Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Silver and Gold

I took pictures of Navajo silver jewelry at the trading post, but with my phone and can't get it from there in any decent form.


Here are my reflection pictures in the Christmas balls on the big tree at the shopping center. Why does this shopping center on the opposite side of Phoenix from the one we used to join my daughter Mary for lunch at have the exact same Christmas tree?








Better is the silver bark of the birch forest as we drove through south central Utah.

or the gold of the Golden Barrel Cactus at Boyce Thompson Arboretum.


Sometimes participating in the headbanger challenge is more difficult while traveling.

Others of the group are also traveling. Those who manage to get their posts up can be found in the links on my sidebar.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Wave

Our theme this week is waves. Mac suggested it.

Mac is in my picture. He didn't wave. But Julie did. So this is "wave" not "waves". And it is all Mac's fault.

They probably expected me to find an ocean wave since I live somewhat near a coast. Okay, let me find one. We did go participate in Coastal Clean-up Day a couple of times on the Olympic Peninsula. Will these waves do?
Now, which to crop for the header!

Check out my headbanger friends from their links in my sidebar.

Edit 1--I didn't crop it --that is the way it loaded.
Edit 2--I finally got it. "She waves."

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Cell Phone Pictures

Let me tell you a story about cell phone pictures--in the early days--and digital camera pictures.

When my oldest son and his wife and toddler daughter moved to Siberia to live for some time, they took the digital camera we had given them for Christmas--film processing was expensive in Siberia. Did they send us any e-mail pictures of our granddaughter growing during the time they were there? NO! Had they stayed the possible five years they had planned and never sent any pictures we would have been seriously deprived. As it turned out, they only stayed there about six months.

After they returned to the States son got a cell phone that took pictures. I guess it e-mailed as well since he sent me some pictures to my e-mail. They were just the kind of pictures you might take while fiddling around testing out a new camera--pictures of their dinner. (Reminds me of ketchup.) I had a 19 inch computer monitor at the time, but when he send me these images they opened up to a full two inches across and there was no way to enlarge them.

I happened to mention that to him--that I was thoroughly unimpressed. So the next time he sent a picture he included this message. (Mosha was about two and a half by that time.) "Mosha and I went to the park and Mosha played football with the boys. She is the pink dot."

Cell phones cameras have come a long way. Some are even more powerful than some of the good point and shoot pocket sized cameras. We haven't even had a phone with a camera for long, so I have not gotten into any kind of a habit of using the cell phone for taking pictures.

In fact, the first phone I had with a camera came when we upgraded our cell phone plan, and I was pretty excited about it. But after taking a couple of pictures, I couldn't figure out how to get them from the phone to my computer. We went in for help in figuring it out, and were told that I could e-mail them to myself. The only problem was that our plan and my phone did not include e-mailing. I didn't want to just have pictures om my phone like the cell company associate then suggested. We did finally come up with a solution--I could text them to my daughter and then she could e-mail them to me. Texts were also not included in my plan at that time either, so my use of the camera feature was pretty limited. And I did nearly always have a camera in my pocket after all.

Since the first of this year I have had a phone with a fairly decent camera that also has the capacity to transfer the images to the computer by way of a cable. So I am in business for Craver's choice of theme for this week's header challenge--Cell Phone Picture (Mobile Phone Picture to Mac.)

So, what can I take with the cell phone?

One of the first things I did with the new phone was take this video of Mosha (now 14) at her piano recital. . Funny, I think I had my camera with me and I don't know what I have against taking video with it.

But take pictures? With a phone? I don't know. So Saturday afternoon after some errands in the Tri Cities, and armed only with my phone, we went for a stroll through Columbia Park.

Okay, what is one of the ubiquitous activities that has sprung up  with cell phone cameras?

Why, taking selfies, of course.

Epic selfie fail.
 Okay, that's a little better.
 How about the birds on the river?
and the Blue Bridge.
We threw a stone to make a ripple.

After visiting the Veteran's Memorial--(appropriate timing)

I was extremely excited to get this shot--till I saw it.

Cormorant with a fish in his mouth. How I wish I had had my camera with the zoom!

Maybe my Headbanger group friends will do better. You can see what they came up with from their links in my sidebar.



Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Unexpected Photo Result

Aha! I CAN play again this week. Hopefully will get the problems with the main laptop resolved before too long.

Our theme--introduced by Tom the Fishing Guy--is Unexpected Photo Result.

When I took this picture of the pond in Leavenworth a couple of years ago, I did not expect to create an Impressionist Painting.


Headbangers are listed in my sidebar with links to see how they have managed the Unexpected.