This week, there are only seven shots—just the bare minimum. I love some, though others aren’t my favorites. Today’s is my least favorite, and I feel exhausted after a week of radiation, coupled with sleepless nights where I’m up every hour to use the bathroom. I managed to take a nap today and realized I was really out of it. I had to feed the sourdough and glanced down into the mess, thinking I should take a photo of this. I think my favorite is the succulent; I love the light and detail. Of course, my sentimental favorite is our wonderful Keeley!
Remember, don’t forget: if you click on the first shot, you can scroll through using your arrow keys or by swiping. Also, while you are looking at the individual photos, click the small i at the bottom of the page to read the full caption and see my photographic metadata.
This is just something I saw this evening while looking for my daily shot. I went back into the house, grabbed my macro lens, and returned to see how it would look. I have to say I love it. It will make a great background, or I could use it next time I need a natural-looking texture. Your job is to tell me what it is.
On my way to my radiation treatment on Capitol Hill, I took a slight detour to see if I could capture the Seattle skyline against a typical sky. Sure enough, parked on Harvard Avenue, I got this shot that stretches from downtown to just beyond the Space Needle, at the base of an area known as Queen Anne. In the foreground is part of I-5, the main north-south highway from Canada to Mexico.
Tonight, I am exhausted. According to my doctor today, the worst part about radiation for prostate cancer is the constant feeling of needing to urinate. This means I’m up all night, roughly every 45 minutes. I realize that’s more than you care to know, but it’s the reason for my exhaustion. After dinner, Kathleen reminded me that I hadn’t taken a photo yet. I went over to the shelf where my camera was sitting, and I noticed this succulent. I picked it up and placed it near a light source, resulting in this shot, which is much better than I deserve.
For the last few days, I’ve been trying to find a sign of spring to photograph. A couple of days ago, Kathleen suggested I take a picture of her newly bloomed hellebore plant in our front yard. The only issue on Tuesday, when she suggested it, was that the blooms were still too new and hadn’t yet lifted their heads to the sky. This meant if I wanted a straight-on photo of the flower, I would have to lie in the mud and shoot upward. I really appreciate my photo fans, but I’m not going to lie in the mud just for a shot of a flower bloom. However, today, after getting home from my workout, I noticed that the blooms were finally pointing toward the sky. I like how the photo turned out. It’s almost spring!
It’s not often (actually, never) that I have the opportunity to photograph a sunrise from anywhere near our house. The primary reason for this is the way our house faces (we don’t see the sunrise until it’s over) and the absence of good spots to shoot from that exclude a bunch of houses from the frame. However, this morning, Kathleen took Keeley out into the backyard and told me I should see the sunrise because it was beautiful. I grabbed my camera and dashed out front (there’s NO way to capture it from our tiny backyard), and it was indeed beautiful, but I still faced the issue of how to eliminate the houses. I really didn’t want to spend hours in Photoshop removing them. But then it struck me. With the trees in the far background much taller than the houses, I could silhouette them right out of the photo. So, I switched to manual mode and exposed just for the sky, which rendered the houses almost completely black. Then, in Photoshop, I added a mask to the houses and darkened them. I like the photo. I wish there had been some clouds, but I still like it.
Here’s the Keeley of the week. Took it with a 50mm f1.4 lens lying on the floor with her. I love it when a dog tilts their head like they are truly trying to understand you. For Keeley, all I had to do was say one of her favorite words (in this case, it was “ball”), and she gave me the tilt, especially if I used it out of context…like when I don’t have a ball.
I see this every Sunday afternoon. I shot it with my 60mm macro lens, so you know it’s an ultra-close-up. There’s a moment every Sunday afternoon when Alexa reminds me to feed this mass. Just so you know, many people started this during the pandemic, but I was about two years ahead of that trend. This one is around seven years old, and I feed it every Sunday. Some weeks (not often enough), I use it to make bread. It’s pretty good, but it could be better; I don’t get the bounce I want. And as you’ve probably realized by now this year, when I shoot with the macro, I often don’t tell you exactly what you’re looking at. However, you have plenty of clues this week to give you a good start ?.
Most things in life are moments of pleasure and a lifetime of embarrassment; photography is a moment of embarrassment and a lifetime of pleasure. —Tony Benn
