G R O W Y O U R W I N G S

Not gonna commit to a photo a day.   But have a mind to potential try it again.

Photos from 1.1.2013.  The frost left some leaf imprints on our side deck in the brillant winter sunshine.








And from today's early morning drive through downtown Portland.  On the Burnside Bridge and on Burnside.  These are all iPhone photos.







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One of the allures of Tumblr I think is that you appear to get a lot more response to posts.   Tumblr enables a quick "like" and reblog function which can get your posts spreading around a lot via people you don't know.  As I've been playing more in Tumblr and thinking about the LJ vs. Tumblr comparison, I've begun to think that for those of us who are not fandom's writers, but it's visual artists, Tumblr may offer a bit more feedback satisfaction.   And then there's the fact that for whatever reasons, Tumblr is so much more active for SPN than LJ seems to be these days.   Even if the activity might be a bit OTT or youngish or whatever or Cas vs. Sam focused - at least people are reacting and talking - as opposed to the silence that seems to have descended over LJ.   

Don't get me wrong, I still see LJ as my fandom homebase.   My real community.   I'm just venturing out further and exploring and bringing back.  :)

Tumblr is not the place for in depth conversations or getting to know-you's.    I am seeing that relationships form there and perhaps it's just a matter of getting used to the different behavior of Tumblr, but it still does seem to me to as good as LJ for forming a more "connected" community.

But there is something to be said for finding two of my photos on Tumblr with more likes/reblogs than I've ever seen on LJ.

I've got more.  But tired.  Here's one I really love.

click to enlarge



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Slowing working through photos from the SF trip.  Our hotel, the Serano, was in the Theatre district and just a couple blocks away from Union Square.  We were on the top floor (17th floor) with a corner room that had fantastic views.  I took these photos on the evening when we arrived.  The sunset was fantastic.

Click to enlarge

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We arrived back home this afternoon from our 25th wedding anniversary trip to San Francisco.  I'm very tired. We had a wonderful time.  More details later.  I wasn't going to look through the photos I took since I was so tired.  But that didn't last long.  I have to go to work early tomorrow so I really need to stop.  I haven't even finished transferring the files from my camera.  I'm a bit overwhelmed by all the great photos.  It's been a long time since I've been so inspired by a trip.  I think even Hawaii did not inspire me as much as this trip.

Yesterday late afternoon Bob and I were driving through a water bird marshland as the sun was starting to go down.   Here is a random sample of what we saw.  This is a pelican caught in flight with the setting sun shining from behind.  You can see pellets of water falling off the pelican as he had just dove into the water to catch something.   Click to enlarge.

Photos I took of Vancouver while walking around town during the convention.

Another photo taken of Vancouver from Stanley Park on the Thursday before the convention.   

Ok, I think I'm done for the day.  Doesn't seem like I did much photo-wise, but there was a lot of culling and editing going on behind the scenes.  My eyes are crossed.

Here is one of the photos that overwhelmed me.   I took several exposures, albeit hand-held, so I could attempt to HDR them.   Here is one shot done in HDR two different ways.   I'm leaning more towards the photorealistic version.   I have several other shots of this scene and plan on developing them in different ways to see which I prefer.

(click these to enlarge)




above :: HDR of morning shot of Vancouver BC looking from Stanley Park.  This one was developed more photorealistically. 




above :: same shot, developed more surrealistically.  As I said up top, I'm leaning towards the first version.  But surrealistic HDR photos can be fun to play with.

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I swear Vancouver BC has got to be one of the most beautiful cities.   I'm just now getting to my photos from around town and HAD to stop because I was just overwhelmed by the sheer beauty I was seeing.

While I walk away for a bit, here's one photo that shows that beauty.  It's the view of the city from our hotel window.  Click to enlarge.




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