Charlie's Fake Blog

 The Grand Kids Humor Me. I read a post on Flickr about re-creating a photo from Flickr Commons as part of the thirteenth anniversary of that feature of Flickr.  The commons is a collection of photos from public archives that are stored on Flickr and on public display.  A list of pictures was suggested and one of them struck me as something in which I could find a personal connection.  This picture is of two cousins and was taken in 1918 during the Spanish flu pandemic.  My mother's father was ten years old in 1918 and survived that horrendous event to live into his nineties.  Our two grand sons are five and eleven now and are living through these difficult times the same way as most other children this age.  I interrupted their usual video game play in order to take the photo below and they played along because they're good kids.   So there they are at the beginning of their century, posing close to the way the two Florida boys were in 191...

 My Daughter's Christmas Gift to Me. My Daughter may have gone on line and googled "What to get a photography enthusiast for Christmas", because she gifted to me a lens ball.  I've been seeing pictures taken through these things for a while and have wondered what I could do with one.  Now is my opportunity.     Close up Back a little  

  A walk in the snow and the last pictures of 2020. I woke up to snow on the thirty-first of December and decided to take a walk in order to find something interesting to make into a photograph.  I tried a few shots in the woodlot at the top of the hill but didn't get anything I thought worth showing.  Here are the three pictures I like from the day.   Brad's Barn Five Willows The Middle Pond  

Christmas Tree Ornaments    Here are some of Linda's felt ornaments.  The gnomes are done from a pattern but the dog is made from pictures of an actual dog.  

 Un-photogenic Willow There is a willow tree growing just below the dam of the pond below my house.  It's gnarly and cool looking when it's leaves drop each autumn.  I've been trying unsuccessfully to get a decent picture of it for years.  The problem being a matter of background clutter robing emphasis from the tree.  This year I might have gotten a photo that works.  On the day I took this picture a hard rain was adding a blur to the image that I couldn't get in post.  There are two patches of color in the picture.  A tree with red leaves on the left and a bush to the right adding a slight pop of yellowy-green.  This picture is not about the willow tree it's about the last splash of color to leave the trees this fall.  However, the willow is there between the color patches and the background is being blurred by the rain.  So, I got a respectable shot of my nemesis tree by sneaking it in to an autumn foliage shot.     ...

    Whither goes your soul? Will you find your only friend? Will you be happy?   A Cemetery on a Hill In Southwestern Pennsylvania

The 150-600 telephoto is a good tool for getting close up photos of insects and other critters.  This is a small collection of dragonfly pictures I took last week.  I generally have the lens and camera mounted on a monopod with a ball head that has the mount plate at a 90° so as to give the lens a gimble actiion.  It takes a bigger monopod to handle the weight of this lens and camera so I have an alumininm Sirui P-204S with an aluminum three footed base (chicken foot).  It isn't quite the same as trucking around a tripiod but it's still a load.  Celithemis eponina or Halloween Pennant Erythemis simplicicollis or Common Pondhawk Erythemis simplicicollis or Common Pondhawk Libellula luctuosa or Widow skimmer Hummingbird Moth    Hemaris Diffinis_Aug 06 2020