28 Nov 11. For those of you who may be keeping track of our weather you are aware of the early snow fall this year and the good news for all those who enjoy or make their living in winter sporting activities. For those of you who haven't been keeping track we are have an early and large snow fall which is opening up our ski, snow boarding, snowmobiling, and cross country skiing areas much earlier than usual. Good for everyone all around except perhaps for those who have to frequently drive over those several of our mountain passes. But for me it is a sign that perhaps we will get snow here in the city this year so I don't have to drive to it as we've done twice this year already. Our first trip was in mid May and as we approached the summit of Stevens Pass we were greeted with a just fallen snow that had all the trees looking like a sheet of Christmas wrapping paper. And again in late October as we made a similar trip we were treated to an early morning dusting of the local hillsides. Beautiful sights both times. A month earlier on a trip to Mt Baker I learned that the road to Artist's Point never opened the entire year due to snow, so I am more than just a little bit hopeful. The shot from the May trip was one such that I thought a little mess'n with it might be appropriate, so I've altered it to look like what I'd like to have wrapped around my gifts this year. Of course I'd have to print it myself, something I don't do, but the thought remains. ISO 200; 1/500 sec @ f /10.
29 Nov 11. Just back from our annual pilgrimage to listen to the Seattle Pacific University's presentation of The Sacred Sounds of Christmas. This is our 6th time and it seems like every year it is simultaneously old and new, but very refreshing and most enjoyable. Their arrangement of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, also the processional, was the most beautiful and moving version of it I have ever heard!! If they didn't record it (I'm betting they didn't) to CD or DVD, they definitely should have. It needs to be saved for posterity. Much like we do with our digital images. Which brings me to the topic for today's image, an image unlike any I've ever shared. While I worked in the camera store I had this "conversation" with many a customer but few, I'm rather certain, actually believed me. So I pose to you the same question: which side of the disc is the sensitive (needs to be protected from scratches, etc) side. I'm wagering most of you will say the underside, the silver side. If you do, you will be in error. It is the top side that must be protected. You can scratch, scrape, do just about anything you want to that underside, and inflict no damage. The disc is just a clear piece of plastic designed to give the recording material bulk , or structure, if you prefer. Look at the image; it has four parts to it labeled Fig 1 - 4. Fig 1 is a disc with a sticky note attached; observe that it appears to be a little wrinkled near the edge of the sticky note. Fig 2 is that same disc after I removed the sticky note which pulled off the recording layer from the top of the disc. Observe that you can see clear through the disc, where the shiny stuff used to be, to the table cloth underneath. Figs 3 & 4 are the underside of that same disc. In figure 3, you can see that I've placed the part that pulled off ,above and to the left to show it clearly to you (note the same shape and size of the material attached to the sticky note and the clear area on the disc. Fig 4 is the same thing with the sticky note and recording material removed. Again, observe that you can see clear through the transparent plastic disc. So now you have visible proof as to which side is the critical side and the one that needs protection, not only from scratches, but from acids, like that found in Sharpe marking pens, that will quickly etch through that thin layer of recording material. It is the top side! Solution, ALWAYS put a paper label on the discs you are using to store your archived images and label with printer ink or an archival pen which you can get t any scrap booking or stationery store. Hope you enjoy, dave .
30 Nov 11. I started reading Jean Auel's Earth Children series 30 years ago, back in the summer of 1981 when the paperback version of The Clan of the Cave Bear was released as a Bantam book. I've been following the entire series ever since and am now well into the concluding volume entitled "The Land of the Painted Caves". Her writing is captivating for the descriptions she provides about supposed life in what I would imagine to have been the Pleistocene Period. Although she takes extreme liberties in her description of human interactions, sometimes to the ridiculous, it is her tale of how people lived off the land that captures and holds my attention. Some of what she writes, as with other authors I've read, seemed totally unrealistic, until I spent the time in Antarctica. After experiencing some of the things I had read about first hand during exposure training, it all began to make better sense. Now I find much of what she writes to be substantially more plausible, at least that pertaining to the human /environmental interactions. As I read any of these books, an even better series being the North America's Forgotten Past by Gear & Gear, a husband and wife team of archaeologists, I find myself wondering who was the first to ever _____ and how did they come upon the idea originally. When you think about some of the things are ancestors have done, it is hard to fathom how anyone initially came upon the ideas. While walking around the neighborhood a couple days past and taking shots of leaves that had made their way to the ground, I noticed this scene in which it looks like the grasses have begun to weave themselves into something. Looking at this pattern I could envision someone a bit smarter than me for sure, seeing the association, and trying to weave something for the first time. Which leads me to think that some of the "stories" in the books may not be all that far off. ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f / 6.3.
