the working sprinklers as summer symbols. Rosie’s more distant position allows for the two ancient, beautiful volcanos in the background: the spent Broken Top and a “maybe still-bubbling” South Sister.

Tomorrow is my birthday, and that felt more special when I received a very cool card and sweet message from my friend Linda (we have been “forever friends” for over fifty years, which is a fine, stimulating story).

The card actually is much lighter than my pitiful camera hands produced. The image is transparent, and I taped the card onto a window to capture that element but missed it. The transparency made me wonder what sorts of image changes might be possible. I uploaded the original to Photoshop and played with it.

Photoshop constantly reminds me that pictures consist of layers. Layers are critical elements that when combined, create a whole picture. I played with the image’s layers, isolating and experimenting until another pleasant version emerged.

I have no plans to do anything else with this version. Achieving was simply about actively involving myself in a process with the hope of liking an output.

Dear Friends: I anticipate that this pre-birthday day will be fun and enlightening. Diana

Nature’s Gifts

Thursday, May 23, 2024

Yesterday evening, I awoke from a casual doze just as a spectacular sunset covered the High Desert. That sky had been following a few days of rainy, chilly weather. I stared in delight and awe, doubting that my camera skills would effectively capture the colors. Certainly, good images would be available from public sources the next morning. Thus, today’s header photo, published by a local news channel, captures that amazing sky precisely as I saw it.

Those real-time moments of seeing brought great delight. The fantastic sky made me immediately understand that my experience of it was the very special birthday gift I had been promising myself. Its extraordinary beauty, representing the summer edge of spring, occurred just before my birthday this week.

Looking at last night’s vibrant sunset sky, its colors, patterns, and movements, my emotions resonated—probably on a visceral level. The glorious natural colors brought me inner feelings of warmth, joy, nostalgia, and a sense that a stormy sky’s passing hinted strongly at spring’s arrival.

More is coming. As late spring arrives in our High Desert, there’s much to see and record.

Dear Friends: An often active, awesome sky has been gifting us all this season. Diana

Birding

Wednesday, May 22, 2024

My camera captured this watching bird from a great distance. The image is good but surprising because I couldn’t recognize the bird type. Its coloring suggests a woodpecker, but it has a seed-eater’s beak. This probably is of a common variety, and wanting to know has encouraged me to download an app that identifies birds from photos. I will learn the answer after uploading this photo from my computer to the phone app.

I love photographing birds, and they can be challenging. They’re fast movers and can test a photographer’s skills. There are thousands of species, each with a unique appearance and behavior. Some are incredibly beautiful, and it’s thrilling to capture their assets.

Photographing wild birds, even on or around my property, connects me with nature. Spending time observing and appreciating brings peace, relaxation, and inspiration. Plus, I’m learning, about different bird species, their behaviors and habits.

Bird photography is educational and enriching; there’s always something new to discover and capture. Bird photography and bird-watching teach lots and inspire sharing because almost everybody loves birds. And in the world of birds, there’s much to love.

Dear Friends: A bundle of challenge, diversity, beauty, learning, and sharing. Diana

Seeing

Tuesday, May 21, 2024

After discovering an automatic focus for distance shooting among my camera’s settings, I turned it on and pointed toward the most distant available object. High in the sky and nearly invisible to my naked eye except for its smoke trail, a commercial jet moving very fast seemed headed to Portland. The jet’s high speed and near-invisibility made me aim my camera at the smoke trail’s front end. I wondered if the distance lens would find the subject. I learned it could discover and neatly stop the action. A grand surprise.

The camera also has a dedicated mid-range automatic focus and yet another for very close-up captures. I never bothered to look for anything except an overall automatic focus, which on this camera has proved capable and satisfying.

I decided to try out the mid-range automatic focus. It produced images that encouraged me to adopt new perspectives on some trees on my property. I call this one, “My Dancing Trees.”

That mid-range automatic focus also neatly captured the late sunlight on the twisted trunk of a maturing Juniper.

Finally, I tested the camera’s automatic close-up (macro) lens. A tiny feather was lodged against the grill of my heat pump and fluttering rapidly in the wind. A challenge was the feather’s rapid shifting; only briefly did it flutter to an open position and reveal its spines. I brought it near the macro lens and waited, snapping in a perfect instant.

The camera captures excellent images. By using it as a manual focus tool, I’ll be pushed to create images that are as good as or better than these.

Dear Friends: Moving into manual shooting could create all-new visuals. Diana