B. B. King

On Saturday we saw B. B. King and his blues band at the Auditorium Theatre.  While I was waiting for them to come on stage,  I took some photos of the interior:

I had a whole bunch of these in a row, but some guy walked right in front of my camera as I was doing it.

Hmmm, what’s with the spots? I had to run these photos through Photoshop to lighten them up a bit.

Before B. B. King, the Campbell Brothers played, and they go the house a rockin’ – literally.

This balcony was moving up and down quite a bit. I was slightly scared – not enjoying the music for thinking I was going to die. I was later told that at a rock concert the balcony was moving 18″ and supposedly it was made for movement like a bridge – that type of movement, though, I don’t know.  This theatre was built back in 1928, people were smaller and they didn’t bounce around like we do today. I don’t know, to me it still isn’t right.

One of the art deco balcony lights:

From where I was sitting I couldn’t capture the entire band, and I didn’t bring the Coolpix with me, nor did I want to use the flash (that’s so irritating when people flash in a darkened hall):

Close up of B. B. hard at work:

B. B. telling one of his many stories:

He is 83 and he still rocks the world with his blues! You go B. B.!

P.S.  I play B. B. King and The House of Blues CD’s in OHA’s museum’s CD player.  I started it for Black History Month, and haven’t stopped yet!

Still Lovin’ the Camera!

I never know what photos I’ll end up with when I go for a walk.  I love the element of mystery.

Bird on a wire – mourning dove:

An old abandoned chick coop?

Getting a bit better with the macro – thanks to everyone’s suggestions!

Taking a photo directly into the sun gives this cool silhouette effect:

Woods without leaves:

Susan Wittig Albert’s Blog Tour

Susan Wittig Albert is stopping by my blog tomorrow on her blog tour for her latest book, Wormwood.

Please be sure to visit her blog Lifescapes tomorrow so you can find out the details of what’s going on! And good luck!  I can’t wait to hear who wins the book contest!

Macro Challenged

I am so macro challenged with this camera.  I will practice until I get it though!

Daffodil leaves!! Yay! Even though it’s only 30 degrees out today, soon there will be daffodil flowers!

The focus is not on the crocus flower, but I had to show it to you anyway!! I do love the fact I can flip the screen up so I don’t have to lie on my stomach to get these photos.

Lily leaves – soon there’ll be lily flowers!

Shagbark Hickory twig, with too much sunlight, but I’m not complaining about the sun.

I wanted to get the end, but instead it focused on needles further down. Okay, I’ll take the hint and back off.

I love the detail it captures, even though it wasn’t what I was looking to get.

Practice makes perfect, right? And I need lots of it. I *will* get this camera’s macro feature down. Any hints would be greatly appreciated!

Oh My, It’s So Much Fun!

I *forgot* how much fun it is to have a camera that can zoom into the nose hairs of anything two miles away.  Or at least birds high up in trees.  I heard Red-Winged Blackbirds calling high from trees around the field tonight:

I *know* these photos & videos are nothing special, but these birds are very high in the tree, and I used full zoom, and I’m not used to having to stay very still yet. I’m still excited to be taking birdie photos, once again!

I rounded a corner and heard a loud bird call from high up, as if to say “what about me?” A Pileated Woodpecker!

To welcome in spring, it just *had* to snow here last night. This is what’s left after a day of sunshine:

This photo is so cool, except for one thing, the stupid boat:

How the heck did this milkweed fluff survive the winter?

Yeah, I wish I were this tall and skinny, well not that tall, but I’ll take the skinny:

Not for nothing, I know these photos are nothing special, but I’m so excited to be able to zoom once again with a non-DSLR camera. I have a lot to learn, I need to get the macro down among everything else, but it’s so much fun!

Oh, and it’s a Nikon Coolpix P90.  I”m in total love so far.  Next logical step, a Nikon DSLR.  Someday.

Where’s the Moon?

So tonight the moon is supposed to be very close to us.  And tonight something new arrived so I can actually attempt to zoom in to take better moon, and etc. photos.  But do you think the sky is cooperating?  Nope.  And do you think my new arrival’s battery was ready during the daylight hours?  Nope.  So I had to christen it in the complete darkness, and I don’t think it did that bad, for no flash and no tripod.  I won’t be able to sleep tonight thinking about the possibilities for photos I can take tomorrow.  And no, I haven’t gone the route of a DSLR, yet.  No DSLR because I’m too lazy to cart it around.  And lots of reasons for the camera I chose:  My SONY Cybershot doesn’t zoom in enough; somebody dropped the poor SONY Cybershot and it hasn’t taken crystal clear photos since; and it can’t fit the buildings I want to photograph in one photo.

The very first photo, taken with my new arrival:

The second photo, which really needed a tripod, because it’s very blurry, but it shows the clouds:

The third photo, another blurry one, but I *love* the way this camera sucks up the light in auto mode. I can’t wait to dig into the other modes:

And take photos during the daytime.

Turkeys!

Today as I drove up my Mom’s driveway, I saw a ton of turkeys in her backyard.  I was able to see these guys because a portion of her fence fell down over the winter.  I actually saw one taking a dirt bath!  Didn’t get to capture too many photos, because it all happened so fast, and they didn’t like me coming up the driveway.  But here’s what I did capture!

The 60’s, Out of the Mouth of Babes. . .

Central New York History day is coming up this Saturday, and while I chose not to attend (volunteer vs. make money, guess which one I picked), I have been helping Scott get ready for it.  One of the categories is papers that young people write.  This one paper said something like this, ‘I read a book about 1968, and now I totally understand the 60’s.’

Okay.

Really?

I *lived* through it, albiet as a young child, and I still don’t get it.  Could someone please explain it to me?  Thank you very much.

My older brother and me. This is scanned from a really lousy slide, but it expresses well how I feel about the 60’s, a very scary, strange and psychedelic decade.

Wormwood, by Susan Wittig Albert

When Susan Wittig Albert asked some of us if we would like an advance copy of her latest China book Wormwood (due out April 7th), I said “yes please!”  It arrived in the mail on Friday, and I started reading it right away.

Having worked both Sat. & Sun. I haven’t had much chance to read more than a couple of chapters, but I immediately saw this was going to be among one of my favorite China books.  Well, okay, they’re all my favorites!  The first chapter (which you can read on Susan’s About Thyme website) starts with China and her friends (and introduces everyone to those who are picking this book up as their first China book).  Now get this – the second chapter goes to the Shaker Village at Mt. Zion, Kentucky in 1912.    Chapter Three is back to the present with China.  Chapter Four is a History of the Shakers.  Chapter Five is back at Mt. Zion, Kentucky in 1912.  Chapter Six is back to the present with China.  Is this intriguing or what?  I’m intrigued with this on several levels.  The obvious – how Susan is going to tie everything together.

When I was studying to become a Master Herbologist, one of the many tangents I took was to study everything I could get my hands on about the Shakers.  So I feel like I’m visiting old friends, and while I haven’t visited the Shaker Village in Mt. Zion, Kentucky, the Shaker villages that I have visited pop into my head while reading Susan’s descriptions.

Before the advent of modern medicine, herbs were what people used to help with their ailments.  The Shakers were the main source of these herbs in the U.S.

I also grew the herb Wormwood in my garden a few years ago, and it’s one of those plants that don’t allow other things to grow near it, as I found out the hard way.  It will be interesting to find out how Susan uses the herb wormwood in her book.

I’m looking forward to getting done with my housework today, so I can sit down and read more of Wormwood!

Church Bells

One of the things I really enjoy about working in the location where I do are the church bells.  I *love* *Love* *LOVE* clocks with pendulums that chime.  And I love church bells.  I don’t take these church bells for granted, at all.

South of where I work is the Church of the Immaculate Conception which starts out with the Winchester Chimes in a nice slow pattern.

Church of the Immaculate Conception on the left.

Church of the Immaculate Conception

Interior. This postcard doesn’t do it justice. It’s absolutely beautiful on the inside.

Church Entrance doors.

North of where I work is St. Paul’s Episcopal Church with its fast bell.

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

Steeple

Yesterday I took a video (I started out holding the camera wrong) with the camera looking south towards the Church of the Immaculate Conception.  And then St. Paul’s starts, and I whiz the camera up north, then it finishes and we go back to the Church of the Immaculate Conception.

Along with the church bells,  I love hearing all of the birdies in the background.