pierces

There's always this: squirrel spinner.mp4 Dave

If you look HERE in the archive section, you will see the pages of the books I create with the previous year's set every January using Blurb. Instead of using their templates, I made my own to fit the 2-page photo spread and have been able to maintain the format for all 12 years. No need to have a website, just a bookcase! The books are really nice. Great quality. Have fun with your PAW project! Dave

Our usual four seasons here in SoCal are Spring, Summer, Still Summer and Fire. This year we have inserted a week or so of actual Fall with mild weather and sunshine. I don't know how long it will last but I am taking advantage of it by restarting some outdoor projects stalled by months of death-heat. On the other hand, our recreation for the week involved nothing in the way of walking amongst the fall colors or maybe a picnic. Instead we spent Sunday morning sitting in a sub-40° climate watching Matthew’s team doing that hockey thing. Not complaining, mind you, the games are faster, more strategic and just plain exciting that in the past and Matthew has shown a real talent for the sport. I hope the lovely weather holds, his sister has a skating competition next week. Hard Charge Dave

Pictures taken between Monday, October 21 and Sunday, October 27. Not quite Hallowe'en yet, but the over-the-top Halloween yard decorators are giving the over-the-top Christmas yard decorators some competition lately. I'm not suggesting you share awesome displays near you, but... Rules: See above That's it. This isn't a contest. All photos taken this week are welcome (not just cruising). Prizes will not be awarded. Discovering the joy of photography is the prize. The idea is to get folks out using their cameras for more than vacations and toddler birthdays. Post one. Post many. Up to you. Have fun with your camera and share your fun with others!

Thank you. I'll pass that along to my granddaughter.

Pictures taken between Monday, October 14 and Sunday, October 20. Fall is falling! in the 70°s this week. The fall colors are beautiful...at least the ones in the photos I took while we briefly lived in Georgia. Still mostly green here. Hope your views are better! Rules: See above That's it. This isn't a contest. All photos taken this week are welcome (not just cruising). Prizes will not be awarded. Discovering the joy of photography is the prize. The idea is to get folks out using their cameras for more than vacations and toddler birthdays. Post one. Post many. Up to you. Have fun with your camera and share your fun with others!

Saturday at the shoreside park near Tara's home was about as perfect as you could ask for. 70°, sunny with a gentle onshore breeze. A whole bunch of family and friends showed up to celebrate Kai's third birthday and we all had fun watching the younger cousins frolic and catching up with family that only gathers for events like this. It’s hard to believe that our youngest grandchild is three already. Yikes! Somebody must have hit the fast-forward button. Kai is a typical All-American kid with the obsession with dinosaurs that seems to form at about this age and lasts until they find out what a paleontologist’s annual salary is. The dino-themed (Three-Rex) party was a success with the cake easily passing the taste test by the distinguished guest of honor. Taste Test Dave

"Rules", in quotes. I have stretched or broken the thread "rules" a few times (I actually used a screen capture for this week's entry). The idea of this thread is to encourage folks to step out of the rat race for a moment to appreciate the world and share via a photo. There are some weeks when the rats win and we don't get a chance to take a photo. If that's the case and you still want to share an image that made you smile or invoked a happy memory, post away. Thanks for joining in! Dave

You know those chores you just keep putting off because they seem like they’ll be hard? Careful study over decades has proven they were, 100% of the time. This week’s picture is a tiny vignette of where my spare time went for the last two weeks. It represents the re-org and cleanup of my photos dating from my conversion to digital back in 2001. 4,287 images were moved off of the phone, culled and categorized. That made 210,544 images in my “PHOTOS” master folder. While nowhere near done removing duplicates, blurries and “why did I take that?” shots, the total is now 193,154 and finding a particular photo is easier than ever. It also justifies my new habit of culling and keywording new images. Necessary evil or labor of love? Either way, it’s a major chore. Necessary Evil Dave

Pictures taken between Monday, October 7 and Sunday, October 13. Fall is here! Personally, I see a lot of brown brush, still mostly green leaves and 101° yesterday. Oh, well. Let us see the colors in your "zone"! Rules: See above That's it. This isn't a contest. All photos taken this week are welcome (not just cruising). Prizes will not be awarded. Discovering the joy of photography is the prize. The idea is to get folks out using their cameras for more than vacations and toddler birthdays. Post one. Post many. Up to you. Have fun with your camera and share your fun with others!

More thoughts on AI. Darling Granddaughter came by today and we had a nice talk about photo editing. She is actually a fairly accomplished photographer and shoots with an actual camera (A6700) rather that the ubiquitous phone so many in her age group use. She does some minor paid shooting and wanted my input on what to do about her expanding need for editing. I shared my somewhat high opinion of the Adobe Photographer's Plan, which gives you Photoshop and Lightroom along with a small amount (20GB) of online storage for $20/mo. After showing her what Neural Filters and Camera RAW could do in Photoshop even when used on a JPEG and a brief foray into Topaz AI, she will be signing up in a couple of weeks with the advent of a regular income (starting her new job at a major auto manufacturer's California HQ on Monday). The AI tools in Topaz AI and Adobe products are increasingly useful as the tools learn to be a little less ham-handed about corrections. Her "problem image" of a random DJ was tagged with auto white balance sampled from the "white" t-shirt in Camera RAW, then I used the Neural Filters to colorize the resulting greyish-red mess. I then went back to Camera RAW and touched up the saturation and such. After that, I opened it in Topaz AI and applied the AI Face Recovery, Denoise and subject sharpening. Total time: just over 3 minutes after first opening it. I have been with the Photographer's Plan long enough to be grandfathered in at $10/mo. but even at $20/mo., the time saved using good tools is worth it if you do more than occasional editing. I know a lot of people hate subscriptions, but I find it far easier to manage than shelling out $400-$500 for the full version of PS and $150 for Lightroom upgrades every few years. My opinion. YMMV. Dave

Well, it's been a bit over a month since I received my new Pixel 9 Pro XL. Spare time has been elusive, but I have used it fairly often for day-to-day shooting. I've done some pixel-peeping to see if the longer zoom or faster ultra-wide made a lot of difference and while they are a little better, it's not night and day. That's not to say they are in any way disappointing. They are what I would call a modest upgrade over the Pixel 8 Pro's modules which were already quite spectacular. The screen was well worth the upgrade. It is very bright and visible in the sunlight with superb colors and resolution. The new G4 processor is quite perky. Any operation I have performed has been near-instantaneous. The Wifi 7 is quite a difference. The Pixel 8 Pro supported Wifi 7 in a limited fashion but not really any better than 6E. On the new phone, Wifi 6e registers 94Mb/s down and 241Mb/s up while Wifi 7 does 336Mb/s down and 922Mb/s up on our Frontier fiber connection. It has double the storage at 256GB (never came close at 128GB) and the 16GB of RAM removes the need to police my open apps as often (I still do, but not as obsessively 🙂) Was it worth the upgrade? Yes, with caveats. The camera is fantastic, but as I said, so was the Pixel 8 Pro and if that was the only difference, I would have regrets. The brilliant screen is a huge plus and the excellent connectivity over Wifi or 5G is another one. A solid thumbs up short of actual cartwheels, but only because the Pixel 8 was already pretty fantastic. If I had waited and went from the 6 Pro to the 9, there would be cartwheels. Oh! It makes and receives phone calls too! Dave

Back in the good ol' days before the Covid Dark Age, we used to visit our favorite source of authentic Mexican food almost weekly. The two of us could have our favorite meal and one of their unmatched house margaritas for around $30. When the hammer came down and restaurants were declared anathema by “Science”, the management reacted quickly and switched to an all-takeout model almost overnight. Their handling of the distancing rules when you picked up your order was epic with a “beer fort” made of stacked cases of Corona in front of the counter. Unlike many, they made it through the lockdown and have been thriving. Sadly, the frequency of our visits has taken a hit with the price our usual meal more than doubling. Still our favorite, though. A Rarer Treat Dave

Pictures taken between Monday, September 30 and Sunday, October 6. A brand-new month! 2024 is down to a quarter tank. Amaze or amuse your fellow forum dwellers with your photos! Rules: See above That's it. This isn't a contest. All photos taken this week are welcome (not just cruising). Prizes will not be awarded. Discovering the joy of photography is the prize. The idea is to get folks out using their cameras for more than vacations and toddler birthdays. Post one. Post many. Up to you. Have fun with your camera and share your fun with others!

After 5+ decades of being a photographer, I tend to see things somewhat differently than someone who hasn’t spent innumerable hours looking through a viewfinder. Years ago one Picture-A-Week photo was of a plastic fork I came across in a parking lot. It was stepped on with three of the four tines broken off. The fork with the remaining tine resembled a hand displaying the gesture sometimes referred to as “the bird”. The story was a question asking whether it was just an amusing happenstance or if God was subtly expressing disappointment in me. Here it is again. Is this God pranking me by pointing the wrong way to our car, or just someone angry after not reading the product dimensions more carefully before ordering a “Team Support Foam Finger” from Temu? Signs Dave

Pictures taken between Monday, September 23 and Sunday, September 29. Last week of September. Based on my personal perception, September will be 13 days long this year. Finish off the month with some photos of the first week of Fall! Rules: See above That's it. This isn't a contest. All photos taken this week are welcome (not just cruising). Prizes will not be awarded. Discovering the joy of photography is the prize. The idea is to get folks out using their cameras for more than vacations and toddler birthdays. Post one. Post many. Up to you. Have fun with your camera and share your fun with others!

I would almost guarantee that someone has: • Lost an expensive drone flying it while at sea and complained. • Crashed one in a pool area and others complained. • As peety3 said, flew one past an un-curtained cabin window, triggering a complaint. • Had their drone confiscated for flying a drone in a no-fly zone in a port. • Was arrested for same. Easier to just say no. Dave

Pictures taken between Monday, September 16 and Sunday, September 22. I can't nag all of you for not posting more pictures. Life gets busy and if it wasn't for the hockey game last week, I would have nothing. I am going to honestly try to take some time this week to relax and take some shots just for the sake of taking some shots. I invite you to do the same. Rules: See above That's it. This isn't a contest. All photos taken this week are welcome (not just cruising). Prizes will not be awarded. Discovering the joy of photography is the prize. The idea is to get folks out using their cameras for more than vacations and toddler birthdays. Post one. Post many. Up to you. Have fun with your camera and share your fun with others!

After a brief break from ice-related activities, the hockey season officially began last week. Instead of driving forty miles northeast to attend church, we drove 40 miles southwest to attend hockey. It was colder and the seats weren’t as comfortable but there was a lot more action during the service. The games are getting pretty exciting with a lot more obvious strategy and the players are getting faster. Matthew has developed a significant working knowledge of the game and plays well and aggressively (without being a PITA about it). The hockey season involves some significant travel for away games since there aren’t a lot of ice rinks in Southern California, but we have developed a fondness for sitting in the cold and cheering for Matthew. Shawiiinggg! Dave

I voted for Arty and sophisticated but really wanted to vote for Nautical and classic as well. We are Royal and Celebrity loyalists, and their ships have always felt like what we thought cruise ships should feel like with Celebrity tossing a bit more whimsy into the mix. The trip we took on the Apex recently has spoiled us some more. We thought we would see how other lines have progressed and went on a short Carnival weekender with friends that had a free-ish cruise. While we weren't horrified (much nicer than our first Carnival trip 30 years ago), we'll be sticking with the RCL family for sure. We are due to take a trip on the Icon early next year and can't wait to see what Royal did with a $2B budget. Dave

Our cactus is a Peruvian Apple Cactus. I know this because Google Lens used a picture of it to search the web and identify it. It is not an uncommon cactus, but it has become a sort of family heirloom. The in-laws planted it in the early ‘00s. It fourished and we took a cutting and started a new chapter in its life as a travelling cactus. Its story and blossoms have been the subject of previous Picture-A-Week photos. The short-lived flowers it produces are lovely and are very shy of the sun, opening after sunset and closing up the next morning. If a flower is lucky enough to be pollinated, it will grow into the fruit pictured here. We get very few in a given year, so they are a rare treat. Tough and weathered on the outside, soft and sweet inside. I can relate. Cactus Apple Dave

Pictures taken between Monday, September 9 and Sunday, September 15. Do you remember those shots from September Of beautiful flowers or trees? A picture is worth 1,000 words (ok, 610 words in 2024), so post a picture to finish the poem. Rules: See above That's it. This isn't a contest. All photos taken this week are welcome (not just cruising). Prizes will not be awarded. Discovering the joy of photography is the prize. The idea is to get folks out using their cameras for more than vacations and toddler birthdays. Post one. Post many. Up to you. Have fun with your camera and share your fun with others!

And yes, that has been my actual ringtone for years. Sure turns heads when it goes off in a store or restaurant. Dave

It all boils down to what you're used to. Both ecosystems have their quirks, but basically do much the same things. As I said, I don't dislike Apple products, but I tend to do some pretty heavy editing chores and the bang-for-the-buck with a PC-based machine is a no-brainer for me. Same with phones. My first real smartphone was a Motorola Droid with its somewhat clunky skin on top of Android OS but way less $s than the contemporary iPhone. Next was a Nokia Icon running the ill-fated Windows Phone OS. Really an awesome piece of hardware with a great camera and Windows OS was actually pretty good. After that path swerved off a cliff, I went straight to a Pixel XL with its pure Android OS and have never gone with anything else since. Inexplicably, all three of my kids use iPhones. Like you, I'm definitely an iSL student (iOS as a Second Language) when they run into an issue. Dave

Tom, How do you like the M3? Oddly enough I am the exception in my wider family with most of them using Apple. Dave