… about Einstein is that he used music to unwind and clear his mind. I can’t say I follow the same practice. For me the unwinding and untangling takes place while walking and capturing the occasional photo. I am up to walking between eight and ten kilometers a day right now and it feels good.
Today’s post was nearly titled A Pelican, A Cormorant and a Heron… but my heavy foot and high contrast figure in the landscape scared two of the three stars of the picture away. All I have here is an image of the pelican trying to swim away as fast as he/she can. (I did capture a heron last week while walking through Crescent Park in Moose Jaw).
During today’s long walk I reached a decision… nothing earth shattering but important enough to me. My camera sensor has been sporting some unsightly spots, a definite sign that dirt has migrated to the sensor. This is an issue with DSLR cameras as every time one changes a lens dirt enters the camera body and attaches itself to the sensor. Generally it is not a big issue when taking night photos or landscape images that have an f/stop of 8 or larger. Once I dial up the aperture to f/11, 13, 16 or more I have to spend a significant amount of time cleaning off the image in Photoshop. With my back up camera recently serviced for a significant amount of money (and a super clean sensor!) I decided to bite the bullet and order the cleaning fluid and sensor swabs needed to perform a DIY sensor cleaning. The supplies have been on my desk for a good week – all I needed was enough courage to proceed.
This afternoon I spent more time researching the topic on the Google, watched a slow moving YouTube video, and I finally took the plunge. I have nothing earth shattering to report. I am very happy how simple and straight forward the cleaning process was – best of all, I have a clean sensor and saved myself a good chunk of money. What was I waiting for so long? Courage, plain and simple.
Now I am ready for a weekend excursion to the Avonlea Dirt Hills on Saturday with the Avonlea Heritage Museum. Let’s hope the weather holds. We have had two days of strong winds. Usually prairie winds have a cooling effect. This wind reminds me of a tropical wind sweeping across the landscape. There are no cooling effects here. The outside temperature was at 27 C at 10 am today and this afternoon I stepped out of my rather warm studio into an even warmer yard. Strange weather patterns seem to be part of daily life these days. I am yearning for some heavy rain drops and dew to cool us down… this image was captured just a week ago but it seems so long ago!
Anna Hergert, Art & Design 