Charlie's Fake Blog

From U2's album "The Joshua Tree" song "Where the Streets Have No Name"             I want to run, I want to hide,         I want to tear down the walls that hold me inside. March 25, 2020: We are on self-imposed lock-down due to the pandemic.  I worry, but so far I have held it together.  Linda is anxious and justifiably so, having had pneumonia four times, a viral respiratory infection is not something to take lightly.  Not being able to see Kade and Reid is a problem for both of us.  We missed Tuesday night supper and not having a small one around to look after one or two days a week makes for some long, lonely days.   So it's latex gloves at the gas station and grocery store because I had bought a a pile of them for painting the walls.  Soon, maybe, masks as well if production can get caught up with demand.  So, as Red Green would say, "We're all in this together. I...

Being dissatisfied with the photo of Dawson Bridge I went there today to see if I could revisit that shot.  The fog wasn't thick enough to obscure the opposite end of the bridge so that idea washed out.  As I was packing up to leave I looked up the river and had to take this picture. What the raw file looked like. The clouds and the reflection off the river create some strong diagonal lines that give some perspective to the picture.  The thing that stops the  composition is the entire right side of the image is the dark bank of the river and the messy naked trees along the bank.  What I'll do here is go through my editing process in order to record how I tried to make something better from this image.  All adjustments made in Capture One. Xrite color checker shot. As shot. In the white balance section I pick the eye dropper and select one of the neutral grey squares. After picking the grey neutral square. After picking the white balan...

This past weekend I woke up to patchy fog and decided to go for a walk.  Here are three images taken near the bicycle trail along the Youghiogheny River near the town of Dawson, PA. Dawson Bridge Sunrise and Fog Foggy morning near the River. Arch of Dying Trees Two Dying Trees

I had some time this morning to take a few pictures before heading off to the dentist. There is often patchy fog in the morning and a lot of times it makes for some great photos. The tree in the center looks as though it would make a great photo but I don't think I've ever gotten it quite right. The farm. A sapling and the Moon Geese on the Wing. Sunrise Over the Fog More Light and Fog Sun Flare in the Cloud One Sun Flare in the Cloud Two

Macros From a Dewy Sunrise Some mornings are better than others for going out to take pictures.  There are days I look out the window at 6:00 am and think, "100mm macro".  Here are some pictures from one of those mornings. Dew Around a Leaf.  I don't know what caused water to bead up around these leaves but it looked pretty good through the lens. Sparkly Grass  I always try to shoot toward the sun with shots like these because the water drops get all lit up and sparkly. Mushrooms Later in the day I found some mushrooms growing under the lilac bush in the backyard. A Red Trillium This is from earlier this year.  I had never seen a red trillium before and thought it to be a rather pretty flower.

Jupiter at Conjunction  Jupiter was at conjunction this month meaning Earth and Jupiter were on the same side of the Sun so to speak.  This means Jupiter, even though still really far away, was closer to Earth than it would be ordinarily.   I got lucky and was able to take a fairly decent picture given the gear I have is not up to snuff in terms of astronomical photography.  Uncroped  This first image is what I got at with my Zoom lens set to 600mm.  First crop.  Same image as the first only this image is cropped in a good way and I can just start to see the latitudinal bands around the planet. Second crop. This is cropped in about as far as I would want to go.  At this level about all I can tell is there are stripes and if I had the patience I think I could count the number of pixels that make up this exposure. Useless crop. Just as a demo I did one more crop to show the futility of any further cropping. The...

No Longer 52 I haven't posted any pictures after march and it doesn't make much sense to  try to catch up. So, don't bother.   Starting with a silly picture of me.  Selfies are tricky. They can cross the line between experimental and pretentious in a heartbeat.  Rembrandt did a pile of self portraits.  He got away with it because he was really good at not crossing the line.  Sorry for this but there it is. This photo is the first in what I hope will be a series of fifty-two pictures to be posted one per week  on this page .