A Couple from around the Apartment …

Being “stuck” around the apartment, in order to avoid going “stir crazy”, I’m finding myself shooting more and more pictures of the common sights around the place; finding pictures where I’d not have looked, before. I’m also finding that new approaches and techniques are necessary in this new type of photography, so I’m finding myself confronting a new learning curve, necessary for the new subject matter.

I reckon it’s time to stop talking now, and put up a couple of pics …

Kinda contrasty, what with the direct sunlight on that dirty window, and no, I’m not about to go leaning out that second-floor window, stretching out around to clean all the crud off the glass. There are two double-pane sliding windows on each side, and that’s outside my limits.

And another one, with Fuzzybritches as the subject …

Not so bad, this time … the dirty window actually seems to help with the contrast. Incidentally, those light dots are not crud on the glass; they are actual white flowers in the lawn. Mr. Cat was assiduously ignoring me; he tires of watching the antics of the Man-Mountain that lives in his house.

Well, there they are … not very many, especially considering the total number of exposures that I made … I don’t get so many usable ones, working in these new conditions.

Take care, folks … Cheers!

 

 

Speakin’ of blooms …

We had a visit from a cousin of mine (actually, a first cousin, once removed) who is a Professor of Sociology in Minnesota. She came down to pack up my Dad’s paintings that were in a storage locker on the North side of Milwaukee, which I had been unable to sell to any useful degree, to make a sizable dent in the total number. The locker was costing me a bunch of money every month, so her offer to empty it out was a welcome relief. When she arrived, she had two plants with her, as a gift to my wife, who had expressed a desire for more houseplants. They were a very nice philodendron in a large pot, and a hydrangea, in a smaller pot. “A hydrangea”, I thought, “that’s a BUSH, and grows outdoors!” And indeed, I have never seen them growing indoors. “Oh, well,” I thought, “we’ll do what we can; maybe it’ll do OK.” So I stripped the fancy plastic foil wrapper off it, found a big dish to set it in, watered it and set it on the window shelf.

After about a week, I was able to observe that it has a marked sensitivity to going dry, in that the leaves curl up most alarmingly. Watering restores it quite quickly. And, as I watered it the other day, I found that it was blooming … not a big deal, by the standards of an outdoor plant, but definitely blooming … a fine, pink flower, showing signs of developing further!

So, having no better plan, I photographed it … here it is:

… And that’s about it … maybe you’re as astonished as I am. In any case, enjoy!

Cheers, all!

 

Well, they’re bloomin’ again …

… and I figured I’d better take advantage of some relatively benign weather, and get a few shots. I’ve been getting restless, and this seemed like it might be an opportunity to make a few pictures. So … out I went, armed with a freshly-charged battery in the Nikon and an empty 4GB card  (my Scottish Photojournalist Lassie had warned me that having a number of small-capacity cards was a wise precaution … in the case of one’s only large-capacity card becoming corrupted, it is better to have a few small-capacity cards as a fall-back position, so to speak.), and I was immediately greeted by an almost-too-cool breeze and some delightfully warm sunshine. I began shooting almost immediately:

 

Now, I must caution you that the breeze was one of those that REALLY interferes with photography, so any flaws that you find in the way of sharpness and /or composition are to be viewed in that light. But I moved in and started shooting … here are the results:

         

Well, that about covers it; there are more, but the wind really messed me up on most of them, and they won’t bear scrutiny, especially technically. I reckon that these will have to do, and there does seem to be a goodly number of them. I hope you enjoy!

Cheers, all!

 

It’s been pretty cold, lately …

… And our windows have been freezing up o’ nights. I’ve been jumping up, mornings, to  get the proper light, and finally got a couple of shots. It’s difficult, due to the fact that the ice on the windows is transilluminated from the outside, and the light has to be just right, or I’ve got no picture at all. Frustrating, it is, and no mistake.

I finally managed to get these two; the colour is different in either one, because of the changing nature of the light. Here they are; the earliest first:

Well, there they are, folks, for whatever it’s worth … at least it’s something.

Take care … Cheers, all!

 

A Couple More of the Cat …

It’s been quiet here … what between the sub-zero (°F) temps outside, and generally uninteresting prospects from my windows, photography hasn’t had much appeal. But I’m getting kinda restless without doing any shooting, and I’ve begun to shoot things around the apartment. I got a couple of the cat when he was in a more-or-less cooperative mood, and here they are:

It ain’t much, but it’s something, at least.

Take care, folks … Cheers!

 

A bit of brighter light …

Yesterday I looked up, and saw that the sun was peeking through the (seemingly) interminable grey cloud cover (the Northern Midwest, the Great Lakes region). The region is known as one of the cloudiest on the planet, so sunlight is noticed. Brighter light definitely calls for a photograph. I got a couple that were worth posting:

But the light changes fast, especially from a sky like that, and as I adjusted for a closeup, the warmth of the sunlight went away, never to return. So I took the closeup anyway … here it is:

Well, there they are, folks … Enjoy, if that’s the word!

Take care, all … and Cheers!

 

It seems to be happening again …

… the icicles, that is … at the very end of the warmest recorded December, we got a seasonal cold snap, and a bunch of snow. Lo and behold, I looked out the window into the courtyard, and found these icicles waiting to be photographed. The sky remains the colour of Lead (Pb), and it looks as though we’re finally going to get some real Winter.

Anyway, here are the icicles …

New Year’s Greetings, I reckon …

Take care, all … Cheers!

 

Sort of a follow-up …

After the pictures of the snow, and the gloomy skies that had held on for several days, we got a day of blue skies and sun. The sun was coming in my window, illuminating the philodendron cuttings that I have in a ketchup bottle. I found the image irresistible, so I shot a few frames. Here they are …

There they are, folks … nothing much, but it’s something. Enjoy!

Cheers! all.

 

Back, at least for a while …

At last!

I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted or done any photography, but I found myself tempted by the falling snow. So I got out the Nikon, which hadn’t suffered any damage from prolonged disuse, and shot a few.

This first was an attempt to be sure that everything was working properly … it was, and the battery was full enough so …

These were taken from the “Sun Room” windows and the door to the courtyard. They aren’t “soft focus”; the snow was falling pretty thickly, which accounts for the lack of sharpness and contrast.

And this last was from my apartment window …

Well, they’re not much, but it’s a step in the right direction … and it was good to be shooting again.

Thanks for following, folks! Cheers, all!

 

 

Three of the Cat …

Just three quick shots of the cat, made en passant, as it were, around the house.

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And there they are, folks … nothing particularly remarkable about them, but you might as well see them. The apartment’s been undergoing a rather major overhaul, and I might get a few of the results, soon. Take care …