Educator, Thinker, Consultant
The challenge for this week was “wide aperture”. I usually shoot with a pretty wide aperture, so this was a “normal” challenge for me. I kind of wanted to shoot an image with a variety of lenses to really learn about the differences, but I didn’t get the time.
I did get to think about it though. That is something that helps me. I do plan on taking an image (with the widest aperture) with a variety of lenses in the future.
In the meantime, my photo submission for this week is below.
We spent Easter afternoon with D1 and a friend of hers. Dinner was wonderful (mac and cheese and broccoli). A puzzle was completed and the Tiger game was on the projector. The Tigers are now 3-0 (all one-run games).
The wonderful Teri Kanefield post the Ronna McDaniel Story. Teri is a national treasure. Read her stuff. She is logical and respectful. She has great examples and provides a balanced perspective.
Oh, Teri Kanefield also responded to a post of mine.
Likewise:
The Cleveland Newspaper had a nice write-up on why their coverage is what it is.
“We tell the truth, even when it offends some of the people who pay us for information.”
Even though we’ve had very little snow this winter, we got a bunch last week and are predicted to have more this week. So much for picking up the heat mats, getting the flowers out, installing the landscape lighting, etc.
I had a frustrating experience with a VLOOKUP use case this week. I had a spreadsheet and wanted to match up a couple of columns. So, I created two tabs for that information.
The two tabs from which I’m pulling from are labeled ML, and SN.
One worked,
=VLOOKUP(B2,SN!A2:F,4,FALSE)
one did not:
=VLOOKUP(B2,ML!A2:F,2,FALSE)
Since there really wasn’t that much information on the sheet and copy and pasted the information onto the first sheet. Then, I used:
=VLOOKUP(A2,$N$3:$O$8,2,FALSE)
Which worked fine and dandy. I still don’t know why the original didn’t work. This is why you always do a sanity check though. I didn’t get an error message, just no data was marked.
Still haven’t solved the Keybow2040 programming yet.
I did get a bit of time to work on cleaning up the shed and (starting) to organize the garage. I got the workbench cleaned off in the shed. I installed an overhead light (not correctly wired yet, but functional). I put up a board and mounted a couple of battery chargers in the garage. I still have lots of work to do to get things organized, but small steps were completed.
Audio Hijack has an update. I should know better than to run an update just before recording a show, but…
The update seems to have broken my workflow. After the update, only one side of the podcast recorded. I reached out to Rogue Amoeba, the developer of Audio Hijack, and got a very quick response. After two emails, the issue was solved. I’ll need to use a different workflow, but all should be good again.
Update, not all good again. I was able to record the podcast, but I had to record off of a different microphone. I’ll continue to doing troubleshooting until I figure out the exact issue. Rogue Amoeba is also asking for logs.
I made pancakes this morning. These came out flatter than usual, but still tasty,.
D2 and I went to the Hartford Yard Goats game today. Prior to leaving, we found out that they will be playing one game as the Hartford Bouncing Pickles. The bouncing pickle is a pickle on a pogo stick.
Apparently, the Yard Goats went looking for old laws. They found one that stated that a pickle was only good if it bounces. Apparently, in 1948, there were arrests made because someone was selling pickles that didn’t bounce.
The park, Dunkin’ Park, is very nice. There is something about minor league baseball. The parks are small, and the teams work hard at including the fans. Like many other teams, the Yard Goats made things fun.
The game was a good game too. The Yard Goats ended up victorious, 7-4. We had a bit of light rain, sunshine, and clouds. Mostly, the weather was pretty comfortable.
*And, yes, I did buy a T-shirt with a Pickle on a pogo stick.
Successfully recorded the podcast today. Still having issues with Audio Hijack, but I was able to figure out a way to record the show. Everything is posted and all good.
Traveling to D2, I listened to the first half of a Tiger’s Double Header. The first game was interesting until the 12th inning. Then things went really south.
Completed my 52Frames Challenge for this week as well. The challenge was technology. Since I work in technology, I had figured that this would be an easy one. However, I wanted to do the Extra Challenge of a “cinematic” picture. I had to do some reviewing on what makes a picture cinematic. After some review, many of my original Technology thoughts didn’t line up with cinematic. So, then I thought that I’d take a picture of train tracks with the switching equipment. I did take some pictures of train switching lights, but decided the technology link was too weak. So, I took a picture of my laptop sitting on the deck railing at evening. This worked better for the cinematic features.
D2 and I went to small local Thai diner. This was the epitome of local diner. The service was, well, lacking. The food was good though. We even got a kick out of the TV running Roku and playing YouTube videos.
I finished up taxes for me and my mother-in-law today. I had a bit of tough go with the pensions and how to code them. There are some things that just don’t make sense. Let’s say that your pension is a defined pension from a private company. Let’s also say that you are over 73 years old. Once you are over 73 years old, you have to take a required minimial distribution (RMD) from your 401K or IRA. However, a defined pension doesn’t have an RMD, you get the same amount from the day you retire. Yet, you have to mark whether or not the amount was RMD or not. Plus, you have to commit that you have taken your RMD. Researching that to make sure that things were right was less than fun.
Today was a great day to hunker down with a blanket and a book. That is, it was windy, rainy, and cold. Instead, I spent it finishing up taxes. I hear in other countries, this process is quick and easy.
Trevor was a really good presenter. He focuses on learning. His presentation revolves largely around three areas:
He kept us engaged and learning for three hours. He’s not one of the flash over substance people. He talked a good bit about the nuances and gray areas of research and learning.
He has a free “audiobook” (hint: it’s really a podcast). I put the podcasts into a single file though, so now it is more like an audiobook.
He has a ton of YouTube and Podcast material available. I’ll be checking out some more of his stuff.
I got to a chance to be home for the eclipse. I had a pair of glasses ready to go.
My town was not in the totality. However, it was close. My town was listed as 97.6%. The eclipse was said to start at 14:18 EDT. The mid-eclipse was to be at 15:31.
I’m glad that I got to experience this. This was definitely something that is hard to fully explain. There was something very eerie, more so than words will convey.
This week was minimalism. I took a couple of pictures early in the week when we got some snow. I’m glad I did as the best picture that I got this week was one of those.
I did take some other pictures, a couple of them I like, but they didn’t meet the criteria as well. The other ones that I took were on a very overcast day. I like the way that they turned out, they just didn’t meet the challenge for this week.
This week’s Photo Challenge is Symmetrical Composition. It was a nice exercise to look for symmetry around me. Thus, I enjoyed this challenge. I took a few “backup” pictures with my phone during the week.
However, I visited the park across from the State House (capital building of Maine). I went there as I noticed the nice symmetry of the trees lining the path.
What struck me was the benches. I get a sense of longing, of waiting from the benches.
My second choice was a similar picture of a couple walking. This one ALMOST did it for me.
I think that if the dog wasn’t in the picture blocking the bench, it may have been the choice. I like the balance of the couple walking, both with black coats and jeans. Interestingly to me, the focus of the picture is completely different.
Did I make the correct choice?
The Photo Challenge for this week is intentional camera movement (ICM). I watched the resource on creating an ICM image and the main point seemed to be the wonders of creating an “abstract image”.
I came down to two pictures that I liked for this challenge. I’ve submitted the top picture (and titled it “Ghosted Piers”). The second image was more abstract, but at the end of the day, I liked the first one a bit more.
This was my second choice. This was also taken at Casco Bay.
Unexplored is the theme for this week. The bonus challenge was to involve a stranger. My choice this week didn’t include the bonus challenge.
Here was my choice for the submission.
Here are the other considerations.
I was going to title this one, “Cupid Missed”. I found a random arrow embedded in a tree.
While at the park, a group of ducks came swimming up the river. I got a few shots of them, but I like one of a couple of them taking off best.
I’m not sure which church this is. I like the steeple, but am less thrilled with the storage container in front. Maybe when the trees fill in this can be a better shot.
The challenge for week 4 of the 52Frames Photography Challenge was to recreate a movie scene. I thought about a variety of movie scenes. All seemed either impossible or unreasonable to recreate. I then went through a few that were reasonable, but didn’t quite feel right.
After a bit of thinking, I decided upon the ending scene of Dead Poet’s Society. In that scene, the students stand on their desk, well, most of them do, in homage to their teacher.
I decided to ask a friend to stand on the desk. Quite frankly, I didn’t want to take too much of his time, so this was a quick shot.
I fulfilled the challenge, but I really didn’t push myself much. Partly, this was due to not wanting to take up much valuable time from someone else.
This week in the 52Frames photo challenge, Black and White was the theme. The bonus was to use film. I was out on the bonus. I had several black and white candidates that I took. I tried to get a shot of the trawler that was beached in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. I couldn’t get any good pictures there, but I did a lighthouse picture.
Ideally, I think that I could’ve gotten something with more contrast. I’m not unhappy with this one though. I think the pure white of the lighthouse and building works.
Troy Patterson
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