On Photography

Sweet Georgia’s lecture yesterday evening at the weaver’s guild meeting was great! I’ve learned a lot about photography over the years but I wouldn’t say I’m an expert. Some of my photos are good and some craptacular. Though I have improved a zillion-fold since I got my precious digital camera. Felicia clarified a few things for me, especially about diffusing light and depth of field. Now I have to go read my camera’s manual yet again. I did disagree with her somewhat about film. I think it has limited uses in everyday photography. Maybe for artistic purposes but even print media no longer want anything but digital. Now that we have high-megapixel SLR cameras the quality is plenty good enough for most purposes. For myself, digital has contributed to my abilities. Look! I can take a whole bunch of pics and see the results right away! No wasted film or chemicals or money. Pixels are free with the equipment. (In case you were wondering, I have a mid-range two-year-old Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ3. I’m very happy with her.) And then I can mess with the photos later in Paint Shop Pro. I loves me my brightness-and-contrast and my crop tools. Just to tweak a bit in case my original photos aren’t perfect already, you understand.

However I was a little peeved at the meeting attendees’ attitude about set-up and take-down. First off, it’s in a community centre. They require us to set up our own chairs and tables and put them away again after. Entirely reasonable and no biggie really. The set-up part seems to happen pretty much OK — early-comers start putting up chairs if none are out already, but take-down is another story as everyone either stands around yakking or scurries away after the program. I don’t mind doing some of it but I don’t want to have to do it all by myself Without Any Help! I realize that we are almost all female and a large percentage are older and have health issues. Heck, I have health issues myself! (And I ain’t no spring chicken either but we won’t mention that.) But many hands make light work as they say. I was lucky and there was a spare husband available to help with the chairs (thanks, Jim!) but I also put 4 banquet-sized tables away, 2 of them completely by myself. Then I didn’t sleep well last night because my muscles (such as they are — don’t laugh) were feeling the strain. I remember catching myself at one point snapping to a group of chatterers in my way, “If you’re not going to help, then don’t hinder”! Which immediately got me a temporary assistant. But jeesh, people! Lend a hand, eh? I’m really lousy at asking.

I did get quite a bit of Milady Daughter’s TulipTwo socks done while at the back-to-back meetings (executive and general, oy!). I’m past the heel turns on both but I’m not much liking the light/dark demarcation line at the instep. This yarn shades subtly from lighter orangey red to darker burgundy red and although it began the heel at the lighter part, after the heel turn it was up to the darker area. So there’s a more definite line between. And to make it worse, the upper section has the tulips and the lower one is plain knitting. I’m not going to do anything about it though. My first pair of these socks are similar and I don’t think there’s any way around it without doing a short-row heel which I hate. (They don’t fit my foot as well and they don’t last as long as heel-flap-and-gusset, so there. YMMV) Of course in the other sock it’s more gradual and not so obvious of a line. You didn’t think they’d match, did you? Photos later.

Question to Ponder:

Does anyone else see the irony in driving to the gym? Yeah, I’m back on my elliptical trainer, to which I have to walk since it’s in my basement. If I had to go to a gym I just wouldn’t. I’d clean my house instead — which actually is exercise. But apparently not the right kind.