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Beyond the Lone Islands

http://dawntreader-island2.blogspot.com

Tuesday 29 September 2009

Walking My Camera


I love autumn leaves

Typical behaviour pattern this September month:
I discovered a letter today that I really should have posted last week, and which my dad really really should have posted two weeks before that; only (besides the fact he has not been able to walk to the mailbox for a long time) he had not even opened and read the letter which the return form came in (when I visited him last weekend); and then I too had too many other things to deal with last week, so forgot about this piece of paper; and only re-found it today... (In the meantime, it is more than likely this delay may have resulted in more correspondence from the same authorities, which most likely will also not have got opened...)

Anyway! Realizing how it was, I decided to go post the letter immediately (better late than never). Then I remembered that this is the week they will be taking down some mailboxes around here, and changing the times for emptying the rest of them... So I might have to go further than usual to find somewhere to post the letter. But since it was an exceptionally bright and clear Autumn day, why not bring my camera along, too, and go for a bit of a walk.

Now, I'm beginning to know where that leads to! Last weekend when my brother and I went on that walk with his dog - a Cairn terrier named Harry - I discovered that for me, my Camera has become my Dog! Harry the terrier runs along happily at good pace, then suddenly stops to sniff at something close to the ground, for quite a long time. Walking with Brother and Dog, I disovered that my own behaviour, when attached to Camera, is very much like Harry's... Suddenly I see a mushroom (or butterfly, depending on the time of year), and I have to stoop down and get a macro close-up shot (although I'm really not very good at stooping down). Harry, by the way, got very curious about my behaviour - whenever I stopped and stooped, he did so, too, to be sure he hadn't missed anything...


Brother and Dog, last weekend

Anyway. Back to today... As I said, I'm beginning to know where it leads to, taking the camera for a walk. I intend it to be a brisk 20 minutes. The camera gets quite other ideas. It's a hunting camera, it will want little flowers, and sun shining through yellow and red autumn leaves, and mirror images in water, and whatnot... So besides the camera, I packed a small thermos of tea, and a banana, or I might faint before I got home again (it was getting close to lunch time).

After posting the letter (hooray, the mailbox closest to me had not been taken down yet! - I only hope they also still empty it...) I walked on to a park with a lake where they also have a bird sanctuary. I walked all around the lake. This took me a very long time, because my camera went wild chasing birds. More than usual of the unusual ones seemed to be outside the fence today...


Couple of Swans

Then something happened that really made today rise way above a "typical" camera walk. A couple of strangers (human, not birds) came up to me and promoted me to wedding photograper! They were newly-weds, coming straight from the ceremony it seemed, for a little romantic walk in the park... I took four shots of them with their camera, which I'm afraid I can't show you. But then I sneaked one shot of them from behind with my own, as they were walking away from me, hand in hand... It's a little blurry, because I forgot to put it back from macro-mode. But quite nice anyway, I think.


Couple of Humans

I got home eventually, after stopping to get a hotdog on the way (tea and banana wasn't quite enough). With about 110 new photos in my camera, all taken today. All in all, in the month of September alone, I've been taking somewhere around 600 photographs. I've gone absolutely Nuts!!! Is there a cure?

9 comments:

Scriptor Senex said...

Don't know of a cure - but I'm delighted someone else has the same problem. It makes me feel less daft!

DawnTreader said...

Hmmm... You know, I never really had this problem (at least not to the same extent!) until I entered the blogworld and started following you & GB & Dan & Heather & co around...

Rose-Anne said...

Do you need a cure? I have taken over a 1000 photos this month. All precious memories-only get a fraction developed. I love you photos by the way.

DawnTreader said...

Well. If not a cure, at least I'm beginning to feel the need of a clever way of organizing the photos in the computer... ;) Right now it's rather a mess of started and abandoned time-consuming projects... (At least I've made sure I also have the originals on a back-up USB micro-disc.)

Graham Edwards said...

I'm fairly certain that there is no cure. Because we don't want there to be a cure. Getting in early to sort and categorise them is the key. I have 64,000 images on my computers and they are not categorised except than by camera and month and some early ones are copied into other folders. I'm now starting using PSP and Picassa to tag them. This way they can be left where they are and simply called up by category when needed.

I loved your description of the walk and the camera being your dog. It is just so apt. I enjoy walking my camera and thank CJ for getting me into this, er, habit. I enjoy the results of your walks too.

DawnTreader said...

Thank you GB. And you're right, of course. I probably don't really want a cure...! ;) I'm just finding the suddenness of it a little overwhelming... I used to take perhaps 200 pictures in a year, not in a week! I had a program for organizing pictures that came with my digital camera (PictureProject). But I never really got that right from the start, and then when I moved files around and renamed them, that program got confused... Now I find that Picasa works better that way. Maybe when the November darkness falls I'll have time to get it sorted!

Graham Edwards said...

Maybe! I've been saying that for at least 10 years!!

DawnTreader said...

You know what they say - hope keeps man alive! :)

Jeannette StG said...

No cure, Dawn! I have the same addiction. At least it's a good one:)

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