The plan: A B C D EFG…

June and I started on the Oklawaha trail. It had ice on the puddles, ribbon ice, and birds, including a hawk. I’ve seen ribbon ice before but never had my camera with me. I think it’s cool. I also like seeing the difference rotating the polarizer making the ice opaque or clear.

She recently got a Lumix bridge camera, which is funny because I recently got the Nikon which is what she shoots with.  I only took my Fz1000 so we could compare settings.

I couldn’t do what I set out to with the telephone pole photo. I wanted it to look similar perspective to some of Limitless Mind Games but got tired of trying.

Our state magazine featured 5 Points restaurant in Asheville and she was game to try it. Service was fast and by the time we left, it was packed with people waiting for seats. The food was a lot like other mom and pop places I’ve eaten. We drove to Beaver Lake Park and sanctuary. June knows me so well. She showed me a tree she knew I’d like 🙂

I did try an experiment. On both of my Lumix cameras, you can zoom farther on jpg than you can with RAW. I zoomed all the way out on jpg and took a shot across the lake. I turned it to jpg, zoomed farther and took a shot. I tried to crop the RAW file as close to the size as the jpg and compare. The RAW even though it didn’t go as far is clearer even cropped to the jpg size. Now, this was all handheld so it could’ve been me. After I was home I saw at some point I’d turned digital zoom on. I thought it was off.

Hubby and I tried to see several waterfalls in Pisgah Forest / Brevard. Most all the roads were closed even though it was in the 60’s.  We past (the packed) Looking Glass Falls, Moore Cove Falls, and Sliding Rock. We passed the trailhead to Looking Glass Rock, which was also packed. Avery Creek Falls. Nope FR477 road closed at stables. Twin Falls or Clawhammer Falls? Nope same road closed. Discovery, Log Hollow or Logging Road. Nope. Nope and Nope. Although the book did say those last ones might have the road closed in winter… even if it was spring-like. He had spotted a “only in rainfall waterfall” before Sliding Rock. We stopped on the way back. Somewhere I have a video of the tall one he saw from the road.

The river had more flow than normal and cascades. I’ve got to tell you a funny here. We scrabled down and got as close as we could without risking sliding into the water. We couldn’t really see the cascades well. We went back up to the car, walked down the pavement a few yards and wa-la you could see it great from there. Reminder for me to look before just trudging off the beaten path. In the second photo above, my feet are still on the pavement!

I did get to show him Toms Spring Falls which I’d seen with June covered in ice last year.

The next photoshoot morning started with a beautiful sky.

Next up was “reflection shots” with shells and such. I already posted most of those already. I love the one that looks kinda like a nautilus shell with its Fibonacci golden ratio spiral. I’m going to have to get one of those someday, or at least borrow one so I can photograph it.

This one I thought was neat with the main reflection being the red triangle where the light is coming through the rock.

We drove to Saluda for window reflections but I didn’t shoot anything. Karen and I had a nice lunch though. Then to Carl Sandburg. We always have a nice time, well that is true with all my photo friends.

I’m am coming to realize that I can’t get enough done with so many irons in the fire. I usually do the social media site(S) in the morning while I drink my coffee. If Tyler is laying across my legs I just like stuff without commenting. Of course, some of it is just seeing what my friends have done but a big part is staying out there for photography and book cover jobs. Then there is always pay bills, clean the house, do laundry, grocery store, cooking dinner, running errands, editing photos, working on client work, and the paperwork that goes along both of us being self-employed. Throw on top of that wanting time to go shoot for fun, spend time with family and friends, reading and cuddling Tyler and before you know it, the whole month is gone. It’s almost the end of January and guess what? I have not really started doing all the year-end work. We’ve even had bad weather were I choose to do something else. One of those was looking into all sorts of doctors trying to choose a doctor for us. One I really would prefer to never go to. So, if you don’t hear from me for a bit… the only way I’m going to get done is to start on it and put the time in.

So, see you guys again as soon as I can.  PS. That’s part of the reason this post is so long.

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