The Winds Of Fate

One ship drives east and another drives west
With the selfsame winds that blow.
Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales
Which tells us the way to go. 
Like the winds of the seas are the ways of fate,
As we voyage along through life:
Tis the set of a soul
That decides its goal,
And not the calm or the strife.

-- Ella Wheeler-Wilcox


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Backlight In Black & White

Backlight in black & white, a photo by DrewsView on Flickr.

Yes, I'm a big fan of black & white photography. In most cases when you remove the color from a photograph, you're left with just the structure of the composition to hang your hat on. There's something appealing about that for me. In this particular shot I like how the backlighting and the lack of color turns the crowd at the beach bar from a bunch of individuals into an almost monolithic structural element.

Being almost monolithic is a good thing in this case. Being able to make out some individual features in the shadows adds interest. Without the canopy over the bar, the shot doesn't work at all. I just happened to be sitting in the right place at the right time with enough technology in my pocket (iPhone with the Camera+ app) to capture the scene.

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Winter Woods

Winter Woods, a set on Flickr.

Just a few shots from the Quogue Wildlife Refuge - January 2012. If you're on Long Island and looking for a nice place to take a walk in the woods, check it out.

The shot of the stand of pine trees is my favorite for whatever reason. I like the spooky/desolate feeling, which was really the result of boosting contrast and saturation in iPhoto.

Local Dinosaurs

Local Dinosaurs, a set on Flickr.

I can't be certain, but I think any velociraptor would be pleased that the red-tailed hawk is still bringin' it, dinosaur style.

If you're on Long Island, its worth spending a few hours one weekend checking out what the Audubon Society is doing out here. These are from the sanctuary in East Moriches, where they do a great job educating the public about these really awesome flying machines.

Toolkit
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Canon 600D (EOS Rebel T3i)
Stock 18-155mm EF-S kit lens
My old MacBook and iPhoto

A technie note: This is the first photo set I imported and edited with my iPhone library mounted on a network drive. Prepping for life with a MacBook Air. Performance was quite acceptable across the network, even using a 5400 RPM laptop drive, especially when hard wired to a 100 Mbps link. It works over WiFi, but things get pretty slow that way.

Middle School Locker - First Steps

School starts next week, which means my oldest daughter starts middle school. Today we went shopping as a family for "locker stuff", which included a shelf for books, a mirror, a small dry erase pad and some other assorted very girly looking magnets and doo-dads. Then it was off to the school so she could try her locker again and put everything in it the way she wanted. It was a short outing, but she was excited, and happy that she now has a locker that looks like Paris Hilton lives there. Mission accomplished.

Her locker measures only 14" x 14" x 36". It's barely 3 cubic feet of space, but for the next 10 months it's her little outpost away from home. Actually, it's her very first outpost away from home, and frankly, I'm not happy about it for good reason.

Middle school lockers turn into high school lockers - larger outposts away from home. Then comes a car, another volume of space not under my roof that she'll call her own. From there it's very short hop to dorm rooms - even larger outposts away from home. They keep getting bigger, and the time spent in them increases.

I figure you can see where this is headed by now.  Sad, yes, but also a reminder that there's lots of "daddy stuff" to take care of as the days pass.  There are so many lessons to be passed along, so many experiences to share, and so many memories to be made. This sort of thing reminds me that we're always painfully short on time, but motivates me to be the best parent I can be. If that means letting them roller skate in the dining room on the new hardwood floors, then so be it.  Sometimes it will mean making someone do homework that they just dont want to do. At some point it will mean getting involved in boyfriend issues, and likely and being the meanest dad in the word.  So be that too, I guess.  Regardless of what lies ahead, instead of being sad I'm going to be happy for what I've had up to this point and for all that lies ahead.

However, one day, the inevitable will happen, and "home" will no longer be where I live.  The swingset will have long been forgotten, the pool won't get used much any more, and we'll have to find a new use for all the suddenly "extra" space in the house.  Life will get quieter.

There will be no more outposts.

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Questions For Daddy

About 5 minutes ago, my 9 year old daughter walked in to see me.

"Daddy, is today the 11th?"

"Yes Pumpkin, today is the 11th."

There is a giant calendar hanging in our kitchen. Both of my girls have calendars hanging by their desks. Both also have several date books and planners obtained from various sources. Finally, they both have iPods that happily display the date and time. Nonetheless, the preferred source for vital information like today's date is Daddy.

As my daughter was walking away, I thought for a second about reminding her of how many tools she has at her fingertips to find today's date. After all, part of my job is to teach my little princesses to be self-sufficient and resourceful. I have to help them become capable adults. Surely I should teach her that she doesn't need me to tell her the date!

Then it dawned on me that one day she'll stop asking me questions like that. At some point she won't need Daddy to confirm the date, or spell a word, or help her change the battery in a toy. At some other point she'll understand that Daddy doesn't have every answer. She might even figure out that sometimes Daddy doesn't even understand the question.

I paused for a second, then held my tongue and let her walk away in silence.


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Life Lessons Behind Glass

You know when you're taking pictures and you accidentally learn important life stuff?  I hate when that happens.

1. It's all about being in the right place at the right time.

2. The odds of being at the right place at the right time increase if you keep your eyes, ears and mind open.

3. Sometimes you're in the right place at the right time, but you don't know it because you're looking the wrong way.

4. Often you find gold just by changing your point of view.

5. In many ways, the discarded and disregarded are the most interesting.

See how much you can learn with a camera in your hand?