Wordless Wednesday

Friday Evening in the Garden, June 28

This evening I used another neglected lens, my Nikkor f/1.8 D. It’s the only prime lens I own, and I imagine that mastering it is akin to learning how to baby an old tractor to life. The focus on this lens is manual-only on my Nikon D5200, and it is fairly useless in auto mode. I’ve had this lens for a decade, yet I’ve barely tapped its potential. That’s a good thing about the craft of photography: there’s always something new to learn if you’re willing to give it the time.

This evening I offered it some time. I crouched around the ditch and took over 150 shots, only 10 of which I liked. The photo above is the one I like best.

I like it enough to offer the option of buying photo prints and other items printed with it on Redbubble. I have a few images available through that print-on-demand site because I’ve actually ordered a couple items (a tote bag and t-shirt) from them for my daughter, and we’ve been very pleased the quality of the products. I’m proud of this photo, and I think it would look beautiful as wall decor.

The Forlorn Tamron Macro Lens

This week’s Wordless Wednesday post reminded me of an old friend who’s languished for the past five years, my Tamron AF 70-300 mm f/4-5.6 lens. I stopped using the Tamron because I found it frustrating. It was like its motor was making value judgments on the shots I’d tried to compose, like “there’s too many layers of depth in this scene so I’ll just stall the motor and make your camera shutter button useless until you come to your senses.”

I dug out the Tamron yesterday evening and found that it was just as stubborn as it was five to ten years ago. I overruled its objections through switching to manual focus.

Summer Photo Walk, July 7

Today’s locations were the Lima Public Library and the Allen County Children’s Garden, which are situated right next to each other just west of downtown Lima, Ohio.

 

Saturday

I’m having trouble inventing titles for posts. I have phases of depression wherein I have the delusion that I am not equal to the tasks of reading or writing. This problem proved to be the heart of my undoing as an English major. Imagine that you suddenly believe that you will neither retain or understand the content of a book. Layer upon that sort of unknowing the conviction that your sentences would not pass a middle-school grammar “white glove test.”

Maybe it’s because I’ve entertained the possibility of taking an online class or two in writing or literature. I have no inkling which citation style reigns these days. I’m still attached to the Oxford comma. Math is not the only subject wherein the if-you-don’t-use-you-lose-it principle applies.

Looking at online course listings has provoked all sorts of insecurities. The illiteracy delusion taunts me again. It’s like a body dysmorphic disorder of the mind.

Does anyone else who’s had depression suffer from the I-can’t-read-or-write issue?

This morning I had to take my car for maintenance. I dread doing so because I’m afraid I’ll look stupid when I don’t drive my car to the right garage door, or I’ll get there too early and they’ll expect me to park my car in a manner which would be proof-positive that I’d pass the serpentine test for a CDL. I was lucky my timing was just right this morning. I coasted into the right garage door with the greatest of ease.

I’d rather not have spent the heart of my morning getting my oil (and coolant and brake fluid) changed, but I’ve learned this is something one ought not to delay. Get your car’s oil changed and your teeth cleaned on schedule and you’ll spare yourself all sorts of aggravation. For years I didn’t think I had the time or money to deal with the dentist. This was total hogwash. I put off getting my teeth cleaned for 10 years when it would have cost me nothing out of pocket to get it done. What was the result? One extraction, one root canal, one crown, and 13 fillings. During that decade when I didn’t get my teeth cleaned, I seldom failed to brush my teeth twice a day, and I still had this harvest of decay.

By the way, I am getting my teeth cleaned on Thursday.

After I shelled out an uncomfortable sum to the car dealership for their service, I did a quick photo walk around the Lima Public Library and the adjacent Children’s Garden. I felt like expanding the radius of my walk toward downtown, but I stumbled on an uneven sidewalk. It was a slow-motion tumble. Gravity doubled down on me, and I lost. When I stumble or run into something, I hope that these small accidents make minor adjustments that lessen my nerve pain. I think my sidewalk incident this morning might have been a lucky one, but I wasn’t going to tempt fate by walking further onward.

I will share more of the pictures from that walk in another post. For now, I will reveal the best of the bunch—an image that reminds of why I do what I do.